National

The Georgia Senate runoff is Raphael Warnock’s to lose

Midterm elections 2022

President Biden has made the COVID-19 crisis and a post-Trump return to national unity and traditional democratic ideals his top priorities. From vaccinations to stimulus to schools, Biden is seeking bipartisan compromise while showing a willingness to use executive authority and bare Democratic majorities in the U.S. House and Senate to implement his policies. Republican leaders are navigating deep party divisions over if and how to move beyond former President Trump.

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The top presidential surrogate in the Georgia runoff

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Polls and conversations with top strategists in both parties suggest Tuesday's Georgia Senate runoff will be close — but that Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) holds a small but resilient advantage over Herschel Walker.

Why it matters: Runoffs are typically about turning out your base a second time. But in Georgia, both are targeting a critical mass of swing voters — independent-minded suburbanites just outside Atlanta.  

What's happening: Walker's ties to former President Trump — and struggles communicating his positions on the campaign trail — have made him uniquely ill-suited to win over swing voters, who have made the difference in recent closely contested Georgia elections.

A closing ad from the Warnock campaign features footage of Walker speaking about vampire movies, pregnant cows and how "our good air decided to float over to China’s bad air."

The ad shows voters with stunned facial reactions, side by side with Walker's comments.

🧮 By the numbers: On Election Day, Walker underperformed the rest of the Georgia Republican ticket, running 7 points behind Gov. Brian Kemp in Cobb County, an affluent and fast-diversifying county in the Atlanta suburbs.  

Among white college-educated voters, Kemp tallied 63%, according to the Edison Research exit poll — a 5-point edge over Walker with that traditionally Republican voting bloc.

Between the lines: The Republican strategy for the runoff is to use Kemp as Walker's leading surrogate on the airwaves, appealing to Republican voters to stick to their partisan instincts.

In November, about 203,000 voters backed Kemp for governor but not Walker for senator.

That big-tent strategy was undermined by Trump's dinner with antisemitic rapper Kanye West (who changed his named to Ye) and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes.  

Kemp got ahead of other leading Republicans in issuing a full-throated denunciation of the dinner: "Racism, antisemitism and denial of the Holocaust have no place in the Republican Party."

At the same time, the Walker campaign was declining to comment — and has remained silent ever since, even as leading GOP figures including Mike Pence and Kevin McCarthy have made public statements denouncing antisemitism, Holocaust denial and white supremacy.

Our thought bubble, with Axios Atlanta's Emma Hurt: Walker is using Kemp in TV advertising and mailers, but rarely mentions the governor on the campaign trail.  

Warnock (D-Ga.) holds a small but resilient advantage over Herschel Walker.

Midterm Elections 2022

Former Trump's unfavorable rating has surged to 67% among registered voters, with one-third of Republicans and GOP-leaning voters now viewing him negatively, according to a Marquette Law School national poll.

Why it matters: This is the latest in a series of post-election polls that show Trump losing altitude after his party's midterm disappointment.  

In a head-to-head Republican matchup, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis leads Trump by 20 points (60%-40%). 

DeSantis led Trump among Republican voters who didn't attend college — which has been the core of the former president's MAGA base.  

But among GOP college grads, the difference in support between Trump and DeSantis is remarkable. Trump's favorability is underwater with college-educated Republicans (48/50 fav-unfav), while DeSantis' favorability is through the roof (80/9).

Testing 2024: Biden ties with DeSantis in a head-to-head matchup, 42-42.

Trump loses to Biden by 10 points, 44-34.

In a head-to-head Republican matchup, DeSantis leads Trump by 20 points.

Photo: Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Look who hasn't campaigned in Georgia ahead of Tuesday's runoff for Senate: President Biden and former President Trump. 

Driving the news: Sen. Raphael Warnock is utilizing former President Obama as his top surrogate, while Gov. Brian Kemp (R) is the star of a closing ad in support of Herschel Walker from the Mitch McConnell-aligned Senate Leadership Fund.

Obama returned to Atlanta on Thursday to campaign for Warnock, and he cut a closing ad for the senator this week.

"Georgia, serious times call for special leaders," Obama says in the ad. "That's why you need to re-elect my friend and your senator, Rev. Raphael Warnock. I've known Rev. Warnock for years."

At the campaign rally for Warnock, Obama mocked Walker as someone who is patently unprepared to serve in Congress. 

"Since the last time I was here, Mr. Walker has been talking about issues that are of great importance to the people of Georgia," Obama said. "Like whether it’s better to be a vampire or a werewolf."

Kemp is featured in one of Walker's campaign ads as well. 

"Herschel Walker will vote with Georgia, not be another rubber stamp for Joe Biden," Kemp says in the SLF ad.

"Georgia, serious times call for special leaders," Obama says in a Georgia ad.

Photographer: Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Raleigh

Axios Raleigh

An alleged attack on multiple electrical substations left over 60 percent of North Carolina's Moore County without power Saturday night in what local authorities are investigating as a "criminal occurrence." 

What's happening: Over 40,000 homes and businesses in Moore County, which is located about 70 miles southwest of Raleigh, were plunged into darkness starting at 7 pm ET on Saturday night, the Moore County Sheriff's Office wrote Saturday in a Facebook post.

"As utility companies began responding to the different substations, evidence was discovered that indicated that intentional vandalism had occurred at multiple sites," the office wrote.

The Southern Pines Fire and Rescue Chief Mike Cameron told The Pilot of Southern Pines that the power stations had been shot at.

Duke Energy said it was "investigating signs of potential vandalism related to these outages," but has not given additional details about what took the substations offline. 

Duke Energy said power was expected to be restored by Sunday evening, AP reported.

Gov. Roy Cooper (D) on Sunday tweeted that he had "spoken with Duke Energy and state law enforcement officials" about the incident and that the state was providing support as needed."

Between the lines: The power went out during a drag show in downtown Southern Pines that attracted a significant amount of protesters and police presence.

The show ended early because of the power outages, The Pilot reported. 

One of the leading protesters, Emily Grace Rainey, claimed on social media that sheriff's deputies questioned her about the outages after she posted that she knew why it had occurred, WRAL reported Sunday morning. 

"I told them that God works in mysterious ways and is responsible for the outage," Rainey, who rose to local prominence protesting COVID-19 restrictions, wrote on Facebook. "I used the opportunity to tell them about the immoral drag show and the blasphemies screamed by its supporters." 

In 2021, Rainey also resigned from her position as a psychological operations officer in the Army, after the Army investigated her for leading a group of people from Moore County to the January 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol, CBS News previously reported. 

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The power outages in Moore County have affected over 60 percent of homes and businesses.

A clock in the middle of the village of Pinehurst.

Pinehurst, a town in Moore County, saw widespread power outages. Photo: Scott Halleran/Getty Images. 

Some lawmakers sharply rebuked former President Donald Trump over the weekend, after Trump called for the suspension of the Constitution in order to overturn the results of the 2020 election. 

Driving the news: Repeating his oft-cited false claims of election fraud in the 2020 election in a Truth Social post on Saturday, Trump wrote that such fraud "allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution."

Trump's remarks were condemned by the White House, with White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates saying in a statement that, "attacking the Constitution and all it stands for is anathema to the soul of our nation."

What they're saying: "Trump just called for the suspension of the Constitution to overturn the 2020 results.  Georgia VOTE.   You stood tall against Trump and his minions last time. A win for Warnock is another win for democracy," Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) tweeted Saturday.

"A few hours ago the leader of the republican party donald trump called for destroying the Constitution and making himself dictator," Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) tweeted.

"Every congressional reporter should demand responses from Congressional Republicans about Donald Trump’s call for the Constitution to be terminated … how many of them called themselves 'Constitutional conservatives' during the Obama years???" Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) tweeted Saturday evening.

"Donald Trump wants to suspend the Constitution in the name of protecting the Constitution, just like he perpetrated election fraud in the name of preventing election fraud," Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) tweeted.

"January 6 was Donald Trump’s attempt at terminating the US Constitution.  He’s a repeat offender," Torres added in another tweet.

“Trump’s words and actions are well beyond the bounds of acceptable political discourse, they stoke hatred and political violence, and they are dangerous," Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) said in a statement.

"Trump has openly declared himself an enemy of the Constitution, and Republicans must repudiate him," Beyer added.

"For Donald Trump, last week it was dinner with antisemites. Now he’s calling for an end to America’s constitutional democracy. He’s out of control and a danger to our democracy. Everyone must condemn this attack on our democracy," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) tweeted Sunday.

Newly elected Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) told ABC's "This Week" on Sunday that he "thought it was a strange statement."

"The Republicans are going to have to work out their issues with the former president and decide whether they're going to break from him and return to some semblance of reasonableness, or continue to lean into the extremism, not just of Trump but of Trump-ism," Jeffries added.

The other side: Rep. Dave Joyce (R-Ohio), appearing on the same program, did not rule out supporting Trump if he won the Republican primary ahead of the 2024 election.

"I will support whoever the Republican nominee is," Joyce said when asked whether he would support Trump despite his calls to suspend the constitution. "I just don't think that at this point he'll be able to get there because there are a lot of other good quality candidates out there."

Pressed about his answer, Joyce said Trump "says a lot of things, but that doesn't matter it's ever going to happen" and said suspending the constitution was a "fantasy."

Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) said Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation" that Trump's remarks were "certainly not consistent with the oath we all take." 

"I vehemently disagree with the statement that trump has made," Turner added.

"Obviously I don't support that. The Constitution is set for a reason, to protect the rights of every American. So I certainly don't endorse that language or that sentiment," Rep.-elect Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) told CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday.

Editor's note: This story has been updated with additional reporting.

Lawmakers react to Trump's call to suspend Constitution

Trump "called for destroying the Constitution and making himself dictator," Rep. Bill Pascrell said.

Donald Trump speaks during an event at his Mar-a-Lago home on November 15. Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Elon Musk said during a Twitter Spaces Saturday that it was his decision to suspend Ye from Twitter after the rapper posted an image of a swastika inside a Star of David.

What they're saying: "Because at a certain point, you have to say what is incitement to violence," Musk said. "Because that is against the law in the U.S., you can't just have a 'let's go murder someone club,' that's not actually legal."

"It is important people know, okay, that was my decision," Musk said. 

Musk added that the context surrounding Ye's tweet helped him make the suspension decision. 

"You can say like, okay, let's look for added context outside of Twitter to say, well, what's this meant in a friendly way? Well, ok, no, he's saying that he likes Hitler and other things," Musk added. 

He also agreed with another speaker's statement that a swastika posted with historical context regarding WWII wouldn't cause an account to be suspended. 

The big picture: Ye posted the image after going on an antisemitic rant in an interview with a conspiracy theorist.

Ye's account was previously restricted in October over other antisemitic tweets, though it was reinstated after Musk completed his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter.

It's unknown how long Ye's account will be suspended from the social media platform, but Musk has previously said permanent bans "should be extremely rare."

Musk previously said Ye's account was suspended for violating the social media site's rule against incitement to violence.

Musk joined the Twitter Spaces session for a Q&A following the Friday release of  "Twitter Files," a cache of documents showing some of the conversations Twitter had regarding limiting access to a New York Post story about Hunter Biden's laptop in October 2020. 

Go deeper: Breaking down the cybersecurity risks at Elon Musk's Twitter

Elon Musk explains why Ye was suspended from Twitter

"At a certain point, you have to say what is incitement to violence," Musk said.

Elon Musk appearing via video link on a screen in Doha, Qatar, in June 2022.

Elon Musk appearing via video link on a screen in Doha, Qatar, in June 2022. Photo: Christopher Pike/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Elon Musk

Israeli Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu told NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday that he hopes former President Trump condemns antisemitism after having dinner with white nationalist Nick Fuentes and rapper Ye last month.

Why it matters: Trump has yet to directly condemn the antisemitic actions of either Ye, who was recently suspended from Twitter for posting an image of a swastika inside a Star of David, or Fuentes, who was labeled a "white supremacist" by the Justice Department.

Trump received widespread backlash over the dinner, including from fellow Republicans.

What they're saying: Despite Trump's lack of condemnation and other antisemitic comments he's made, Netanyahu praised the former president's foreign policy decisions toward Israel, specifically recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital, moving the American embassy to Jerusalem and recognizing Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights.

"So, he's done all these great things, and I appreciate it, and I remain appreciative," Netanyahu said.

"On this matter, on Kanye West and that other unacceptable guest, I think it's not merely unacceptable, it's just wrong. And I hope he sees his way to staying out of it and condemning it," he added.

The big picture: Netanyahu previously said the dinner with Ye and Fuentes was a "mistake."

Go deeper: Democrats react to Trump's call to suspend Constitution

Benjamin Netanyahu hopes Trump will condemn antisemitism

"I hope he sees his way to staying out of it and condemning it," Netanyahu said of Trump.

Benjamin Netanyahu

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of FTX, admitted during an interview that aired on ABC's "This Week" Sunday that he had "screwed up" and that he wished he had "done much better" at keeping track of financial exchanges at the company.

Driving the news: Crypto exchange FTX and Bankman-Fried are under scrutiny from regulators and politicians over the total lack of oversight at the company, which saw more than $30 billion of value wiped out in a matter of weeks.

There have been accusations that Bankman-Fried's hedge fund, Alameda Research, wasn't as profitable as it appeared and that holes in its balance sheet were filled with with client funds from FTX.

What they're saying: "Look, I screwed up. Like I was CEO, I had a responsibility here and a responsibility to be on top of what was going on the exchange. I wish I had done much better at that," Bankman-Fried told George Stephanopoulos in a sit-down interview.

"From my understanding there were documents drafted up by legal that [...] that were covering what was happening," he added.

"There's a lot of other things going on, and I have sort of a tendency to be involved in many things, to be, you know, spread thin sometimes."

Asked by Stephanopoulos whether using "money from depositors to give to a sister company" constituted the "reddest of red lines," Bankman-Fried replied that there were "explicit mechanisms by which there was allowed borrowing and lending on the platform."

"I completely agree that it's in general, like, a huge warning flag and I thought that we had, you know, processes in place that were managing it," he added.

"I didn't do nearly as much due diligence on that as I should have, and I really underestimated the risk of what a correlated market crash would look like here, which is also something I should have gotten right."

The big picture: Bankman-Fried last week said a the New York Times Dealbook conference that he "didn't knowingly commingle funds."

FTX is working through a messy bankruptcy process and the company's creditors remain in the dark about what, if anything, they will be able to recoup," Axios' Lucinda Shen reports.

In an interview with Axios last week, Bankman-Fried admitted that he had $100,000 left in his bank account the last time he checked. His personal wealth at one point was estimated at $26.5 billion.

Go deeper: The week the crypto dream died

FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried: "I screwed up"

"I had a responsibility here and a responsibility to be on top of what was going on the exchange. I wish I had done much better at that."

Sam Bankman-Fried

After a record economic expansion, the coronavirus pandemic sent the U.S. economy into a recession as unemployment soared to staggering heights. The country now faces urgent questions about how much stimulus is needed for reeling consumers and businesses, and what a recovery might look like.

Economy & Business

Finish Line

Axios Finish Line

Applicants want remote jobs, but the number of postings that allow people to work from home is dwindling as companies start to call workers back to offices.

By the numbers: 50% of applications submitted on LinkedIn are for remote jobs, but just 15% of postings are advertising flexible work.

💡 Why it matters: "The scaling back of remote-work policies is among the first and most visible signs of a changing job market," The Washington Post's Abha Bhattarai writes.

"Flexibility remains one of the top priorities for employees," says Rand Ghayad, head of economics and global labor markets at LinkedIn. 

But the balance of power is starting to shift away from workers and back to employers as the labor market shows more signs of cooling down, he says.

Demand for remote jobs outpaces supply

The balance of power is starting to shift away from workers.

Remote work

Jobs

America wastes more than 100 billion pounds — or 40% — of its food each year.

Why it matters: We often toss food without thinking, but the waste has stakes for the environment, global food insecurity and for our wallets.

The biggest share of food waste doesn't come from barges, grocery stores or restaurants, but from consumers' own kitchens.

The food we waste globally accounts for about 10% of greenhouse gas emissions. If food waste were a country, it would be the third-largest contributor to climate change after the U.S. and China, The Guardian reports.

Around 10% — or 13.5 million — of U.S. households experienced food insecurity in 2021, but food that could be donated to those in need is being wasted.

And the average American family spends nearly $1900 a year on food they don't eat, per one paper in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics.

"Our food system pushes us to waste," says Roni Neff, an expert in food system sustainability at the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future.

Large portions on store shelves lead us to buy more than we need, and inconsistent policies around date labels might cause us to toss food that's still safe and good to eat. A national policy on date-labeling could be one of the cheapest ways to save more food, says Neff.

"Preventing food waste doesn’t rise to the top of most people’s list of priorities.  While most of us really dislike throwing out food, we forget, we change our plans, we choose not to eat foods we don’t want, we take the path of convenience," she says.

What to watch: A slew of startups are trying to tackle this worsening problem, Kimberly Chin and Megan Hernbroth report in Axios Pro.

Misfits Market sells "ugly," misshapen produce that might have otherwise been trashed for a cheaper price.

Afresh and Choco make tech to help grocers and restaurants better manage inventory.

Apeel Sciences used plant-based materials to mimic the natural coating on lemons that keeps them fresher, longer. That colorless, tasteless coating can be used on other produce, like avocados and apples, to increase their shelf-life too.

How you can help: Pay attention while you shop so you don't over-purchase, plan meals and freeze leftovers, and figure out if you can compost your scraps, the National Resources Defense Council recommends.

America’s staggering food waste problem

We waste more than 100 billion pounds — or 40% — of food each year.

Illustration of salad ingredients forming a frowny face on a plate.

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