US politics: QAnon-linked Lauren Boebert wins primary in Colorado – live updates

Donald Trump has been on a tweeting spree this morning. Some of the things he has mentioned include the renaming of military bases named after Confederate figures who fought against the US in the civil war. He’s threatening to veto any action on that.

Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)

I will Veto the Defense Authorization Bill if the Elizabeth “Pocahontas” Warren (of all people!) Amendment, which will lead to the renaming (plus other bad things!) of Fort Bragg, Fort Robert E. Lee, and many other Military Bases from which we won Two World Wars, is in the Bill!

July 1, 2020

He’s also talking about his executive order to protect monuments and statues, most of which were already protected by state law anyway.

Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)

My Executive Order to protect Monuments, Statues etc., IS IN FULL FORCE AND EFFECT. In excess of a 10 year prison term. Please do not put yourself in jeopardy. Many people now under arrest!

July 1, 2020

He’s had a dig at CNN over their TV ratings.

Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)

Can’t believe how badly @CNN has done in the newly released TV ratings. They are so far below @FoxNews (thank you President Trump!) that you can barely find them. Fredo should be given a big pay cut! MSDNC also did poorly. As I have long said, Fake News does not pay!!!

July 1, 2020

He has resolutely failed to mention coronavirus though - bearing in mind that yesterday the US recorded over 43,000 new cases of Covid-19.

But perhaps the most eye-catching claim this morning though is the president declaring that the ‘Russian bounty’ story is a “HOAX!”.

Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)

The Russia Bounty story is just another made up by Fake News tale that is told only to damage me and the Republican Party. The secret source probably does not even exist, just like the story itself. If the discredited @nytimes has a source, reveal it. Just another HOAX!

July 1, 2020

Given that over the last couple of days both senior Republican and Democratic politicians have been briefed on the existence of the intelligence in Capitol Hill, that does seem a stretch.

Sean Murphy at the Associated Press has been reporting on how Oklahoma voters narrowly decided to expand Medicaid health insurance to tens of thousands low-income residents, becoming the first state to amend its Constitution to do so.

With 100% of precincts reporting unofficial results, State Question 802 passed by less than 1 percentage point. The question fared well in metropolitan areas, including Oklahoma City and Tulsa, but was overwhelmingly opposed in rural counties.

Amending the Oklahoma Constitution will prevent the Republican-controlled Legislature, which has resisted Medicaid expansion for a decade, from tinkering with the programme or rolling back coverage.

State Question 802 will extend Medicaid health insurance to those earning up to 138% of the federal poverty level, which is about $17,200 for an individual or $35,500 for a family of four. Oklahoma was one of 14 states that had not expanded Medicaid under the 2010 federal Affordable Care Act.

Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt and his predecessor, Mary Fallin, have opposed expansion, citing uncertainty about future costs for the state. “We have a billion-dollar shortfall next year,” Stitt said recently at a forum hosted by Americans for Prosperity, a conservative political advocacy group that opposes the measure. The state would have to “either raise taxes or to cut services somewhere else like education, first responders, or roads and bridges.”

After years of legislative inaction on health insurance proposals, supporters of Medicaid expansion launched an initiative petition last year to get the measure on the ballot, and collected a record number of signatures.

Some Republican opposition to Medicaid expansion has eroded in recent years, particularly in rural areas where hospitals have suffered financial problems or closed.

Kevin Penry, a Republican and retired pastor from Edmond, said that before going on Medicare last month he had to buy expensive insurance on the federal marketplace, which “really made me feel for folks who are in a difficult financial situation.” He said he voted for the expansion.

The Oklahoma Health Care Authority has projected that about 215,000 residents would qualify for a Medicaid expansion, for a total annual cost of about $1.3 billion. The estimated state share would be about $164 million. But those numbers could be considerably higher given the number of Oklahomans who have lost their jobs and work-related health insurance because of the economic shutdown amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Missouri voters will also decide on a constitutional amendment on 4 August.

Another result from Colorado is that former Governor John Hickenlooper won the Democratic nomination Tuesday to face Republican Sen. Cory Gardner in November

Hickenlooper’s main challenge was former Colorado House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, who was promising a Green New Deal and single-payer health care.

But Hickenlooper had a financial edge in the campiagn, out-raising Romanoff by about 7-to-1. He also had a reservoir of goodwill to call upon after two terms in the governor’s mansion.

Senate Democrats recruited Hickenlooper, 68, to take on Gardner, who is widely seen as the most vulnerable Republican in the Senate. Democrats need to gain three seats in November to win control of the chamber, and they see Colorado as their most promising opportunity. Hickenlooper made an ill-fated bid for the White House last summer.

“I’ve never lost an election in this state and I don’t intend to lose this one,” Hickenlooper said Tuesday night.

In an interview, Gardner previewed how he intends to fight back, calling Hickenlooper “the most corrupt governor in the history of Colorado.”

Romanoff had quickly called Hickenlooper to congratulate him on the victory after polls closed Tuesday evening. “For all the differences that we had, and there were many in this race, I am equally committed to making sure Cory Gardner is a one-term senator,” Romanoff told supporters during a virtual victory party on Zoom.

It will be Lauren Boebert who goes into the election in Colorado in November after her surprise primary victory last night.

The owner of a gun-themed restaurant where staff carry their weapons as they serve customers, Boebert won after a campaign in which she accused five-term Rep. Scott Tipton of not being sufficiently pro-Donald Trump, even though the president had endorsed Tipton.

Lauren Boebert for Congress (R-CO3) (@laurenboebert)

America is and always will be the greatest country in the world.

Thank you, Colorado!

This is the honor of a lifetime.

Now, the hard work begins to take back the House in November!

🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

July 1, 2020

Boebert wrote in a recent Aspen Times column that “A sober look at the Tipton record shows a back-burner representative that has failed to live up to his conservative chops that he touted on his Tea Party-inspired campaign trail. If his record lived up to his campaign rhetoric, I wouldn’t feel so compelled to run.”

She made made a name for herself after loudly protesting Democratic Gov. Jared Polis’ orders to close businesses to fight the coronavirus pandemic. She opened her Shooters Grill restaurant in defiance of closure orders - county officials ended up having to to obtain a cease-and-desist letter from a district judge to shut her restaurant down.

She’s also spoken approvingly of the QAnon far-right conspiracy theory saying during an appearance on QAnon-aligned web show Steel Truth: “Everything that I’ve heard of Q, I hope that this is real because it only means that America is getting stronger and better, and people are returning to conservative values.”

Ann Vandersteel, who conducted the interview, tweeted in support of Boebert yesterday

Ann Vandersteel (@annvandersteel)

Good luck to the lovely @LaurenBoebert from Colorado. Today she will unseat Scott Tipton from his seat in Congress and let us have one less RINO in our party. Good luck! You’ve had an incredible campaign and are one of the best Twitter accounts out there!

June 30, 2020

Boebert will run in November’s general election against Diane Mitsch Bush, a former state lawmaker who won the Democratic nomination on Tuesday.

Tipton, who has been in office since 2011, conceded in an email “District Republicans have decided who they want to run against the Democrats this November. I want to congratulate Lauren Boebert and wish her and her supporters well.”