Countries must impose sanctions on China over the mass detention of ethnic Uighurs in its western Xinjiang region, hundreds of scholars said, warning a failure to act would signal acceptance of “psychological torture of innocent civilians”.
At a briefing in Washington, DC, on Monday, representatives of a group of 278 scholars in various disciplines from dozens of countries called on China to end its detention policies, and for sanctions directed at key Chinese leaders and security companies linked to abuses.
“This situation must be addressed to prevent setting negative future precedents regarding the acceptability of any state’s complete repression of a segment of its population, especially on the basis of ethnicity or religion,” the group said in a statement.
China’s Uighurs: State defends internment camps
Countries should expedite asylum requests from Xinjiang’s Muslim minorities, as well as “spearhead a movement for UN action aimed at investigating this mass internment system and closing the camps”, it said.
In August, a United Nations human rights panel said it had received credible reports that one million or more Uighurs and other minorities were being held in what resembled a “massive internment camp that is shrouded in secrecy” in its far western region.
‘Rather die’
The scholars’ call came as a member of the Uighur minority, who arrved in the US in September, detailed the abuse she said she suffered in one internment camp.
Mihrigul Tursun said she was interrogated for four days without sleep, had her hair shaved, and was subjected to an intrusive medical examination following her second arrest in China in 2017. After she was arrested a third time, the treatment was worse.
“I thought that I would rather die than go through this torture and begged them to kill me,” Tursun, 29, told reporters at the National Press Club.
Born in China, Tursun moved to Egypt to study English at a university where she met her husband.
In 2015, after travelling to China to spend time with her family, Tursun was arrested, separated from her young children, and kept in detention for three months. She is convinced her children – triplets – were operated on while she was detained because one died and the others developed health problems.
Tursun was arrested for a second time about two years later and, when she was detained a third time, she spent three months in a prison cell with 60 other women having to sleep in turns, use the toilet in front of security cameras, and sing songs praising China’s Communist Party.
Tursun said she and other inmates were forced to take unknown medication, including pills that made them faint and a white liquid that caused bleeding in some women and loss of menstruation in others. Tursun said nine women from her cell died during her three months there.
One day, Tursun recalled, she was led into a room and placed in a high chair, and her legs and arms locked in place.
“The authorities put a helmet-like thing on my head and each time I was electrocuted my whole body would shake violently and I would feel the pain in my veins,” Tursun said in a statement read by a translator.
“I don’t remember the rest. White foam came out of my mouth, and I began to lose consciousness,” Tursun said. “The last word I heard them saying is that you being Uighur is a crime.”
She was eventually released so she could take her children to Egypt, but was ordered to return to China. Tursun contacted US authorities in Cairo and settled in Virginia in September.
Pressure needed
China rejects criticism of its actions in Xinjiang, saying it protects the religion and culture of minorities, and its security measures are needed to combat the influence of “extremist” groups.
The country’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi has said the world should ignore “gossip” about Xinjiang and trust the government in Beijing.
But after initial denials about the detention camps, Chinese officials have said some people guilty of minor offences were being sent to “vocational” training centres to be taught work skills and legal knowledge aimed at curbing militancy.
Michael Clarke, a Xinjiang expert at Australian National University who signed the scholars statement, told reporters that China sought international respect for its weight in global affairs.
“The international community needs to demonstrate to Beijing that it will not actually get that while it’s doing this to a significant portion of its own citizenry,” Clarke said.
Tunis, Tunisia – Dozens of Tunisians gathered on the capital’s main avenue to protest a planned visit by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Prince Mohammed, commonly known by his initials MBS, is expected to arrive in Tunis on Tuesday as part of a regional tour as he makes his way to the G20 summit set to take place in Argentina at the end of the month.
It is also MBS’ first overseas tour after the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul two months ago. The murder – widely seen as orchestrated by MBS – created an international firestorm against Saudi Arabia that continues to reverberate.
Trump branded ‘dishonest’ about CIA report on Khashoggi
“As a Tunisian citizen, I reject Bin Salman’s visit to Tunis,” Achraf Aouadi, a civil society activist, told Al Jazeera.
Tunisia adheres to a “human rights framework” that should protect the rights of the Yemeni people, preserve journalists’ right to do their work, and grant female activists rights to express themselves freely, said Aouadi.
In addition to the Khashoggi killing, Aouadi was referring to recent reports on the alleged torture and sexual harassment of female Saudi activists, as well as the four-year Saudi-led war in Yemen that has created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
“It provokes me that we [Tunisia] are dismissing this framework for economic interests,” he said.
While the Saudi Royal Court did not clarify the official visit’s programme, Tunisia has long been a recipient of Saudi aid money. The two countries’ air forces held their first ever-joint exercises in October signaling tighter relations.
‘Tunisia, land of revolution’
Faces painted in stark black and white, a group of performance artists cleared the cascading series of steps where the hundred-something protesters gathered to perform a mime sketch.
Amid the crowd’s cheers and giggles, the lead artist, dressed in traditional tribal garb, began to throw paper planes at his peers.
They were acting out the war on Yemen where a Saudi-Emirati led military alliance has used air strikes against Houthi rebel targets, but also hit many civilian areas. Tens of thousands are believed to have died since the war began.
Protesters dressed as clowns perform during a protest opposing Prince Mohammed’s visit [Asma Ajroudi/Al Jazeera]
“Simply said, we came here today to say that the Tunisian people – who have exported the revolution to the rest of the [Arab] world and who fought for justice, dignity and human rights – cannot welcome a criminal like Bin Salman,” Hamza Nasri, the mime artist playing MBS, said.
Tunisia made world headlines in 2011 after long-time autocrat Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali was deposed following mass demonstrations, triggering a wave of uprisings across the Middle East that saw the departure of three other Arab strongmen.
But the deposed leader has been a fugitive in Saudi Arabia since 2011, and Riyadh has consistently ignored extradition requests from Tunis.
Instead, Ben Ali was handed lengthy prison sentences and hefty monetary fines in a series of trials in absentia, on charges ranging from complicity in the killing of several hundred protesters during the uprising, to misappropriating public funds, to trafficking in drugs, weapons and archeological artifacts.
“Perhaps as a people in the past we [Tunisians] could not speak our minds. But today we can,” said Emna Mizouni, another protester.
“It is shameful for Tunisia, which received the Nobel Peace Prize, to receive someone like this,” she said of the Saudi crown prince.
In 2015, the Tunisian National Dialogue Quarter, a democracy group credited with staving off another uprising in the country, was awarded the international peace prize.
MBS also visited the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt – all staunch allies of Saudi Arabia – and is expected in Argentina for the G20 summit on Friday.
Because Tunisia is a pioneering country when it comes to promoting human rights, “there is no reason why not to come out and say no to MBS”, said Mizouni.
“Everyone is against whitewashing oppression. Unfortunately our Arab brothers could not organise similar protests,” she said, adding the demonstration not only highlighted Tunisians’ anger but spoke “in the name of all oppressed Arab people” who could not organise publicly to condemn the crown prince’s policies.
A banner depicts Prince Mohammed holding a chainsaw and reads ‘no to the desecration of Tunisia, the land of the revolution’ [Asma Ajroudi/Al Jazeera]
Symbolic lawsuits
MBS’ trip to Tunis, made known last week, has generated widespread condemnation among civil society members for days.
On Monday, the Tunisian Journalists’ Syndicate (SNJT) announced it planned to file a lawsuit against Prince Mohammed at an international court for “war crimes committed by the Saudi regime in Yemen”.
In an open letter addressed to President Beji Caid Essebsi days prior, the union slammed MBS as a “danger for the safety and the peace of the region and the world, and a real threat to freedom of expression”.
“Tunisians reject the war crimes being committed in Yemen and the obvious human rights transgressions against Saudi activists like Jamal Khashoggi,” Sakina Abdel Samad, a SNJT member, told reporters during a press conference.
A giant poster of the Saudi prince holding a chainsaw has been hung outside the group’s office. “No to the desecration of Tunisia, land of revolution,” read the banner.
In another symbolic move, a group of 50 lawyers announced they too filed a lawsuit with a Tunisian court to pressure the government to cancel MBS’ visit.
“We have officially requested an investigation into crimes committed by bin Salman,” Nizar Boujalal, a spokesman for the lawyers, told reporters.
MBS’ involvement in Yemen – in addition to his alleged role in Khashoggi’s killing and the detention of the female activists – has put the country’s ties with Western allies under tight scrutiny.
It remains to be seen which leaders shake hands and pose for photos with the crown prince at the G20 in Buenos Aires later this week.
Weeks after Google employees around the globe walked out of offices in protest of the company’s handling of claims of sexual misconduct, the Mountain View-based search giant is about to face yet another worldwide protest. This time, however, Amnesty International is coming for it. The planned demonstrations aim to highlight Google’s efforts, codenamed Dragonfly, to build a censored Chinese search engine.
It’s all set to go down on Nov. 27, reports The Intercept, and Amnesty International is not playing around. The NGO launched a petition calling on Google to cease its Dragonfly project, and a scathing satirical Google recruiting video.
What’s more, the petition makes it clear that this is about more than just the censored search engine specifically, and China in general.
“If Google is willing to trade human rights for profit in China, could they do the same in other countries,” asks the petition. “Stand in solidarity with the staff members at Google who have protested the project and tell CEO Sundar Pichai to #DropDragonfly before it can be launched.”
The video, a mock Dragonfly recruitment ad, is a bit more blunt.
“To apply,” explains a fake Google employee, “you’ll need great coding skills, five years experience, and have absolutely no morals and be happy giving up people’s personal data.”
The Intercept notes that demonstrations will take place at Google offices located in the U.S., the UK, Australia, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, and Spain.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai has publicly bragged about the censored search engine, telling those at the Wired 25 Summit that “[it] turns out we’ll be able to serve well over 99 percent of the queries.” He further noted that “[there] are many, many areas where we would provide information better than what’s available.”
Google has faced internal pushback against the Dragonfly project, with the New York Times reporting in August that hundreds of employees had signed an internal letter “demanding more transparency to understand the ethical consequences of their work.”
Tuesday’s protests appear to be another such call for transparency. Time will tell if Google listens.
Donald Trump has dismissed a damning climate change study produced by his own government, simply telling reporters, “I don’t believe it.”
The U.S. president rejected the findings of the report, which was produced by over 300 prominent climate scientists and 13 federal agencies and departments.
The Congress-commissioned report, of which Trump told reporters, “I’ve read some of it,” warns that climate change will not only continue to contribute to weather extremes and impact global health, but it will cost the U.S. economy hundreds of billions of dollars every year.
When asked by reporters outside the White House on Monday about such a devastating impact on the national economy, Trump said he didn’t believe it.
Like countless reports before it, including the UN’s special report from October, the study also concludes, based on extensive evidence, that human activities are the dominant cause of global warming.
But Trump diverted attention away from the responsibility and contribution of the U.S. to climate change to the emissions produced by other countries, telling reporters that America is “the cleanest we’ve ever been.”
“You’re going to have to have China and Japan and all of Asia and all these other countries, you know, it [the report] addresses our country,” he said, as reported by the BBC.
“Right now we’re at the cleanest we’ve ever been and that’s very important to me. But if we’re clean, but every other place on Earth is dirty, that’s not so good.
“So I want clean air, I want clean water, very important.”
Trump may say he wants clean air, but he doesn’t want to put policies in place to reduce emissions, preferring to support the fossil fuel industry instead.
According to the bombshell report, how the U.S. responds to greenhouse gas emissions will make a big difference.
“The impacts of global climate change are already being felt in the United States and are projected to intensify in the future — but the severity of future impacts will depend largely on actions taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to the changes that will occur,” the report states.
Trump’s lack of support for the report shouldn’t really come as a surprise, considering his history of dismissing climate change. But it’s another form of backflip for Trump, who called climate change a “hoax” in June 2017, then reconsidered his stance a year later, telling 60 Minutes, “I don’t think it’s a hoax,” and that climate change will “change back again.”
Yeah, it’s tough keeping up.
If you want to read the whole report, grab a coffee and dig in. It’s quite frankly terrifying.
Facebook’s vaunted election “war room” is currently empty, but the social network says that doesn’t mean it’s done fighting election interference.
Bloomberg reported Monday that the so-called war room, the dedicated space at Facebook’s headquarters that served as the company’s ground zero for fighting election interference, had been “disbanded.”
Facebook’s war room consisted of a conference room staffed 24 hours a day and served as a command center for the company’s various teams fighting misinformation on the platform ahead of election in the United States and Brazil. Facebook’s Brazil office also had its own small war room. The room was put together after Facebook was criticized for not doing enough to respond to Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Though much of the work that happened in the war room wasn’t actually new, executives said that bringing together representatives from the many teams working on election-related issues across the company was essential to its efforts to safeguard elections.
But not everyone was convinced that moving a few dozen desks into a single conference room was enough to fix Facebook’s problems. On the same day that several publishers (Mashable included) wrote about the war room, another headline surfaced: Brazilian marketing firms had paid the equivalent of millions of dollars for databases of phone numbers in order to target WhatsApp users with propaganda messages. Clearly, Facebook’s misinformation problem was far from solved.
To be clear, Facebook didn’t say its war room was meant to be a permanent fixture — in fact, the actual conference room was only booked until two days after the election, according to a photo taken by Business Insider.
Guy Rosen, Facebook’s VP of Product, muddied the waters further when he pushed back on Bloomberg’s reporting. He stated that the room, which is not currently in use, “still stands” and that it will be “operational ahead of major events.”
The war room will be operational ahead of major events, and it still stands. It was effective for our work in both the Brazil and US elections which is why it’s going to be expanded, not disbanded.
In a statement sent to Mashable, a Facebook spokesperson said the company plans to create similar war room set-ups for future elections.
“Our war room effort is focused specifically on elections-related issues and is designed to rapidly respond to threats such as voter suppression efforts and civic-related misinformation. It was an effective effort during the recent U.S. and Brazil elections, and we are planning to expand the effort going forward for elections around the globe.”
But given how much emphasis was placed on the war room and the work that happened inside of it — executives routinely compared it to Facebook’s hugely successful push to mobile in 2012 — some onlookers were surprised to see it emptied so quickly.
Facebook’s U.S. war room in October, when the company showed off the facility in October.
Image: karissa bell / mashable
Much of the confusion stems from how Facebook first presented the war room to the media. In October, the company hosted a large press event, where reporters were given brief tours of the space. A handful of Facebook executives were also present, and spoke at length about the importance of the war room.
While the U.S. midterms are over, there are other elections happening around the world. And misinformation is far from eradicated, even if specific voter suppression efforts have stopped.
Bloomberg’s story also comes amid another a wave of bad news for Facebook. The company was forced to admit that it had hired an outside PR firm to attack the company’s critics, including billionaire George Soros. Like the latest Bloomberg story, Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg has borne much of the criticism for overseeing the teams that implemented the PR strategy, which critics say was more focused on deflecting criticism rather than changing systemic issues.
The anti-Pelosi rebels’ latest trouble started when Rep. Seth Moulton issued a statement Monday signaling he was open to holding talks with the House minority leader. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo
Even as another lawmaker vowed to oppose Pelosi for speaker, her critics struggled to remain united.
The push to block Nancy Pelosi from the speakership is sputtering amid disagreements among her Democratic critics over their strategy and endgame, just days ahead of a critical caucus vote.
Some sources close to the group have privately accused one of its leaders, Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, of freelancing — publicly pushing a potential compromise with Pelosi that not all members support or were even aware was on the table.
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The anti-Pelosi forces have been struggling to regain their footing in the past several days after the longtime Democratic leader picked off two of their members, including a potential challenger. And the conflict over strategy among the group’s dozen-plus members threatens to thwart their plan to deny Pelosi the gavel.
Still, the group got a much-needed boost on Monday: Rep.-elect Gil Cisneros of California, whose race was just called, has signed on to the group’s letter vowing to defeat Pelosi on the House floor.
If the rebels don’t put up a strong showing of opposition when members meet for a closed-door caucus vote on Wednesday, their effort could run aground well ahead of the official vote on the House floor on Jan. 3.
“I’m trying to replace the current leadership of the Democratic Party,” said Rep. Kurt Schrader of Oregon, one of the rebels who is not interested in a potential deal with Pelosi that Moulton floated Monday. “We need somebody who is a fresher face, that voters don’t identify with the old establishment, who is new, that shows Democrats have chosen a new direction … We don’t want her to be the face of the party.”
Another rebel source said of the group’s ringleaders: “They don’t know what they’re doing,” the source said, adding that their strategy has been disjointed from the start.
The latest trouble for the rebels started when Moulton issued a statement Monday signaling he was open to holding talks with Pelosi and leaving the gavel in her hands.
But multiple aides and lawmakers in the anti-Pelosi pack pushed back on Moulton’s statement, worrying it could make the rebels look like they’re already seeking an exit strategy.
Moulton suggested that replacing her top lieutenants, Reps. Steny Hoyer of Maryland or Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, with new leaders might win her the group’s support. Sources close to Moulton also hinted that Pelosi could find success if she were to promise to serve only one more term.
“Leader Pelosi wants to boil this down to a personal argument, but this is so much bigger than her,” Moulton said in the statement. “It’s about the entire, stagnant, 3-person leadership team and having a serious conversation about promoting leaders who reflect the future of our caucus.”
Soon after, Schrader — who has signed a letter supporting Hoyer for majority leader — said pushing Clyburn and Hoyer out of leadership would do nothing to win his support for Pelosi. Schrader went so far as to suggest that Moulton’s statement had been taken out of context by his staff.
“I’m not so sure Seth has said that,” Schrader said when asked about Moulton’s comments, first reported by The Washington Post. “He’s been pretty clear that it might have been his staff that mentioned all that. Because I know that he is not inclined to cut a deal with Pelosi to kill Hoyer and Clyburn.”
Schrader also poured cold water on the notion of backing Pelosi should she promise she’ll serve for only one term, an idea Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) also panned in a brief hallway interview with POLITICO two weeks ago.
“No — because in one Congress we’ll lose our majority. In one Congress, we’ll lose at least half of the members who flipped seats this time,” Schrader said, noting all the candidates who vowed to vote against her on the campaign trail. “She would need to step down within a year and have new elections at that time for us to have any chance of retaining the majority.”
The private spat over Moulton’s statement underscores the group’s struggle to remain united as Pelosi works feverishly behind the scenes to round up enough votes to win the speakership.
Sources inside the rebel camp say the group has not communicated effectively and is struggling because of a lack of organization.
Pelosi’s team has accused her critics of being sexist and espousing values that are contrary to the progressive energy that helped lead the party back to the majority. And while she leans on her powerful allies on the outside to make this case, her critics don’t have the same microphone or connections to push back on the accusations
Some signers of the letter calling for Pelosi’s ouster have also said their letter should not have zeroed in solely on Pelosi. They regret that it did not mention Hoyer and Clyburn, too.
But doing so would have no doubt divided the group, some of whose members have strong relationships with the No. 2 and No. 3 leaders.
House Democrats will meet on Wednesday for closed-door leadership elections at which Pelosi needs to win a simple majority. But to seize the gavel again, she’ll need to persuade half of the House — usually 218 votes — to back her on the floor in January.
Sources close to the anti-Pelosi group argue that they still have more than enough votes to block the California Democrat on the floor and are prepared to do so if she doesn’t compromise in some way. But there is vast disagreement among the rebels about what exactly they want from her.
Schrader’s suggestion that Pelosi serve for only one year has won some converts. According to another source in the group, some like the idea of a deal allowing Pelosi to stay on through 2019 and then holding new leadership elections a year from December.
But the source also noted that it would be difficult for some members to switch their votes even if such a deal were struck given how publicly they’ve opposed Pelosi.
The conflict over their endgame makes it that much harder to stick to a single strategy as Pelosi works on picking off individual members.
Rep. Brian Higgins of New York pulled his name from the anti-Pelosi letter after she agreed to work with him on two of his pet projects — infrastructure investment and a lower age for Medicare enrollment. Another Pelosi critic, Rep. Marcia Fudge of Ohio, decided against challenging Pelosi after she was promised a subcommittee chairmanship.
Some Pelosi critics will likely vote against her on the floor no matter what. Other members joined the opposition campaign in hopes of extracting their own concessions while others are open to supporting her if she will pledge only to serve a certain amount of time.
Pelosi is expected to easily win her caucus’ nomination for the speakership this week. But the rebels are hoping for a strong showing of their own, believing that if enough lawmakers voice opposition on the secret ballot, they might still be able to oust Pelosi — or at least secure significant changes to Democrats’ top-down leadership structure.
The informal goal, according to multiple sources, is to get more than 63 members to vote against Pelosi on the secret ballot. That is the number of members who supported Ryan when he challenged Pelosi after the 2016 election.
But even with momentum on her side, Pelosi’s path back to the speakership is not guaranteed. If current numbers hold, Pelosi can lose 16 Democrats on the House floor if all members are present and voting.
In addition to the 16 Democrats who signed on to the anti-Pelosi letter, at least three other incoming House freshmen have said they will vote against her.
Pelosi must also win the support of moderate Democrats in the Problem Solvers Caucus who are vowing to withhold their support unless she agrees to a package of changes to the way the House operates.
A source close to the group said several of its nine Democrats are prepared to vote against Pelosi on the House floor if she doesn’t acquiesce to their demands.
The aide said the group is willing to work with Pelosi on specifics but wants to see her agree publicly and in writing to a broader rules framework that would give members more power to bring up amendments and bills that have bipartisan backing.
Pelosi is set to meet with several of the members of the Problem Solvers Caucus on Tuesday night.
If he elects to run, Beto O’Rourke would be forced to catch up to Democrats who have already begun courting donors and political operatives in key primary states. | Paul Ratje/AFP/Getty Images
The Texas Democrat said he would make no decision about running until after he leaves Congress in early January.
EL PASO, Texas — Beto O’Rourke said Monday that he is no longer ruling out a run for president in 2020, a reversal that thrilled his legion of loyal supporters while clouding an already-crowded Democratic primary field.
“Running for Senate, I was 100 percent focused on our campaign, winning that race and then serving the next six years in the United States Senate,” the Texas congressman told reporters after a town hall forum here. “Now that that is no longer possible, you know, we’re thinking through a number of things.”
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Asked if his position on 2020 is different than it was before the November election, when he said he would not run for president, O’Rourke said, “Yeah, yeah it is.”
In his first public event since the midterm election, O’Rourke said he would make no decision about running until after he leaves Congress in early January. But in a lengthy rebuke of President Donald Trump — on issues ranging from immigration to taxes and military spending abroad — he suggested the early formation of a platform.
Tearing into the Trump administration for its denunciation of refugees at the U.S.-Mexico border — with U.S. authorities using tear gas on migrants near Tijuana, Mexico, over the weekend — O’Rourke cast the unfolding immigration crisis as “our moment of truth.”
“This one is on all of us, the way that we choose to respond,” he said. “To give in to the paranoia and the hype and the fear and that bullshit that characterizes so much of the national conversation about something that we understand better than anyone else right now. Or for us to stand up and to lead on this issue.”
His remarks from this border town offered a geographically centered rebuttal to Trump, who demanded earlier Monday that Mexico deport caravans of asylum-seeking migrants at the U.S. border.
“Mexico should move the flag waving Migrants, many of whom are stone cold criminals, back to their countries,” Trump tweeted, without offering any evidence that the migrants are criminals.
O’Rourke raised more than $70 million and mesmerized Democratic activists and donors with his closer-than-expected run against GOP Sen. Ted Cruz.
But O’Rourke and his wife, Amy, both expressed reservations about the toll a presidential campaign could take on their family, after two years running unsuccessfully against Republican Sen. Ted Cruz.
“Amy and I have talked a little bit about next steps, and the conversation has started with family, and really has not gotten past that — what’s going to be best for our family,” O’Rourke said. “Our kids are 12, 10 and 8 now, and whatever we do, we want to be together. So being in El Paso makes just a ton of sense to us, just from that basis.”
However, he said, “I’m also, obviously, really interested in the direction that this country takes, want to be as effective as I can making sure that it goes in a positive direction and contributing in whatever way that I can. What form that takes — whether it involves running for office again, whether there’s something that I can do as just a citizen — I don’t know, we haven’t really been able to get our heads around that.”
If he elects to run, O’Rourke would be forced to catch up to Democrats who have already begun courting donors and political operatives in key primary states. O’Rourke has not begun to develop a presidential campaign infrastructure — or even cultivated the seeds of one, famously eschewing consultants and pollsters in his Senate race.
In a move viewed by some Democrats as a sign that O’Rourke may not run, Shelby Cole, who worked on his Senate campaign’s massive digital effort, is joining Authentic Campaigns, the digital strategy firm used by Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.).
Yet major Democratic donors and strategists have been privately lobbying O’Rourke to enter the race, buoyed by his national fundraising network of mostly small donors. O’Rourke raised a staggering $38 million in the third quarter of his Senate campaign, and a series of post-election missives have appeared designed to keep them engaged.
On Thanksgiving, O’Rourke posed for a photograph with his family and said he was grateful for “everyone still committed to, still working towards, still fighting for a more perfect union” — a forward-looking statement in line with the more eyebrow-raising essay he posted just after the election.
Days after losing to Cruz, O’Rourke wrote on Medium about running through Washington and up the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, pondering Lincoln’s second inaugural address. O’Rourke wrote optimistically that he “wondered if the winds had changed.”
The historical significance of O’Rourke’s destination was lost on no one. Lincoln successfully ran for president after two losing Senate campaigns.
O’Rourke said Monday that his writings on Medium, the latest of which he wrote the previous night, “is going to be my venue to talk to you, if you’re interested, as a private citizen” after leaving office.
“He clearly inspired the state and inspired the nation,” said Marc Stanley, a Dallas lawyer and Democratic donor who chaired a political action committee working against Cruz. “But I don’t know. It was a rough two years on him and his family. To jump right back into it, I don’t know.
However, Stanley added, “On the other hand, his political stock is high right now.”
O’Rourke told MSNBC before the election that he would not run for president, saying, “I will not be a candidate for president in 2020. That’s, I think, as definitive as those sentences get.”
But when asked about a potential presidential run following the election, O’Rourke told the website TMZ on Friday, “I haven’t made any decisions about anything.”
On Monday, Amy O’Rourke, who was instrumental in O’Rourke’s decision to run for Senate, asked with a laugh as O’Rourke was speaking with reporters, “Did he say it was a possibility?“
The family had recently returned from vacationing in Costa Rica, and “we really haven’t had the conversation.” Any decision, she said, will be made with family and friends, not “political strategists chiming in.”
“I think I want to make sure that our family is healthy and happy and strong, and that has always been kind of the backbone of every conversation that we have,” she said. “And so, just laying low for right now and making sure that we’re good on that front.”
Amy O’Rourke said running for president “just seems like you have to give up so much of your private life, including time as a family in the ways that you have been a family up until then … I don’t know if that’s a line that I or we necessarily want to cross.”
Even the possibility of an O’Rourke candidacy prompted a flurry of interest from donors and operatives — and from the highest levels of the Democratic Party.
Former President Barack Obama, speaking to his former adviser David Axelrod on his podcast last week, called O’Rourke an “impressive young man who ran a terrific race in Texas,” while drawing comparisons between O’Rourke and himself.
“What I liked most about his race was that it didn’t feel constantly poll-tested,” Obama said. “It felt as if he based his statements and his positions on what he believed. And that, you’d like to think, is normally how things work. Sadly, it’s not.”
The town hall meeting, which drew more than 200 people, was the latest of more than 100 that O’Rourke has held since taking office. On Monday, the Democrat elected to succeed O’Rourke in the House, Veronica Escobar, drew a wave of applause when she told the audience of O’Rourke, “I know there’s bigger and better things on the horizon, and we cannot wait to see what happens next.”
Gilberto Hinojosa, chairman of the Texas Democratic Party, called O’Rourke’s deliberations about 2020 “really, really internal.”
“This is a very tough, difficult decision given how close he is with his kids and his wife. It’s very tough for him to do it over again for another two years,” Hinojosa said.
Speaking to reporters Monday, O’Rourke said he and his wife have “made a decision not to rule anything out.”
“The best advice that I’ve received from people who have run for and won and run for and lost elections like this is don’t make any decisions about anything until you’ve had some time to hang with your family and just be human.”
He said, “I’m following that advice, and just not making a decision about anything.”
By signaling that he is even open to a presidential campaign, however, O’Rourke continued to generate interest Monday, as he has since the election.
“The buzz is all around Texas about O’Rourke,” said Christian Archer, a San Antonio-based Democratic strategist.
Archer said O’Rourke has “got a window of time to seize that momentum, and kind of slingshot himself to the top tier of candidates.”
For O’Rourke, Archer said, “I would go to Iowa tomorrow if you’re really interested. You don’t have to commit. You can go to a town hall meeting in Iowa, and you don’t have to make anything formal. You just have the keep the conversation as intense as it is right now about O’Rourke. That conversation remains intense for a period of time.”
Not only is Meek Mill celebrating his wins with a new album, Championships, this week, but he’s also putting his newfound liberation to use by heading out on The Motivation Tour.
Beginning in February 2019 and running through late March, the U.S. trek will visit 16 cities, including Meek’s hometown of Philadelphia. Notably, it marks the rapper’s first tour since his release from prison earlier this year.
Last week, Meek released “Uptown Vibes” and “Oodles O’ Noodles Babies” to rev up anticipation for Championships, which arrives Friday. The new project — his first full-length album since 2017’s Wins & Losses — also includes the Jeremih-featuring single “Dangerous,” as well as a rumored collaboration with Cardi B.
While gearing up for his new musical chapter, Meek is also continuing to passionately push for prison reform. Just before announcing his new tour on Monday (November 26), The New York Times published an op-ed from the rapper in which he announces his new criminal justice reform organization. Underscoring the country’s need for prison reform, he wrote, “A higher power has put me in a position to help fix this — to help clean up this persistent stain on our society.”
Read the full op-ed here, and check out the Motivation Tour dates below.
02/19 — Miami, FL @ The Fillmore Miami Beach at Jackie Gleason Theater
02/22 — Dallas, TX @ South Side Ballroom
02/23 — Houston, TX @ Revention Music Center
02/26 — Phoenix, AZ @ Comerica Theatre
02/28 — Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Palladium
03/01 — San Francisco, CA @ The Masonic
03/05 — Denver, CO @ Fillmore Auditorium
03/08 — Chicago, IL @ Aragon Ballroom
03/09 — Detroit, MI @ The Fox Theatre
03/12 — New York, NY @ Hammerstein Ballroom
03/15 — Philadelphia, PA @ The MET
03/19 — Lowell, MA @ Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell
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