Category: Tech

• Ex-Colorado Rep. Ken Buck said many conservatives have compromised their values over populism.
• “The Constitution is just a thing of the past to the very same people who were Tea Party patriots,” he told WaPo.
• Buck retired from the House in March, leaving months before his term was set to end.

During his nearly decadelong tenure in the US House of Representatives, Ken Buck was well-known for his conservatism.

But the former Colorado congressman recently told The Washington Post that over the years, some of his fellow conservatives shifted their focus from curtailing government spending to shielding former President Donald Trump from criticism — while becoming more partisan in the process.

“I think that the populist wave has eroded the conservative values that I had when I came to this place,” the former lawmaker told the newspaper. “Now we’re impeaching people like it’s some kind of carnival and the Constitution is just a thing of the past to the very same people who were Tea Party patriots 10 to 12 years ago.”

In February, Buck was one of just three House Republicans to reject the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, whom GOP leaders have tussled with over the Biden administration’s immigration policies.

Last month, shortly before he left Congress, the House Freedom Caucus voted to remove Buck from the group for “nonattendance,” according to Axios.

During his interview with the Post, Buck also stressed that the desire for ideologically pure pieces of legislation has been detrimental to the GOP’s ability to secure conservative victories, adding that “you have to have consensus” to find success on Capitol Hill.

But while Biden works to shore up his support among these key groups, he retains a notable advantage among seniors — or voters aged 65 and older.

It’s an edge that Trump enjoyed in 2020, according to the Pew Research Center, when the then-president won seniors by a 4-point margin (52%-48%) even as he lost the election to Biden.

In the latest Wall Street Journal survey of the top battleground states (Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin), Biden trailed Trump in six of the seven states.

However, in the Journal’s most recent national and swing-state polling, Biden’s support among seniors has sat at roughly 48%, a rare bloc of stability for the president.

Biden, who’ll be 82 at the start of a second term, may be in a better position with seniors than Trump given his focus on issues like cutting the price of insulin and prescription drug costs.

And while Biden’s age has been a concern among many voters, it hasn’t contributed to any deterioration in support among seniors.

Here’s how Biden’s relatively solid standing with seniors could help him secure a second term:

Older voters show up at the polls

The Wall Street Journal reported that voters aged 65 and older make up roughly 28% of the electorate.

In the 2020 election, voters in this group made up about 22% of all voters, according to exit polling conducted by Edison Research.

And they’re some of the most consistent voters in primary races, where the results generally set the ideological direction of the major political parties.

But it’s their high-propensity voting patterns that could be an underrated benefit for Biden in November.

In the 2020 presidential election, 74% of voters aged 65 and older went on to cast a ballot, according to the US Census Bureau.

If Biden can build on his existing support with seniors, it could go a long way for him in Nevada, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania, which all have a sizable share of older voters and retirees and are poised to be decided by razor-thin margins this fall.

The Israel-Hamas war isn’t hurting Biden with seniors

Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war is one of the most pressing issues among young voters — with many Americans aged 18 to 29 demanding that the president change course in Gaza by calling for a permanent cease-fire.

It’s an issue that has hurt Biden’s standing among young voters, who backed him by 24 points (59% to 35%) in 2020, according to Pew Research, but are backing him by narrower margins in recent polling.

He remains under immense pressure from antiwar groups and liberal politicians who are pressing him on the issue and have called on Democratic primary voters to select “uncommitted” in protest.

But in a Pew survey from February, 30% of voters aged 65 and older believed Biden was “striking the right balance” on the war, while 23% of respondents believed that he favored Palestinians too much, and 13% of respondents felt that he favored Israelis too much. (About a third of voters aged 65 and older were unsure of their opinion.)

A greater proportion of seniors felt that Biden had a more balanced approach to the war than any other age group. For instance, only 12% of respondents aged 18 to 29 felt that Biden had struck the “right balance” on the issue. (Nearly 4-in-10 young voters felt that Biden’s war policies were too slanted toward Israel, a percentage higher than any other age group.)

This isn’t to say that seniors are a monolith — there are certainly plenty of older Americans calling for a permanent cease-fire in Gaza.

But the long-standing geopolitical alliance between the United States and Israel is likely to be a more defining attribute for older voters, with them perhaps giving Biden more deference on the issue given his foreign policy background that has spanned decades.

And remember that unlike YouTube, which gives up 55% of every ad dollar it generates to content owners who upload videos to the site, Instagram (and most other social apps) spends much, much less. It still expects most users to give it photos and videos for free.

The Instagram revenue numbers come out of a filing Meta made this week, in an attempt to get a judge to dismiss a federal antitrust suit.

We have no idea if that legal maneuver will be successful. But the documents do an excellent job of showing how fast Instagram has grown under Meta’s ownership. Recall that Meta — then Facebook — paid $1 billion for Instagram back in 2012, when it was a revenue-free photo-sharing startup with a handful of employees. It’s now run by former Facebook product executive Adam Mosseri.

From the filing: “Instagram generated advertising revenues of $11.3 billion in 2018, $17.9 billion in 2019, $22 billion in 2020, $32.4 billion in 2021, and $16.5 billion in the first half of 2022.” Zoom!

One last thing: Last month we noted that analysts now suggest that YouTube could be worth $400 billion. These new numbers suggest that Instagram could very well be worth something similar.

One crude way of getting there would be to assume that Instagram’s growth spurt has continued, and that it now accounts for something close to a third of Meta’s overall revenue. If we apply that ratio to the company’s current market cap of $1.34 trillion, that gets us to $440 billion. Maybe worth thinking about the next time you post a photo.

• Barry Diller thinks employees should come into the office — but he’ll settle for four days a week.
• Diller told CNBC different hybrid work models are causing chaos, and advocated for a standard model.
• On Fridays, Diller sees a future where people “can work from home or work at your own schedule.”

Barry Diller believes all the hybrid work models adopted by different companies in the wake of the pandemic are spawning “chaos.”

And while he’s adamant that most employees should come into the office, he thinks four days could soon be enough — with flexibility on Fridays, the IAC and Expedia chairman said in an interview Thursday on CNBC.

On Fridays, Diller foresees a future where employees “can work from home or work at your own schedule,” he said. “I think that is going to be the sensible evolution of all this — but it has to be standardized. You can’t have 17,000 different programs.”

Diller told CNBC he believes most employees should have gone back to the office after the pandemic subsided.

“If you have to talk to anyone else, you cannot work from home,” he said. “Come into an office and be part of an environment … that betters your life, your career, and betters the business.”

Diller was responding to comments made Wednesday by New York Mets owner Steve Cohen, who told CNBC he believes a four-day workweek is inevitable, fueled by the rise of AI.

The billionaire hedge fund manager said one of the reasons he invested in golf is because he anticipates people will have more leisure time.

“We hear from people that Fridays are just not — people are not as productive on Fridays,” Cohen told CNBC, “and so I just think it’s an eventuality.”

In his appearance on CNBC, Diller also issued an urgent warning about AI and called Trump Media “a scam.”

The GOP frontrunner had hoped to delay the hush money trial start date until after the US Supreme Court decides on whether presidential immunity protects him in his federal election interference case; oral arguments in that case are set for April 25.

But Trump failed to explain why he waited until early last month to raise presidential immunity in a pre-trial motion in his hush money case, according to Wednesday’s ruling by state Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan.

State law generally requires such motions be filed within 45 days after arraignment, Merchan noted, calling Trump’s excuses for the late motion “inadequate and not convincing.”

Trump had blamed the timing of his motion on prosecutors, and on the US Supreme Court’s February 28 decision to hear his federal presidential immunity claims.

Even so, Trump has been on notice for months that the hush-money case prosecutors intended to use statements he made while president, Merchan wrote.

“The Defendant had ample notice that the People were in possession of, and intended to use, the various statements allegedly made by Defendant on social media, in public, and in various interviews,” Merchan wrote.

“He was also well aware that the defense of presidential immunity, even if unsuccessful, might be available to him,” the judge wrote.

“This Court finds that Defendant had myriad opportunities to raise the claim of presidential immunity well before March 7, 2024,” when Trump’s lawyers raised the matter, the judge wrote.

“Defendant’s motion is DENIED in its entirety as untimely,” the judge’s ruling concluded.

“The Court declines to consider whether the doctrine of presidential immunity precludes the introduction of evidence of purported official presidential acts in a criminal proceeding,” the ruling said.

Trump had specifically sought to preclude jurors from hearing about what prosecutors are calling his “pressure campaign” to keep his personal attorney at the time, Michael Cohen, from cooperating with a federal probe of the payments.

The defense had also claimed Trump was acting in his role as president on April 5, 2018, when he denied knowing about the hush-money payment while speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One.

“Then why did Michael Cohen make those if there was no truth to her allegations?” a reporter asked.

“Well, you’ll have to ask Michael Cohen. Michael is my attorney,” Trump said.

When asked if he knew where Michael Cohen got the money to make that payment, Trump responded, “No, I don’t know.”

Trump was acting “in his official capacity as the nation’s chief executive,” when he made the statements, Trump attorneys Susan Necheles and Todd Blanche had argued.

“Therefore, President Trump respectfully submits that an adjournment of the trial is appropriate to await further guidance from the Supreme Court, which should facilitate the appropriate application of the presidential immunity doctrine in this case to the evidence the People intend to offer at trial,” their filing said.

The hush money trial remains on track for jury selection on April 15.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg alleges that Trump falsified 34 business documents in order to disguise the payment to Daniels as legal expenses. The falsifications violated campaign finance regulations and tax laws, Bragg has alleged.

Trump has pleaded not guilty and says the allegations are part of a politically-motivated “witch hunt.” He has also denied that he had a sexual relationship with Daniels.

He faces anywhere from no jail to four years in prison if convicted, though legal experts have called imprisonment unlikely.

Trump has one last hush-money delay card up his sleeve. Merchan has yet to rule on defense arguments that Trump cannot get a fair trial in Manhattan anytime in April due to “prejudicial pre-trial publicity.

• An expanded hush-money gag bars attacks on the judge’s daughter, a Democratic campaign consultant.
• On Tuesday, Trump found a way around the gag, attacking the daughter in a legal filing instead.
• She is “making money” through “campaign advocacy for President Trump’s opponent,” the filing says.

Donald Trump has found a work-around for a newly-expanded gag order that bars him from attacking the Democratic campaign-consultant daughter of his hush-money judge: attacking the daughter through legal filings instead.

Trump himself has refrained from attacking Loren Merchan, daughter of New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, at least since the judge expanded the gag order on Monday night.

But by Tuesday night, Trump’s lawyers took up the attack.

In a new filing, they demanded that the judge recuse himself from the case, which is scheduled to begin jury selection in Manhattan on April 15.

Their proposed reason for recusal? Loren Merchan’s work on behalf of such A-list Democrats as Joe Biden and Kamala Harris creates a conflict of interest for her father the judge, the defense argued.

The daughter, through her left-leaning political consultancy, Authentic Campaigns, is “making money” off of Trump’s legal travails — and her father the judge, they argued, is somehow complicit.

“Authentic has received millions of dollars in disbursements from entities associated with President Trump’s political rivals since the Indictment was returned,” read Tuesday night’s letter to judge, signed by defense attorneys Susan Necheles and Todd Blanche.

“Some of those funds were paid to Authentic by entities associated with legislators and PACs that have used email and/or social media to solicit contributions specifically based on this case,” the letter continued.

“Thus, there is strong evidence that Authentic has used this case to make money,” the letter argued.

“There is an unacceptable risk that the Court’s family relationships will influence judicial conduct,” the letter concludes.

The letter requests Merchan’s permission to expand on their recusal request by filing “a motion in support of these arguments that includes briefing and evidence on Wednesday, April 3, 2024.”

Loren Merchan has not responded to repeated requests for comment. Manhattan prosecutors did not immediately respond to the recusal request, but have called Trump’s attacks on the judge’s family members “dangerous” and “reprehensible.”

Prosecutors argued Monday that Trump’s personal attacks on people related to the case “threatens the integrity of these proceedings and is intended to intimidate witnesses and trial participants alike — including this Court,” meaning the judge.

In August, the judge rejected a similar defense request that he recuse himself.

The judge did not immediately rule on Tuesday’s request, but he has rejected all defense claims that his daughter’s consultant work presents a conflict of interest.

The judge has also repeatedly warned the defense against mounting frivolous delay tactics — on penalty of finding Trump’s lawyers in contempt of court.

Despite past warnings and last week’s gag order, Trump has “refused to refrain from his disruptive and terrifying speech,” prosecutors for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg complained to the trial judge, New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan.

Instead, Trump has launched attacks “not only on this Court but also on a member of the Court’s family — including by posting a photo of the family member,” prosecutors said.

They are asking the judge to “clarify” that last Tuesday’s gag order bars Trump from making public statements about the judge’s family members.

Trump’s Truth Social attacks on the judge’s progressive, political-consultant daughter, Loren Merchan, included false claims that her “X” account had a profile picture that depicted Trump behind bars, prosecutors said.

Loren Merchan helps run the Chicago-based, progressive political consulting firm Authentic Campaigns, which has worked on campaigns for key Trump rivals, including Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

“There is no constitutional right to target the family of this Court, let alone on the blatant falsehoods that have served as the flimsiest pretexts for defendant’s attacks,” said Monday’s filing, which was signed on Bragg’s behalf by Matthew Colangelo, an assistant district attorney.

“Defendant knows what he is doing, and everyone else does too,” the DA filing continued.

“He has said for decades that he attacks his perceived opponents ‘viciously’ and ‘violently’ both ‘because it is a good feeling and because other people will see you doing it.’

“And he promised very recently that ‘IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!’” the filing added. “He is carrying out that promise right now.”

Minutes after the DA filing was made public, the defense returned fire.

“Contrary to the People’s argument, the gag order — which President Trump reserves all right to appeal — plainly does not apply to ‘family members of the Court [and] the District Attorney,” the defense said in a filing signed by attorneys Susan Necheles and Todd Blanche.

Last week’s gag order bars Trump from making statements about “court staff” and the family members of court staff, but does not specifically bar Trump from statements about the judge himself or the judge’s family members.

In seeking to expand the gag order, prosecutors are trying “to further restrict President Trump’s constitutionally protected speech,” the defense wrote.

“Your Honor’s daughter and her company, Authentic Campaigns, Inc., profited from offering strategic advice; preparing text for emails and social media posts, as well as other consulting services regarding campaign advocacy; and fundraising for President Trump’s political rivals — including advertisements that specifically referenced, and solicited funds based on, this case,” the defense wrote.

Monday’s defense filing went on to suggest Trump’s team will continue to seek to remove the judge from the case, a request the judge declined in August.

Because of her consultancy job, the judge’s daughter had “a financial interest in all ongoing attacks on President Trump, including this case, by virtue of her senior role at Authentic,” the defense wrote.

“President Trump’s comments concerning Your Honor’s daughter are, properly understood, a criticism of the Court’s prior decision not to recuse itself,” the defense filing said.

Merchan has yet to say if he will weigh revising or clarifying the gag order. The judge’s daughter did not immediately return a request for comment.

• The road to the House majority will play out in a set of highly-competitive California contests.
• The GOP has faltered in statewide races in California, but they found success with House races in 2020 and 2022.
• Democrats are looking to flip several GOP-held seats that are much bluer at the presidential level.

California Republicans are often thought as of an endangered species.

But largely through the efforts of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy — a Bakersfield native who stepped down from the House last December — the GOP in recent years has been able to claw back some power in the Golden State by winning a set of highly-competitive swing districts in areas where the party still retains a sizable base of support.

And it is in these districts, from the Central Valley to the outskirts of Los Angeles and down to Orange County, where the House majority will likely be won or lost in 2024.

Republicans currently hold a slim 218-seat majority, a precarious position for the party as the 213-member House Democratic Caucus works to flip the chamber this year.

Here’s a look at the six California congressional districts held by Republicans — five of which were won by President Joe Biden in 2020 — which will have an outsized role in which party holds the speaker’s gavel in 2025:

Young Kim, 40th District

First elected to the House: 2020

Kim, a former member of the California State Assembly and onetime aide to former congressman Ed Royce, first ran for Congress in 2018 in hopes of succeeding her longtime boss. But she lost to Gil Cisneros in what was a banner year for Democrats, especially in the suburbs.

With the strong backing of McCarthy and other GOP leaders, Kim ran again in 2020 and defeated Cisneros in a rematch, becoming one of the first Korean-American women to serve in the House. After the 2020 Census, her congressional district, which now includes parts of Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino counties, was reconfigured into one that would have narrowly backed Biden.

Kim won reelection by nearly 14 points in 2022, but Democrats see the contest as winnable. She’ll now take on retired Orange County fire captain Joe Kerr in November.

Michelle Steel, 45th District

First elected to the House: 2020

In 2020, Steel, a former Orange County supervisor, narrowly defeated then-Democratic Rep. Harley Rouda in a district that had long favored Republicans. (Two years earlier, Rouda flipped the district by defeating then-Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a conservative fixture in Congress.)

Steel has staked out socially-conservative positions on issues like abortion and same-sex marriage, and in 2022, she won reelection over Democratic nominee Jay Chen by nearly 5 points.

But Biden would have won the current configuration of Steel’s district, which includes parts of Orange and Los Angeles counties, by 6 points.

In the November election, Steel will face Democrat Derek Tran, a consumer rights attorney.

Mike Garcia, 27th District

First elected to the House: 2020 special election

Garcia, a former Navy fighter pilot, has proven to be an adept candidate in his northern Los Angeles County-anchored district. In all three of Garcia’s races, including the May 2020 special election triggered by the resignation of Democrat Katie Hill, he defeated former Democratic state lawmaker Christy Smith.

In November 2020, Garcia narrowly defeated Smith by 333 votes out of nearly 340,000 ballots cast (a 0.1% edge), but in 2022 he won by a much more decisive 6 points.

So the district, which would have voted for Biden by 12 points under its new lines, remains a top priority for both parties headed into the 2024 elections. Republicans need to retain a foothold in suburban districts like the 27th to have any shot of retaining their majority, while Democrats see the district as a key pickup opportunity given its bluer lean at the presidential level.

Democrats — including early-endorser Smith — are lined up behind George Whitesides, a former NASA chief of staff and onetime Virgin Galactic chief executive.

Ken Calvert, 41st District

First elected to the House: 1992

Calvert is the longest-serving California Republican in Congress. A former local GOP county party chair, he’s represented parts of Riverside County in Congress since 1993. His seat spans several Coachella Valley cities, along with parts of the Inland Empire, including Corona.

The 15-term incumbent has been a mostly reliable vote for GOP leadership. Calvert was among the 147 Republicans who voted to overturn at least one state’s election results after the 2020 presidential election.

Calvert won most of his races by large margins before redistricting, and he last faced a truly competitive reelection fight in 2008. But in 2022, Calvert defeated Democrat Will Rollins, a former federal prosecutor, by just under 5 points.

Calvert and Rollins will face off in a rematch this fall.

John Duarte, 13th District

First elected to the House: 2022

Duarte isn’t just a Republican in what would have been a Biden-won district in 2020. The businessman and pistachio farmer holds a Central Valley seat in one of the most pro-Biden districts that is currently held by a Republican.

House Democrats have been eager to take shots at Duarte, including his decision to support House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan’s onetime bid for the speakership. Jordan failed to win the speakership, eventually paving the way for Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana.

In 2022, Duarte defeated Democrat Adam Gray, a former state assembly member, by just 564 votes, in what was one of the closest congressional races in the nation that year.

Duarte and Gray will face each other again in November.

David Valadao, 22nd District

House tenure: 2013-2019, 2021-present

Valadao was narrowly booted from Congress during the anti-Trump 2018 wave. Two years later, the wealthy dairy farmer defeated Democratic Rep. TJ Cox in a rematch.

Valadao’s return to Congress was overshadowed by his decision to become one of 10 House Republicans to vote to impeach President Donald Trump in the aftermath of the Capitol riot. Unlike his colleagues, Valadao grew largely silent after the vote. As a result, Trump didn’t train his ire on the Californian to the extent that he targeted the other nine GOP lawmakers.

In 2022, Valadao bested Democrat Rudy Salas, a former state assembly member, by 3 points.

The congressman will face Salas again in the general election.