Brazil: Amazon land defender killed by illegal loggers - BBC News

A young indigenous land defender has been shot dead and another wounded by illegal loggers in Brazil's Amazon.

Paulo Paulino Guajajara was reportedly attacked and shot in the head while hunting on Friday inside the Arariboia reservation in Maranhao state.

He was a member of Guardians of the Forest, a group formed to combat logging gangs in the area.

The killing increases concerns about escalating violence against Amazon forest protectors.

Non-profit group Survival International, which advocates for isolated communities, says at least three Guardians have previously been killed, along with many of their relatives.

In September, an official who had worked to protect indigenous people was murdered in the city of Tabatinga.

Brazil's populist President Jair Bolsonaro has drawn intense domestic and international criticism for failing to protect the Guardians' territory in the eastern Amazon region.

• Brazil's indigenous people: 'We fight for the right to exist'
• Bolsonaro: What are his policies?

He has often stated support for farmers and loggers working in the area, while criticising environmental campaigners and slashing the budget of the Brazil's environmental agency.

Brazil's justice minister Sérgio Moro said federal police were investigating the incident. "We will spare no effort to bring those responsible for this serious crime to justice," he tweeted.

What happened to Paulo Paulino Guajajara?

Authorities say he was shot in the head during an ambush by illegal loggers who had invaded the reservation.

Another indigenous man, Tainaky Tenetehar, was injured in the attack.

Brazilian police said one of the loggers was also killed in a subsequent shootout.

Brazil's pan-indigenous organization APIB said Paulo Paulino Guajajara's body was still lying in the forest where he was gunned down.

What has the reaction been?

The APIB, which represents many of Brazil's 900,000 indigenous people, said Mr Bolsonaro's government had serious questions to answer.

"The Bolsonaro government has indigenous blood on its hands," it said in a statement.

"The increase in violence in indigenous territories is a direct result of his hateful speeches and steps taken against our people."

Who was Paulo Paulino Guajajara?

The land defender, who was in his late twenties and had a son, was a Guajajara leader.

The Guajajaras are one of Brazil's largest indigenous groups with some 20,000 people. In 2012, they started the Guardians of the Forest to protect the Arariboia Indigenous Territory.

"I'm scared at times, but we have to lift up our heads and act. We are here fighting," he told Reuters news agency this year.

"There is so much destruction of nature happening, good trees with wood as hard as steel being cut down and taken away," he added.

"We have to preserve this life for our children's future."

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2019-11-03 08:03:38Z
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Tal Abyad car bomb: At least 13 killed in Syrian border town - BBC News

At least 13 people were killed by a car bomb in the northern Syrian border town of Tal Abyad, Turkish authorities said.

Turkey's defence ministry said at least 20 others were wounded by the blast.

Turkish troops and Turkey-backed rebels last month took control of Tal Abyad and other border towns from Kurdish forces, after US troops - who were protecting the Kurds - pulled out.

Pro-Turkey fighters and civilians were among the dead on Saturday, according to a UK-based monitoring group.

The monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said more than 30 people were also injured in the blast. Turkey's defence ministry accused a Syrian Kurdish militia group, the People's Protection Units (YPG), of planting the bomb. No group immediately claimed responsibility.

Turkey's military invaded the Kurdish-held border areas in northern Syria immediately after US forces were withdrawn. Turkey has a longstanding enmity with the Kurds and wants to push back the YPG from its border.

Turkey claims the YPG is a "terrorist" offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has fought an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984.

Turkish forces have created a 120-kilometre (75-mile) "safe zone" between Tal Abyad and the town of Ras al-Ain, pushing the YPG out of the area. Turkish troops on Friday began joint patrols with Russian forces.

US President Donald Trump faced widespread international criticism for his decision to remove American troops from the area, leaving Kurdish forces - which allied with the US in the fight against the Islamic State (IS) group, suffering heavy losses - outgunned by the Turkish military.

Tens of thousands of people fled their homes in October in border towns in northern Syria, including Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ain, as Turkish forces pushed into the area.

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2019-11-02 16:13:25Z
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Ebrahim Asgharzadeh, Iran student leader, says he regrets 1979 U.S. Embassy attack - CBS News

Tehran, Iran – His revolutionary fervor diminished by the years that have also turned his dark brown hair white, one of the Iranian student leaders of the 1979 U.S. Embassy takeover says he now regrets the seizure of the diplomatic compound and the 444-day hostage crisis that followed.

Speaking to The Associated Press ahead of Monday's 40th anniversary of the attack, Ebrahim Asgharzadeh acknowledged that the repercussions of the crisis still reverberate as tensions remain high between the U.S. and Iran over Tehran's collapsing nuclear deal with world powers.

Asgharzadeh cautioned others against following in his footsteps, despite the takeover becoming enshrined in hard-line mythology. He also disputed a revisionist history now being offered by supporters of Iran's Revolutionary Guard that they directed the attack, insisting all the blame rested with the Islamist students who let the crisis spin out of control.

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"Like Jesus Christ, I bear all the sins on my shoulders," Asgharzadeh said. 

In this Oct. 29, 2019, photo, Ebrahim Asgharzadeh, one of the Iranian student leaders of the 1979 U.S. Embassy takeover, speaks in an interview with The Associated Press, in Tehran, Iran. Vahid Salemi/AP

At the time, what led to the 1979 takeover remained obscure to Americans who for months could only watch in horror as TV newscasts showed Iranian protests at the embassy. Popular anger against the U.S. was rooted in the 1953 CIA-engineered coup that toppled Iran's elected prime minister and cemented the power of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

The shah, dying from cancer, fled Iran in February 1979, paving the way for its Islamic Revolution. But for months, Iran faced widespread unrest ranging from separatist attacks, worker revolts and internal power struggles. Police reported for work but not for duty, allowing chaos like Marxist students briefly seizing the U.S. Embassy.

In this power vacuum, then-President Jimmy Carter allowed the shah to seek medical treatment in New York. That lit the fuse for the Nov. 4, 1979, takeover, though at first the Islamist students argued over which embassy to seize. A student leader named Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who later became president in 2005, argued they should seize the Soviet Embassy compound in Tehran as leftists had caused political chaos.

But the students settled on the U.S. Embassy, hoping to pressure Carter to send the shah back to Iran to stand trial on corruption charges. Asgharzadeh, then a 23-year-old engineering student, remembers friends going to Tehran's Grand Bazaar to buy a bolt cutter, a popular tool used by criminals, and the salesman saying: "You do not look like thieves! You certainly want to open up the U.S. Embassy door with it!"

"The society was ready for it to happen. Everything happened so fast," Asgharzadeh said. "We cut off the chains on the embassy's gate. Some of us climbed up the walls and we occupied the embassy compound very fast."

Like other former students, Asgharzadeh said the plan had been simply to stage a sit-in. But the situation soon spun out of their control. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the long-exiled Shiite cleric whose return to Iran sparked the revolution, gave his support to the takeover. He would use that popular angler to expand the Islamists' power.

"We, the students, take responsibility for the first 48 hours of the takeover," Asgharzadeh said. "Later, it was out of our hands since the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and the establishment supported it." 

He added: "Our plan was one of students, unprofessional and temporary." 

In this Nov. 5, 1979, file photo, Ebrahim Asgharzadeh, left, a representative of the Iranian students who stormed the U.S. Embassy on Nov. 4, holds up a portrait of one of the blindfolded hostages, during a news conference in the embassy in Tehran. Posters of the Islamic Revolution leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini adorn the wall. The man at right is unidentified. AP

As time went on, it slowly dawned on the naive students that Americans as a whole wouldn't join their revolution. While a rescue attempt by the U.S. military would fail and Carter would lose to Ronald Reagan amid the crisis, the U.S. as whole expressed worry about the hostages by displaying yellow ribbons and counting the days of their captivity.

As the months passed, things only got worse. Asgharzadeh said he thought it would end once the shah left America or later with his death in Egypt in July 1980. It didn't.

"A few months after the takeover, it appeared to be turning into a rotten fruit hanging down from a tree and no one had the courage to take it down and resolve the matter," he said. "There was a lot of public opinion support behind the move in the society. The society felt it had slapped America, a superpower, on the mouth and people believed that the takeover proved to America that their democratic revolution had been stabilized."

It hadn't, though. The eight-year Iran-Iraq War would break out during the crisis. The hostage crisis and later the war boosted the position of hard-liners who sought strict implementation of their version of Islamic beliefs.

Seizing or attacking diplomatic posts remains a tactic of Iranian hard-liners to this day. A mob stormed the British Embassy in Tehran in 2011, while another attacked diplomatic posts of Saudi Arabia in 2016, which led to diplomatic ties being cut between Tehran and Riyadh.

However, Asgharzadeh denied that Iran's then-nascent Revolutionary Guard directed the U.S. Embassy takeover, although he said it was informed before the attack over fears that security forces would storm the compound and retake it. Many at the time believed the shah would launch a coup, like in 1953, to regain power.

"In a very limited way, we informed one of the Guard's units and they accepted to protect the embassy from outside," Asgharzadeh said. "The claim (by hard-liners) on the Guard's role lacks credit. I am the main narrator of the incident and I am still alive."

In the years since, Asgharzadeh has become a reformist politician and served prison time for his views. He has argued that Iran should work toward improving ties with the U.S., a difficult task amid President Donald Trump's maximalist campaign against Tehran.

"It is too difficult to say when the relations between Tehran and Washington can be restored," Asgharzadeh said. "I do not see any prospect." 

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2019-11-02 13:16:00Z
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Hong Kong police fire tear gas to break up anti-government rally - Al Jazeera English

Hong Kong, China - Police in Hong Kong have used tear gas, pepper spray and water cannons to disperse anti-government protesters as thousands gathered for a banned rally calling for international emergency support as the city's democracy movement pushes into its 22nd week.

To sidestep the ban, pro-democracy candidates re-billed Saturday's gathering as a rally for local elections later this month, which does not require the same approval for smaller assemblies.

More:

Protesters on Saturday clad in black ski masks and "Free Hong Kong" T-shirts streamed into Victoria Park in Causeway Bay, a busy shopping district, brandishing international flags and election banners.

"We are demanding human rights and democracy for Hong Kong and asking for help from other countries," Jenny Cheung, a 70-year-old retiree, told Al Jazeera.

Rallies are set to take place on Saturday in many cities around the world including New York, London and Sydney.

"These give us a new inspiration and are very encouraging," Cheung said.

She added: "We need them to hear our voice, keep appealing and appealing. We try our best to seek as much attention from the outside world. Otherwise nobody will pay any attention to it."

Major clashes

As protesters fled the rally, demonstrations devolved into teargas-filled clashes in several neighbourhoods.

Around the city, protesters erected barricades, dug up street bricks, set fires, threw petrol bombs and vandalised franchises viewed to be friendly to Beijing, including Starbucks.

In Wan Chai, police trapped and detained dozens near a playground.

As unrest convulsed the city, police cancelled two authorised rallies in the central business district later in the afternoon, including one in support of the passage of the US Human Right and Democracy Act, which would require the United States to annually assess Hong Kong’s autonomy and punish its violators. The bill passed in the house in October.

Protesters shined laser pointers at a helicopter hovering above demonstrations, which left city streets littered with trash, bins, street fences, traffic cones and other debris.

The government has taken controversial steps to curb the protests, including banning face masks [Casey Quackenbush/Al Jazeera]

Protesters have been pouring onto the streets since June when the Beijing-backed government introduced a deeply unpopular extradition bill that has since been shelved.

But the demonstrations, which regularly turn into clashes with police, have evolved into a wider movement against alleged Chinese interference into the former British colony, which enjoys freedoms unseen on the mainland as a semi-autonomous region. Beijing denies interfering in Hong Kong affairs and has accused Western countries of stirring up unrest.

Exclusive: Voices of Hong Kong (04:51)

While the government has withdrawn the extradition bill, protesters refuse to back down until all five of their demands are met, including free elections and an independent investigation into police violence.

Instead, the government has taken controversial steps to curb the protests, including banning face masks and barring prominent democracy activist Joshua Wong from running.

As protesters on Saturday began streaming into the park, police warned they were committing an offence by gathering illegally and that mask-wearers were defying the face-covering ban, calling on "all protestors to leave immediately and stop occupying the road".

A 60-year-old housewife who was walking by the park said she stopped attending the protests in August because of the violence.

"It's dangerous for myself," said the woman, who asked to be identified as Ms Chung. "We cannot support the government otherwise we will be beaten."

Saturday's protest followed news from the Chinese government signalling that Beijing would take steps to "safeguard national security" in Hong Kong, boosting patriotic education and improving how officials are selected.

"We're really very tired, but we have support from foreigners and it gives us some courage," said Siu Ling Ma, 37, a hospital worker who attended the rally with her 18-month-old son on her chest.

"Of course it is a fight for my children. When they grow to 2047 [the year Hong Kong will fully return to Chinese control], I don't want them to lose most of their freedom and the rights we have enjoyed in the past."

A 40-year-old protester who works in IT, who asked to be identified as Jason, said he expected the protest movement to go on for months, "maybe even years".

"We need to keep the fight for freedom," he said. "The most important thing is we need to do is stand up and voice our freedom no matter what China does." 

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https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/11/hong-kong-police-fire-tear-gas-break-anti-government-rally-191102095308401.html

2019-11-02 12:50:00Z
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Hong Kong police fire tear gas to break up anti-government rally - Al Jazeera English

Hong Kong, China - Police in Hong Kong have used tear gas, pepper spray and water cannons to disperse anti-government protesters as thousands gathered for a banned rally calling for international emergency support as the city's democracy movement pushes into its 22nd week.

To sidestep the ban, pro-democracy candidates re-billed Saturday's gathering as a rally for local elections later this month, which does not require the same approval for smaller assemblies.

More:

Protesters on Saturday clad in black ski masks and "Free Hong Kong" T-shirts streamed into Victoria Park in Causeway Bay, a busy shopping district, brandishing international flags and election banners.

"We are demanding human rights and democracy for Hong Kong and asking for help from other countries," Jenny Cheung, a 70-year-old retiree, told Al Jazeera.

Rallies are set to take place on Saturday in many cities around the world including New York, London and Sydney.

"These give us a new inspiration and are very encouraging," Cheung said.

She added: "We need them to hear our voice, keep appealing and appealing. We try our best to seek as much attention from the outside world. Otherwise nobody will pay any attention to it."

Major clashes

As protesters fled the rally, demonstrations devolved into teargas-filled clashes in several neighbourhoods.

Around the city, protesters erected barricades, dug up street bricks, set fires, threw petrol bombs and vandalised franchises viewed to be friendly to Beijing, including Starbucks.

In Wan Chai, police trapped and detained dozens near a playground.

As unrest convulsed the city, police cancelled two authorised rallies in the central business district later in the afternoon, including one in support of the passage of the US Human Right and Democracy Act, which would require the United States to annually assess Hong Kong’s autonomy and punish its violators. The bill passed in the house in October.

Protesters shined laser pointers at a helicopter hovering above demonstrations, which left city streets littered with trash, bins, street fences, traffic cones and other debris.

The government has taken controversial steps to curb the protests, including banning face masks [Casey Quackenbush/Al Jazeera]

Protesters have been pouring onto the streets since June when the Beijing-backed government introduced a deeply unpopular extradition bill that has since been shelved.

But the demonstrations, which regularly turn into clashes with police, have evolved into a wider movement against alleged Chinese interference into the former British colony, which enjoys freedoms unseen on the mainland as a semi-autonomous region. Beijing denies interfering in Hong Kong affairs and has accused Western countries of stirring up unrest.

Exclusive: Voices of Hong Kong (04:51)

While the government has withdrawn the extradition bill, protesters refuse to back down until all five of their demands are met, including free elections and an independent investigation into police violence.

Instead, the government has taken controversial steps to curb the protests, including banning face masks and barring prominent democracy activist Joshua Wong from running.

As protesters on Saturday began streaming into the park, police warned they were committing an offence by gathering illegally and that mask-wearers were defying the face-covering ban, calling on "all protestors to leave immediately and stop occupying the road".

A 60-year-old housewife who was walking by the park said she stopped attending the protests in August because of the violence.

"It's dangerous for myself," said the woman, who asked to be identified as Ms Chung. "We cannot support the government otherwise we will be beaten."

Saturday's protest followed news from the Chinese government signalling that Beijing would take steps to "safeguard national security" in Hong Kong, boosting patriotic education and improving how officials are selected.

"We're really very tired, but we have support from foreigners and it gives us some courage," said Siu Ling Ma, 37, a hospital worker who attended the rally with her 18-month-old son on her chest.

"Of course it is a fight for my children. When they grow to 2047 [the year Hong Kong will fully return to Chinese control], I don't want them to lose most of their freedom and the rights we have enjoyed in the past."

A 40-year-old protester who works in IT, who asked to be identified as Jason, said he expected the protest movement to go on for months, "maybe even years".

"We need to keep the fight for freedom," he said. "The most important thing is we need to do is stand up and voice our freedom no matter what China does." 

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https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/11/hong-kong-police-fire-tear-gas-break-anti-government-rally-191102095308401.html

2019-11-02 12:25:00Z
52780423536995

Hong Kong police fire tear gas to break up anti-government rally - Al Jazeera English

Hong Kong, China - Police in Hong Kong have used tear gas, pepper spray and water cannons to disperse anti-government protesters as thousands gathered for a banned rally calling for international emergency support as the city's democracy movement pushes into its 22nd week.

To sidestep the ban, pro-democracy candidates re-billed Saturday's gathering as a rally for local elections later this month, which does not require the same approval for smaller assemblies.

More:

Protesters on Saturday clad in black ski masks and "Free Hong Kong" T-shirts streamed into Victoria Park in Causeway Bay, a busy shopping district, brandishing international flags and election banners.

"We are demanding human rights and democracy for Hong Kong and asking for help from other countries," Jenny Cheung, a 70-year-old retiree, told Al Jazeera.

Rallies are set to take place on Saturday in many cities around the world including New York, London and Sydney.

"These give us a new inspiration and are very encouraging," Cheung said.

She added: "We need them to hear our voice, keep appealing and appealing. We try our best to seek as much attention from the outside world. Otherwise nobody will pay any attention to it."

Major clashes

As protesters fled the rally, demonstrations devolved into teargas-filled clashes in several neighbourhoods.

Around the city, protesters erected barricades, dug up street bricks, set fires, threw petrol bombs and vandalised franchises viewed to be friendly to Beijing, including Starbucks.

In Wan Chai, police trapped and detained dozens near a playground.

As unrest convulsed the city, police cancelled two authorised rallies in the central business district later in the afternoon, including one in support of the passage of the US Human Right and Democracy Act, which would require the United States to annually assess Hong Kong’s autonomy and punish its violators. The bill passed in the house in October.

Protesters shined laser pointers at a helicopter hovering above demonstrations, which left city streets littered with trash, bins, street fences, traffic cones and other debris.

The government has taken controversial steps to curb the protests, including banning face masks [Casey Quackenbush/Al Jazeera]

Protesters have been pouring onto the streets since June when the Beijing-backed government introduced a deeply unpopular extradition bill that has since been shelved.

But the demonstrations, which regularly turn into clashes with police, have evolved into a wider movement against alleged Chinese interference into the former British colony, which enjoys freedoms unseen on the mainland as a semi-autonomous region. Beijing denies interfering in Hong Kong affairs and has accused Western countries of stirring up unrest.

Exclusive: Voices of Hong Kong (04:51)

While the government has withdrawn the extradition bill, protesters refuse to back down until all five of their demands are met, including free elections and an independent investigation into police violence.

Instead, the government has taken controversial steps to curb the protests, including banning face masks and barring prominent democracy activist Joshua Wong from running.

As protesters on Saturday began streaming into the park, police warned they were committing an offence by gathering illegally and that mask-wearers were defying the face-covering ban, calling on "all protestors to leave immediately and stop occupying the road".

A 60-year-old housewife who was walking by the park said she stopped attending the protests in August because of the violence.

"It's dangerous for myself," said the woman, who asked to be identified as Ms Chung. "We cannot support the government otherwise we will be beaten."

Saturday's protest followed news from the Chinese government signalling that Beijing would take steps to "safeguard national security" in Hong Kong, boosting patriotic education and improving how officials are selected.

"We're really very tired, but we have support from foreigners and it gives us some courage," said Siu Ling Ma, 37, a hospital worker who attended the rally with her 18-month-old son on her chest.

"Of course it is a fight for my children. When they grow to 2047 [the year Hong Kong will fully return to Chinese control], I don't want them to lose most of their freedom and the rights we have enjoyed in the past."

A 40-year-old protester who works in IT, who asked to be identified as Jason, said he expected the protest movement to go on for months, "maybe even years".

"We need to keep the fight for freedom," he said. "The most important thing is we need to do is stand up and voice our freedom no matter what China does." 

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https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/11/hong-kong-police-fire-tear-gas-break-anti-government-rally-191102095308401.html

2019-11-02 10:52:00Z
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GOP embraces impeachment fight in 2020 ads, betting Trump inquiry will backfire on Democrats - USA TODAY

John Fritze, Michael Collins and Courtney Subramanian USA TODAY

Published 6:00 AM EDT Nov 2, 2019

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump delivered a warning to Democrats during a raucous Minnesota rally last month: The impeachment inquiry, he predicted, would backfire in next year's election.

"The Democrats' brazen attempt to overthrow our government will produce a backlash at the ballot box," Trump said at the time. "We will defeat them."

Nearly a month later, as the White House prepares for the next phase of the investigation, the president's combative remarks in Minneapolis have emerged as a central theme in Republican advertising as groups loyal to Trump gamble that his woes will be an asset rather than a hindrance next November.

Far from avoiding the impeachment inquiry, or the president’s now infamous call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Republican groups are hammering vulnerable Democrats in digital and television ads for abandoning pocketbook issues in favor of what they describe as a relentless drive to remove Trump from office.

Republican political strategist Ron Bonjean said GOP groups are moving away from attacking the impeachment process to accusing Democrats of playing politics.

“You’re either defining this environment right now or you’re going to get defined by it politically,” Bonjean said.

Trump camp spends heavily 

Trump’s campaign spent more than $1 million on Facebook ads in October that mentioned “impeachment,” according to an analysis by Bully Pulpit Interactive, a Democratic group.

But while the Trump campaign was the largest player, it was far from alone. 

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and the campaign arm of Senate Republicans spent nearly $200,000 on Facebook ads referring to impeachment during that same time. 

The Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC with ties to House GOP leaders, launched a new digital ad campaign soon after the House voted Thursday to formalize the impeachment investigation. The ads, aimed at Democratic-held districts Trump carried in 2016, tell voters that “your member of Congress just voted for impeachment!"

Explainer: What comes next in the Trump impeachment inquiry?

With a sepia-toned photo of an angry-looking House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the ads slam Democrats for focusing on impeachment at the expense of health care, the economy and infrastructure. The ad fails to mention the Trump administration made little progress on health or infrastructure during its first two years, when Republicans controlled both chambers of Congress.

The anti-tax group Club for Growth, meanwhile, is running digital ads focused on impeachment in House districts in Virginia, California, Illinois and New Mexico. Those ads have embraced the theme that Democrats are giving up on “real problems” to focus instead on “impeachment, all the time."

"There’s a reason Pelosi has been hesitant to make impeachment official," said David McIntosh, the group's president. "She knows the evidence doesn’t meet their charges and it will be a political liability."

Underscoring that they believe the politics of impeachment are on their side, aides at the campaign arm for House Republicans sent packing boxes to House Democrats this week. The boxes were adorned with bows and a message that read "Get packing!" 

'No Mr. Nice Guy'

At the national level, the Trump and the Republican National Committee have spent more than $10 million on that message. Following the announcement of the impeachment inquiry, the RNC launched an anti-impeachment campaign called "Stop the Madness," targeting House Democrats up for re-election in 2020. 

Trump’s campaign aired a television ad during the World Series this week that touted the economy and the recent U.S. special forces raid in Syria that killed Abu Bakr al-Baghdad.

“He’s no Mr. Nice guy,” the ad’s narrator says of the president. “But sometimes it takes a Donald Trump to change Washington.”

Similar messages are running in down ballot races as well.

A campaign ad for Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin, a Republican up for re-election on Tuesday, also cites impeachment, portraying Bevin's opponent, Democrat Andy Beshear, as a backward liberal whose “top supporters want to impeach our president.”

A separate spot paid for by an affiliate of the Republican Governors’ Association goes further, claiming Bevin and Trump “are making Kentucky great again” while painting Beshear, the state’s attorney general, as part of the effort to bring Trump down.

“Socialists in Washington want to impeach Trump and take us backward,” the narrator says as photos of an angry-looking Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez appear on the screen.

Impeachment polling

The effort comes as polling indicates the nation is as sharply divided on impeachment as it is on many other issues facing Congress. Nearly four in 10 Americans said Trump’s phone call with the Ukrainian president was itself an impeachable offense, according to a recent USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll. Another 31% said there was nothing wrong with the conversation, echoing Trump’s insistence that his conversation with Zelensky was "perfect."

Just over 20% of Americans said the call was “wrong” but doesn’t rise to an impeachable offense.

Democratic groups that engage in elections have, so far, been more reticent to bring up impeachment in their own advertising.

Presidential candidate Tom Steyer, who in 2017 founded a grassroots effort to impeach Trump called Need to Impeach, has spent nearly $600,000 on Facebook ads mentioning the word “impeachment” this month, according to the Bully Pulpit analysis. That group is also airing television ads targeting four Republican senators – Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Joni Ernst of Iowa, Cory Gardner of Colorado and Martha McSally of Arizona – in case a Trump impeachment goes to a Senate trial.

Warren, a frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, doled out nearly $70,000 on Facebook ads referencing impeachment last month.

"It’s time for Congress to step up and begin impeachment proceedings,” one Warren ad bluntly says.

“No president is above the law,” another reads.

Dems leave advertising void 

One of the largest pro-impeachment digital ad buyers isn’t a candidate at all but rather the executive of a Wisconsin-based spice company. Bill Penzey of Penzeys Spices, an outspoken Trump critic, spent nearly $500,000 on impeachment ads on Facebook last month.

In a lengthy ad, Penzey describes Trump as a “liar” and a “cheater.”

“Next time shorter,” the Penzey ad concludes, “and with recipes, too! I promise.”

Read more: Wisconsin's Penzeys Spices raises $435,000 for Trump impeachment ads

A Democratic strategist with knowledge of the party’s approach who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal tactics said the lack of traditional Democratic groups engaging doesn’t reflect a party afraid to discuss the issue. Rather, the strategist said, Democrats don’t want to be accused of attempting to politicize the impeachment investigation.

But that has left a void for Republicans to fill.

“There are a lot of people out there who voted for Donald Trump to be president of the United States who feel that they’re basically taking the vote away,” said Mike Thompson, a 44-year-old Florida man whose East Lee County Republican Club recently took out a small ad on Facebook calling the House vote a “motivating” event for the GOP.

“It’s time to get fired up and start pushing back.”

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2019-11-02 10:00:28Z
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