Yearly Archives: 2023

(The Center Square) – A plan to renovate the Milwaukee Brewers’ American Family Field now could include $600 million of public funds, according to a report from CBS 58 Milwaukee.

The report says a new bill could be introduced early this week that would include $400 million in state funding along with $202.5 million in county and city funding for the $700 million project.

That included $5 million a year from Milwaukee County for 27 years along with $2.5 million annually from the city of Milwaukee over that same span.

“This is ridiculous and indefensible public policy,” said economist J.C. Bradbury of Georgia’s Kennesaw State University. “Any elected representative who supports this should be voted out of office, if not recalled. Remember George Petak.

"I am genuinely curious. What is the justification for spending $600 million of taxpayer money on renovating a 22-year-old stadium for a private business? What kind of person says, ‘Oh, that sounds reasonable?’ "

The plan comes a month after anonymous threats were published saying the National League Central-leading Brewers would pursue leaving Milwaukee for a different city if publicly funded renovations for the stadium were not approved.

A Milwaukee County supervisor recently discussed reviving a five-county sales tax to pay its portion of the deal.

The CBS Milwaukee report also said it was undetermined what developments would occur outside the stadium and any tax deals related to those developments.

"The Brewers are continuing to work with both sides of the aisle to find a creative solution to ensure that the Stadium District can meet its obligations," Rick Schlesinger, the team's president of business operations, said in a statement to CBS Milwaukee. "And sign a generational lease extension at American Family Field.”

(The Center Square) – Right to Work supporters aren't worried about its future in Wisconsin, yet.

Workers at ASartek in Sparta recently removed their union, the United Electrical Workers Local 1161, after a three-year wait according to National Right to Work Foundation Vice President Patrick Semmens.

“To begin with, Spartek employee Carl Berg and his coworkers were trapped under a union-imposed ‘contract bar’ for roughly three years, during which they weren’t allowed to decertify the union. When Berg was finally able to submit the petition asking the NLRB for a decertification vote, it already contained signatures from the majority of his colleagues,” Semmens said. “That’s likely why the UE union disclaimed interest before a vote could even be scheduled: Union officials saw the support for the decertification vote and decided to disclaim interest in the unit as opposed to facing an embarrassing loss at the ballot box.”

Wisconsin lawmakers approved Right to Work in 2015, though it's never been popular with Democrats and continues to be a target.

Simmons isn't as worried about the future of Right to Work in Wisconsin as he is about proposed changes from the Biden administration.

“As long as the Foundation-backed 2020 reforms to the NLRB’s election rules remain in effect (collectively called the “Election Protection Rule”), workers have a 45-day window after an employer recognizes a union’s ‘card check’ claim of majority support in which to file a petition asking for a union decertification vote,” Semmens said. “Unfortunately, the Biden NLRB will release a rule any day now undoing the commonsense 2020 reforms. Additionally, the Biden NLRB has recently overturned decades of precedent to effectively mandate card check, and as a result there will be numerous legal challenges in federal court on that issue.”

Simmons said other states where right to work has been rolled back have seen that done through the legislature and Wisconsin's legislature continues to remain Republican-controlled.

“No state Right to Work law has ever been overturned in court, but union officials in Wisconsin have vast influence across the political system. National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys stand ready to defend Wisconsin workers’ Right to Work,” Semmens told The Center Square.

Spartac makes everything from fishing lures to vacuum sealed cups to Injection molded plastics. It has been in business since the 1950s and recently added on italics division.

The U.S. gross national debt surpassed $33 trillion, a troubling benchmark as lawmakers show little interest in reining in spending, let alone a balanced budget.

The milestone comes as Congress faces a deadline of Sept. 30 to pass another spending measure or face a federal government shutdown.

“$1 trillion more debt… SINCE JUNE!” Rep. Dan Bishop, R-N.C., wrote on social media. “Now $33 trillion. Your family’s share is over $260,000. The swamp’s answer: let’s do another CR.”

The current deficits mean that debt will only continue to grow. Earlier this month, the U.S. Congressional Budget Office published its estimate of the deficit 11 months into the fiscal year which reported that the U.S. deficit hit about $1.5 trillion. At the same point last year, the deficit was under one trillion dollars.

That debt has several economic consequences, including elevated inflation and taxpayers shelling out billions just for interest payments on the debt. As The Center Square previously reported, within a decade the cost of interest payments on the national debt will cost taxpayers more than spending on national defense. In addition, interest payments on the national debt are on track to become the federal government’s biggest expense.

Some Republicans blasted President Joe Biden after the news broke.

“The U.S. national debt has exceeded $33 trillion for the first time in history,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., wrote on social media. “Biden’s reckless spending has created an economic crisis.”

Both parties, though, have rapidly added to the national debt over the last two decades.

“We’re $33 trillion in debt because when Congress passes spending bills, each item is often tied to every other item—packaged together in one, gigantic bill,” Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, wrote on social media. “That bill is then presented to Congress on a take-it-or-leave-it basis, with no real chance to amend, improve, or cut.”

Budget experts and fiscal projections show the debt will only get larger over the next decades.

“The Congressional Budget Office confirmed just last week that the underlying deficit is going to roughly double from last fiscal year to this one,” Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said in a statement. “Instead of hearing about solutions, we hear promises of which programs our leaders are unwilling to touch and which taxes they are unwilling to raise. That kind of talk is not only pandering, but it’s also downright irresponsible when we have a mess like this on our hands.”

As The Center Square previously reported, a bipartisan coalition of budget and fiscal groups formed a coalition to call on Congress to create a fiscal commission to address the issue.

The group of experts sent a letter to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

“We write to encourage the establishment of a bipartisan fiscal commission to help address the nation’s many budgetary and economic challenges,” the open letter said. “Though the recent Fiscal Responsibility Act improved the nation’s fiscal outlook, the national debt continues to approach record levels, major trust funds remain at risk of insolvency, and rising interest costs are increasingly crowding out other priorities.”

The Republican-led House Oversight Committee announced its first impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden is scheduled for Sept. 28, next Thursday.

The impeachment inquiry committee will have power to subpoena records and communications to dig up evidence and will likely be a thorn in Biden’s side heading into the 2024 election year.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., last week directed three House Committees to lead the inquiry, pointing to evidence that the president's son, Hunter Biden, and his associates allegedly received millions of dollars from foreign entities and that the president knew about it.

Biden’s supporters immediately pushed back, arguing there was no evidence for the inquiry. McCarthy responded, saying the inquiry is to find the facts and that there is plenty of evidence. He pointed to about 150 U.S. Treasury Department suspicious activities reports filed by the agency around Hunter Biden’s dealings as well as bank records and testimony from IRS whistleblowers who said the Biden family and associates received around $20 million from entities in adversarial nations.

"The Treasury Department alone has more than 150 transactions involving the Biden family and other business associates that were flagged as suspicious activity by U.S. banks,” McCarthy said in his announcement. “Even a trusted FBI informant has alleged a bribe to the Biden family. Biden used his official office to coordinate with Hunter Biden’s business partners about Hunter’s role in Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company.”

Biden has repeatedly dismissed questions about his involvement in any kind of overseas payment scheme. He brushed aside the impeachment inquiry, but his campaign released a more aggressive statement in response.

“As Donald Trump ramped up his demands for a baseless impeachment inquiry, Kevin McCarthy cemented his role as the Trump campaign’s super-surrogate by turning the House of Representatives into an arm of his presidential campaign,” Ammar Moussa, spokesperson Biden’s presidential campaign, said in a statement, adding that "...McCarthy unequivocally said he would not move forward with an impeachment inquiry without holding a vote on the House floor. What has changed since then?

"Several members of the Speaker’s own conference have come out and publicly panned impeachment as a political stunt, pointing out there is no evidence of wrongdoing by President Biden as Republicans litigate the same debunked conspiracy theories they’ve investigated for over four years," Moussa added.

The impeachment inquiry will be led by House Oversight Chair Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., as well as Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, of the Judiciary Committee as well as Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., who leads the Ways and Means Committee.

(The Center Square) – Milwaukee Brewers President Rick Schlesinger understands $600 million is a lot of money. He also understands American Family Field is running out of money, quickly.

Schlesinger didn’t downplay the cost to taxpayers after Republicans at the Wisconsin Capitol introduced a plan to spend $600 million over the next 25-plus years to maintain and upgrade the Brewers’ ballpark.

“It is a lot of money,” Schlesinger told The Center Square. “Unfortunately, it is not inexpensive to keep a ballpark of this size and this stature in the condition it needs to be through the next generation.”

The latest ballpark funding plan would have $400 million coming from the state, another $200 million coming from Milwaukee and Milwaukee Count, and $100 million from the Brewers.

Schlesinger was clear, however, none of that money is going to the team or its owner Mark Atanasio.

“The money is not going to the Milwaukee Brewers baseball club. It is going from one or more governmental entities to a creature of the state government, i.e., the stadium district,” Schlesinger explained.

The Southeast Wisconsin Professional Baseball Park District was created in 1996 to essentially serve as the Brewers’ landlord. The Stadium District, and what was then Miller Park, were funded through the .1% five-county tax.

That tax was repealed in 2020.

The end of the five-county tax is what Schlesinger says is driving the need for the $600 million.

“The district, which no longer has any revenue source of any amount coming in, other than miniscule license plate revenues, will run out of money in the next year or two,” Schlesinger said. “And the reason I am giving a little bit of wiggle room on the year or two is because we’re not sure how much The Stadium District has in funds right now.”

Much of the opposition to the Brewer ballpark funding deal centers on the idea of taxpayers paying for a stadium where a billion-dollar baseball team, and multi-million-dollar baseball players play.

Schlesinger said, again, American Family Field is owned by the state, not all of the money is needed at once, and there is a return on investment for having a professional baseball team in Milwaukee.

“The one thing I’d say to people who rightly focus on the dollar amount is, ‘what are the taxpayers getting for that $600 million?’” Schlesinger said. “I would say the direct revenues that we generate in income taxes and sales taxes exceed that amount. And the economic output and economic multiplier that we create through the ballpark exceeds that amount. The value of having Major League Baseball in the state certainly has a value that you can assign to it.”

Under the new deal, the Brewers would also sign a new lease that would keep the team in Milwaukee through 2050, 20-years longer than the current lease, and seven years longer than what Gov. Tony Evers first proposed.

(The Center Square) – The legal challenge to Wisconsin’s pre-Roe abortion law could move more quickly after Planned Parenthood announced Thursday it will resume providing abortions in the state.

“With the recent confirmation from the Court that there is not an enforceable abortion ban in Wisconsin, our staff can now provide the full scope of sexual and reproductive health care to anyone in Wisconsin who needs it, no matter what,” President and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin Tanya Atkinson said.

Planned Parenthood plans to resume performing abortions Monday.

A Dane County judge ruled in July Wisconsin’s pre-Roe abortion law didn’t apply to abortions. Judge Diane Schlipper said there is no such thing as an ‘1849 Abortion Ban’ in Wisconsin,” she said the state’s ban on abortion, instead, applies to feticide.

Gov. Tony Evers praised Planned Parenthood’s announcement.

“This is great news, but our fight to restore the same reproductive freedoms Wisconsinites had up until the day #SCOTUS overturned #Roe must continue,” Evers said on Twitter.

Planned Parenthood stopped providing abortions in June 2022, shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

Gracie Skogman, legislative director for Wisconsin Right to Life, said Planned Parenthood’s decision will be devastating for “pre-born children and women here in the state.”

Skogman also accused Planned Parenthood of ignoring the legal process that has yet to unfold.

“Our belief is that Planned Parenthood is putting profit over actually waiting for a final determination from the courts,” she added.

Wisconsin’s pre-Roe law bans nearly all abortions, except in certain cases to save a mother’s life.

Schlipper heard an argument against the law in June, and has yet to issue a ruling. However, she is expected to strike the law down. From there, the law is expected to be challenged in front of the new liberal-majority Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Republicans in Wisconsin want newly-elected Justice Janet Protasiewicz to recuse herself from that case because of what she said about the pre-Roe abortion law while running for the high court.

A panel of 16 experts commissioned by NASA released a report Thursday that found no evidence that unidentified anomalous phenomena – better known to many as UFOs – have an extraterrestrial origin.

Read the full report here:

(The Center Square) – Democrats at the Wisconsin Capitol may be trying to roll back school choice in the state after presenting a package of legislation they say would reinvest in public schools and bring transparency to voucher school spending.

“This is about public dollars, public schools and public oversight,” Sen. Chris Larson, D-Milwaukee, told reporters.

The Democrats’ transparency plan would require the state to tell taxpayers how much money goes to voucher students each year.

“If this bill passes, each property tax bill would have a line that says something like: The gross reduction in state aid to your school district in the current year is a result of people enrolled in one of the choice programs. Or as a result of payments to a private school under the special needs scholarship program,” Rep. Deb Andraca, D-Whitefish Bay, said.

Andraca says the plan is not anti-school choice, but rather about transparency.

Larson, who has long been an opponent of school choice, said Wisconsin must choose between public schools or choice schools.

“Wisconsin cannot afford to fund two competing school systems,” Larson added. “We need urgent action to stop the unchecked expansion of the voucher programs and independent charter schools.”

Republicans at the Capitol secured a major expansion of school choice funding in the new state budget.

The plan, signed by Gov. Tony Evers, will eventually increase voucher payments from $8,399 to $9,874 per-student for younger students and from $9,045 to $12,368 for high school students.

The new state budget includes $1 billion more for traditional public schools.

Yet, Rep Francesca Hong, D-Madison, said Wisconsin’s public schools need more.

“Our budget cycle this past year, unfortunately, did not do enough,” Hong said. “Our children deserve more.”

Wisconsin’s public schools received more than $6 billion in state funding in 2021 and are on pace to receive billions more this yearvwhile enrollment is falling.

Public schools in the state are also in line for 400 years of per-pupil funding increase, after Gov. Evers used his veto to extend a two-year per-pupil increase for four centuries.

The push against school choice in Wisconsin also comes after a report last week that showed choice schools in the state saw better test scores with fewer state dollars than traditional public schools.

A closer look at the federal agency that sparked former President Donald Trump's first federal indictment shows that it has embraced far-left diversity, equity and inclusion policies.

The little-known federal agency called the National Archives and Records Administration was thrust into the national spotlight after it tipped off the U.S. Department of Justice over Trump's alleged mishandling of classified documents.

On its website, the agency calls itself a "nonpartisan, independent" group. A deep dive by The Center Square into its records show it has embraced ideology around gender and race and has reportedly been unwilling to hand over some records of President Joe Biden to investigators.

In its 2022 budget request, the federal agency asked Congress for more than $28 million and nearly 150 news staff to “advance racial equity and support underserved communities.”

“A program increase of $20,052 thousand and 144 FTE to advance racial equity and support underserved communities,” the budget said. “This request includes funding to address staffing needs across the agency and funds targeted recruitment activities to ensure a diverse pool of applicants to help increase the diversity of NARA’s workforce.”

Part of the record-keeping agency’s equity spending, which has been encouraged and in some cases mandated by Biden since he took office, include a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion action plan.

NARA’s latest 2022 DEI plan pledges to double down on equity training for employees “to strengthen and foster an inclusive workforce.”

“NARA will demonstrate leadership commitment through developing a DEIA recognition program that will reinforce a culture of equity and inclusion,” the plan says.

In NARA’s most recent strategic DEI plan, the agency essentially pledges to work to get more minority applicants and leadership and lower the percentage of leading white Americans in the agency. The group’s 2012 report defines minorities as “all categories of current and potential employees identified as non-white.”

“NARA will provide training and support to hiring managers to increase the diversity of the NARA workforce,” the agency said, also pledging to “mitigate biases” and create “safe spaces.”

The agency said these recommendations came from a report created by the NARA Task Force on Racism that delivered a document to the agency’s leadership in 2021 recommending more training on things like “white privilege.”

“Address offensive behavior by staff with specific training on white privilege and systemic racism,” the report said.

The task force also defines “reverse racism” as “a fallacy that refers to discrimination against White people…”

“Anti-racist activists in the U.S. have largely deemed reverse racism to be impossible, as the power structure of the United States has historically benefited White people and continues to do so today,” the report said. “Reverse racism is often confused with racial prejudice against White people, which does exist, but lacks the systemic relationship of power that would qualify such prejudice as racism.”

The report acknowledges not all employees agree with the equity agenda but says ”the work of the Task Force needs to be done despite varying opinions and hurt feelings.”

Notably, that same agency worked to get classified documents back from both President Joe Biden and former Vice President Mike Pence, neither of whom were charged, though NARA did reportedly inform the DOJ about both.

NARA leadership has rebuffed any claims of political bias or motivation, including in the agency’s role in Trump’s indictment.

“The National Archives has been the focus of intense scrutiny for months, this week especially, with many people ascribing political motivation to our actions,” Debra Steidel Wall, the acting archivist at the time, said in a memo to employees last year.

The agency has also come under scrutiny recently from the House Oversight Committee's Republican leadership. The Committee's chair, U.S. Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., has spearheaded the Congressional investigation into Hunter Biden's overseas business dealings and the president's alleged role in them. Comer has also raised questions about political motivation at the agency.

IRS whistleblowers have testified that the Biden family and associates received roughly $20 million via about 20 overseas shell companies.

Comer has called for evidence from NARA, including details on whether Hunter Biden used Air Force 2 at taxpayer expense to help with the deals, but said NARA has pledged to potentially withhold some Biden records if it deems them to be "personal."

“However, 'personal records' are defined as those records 'which do not relate to or have an effect upon the carrying out of the constitutional, statutory, or other official or ceremonial duties of' the Vice President,” Comer said in a letter to Archivist of the United States Colleen Shogan. “The Committee has made clear that its investigation involves potential abuse by then-Vice President Biden of his official duties; it cannot be NARA that determines whether certain records ‘do not relate to or have an effect upon’ those duties.”

This national spotlight on NARA has drawn scrutiny.

“A taxpayer-funded agency, such as NARA, should not be staffed with one political party's affiliates, while the other party's affiliates are threatened with termination – assuming they manage to get hired at all – for protesting DIE ideology,” Mason Goad of the National Association of Scholars, told The Center Square. “But you are extremely unlikely to hear DIE advocates, at NARA or any other agency, advocate on the behalf of conservatives for the sake of ‘diversity,’ ‘inclusion,’ or ‘equity.’”

NARA did not respond to a request for comment on its equity policies but told The Center Square it would respond to Comer's requests for information.

"What the Archives is doing is making those who work there, and those who hope to be hired or promoted, sign a loyalty oath not just to one political party, but to the extremist wing of that party," Mike Gonzalez, an expert at the Heritage Foundation, told The Center Square. "The way the words in DEI are now defined, each of them lead to unconstitutional measures, too, so not proper for government use. This is the case for the unconstitutional quotas of 'diversity,' the language codes of 'Inclusion,' or the unequal treatment of races of 'equity.'"

(The Center Square) – The National Mail Voter Registration Form is no longer allowed in Wisconsin.

Waukesha County Judge Michael Maxwell this week banned the form because it asks questions not allowed by Wisconsin law, including a question about a voter’s race. The form also allowed people to register to vote in Wisconsin without providing other information required by state law.

The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty sued over the form and won.

“The legal issue in the case was simply that the statute did not call for [the extra information], so by including those requests, the form went beyond the statute and was unlawful,” WILL’s Lucas Vebber told The Center Square. “The Judge never reached those issues though because he determined the form was never lawfully adopted in the first instance.”

Maxwell said in his order the Wisconsin Elections Commission “failed in [its] most basic duty” to register voters using the appropriate forms.

A spokesman for the Elections Commission didn’t respond to questions from The Center Square.

Neither WILL nor the Elections Commission knows just how many people in Wisconsin registered to vote using the national form.

Vebber said it doesn’t matter because the judge’s order only affects voter registrations going forward, adding “no one was removed from the voting rolls as a result of the decision.”

“The Court gave them 14 days to withdraw all their illegal guidance, and to inform clerks that the national form cannot be used in Wisconsin. WEC could still appeal the decision,” Vebber said.

Wisconsin voters can register online, at their local election office and in-person at the polls on election day.

(The Center Square) – The second attempt from Wisconsin Republican lawmakers to cut taxes will end the same as the first Gov. Tony Evers said Wednesday.

Evers took to social media to promise a veto for the $3 billion tax cut that began its journey through the legislature Wednesday.

“I'll veto it. Plain and simple,” the governor said in a Tweet. “I’m not going to sign an irresponsible Republican tax cut that jeopardizes our state’s financial stability well into the future and the investments we need to be making today to address the real, pressing challenges facing our state.”

The Republican plan would lower Wisconsin’s second-highest personal income tax rate from 5.3% to 4.4%. That would mean a tax cut for married couples making between $36,840 and $405,550 a-year. Republicans say the cut would save the average taxpayer $722 a year.

They also want to eliminate Wisconsin’s income tax on the first $150,000 of retirement income. Supporters say that would make Wisconsin essentially tax-free for most retirees.

“I delivered on my promise of proposing a 10% middle-class tax cut that provided $1.2 billion in targeted tax relief to working families, seniors, caregivers, parents and veteran families because I believe that when we deliver tax relief, we should do it responsibly,” Evers added.

In July, the governor vetoed a $3.5 billion income tax cut out of the new state budget. He signed a tax cut for people making $18,420 as individuals, or $36,840 as a married couple.

The governor once again said Republicans are trying to cut taxes for top earners.

“After starting this biennium in the best fiscal position in state history, Republicans tried to give 11 filers who make $75 million a year an average $1.8 million tax cut per year,” Evers tweeted. “Now, they're trying to pass yet another tax plan that puts our state on a path to bankruptcy.”

Critics immediately jumped on the governor’s announcement.

“Unbelievable. Gov. Evers plans to veto another middle-class tax cut for families and seniors. It’s irresponsible to use budget surplus funds to recklessly expand state government,” Sen Julian Bradley, R-Franklin, said. “Middle class taxpayers deserve to keep more of their hard-earned money. Evers clearly doesn’t agree.”

“Wisconsin had a $7 billion surplus, and Gov. Evers thinks giving $2.9 billion of it back to the people who sent it to Madison in the first place is irresponsible??” Nick Novak with Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, the state’s largest business group said. “The governor clearly has no interest in returning money back to the hardworking taxpayers who overpaid.”

Republican lawmakers hope to vote on the plan soon and intend to send it to the governor after that.

A group of Colorado voters filed a lawsuit Wednesday to prohibit former President Donald Trump from appearing on the Republican presidential primary ballot in the state.

The 115-page complaint alleges Trump shouldn’t be allowed to run for the 2024 Republican nomination for president under a clause in the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Known as the disqualification clause, it states anyone who took an oath to support the Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof” cannot hold a state or federal office.

The 14th Amendment was passed by the Senate in 1866 and ratified in 1868 to provide civil rights for freed slaves. The clause prevents military officers who served in the Confederacy from serving in any public office. In 1872, a supermajority of each chamber of Congress voted to remove the clause.

Earlier this week, Maine officials announced they were looking at the 14th Amendment to prevent a candidate from holding elected office, but didn’t mention Trump in a statement.

Six Republican and unaffiliated Colorado voters – including former elected officials – represented by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics filed the lawsuit, according to a media release from the organization. The respondents in the case are Democratic Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold and Trump.

“I look forward to the Colorado Court’s substantive resolution of the issues, and am hopeful that this case will provide guidance to election officials on Trump’s eligibility as a candidate for office,” Griswold said in a statement.

Griswold’s office said Colorado law “is unclear on how to consider the requirements of the United States Constitution in determining whether a candidate is eligible for office, including the language of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.”

No candidates have yet qualified for the 2024 presidential primary ballot in Colorado.

Trump, who holds a substantial lead in most polls over all other Republicans running for president, has been indicted in four criminal cases in the last few months.

The Colorado lawsuit alleges Trump “engaged in” an insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, by knowingly and voluntarily aiding and inciting the insurrection before the event. Trump's campaign website didn't post an immediate response to the litigation.

"Almost all legal scholars have voiced opinions that the 14th Amendment has no legal basis or standing relative to the upcoming 2024 Presidential Election," Trump said in a post Monday on the social media site Truth Social.

One of the lawsuit's petitioners, Krista Kafer, a Republican and newspaper columnist in Colorado, said in a statement Trump “disqualified himself from running in 2024 by spreading lies, vilifying election workers, and fomenting an attack on the Capitol.”

“Those who by force and by falsehood subvert democracy are unfit to participate in it. That’s why I am part of this lawsuit to prevent an insurrectionist from appearing on Colorado’s ballot,” she said.

Colorado successfully kept someone off the ballot for president in 2012. Abdul Karim Hassan, a naturalized citizen, unsuccessfully argued before Judge Neil Gorsuch, now a U.S. Supreme Court justice, he was discriminated against because he didn’t meet the requirement of being a natural-born citizen.

House Oversight Committee Chair Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., pushed forward the investigation into President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, Wednesday by calling out a federal agency that may be withholding information.

Comer put the spotlight on the National Archives and Records Administration, the federal recordkeeping agency that tipped off the Department of Justice when former President Donald Trump had allegedly held on to classified documents. Comer says NARA has held back certain information, claiming it is “personal.”

“In discussions between NARA and Committee staff regarding the Committee’s previous request for special access to Vice-Presidential records, NARA informed the Committee that certain documents in NARA’s custody would not be produced to the Committee – and, indeed, NARA would not inform the Committee of their existence – if NARA deems those records to be ‘personal records’ as defined by the PRA,” Comer said in a letter to Archivist of the United States Colleen Shogan.

Comer pushed back on that sentiment.

“However, 'personal records' are defined as those records 'which do not relate to or have an effect upon the carrying out of the constitutional, statutory, or other official or ceremonial duties of' the Vice President,” the letter said. “The Committee has made clear that its investigation involves potential abuse by then-Vice President Biden of his official duties; it cannot be NARA that determines whether certain records ‘do not relate to or have an effect upon’ those duties.”

Comer’s letter is part of an ongoing effort to learn to what degree the president was aware and involved in his son Hunter’s business dealings. IRS whistleblowers testified that the Biden family and associates received about $20 billion from entities overseas, including in Ukraine and China, via about 20 shell companies.

Long-time associate of Hunter Biden, Devon Archer, has said publicly that Hunter used phone calls from his father to help secure deals.

“Joe Biden never built an ‘absolute wall’ between his family’s business dealings and his official government work – his office doors were wide open to Hunter Biden’s associates,” Comer said in a letter to Archivist of the United States Colleen Shogan. “There is evidence of collusion in the efforts to spin media stories about Burisma’s corruption while Vice President Biden was publicly pushing an anti-corruption agenda in Ukraine.”

As The Center Square previously reported, Hunter Biden faces an array of legal challenges related to allegations of gun, tax and foreign influence crimes. Special Counsel David Weiss said in court filings Wednesday that Hunter could face another indictment before Sept. 19.

“Suspiciously, Hunter Biden’s associate had a media statement on Burisma approved by Vice President Biden himself the same day Hunter Biden ‘called D.C.’ for help with the government pressure facing Burisma,” the letter said. “Americans demand accountability for this abuse of government office for the benefit of the Biden family.”

Comer also has asked NARA for information on Air Force Two, which Hunter Biden allegedly used for travel in some of his dealings.