Victor Marx wins Republican primary for Colorado governor
The Associated Press reports that Victor Marx, a marines veteran and self-described “high-risk missionary”, whose extraordinary claims about his past have been disputed and mocked, has won the Republican primary for Colorado governor.
Marx narrowly defeated state senator Barbara Kirkmeyer by just fewer than 2,500 votes and will face the Democratic nominee, state attorney general Phil Weiser, who is sure to focus on the unsubstantiated claims made by the Republican.
Marx, a pastor who runs a non-profit that focused on “hunting predators as well as rescuing, restoring and empowering women and children who have been held captive by traffickers and other abusers”, refused to provide evidence during the campaign for his boasts about the group’s work overseas, or for his claim that, when he was seven years old, his abusive stepfather forced him to kill a man.
Marx refused to say during the campaign how many people he has killed and pledged to continue performing exorcisms, in person and by phone, if elected governor. He also has a sideline in viral videos of himself rapidly disarming people with guns pointed at his head.
“From the little we know about Victor Marx, his views and style are far out of step with Coloradans, and his nomination for governor is a threat to our state’s values and our future,” Weiser said in a statement on Marx winning the Republican nomination. “Governing is serious business, and Coloradans have a clear choice in this race: a politics of showing up, listening, and fighting for the rights and freedoms of all – or a politics of deception, demonization, and distraction.”
Kirkmeyer declined to endorse Marx in a statement accepting her loss.
“While we came up short in what appears to be the closest Republican gubernatorial primary in Colorado history, I’m grateful for every voter who placed their trust in us,” she said. “Now the voters will make the final decision in November, and I hope they choose the path that is best for Colorado.”
“I’m still proud of the campaign we ran … and, for the record, I still haven’t killed anyone,” she added.
During a televised Republican primary debate last month, Marx was confronted by one of the moderators, Kyle Clark, about a series of his wildest claims.
“Mr Marx, you make claims that are unlike any ever made by somebody running for Colorado governor in recent history,” Clark said. “You claim that you’ve been all around the world, armed to the teeth, rescuing women and children from captivity; that you stopped human smugglers at the Mexico border and made them pay a price; that you, as a civilian, called in a US military airstrike that killed 70 Isis fighters; that you were the first American into Gaza during the war with Israel; that you’ve done 150 high-risk missions and every one has been a success.
“You told me last week that it’s all true and that you don’t need to prove it to anyone,” Clark continued. “But you’re talking to voters now. How should voters decide whether you’ve lived one of the most extraordinary lives in human history, or whether you’re a liar and a fraud?”
“I can’t help it if I’ve had an extraordinary life,” Marx replied.
He then pointed to his dog, standing beside him on stage, and added: “This little dog … she was in Syria and Iraq. So is she lying, too?”
“Well,” Clark replied, “the dog’s not running for governor.”
Key events
Closing summary
This concludes our live coverage of US politics in the second Trump administration for the day. Here are the latest developments:
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Victor Marx, a marines veteran, pastor and self-described “high-risk missionary”, whose extraordinary claims about his past have been disputed and mocked, won the Republican primary for Colorado governor. State senator Barbara Kirkmeyer conceded the race, despite losing by just fewer than 2,500 votes.
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Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, said her government will ask state and federal prosecutors in the United States to file criminal charges against the people responsible for the deaths of 17 Mexican citizens targeted during anti-immigration operations or while in immigration detention centers.
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A Mexican immigrant who was fatally shot by a federal immigration agent during a traffic stop in Houston on Tuesday was not the man federal officers were searching for, the Department of Homeland Security said.
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Morris Katz, Zohran Mamdani’s 27-year-old media strategist, who has been blamed by many Democrats for helping to recruit Graham Platner to run for the US Senate in Maine and made ads for the campaign, distanced himself from the candidate.
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Troy Jackson, a former president of the Maine state senate who hopes to replace Graham Platner as the Democratic nominee for US Senate, if Platner makes good on his promise to formally withdraw by the Monday deadline, said in an interview with MS Now that Platner had lied to him.
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Dan Kleban, a co-founder of the Maine Beer Company, wrote on Substack on Thursday that he would not vote for Chuck Schumer as the party’s Senate leader next year should he win the nomination and be elected.
Mexican immigrant killed by ICE agent was not target of investigation – report
A Mexican immigrant who was fatally shot by a federal immigration agent during a traffic stop in Houston on Tuesday was not the man federal officers were searching for, the Department of Homeland Security told the Guardian.
The enforcement operation targeted a Guatemalan immigrant the agents believed was in a white van being driven by the Mexican man, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, the New York Times reported, citing unnamed officials familiar with the investigation.
The Guatemalan immigrant was not in the van, but an officer shot Salgado when they tried to stop the van, and he died later in a hospital.
Salgado’s family, including his wife and three sons, found out about his death from news reports. Neither ICE nor local officials informed the family, they said.
“He did not deserve to die,” his son Ronaldo Salgado said at a news conference in Houston on Wednesday. “He did not deserve to be reduced to a headline”.
Victor Marx wins Republican primary for Colorado governor
The Associated Press reports that Victor Marx, a marines veteran and self-described “high-risk missionary”, whose extraordinary claims about his past have been disputed and mocked, has won the Republican primary for Colorado governor.
Marx narrowly defeated state senator Barbara Kirkmeyer by just fewer than 2,500 votes and will face the Democratic nominee, state attorney general Phil Weiser, who is sure to focus on the unsubstantiated claims made by the Republican.
Marx, a pastor who runs a non-profit that focused on “hunting predators as well as rescuing, restoring and empowering women and children who have been held captive by traffickers and other abusers”, refused to provide evidence during the campaign for his boasts about the group’s work overseas, or for his claim that, when he was seven years old, his abusive stepfather forced him to kill a man.
Marx refused to say during the campaign how many people he has killed and pledged to continue performing exorcisms, in person and by phone, if elected governor. He also has a sideline in viral videos of himself rapidly disarming people with guns pointed at his head.
“From the little we know about Victor Marx, his views and style are far out of step with Coloradans, and his nomination for governor is a threat to our state’s values and our future,” Weiser said in a statement on Marx winning the Republican nomination. “Governing is serious business, and Coloradans have a clear choice in this race: a politics of showing up, listening, and fighting for the rights and freedoms of all – or a politics of deception, demonization, and distraction.”
Kirkmeyer declined to endorse Marx in a statement accepting her loss.
“While we came up short in what appears to be the closest Republican gubernatorial primary in Colorado history, I’m grateful for every voter who placed their trust in us,” she said. “Now the voters will make the final decision in November, and I hope they choose the path that is best for Colorado.”
“I’m still proud of the campaign we ran … and, for the record, I still haven’t killed anyone,” she added.
During a televised Republican primary debate last month, Marx was confronted by one of the moderators, Kyle Clark, about a series of his wildest claims.
“Mr Marx, you make claims that are unlike any ever made by somebody running for Colorado governor in recent history,” Clark said. “You claim that you’ve been all around the world, armed to the teeth, rescuing women and children from captivity; that you stopped human smugglers at the Mexico border and made them pay a price; that you, as a civilian, called in a US military airstrike that killed 70 Isis fighters; that you were the first American into Gaza during the war with Israel; that you’ve done 150 high-risk missions and every one has been a success.
“You told me last week that it’s all true and that you don’t need to prove it to anyone,” Clark continued. “But you’re talking to voters now. How should voters decide whether you’ve lived one of the most extraordinary lives in human history, or whether you’re a liar and a fraud?”
“I can’t help it if I’ve had an extraordinary life,” Marx replied.
He then pointed to his dog, standing beside him on stage, and added: “This little dog … she was in Syria and Iraq. So is she lying, too?”
“Well,” Clark replied, “the dog’s not running for governor.”
Oscar Lopez
Mexico has launched an investigation into whether the US lied about its involvement in the capture and secretive transfer of a top Sinaloa cartel member in 2024, in what would be a potential violation of the country’s sovereignty.
The US has long denied it played any role in the operation to detain Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García, a founder of the Sinaloa cartel, inside Mexico. Recent reporting by the local media outlet Pie de Nota, however, suggested that the FBI was involved in his capture.
“If recent reports are confirmed,” said the Mexico attorney general, Ernestina Godoy, on Wednesday, “then all signs point to three serious issues: a series of violations of Mexican and international law; a pact made outside the bounds of the law; and a lie told by a US diplomat, which would constitute a breach of the cornerstone principle of good faith in diplomatic relations.”
“The issue here is whether there was a violation of sovereignty,” said the president, Claudia Sheinbaum, at a news conference on Thursday.
Mexico will ask US prosecutors to file criminal charges against ICE agents responsible for killing Mexican immigrants
Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, said on Thursday that her government will “move beyond diplomatic channels” and ask state and federal prosecutors in the United States to file criminal charges against the people responsible for the deaths of 17 Mexican citizens targeted during anti-immigration operations or while in immigration detention centers.
At a news conference, Sheinbaum said the killing this week of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican immigrant who was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent while on his way to work at a construction site, “is not only sad and regrettable, but also appears to have been targeted”.
Salgado’s family said he was a “hardworking family man”, had lived in the US for more than 30 years and was in the process of obtaining his work permit.
“We are going to do everything in our power, because we cannot stand silent” in the face of the deaths of Mexicans “whose only crime is working honestly in the United States”, Sheinbaum told reporters.
According to the Mexican government, 14 Mexican citizens have died while in ICE custody and three during ICE operations.
Mexico would ask prosecutors to charge “whoever is found responsible for what we consider to be homicides – or, in other cases, human rights violations”, the president said.
Sheinbaum added that her government will be “submitting a request to the private companies that manage these detention centers, asking them to respect the human rights of Mexicans”.
Morris Katz, media strategist for Graham Platner, says he advised him to end campaign after ‘rape allegations’
Morris Katz, Zohran Mamdani’s 27-year-old media strategist, who has been blamed by many Democrats for helping to recruit Graham Platner to run for the US Senate in Maine and made ads for the campaign, distanced himself from the candidate on Thursday.
“As soon as the team became aware of the rape allegations against Graham Platner we advised he suspend his candidacy, and in the following days worked to wind down the campaign,” Katz wrote. “Like so many of his supporters, I’m deeply disappointed.”
Katz made his statement hours after the New York Times reported that, before Platner’s campaign was derailed by his past comments, Nazi-inspired tattoo and sexual assault allegations, the young campaign strategist “was privately promoting him as a future presidential candidate for as soon as 2028, if he won his Senate bid”.
The statement also came amid speculation that Platner might try to fight on, by failing to file his paperwork in time to formally take his name off the ballot, after the candidate bitterly denounced the Democratic party establishment for supposedly forcing him out of the race in a lengthy video statement on Wednesday.
Dan Kleban, Maine brewer who hopes to replace Platner, says he would not vote for Schumer as Senate leader
Dan Kleban, a co-founder of the Maine Beer Company who hopes to replace Graham Platner as the Democratic nominee for US Senate, wrote on Substack on Thursday that he would not vote for Chuck Schumer as the party’s Senate leader next year should he be elected.
In a post with the unsubtle headline “I Won’t Vote for Chuck Schumer for Senate Leader”, Kleban drew attention to a CNN interview the night before in which he said that he would not support Schumer’s continued leadership.
“I’m running to be a new voice in the Senate, a new generation of leadership. I think it’s time for some turnover,” Kleban said. “If we want to change how Washington works, we have to change who is running the show. That’s why I wouldn’t vote for Chuck Schumer as leader.”
Kleban entered the Democratic primary last year, but later dropped out and endorsed Janet Mills, the state’s governor, after the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, controlled by Schumer, had recruited Mills and discouraged Kleban’s run.
Potential Maine Senate candidate Troy Jackson says Graham Platner ‘lied to me, and he lied to a lot of us’
Troy Jackson, a former president of the Maine state senate who hopes to replace Graham Platner as the Democratic nominee for US Senate, if Platner makes good on his promise to formally withdraw by the Monday deadline, said in an interview with MS Now on Thursday that Platner had lied to him.
Pressed by the host Katy Tur to explain why he had continued to support Platner even after it was revealed that he had had a tattoo used by the Nazi SS and made racist and sexist Reddit posts in the past, Jackson said he had accepted Platner’s explanations for the tattoo and the posts, “but when it came to a credible sexual assault, it became clear that was, that was it. It was a red line that I wasn’t going to cross.
“And the other thing about it was, was Graham told me point-blank that there was nothing in his past that I had to worry about. And he lied to me. And he lied to a lot of us.”
Jackson, a self-described “pickup-truck progressive” whose failed bid for governor this year was backed by Bernie Sanders, also told Tur that he has long supported the issues that Platner made the focus of his campaign.
“I think the biggest thing about this was the issues that Graham was talking about and bringing people out on, things like Medicare for all, and health insurance, prescription drugs, workers’ rights, these are the things that we have all believed in and wanted huge change in,” he said. “And, certainly, the people here in Maine do.”
Jackson also acknowledged that some voters might be put off by his past votes against gay marriage and abortion access, but argued that his more recent record reflects that he changed his position on those issues.
“I voted against those things over 15 years ago. Since then, I have found out. I have understood. I mean, I have always been someone that believed that healthcare is a human right. And it became clear to me after some time that abortion, reproductive rights access, is a human right. It’s healthcare. It’s people that deserve to have that,” Jackson said.
“And when it dawned on me, I became a real advocate for that. I mean, over the last 10 years, I have had a 100 per cent voting record for Planned Parenthood,” he added. “And I make no bones about a bad vote years ago coming out of a rural area, a very Catholic area.”
“Gay marriage, again, I said it was the worst vote I ever had,” Jackson said. “I immediately was sorry I did that. And I have spent a long time trying to make up for that.”
The New York Times reported Wednesday that Donald Trump flew from Turkey on Wednesday night aboard the old Air Force One rather than his new Qatari-gifted aircraft as a “security precaution related to the resumption of hostilities with Iran”, citing people briefed on the decision.
According to the report, people familiar with the change told the Times that the switch came at the advice of the Secret Service and that it was a precautionary measure and not because of a specific threat. People briefed on the new aircraft’s capabilities also reportedly told the Times that the new plane does not have all the features of the older Air Force One plane.
In a statement to the Times, Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, said that “the new Air Force One is a state-of-the-art aircraft that has been fitted with high-level security protocols that ensure the safety of the president and his staff”.
“As the president has said recently, there are many enemies of America who have their sights on him, and we use every tool at our disposal – including distraction and misdirection – to address those threats,” he added.
Trump announced the unexpected change on Wednesday morning, and had said that he was taking the older plane to the base “for old times’ sake” while the newer aircraft was being flown to Mildenhall air force base in England so that US troops could have a “chance to tour the Aircraft”.
Graham Platner is planning on filing the official paperwork to end his Senate campaign on Monday, according to a person familiar with the matter
The news comes after Platner announced on Wednesday night that he was suspending his campaign following sexual assault allegations. But on Thursday, Maine’s department of the secretary of state said that “no official withdrawal notice has yet been received” from Platner.
“A public declaration is not an official withdrawal, and a candidate must formally withdraw to the Elections office in writing, including signature,” Jana Spaulding, Maine’s deputy secretary of state for communications, said in a statement earlier on Thursday.
Under state law, Platner has until Monday, 13 July, at 5pm ET to officially withdraw from the race, in order for Democrats to finalize an alternative Senate nominee in Maine.
Shenna Bellows announces bid for US Senate after Platner suspends campaign
Shenna Bellows, the Maine secretary of state, has announced her candidacy to replace Platner as the Democratic nominee for US Senate in Maine.
In a statement posted online on Thursday afternoon, Bellows wrote: “The people of Maine have been building something real – a movement that deserves to go all the way to November.”
“I’ve spent my entire career taking on tough fights for working people, and I’m not stopping now” she said. “I’m running for United States Senate, and together we are going to defeat Susan Collins.”
Earlier this year, Bellows ran for governor, but finished in fourth place in the June Democratic primary for Governor. Earlier this week, Bellow called the allegations against Platner “extremely serious” and said “while Graham ignited a powerful movement to challenge the status quo, given the seriousness of the allegations, he needs to step down.”
A poll released on Thursday of just under 1,000 likely voters in Maine, conducted by Z to A Research, found the potential contest between Bellows and Collins, a Republican senator, at 47%-47%.
Ro Khanna, a Democratic representative from California who formerly endorsed Graham Platner, is endorsing Troy Jackson for US Senate in Maine.
“I am all in for Troy Jackson to continue the populist progressive movement in Maine,” Khanna said in a statement shared by a spokesperson for the Congressman. “He’s for Medicare for All, opposes foreign wars, and will be for workers over billionaires.”
New Mexico’s attorney general, Raúl Torrez, has sent a letter to the justice department demanding that they turn over unredacted records related to Jeffrey Epstein, arguing that the materials are needed “to identify survivors, witnesses, and co-conspirators” as the state conducts its criminal investigation into Epstein’s activities at the ranch Epstein formerly owned in Santa Fe county.
In a letter on Thursday, Torrez said that “despite verbal assurances of cooperation from the USDOJ, access to the requested records has not been granted, no substantive response has been provided, and more than 130 days have now elapsed since the NMDOJ’s initial request”.
“The NMDOJ views this length of time as an unreasonable delay under any rule of reason,” he added.
“The NMDOJ’s criminal investigation is once again active and is ongoing,” Torrez wrote. “The USDOJ’s continued withholding of unredacted records is causing real and escalating harm to the NMDOJ’s criminal investigation.”
Without unredacted records, Torrez said: “The identities of those who suffered abuse at the hands of Epstein’s network in New Mexico remain hidden behind government redactions – survivors who may not know that New Mexico is actively seeking to find them, hear them, and pursue justice on their behalf. Investigators cannot identify corroborating witnesses – the staff, the associates, the individuals present at Zorro Ranch – whose accounts are essential to substantiating survivor testimony and constructing the evidentiary foundation any prosecution requires.”
“Every day that the USDOJ withholds these records, the foundation upon which a New Mexico prosecution could be built erodes,” Torrez said. “Witnesses relocate and become unreachable. Memories, already strained by years of trauma, fade further. Physical and documentary evidence degrades, is lost, or is rendered more difficult to authenticate with the passage of time.”
In a statement to the Guardian, the DOJ said that it “substantively responded last month to requests from the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office” and that “reiterates that it welcomes New Mexico undertaking additional investigation of the Zorro Ranch and stands ready to provide necessary assistance with New Mexico’s investigation.”
“Should that investigation uncover potential Federal crimes, the DOJ will work closely with our law enforcement partners to investigate and, as appropriate, prosecute” they added.
Erika Kirk asks for all exhibits linked to husband’s killing to be made public
Richard Luscombe
Erika Kirk, the widow of the far-right activist Charlie Kirk, has asked a judge in Utah to allow the open courtroom display of every exhibit relating to her husband’s killing, saying she fears the proliferation of conspiracy theories.
Kirk’s motion came on the third day of a preliminary hearing in Provo at which the district judge Tony Graf will decide whether there is sufficient evidence to move ahead with a trial for Kirk’s alleged murderer, Tyler Robinson, in a shooting at Utah Valley University last September.
In the three-page filing, Erika Kirk complained that some items of evidence were admitted into court but not made available for viewing, which her lawyer Jeffrey Neiman said breached a Utah law affording crime victims and their lawful representatives certain rights.
Richard Luscombe
The air force has canceled the promotions of dozens of service members after discovering what it said was a grading error in a test of their security knowledge.
The “isolated and highly unprecedented anomaly” was announced in a press release on Tuesday, which said 135 airmen and airwomen had been awarded incorrect scores on the security forces specialty knowledge test (SKT) and been wrongly informed they had earned promotion.
Senior officers blamed the error on an “outdated scoring key”, and said the group who were subsequently told they had not made the cut would be replaced by 135 others after the service completed a rescore of all 2,285 candidates who sat the exam.
Analysis: Platner debacle puts Democrats in grave danger of blowing the midterms
David Smith
Two years ago, Democrats had one job: stop Donald Trump from returning to the White House. It was the only thing that mattered, but with breathtaking political malpractice, they imploded.
This November, Democrats have two jobs: win the House of Representatives and win the Senate to turn Trump into a lame duck president for his final two years. But once again the party, fond of warning that the stakes are existential, is in grave danger of blowing it.
On Wednesday, the Democratic candidate Graham Platner said he was withdrawing from the Senate race in Maine after a woman who dated him said he drunkenly forced her to have sex despite her telling him to stop. Platner denies the allegation reported by Politico.
This is a disaster because every seat counts in the Senate, where Republicans currently hold a narrow 53-47 majority. The electoral map is not favourable to Democrats this time but, riding anti-Trump sentiment, it’s just possible they could pull it off and become a vital check on the president’s power.
Who is to blame for this debacle? The list is long.
Maine: ‘No official withdrawal notice has yet been received’ from Graham Platner
The Maine department of the secretary of state has said that as of Thursday morning, “no official withdrawal notice has yet been received” from Graham Platner.
“As of now, no official withdrawal notice has yet been received from Mr. Platner,” Jana Spaulding, Maine’s deputy secretary of state for communications, said in a statement to the Guardian. “A public declaration is not an official withdrawal, and a candidate must formally withdraw to the Elections office in writing, including signature.”
Spaulding added that the notice may be received by email, such as a scanned letter attached as a PDF, but must include a signature.
In order for Democrats to finalize an alternative Senate nominee in Maine, Platner needs to officially withdraw from the race by 13 July at 5pm ET, according to state law. This would then grant Democrats a two-week window, until 5pm ET on 27 July, to pick a replacement.
The Palm Beach international airport in Florida has officially been renamed the President Donald J Trump international airport.
On Thursday, the airport announced that the name has officially been changed, effective today and said that the airport is “officially in transition mode” and that they are “working behind the scenes to update our physical signage, terminal spaces, and digital channels to our new name”.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) also announced on Thursday that Palm Beach international airport’s three-letter location identifier has changed from “PBI” to “DJT” following the airport’s official renaming to “Donald J Trump International Airport.”
“FAA systems and publications reflect the new identifier,” the FAA said. “Pilots, air traffic controllers, and aviation stakeholders should use DJT for flight planning and operations.”
According to Reuters, the airport has said that the name change cost $5.5m.
Eric Trump, the president’s middle son, said on Thursday morning: “I am deeply honored that at 5:01 am, Trump Force One will be the first plane to land at the newly renamed Palm Beach International Airport – now and forever President Donald J. Trump International Airport (DJT).”
“Congratulations Dad – I’m happy to have played a big role in making this happen,” he wrote in the statement.
Jamie Raskin, a Democrat who represents Maryland’s eighth congressional district in the US House of Representatives, has released a statement in support of David Hearn, the former Olympic canoeist who was accused of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool.
“Davey Hearn is my constituent, a native-born resident of Montgomery county, a three-time Olympian canoeist, and a famed and celebrated teacher and coach of canoeing and kayaking in our community,” Raskin said. “He is beloved in my district as a model citizen whether on water or on dry land. He is a great guy.”
Hearn, Raskin said, “would never desecrate a federal building or landmark by writing his name on it or affixing his name illegally to it or engaging in any other kind of political graffiti, vandalism or delinquency” and would “never intentionally damage government property”.
Raskin added: “I hope – and will do everything I can to guarantee – that Davey gets true due process and a fair trial on these absurdly trumped-up charges. It is only a matter of time before an impartial judge and jury recognize that this case has been built on a Kafkaesque arrest and Orwellian charges.”
On Thursday morning, Hearn pleaded not guilty, and his next hearing is on 5 August.
