House Freedom Caucus Chair Bob Good (R-Va.) is in the political fight of his life against state Sen. John McGuire.
Yesterday’s primary between the incumbent and his Trump-backed challenger was too close to call, and looks to be headed to a recount.
With most of the votes in, McGuire is leading Mr. Good by a 0.6 percent margin: McGuire has 50.3 percent of the vote to Good’s 49.7 percent.
That comes out to a difference of just 327 votes out of the approximately 62,500 cast.
Under Virginia state law, any candidate who loses a race by less than 1 percent of the vote is eligible to request a recount, which the second-place-getter is likely to pursue.
Meanwhile, over at his watch party, McGuire declared victory despite most forecasters presenting the race as still too close to call.
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In a post on X, Good thanked his supporters and made clear he wasn’t giving up yet.
“The entire DC Swamp was aligned against us with over $10 million in attack ads, but with your help we were able to make this race too close to call,” Good said.
He expressed hope that early and mail-in votes coming in could bolster his total and vowed that his campaign would “ensure we have teams of observers and legal counsel to ensure all the votes are properly counted in the coming days.”
—Joseph Lord
Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun speaks during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Investigations Subcommittee hearing on Boeing's broken safety culture in Washington on June 18, 2024. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
BOEING CEO TESTIFIES BEFORE SENATE
Boeing’s manufacturing and safety culture came under pressure in a Senate hearing on June 18 as company CEO Dave Calhoun spoke about plans to prevent further accidents and incidents.
Boeing has seen months of media reports about its plane-building process after a door panel ripped off a recently built 737 Max jet right after takeoff on Jan. 5.
Calhoun said the company “took responsibility” for not just the door blowout incident, but also for the 2018 and 2019 737 Max crashes that killed 346 people.
“In our factories and in our supply chain, we took immediate action to ensure the specific circumstances that led to this accident could never happen again,” he assured the committee.
While discussing Boeing’s past promise to listen to its employees, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) mentioned how some whistleblowers said they faced “retaliation” from managers or supervisors after going public “about defects or problems in production.”
One whistleblower, John Barnett, said his supervisor called him 19 times in one day and 21 times another day after he went public with his claims about Boeing’s quality and safety.
“When Barnett asked his supervisor about those calls, he was told, ‘I’m going to push you until you break,’” Blumenthal said.
“He broke,” the senator added, referring to Barnett’s suicide after months of pressure from Boeing.
Calhoun confirmed that Boeing has fired and disciplined people for retaliating against employee whistleblowers but could not say how many when asked.
The door panel incident was blamed on a “manufacturing defect” by both Calhoun and Boeing executive vice president of engineering, Howard McKenzie, who also testified.
Calhoun said the “engineering design of the door is not implicated” but confirmed that the 2018 and 2019 crashes were due to a “wrong” design with a flight control software.
That software was not disclosed to the Federal Aviation Administration or the airlines that purchased the planes it was installed on, leading the Justice Department to charge Boeing with defrauding the United States in 2021.
“Across the engineering department, we’re focused on preventing the design problem from ever happening again,” Calhoun said.
Some lawmakers were not happy with the CEO’s remarks, including Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Miss.), who blamed Calhoun and other Boeing executives for the company’s problems.
“The problem’s at the top. Your engineers, they’re probably the best in the world. Your machinists, they’re outstanding,” Hawley said.
“You’re the problem. And I just hope to God that you don’t destroy this company before it can be saved,” he added, not giving Calhoun time to respond.
—Jacob Burg
BOOKMARKS
President Joe Biden has announced that he will not deport the spouses of U.S. citizens. The rule applies to those who have been in the United States for more than 10 years and is expected to affect more than 500,000 residents.
Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Pyongyang, North Korea, for talks with President Kim Jong Un on June 18. The pair have decided to team up to defeat economic sanctions imposed by Western countries.
Israel is nearing the end of its operations in the Rafah region of Gaza, signaling a potential drawdown to the Gaza conflict. Rafah was purportedly the last stronghold of terrorist group Hamas, though Israel says it plans to leave troops in the area.
Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) have filed legislation to make tips exempt from taxes. They said the idea came from similar legislation proposed by former President Donald Trump and former Rep. Ron Paul.
A federal judge has blocked a rule requiring employers to accommodate workers who want to receive abortions. The Louisiana judge ruled that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) had overstepped its authority since abortions are not “medical conditions.”
—Stacy Robinson
