Former Rep. Melissa Hart (R-PA) dropped out of the Pennsylvania Republican gubernatorial primary race to endorse former Rep. Lou Barletta (R-PA). The endorsement comes after Jake Corman also dropped out to endorse Barletta.
During a press conference on Friday, Hart announced that she was suspending her gubernatorial campaign and endorsing Barletta in the race.
“The stakes are too high, our Republican primary is too fractured, and we need someone to come out of the Republican primary who is a proven leader, who is a uniter, who is someone who can get Democrat votes, and who can lead as a person who has a vision and the values that the people of Pennsylvania support,” Hart said:
I am suspending my campaign and I’m supporting Lou Barletta. We all win when we support a candidate who shares our values and shares our vision and who can win. And that candidate is Lou Barletta. [Emphasis added]
Barletta thanked Hart for her endorsement and urged Republican primary voters to get behind his campaign for the goal of beating Democrat gubernatorial candidate Josh Shapiro in the November general election.
In this Nov. 26, 2019, file photo, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro speaks at Muhlenberg High School in Reading, Pa. (Matt Rourke, File/AP)
“We’ve all seen the terrible direction Pennsylvania has taken over the last seven and a half years, and we know that Josh Shapiro would make things even worse,” Barletta said. “I have a history of beating Democrats, having been elected mayor in a heavily Democratic city and defeated a 26-year incumbent Democrat for Congress.”
“There is no question that as the Republican nominee, I can also beat Josh Shapiro, because the people of Pennsylvania know me,” he said. “I am proven, road-tested, and ready to lead.”
This week, a number of Republican heavy hitters in Pennsylvania politics announced their endorsements of Barletta, including former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), former Pennsylvania Gov. Mark Schweiker (R), former Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley (R), and former Rep. Fred Keller (R-PA).
The Pennsylvania gubernatorial election is on May 17.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Do you think we’re headed towards recession?
LLOYD BLANKFEIN: We’re certainly heading — it’s a very, very high risk factor. There’s a path, a narrow path, but I think the Fed has very powerful tools. It’s hard to finely tune them and hard to see the effects of them quickly enough to alter it. But I think they are responding well. It’s definitely a risk. If I was running a big company I would be very prepared for it. If I was a consumer, I would prepared for it. But it’s not baked in the cake.
The White House claimed President Joe Biden’s administration made the baby formula shortage crisis a top priority as early as February, even though the president claimed ignorance of the problem on Thursday.
“This is something he is focusing on very acutely and again I said 24/7 we’ve been working on this since we have learned about this back in February,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during the daily briefing about Biden, calling the issue “one of the presidents top priorities.”
Biden bristled when asked by reporters on Friday if he could have acted sooner to fix the crisis.
“If we had been better mind readers, I guess we could’ve, but we moved as the problem became apparent to us,” Biden said.
The president did not even personally mention the crisis until Friday, despite weeks of reports highlighting the problem.
“I’ll answer the baby formula question because, all of a sudden, it’s on the front page of every newspaper,” Biden grumbled on Friday.
He announced the launch of a new government website to help parents locate baby formula in stores, but it was beset by extremely long hold times and unhelpful information.
Jean-Pierre alluded to a comment from Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Bacerra claiming the Biden administration had been working on the issue since February and even as early as last year in 2021.
CNN: “You are satisfied with the government’s response throughout [the baby formula shortage]?”
HHS Sec. Xavier Becerra: “FDA has kept me apprised of this from LAST YEAR. We have been moving as quickly as we can” pic.twitter.com/5WRZa5chYg
“You’ve heard us talk about this, you’ve heard colleagues talking about what we have done since February,” Jean-Pierre said. “We’ve been working on this 24/7.”
Jean-Pierre refused to offer a timeline for when supplies of baby formula would return to normal.
“What I can say is there are a lot of dates floating around out there,” she said.
President Joe Biden struggled Monday with the correct pronunciation of the name of Aaron Salter Jr., a heroic ex-cop and security guard who died Saturday confronting the Buffalo mass shooting suspect.
“We pay tribute to all law enforcement officers and their families who understand what it takes, what’s at risk, to save and protect all of us,” Biden said. “That includes paying tribute to the Buffalo police officer Aaron Salder — Slater, excuse me — who gave his life trying to save others.”
Biden spoke about Salter during a Public Safety Officer Medals of Valor ceremony at the White House for law enforcement and public safety officials.
Salter was a Buffalo police officer for 30 years before retiring in 2022 and taking a security job at the Tops Friendly Market where the shooting took place.
Salter hit the alleged shooter with at least one round from his pistol, but it was blocked by the alleged shooter’s bulletproof armor. Salter was later shot and killed during the attack.
“You’re the heart and soul and very spine of this country and communities,” Biden continued, praising the public safety officials in the room.
During the ceremony, Biden also botched the name of Rep. Adriano Espaillat, a Democrat congressman from New York.
“Excuse me. You can call me ‘Bidden,’” Biden joked, mispronouncing his own name. “We’ve known each other so long and I still stumbled. I apologize.”