Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) didn’t let an interruption from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) segment her as she tore aside Republicans’ voter fraud claims on Wednesday.
Crockett went after GOP lawmakers as she talked “about who’s dishonest” throughout a congressional listening to that checked out election integrity within the District of Columbia.
“We haven’t had part as many hearings about weapons as we’ve had on vote casting rights, and each time we reputedly have a listening to on vote casting rights, we’re speaking about the truth that individuals are dishonest, so let’s speak about who’s dishonest” Crockett mentioned.
Crockett, in remarks to Wendy Weiser, vice chairman of democracy at The Brennan Middle for Justice coverage institute, wondered Fox Information’ $787.5 million agreement with Dominion Balloting Techniques in a defamation case involving 2020 election lies prior to switching to a Georgia legislation that reportedly held 87,000 other people again from vote casting in 2018.
“I’m operating out of time, so I’ma stay going,” she mentioned.
“There additionally used to be this text as a result of I don’t need us to base the rest on Georgia in any respect. Please, Jesus, now not Georgia. As a result of Georgia purged 87,000 votes.”
The point out of Greene’s house state led the Republican to break Crockett prior to the Texan declined to yield and shared receipts from a number of media retailers.
“I’m reclaiming my time. All proper, so there have been 87,000 folks that had been purged that had been authentic electorate, so no we don’t wish to replica off of Georgia,” she mentioned.
“Additionally, every other GOP voter admits he dedicated fraud. Some other one in Pennsylvania, guy who admits he voted for Trump along with his lifeless mother’s title as a result of he listened to an excessive amount of propaganda.”
Crockett, in tweets on Wednesday, added that she “would’ve saved” going along with her remarks if she’d had the chance.
I by no means have sufficient time to run down the hypocrisy of the GOP & Marjorie Taylor Greene interrupted as I used to be bringing the GOP dishonest receipts! https://t.co/Cd9rFk34PB
New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu has introduced he’s going to now not run for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
Sununu’s choice, introduced in an unique interview with CNN on Monday, comes as a wonder following months of interviews within the nationwide press teasing a possible run.
Sununu instructed CNN’s Dana Bash that former President Donald Trump’s robust status within the polls and the already-crowded nature of the sphere of contenders in quest of to tackle Trump satisfied him that he might be simpler as anyone at the sidelines with a “little extra unleashed voice.”
Sununu famous that he would have affect over the competition because the chief of the state with the primary Republican presidential number one within the nation. He plans to induce Trump possible choices to get out of the race in the event that they lack a trail to victory, although he declined to call someone about whom he feels that method, pronouncing he would have more potent evaluations after the televised number one debates warmth up.
“Given the place the polls are at this time, each and every candidate wishes to know the duty of having out and getting out temporarily,” he instructed CNN.
Sununu made transparent that he sees his number one purpose as making sure Trump’s defeat in the main.
“The maths has proven that Donald Trump has no probability of successful in November of ’24. He wouldn’t even win Georgia. In the event you’re a Republican that may’t win Georgia of November ’24, you haven’t any shot and he’s confirmed that,” Sununu mentioned. “No longer simplest has he confirmed it, however the applicants he will get at the back of in a just right conservative state like Georgia lose the race. His messaging doesn’t translate.”
“A vote for him within the in the main is successfully a vote for Joe Biden,” he added.
Previously, Sununu’s difficult courting with the Republican Birthday celebration has given him pause about working for federal place of job. Forward of the 2022 midterm elections, he refused GOP entreaties to problem New Hampshire Democrat Maggie Hassan for her Senate seat, mentioning his concern that he would “finally end up on Capitol Hill debating partisan politics with out effects.”
These days serving his fourth time period as governor, Sununu is a staunch fiscal conservative with a libertarian streak. Right through his fresh media excursion, he touted his file of reducing taxes, deregulating trade, and loosening the Granite State’s already-lax gun rules. He even claimed that his historical past made him the country’s most sensible governor for “private freedoms” — forward of Florida’s Ron DeSantis, who has introduced his personal run for the GOP presidential nomination.
However Sununu had liabilities that might have made him an excessive lengthy shot with a Republican number one citizens this is energized by means of right-wing populism and stays unswerving to former President Donald Trump, who is looking for to retake the White Area in 2024.
A average on social problems, Sununu signed a invoice banning abortions after 24 weeks of being pregnant — some distance later than the bans signed by means of DeSantis and different Republican governors. If a success in the main, he would have had essentially the most liberal place on abortion rights of any Republican presidential nominee in many years.
Sununu has additionally lambasted Trump in colourful phrases and puzzled the GOP’s focal point on so-called tradition battle problems like rights for transgender other people. And he has introduced his fortify for legalizing leisure marijuana use.
Sununu conceded that the Republican base is probably not receptive to his specific ideological profile and message.
“They’re those who elect the nominee. That’s correct. And that’s the disappointment,” he mentioned. “So I wish to make the bottom larger. I wish to get extra independents into the bottom. I need extra younger other people which have been disenfranchised ― was a part of the bottom ― we wish to get them again in.”
There may be already a rising box of Republican applicants hoping to tackle Democratic President Joe Biden. Along with DeSantis and Trump, contenders for the GOP nomination come with South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott; Nikki Haley, a former United International locations ambassador and governor of South Carolina; former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson; and multimillionaire entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) nominally broke his silence at the impeachment of Ken Paxton, the state’s far-right legal professional normal, on Wednesday when he officially named Paxton’s alternative: John Scott, a former Texas secretary of state and deputy legal professional normal.
The governor didn’t, on the other hand, be offering any direct remark at the accusations towards Paxton or disclose whether or not he would improve Paxton thru his impeachment trial.
“[Scott’s] a long time of revel in and experience in litigation will lend a hand information him whilst serving because the state’s most sensible legislation enforcement officer,” Abbott mentioned in a commentary.
Paxton used to be suspended from his process Saturday when the Texas state Space voted overwhelmingly to approve articles of impeachment towards him over the staunch objections of former President Donald Trump.
But Trump may also be conversant in Scott, who represented the previous president in one in all his many unsuccessful makes an attempt to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election — albeit in brief.
Texas state legislation dictates that the governor can appoint an intervening time legal professional normal pending the general result of an impeachment trial within the state Senate; Paxton’s trial is predicted to begin no later than Aug. 28.
A historical past of scandal stuck as much as Paxton in contemporary weeks as state lawmakers have been compelled to believe whether or not to greenlight $3.3 million in taxpayer budget to settle a whistleblower lawsuit towards the legal professional normal.
Many within the Texas GOP, together with Space Speaker Dade Phelan, are towards the usage of taxpayer cash to settle the lawsuit, which used to be introduced on when a gaggle of Paxton’s aides got here ahead accusing him of unethical behavior.
A number of of the aides have been therefore fired in alleged retaliation.
The gang had issues over Paxton’s courting with a GOP political donor, the Austin-based actual property developer Nate Paul. They mentioned Paxton used to be the usage of the ability of his place of job to lend a hand Paul with industry entanglements in change for an elaborate house rework and a role for a girl with whom Paxton used to be allegedly having an affair.
Previous to the whistleblower swimsuit, Paxton used to be charged with securities fraud in a 2015 case that, remarkably, has but to visit trial.
Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) spoke a couple of conceivable executive shutdown in an obvious mix-up with a conceivable debt default prior to claiming that the U.S. can repay its expenses “similar to in trade.”
On Saturday, Burchett apparently mistook a central authority shutdown — which happens when Congress doesn’t agree on executive investment — with a central authority debt default — an extraordinary prevalence the place the U.S. Treasury can’t borrow cash to pay its responsibilities. As NPR famous final week, the previous occurs slightly ceaselessly and reasons disruption, whilst the latter hasn’t ever came about prior to and would most probably lead to everlasting injury together with upper borrowing prices.
“We wish to get again to truth and prevent spending cash out of keep an eye on, that’s the base line. … I voted to close the federal government down below [Donald] Trump and I’ll do it below Biden,” Burchett informed CNN’s Jim Acosta.
Acosta unexpectedly checked Burchett on his remarks, reminding him a central authority debt default isn’t the similar as a central authority shutdown.
Burchett then characterised the default as a “prolong.”
“[It’s] now not a default, it’s a prolong. Identical to in trade, you place one thing off, you pay it off. If you’ll be able to’t pay it off this week, we pay it off subsequent week. And that is irresponsible for us to mention the rest rather then that,” mentioned Burchett, who made headlines after he declared Congress was once “now not going to mend” mass shootings following the fatal Nashville faculty taking pictures in March.
“In The united states in 2023 there were extra mass shootings than there were days,” he stated on his display on Sunday night, bringing up statistics from the Gun Violence Archive. “That is how we are living now.”
Hasan systemically dismantled the standard right-wing speaking issues after mass shootings, together with the perception that not anything will also be performed.
“They’re mendacity to you,” he stated. “This isn’t about psychological well being, which each different nation has issues of. It isn’t medication, which each different nation struggles with. It isn’t laptop video games, which each different nation has. It’s the weapons. It’s clearly the weapons.”
He stated it’s top time to put the blame the place it belongs: On Republicans.
“Let’s forestall pronouncing ‘Congress will have to act’ and get started pronouncing ‘the Republican Birthday celebration will have to act’,” he stated. “Let’s forestall treating the GOP because the birthday party of regulation and order and deal with them, extra appropriately, because the birthday party of gun violence, of faculty shootings, of mall massacres.”
He known as for a ban an attack guns:
Hasan additionally ripped into any other commonplace GOP speaking level after each and every mass taking pictures: the perception that the solution is in “ideas and prayers” or that God has to give you the answer:
Rep. Keith Self (R-Texas) brushed away complaint that “prayers aren’t chopping it” and shifted the focal point to “the trashing of shops in Chicago” right through a CNN interview after a mass shooter killed a minimum of 8 folks at a Dallas-area outlet mall on Saturday.
Self, whose congressional district contains the web page of the fatal taking pictures in Allen, Texas, advised CNN’s Paula Reid that he’s “after all” interested by the upward push of such cases of gun violence ahead of having a look to different issues of “violence.”
“Completely, any time there may be violence whether or not it’s in one of the vital large towns: riots, the trashing of shops in Chicago, or shootings like this. It is a very secure discipline. This isn’t same old,” Self mentioned.
“I do know that we listen concerning the selection of deaths on a weekend in Chicago, this isn’t same old on this discipline,” he added.
Query: Are you interested by the upward push in those incidents around the nation? Rep. Self: After all. Completely. Any time there may be violence, whether or not it’s in one of the vital large towns, riots, the trashing of shops in Chicago, or shootings like this.. %.twitter.com/ld0EcGDmB5
The hole mall taking pictures added to the record of just about 200 mass shootings around the U.S. this yr, consistent with Gun Violence Archive. There were greater than 14,600 deaths associated with gun violence in The us this yr, the web page famous.
Reid later requested Self about complaint that “prayers aren’t chopping it” relating to addressing gun violence; the Texas Republican took purpose on the research.
“Neatly, the ones are folks that don’t imagine in an almighty God who has … who is really in regulate of our lives,” mentioned Self, who later emphasised a necessity for extra techniques to handle psychological well being and remarked that he’d “love to keep away from the politics as of late” to concentrate on the taking pictures sufferers.
Reid: Many of us argue that prayers don’t seem to be chopping it. Self: Neatly, the ones are folks that do not imagine in an almighty god who has, who is really in regulate of our lives. %.twitter.com/EZlBotBnWt
Reid later chimed in and famous that it’s “tricky” to keep away from politics with Self as he’s a political candidate
She added: “Congressman, I imagine it’s conceivable to each pray for the sufferers but in addition assume forward as a political candidate, as an elected consultant about the way you stay your neighborhood secure.”
Self spoke back that he’ll do this, ahead of announcing he sought after to shift the focal point again to “the households and the sufferers, praying for them that they’re comforted of their loss within the tragedy.”
“Congressman, I imagine it’s conceivable to each pray for the sufferers, but in addition assume forward as a political candidate, as an elected consultant about the way you stay your neighborhood secure.” %.twitter.com/2SCcgzwEb1
That is infuriating. Then why put on seatbelts or take blood force medication or secure ingesting water? Let’s simply depend at the almighty to regulate our lives as they see are compatible. https://t.co/oKPNjp9LiC
The intuition for Republicans to pivot to towns regardless of information and provide instances is any other part of our racialized politics…as unpleasant of a fact this is. https://t.co/1uI3yStVLW
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The Republican secretaries of state in Ohio, West Virginia and Missouri have promoted their states’ elections as truthful and safe. But every is also navigating a effective line on how you can deal with election fraud conspiracies as they equipment up campaigns for U.S. Senate or governor in 2024.
The split-screen messaging of Ohio’s Frank LaRose, West Virginia’s Mac Warner and Missouri’s Jay Ashcroft displays simply how deeply election lies have burrowed into the Republican Birthday party, the place greater than part of electorate consider Democrat Joe Biden used to be no longer legitimately elected president. Even election officers who tout working blank elections at house are robotically pushing for extra balloting restrictions and extra scrutiny at the procedure as they get ready to stand GOP number one electorate subsequent yr.
All 3 withdrew their states ultimate month from the Digital Registration Data Heart, a bipartisan, multistate effort to make sure correct voter lists. LaRose did so lower than a month after calling the crowd “some of the absolute best fraud-fighting gear that we’ve got” and vowing to care for Ohio’s club. He defied backlash in opposition to the group stoked via former President Donald Trump sooner than relenting.
The 3 even have supported higher voter restrictions of their states — a part of a countrywide pattern for Republicans that they are saying is intend to spice up public self assurance. The ones expenses impose new voter ID necessities, shrink home windows for processing ballots or ease the facility to consolidate balloting precincts.
For Republicans aspiring to raised place of work, “it’s more or less laborious to skip a few of these issues if you wish to be triumphant” in GOP primaries, stated Nancy Martorano Miller, an affiliate professor of political science on the College of Dayton.
That incorporates showing attentive to Republican electorate’ trust in Trump’s false claims of a stolen 2020 presidential election on the identical time they advertise the task they’re doing in their very own states.
“You’re secretary of state, so it’s your task to run elections and ensure they’re fraud-fee,” Martorano Miller stated. “You’re more or less caught between, ‘I want to display I’m doing these items to combat fraud,’ however on the identical time, ‘if I make it look like there’s an excessive amount of fraud, it seems like I’m no longer doing my task.’”
Warner and Ashcroft have introduced campaigns for governor whilst LaRose is thinking about a U.S. Senate run.
When he unveiled law in February geared toward standardizing election knowledge, LaRose stated it used to be all about offering transparency so electorate would “have faith in realizing that after the election is over, that the real voice of the folks used to be heard.”
A pair weeks later, he used to be sitting on an elections panel titled “They Stole It From Us Legally” at the yearly Conservative Political Motion Convention.
LaRose’s spokesperson stated the panel used to be renamed on the ultimate minute, however the secretary used the chance to advertise the integrity of Ohio elections.
“Voter fraud is exceedingly uncommon in Ohio as a result of we take election safety very critically, aggressively pursue those that devote it and refer the prospective crime to the lawyer common and county prosecutors,” Rob Nichols stated.
In a similar fashion, Ashcroft has stated Missouri has safe elections and praised Gov. Mike Parson for signing a package deal of election regulation adjustments ultimate yr that incorporated a brand new picture ID requirement.
“Missouri electorate are keen about their proper to vote,” he stated. “This invoice makes Missouri elections more secure and extra clear, which instills self assurance and believe.”
Then in January, Ashcroft hosted a gathering at his place of work with MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, a conspiracy theorist who travels the rustic fueling mistrust in elections. The assembly alarmed some balloting rights advocates within the state.
Warner has defended Trump’s false claims of a fraudulent 2020 election and demonstrated along “Forestall the Thieve” protesters, whilst additionally selling the integrity of West Virginia’s elections.
He stated in a up to date interview that he’s running to strike a stability between the ones at the proper who consider the 2020 election used to be stolen and the ones at the left who argue “there’s not anything to look right here.”
“In truth clearly someplace within the center,” he stated, whilst including: “I will be able to admit Biden gained the election, however did he do it legitimately? Or did that occur outdoor the election regulations that legislatures in sure states had installed position? That’s the place I recoil and say no.”
Warner stated he wish to see an “after-action overview” of the 2020 election, like the ones performed within the army, to ease electorate’ minds and make elections higher.
Trump and others have criticized the growth of mail balloting in 2020 within the COVID-19 pandemic, even though there’s no proof of any fashionable fraud and a couple of evaluations within the battleground states the place Trump contested his loss have upheld the consequences. The Area committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, assault at the U.S. Capitol discovered that Trump advisers and management officers many times debunked allegations of fraud within the weeks after the 2020 election, however Trump persisted to push the lies, anyway.
In a lately settled defamation case in opposition to Fox Information, a Delaware Awesome Court docket pass judgement on dominated it used to be “CRYSTAL transparent” that not one of the claims many times aired at the community about Dominion Vote casting Methods machines rigging votes in opposition to Trump used to be true.
Christopher McKnight Nichols, an Ohio State College professor of historical past, stated it’s complicated for electorate when secretaries of state declare elections they run are truthful however then elevate questions or trace at issues, with out proof, about elections somewhere else.
An previous generation of Republicans “completely would were chagrined, embarrassed, and in all probability driven out fellow Republicans who flip-flopped so radically, or promoted lies,” he stated. “Their logo used to be the principled and constant flesh presser.”
In Ohio, LaRose spent years assuring the general public that voter fraud represents a tiny fraction of Ohio’s solid ballots and that election tallies have been just about very best. Then throughout his reelection marketing campaign ultimate yr, he stated Trump “is correct to mention that voter fraud is a significant issue” and blamed the mainstream media for “looking to decrease voter fraud to fit their narrative.”
In October, he joined a countrywide Republican pattern via opening a unit to analyze election regulation violations in Ohio, amongst different tasks. He stated that day that Ohio has a “robust nationwide recognition for safe, correct and obtainable elections” — however added that the rest in need of “no question” in election integrity “weakens the very basis of our democracy.”
“The intense MAGA Republicans are appearing the American individuals who they’re,” Jeffries stated at this weekly press convention on Thursday. “They’re no longer even looking to disguise their extremism. And Showcase A is Marjorie Taylor Greene.”
“She’s utterly out of keep an eye on. However they don’t care,” he persisted. “The management it seems that helps Marjorie Taylor Greene. The rank-and-file Republicans it seems that enhance Marjorie Taylor Greene. She’s allowed to lie. She’s allowed to debase the establishment. It sounds as if, Marjorie Taylor Greene is even allowed to raise anyone who seems to have engaged in espionage and treason in opposition to america of The usa.”
“And it doesn’t subject. As a result of Marjorie Taylor Greene is the face of this model of the Space Republican convention,” he added.
In January, all over Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) drawn-out voting for Space speaker, Greene lashed out at Democrats for opting for Jeffries as their chief and launched a “by no means Hakeem” advert calling him a “bad” and “radical” leftist. Greene used to be a key best friend to McCarthy’s bid for the speakership and used to be due to this fact appointed to the Place of birth Safety and Oversight and Duty committees.
Rep. Clay Higgins (R-Los angeles.) appeared extra eager about unborn embryos and fetuses than residing youngsters on Wednesday as he downplayed gun violence within the wake of a mass capturing that left six folks lifeless at a Tennessee faculty.
“There’s no such factor as gun violence. There’s simplest human violence. It’s intellectually unsound to state differently,” he stated all through a Space Oversight Committee listening to. “And the #1 reason behind loss of life for kids in The usa stays abortion.”
Many American citizens, together with Democratic politicians, have renewed their requires higher gun keep watch over regulations within the wake of Monday’s capturing, however face resistance from Republicans, lots of whom obtain main monetary backing from the gun foyer.
Higgins used to be criticizing Democrats for time and again mentioning the statistic that gun violence is the main reason behind loss of life for kids within the U.S.
That statistic is right, then again. In 2020, firearms surpassed automotive crashes as the #1 reason behind loss of life for kids and younger adults ages 1-18.
Firearms accounted for almost 19% of kids’s deaths in 2021, in step with the Facilities for Illness Keep an eye on and Prevention WONDER database. In no different in a similar way huge or rich nation are firearm deaths amongst even the highest 4 reasons of loss of life for kids, in step with an research by means of the Kaiser Circle of relatives Basis.
Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA): “There’s no such factor as gun violence; there is simplest human violence … And the #1 reason behind loss of life for kids in The usa stays abortion.” %.twitter.com/JBLtO9mmP6
Motor car injuries and most cancers are the 2 maximum commonplace reasons of loss of life for folks ages 1-18 in all different related nations, KFF discovered. The U.S. has by means of a ways the laxest gun regulations and the perfect choice of civilian-owned firearms of its peer international locations.
This yr on my own, there were 130 mass shootings within the U.S., in step with the Gun Violence Archive.
Higgins cited CDC knowledge from 2020 to mention that there have been greater than 620,000 felony abortions carried out that yr, evaluating that quantity to the choice of youngsters ― 4,357 ― killed by means of weapons.
Nearly all of abortion procedures happen all through the primary trimester of being pregnant (earlier than or at 13 weeks of gestation for an embryo or a fetus). Fetal viability, outlined as the purpose at which a fetus’ survival could also be imaginable outdoor the womb, is reported to be at roughly 23 to 24 weeks of gestation within the U.S.
Social media customers known as out the issues in Higgins’ “human violence” argument:
There’s no such factor as car injuries simply human injuries, so there will likely be no additional want for riding licenses, insurance coverage, registration of the car or any regulations touching on proudly owning and or running a car. Simply every other false equivalence.
OH. GEE. I GUESS WE GOT SO WRAPPED UP IN WANTING CHILDREN TO NOT BE SHOT TO DEATH, WE FORGOT THAT WHAT’S REALLY IMPORTANT IS FORCING WOMEN TO HAVE THEM WHETHER THEY WANT TO OR NOT. https://t.co/2zznQrVpyd
Higgins is staunchly anti-abortion and pro-2nd Modification, and argues on his Space webpage that lifestyles “surely starts at conception.”
He’s up to now made headlines for different inflammatory remarks. In 2020, he threatened to shoot any armed demonstrators forward of a Black Lives Topic rally, even supposing individuals are allowed to overtly lift firearms in Louisiana. And in September, he used to be criticized as racist and misogynistic after he shouted at and made offensive feedback to a Black local weather professional attesting to Congress.
3 9-year-olds and 3 adults had been killed at The Covenant College in Nashville, Tennessee, on Monday after a 28-year-old shooter, who police say legally bought the 2 assault-style rifles and pistol they had been wielding, opened fireplace.
Ny District Lawyer Alvin Bragg slammed Area Republican committee chairs mere hours after the lawmakers’ efforts to double down with inquires into former President Donald Trump’s hush cash case.
Bragg, who slammed the GOP leaders’ “remarkable inquiry” in a letter previous this week, took on a 2nd letter in regards to the case co-authored by way of Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), James Comer (R-Ky.) and Bryan Steil (R-Wis.) ― lawmakers who lead the Area judiciary, oversight and management committees, respectively.
Bragg, in his reaction on Saturday, asserted that his place of business evaluates circumstances “according to details, the regulation and the proof.”
“It isn’t suitable for Congress to intervene with pending native investigations,” Bragg wrote. “This remarkable inquiry by way of federal elected officers into an ongoing topic serves most effective to impede, disrupt and undermine the official paintings of our devoted prosecutors.”
The reaction to the GOP trio, who wrote that they sought paperwork and testimony at the case, comes when they took factor with a conceivable indictment of Trump and claimed Bragg is “below political force from left-wing activists and previous prosecutors” in his place of business.
“The prospective legal indictment of a former president … implicates really extensive federal pursuits, in particular in a jurisdiction the place trial-level judges are also popularly elected,” the Republicans argued in a letter on Saturday.
They wrote later within the letter: “Your conclusory declare that our constitutional oversight obligations will intervene with regulation enforcement is out of place and unconvincing.”
The lawmakers, of their letter, additionally teased that the Judiciary Committee may draft regulation to give protection to present — and previous — presidents “from such fallacious state and native prosecutions.”
The DA’s place of business, excluding conversation with the Area GOP chairs, has said the potential of intimidation and threats across the case in contemporary days.
The place of business reportedly won a letter containing white powder with a threatening observe addressed to “Alvin” on Friday. The contents of the letter had been later deemed to be non-hazardous.