Heller Calls Protesting Cancer Patient ‘A Democrat Operative’

@FAWFULFAN
Heller Calls Protesting Cancer Patient ‘A Democrat Operative’

Reprinted with permission from AlterNet.

 

Last December, Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV) caused controversy when he threw Laura Packard, a health care activist and Stage 4 lymphoma patient, out of a town hall on the Republican tax cuts. “Why are you voting for me to lose my health care? Without it I will die,” Packard asked, moments before Heller’s security detail ejected her from the room.

It was a cowardly move, as the tax bill is projected to result in 13 million more uninsured Americans over the next 10 years, and Heller clearly had no interest in answering the question or coming to grips with how he is paying for his corporate tax cuts.

But amazingly, confronted with his actions this month, Heller decided his best strategy was to go after Packard in an email blast to voters, trashing her as a “Democrat political operative.”

Heller is referring to an ad released this week by his Democratic challenger, Rep. Jacky Rosen. Titled “One in Four,” the ad features Packard slamming him for his fake efforts to protect people with pre-existing conditions. “One in four Nevadans have a pre-existing condition like I do … and Dean Heller is lying about helping us.” Indeed, Heller initially promised he would not vote for a bill that ends protections for pre-existing conditions, but later signed onto a bill that could have let states end protections for pre-existing conditions.

“He knew better,” Packard said in a tweet hitting back at Heller for the campaign email attacking her. “He stood up with Governor Sandoval last year to explain why repeal and replace would be bad for Nevada and hurt people like me. And Trump leaned on him, and he voted for it anyway.”

Heller, as the only Republican senator up for re-election in a state that voted for Hillary Clinton, is one of the most vulnerable senators in this cycle. Rosen is running against him on a broad platform that includes unequivocally opposing GOP efforts to sabotage the Affordable Care Act.

Matthew Chapman is a video game designer, science fiction author, and political reporter from Austin, TX. Follow him on Twitter @fawfulfan.

 

Advertising

Start your day with National Memo Newsletter

Know first.

The opinions that matter. Delivered to your inbox every morning

How Is That Whole 'Law And Order' Thing Working Out For You, Republicans?

Former Georgia Republican Party chair David Shafer

One of the great ironies – and there are more than a few – in the case in Georgia against Donald Trump and 18 co-defendants is the law being used against them: The Georgia RICO, or Racketeering and Corrupt Organizations Act. The original RICO Act, passed by Congress in 1970, was meant to make it easier for the Department of Justice to go after crimes committed by the Mafia and drug dealers. The first time the Georgia RICO law was used after it was passed in 1980 was in a prosecution of the so-called Dixie Mafia, a group of white criminals in the South who engaged in crimes of moving stolen goods and liquor and drug dealing.

Keep reading...Show less
Joe Biden
President Joe Biden

On September 28, House Republicans held their first impeachment inquiry hearing into an alleged yearslong bribery scandal involving President Joe Biden and his family, and right-wing media were divided on whether it landed.

Keep reading...Show less
{{ post.roar_specific_data.api_data.analytics }}