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Former President Donald Trump

Trump Says He May Ban Abortion Pill (As Urged By Project 2025)

When a reporter asked Donald Trump on Thursday whether he would consider banning abortion pills, his response was predictably garbled. But the key words in the Republican presidential nominee’s reply were, “Sure, you could,” and “absolutely.”

The question came during a press conference held at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, his first public appearance since Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris chose Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate.

“Sure, you could—you could do things that will be, would supplement,” Trump said when asked if he would use regulations to ban mifepristone, commonly known as the abortion pill. “Absolutely ... But you have to be able to have a vote, and all I want to do is give everybody a vote.”

Mifepristone is one part of a two-drug regimen to end a pregnancy during the first 10 weeks of gestation. It’s now used for 63% of clinician-provided abortions in the states where abortion is still legal. The percentage is likely higher, because self-managed abortions and abortions in states with total bans can’t be tracked. In 2023, the Food and Drug Administration expanded access to the drug, allowing it to be dispensed by pharmacies and through the mail.

The Supreme Court declined to overturn the FDA’s actions in a widely watched case this term, a decision that Trump agreed with during the June debate with President Joe Biden. At the time, Trump claimed he wouldn’t ban the drug.

“First of all, the Supreme Court just approved the abortion pill. And I agree with their decision to have done that, and I will not block it,” Trump said then. Now, not so much.

What the reporter was asking about Thursday was whether Trump would use the archaic Comstock Act to ban the distribution of the pills. The 1873 law banned the mailing of contraceptives, “lewd” writings, and any “instrument, substance, drug, medicine, or thing” that could be used in an abortion. It’s been superseded by Supreme Court decisions and new laws during the past 150 years, but it remains on the books and on the minds of the Trump-appointed Supreme Court justices.

Using this law to ban abortion pills is exactly what the conservative Heritage Foundation suggests in its extremist Project 2025 blueprint for the next Republican president. You know, the group and the plan that Trump has tried to disavow.

Now that Trump seems to be open to the idea of banning mifepristone again, it’s more evidence he’s in deep with the creators of the governing plan. But we basically knew that already, and The Washington Post had more proof of it this week: a 2022 picture of Trump on a private plane with Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts (who Trump said he doesn’t know) on their way to a Heritage Foundation conference.

“They’re going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do,” Trump said in his keynote speech at that conference. Those plans include a national abortion ban.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Former president Donald Trump

Trump Claims Polls Show He's 'Leading Very Big' -- A Very Big Lie

An angry, rambling, and defensive Donald Trump finally emerged from hiding on Thursday to give his stump speech to a bunch of reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. The GOP’s presidential nominee insisted he had the biggest rally crowds ever and attempted to make news by finally agreeing to debate Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. But all reporters wanted to talk about was his floundering campaign.

One reporter mentioned that Trump has just one public event scheduled this week.

“Some of your allies have expressed concern that you’re not taking this race seriously,” the reporter said, which set Trump off on one of several tirades about recent polls.

“I’m leading by a lot,” Trump claimed, after calling it a “stupid question.”

He returned to that topic in this riff about his “good polls” where he’s “substantially leading.”

“Fortunately, we’ve had some very good polls over the last fairly short period of time,” Trump said. “Rasmussen came out today with substantially leading,” he continued.

That’s true: Rasmussen Reports does have a new poll giving Trump a 5-point lead. But Rasmussen Reports is the notoriously conservative and inaccurate pollster that 538 dropped from its polling averages and forecasts earlier this year. Meanwhile, the separate and more credible RMG Research, run by Scott Rasmussen, had Harris leading by five points as recently as six days ago.

But Trump was on a roll.

“Others came out today that we’re leading and in some cases substantially,” he boasted. “CNBC came out also with a poll that has us leading, and leading fairly big in swing states.”

Trump’s lead in the head-to-head with Harris in the CNBC poll is 2 points. It is a national poll and does not provide data from swing states. Never mind—in his head, it’s true.

“Some polls I’m leading very big in swing states,” Trump insisted.

In reality, no, he is not. On Thursday, the Cook Political Report shifted its ratings for three swing states, changing them from "Lean Republican" to "Toss Up":

According to 538’s poll aggregates, Harris has an edge over Trump in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, and she’s running neck and neck with Trump in North Carolina.

At the end of last week, Harris had the lead in a dozen separate national polls.

The surge Harris experienced after President Joe Biden stepped aside and endorsed her as the Democratic candidate wasn’t a blip or a bounce, either. It’s sustained, and it has changed this race.

And Trump can’t take it.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

AOC: Unified Democrats 'In Disconcerting Array' Over Walz Choice

The news that Vice President Kamala Harris tapped Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate created a strange disturbance in a dominant political narrative, first noticed and tweeted by New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: “Dems in disconcerting levels of array.”

This came after her total agreement with Sen. Joe Manchin—yes, the Manchin who officially gave up on being a Democrat this year and registered as an independent—that Walz is a fantastic choice for vice president. Ocasio-Cortez tweeted it was “an excellent decision,” and in a separate statement, Manchin said, “My friend Governor Tim Walz will bring normality back to the most chaotic political environment that most of us have ever seen.”

And it hardly ends there.

The ringing endorsements for Walz poured in from all parts of the party, starting from the top:

Walz got another presidential endorsement:

And one from a former first lady, senator, and secretary of state:

The other top contenders for the job cheered Harris and Walz on:

  • Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly: “Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz are going to move us forward. … Gabby Giffords and I are ready to do everything we can to help them win.”
  • Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro: “Governor Tim Walz is an exceptionally strong addition to the ticket … Over the next 90 days, I look forward to traveling all across the Commonwealth to unite Pennsylvanians behind Kamala Harris’ campaign to defeat Donald Trump.”
  • Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear: “It was an honor to be considered in this process, but Tim Walz is a great friend and a great choice. I fully support this new ticket and will work to elect Kamala Harris as our next President of the United States.”

Walz’s fellow Democratic governors chimed in:

  • Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer: "I'm so excited that my friend Tim Walz will be the next Vice President of the United States! ... He'll be an excellent partner for Kamala Harris, and I'll do everything I can to get them elected this November. Let's go win this thing!"
  • California Gov. Gavin Newsom: “Brilliant. … Tim Walz is about doing the right thing. Whether it’s free school meals or standing up against gun violence—he’s never been intimidated.”
  • Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker: “My friend Tim Walz is an excellent choice to be the next Vice President of the United States. … Let's win this!”

Everyone—from Rep. Ilhan Omar, a fellow Minnesotan, and Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, who called Walz a “rock star,” to Rep. Dean Phillips, who had his own embarrassing and short-lived primary run against Biden—is thrilled.

“Tim Walz can fix a lawnmower, fire a cannon, and fiercely protect women’s freedoms. All in one day,” Phillips said.

Even anti-Trump Republicans applauded the choice. Former GOP operative Matthew Dowd called it a “smart” choice, adding, “Walz will help the entire campaign effort especially in places like Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.”

The hive of disaffected Republicans at the Lincoln Project are positively gleeful.

Meanwhile, the Trump team is being, well, weird about it.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

'They're The Weird Ones': Trump's Angry Retort To Walz Falls Flat

'They're The Weird Ones': Trump's Angry Retort To Walz Falls Flat

Whether or not Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is tapped by Vice President Kamala Harris to be her running mate, he’s made a huge contribution to her campaign as the guy who first called it like it is when it came to Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance.

“These guys are just weird,” Walz said on MSNBC on July 23. With one simple word, he helped redefine the campaign.

And boy, does Trump hate it. He’s so defensive over the tag that he had a meltdown and attacked Democrats while appearing on a right-wing podcast Thursday.

“Well, they’re the weird ones,” he said. “That’s a weird deal going on there. They’re the weird ones. Nobody’s ever called me weird. I’m a lot of things, but weird I’m not. And I’m upfront. And he’s not either, I will tell you. JD is not at all. They are.”

In a desperate bid to slow the presumptive Democratic nominee’s momentum, Trump and the GOP have added the “I’m rubber and you’re glue” strategy to harping on Harris’ laugh and her “love of Venn diagrams and her call to ban plastic straws.” But it’s not working.

CNN data guru Harry Enten showed that Friday morning.

“‘Weird’ has “penetrated the zeitgeist,” said Enten, and he proved it with a look at Google: Searches for “weird” were up 22 percent in the past week and up 32 percent in the past three days.

But people aren’t just searching for “weird”—They’re searching “weird” and “MAGA”; “weird” and “GOP”; and “weird” and “Vance.” They’re also searching for “weird” and “Walz,” and those search results will turn up far more entertaining content than Trump and Vance’s latest utterings.

In the end, voters are going to draw their own conclusions about who’s weird. Let’s face it—we all know weird when we see it.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Trump Campaign Blames Black Journalists For His Racist Meltdown

Trump Campaign Blames Black Journalists For His Racist Meltdown

Donald Trump’s campaign is desperately trying to clean up his latest mess after he bombed Wednesday while speaking to the National Association of Black Journalists on Wednesday.

In a racist tirade, Trump accused Vice President Kamala Harris of playing cynical games with her heritage.

“She was Indian all the way,” he said, “then all of a sudden she made a turn and she went—she became a Black person.”

The campaign knew it was a disaster before it was even over. What was supposed to be an hour-long question-and-answer session was abruptly cut short by Trump’s campaign after just 34 minutes—“an indication of how much of a train wreck it was for him,” tweeted Axios reporter Sophia Cai, “and also how good the questioning was.”

Trump came out of the event on defense.

“The questions were Rude and Nasty, often in the form of a statement, but we CRUSHED IT!” he posted on social media.

The campaign immediately started spinning, issuing a statement blasting “Liberal Mainstream Media Malpractice” and the “unhinged and unprofessional” journalists and their “biased and rude treatment from certain hostile members of the media” acting out their “fake outrage.”

Trump’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), tried to spin the disaster by painting Trump as valiant.

“President Trump walked right into the NABJ conference and showed he had the courage to take tough questions, while Kamala Harris continues to hide from any scrutiny or unfriendly media like the coward she is,” he tweeted.

The only courage on display during those 34 minutes came from ABC’s Rachel Scott, who moderated the event.

The Harris campaign responded quickly with a statement as well.

“The hostility Donald Trump showed on stage today is the same hostility he has shown throughout his life, throughout his term in office, and throughout his campaign,” communications director Michael Tyler said.

"Trump lobbed personal attacks and insults at Black journalists the same way he did throughout his presidency—while he failed Black families and left the entire country digging out of the ditch he left us in,” he continued. “Donald Trump has already proven he cannot unite America, so he attempts to divide us.”

The blatant racism on display was shocking but not surprising to anyone who’s watched Trump’s political career. He rode to political prominence in 2011 by leading the “birther” conspiracy against then-President Barack Obama, and he rode down that golden escalator in 2015 to announce his first presidential campaign with a vicious attack on Mexicans.

“They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists,” Trump ranted.

This is who he is. His campaign can’t control him, they can’t fight 78 years worth of poison in him. That’s on full display in the 11-minute supercut compiled by journalist Aaron Rupar:


That Trump could lose to a woman who is both Black and South Asian might just break him.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos

New Poll Indicates Real Momentum As Harris Surges Past Trump (And Biden)

New Poll Indicates Real Momentum As Harris Surges Past Trump (And Biden)

Vice President Kamala Harris is leading Donald Trump in a new Civiqs poll for Daily Kos, 49 to 45 percent, with an increasing number of voters expressing confidence that Harris can defeat Trump compared to President Joe Biden. Harris has consolidated support among traditional Democratic voters, while Trump is just as troubling as ever and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, remains a drag on the GOP ticket.

Despite these changing trends, more voters still believe that Trump will win.

In June’s survey, Biden and Trump were locked in at 45 percent each. The four-point gain for Harris this month signals an almost palpable sense of relief among voters.

Biden gets high approval for ending his bid: 55 percent of respondents say they are “glad that Biden left the race,” including 59 percent of independents, as well as 67 percent of young voters, 50 percent of Black voters, and 59 percent of Hispanic voters.

The flip side of the question is whether Harris has a better chance than Biden to beat Trump, and 76 percent of Democrats say she does, along with 46 percent of independents. Again, Black (60 percent), Hispanic (58 percent), and young (62 percent) voters lead in saying Harris can get the job done.

The bump Harris gained compared to Biden comes from all these groups as well as women. Last month, Biden was polling at 52 percent with women; Harris is now at 58 percent. She gains nine points over Biden with young voters (55 percent to 46 percent), and 11 points among both Black voters (86 to 75 percent) and Hispanic voters (57 versus 46 percent).

Harris has a slight edge in favorability: 43 percent of respondents have a favorable opinion of the vice president, compared to Trump’s 42 percent. They’re both miles ahead of Trump’s running mate Vance, who 51 percent of voters already don’t like. That’s a very high disapproval rating for a first-term senator who few people might have heard of before he got the nod from Trump. Even among Republicans, only 67 percent think Vance was a good choice. Voters are poised to hate him.

Trump is still seen as a threat to democracy, with 39 percent of voters saying their primary concern about him is his “impact on America's democracy,” dwarfing all other issues. The next most concerning issue for them is abortion and social policies, which eight percent of respondents say is their biggest concern.

When it comes to who they believe will ultimately win the election, though, 45 percent of respondents think Trump will claim victory, while 42 percent think Harris will win. In June’s poll, just 37 percent thought Biden would win, showing definite momentum for Harris.

She is closing the gap and voters think she has a better chance than Biden did, but Democrats still have work to do.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Kamala Harris

Harris Rising Plus GOP Chaos Restores Joy To American Politics

Vice President Kamala Harris has injected new life in this campaign. It’s fun again, and House Democrats are building on their best online fundraising day of the cycle—almost $1 million in one day for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee—and relishing this contest.

Take Maryland Democrat Rep. Jamie Raskin, who told MSNBC on Sunday, "Democrats are having fun again. We've recovered our sense of humor.”

He continued, “The enthusiasm is real. It's genuine and if they want to say it's manufactured, that's cool. [Republicans] should continue to kid themselves all the way for the next 100 days."

Democrats really are having fun at Republicans’ expense. Take this tweet from the DCCC: “100 F*CKED UP THINGS THAT HAVE HAPPENED IN HOUSE REPUBLICANS’ MAJORITY”

All the way from Rep. Lauren Boebert’s Beetlejuice incident to whatever the hell happened to Rep. Matt Gaetz’s eyebrows, Democrats are loving it, showing just how ridiculous and unserious—but still dangerous—Republicans and their policies are.

The National Republican Congressional Committee tried to fight back Monday, releasing their new list of 2024 “Young Gun” challengers, which resulted in only more hilarity. CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski was quick to point out that at least two of those guns don’t quite qualify as “young.” (They’re in their 60s.)

Carolina Forward, a left-leaning think tank, got in on the act, with this tweet hailing one of those GOP contenders in North Carolina:

Maybe the GOP ought to think about retiring that whole “Young Guns” thing, considering how that’s played out for them over the years. On second thought, no. You stick to your guns, GOP. It’s just so much fun for Democrats.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

GOP Senate Candidates Are Just Plain Weird -- Especially About Women

GOP Senate Candidates Are Just Plain Weird -- Especially About Women

Now that Ohio Sen. JD Vance has been elevated to the national stage as Donald Trump’s running mate, we’re getting a very good look at just how, well, weird Republicans are. Central to that weirdness is how overtly hostile they are to women.

Right now, Vance is garnering most of the headlines—and for good reason. His jibes about miserable “childless cat ladies” and working mothers who “shunt their kids into crap daycare so they can enjoy more ‘freedom’ in the paid labor force” barely scratch the surface of his anti-woman attitudes.

Vance’s extreme misogyny is turning out to be a drag on the GOP ticket—and a big problem for Trump. But Vance isn’t the only one appearing on ballots this fall while expressing the idea that childless women have no worth and therefore shouldn’t have a say in society. There are plenty of GOP Senate candidates who have that same fundamental problem with women, and the spotlight is going to turn on them, too.

Take Nevada’s Sam Brown and his long history of extreme anti-abortion activism. He’s been trying desperately to walk that back, but he can’t walk away from the actions he’s taken and the deplorable things he’s said.

Like when he was still living in Texas and running for the state legislature there. He lost and then endorsed one of the two women who went on to the runoff because, according to him, she was more qualified. That qualification? She had “shared experience” in the community, he said, whereas her opponent was “not married with children to provide for or nurture.”

When called out on making such a baldly sexist statement, he dug his hole even deeper.

“I would be fundamentally disqualified from the definition of a sexist because I’m endorsing a woman," he said. He probably has a lot of Black friends, too.

How sexist is Brown? The “resources for women” section of his campaign website simply lists crisis pregnancy centers—the health care “clinics” tricking pregnant people into thinking they’re getting actual medical care.

Of course, it’s not just men who are sexist. Case in point: Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake. Her anti-woman policy positions are bad enough, but they seem to spring from her fundamental belief that women are less than men. She has said again and again that men and women aren’t equal. It’s a key theme for her.

  • In a June 2021 interview on “Backyard Politics,” Lake repeated that “We are not equal to men.”
  • In a November 2021 interview with the American Monetary Association, Lake reiterated that women are “being told […] to strive, to be equal to men. And you know what? We aren’t equal to men.”
  • In an August 2022 interview on “Louder With Crowder” that was since deleted due to violations of YouTube’s misinformation standards, Lake told Steven Crowder, “God did not create us to be equal to men.”

In 2022, Lake even made a show out of vacuuming a rug that Trump would soon appear on. This move garnered praise from Newsmax host Benny Johnson, who praised her “servant leadership.”

Meanwhile, MSNBC journalist Ja’han Jones said the image “perfectly embodies former President Donald Trump’s relationship with the GOP and the GOP’s relationship with women.”

This casual sexism from male and female Republicans alike can veer from mildly amusing to outright shocking. Another example is Wisconsin’s Eric Hovde. When he was running for Senate back in 2012, he liked to talk about how he was “very concerned where this country is heading socially and morally” because of single mothers.

In 2016, Hovde showed just how anachronistically sexist he is.

“Most of the country, sadly, doesn’t know what the heck is going on … I like to say, sadly, with females, they spend too much time with what’s going on in Hollywood,” he said. “And with males, they engross themselves too much with sports. And now it’s not just sports, it’s fantasy sports.”

Rounding out the disturbing things coming out of Republican mouths, there’s Tim Sheehy, who is taking on Democratic Sen. Jon Tester in Montana, and this weirdness. He was complaining about Tester’s political attacks on him when he said something puzzling.

“People ask me, how do you fight back?” Sheehy said. “Number one, I can’t, because it’s like, if you’re not a rapist, how do you prove you’re not a rapist? I can’t prove it, it’s impossible.”

That’s not just a bizarre analogy to land on, but it’s problematic. He’s baldly assuming that women lie about rape. Good to know.

The whole raft of bad Republican Senate candidates has widespread problems this cycle. But the GOP’s problem with women is flowing from the top of the ticket—and it’s going to hurt them at the ballot box.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Elizabeth Warren

Top Democrats Challenge Usurped Power Of 'Far-Right' Supreme Court

The Supreme Court’s MAGA majority has produced some of the most dangerous rulings in the history of the institution this session, not only declaring that presidents could be king but also that federal courts—not administrative agencies—should get the final say on all federal policy.

Democrats are fighting to stop that. Massachusetts Elizabeth Warren and 10 fellow senators introduced legislation this week to overturn the court ruling that usurped the power of federal agencies. And not a moment too soon, because conservative activists were preparing for this ruling even before it came down, ready to flood the courts with challenges to the environmental regulations that affect just about every aspect of our lives.

In fact, a group of red-state attorneys general have already asked for an emergency ruling from the Supreme Court to block new Environmental Protection Agency rules intended to limit greenhouse gas emissions. The rules would require that coal and natural gas power plants either cut or capture their pollution by 90% before 2032.

This is exactly why Warren and her colleagues are fighting.

“Right-wing extremist judges and politicians in the pockets of Big Oil shouldn’t have free rein to block basic pollution regulations,” Warren told Daily Kos Thursday, in response to the conservative-backed challenge to EPA rules. “Congress needs to make clear that scientists, not corporate interests, should write environmental rules.”

That’s what the proposed legislation, sponsored in the House by Pramila Jayapal, would do. It would restore and codify the decades-long Supreme Court precedent that the Trump-packed court overturned this year, putting the experts in our federal agencies back in charge of protecting everything from our air and water to our food and medicines.

"Giant corporations are using far-right, unelected judges to hijack our government and undermine the will of Congress,” Warren said in a statement introducing the bill. This legislation would “bring transparency and efficiency to the federal rule-making process” and “make sure corporate interest groups can’t substitute their preferences for the judgment of Congress and the expert agencies.”

The scope of the MAGA court’s ruling is hard to grasp, as is the chaos that will ensue as federal courts are flooded with challenges to government regulations and previous enforcement actions—because the court also ruled that, in essence, there is no longer a statute of limitations for these challenges.

Conservative activists will target everything from the water we drink, the air we breathe, and the food we eat down to consumer protections, net neutrality, workplace safety, and so much more. It could even end up harming LGBTQ+ students.

Federal judges don’t have the necessary expertise in all these areas, and the power will swing to the big corporations and activists who will swamp the courts with challenges to existing and proposed rules.

But this legislation won’t pass in a GOP-controlled House, or in a Senate where Republicans can effectively veto everything via the filibuster, which consists of prolonged debate that delays and usually prevents voting on a bill. The only way to rein in an out-of-control Supreme Court is at the ballot box—where we can elect a Democratic House, Senate, and president who will fix it.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

J.D. Vance

Vance Proves To Be Historically Unpopular Veep Choice

Donald Trump’s vice presidential pick is backfiring on him—big time. Appearing on CNN’s Erin Burnett OutFront Tuesday evening, data analyst Harry Enten dug into the polling and found bad news for Ohio Sen. JD Vance and the GOP. The numbers do not lie: Vance is the least liked running mate in 44 years.

“I have gone all the way back since 1980. He is the first guy immediately following a convention—a VP pick—who actually had a net negative favorable rating, that is underwater,” Enten told Burnett. “The average since 2000 is plus 19 points. JD Vance—making history in the completely wrong way.”

“Frankly, I don’t really understand the pick,” Enten said. “And apparently, neither do the American voters because we take a look at the net favorable rating for JD Vance—that’s the favorable minus unfavorable. It’s in negative net territory. Look at that. Negative 6 points.”

Vice presidential candidates usually enjoy a nice bounce following their party’s convention, and polls reflect the favorable opinions. There’s sort of a “new car smell” shininess to them, thanks to their big introduction on the national stage in all the hoopla of a convention. But as Enten says, “in this case, he’s dragging Trump down.”

Tapping Vance for the Republican ticket was a questionable decision in the first place, Enten points out. He performed far below other GOP candidates in his Senate win two years ago, even among the voters he and Trump most rely on—working-class white men.

“He was the worst performing Republican candidate in 2022 up and down the ballot in the state of Ohio,” Enten said. “He adds nothing there.”

It’s not likely to get better for the Republican ticket as the campaign continues and voters find out a lot more about Vance, who is a relative newcomer to the political scene.

They’ll be seeing things like this People magazine headline at the checkout counter and in their dentist’s waiting room: “J.D. Vance Isn't the Bridge-Building VP That Moderates Wanted: What He's Said About Women, Voting and Project 2025.”

That article includes such gems as:

  • “Vance wants to end abortion, and once called rape and incest exceptions 'inconvenient'”
  • “Vance suggested that people should stay in 'violent' marriages to preserve their kids' happiness”
  • “Vance said he wants to ban pornography, and blamed it for low birth rates”
  • “Vance opposes LGBTQ+ rights and has pushed harmful 'groomer' rhetoric about gay people”
  • “Vance is the VP candidate that Project 2025's leaders wanted”

(By the way, a shout out to People for putting Project 2025, the far-right government blueprint crafted by Trump cronies, out into the mainstream.)

It’s no wonder Trump allies are increasingly nervous about this pick.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton Responds Perfectly To JD Vance's Slur On Single Women

A clip from a Fox News interview with JD Vance during his 2022 Senate campaign is making the rounds—which is unfortunate for JD Vance. In the clip, Vance, who is Donald Trump’s running mate, said the country was being led by Democrats who are “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.” It’s assumed he was attacking people like Vice President Kamala Harris, who does not have biological children.

Cue former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who has helped the clip go viral:

In that interview, Vance also told host Tucker Carlson (because of course it was Tucker Carlson) that these “childless” Democrats “don’t really have a direct stake” in our country.

Thanks to Clinton sharing that clip, the Harris campaign had a chance to clap back at Vance, saying that “every single American has a stake in this country’s future.”

“Ugly, personal attacks from JD Vance and Donald Trump are in line with their dangerous Project 2025 agenda to ban abortion, decimate our democracy, and gut Social Security,” James Singer, a Harris campaign spokesman, told the Associated Press.

Though Harris may not have biological children, she is not in fact childless. When she married lawyer Doug Emhoff in 2014, she became the stepmother of his two children, Ella and Cole, who refer to her as “Momala.” No word on if Vance considers blended families valid.

By the way, at least one behavioral scientist has found that single, childless women are the happiest.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Praising Biden, Bill And Hillary Clinton Vow To Elect Harris

Praising Biden, Bill And Hillary Clinton Vow To Elect Harris

Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for the Democratic nomination following President Joe Biden’s announcement that he is ending his campaign.

“We are honored to join the President in endorsing Vice President Harris and will do whatever we can do to support her,” the Clintons said in a joint statement.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Trump Allies Setting Stage For Post-Election Violence

Trump Allies Setting Stage For Post-Election Violence

Donald Trump’s allies have set the stage for contesting November’s election—and doing so violently. Following a bonkers war-games presentation Thursday—including scenarios in which Barbra Streisand is kidnapped by Hamas and Trump wins but is immediately arrested by the FBI—the Heritage Foundation declared that the election is already being rigged against Trump and made more threats of violence.

“As things stand right now, there’s a zero percent chance of a free and fair election,” said Mike Howell, executive director of Heritage’s Oversight Project. That project is “technically independent of the Heritage Foundation,” The Washington Post reports, “but included multiple Heritage employees.”

“I’m formally accusing the Biden administration of creating the conditions that most reasonable policymakers and officials cannot in good conscience certify an election,” Howell continued.

“If we see the kind of manipulations that we saw in 2020, I wonder if average Americans who are supporters of the president [Trump] will swallow that so easily as they did in 2020,” Adam Ellwanger, a rhetoric professor at the University of Houston-Downtown who helped lead the presentation, said.

That’s a not-so-subtle call to arms for MAGA world. Worse, it follows last week’s declaration from Heritage President Kevin Roberts. “We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be,” he said on a right-wing news channel.

During Thursday’s presentation, Howell accused the Biden administration of a “coordinated invasion over our southern border for the purposes of impacting this election.”

Not to be outdone, extremist GOP Sen. Mike Lee of Utah told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham that it is a "virtual certainty" that Democrats are registering undocumented immigrants to vote, and will “harvest the ballots” and “Democratic operatives will fill those out.”

Obviously, none of these conservatives has presented any evidence for their claims.

Heritage released a report Thursday stating that President Joe Biden could try to hold the White House “by force” if he loses in November, and that “the current president and his administration not only possesses the means, but perhaps also the intent, to circumvent constitutional limits and disregard the will of the voters should they demand a new president.”

This is the very narrative that the Trump campaign and allies have been setting: that the election is rigged against Trump, and if he wins despite that, Biden will use his “weaponized” government to prevent Trump from taking office. Note that Biden, of course, has said he will accept the results of the election, while Trump has repeatedly refused to do so.

As if we need more evidence of Trump’s ties to Heritage and Project 2025 (and there are more every day), they are working together to lay the groundwork for contesting the election—again—but this time, they are putting the threat of Jan. 6-style violence front and center.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Dave McCormick

GOP Senate Candidate Profited From 'Terrorist Threat' Fentanyl

Pennsylvania GOP Senate candidate David McCormick, who has called Chinese fentanyl a “terrorist threat” and an “insidious attack on America,” made some of his millions off of investments in China’s largest fentanyl manufacturer, according to a report from The Keystoneon Tuesday.

McCormick was serving as CEO of Bridgewater Associates in 2021 when it invested $1.7 million in China’s Humanwell Healthcare, the company that owns 90 percent of China’s market for fentanyl, according to a 2022 RAND Corporation report. McCormick served in his role at Bridgewater until January 2022. “In 2023, McCormick told the American Enterprise Institute that he was responsible for whatever the company did,” The Keystone reports.

Presumably, that includes investing in the largest fentanyl producer in the nation most responsible for the illegal fentanyl crisis in the U.S. That very fentanyl and the precursor chemicals for it are finding their way to Mexican gangs and across the border into the U.S. In 2021—the year McCormick’s hedge fund was profiting off the drug—opioids like fentanyl killed more than 5,400 Pennsylvanians and fentanyl seizures in the state increased by 346 percent.

McCormick, of course, has been campaigning against that scourge. “I think we need to treat it as a national security threat it is,” he told attendees at a Pittsburgh-area event in April, according to Keystone Newsroom. “What would I do? I would go after China in the sense I’d interdict ships, I would treat this like it’s nuclear plutonium.”

Recently, a super PAC supporting McCormick launched a $30 million ad campaign, with one ad featuring McCormick vowing to put an end to the crisis.

“Today we face a shadow growing on the Pacific horizon. … I’m proposing a new [path]. Stop the flow of fentanyl, ban purchases of American land and U.S. investment that supports the Chinese [Communist] Party,” McCormick says in that ad, according to The Keystone.

In 2022, days before uber-rich Connecticut resident McCormick launched his previous bid for Senate—he lost in that GOP primary to another uber-rich non-Pennsylvanian, Mehmet Oz—he was profiting off of the Chinese fentanyl industry. The same industry that has killed thousands of Pennsylvanians and hundreds of thousands of Americans.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Latest GOP Conspiracy: President's Doctor Is In 'Biden Crime Family'

Latest GOP Conspiracy: President's Doctor Is In 'Biden Crime Family'

The House Republicans’ most reliable conspiracy theorist is trying to make political hay out of President Joe Biden’s bad debate night and the ensuing media feeding frenzy and Democratic bed-wetting. Oversight Committee Chair James Comer is demanding an interview with Biden’s doctor, suggesting in his letter that White House physician Kevin O’Connor is part of the Biden “crime family” and is covering up Biden’s health.

No, seriously. Comer writes that the committee is “concerned your medical assessments have been influenced by your private business endeavors with the Biden family,” and that “evidence obtained by the committee shows your [O’Connor’s] and James Biden’s involvement with Americore Health, LLC. James Biden, the President’s brother, used funds from Americore to pay Joe Biden $200,000 as the company was facing financial distress.” Americore Health operates a number of rural hospitals.

He continues, writing that on the “same day James Biden received the $200,000 wire transfer from Americore into his bank account, James Biden wrote a check to his brother, Joe Biden, for $200,000 for a ‘loan repayment.’” Yes, the scare quotes are in the original.

“Given your connections with the Biden family, the Committee also seeks to understand if you are in a position to provide accurate and independent reviews of the President’s fitness to serve,” Comer wrote.

In February, O’Connor examined Biden, finding he is a “healthy, vigorous, 80-year-old male, who is fit to successfully execute the duties of the presidency.” O’Connor wrote that Biden underwent “an extremely detailed neurologic exam” and that there were “no findings which would be consistent with any cerebellar or other central neurological disorder.” O’Connor has been Biden’s personal doctor since 2009.

Not good enough for Comer, who is now intent on “investigating circumstances surrounding [that] assessment.”

White House spokesperson Ian Sams slammed Comer and the supposed investigation. “Here they go again, pushing their crazy, discredited conspiracy theories in order to score another hit on [Maria] Bartiromo.”

He also suggested that “if extreme House Republicans want to take a look at a White House physician” they’ve got a former one on hand—GOP Rep. Ronny Jackson (or Ronny Johnson, as Trump calls him). Sams helpfully linked a recent Washington Post story about Jackson’s pill-pushing to all and sundry White House staff.

Yes, this latest from Comer is whack and ridiculous, but it’s also an entirely predictable GOP response to Democrats publicly shitting the bed over Biden’s health, and as Markos wrote, their “inability to keep their eye on the ball.”

The longer Democrats feed the traditional media beast with their angst, the more you will see moves like this from the GOP.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Bob Good (R-VA)

Bob Good Suggests 'Election  Fraud' By Trump-Backed Rival In GOP Primary

A week after Virginia’s primaries, the race between Freedom Caucus Chair Bob Good and state Sen. John McGuire remains too close to call, but Good isn’t waiting for the final results to yell fraud. Turns out, election denial works even worse if you’re not convicted felon Donald Trump. It also doesn’t garner you much support when Trump endorsed the other guy.

Good is demanding a revote in the city of Lynchburg, where he is leading in the count, and he is saying that if the revote doesn’t happen, he’ll block certification of the city’s results because, of course, conspiracy theories of fraud.

“They did not secure their drop boxes. There’s no accountability for when those boxes were open. They were apparently left to be stuffed for two or three days after the election,” Good said Monday on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast. “There’s no accountability for who opened those, how many ballots came out.”

In the case that the ballot-stuffing and/or -stealing allegations don’t pan out, Good is also pushing a conspiracy theory about fire alarms that went off in some precincts.

“We had 3 ‘fires’ on election day in 3 precincts, all requiring the precincts to be evacuated for 20 minutes. Albemarle County, Hanover County, and Lynchburg City,” he tweeted last Thursday. “What is the probability? Does anyone recall even 1 fire at a precinct on election day?”

There were no fires, and no one was prevented from voting in any of the incidents, election officials in each county told USA Today.

All of this is being met by ridicule and worse from Good’s Republican colleagues in the House. That might have something to do with the fact that Trump has already declared McGuire the winner.

"[Of] course Bob is claiming election fraud. He is grasping at straws to help save his political career," Rep. Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin told Axios. "If Bob had spent more time working for America and less time trying to dictate to other members of Congress how we could vote for our constituents, we would not be having this conversation. He is a bully and it is time for him to go,” he added.

"F**k Bob Good. Bob Good is a sore loser. His defeat strengthens our majority," one House Republican anonymously told Axios, while another said, "I assume Bob Good is full of s**t."

"What a loser,” Rep. Mike Lawler of New York said, noting that Good won Lynchburg but is still declaring fraud there.

Who knew that House Republicans would ridicule election denial? It seems that because Trump endorsed the other guy, the MAGA crowd just won’t back Good on this one. If Good somehow manages to eke out the win, however, all bets are off on whether they believe fraud happened.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Matt Gaetz

House Ethics Committee Outlines Charges In Gaetz Misconduct Probe

Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida—House chaos agent and primary attention seeker—asserted Monday that there are new “frivolous investigations” against him and that the Ethics Committee had already exonerated him on previous probes.

“The House Ethics Committee has closed four probes into me, which emerged from lies intended solely to smear me,” he tweeted. “They are doing this to avoid the obvious fact that every investigation into me ends the same way: my exoneration.”

In a rare public statement, the Ethics Committee responded, denying Gaetz’s lie that he had been cleared and detailing the initial claims against him, including “sexual misconduct and/or illicit drug use, shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use, and/or accepted a bribe, improper gratuity, or impermissible gift, in violation of House Rules, laws, or other standards of conduct.”

The panel is still probing Gaetz's alleged sexual misconduct and illicit drug use but says it has ceased investigating claims that he shared explicit images on the House floor, used campaign funds for personal reasons, or accepted bribes.

It confirmed that “in the course of its investigation, the Committee has also identified additional allegations that merit review,” and reiterated the myriad sleazy allegations—that Gaetz “engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, accepted improper gifts, dispensed special privileges and favors to individuals with whom he had a personal relationship, and sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct.”

That doesn’t sound like any kind of an exoneration.

Gaetz is still blaming former Speaker Kevin McCarthy for the investigations, even though McCarthy is long gone.

“This is Soviet. Kevin McCarthy showed them the man, and they are now trying to find the crime. I work for Northwest Floridians who won't be swayed by this nonsense and McCarthy and his goons know it,” he said.

Gaetz led the effort to oust McCarthy due to this investigation, over which the former speaker really had no control, and the two have been publicly feuding ever since. McCarthy was also involved in vetting Gaetz’s primary opponent, Aaron Dimmock.

“Gaetz is the Hunter Biden of the Republican Party,” McCarthy told Politico. “He’s got an opponent who is pro-life, pro-Second Amendment, trained at Pensacola, went to the Naval Academy, and flew jets to defend us while Gaetz was getting kicked out of high school, buying coke, and paying minors for sex.”

And now he’s accused of trying to obstruct the investigation of these allegations. What a guy. A normal member of Congress wouldn’t want to draw this kind of attention to themself, but Gaetz sure isn’t normal.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.