Author: Jack Merritt

In response to new reporting that MAGA Speaker Mike Johnson railed against medication abortion and access to telemedicine for reproductive health care, DNC spokesperson Aida Ross released the following statement: 

“MAGA Mike Johnson says something straight out of Donald Trump’s anti-choice playbook every time he opens his mouth, and this rant against medication abortion and telemedicine is just another step in his crusade to rip away reproductive health care from women across the country. Johnson’s plan to further restrict women’s health care and basic freedoms is out of touch and downright cruel — but given Trump’s agenda to ban abortion nationwide, it’s no surprise. If Johnson wants to continue ignoring the voters who keep rejecting Republicans’ anti-choice agenda, he’s in for the loss of a lifetime this November.”

In an unhinged rant, MAGA Mike Johnson railed against access to medication abortion and telemedicine that provides women with necessary reproductive health care.

Johnson: “One of the things we’re trying to be on the lookout for is the rise, the use of chemical abortions because there’s this move towards telemedicine and off-site medical treatment and that kind of thing. So there will be a push and, you know, the other side will say, ‘This is very compassionate, what about the evolving nature of medicine, we need to be able to treat people remotely, and so we’ll just mail them a chemical that will induce the abortion’ — a pill or syringe or whatever it is. 

“We have to be very vigilant about that, the states are going to have to ramp up regulation of off-site medical treatment — and those are good innovations because it helps a lot of people when you’re talking about true medical help. But in the abortion industry, Planned Parenthood and the abortion cartels are going to try their best to maximize profits with that of course, because they always put profit over people. And we’ve got to be watching for that, that’s going to be one of these new emerging areas, I think, as telemedicine takes off and becomes more common and more prevalent. So particularly out in the rural areas, you know, it’s going to be a big thing to watch. 

“So we’ll have some legislation to try and address that as well, but again, I keep coming back to the same issue that, you know, it really comes down to the election if … the pro-abortion Democrats are allowed to maintain control of the House, we’re kind of stuck on go because we can’t move this important legislation. And they’re never going to allow it in any of the larger bills. So we got to be really active and engaged in this cycle.”

Johnson has a long record of attacking reproductive health care — including co-sponsoring the Life at Conception Act, which could rip away access to IVF treatment from families across the country. 

Business Insider: “Most House Republicans have cosponsored a bill declaring that life begins from the moment of conception, a position under increased scrutiny after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are ‘unborn children.’

“This Congress, 125 House Republicans — including Speaker Mike Johnson — have cosponsored the ‘Life at Conception Act,’ which states that the term ‘human being’ includes ‘all stages of life, including the moment of fertilization, cloning, or other moment at which an individual member of the human species comes into being.’

“The bill does not include any exception for in vitro fertilization (IVF), a reproductive treatment that allows mothers to fertilize several eggs outside the womb in order to increase the chances of a viable pregnancy.”

NBC News: “But with the landmark Roe ruling protecting those rights gone, efforts by conservative lawmakers and judges to advance fetal personhood bills pose a real threat to some fertility treatments, including IVF, reproductive rights advocates say.”

Johnson: “🚨🚨BREAKING: Late yesterday, the La. Department of Health informed abortion facilities in our state that the right to life has now been RESTORED!  

Perform an abortion and get imprisoned at hard labor for 1-10 yrs & fined $10K-$100K.”

Jezebel: “[Johnson] expressed hope that Roe v. Wade would someday be overturned, railed against people supposedly ‘using abortion as birth control’ and appeared to blame school shootings on abortion: ‘When you break up the nuclear family, when you tell a generation of people that life has no value, no meaning, that it’s expendable, then you do wind up with school shooters.’”

Reminder: Johnson’s MAGA leader Donald Trump appealed a pandemic-era court order that allowed women to take abortion medication without visiting a doctor in person.

CNBC: “Trump administration asks Supreme Court to reinstate abortion pill restrictions judge has suspended due to coronavirus”

19th News: “The [Trump] administration is currently arguing that the Supreme Court undo a lower court order that allowed people in the pandemic to take mifepristone — a drug used as part of medication abortions — from home, without visiting a doctor in person. Appealing such a ruling straight to the Supreme Court and bypassing the appeals process was uncommon prior to Trump’s presidency, but has become a frequent strategy for the administration.”

NPR: “Supreme Court OKs White House Request To Limit Abortion Pill Access During Pandemic”

Kaiser Family Foundation: “On March 4, 2019, the Trump Administration published new final regulations that restores Reagan-era restrictions regarding abortion and Title X. The primary goal of these regulations is to block the availability of federal funds to family planning providers, such as Planned Parenthood, that also offer abortion services with non-Title X funds and to prohibit sites that receive Title X funds from referring pregnant patients to other providers for abortion services.”

Trump, Johnson, and their MAGA allies have made extremely clear that if given the chance, they’ll ban abortion nationwide.

Rolling Stone: “Trump Wants to Ban Abortion Nationwide: Report”

Trump: “There of course remains a vital role for the federal government in protecting unborn life. And it’s very important.” 

Trump on if he would sign a six-week national abortion ban: “I’m looking at all [options].”

Project 2025: “FDA should … Reverse its approval of chemical abortion drugs because the politicized approval process was illegal from the start. … Now that the Supreme Court has acknowledged that the Constitution contains no right to an abortion, the FDA is ethically and legally obliged to revisit and withdraw its initial approval, which was premised on pregnancy being an ‘illness’ and abortion being ‘therapeutically’ effective at treating this ‘illness.’ The FDA is statutorily charged with guaranteeing the safety and efficacy of drugs and therefore should withdraw this drug that is proven to be dangerous to women and by definition fatally unsafe for unborn children.”

Axios: “The Heritage Foundation, which has proposed detailed policies for a potential GOP administration, argues that Comstock ‘unambiguously prohibits mailing abortion drugs’ and says the next administration should ‘enforce federal law against providers and distributors of [abortion] pills.’”

The Atlantic: “Their next goal will be ending legal abortion in America once and for all. … Their ultimate aim in reviving the Comstock Act is to use it to shut down every abortion facility “in all 50 states.’”

The post 🚨NEW: MAGA Mike Johnson Railed Against Medication Abortion and Telemedicine appeared first on Democrats.

Key Point: “As he mounts his unlikely third-party bid for the presidency, Kennedy is insisting that he is not antivaccine, just pro-vaccine safety. But his long history of promoting misleading claims that undermine public trust in safe, effective inoculations undermines that claim. And public records, news reports, and interviews show that during the measles outbreak five years ago, Kennedy and other key people in his orbit promoted the type of misinformation that public health officials say fueled the spread of the disease, and opposed some government policies intended to stem transmission.”

Boston Globe:  For RFK Jr., measles outbreak was key moment for career as vaccine skeptic. Now he’s downplaying his activism

By: Emma Platoff 

• The 2018-19 measles outbreak was a key moment in Kennedy’s career as a skeptic of vaccines and a crusader against mandates, a record that has sometimes proven inconvenient for the third-party presidential candidate as he looks to broaden his appeal to the general electorate.
  
  
• As he mounts his unlikely third-party bid for the presidency, Kennedy is insisting that he is not antivaccine, just pro-vaccine safety. But his long history of promoting misleading claims that undermine public trust in safe, effective inoculations undermines that claim. And public records, news reports, and interviews show that during the measles outbreak five years ago, Kennedy and other key people in his orbit promoted the type of misinformation that public health officials say fueled the spread of the disease, and opposed some government policies intended to stem transmission.
  
  
• Before the measles outbreak, New York state lawmakers had filed, but never passed, bills to end the religious exemption. In 2019, antivaccine-mandate activists feared that the outbreak would give the measure the political boost it needed to become law. Kennedy played a public role in fighting it. In May, he rallied a large crowd outside the State House in Albany. Some demonstrators merely argued that religious families should be allowed to refuse vaccines, but others went further, promoting discredited theories about the risks of inoculation.
  
  
• “He led rallies in Albany . . . [where] people were being deliberately misled,” Dinowitz said. “I know he says that he’s not against vaccines, but his actions and his words, in my opinion, tell a different story.”
  
  
• But being a Kennedy still meant access. Kennedy called top legislators and mailed them antivaccine books. He was a “key player” in battling the bill, said John Gilmore, executive director of the New York Alliance for Vaccine Rights.
  
  
• But Kennedy and his allies had been preparing for that potential loss for months, corresponding over email and phone calls as they worked on related lawsuits, Sussman said. After the bill passed, the discussions accelerated; they sometimes convened at the Queens home of prominent antivaccine attorney Aaron Siri, whom Kennedy has floated as a potential pick for attorney general. Less than a month after the bill passed, Kennedy and Sussman filed a lawsuit, arguing it amounted to unconstitutional religious animus.
  
  
• The criticism Kennedy has faced for his work on vaccines only underscores his devotion to the cause, Gilmore said. “There was nothing at all for Bobby to gain by coming to New York and doing that work. His work on vaccine-related issues has cost him dearly,” Gilmore said. “He’s doing this because he thinks it’s truth and it’s right.”

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In response to former RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel’s failed attempt to use the media to whitewash her election-denier track record, DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement: 

“Ronna McDaniel’s desperate attempt to whitewash her record as an election-denying MAGA enabler was an insult to independent journalism and to any American who values the truth. Fortunately, much like her and Donald Trump’s conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election, she failed. It’s embarrassing that anyone would try to give McDaniel and her lies a soapbox after she spent years demonstrating such a blatant disregard for the truth, not to mention our entire democratic system. Proven liars who put loyalty to a political demagogue over our democracy have no place in politics – or in the media.”

The post DNC Statement on Ronna McDaniel’s Failure to Whitewash Her Election-Denier Record appeared first on Democrats.

Key Point: “An analysis of the RNC’s various bank accounts indicates that the national party’s financial status, which the GOP has been desperately trying to paint in a positive light, is even worse than it already seemed.”

The Daily Beast: The RNC’s Fundraising Hole Is Even Deeper Than It Looks

By: Roger Sollenberger and Reese Gorman

• It’s no secret that the Republican National Committee is in dire financial straits. But what’s less known is just how bad that situation really is. 

• However, a close examination of the RNC’s recent financial statements reveals that those numbers are hiding some holes. A lot of the RNC’s recent fundraising—millions of dollars of it—is unusable for political spending. Instead, that money can only support a limited range of activities. (As luck would have it, much of that money can be spent on Donald Trump’s legal bills, potentially even to help pay down the judgments against him.)

• An analysis of the RNC’s various bank accounts indicates that the national party’s financial status, which the GOP has been desperately trying to paint in a positive light, is even worse than it already seemed.

• The Daily Beast’s analysis of Federal Election Commission filings found that, of the roughly $22.3 million that the RNC has reported raising this year, more than $8 million of it—about 36 percent—cannot be used for political expenses. (At this same point in 2020, the money in the RNC’s Cromnibus accounts accounted for less than 10 percent—$7.5 million—of the total $77 million cash on hand.)

• The upshot is that while the DNC’s cash advantage has allowed the party to build up its main stash to fuel political activities, the RNC’s financial strains could continue to multiply in unexpected ways as the 2024 election approaches.

• The party is navigating a cash crunch brought on by a combination of poor fundraising and heavy spending, while facing the prospect of devoting major resources to help shore up down-ballot candidates, financially troubled state parties, and its presidential nominee, Trump—who himself faces a fundraising crisis after siphoning tens of millions of dollars from supporters to fund his snowballing personal legal bills.

• This pinch seems particularly tight when it comes to the RNC’s “legal” account. The party has already committed to an aggressive so-called “election integrity” effort, which will be helmed by Trump’s election-denying attorney Christina Bobb. 

• “[E]lection challenges could destroy the RNC financially,” the source continued, “especially if the adults in the room lose control and you see a bunch of frivolous lawsuits, with penalties and sanctions. And [new RNC chair Michael] Whatley, who’s pigeonholed himself as the election integrity guy, he’ll be blamed.”

• And while the national party has pledged not to pay Trump’s personal legal bills, their new joint fundraising agreement prioritizes his Save America leadership PAC, where the majority of disbursements go towards Trump’s stable of attorneys.

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Key Point: “Donald Trump’s getting the band back together. But this time they come with political baggage, conspiracy theories and, in some instances, criminal convictions.”

The Guardian: Headache for campaign team as Trump gets the band back together

By: David Smith

• Donald Trump’s getting the band back together. But this time they come with political baggage, conspiracy theories and, in some instances, criminal convictions.

• If a man is judged by the company he keeps, Trump’s speaks volumes. There was uproar in 2022 when the rapper Kanye West brought the white supremacist Nick Fuentes to dinner at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.

• Trump’s inner circle includes the far-right representatives Matt Gaetz of Florida and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia; Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democrat turned rightwing media personality and outspoken critic of aid to Ukraine; and Vivek Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur who has pushed the “great replacement” theory and claimed that the 6 January 2021 insurrection was an inside job.

• Paul Manafort, a veteran political consultant, could return as a campaign adviser later this year, according to the Washington Post newspaper … Trump pardoned Manafort in 2020, seven months after he was released to home confinement, sparing the Republican operative from serving the bulk of his seven-and-a-half-year prison term for federal tax evasion and bank fraud.

• Meanwhile the New York Times reported that Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s first campaign manager in 2016, could also play a role at the convention. Lewandowski was ousted from a pro-Trump political action committee in 2021 after a major donor’s wife accused him of inappropriate behaviour.
  
  
• Meanwhile Roger Stone, a self-proclaimed dirty trickster who has been a friend and ally of Trump for 30 years, still speaks to him occasionally and was spotted at the Super Tuesday victory party at Mar-a-Lago. Stone was convicted of obstructing a congressional investigation into Trump’s 2016 campaign and sentenced to 40 months in prison before the then president commuted the sentence.

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This week, we’re highlighting some of the crooks, cranks, and convicts that make up Donald Trump’s MAGA GOP. Kicking off today with former RNC chair and full-time liar Ronna McDaniel, DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement: 

“Ronna McDaniel can’t whitewash her record like she’s tried to whitewash history after spending years conspiring with Donald Trump to threaten our democracy and spread lies about the 2020 election. As RNC chair, Ronna enabled the full-scale MAGA takeover of the Republican Party by extremists, grifters, liars, and conspiracy theorists. Make no mistake: Ronna didn’t abandon MAGA, she was fired because she was bad at her job – but she’s no less extreme than the revolving door of liars and MAGA extremists that she left behind. The American people are ready to reject all of them at the ballot box this November, even if NBC won’t.”

Ronna McDaniel spent years promoting lies about the 2020 election – and could face legal trouble for her role in reportedly pressuring election officials to challenge the result of the 2020 election. 

CNN: “In her role as RNC chief, McDaniel also fanned the flames of election denialism after the 2020 presidential contest.

“McDaniel was involved in a phone call in 2020 to pressure Michigan county officials not to certify the vote from the Detroit area, where Joe Biden had a commanding lead. McDaniel told the officials, regarding the certification: ‘Do not sign it. … We will get you attorneys.’”

Newsweek: “The chair of the Republican National Committee, Ronna McDaniel, has been pulled into Donald Trump’s legal quagmire after a report claimed she was involved in efforts to pressure Michigan election officials to challenge the result of the 2020 election.”

Salon: “Law professor: RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel could face legal ‘trouble’ after damning phone call”

Detroit News: “Ronna McDaniel defends call pressuring canvassers not to sign 2020 election certification”

Washington Post: “The head of the GOP is still elevating 2020 election skepticism”

McDaniel’s new gig is unsurprisingly off to a disastrous start thanks to her dishonest track record whitewashing attacks on our democracy.

Igor Bobic, HuffPost: “McDaniel says that she doesn’t hold Trump responsible for Jan. 6, that she didn’t speak out earlier because ‘you kind of take one for the whole team,’ fine w/ donors paying his legal bills, & won’t say if she regrets telling election workers not to certify”

CNN: “NBC hires former RNC chair Ronna McDaniel, who has demonized the press and refused to acknowledge Biden was fairly elected”

Washington Post: “Ronna McDaniel faces sharp criticism after NBC hiring — including on NBC”

Politico: “NBC’s McDaniel mess threatens to explode”

The post Trump’s Crooks, Cranks, and Convicts: Ronna McDaniel Put Our Democracy at Risk With Her Lies and Whitewashing Trump’s Attacks on the 2020 Election appeared first on Democrats.

As Donald Trump continues to put the NRA over keeping Americans safe, DNC Spokesperson Aida Ross released the following statement: 

“Donald Trump told gun violence victims to ‘get over it,’ said mass shootings aren’t a gun problem, and bragged that he’s the NRA’s biggest fan. And as murder rates skyrocketed during his presidency, Trump stood in the way of commonsense gun reform and made it easier for criminals to carry guns — all while lining the gun lobby’s pockets. The contrast couldn’t be clearer: President Biden and Vice President Harris have taken on the gun lobby and prioritized community safety, while Trump’s dangerous soft-on-crime agenda shows he can’t be trusted to keep the American people safe.”

Trump is running on a dangerous agenda that would fail to address gun violence.

Trump:  “I will sign concealed carry reciprocity. Your Second Amendment does not end at the state line.”

CNN: “Trump suggests arming teachers as a solution to increase school safety”

Reuters: “[Trump] also called for eliminating gun-free school zones, adding that such zones leave victims with no means to defend themselves in case of an attack by an armed person.”

CNN: “Guns are the leading cause of death for US children and teens, since surpassing car accidents in 2020. Firearms accounted for nearly 19% of childhood deaths (ages 1-18) in 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Wonder database. Nearly 3,600 children died in gun-related incidents that year. That’s about five children lost for every 100,000 children in the United States.”

KFF: “Firearms were responsible for 20 percent of all child and teen deaths in the U.S. for both 2020 and 2021, compared to an average of less than 2 percent in similarly large and wealthy nations.”

Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions: “Around 4.5 million women in the United States have been threatened with a gun, and nearly 1 million women have been shot or shot at by an intimate partner. Over half of all intimate partner homicides are committed with guns.” 

Pew Research Center: “More than half of all suicides in 2021 – 26,328 out of 48,183, or 55% – also involved a gun, the highest percentage since 2001.”

Pew Research Center: “In 2021, the most recent year for which complete data is available, 48,830 people died from gun-related injuries in the U.S., according to the CDC.”

Donald Trump keeps pandering to the NRA — which has given tens of millions of dollars to his campaigns — and told school shooting victims to “get over it.”

New York Magazine: “President Trump met with survivors of the Parkland school shooting and attempted to convey a sincere intention to act. … What happened next was predictable. Trump met with the head of the NRA. He stopped talking about the issue he was going to solve.”

Rolling Stone: “Trump on Iowa School Shooting: ‘Get Over It’”

“A day after a gunman killed a sixth grade student and wounded five other people at Perry High School northwest of Des Moines, Donald Trump returned to the state at a campaign event and told residents that they ‘have to get over it.’”

Trump: “There’s no bigger fan of the NRA [than me].”

NBC News: “Trump says mass shootings are not ‘a gun problem’ as 2024 GOP hopefuls pledge loyalty to the NRA”

New York Magazine: “After Taunting Republicans for Being Afraid of NRA, Trump Gives In to NRA”

Washington Post: “After latest shooting, Trump pushes Facebook ads ‘straight from the NRA playbook’”

Politico: “Former President Donald Trump on Friday addressed the National Rifle Association’s annual conference in Houston … just three days after a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at a Texas elementary school.”

CNN: “A slew of 2024 GOP presidential hopefuls courted gun rights activists Friday at a National Rifle Association convention in Indianapolis that took place in the wake of mass shootings in Kentucky and Tennessee in recent days. Former President Donald Trump … attended the gathering.”

Yahoo News: “The gun-rights group spent $54 million during the 2016 election cycle, including $30 million to help Donald Trump get elected president.”

Fortune: “For instance, in 2020, the NRA alone spent over $12 million campaigning against Biden and another $4.5 million in favor of Donald Trump.”

Reminder: Trump made the gun epidemic WORSE as president, refusing to pass commonsense gun reform and making it easier for criminals to carry guns — all while the murder rate skyrocketed.

New York Times: “Conceding to N.R.A., Trump Abandons Brief Gun Control Promise”

“President Trump on Monday abandoned his promise to work for gun control measures opposed by the National Rifle Association, bowing to the gun group and embracing its agenda of armed teachers and incremental improvements to the background check system.”

The Hill: “The [Trump] White House on Monday issued a statement warning that President Trump would veto proposed legislation to enhance background checks for gun purchases if it passes the House and Senate.”

Politico: “Trump quietly used regulations to expand gun access”

Associated Press: “FBI: 2020 homicides up nearly 30%, largest 1-year jump ever”

Philadelphia Inquirer: “The Council on Criminal Justice, a D.C.-based research group, found that homicides in 21 American cities were up 32% between March and October compared with 2019. And some analysts believe 2020 could record the largest-ever single-year increase in murders in the United States.”

After signing the first major federal gun safety legislation in decades, President Biden is calling for an assault weapons ban, which would help drastically reduce mass shootings. Trump and MAGA Republicans continue to rail against commonsense reforms.

New York Times: “In the face of N.R.A. opposition, [Trump] has also retreated from his earlier openness to expanded background checks and a renewal of the expired ban on assault weapons.”

Northwestern University: “A federal assault weapon ban was highly effective in reducing public mass shootings, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study just published in a pre-print.” 

Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery: “Conclusion: Mass-shooting related homicides in the United States were reduced during the years of the federal assault weapons ban of 1994 to 2004.”

Every Republican in Congress voted against President Biden and Democrats’ American Rescue Plan, which included hundreds of billions of dollars for state and local governments that could be used to boost local law enforcement. 

ABC News: “President Joe Biden will announce Friday that $10 billion from the American Rescue Plan has been committed to police departments and public safety across the U.S. … These funds show what has been reported from cities through the end of 2021. The COVID-19 relief law included $350 billion for state and local governments to reduce violence.”

White House: “The American Rescue Plan (ARP) has provided over $15 billion to prevent crime and promote public safety, including community violence intervention programs and crisis responders, while Bipartisan Safer Community Act —the most significant gun safety legislation in the last 30 years—provides $250 million in funding for community-based violence prevention initiatives, in addition to key investments for schools to expand mental health services and violence intervention programs.”

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