DNC Chair Jaime Harrison, DNC Women’s Caucus Chair Lottie Shackelford, and DNC Native American Caucus Chair Clara Pratte released the following statement to recognize the anniversary of the signing of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA):
“Thirty years ago today, the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) broke new ground and made historic strides as the first-ever federal legislation aimed at combatting sexual assault, stalking, and domestic violence. Introduced by then-Senator Joe Biden, the VAWA has led to significant declines in domestic violence and each reauthorization has strengthened and expanded its provisions to combat the scourge of gender-based violence. The Violence Against Women Act saves lives, and on its 30th anniversary, the important role it plays in helping victims and survivors cannot be understated.
“Throughout the past four years, President Biden and Vice President Harris have worked to build on the progress of the VAWA. In 2022, they secured record funding for the VAWA reauthorization, closed the boyfriend loophole, and issued a national plan to end gender-based violence. The reauthorization also expanded the special criminal jurisdiction of Tribal courts to cover non-Native perpetrators of sexual assault strengthening tribal sovereignty and further protecting Native Women. While we have come far, we know there is still more work to do.
“In Kamala Harris, we have a proven fighter who has defended child sexual assault victims, gone after predators who abused women, and championed reproductive freedoms nationwide. As president, she will continue to stand up for women, protect survivors, and work to expand the VAWA.
“The same can’t be said for extreme Republicans. With 172 House Republicans voting against the VAWA’s renewal in 2021, it’s clear they aren’t ready or willing to be partners in combating violence against women. That’s why it’s imperative we rally together to vote for Democrats up-and-down the ballot. With Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the White House and a majority in Congress, we will remain dedicated to building a future where all Americans can live free from fear of violence.”
In response to new reporting on Donald Trump’s golf club twice hosting a convicted January 6 rioter and alleged Nazi sympathizer, DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement:
“Donald Trump already disqualified himself when he rallied a mob on January 6 to storm the Capitol – injuring over 140 police officers – and now he’s continuing to show he is unfit for office by tying himself to violent extremists and white nationalists. Trump is a sore loser who has shown no remorse for his attacks on our democracy – instead, he’s doubling down with promises to pardon violent insurrectionists, threats to go after his political opponents, and never-ending election denial lies. Trump lost in 2020 because of his MAGA extremism, and he will lose again this November when the American people choose to stand with democracy and freedom.”
NEW: Donald Trump’s golf club hosted a convicted January 6 rioter and alleged Nazi sympathizer at two events this summer – including an event that was personally endorsed by Trump himself.
NPR: “Trump’s Bedminster club hosted an alleged Nazi sympathizer who stormed the Capitol”
“Twice this past summer, Donald Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, N.J. has featured speeches from a rioter convicted of participating in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, who has a well-documented history of extreme antisemitic and racist rants.
“One of those events — a fundraiser for a controversial nonprofit group that supports Capitol riot defendants — was personally endorsed by Trump himself in a video message that was played for the room.
“‘All of the people there, you’re amazing patriots,’ Trump said in the video.
“As part of his criminal case over Jan. 6, federal prosecutors described the rioter, Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, as a ‘white supremacist and Nazi sympathizer,’ who told his coworkers at a naval weapons station that ‘Hitler should have finished the job’ and ‘babies born with any deformities or disabilities should be shot in the forehead.’
“Court filings featured multiple pictures of Hale-Cusanelli at work with a ‘Hitler mustache.’ A lengthy online video he posted in 2020 attacked what he called a ‘Hasidic Jewish invasion’ of New Jersey and compared orthodox Jews to a ‘plague of locusts.’
“Trump has repeatedly endorsed the nonprofit Patriot Freedom Project, a group founded in direct response to Hale-Cusanelli’s arrest. The group’s founder, Cynthia Hughes, calls herself an ‘adoptive aunt’ to Hale-Cusanelli and spoke about his case at a Trump campaign rally. In 2023, Trump spoke at another Patriot Freedom Project event at Bedminster alongside Hughes.
“Trump has been linked to antisemitic extremists before. In 2022, the former president had dinner at his Mar-a-Lago estate with Nick Fuentes, a white nationalist and Holocaust denier, who used a bullhorn to urge Trump supporters on Jan. 6 to ‘break down the barriers and disregard the police’ … Trump told the extremist group the Proud Boys, whose founder has a history of antisemitic remarks, to ‘stand back and stand by’ at a 2020 presidential debate. During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump initially declined to disavow an endorsement from David Duke, a former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.
“Trump has made support for the Jan. 6 defendants a central plank of his 2024 presidential campaign. His first official campaign rally opened with a rendition of ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ sung by Jan. 6 defendants in jail. He has referred to the defendants as ‘patriots’ and ‘hostages,’ and promised to issue pardons to convicted rioters, including those who assaulted police officers. Approximately 140 officers were injured in the attack on the Capitol.”
Trump continues to celebrate and promise pardons for January 6 insurrectionists, who he calls “hostages” and “patriots”…
MSNBC: “Trump vows to pardon Jan. 6 defendants on ‘Day One’ if he wins the presidential election”
Washington Post: “Trump vows pardons, government apology to Capitol rioters if elected”
Rachel Scott, ABC News: “140 police officers were assaulted [on January 6]. Their injuries included broken bones, at least one officer lost an eye, one had two cracked ribs, two smashed spinal discs, another had a stroke. Were the people who assaulted those 140 officers, including those I just mentioned, ‘patriots’ who deserve pardons?”
[Trump refuses to answer]
Scott: “But sir, my question is on those rioters who assaulted officers. Would you pardon those people?”
Donald Trump: “Oh absolutely I would. If they’re innocent, I would pardon them.”
Scott: “They’ve been convicted.”
Trump: “Those people were treated very harshly … nobody was killed on January 6. But I think that the people of January 6 were treated very unfairly … they were there to complain about an election, and you know it’s very interesting, the biggest crowd I’ve ever spoken to.”
The Hill: “Trump describes imprisoned Jan. 6 rioters as ‘hostages’”
TIME: “Trump has sought to recast the insurrectionist riot as an act of patriotism. ‘I call them the J-6 patriots,’ Trump tells TIME. When asked whether he would consider pardoning every one of them, he says: ‘Yes, absolutely.’”
NBC News: “Former President Donald Trump promised Wednesday night that if he is elected he will pardon a ‘large portion’ of the people convicted of federal offenses for their participation in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.”
Trump: “January 6, it was the largest crowd I’ve ever spoken to. And they were there proud, they were there with love in their heart. That was an unbelievable — and it was a beautiful day.”
… while his running mate JD Vance downplays the violence on January 6.
The Hill: “JD Vance says he is ‘skeptical’ Pence’s life was in danger on Jan. 6”
Politico: “[Vance] downplayed the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, when Pence was forced to evacuate the building as rioters called for his hanging.”
Trump is still pushing lies about his loss by over 7 million votes in the 2020 election. Vance is right there with him – they are both casting doubt on this November’s results.
New York Times: “[Trump] has baselessly and publicly cast doubt about the fairness of the 2024 election about once a day, on average, since he announced his candidacy for president.”
Associated Press: “[Trump] is flooding the airwaves and his social media platform with distortions, misinformation and unfounded conspiracy theories about his defeat.”
NBC News: “Re-litigating the 2020 election, repeating false claims it was stolen and casting aspersions on the security of mail voting remain major fixtures for [Trump] on the stump. … He regularly refers to the 2020 election as ‘rigged’ on his social media channels.”
HuffPost: “[Vance] said he would accept a Biden win only if he considered the election to be legitimate. … Vance’s comments illustrate a new tactic by Republican lawmakers, who are now placing conditions on accepting election results.”
New York Times: “J.D. Vance Says He Would Accept the Election Results, With a Caveat”
Vance: “I think the entire post-2020 thing would have gone a lot better if there had actually been an effort to provide alternative slates of electors, and to force us to have that debate. I think it would’ve been a much better thing for the country. … [Trump] was trying to take a constitutional process to its natural conclusion.
“I think it would’ve been extraordinarily disappointing to a whole host of people that I care a lot about if Trump had just taken it [and conceded the 2020 election before January 6].”
Vance: “No real Republican with any credibility in the party is still blaming [Trump for January 6].”
ABC News: “JD Vance says [he] wouldn’t have certified 2020 race until states submitted pro-Trump electors”
New York Times: “[Vance] has said that, unlike Vice President Mike Pence in 2020, he would have helped Mr. Trump overturn the results, by accepting Trump electors that had not been elected by voters.”
Trump is seeking power to go after his opponents — as he is vowing to be a dictator on “day one,” won’t stop echoing dictators, and has warned of a “bloodbath” if he loses in November.
Washington Post: “Trump pledges to jail opponents, baselessly suggests election will be stolen from him”
Edward-Isaac Dovere, CNN: “Many people have lost American presidential elections over the last 230 years – Trump is the only one to say about violence if he loses ‘it depends.’”
NBC News: “Trump says there will be a ‘bloodbath’ if he loses the election”
The Atlantic: “Trump Says He’ll Be a Dictator on ‘Day One’”
Trump: “You won’t have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what – it will be fixed, it will be fine. You won’t have to vote anymore.”
Vance: “I think what Donald Trump is simply saying is we ought to investigate the prior administration.”
Associated Press: “Trump declines to rule out abusing power to seek retribution if he returns to the White House”
Washington Post: “Trump calls political enemies ‘vermin,’ echoing dictators Hitler, Mussolini”
The Guardian: “Donald Trump vows to lock up his political enemies if he is president again.”
In response to Donald Trump continuing to attempt to distance himself from his own running mate, JD Vance, DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement:
“JD Vance’s fanbase is shrinking by the day – and now he’s on the outs with his own boss. Trump made his buyer’s remorse clear on the debate stage as he tried to distance himself from his running mate’s own dishonest spin – instead doubling down on his welldocumented anti-choice extremism. Trump brags about overturning Roe and has opened the door to a national abortion ban while Vance himself has said he wants abortion to be ‘illegal nationally’ – and their Project 2025 agenda would rip away women’s freedoms across the country with or without Congress. While Trump and Vance are running on a losing, out-of-touch agenda, Vice President Harris and Governor Walz will continue to hold them accountable for their cruel extremism and fight for our freedoms.”
Donald Trump is still trying to distance himself from his own extreme running mate JD Vance as Vance continues to be an historically unpopular VP pick.
Daily Beast: “Trump Throws JD Vance Under the Bus on Abortion During Presidential Debate”
MSNBC: “In 2016, Trump became the first presidential candidate to distance himself from his own running mate during a debate. In 2024, he did it again.”
New Republic: “J.D. Vance Can’t Explain Why Trump Threw Him Under the Bus in Debate”
Trump on a national abortion ban: “I didn’t discuss it with JD, in all fairness. JD — and I don’t mind if he has a certain view.”
Vance admitted that Trump has NEVER told him that he would veto a national abortion ban – and Trump himself refused to answer if he would veto one on the debate stage.
Jon Karl, ABC News: “Why won’t [Trump] just say he would veto a national abortion ban? And by the way, had you spoken to him about it before you were put in a position to answer that question?”
The Hill: “Trump refuses to say he would veto a national abortion ban”
Vance is making history as the most disliked VP nominee our country has seen in decades, and many Americans – including Trump himself – don’t think he’s ready to lead.
Trump: “I’ve always had great respect for him. And for the other candidates too. But I will say this, and I think this is well documented; Historically, the vice president in terms of the election does not have any impact, I mean virtually no impact.”
Newsweek: “JD Vance Is the Least Liked VP Nominee in Decades, According to Polls”
“JD Vance is the first non-incumbent vice presidential nominee to have a net-negative favorable rating after a convention since 1980, according to poll numbers.”
Salon: “‘Making history in the completely wrong way’: JD Vance is really unpopular and ‘dragging Trump down’”
“Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, is making history as Donald Trump’s 2024 running mate, but not in the way that the Trump campaign had hoped. According to a CNN survey taken after the Republican National Convention, Vance has an approval rating of -6 points, making him the first vice presidential nominee to enter the general election with a negative rating since 1980.
“‘Frankly, I don’t really understand the pick, and apparently neither do the American voters,’ CNN data analyst Harry Enten said on Tuesday’s OutFront with Erin Burnett. Vance, he said, is ‘dragging Trump down.’”
Newsweek: “Nearly four in 10 people do not believe Donald Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, is ready for the presidency if necessary, according to a new survey…
“The poll also found that one-third (33 percent) were not sure if Vance was ready for the presidency or not. This is a possible sign that the Hillbilly Elegy author, who has been a senator for less than two years, still needs to raise his national political profile since being named as the Republican vice presidential nominee…
“It has already been suggested that Trump may have made a mistake in picking Vance as his 2024 running mate.”
Vance is the Project 2025 poster boy: He has deep ties to Project 2025 architects, has praised the extreme MAGA blueprint as containing “good ideas,” and “has made it impossible for Trump to run away from Project 2025.”
Vance: “I’ve reviewed a lot of [Project 2025]. There are some good ideas in there.”
New York Times: “Vance Championed 2017 Report on Families From Architects of Project 2025”
Vox: “J.D. Vance has made it impossible for Trump to run away from Project 2025”
Vox: “Vance is on record supporting these [Project 2025] ideas. Last year, he signed a letter demanding that the Justice Department prosecute physicians and pharmacists ‘who break the Federal mail-order abortion laws.’ In 2022, he said he was ‘sympathetic’ to the idea that the federal government should stop efforts to help women traveling out of their states to get abortions. … The second controversial area where Vance is sympatico with Project 2025 is centralizing presidential power over the executive branch.”
Axios: “J.D. Vance wrote foreword of upcoming book from Project 2025 architect”
New Republic: “Project 2025 Leader Is Overjoyed by Trump’s Vice Presidential Pick”
Vox: “Kevin Roberts, the president of the right-wing Heritage Foundation and the driving force behind Project 2025, told Ward that ‘[Vance] is absolutely going to be one of the leaders — if not the leader — of our movement.’”
Nick Corasaniti, New York Times: “[Roberts] reacted to the news [of Vance’s VP selection] ‘with a broad smile on my face’ and said that ‘privately, we were really rooting for him.’”
Politico: “[Project 2025 architect Russell Vought] told POLITICO Magazine that he is in ‘regular contact’ with Vance’s Hill office and that ‘we probably have one of the closest relationships with [Vance’s] office that we do with any Hill office.’”
REMINDER: Vance supports a national abortion ban and owns his extreme anti-choice record.
CNN: “JD Vance said in 2022 he ‘would like abortion to be illegal nationally’”
“During a podcast interview in January 2022, then-candidate JD Vance said he ‘certainly would like abortion to be illegal nationally’ and was ‘sympathetic’ to the view that a national ban was necessary to stop women from traveling across states to obtain an abortion.”
Vance: “I am 100 percent pro-life, and believe that abortion has turned our society into a place where we see children as an inconvenience to be thrown away rather than a blessing to be nurtured. Eliminating abortion is first and foremost about protecting the unborn, but it’s also about making our society more pro-child and pro-family.The historic Dobbs decision puts this new era of society into motion, one that prioritizes family and the sanctity of all life.”
Newsweek: “J.D. Vance Backs ‘National Standard’ for Abortions”
Daily Beast: “J.D. Vance suggested he would support prohibiting abortion even in cases of rape and incest—and dismissed those catalysts as ‘inconvenient.’”
The Hill: “During his campaign for Senate, Vance applauded the overturning of Roe v. Wade and supported Texas’s ban on abortion, which does not allow exceptions other than cases where the mother’s life is at risk.
“‘Two wrongs don’t make a right,’ he said in 2021 when asked whether abortion laws should allow for exceptions for rape and incest.”
JD Vance: “I think that what I really think on – so first of all, the Dobbs decision, everybody knows, overruled Roe v. Wade – I think that was the right decision.”
NBC News: “Senate Republicans block Democratic bill codifying Roe v. Wade abortion protections”
“Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked legislation led by Democrats to revive the protections of Roe v. Wade in the wake of the Supreme Court eliminating the nationwide right to abortion.”
Republicans who voted against include: JD Vance.
Letter Signed by Vance and Other Members of Congress: “Abortion is not health care—it is a brutal act that destroys the life of an unborn child and hurts women. Congress did not authorize HHS to extend special provisions for abortion such as these under the guise of ‘health care.’ The Proposed Rule unlawfully thwarts the enforcement of compassionate laws protecting unborn children and their mothers, and directs health care providers to defy lawful court orders and search warrants.”
In response to RNC Chair Michael Whatley crediting Donald Trump with overturning Roe v. Wade, DNC Rapid Response Spokesperson Aida Ross released the following statement:
“Donald Trump handpicked an RNC chair in his own image: an anti-choice MAGA extremist who credits Trump with overturning Roe v. Wade. Michael Whatley knows Trump is ‘absolutely’ the reason for draconian abortion bans across the country, and is all-in on helping him regain power and continue to push his dangerous anti-choice agenda. The contrast was clearer than ever at last night’s debate: Vice President Harris will protect the reproductive freedoms that Trump and his MAGA minions are so hellbent on ripping away.”
RNC Chair Michael Whatley credited Donald Trump for “absolutely” overturning Roe v. Wade.
Blake Burman, NewsNation: “So when Kamala Harris tonight potentially looks at Donald Trump and says you are the reason for the overturning of Roe, what does he say?”
Whatley: “Absolutely right.”
Trump loves to brag about how he overturned Roe, paving the way for extreme abortion bans across the country and attacks on IVF access.
Trump: “I was proudly the person responsible for the ending of … Roe v. Wade.”
Trump: “We broke Roe v. Wade and we did something that nobody thought was possible. We gave it back to the states, and the states are working very brilliantly … But they’re working, and it’s working the way it’s supposed to.”
Trump: “For 54 years they were trying to get Roe v. Wade terminated, and I did it, and I’m proud to have done it. … Nobody else was going to get that done but me, and we did it, and we did something that was a miracle.”
Trump: “After 50 years of failure, with nobody coming even close, I was able to kill Roe v. Wade, much to the ‘shock’ of everyone … Without me there would be no 6 weeks, 10 weeks, 15 weeks, or whatever is finally agreed to. Without me the pro Life movement would have just kept losing. Thank you President TRUMP!!!”
Trump: “I’m the one that got rid of Roe v. Wade, and everybody said that was an impossible thing to do. I put on three Supreme Court justices. Very few people have had that privilege or honor.”
Trump: “Getting rid of Roe v. Wade was an incredible thing for pro-life because it gave pro-life something to negotiate with. Pro-life had absolutely nothing, being stuck in Roe v. Wade, to negotiate with. … And look, everybody that was president wanted to get rid and tried to get rid of Roe v. Wade … For fifty years, this has been going on. I was able to do it, and I was very honored to do it.”
New York Times: 22 states across the country currently have abortion bans.
New York Times: “[The Alabama Supreme Court ruling on IVF was] made possible by the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in its 2022 Dobbs decision, which was a result of Mr. Trump’s appointment of three justices.”
The 19th: “RNC approves platform that would give rights to fetuses, endangering abortion, IVF”
Rolling Stone: “Trump Claims Credit for All Abortion Bans”
Fox News: “Trump says he’s ‘proud to be the most pro-life president’ in US history on anniversary of Roe v. Wade overturn”
Business Insider: “Trump boasts he’s ‘proud’ about his role in overturning Roe v. Wade, the issue that has become ballot-box poison for Republicans”
Rolling Stone: “Trump Says He’s ‘Proud’ to Have ‘Terminated’ Abortion Rights”
Trump campaign radio ad: “And Trump nominated conservative judges, leading to Roe v. Wade being overturned.”
Whatley is an anti-choice extremist who celebrated the overturning of Roe, called North Carolina’s cruel abortion ban “responsible,” and supported a MAGA platform that could threaten IVF access.
Raleigh News & Observer: “Michael Whatley, chairman of the N.C. GOP, said he was proud of activism on the part of the anti-abortion movement” [after Roe v. Wade was overturned]
Whatley on North Carolina’s extreme abortion ban: “Well I think it’s a responsible bill, I think that this is a legislative package that is well within the mainstream of North Carolina political thought, it’s going to be supported, these are positions that are widely supported across the state.”
Popular Information: “Trump’s pick for chair of the Republican Party opposes ‘the destruction of human embryos’”
“Under [Whatley’s] leadership, the North Carolina Republican Party has consistently opposed scientific procedures that involve discarding human embryos, saying such actions violate ‘the sanctity of all human life.’ The most recent version of the North Carolina Republican Party Platform, approved in 2022, states that ‘[u]nborn children have constitutional rights to life and liberty and, the government must respect and protect all innocent human life from conception to natural death.’ Specifically, the party opposes ‘the destruction of human embryos.’ A previous version of the platform under Whatley, approved by the North Carolina Republican Party in 2020, contains identical language. … The position of the North Carolina GOP under Whatley on embryos mirrors a recent decision by the Alabama Supreme Court.”
During last night’s debate, Harris called out Trump for a new analysis from the Wharton School – his alma mater – estimating that the Trump campaign tax and spending proposals would increase primary deficits by $5.8 trillion over 10 years
Today’s strong CPI report continues to show annual inflation at an over three-year low as the Biden-Harris administration continues to work tirelessly to lower costs, bolster the economy, and turn the page on inflation. Under their leadership, annual inflation is down to 2.5% — the lowest in more than three years – wages have risen faster than prices 18 months in a row, Americans are seeing gas prices are down almost 60 cents from last year, and nearly 16 million jobs have been created, with 44 months of consecutive job growth.
Moody’s Analytics projected that Trump’s economic plan would cause inflation to rise, costs to soar, and trigger a recession — and even Trump’s own alma mater, the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, issued a report estimating that the Trump campaign tax and spending proposals would increase primary deficits by $5.8 trillion over the next 10 years.
The Biden-Harris administration’s tireless work to to lower inflation and drive down costs for hardworking is paying off for Americans.
Heather Long, Washington Post: “JUST IN: More good news on inflation. The US inflation rate cooled to 2.5% (y/y) in August, the lowest since February 2021. This gives the Fed and everyone else more confidence the inflation battle has been won.
“Lower gas prices, lower electricity costs and lower used car prices helped bring down inflation in August. The monthly price growth was just 0.2% (as expected)
‘Core’ inflation remained at 3.2% —> lowest since April 2021”
Axios: “New CPI report shows another month of cooling inflation”
NEW: During last night’s debate, Trump took the bait after Harris brought up that the Penn-Wharton Budget Model projects Trump’s disastrous MAGAnomics agenda would increase the national deficit by an additional $5.8 trillion over the next 10 years while he gives tax cuts to his ultra-wealthy friends, leaving behind hardworking families.
CNN: “The Penn-Wharton Budget Model, which doesn’t take into account new proposals Trump made last week as well as ending taxes on tips, estimates that his proposals could cause the deficit to increase by an additional $5.8 trillion over the next 10 years…
“Meanwhile, the tax proposals Harris has put forth so far mostly involve imposing higher taxes, which would have a positive impact on the deficit. For instance, she’s endorsed raising the top individual income tax rate to 44.6% and the top long-term capital gains tax rate to 28% versus the current 20%. And on the corporate side, she’s in favor of raising the tax rate to 28%.”
CBS News: “Trump’s plan would result in tax cuts for all, but the results for Americans vastly differ from Harris’ proposal, according to an analysis by the Penn Wharton Budget Model. Under Trump, everyone would receive a tax cut, but the lowest earners — those making under $19,600 — would just see a $320 difference in take-home pay, whileunder Harris, that same income group would have another $2,355 after taxes. The very highest earners under Trump would receive a tax break of $376,910, according to the Penn Wharton analysis.”
Reuters: “These changes would likely add $3.6 trillion to $6.6 trillion to primary U.S. deficits over 10 years, according to published individual and comprehensive estimates from four budget forecasters reviewed by Reuters: the Penn-Wharton Budget Model, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), the Tax Foundation and Oxford Economics.”
REMINDER: Trump’s economic agenda would jack up prices for hardworking families – costing typical middle-class families nearly $4,000 a year – trigger a recession by mid-2025, and send inflation skyrocketing.
CBS News: “Trump has pledged to end the “inflation nightmare.” But his policies, which include adding tariffs to all imported goods, would likely fuel inflation and reverse some of the progress of the last two years, some economists say.”
Center for American Progress: “A typical family would, therefore, pay between $2,500 to $3,900 from Trump’s import taxes, depending on the precise tax rate between 10 percent and 20 percent that various countries’ goods could be taxed at.”
Axios: “Trump’s inflation bomb: How his second-term plans could make it worse”
Axios: “Trump plans would add $5.8 trillion to national debt”
Wall Street Journal: “Economists Say Inflation Would Be Worse Under Trump Than Biden”
USA Today: “According to a Moody’s study, Trump’s plan would trigger a recession by mid-2025 and an economy that grows an average 1.3% annually during his four-year term vs. 2.1% under Biden. (The latter is in line with average growth in the decade before the pandemic.)”
Vanity Fair: “Donald Trump Wants to Give His Favorite Corporations Another Giant Tax Cut in a Second Term: Report”
In response to RNC Chair Michael Whatley refusing to commit to accepting November’s election results if Trump loses, DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement:
“Ahead of tonight’s debate, Donald Trump is sending out extreme election deniers like JD Vance and Michael Whatley to shill for him because he knows they’ll cover for his defeat by over 7 million votes in 2020. But even if Vance and Whatley are willing to debase themselves today, voters remember Trump’s loss in 2020 – and they’re ready to deliver the same result again in November.”
NEW: Notorious election denier RNC Chair Michael Whatley refused to commit to accepting November’s election results if Trump loses.
Kyra Phillips, ABC News: “Michael, if indeed [Trump] does not win, is this going to be a peaceful transition?”
Whatley: “Look, if we have a fair, accurate, secure, and transparent election, we obviously are going to accept the results.”
Trump’s running mate JD Vance just yesterday spewed election denialism by once again saying he would not have certified the 2020 election results.
Spectrum News: “Vance again says he wouldn’t have certified 2020 election if he was vice president”
Jason Calacanis: “Would you have certified the [last result of the election]?”
Vance: “Again, I would have asked the states to submit alternative slates of electors and let the country have the debate about what actually matters and what kind of an election that we have.”
Calacanis: “You wouldn’t have certified, to be clear?”
Vance: “I would have asked the states to submit alternative slates of electors, that’s what I would have done.”
Trump elevated Whatley to lead the RNC because of his extreme history of election denial.
New York Times: “Mr. Trump likes Mr. Whatley for one overwhelming reason, according to people who have discussed him with the former president: He is ‘a stop the steal guy,’ as one of the people described him. He endorses Mr. Trump’s false claims about mass voter fraud … Mr. Whatley has baselessly claimed that election security efforts from Republicans in North Carolina stopped Democrats from cheating.”
New York Times: “Trump’s Man at the R.N.C. Will Face Pressure to Satisfy His Election Lies”
New York Magazine: “Trump Taps Election Deniers Lara Trump, Michael Whatley to Lead RNC”
Associated Press: “In pushing Michael Whatley as the next leader of the Republican National Committee, Donald Trump zeroed in on the North Carolina GOP chairman’s dedication to ‘election integrity,’ baselessly suggesting he would ensure the 2024 race ‘can’t be stolen.”
Washington Post: “Trump repeated his false claims of the 2020 election being stolen and said that Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley was the most important person in the room because he is ‘going to stop the cheating.’
“‘We call it save the vote, guard the vote, stop the steal,’ he said, referring to what the RNC needed to be doing. The RNC has launched a program called ‘Bank Your Vote’ to bring in early votes.”
“Michael Whatley, the chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party, shared false claims that Republican observers were prevented from accessing polling locations and repeatedly said Democratic cities in swing states were engaged in ‘massive fraud.’ …
“His elevation to RNC chair could give Trump a loyalist more willing to devote resources to pursue future voter fraud claims in court should they arise…
“‘Regardless of how these lawsuits come out around the country with the presidential race we do know that there was massive fraud that took place,’ Whatley said in one late November 2020 interview on local North Carolina radio. ‘We know that it took place in places like Milwaukee and Detroit and Philadelphia.’”
Raleigh News & Observer: “Whatley has frequently repeated Trump’s false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election.”
Vice: “North Carolina Republican chair Michael Whatley falsely claimed in February that ‘we certainly saw evidence of voting irregularities, of election counting irregularities in a number of places around the country,’ and invented the claim that the reason Trump won North Carolina was his state party’s vigilance against Democrats’ attempts to cheat.”
Whatley has embraced Trump’s lies about January 6, refusing to hold Trump responsible for his role in the riot.
Steve Inskeep, NPR: “Did you agree with him on substance, that the president was responsible for provoking the riot on January 6?”
Whatley: “I think that what we saw on January 6 was absolutely horrific. It was beyond the pale. But at the end of the day, the people who attacked the Capitol bear the blame and the fault and the responsibility for attacking the Capitol.”
Inskeep: “Does the president bear any responsibility for lying to them for months about the results of the election, including on the day of the riot?”
Whatley: “Well, I think the president certainly felt and still feels that there was massive voter irregularities across the country.”
On Tuesday, RFK Jr. will appear in the spin room on behalf of Donald Trump at the ABC debate in Philadelphia. Donald Trump is so desperate for someone to speak on his behalf he’s asking a man who has called him “a threat to democracy,” “a sociopath,” and “barely human” to spin for him. RFK is so desperate for attention that he agreed.
In response DNC Spokesperson Matt Corridoni said:
“Donald Trump is so desperate for support he’s scraping the bottom of the barrel and coming up with RFK Jr. as his spin room surrogate. Equally desperate, RFK Jr. is willing to sell his soul for attention — abandoning any integrity he had left. Both of these men are driven by their egos and desire for attention and that will be on full display after the debate tonight.”
RFK Jr. Has Repeatedly Criticized Donald Trump’s Disposition— Calling Him “A Terrible Human Being,” “Barely Human,” “Unhinged,” And “Probably A Sociopath”
The New Yorker: “ In a recent text exchange, Kennedy told one person that Trump was ‘a terrible human being. The wors[t] president ever and barely human. He is probably a sociopath.’”
The Guardian: “Robert F Kennedy Jr. has dismissed Donald Trump as ‘unhinged’ after a social media tirade from the former Republican president accused the independent White House hopeful of being a ‘Democrat plant’ and ‘wasted protest vote’. ‘When frightened men take to social media they risk descending into vitriol, which makes them sound unhinged,’ Kennedy wrote on Saturday on X in a post that doubled as a debate challenge. ‘President Trump’s rant against me is a barely coherent barrage of wild and inaccurate claims that should best be resolved in the American tradition of presidential debate.’”
RFK Jr. Said He’s “Not A Fan of Trump,” Opposed “Donald Trump And All That He Stands For,” And Pledged to Show Voters How Trump “Betrayed Their Hopes”
Newsmax: “I am not a fan of President Trump. And I can talk a lot about the reasons why, but that’s why I’m running against him.”
CBS News: “‘One can, as I do, oppose Donald Trump and all he stands for […]’ Kennedy said.”
CNN: RFK Jr.: “And so if Donald Trump does — Donald Trump a lot of things wrong, and I call him on it.”
RFK Jr. Called Donald Trump “A Threat To Democracy” And “Appalling” For His Involvement In The Attacks On The Capitol On January 6
Newsmax: RFK JR.: “‘I think that is a threat to democracy, [Trump] overthrowing — trying to overthrow the election — clearly is a threat to democracy,’ he said. ‘But the question was, Who is a worse threat to democracy? […] I’m not going to defend President Trump on that, and it was appalling. And there’s many things that President Trump has done that are appalling,’ he added.”
Scott Melker YouTube: “And he mounted an assault on the United States Constitution.”
RFK Jr. Said Donald Trump Didn’t Have The “Right” To Wear the American Flag Pin
Newsweek: “Targeting both Biden and Trump, he was scathing at times and at one point condemned them saying: ‘Both these presidents swore to uphold the Constitution. They’re both wearing American flag pins. That’s easy to do. That’s an accessory.’ ‘I don’t believe they have the right to wear those American flag pins,’ he added.”
RFK Jr. Criticized Donald Trump’s First Term For Being “Catastrophic,” Said Trump Didn’t Deserve A Chance At A Second Term, And Called Him a “Bad,” “Terrible” President
MSNBC: RFK JR:” I can explain I’m running against him so obviously I don’t want him to be president of the United States and I don’t think he did a good job.”
Newsweek: “‘I’m not a fan of President Trump, I’m running against him, I think he was a bad president […]”
Breaking Points: RFK Jr.: “… I think Donald Trump was a terrible president. I think a lot of the things he talks about, he talks about winding down the military industrial complex, but he didn’t do that […] And if you look at the way he governed, he said he was going to drain the swamp. He brought a pharmaceutical industry lobbyist in to run HHS. He brought oil lobbyists in from the Interior Department. He brought a whole lobbyist in to run the EPA. He bought a Verizon executive in to run the FCC. He ran he brought a a banker run the Treasury Department and, uh, and so, you know, and he brought John Bolton and to run the NSA and he brought an oil executive and to run the State Department. So these are swamp creatures. He wasn’t draining the swamp. He was turning the government over to corporate, uh, pirates.”
New York Times: “And [Trump] caved into his bureaucracy and let them roll over him. So I don’t think he, you know, I just— I think both of these, uh, that it’s scary thinking about what could happen […].”
Washington Times: “‘Donald Trump knew what was wrong,’ Mr. Kennedy said on Glenn Beck’s radio show. ‘He knew not to shut down our businesses and he knew about lockdowns, he knew about ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine. He said it, he tried to speak up but his own bureaucrats told him to shut up, and he unfortunately did what he was told.’ ‘That’s why I think that he doesn’t deserve another chance,’ he said. Mr. Kennedy also said Dr. Fauci has not been jailed ‘because Joe Biden is president and because unfortunately, Donald Trump … was run over by him.’”
RFK Jr. Railed Against Donald Trump’s Economic Policies— Criticizing Him for Racking Up Debt, Passing Tax Cuts That Benefited The Wealthy, And “Scamming American Workers”
WABC: RFK Jr: “President Trump ran up a bigger debt, $8 Trillion than all the presidents in American history combined before him for 283 years of our government.”
Washington Times: “[Mr. Kennedy] says Mr. Trump’s 2017 tax cuts were skewed toward big corporations instead of the ‘little guy.’”
Scott Melker Youtube: RFK Jr.: “He promised to balance the budget. He printed $8 trillion with the currency. I think it was more than any all the presidents combined from George Washington and George W Bush.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., @RobertKennedyJr: “Taxing unrealized gains is utterly absurd. Stock can plummet before you ever sell it and you still have to pay taxes on what you would have made if you sold it earlier. Same goes for the terrible changes to the tax code for amortization of the ability to write off R&D costs that kick in this year to pay for Trump’s 2017 tax cut.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., @RobertKennedyJr: “President Trump scammed American workers. He promised to bring back manufacturing, raise wages, fix trade deals, close the carried interest loophole, and help small farmers. But everything President Trump achieved were things the Republican machine wanted.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., @RobertKennedyJr:“Unfortunately, the man the working class has turned to, Donald Trump, offers them little beyond bombast and bluster. His massive tax cut benefited mostly the wealthy.”
RFK Jr. Criticized Donald Trump For Filling His Administration With “Swamp Creatures” And “Corporate Pirates”
Breaking Points: “He wasn’t draining the swamp. He was turning the government over to corporate pirates.”
Piers Morgan Uncensored: “I think people cannot take seriously his promise that he’s going to drain the swamp if he actually once again brings these swamp creatures into run our government.”
1819 News: “‘President Trump had, I think, double the amount of lobbyists than any President in United States history running our agencies,’ Kennedy said. ‘You can’t reform them when you’ve got the swamp creatures running them […]’”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., @RobertKennedyJr:“Trump appointed the worst neocons to the highest positions of power in his administration: John Bolton, HR McMaster, and Robert O’Brien. Now, Lindsey Graham is one of his top advisors and likely to be his Secretary of State.”
RFK Jr. Slammed Donald Trump’s Foreign Policy Positions
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., @RobertKennedyJr.: “President Trump’s imperial plan is both absurd and terrifying. It is not an America First strategy, nor will it make America great. Instead it will prolong the agony of our failed world domination strategy, here and abroad.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., @RobertKennedyJr.:“President Trump bragged about arming Ukraine more than Obama did. He also walked away unilaterally from the intermediate range nuclear missile treaty with Russia, destabilizing our relationship. He also exacerbated tensions between Ukraine and Russia that ultimately caused a war.”
Inman Connect 2024: RFK Jr.: “Trump is saying, well, we need to increase our military. That’s the opposite of what we need to do. We need to do is cut the military in half.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., @RobertKennedyJr.:“President Trump bombed Syria, killed an Iranian general, and failed to fulfill his promise of ending the war in Afghanistan.”
RFK Jr. Has Repeatedly Called Donald Trump A “Bully” And Said That He Threatened Democracy At Home And Abroad
CNN: “For years, Kennedy has repeatedly condemned Trump, referring to him as a ‘bully,’ who appealed to ‘bigotry,’ ‘hatred,’ ‘xenophobia’ and ‘prejudice.’”
CNN: “In August 2016, during an interview with Larry King, Kennedy expressed deep concerns about Trump’s rise to power, calling it ‘scary.’ Kennedy noted the potential harm of leaders who exploit these darker elements of society. ‘The easiest thing for a political leader to do is to appeal to our bigotry and our hatred and xenophobia and prejudice, and point to people who are unlike us and say they’re the ones who are damaging our country,’ he said.”
CNN: “‘Everybody knows the difference between leadership and bullying.’ ‘President Trump has not only brought this country into disrepute around the globe, but he has also brought into disrepute the entire American experience with self-governance,’ he continued.”
CNN: “At the same 2018 event, Kennedy suggested Trump’s leadership had damaged American attempts to spread democracy worldwide. ‘If you live in China today, and you’re looking at what’s happening in the United States, why would you ever say, we wanna switch our system for that system, which can produce that kind of buffoonery at a high level,’ added Kennedy. ‘I think President Trump is purposefully and systematically encouraging tyrannical governments around the world.’”
CNN: “Speaking with Yahoo Finance in January 2020, Kennedy made similar comments. ‘Well, I think the problem is, number one, he’s a bully. And you know, I don’t like bullies and I don’t think – America – that’s part of America’s tradition. I think in many ways he’s discredited the American experiment with self-governance,’ Kennedy added.”
RFK Jr. Said Donald Trump “Inflamed Racial Tensions” And Failed To Maintain Law And Order
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., @RobertKennedyJr: “We had the worst rioting and looting this country had seen since the 60s under President Trump. He inflamed racial tensions and didn’t keep us safe. Instead of using federal law enforcement to stop the rioting, Trump thought it was good optics to let Democrat-run cities burn.”
The MAGA House and Senate GOP have returned for their final round before Election Day, and the American people deserve more than what they saw last time Congress was in session: chaos, infighting, and political gamesmanship designed to serve one man – Donald Trump — above the American people. This Congress, MAGA congressional Republicans’ tenure has been defined by what they’ve failed to do: work across the aisle to pass meaningful legislation to benefit the American people, including tanking safeguards for our reproductive freedoms and blocking the toughest, fairest bipartisan border deal in decades at Trump’s behest. Now that Congress is back in session, the American people deserve a straight answer from Trump’s MAGA minions in Congress on these questions:
1. As a MAGA member of one of the least productive sessions of Congress in American history, will you finally give up the chaos and focus on passing legislation that would help the American people?
ABC News: “118th Congress on track to become one of the least productive in US history”
Axios: “The 118th Congress is on track to be one of the most unproductive in modern history, with just a couple dozen laws on the books at the close of 2023, according to data from data analytics firm Quorum.”
Axios: “Republicans livid as chaos threatens to cannibalize House majority”
CBS News: “Rep. Mike Turner says there is a ‘chaos caucus’ who want to block any congressional action”
2. Do you stand by Donald Trump’s demands to kill the bipartisan border deal? Will you continue to block bipartisan legislation in an attempt to boost Donald Trump and Republicans politically if you’re reelected?
Axios: “Trump, House Republicans plot to kill border deal”
Vox: “Trump made this clear when he reportedly urged Republicans in Congress to turn against the bipartisan Senate border security bill scheduled for a vote Wednesday so that he could keep the issue alive through the presidential election. His supporters have largely fallen in line.”
CNN: “Trump, who is hoping to make immigration a key plank of his presidential campaign, has suggested on Truth Social that approving additional resources for the border would make Republicans ‘look bad.’”
Chuck Schumer: “The bill we are bringing up was designed to solve the problem and Republicans and Democrats labored together in good faith to get that done, and it would’ve gotten done had Donald Trump not said, ‘I don’t want this done. Blame it on me. I want chaos at the border so I can win reelection.’”
Trump: “I think [Republicans] are making a terrible mistake if they vote for the bill.”
CNN: “The border compromise would represent a dramatic change of immigration law on lines many Republicans have long supported.”
3. How can you continue to claim you “support IVF” after you blocked the Right to IVF Act?
Associated Press: “Senate Republicans block bill on women’s right to IVF as Democrats make push on reproductive care”
“Senate Republicans blocked legislation that would make it a right nationwide for women to access in vitro fertilization and other fertility treatments after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer forced a vote on the matter Thursday in an effort to drive an election-year contrast on reproductive care.”
“All Republicans except Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine voted against advancing the measure, ensuring that it only gained 48 votes — well short of the 60 votes needed.”
Daily Beast: “Republicans Struggle to Explain Away Their Hypocrisy on IVF”
4. How can you continue to claim to be “pro-business” and “pro-family” after you blocked a bipartisan deal to expand the Child Tax Credit?
NBC News: “Senate Republicans block bill to expand child tax credit”
“Senate Republicans blocked a bipartisan bill Thursday on to expand the child tax credit and provide some tax breaks for businesses, all but sinking it for the rest of the year. The vote was 48-44, with the vast majority of GOP senators voting against it.”
5. Will you continue to ignore the will of your constituents by using your seat in Congress to push Trump and other extremists’ out-of-touch agenda?
House Majority PAC: “Recent HMP battleground polling shows that voters are starting to learn about Project 2025 and are extremely opposed to the Republican plan to raise taxes on the middle class, ban abortion, cut overtime pay, raise the retirement age, slash veterans benefits, and harm American families. In this polling, Project 2025 tops the list of negative statements tested.”
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: “House Republican Agendas and Project 2025 Would Increase Poverty and Hardship, Drive Up the Uninsured Rate, and Disinvest From People, Communities, and the Economy”
“Over the last several months, groups of House Republicans and the Heritage Foundation have released policy agendas that, taken together, would create a harsher country with higher poverty and less opportunity, where millions of people would face higher costs for health care, child care, and housing, and millions more would lose health coverage — all while wealthy households and corporations benefit from an unfair tax code that provides them with outsized tax breaks. These skewed priorities would exacerbate inequities in income, wealth, health, and hardship across lines of race and ethnicity, widening already glaring differences that have their roots in racism and other forms of discrimination.”
“‘Like last year, the Republicans’ basket of awful ideas has no chance of becoming law, but their harmful policies are part of MAGA Republicans’ Project 2025 takeover plan that hurts the middle class and favors their billionaire donors. At every turn, the Republicans are making abortion illegal, eliminating federal support for public education, undermining workers, and disarming America in the face of the climate crisis. Their policies make communities less safe and threaten national security. House Democrats will not support these funding bills that harm children, working families, seniors, and veterans,’ said Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03), Appropriations Committee Ranking Member.”
Today, RFK Jr. will appear in the spin room on behalf of Donald Trump at the ABC debate in Philadelphia, PA. By aligning himself with RFK Jr. and making him a campaign surrogate, Donald Trump claims ownership of his extreme, fringe views — such as promoting conspiracy theories about 9/11 and vaccines — and his personal baggage — including sexual assault allegations, pulling erratic stunts like staging a bike accident with a dead bear cub in Central Park, and attempting to frame innocent men of color for murder.
In response, DNC Spokesperson Matt Corridoni released the following statement:
“When RFK Jr. walks into the spin room tonight he’ll be bringing decades of baggage with him. Normal candidates would run from a surrogate who has pushed 9/11 conspiracy theories, advocated disinformation that led to a deadly measles outbreak, and had a worm eat part of his brain. Donald Trump is leaning in. RFK Jr. being asked to spin this evening should tell you everything you need to know about the type of unserious, dangerous, and extreme cast of characters Trump plans to surround himself with if re-elected.”
RFK Jr. Has Repeatedly Promoted Conspiracy Theories About The September 11 Attacks
NBC: “Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. posted on social media Friday that it’s ‘hard to tell what is a conspiracy theory and what isn’t’ when it comes to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.”
Rolling Stone: “In a new interview on the podcast In the Room With Peter Bergen, produced by Fresh Produce Media for Audible, Kennedy told Bergen he didn’t know whether or not he believes the official government explanation about 9/11, including whether al-Qaeda was responsible for the attack, asserting ‘strange things happened.’”
Austin American Statesman:“The post was an apparent reference to Kennedy saying on a podcast last year that he had doubts about the official account of the deadly Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon, including whether al-Qaida bore responsibility. In the podcast, Kennedy said he was not a 9/11 expert, nor perhaps the best person to comment on the attacks. But, he added, ‘I don’t always accept official explanations.’”
RFK Jr. Has Said That He Would Sign A National Abortion Ban
Politico: “Speaking to NBC from the Iowa State Fair, Kennedy said, ‘I believe a decision to abort a child should be up to the women during the first three months of life,’ but added: ‘Once a child is viable, outside the womb, I think then the state has an interest in protecting the child.’ He said he would sign a federal ban on abortion after 15 weeks or 21 weeks of pregnancy if he were elected president.”
NBC: “A leading conservative anti-abortion group, Susan B. Anthony List, praised Kennedy’s position in a statement, calling it ‘a stark contrast to the Democratic Party’s radical stance of abortion on demand. … Kennedy is one of the few prominent Democrats aligned with the consensus of the people today. Every candidate should be asked, ‘Where do you draw the line?’”
RFK Jr. Has Said That There Is No Vaccine That Is Safe And Effective And Has Indicated That He Opposes Requirements For Vaccines Including Polio And MMR
Mother Jones: “In July 2023, at the invitation of House Republicans, he appeared at a congressional hearing and declared, ‘I have never been anti-vax. I have never told the public to avoid vaccination.’ Yet that same month, during a podcast interview, he asserted, ‘There’s no vaccine that is safe and effective.’”
Washington Post: “He has an unenviable history of anti-vaccine advocacy, including peddling debunked claims linking vaccines to autism and leading an anti-vaccine group. He claims he is not opposed to vaccines, though that’s hard to square with his recent comments that ‘there’s no vaccine that is safe and effective’ and ‘I see somebody on a hiking trail carrying a little baby, and I say to him, better not get them vaccinated.’”
The Young Turks: UYGUR: “So, but sometimes you do have to make things mandatory. I’m not saying every time, right, and that’s a tough judgment call. So for example on some vaccines, polio, smallpox, others, you might have to make it mandatory. […] If the scientists and the and the doctors come in and say, Bobby, this one has to be mandatory, here’s the reasons why, here’s all the data, etc., are you going to listen to them?” RFK Jr.: “Uh, listen, under some extreme circumstance, I may look at that and say, this is so obvious, but the problem is you have a medical cartel that is tied inextricably, inextricably, the pharmaceutical industry, and is more concerned with promoting the mercantile interests, the pharmaceutical companies and in public health. And they’ve shown that again and again and again. Oh, I you know, listen, if you have a product that clearly works and there’s a disease with a high infection rate, people are going to line up to take that product. I would leave it to the individual. I wouldn’t say that, um, that the government should ever be mandating a medical product to, you know, that you’re going to do to your body.”
Los Angeles Times: “Children’s Health Defense, the anti-vaccine organization Kennedy founded and chairs, last week platformed a fatuously inaccurate 2013 book claiming that polio isn’t caused by a virus and that the polio vaccine ‘doesn’t work.’ The book was conclusively debunked long ago. But last Tuesday, the organization published an interview with its co-author Suzanne Humphries, in which she repeated her claim that polio is caused by toxins, not the virus.”
FactCheck.org:“At the time, Fridman pushed Kennedy on the issue, noting that those were ‘big words’ — and asked about the polio vaccine. Kennedy then misleadingly suggested that the polio vaccines given to his generation caused cancer — despite a lack of evidence that this is true.”
NPR:“Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the political scion with the famous last name who’s running as an independent for president, is also infamous for his stances against vaccines. Vaccines are safe and effective and have been credited with stopping the spread of diseases like measles, mumps and rubella, polio and global pandemics. Despite the solid evidence, people like RFK Jr. — with no expertise and who refuse to listen to experts — have spread disinformation about them, playing on false conspiracy theories.”
NBC:“Asked if he would recommend that parents give their children the MMR vaccine amid an uptick in measles in the U.S., Kennedy declined to answer. ‘I’m not gonna—,’ he said, and walked away.”
Via His Actions In Samoa, RFK Jr. Played A Part In One Of The Deadliest Measles Outbreaks In Recent History
Philadelphia Inquirer:“In 2019, Kennedy flew to Samoa, met with government officials and, along with other like-minded advocates, ‘flooded the area with misinformation’ about vaccines, according to FactCheck.org. Vaccinations were temporarily halted, 5,600 people contracted measles, and 83 children died. FactCheck.org concluded: ‘Kennedy … played a part in one of the worst measles outbreaks in recent memory.’”
The Los Angeles Times Editorial Board:“But the fearmongering on social media landed a hook in Samoan parents, who now had an example of real risk to their children that seemed to outweigh the abstract threat of a disease that had virtually been eradicated from the developed world over the last generation. […] This is a stark and sad illustration of what can happen when the agents of fear and misinformation (Robert F. Kennedy Jr., we are looking at you) convince caring parents to shun childhood vaccinations.”
RFK Jr. Has Engaged In Reckless And Erratic Behavior, Including Staging A Bike Accident With A Dead Bear Cub That He Dumped In A Highly-Trafficked Area Of Central Park
Associated Press: “Independent Presidential Candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Once Retrieved A Bear That Was Killed By A Motorist And Left It In New York’s Central Park With A Bicycle On Top, Sparking A Mystery That Consumed The City A Decade Ago.”
Politico: “Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he dumped a dead bear in New York City’s Central Park a decade ago, in a video he released on social media Sunday afternoon. In the video, Kennedy tells actress Roseanne Barr that he did not kill the bear, but put it in his car with plans to skin it after it was killed by another driver. He also suggests he is telling the story to get ahead of a pending story in the New Yorker, which inquired about the incident. The story lines up with an incident that occurred nearly a decade ago: The New York Times reported in October 2014 a dead bear was found in Central Park near an abandoned bicycle.”
New York Post:“James Periconi, an environmental lawyer, said that while Kennedy did many wrong things, none appeared illegal. ‘The short answer is that I don’t see any violations of the New York environmental conservation law that Mr. Kennedy may have committed,’ Periconi said, though he noted Kennedy’s actions are outside his specialty. ‘He certainly violated a number of recommended procedures for the handling of dead carcasses of wildlife, for example, by leaving the dead animal in Central Park, an area that is of course accessible to children and other people or domestic animals,’ Periconi continued. ‘That he posed himself with and next to and touching the dead carcass and its apparently bloody face or other body part was extremely reckless on his part, because of the potential for infection from a rabid animal,’ the lawyer said — referring to a disturbing picture that emerged Monday of Kennedy posing with the animal in the back of his car.”
RFK Jr. Has Refused To Disclose Basic Medical Information And Left Voters To Learn Via The Press That He Had A Parasitic Brain Worm And Other Serious Cognitive Issues
The New York Times: “About the same time he learned of the parasite, he said, he was also diagnosed with mercury poisoning, most likely from ingesting too much fish containing the dangerous heavy metal, which can cause serious neurological issues […] Mr. Kennedy said he was then subsisting on a diet heavy on predatory fish, notably tuna and perch, both known to have elevated mercury levels. In the interview with The Times, he said that he had experienced ‘severe brain fog’ and had trouble retrieving words. Mr. Kennedy, an environmental lawyer who has railed against the dangers of mercury contamination in fish from coal-fired power plants, had his blood tested […] He also underwent chelation therapy, a treatment that binds to metals in the body so they can be expelled.”
Fox News: “Kennedy Cover-Up: Failing To Disclose A Brain-Eating Worm And Other Problems.”
RFK Jr. Refused To Deny Credible Allegations Of Sexual Assault, Saying That He Was “Not A Church Boy” And Acknowledging That More Women May Come Forward
Rolling Stone: “Robert F. Kennedy Jr. responded to an accusation that he sexually assaulted a family babysitter at his home by brushing off the incident, asserting that he is not a ‘church boy’ and had a ‘very rambunctious youth.’”
Boston Globe: “A devastating and detailed report by Vanity Fair last week — including a credible allegation of sexual assault against Kennedy — provided a fresh setback to the already ailing campaign. Asked if other women might come forward with similar allegations he said, ‘I don’t know. We’ll see what happens.’”
Recent Allegations Against RFK Jr. Were Preceded By Decades of Accounts of His Serial Adultery and Reckless Behavior Around Women
Los Angeles Times: “Kennedy, 70, has spoken about his addictive personality many times over the years. […] But the redemption stories were preceded by years of darker media accounts about his reckless behavior — his serial adultery during his second marriage and claims that he helped lead his younger brother David into what became a fatal heroin addiction.”
New York Post: “Kennedy writes near the end of his jail sentence that he has a ‘three-point plan’ for ‘fixing my greatest defect . . . my lust demons.’ He doesn’t write down the plan, leaving the subsequent days of the diary blank. An entry five days later reads ‘Drove to Cape with Mary and all the kids.’ By mid-August, he again records women’s names in the back of his journal.”
New York Post: “Kennedy holds back on any detailed description of his conquests and bizarrely portrays himself as a kind of victim. He uses the word ‘mugged’ as shorthand for being seduced. ‘I narrowly escaped being mugged by a double team of [two women]. It was tempting but I prayed and God gave me the strength to say no,’ he writes on Feb. 6. A few days later, on Valentine’s Day, he gives his pregnant wife orchids, he notes.”
New York Post: “‘Bobby seemingly was able to bring his drug addiction under control after his arrest for heroin possession back in the early 1980s,’ said Oppenheimer. ‘It’s clear that he has not been able to control his compulsive and reckless obsession with sex, which has ruined two of his marriages.’”
The Daily Mail: “That kind of behavior continued, according to a trusted friend of Mary’s. ‘He would be at the dinner table and his hands would go all up their legs or skirts and they just laughed. The Kennedy aura kept them from saying, “You’re an a**hole.”‘
The Daily Mail: “There was other ‘inappropriate behavior’ on the Kennedy scion’s part, such as when, on at least one occasion, he strutted around the family home with a towel wrapped around his waist, then was said to have dropped it, exposing his genitals, and embarrassing Mary and a friend of hers who was present.”
New York Post: “A copy of the 398 pages, reviewed by The Post, details RFK Jr.’s daily activities, speeches, political activism and the lives of his six children in the year 2001. But they also record the names of women — with numbers from 1 to 10 next to each entry. The codes corresponded to sexual acts, with 10 meaning intercourse, Mary told a confidant. There are 37 women named in the ledger, 16 of whom get 10s.”
RFK Jr. Has Spent Years Attempting To Frame Two Innocent Men Of Color For Murder In Order To Absolve His Privileged White Cousin
The New York Times:“Now, as Connecticut’s highest court decides whether to reinstate the conviction, comes yet another book about the case — this one by Mr. Skakel’s cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr. A former prosecutor and environmental lawyer, Mr. Kennedy this week released ‘Framed: Why Michael Skakel Spent Over a Decade in Prison for a Murder He Didn’t Commit.’”
RFK Jr. Used Racist Language And Innuendo As He Attempted To Frame These Two Men For the Murder
Air Mail: “In Framed, Kennedy took a complex and unfamiliar subject for most readers—here, a decades-old murder—and presented a tendentious and misleading version of the facts, tailored to his own preconceptions. Worse yet, Kennedy relied on an ugly racial stereotype—about ‘big, muscular, and tall’ nonwhite men—to attempt to pin the murder on two innocent people. Kennedy followed a similar approach in his later books about vaccines and the coronavirus pandemic: using cherry-picked details and bogus insinuations to make a case that his readers, as non-specialists, lacked the expertise to refute.”
PBS: : RFK JR.: “I contacted him, he put me in touch with another classmate, a man named Tony Bryant, who’s a cousin of the basketball great Kobe Bryant, who had been at Brunswick School for two years with Michael. They had not been friends, but they had been in the same class. He was a very popular kid and he was a sports star. And then he had transferred to a public school in New York City. And, uh, and he had befriended two men, or two kids, at that school who were very large boys, six foot four, 250 pounds, and very rough, kind of gangsters. One of them was African American, the other was white. He brought those two boys to Greenwich on numerous occasions. They met Martha Moxley. One of them became obsessed with her, and they planned the assault on their way up on the train on Halloween Eve in 1975. Tony – they found golf clubs in the schoolyard, and Tony got frightened and left and the two boys killed Martha, told him that they were going to do it, and afterward confessed that they had done it, on numerous occasions.”
Stamford Advocate: “The black man who Robert Kennedy Jr. says was ‘obsessed with Martha Moxley’s beautiful blonde hair’ and went ‘caveman’ on her, killing her, says he never met Martha and was not in Greenwich when she was murdered 41 years ago. ‘It’s been rough. It started in 2003 and it still goes on,’ says Adolph Hasbrouck, who broke his 13-year public silence about Kennedy’s accusations to speak with me in the office of his lawyer in New York City.”
FRAMED by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.:RFK JR.: “Adolph became obsessed with Martha Moxley. And on New Year’s Eve in 1975, he rode the train with Burton and Tony Bryant to Greenwich, CT, to take part in mischief night. On the train on the way up, Adolph and Burr plotted to assault, sexually, a Greenwich girl and take her ‘caveman style.’ They pledged that they would not leave until they had accomplished this.”
CNN: RFK JR.: “They were two kids from New York City, a very big man who with six foot three, 250 pounds, who now lives in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The other one lives in Portland, Oregon. I have spoken to both of them. One of them is black. When Martha Moxley’s body was found, it was covered with hairs from a black person, which nobody has ever explained.”
Richard French Live, Regional News Network: RFK JR.: “I would wager to you that it would be impossible for anybody to read my book and think that that story will not influence a jury. I, you know, the evidence against these people, including the two hairs that were found on Martha Moxley’s body, which are consistent with the physical descriptions of these two men, and inconsistent with any Skakel hair or anybody else who’s ever been connected to this. These two men, one of them was African American, one of the hairs was negroid, and nobody’s ever been able to explain that, and the other had what the FBI crime lab called Asian characteristics, and the other man is described as Caucasian with Asian characteristics or American Indian characteristics. Those are the only two pieces of physical evidence that were ever found on Martha Moxley’s body and they’re absolutely consistent with Tony Bryant’s description of these two men, that they came up with him that night, that they had been to Greenwich on six different occasions.”
RFK Jr. Continues To Make These False Claims Despite The Fact That They Have Been Dismissed By A Court And By The Connecticut Division Of Criminal Justice
The Grio:As presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr. runs on a platform championing criminal justice reform in his efforts to court Black voters, critics point out that for years, the independent candidate accused two Black and brown men of committing a murder his white cousin was convicted of despite the claims being dismissed in court. […] In 2016, Kennedy published a book titled ‘Framed’ in which he makes the case for why he believes his cousin Michael Skakel was innocent after being convicted of the Oct. 30, 1975, murder of 15-year-old Martha Moxley in Greenwich, Connecticut.”
New York Times: “In an unusual response to the publication, the state’s Division of Criminal Justice released a lengthy statement, saying the book presented ‘no valid or new information’ and calling Mr. Kennedy’s claims ‘inflammatory.’ […] The statement also said that the actions of the two teenage suspects Mr. Kennedy describes were ‘thoroughly vetted in legal proceedings and found to be baseless.’”
Washington Post: “With that background, let’s look at Kennedy’s specific points, in the order in which he made them. […] ‘The two men confessed repeatedly to Bryant and a third man that they had committed the crime.’ This is almost certainly false. Kennedy takes Bryant’s word that the two men, shortly after the murder, bragged they had attacked a woman: ‘We’ve achieved one of our fantasies. … We got her cave man style.’ In interviews with Kennedy and the Michael Skakel investigator, Bryant claimed that they never mentioned a name and that he had kept this conversation secret for 27 years, with one exception. He says he told his mother at the time and she told him to keep away from Hasbrouck and Tinsley. (Bryant’s mother testified that she found Hasbrouck and Tinsley ‘attractive, mannerly, shy and respectful.’ She said she first learned of her son’s alleged involvement from reading a magazine article ‘in recent years.’) As noted, a judge did not find Bryant’s testimony credible.”
In Addition To His Book, RFK Jr. Also Profited Off His False Claims Via A TV Deal
IndieWire: “Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. believes his cousin Michael Skakel was wrongfully convicted and spent 11 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit. His book ‘Framed’ investigated who might have really killed 15-year-old Martha Moxley in 1975, and has now been optioned by FX Productions to be developed as a multi-part TV series.”
In response to JD Vance saying he “would have asked the states” to submit slates of fake electors in 2020, DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement:
“Donald Trump picked JD Vance as his running mate because he knows that Vance will do what his last vice president wouldn’t – undermine our democracy and help him try to overturn election results. Now, Vance is making it clear: instead of certifying the 2020 election, Vance ‘would have asked the states’ to send slates of fake electors and throw our election into chaos to help Trump stay in power. Vance is clearly laying out the stakes of this election for our democracy and our basic freedoms, and showing voters that if given the chance, he’ll try to replace the rule of law with the rule of Trump.”
NEW: When asked if he would have certified the last election, Vance instead said he “would have asked the states” to send him slates of fake electors.
Jason Calacanis: “Would you have certified the [last result of the election]?”
Vance: “Again, I would have asked the states to submit alternative slates of electors and let the country have the debate about what actually matters and what kind of an election that we have.”
Calacanis: “You wouldn’t have certified, to be clear?”
Vance: “I would have asked the states to submit alternative slates of electors, that’s what I would have done.”
Reminder: Vance is an extreme election denier who won’t commit to accepting this November’s election results.
HuffPost: “[Vance] said he would accept a Biden win only if he considered the election to be legitimate. … Vance’s comments illustrate a new tactic by Republican lawmakers, who are now placing conditions on accepting election results.”
Kristen Welker, NBC: “Well, here we are, about a week before the Republican convention. Before I let you go, can you say unequivocally, unequivocally, here and now, that you will accept the results of the 2024 election no matter what they are?”
Vance: “So long as it’s a free and fair election, Kristen, of course, we will. We will use constitutional processes to challenge issues if we think there are issues, but if it’s a free and fair election, we will do what the constitution requires, we will respect the results and I expect those results are gonna be to reelect Donald Trump.”
Welker: “It was a free and fair election in 2020, Donald Trump took his concerns to court, he lost in court, but he still has not conceded. Do you understand that when you refuse to commit unequivocally, that feeds into people’s concerns, skepticism about the nation’s electoral process?”
Vance: “Well, Kristen, I don’t agree with that, actually. I think that feeding into people’s concerns about our electoral process is that one half of America’s political segment, they won’t support legislation that makes it harder for illegal aliens to vote, they won’t support universal voter I.D. in our elections, even though you have to present I.D. to do almost anything in this country. I think taking people’s concerns seriously about election fraud is the way to reinforce security and confidence in our elections.”
New York Times: “J.D. Vance Says He Would Accept the Election Results, With a Caveat”
Vances echoes Trump’s baseless lies about the 2020 election and attempts to whitewash the violent January 6 insurrection.
Vance: “I think the entire post-2020 thing would have gone a lot better if there had actually been an effort to provide alternative slates of electors, and to force us to have that debate. I think it would’ve been a much better thing for the country. … [Trump] was trying to take a constitutional process to its natural conclusion.
“I think it would’ve been extraordinarily disappointing to a whole host of people that I care a lot about if Trump had just taken it [and conceded the 2020 election before January 6].”
Vance: “No real Republican with any credibility in the party is still blaming [Trump for January 6].”
ABC News: “JD Vance says [he] wouldn’t have certified 2020 race until states submitted pro-Trump electors”
New York Times: “[Vance] has said that, unlike Vice President Mike Pence in 2020, he would have helped Mr. Trump overturn the results, by accepting Trump electors that had not been elected by voters.”
The Hill: “JD Vance says he is ‘skeptical’ Pence’s life was in danger on Jan. 6”
Politico: “[Vance] downplayed the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, when Pence was forced to evacuate the building as rioters called for his hanging.”
Vance: “If you go back to what I thought in 2016, another thing that was going on, Sean, is I bought into the media’s lies and distortions. I bought into this idea that somehow he was gonna be so different, a terrible threat to democracy. It was a joke.”
And Vance has no problem with Trump using the government to go after his political opponents.
Kristen Welker, NBC: “Senator, if former President Trump were to win, if you were to be his vice president, would you support him appointing a special prosecutor to go after his political enemies, the Bidens?”
[…]
Vance: “Donald Trump is talking about appointing a special prosecutor to investigate Joe Biden for wrongdoing.
[…]
“I think what Donald Trump is simply saying is we ought to investigate the prior administration.”
