Author: Jo Walker

In response to reporting that Donald Trump is planning to bring on convicted felon Paul Manafort for the Republican National Convention, DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement: 

“Convicted felon Paul Manafort will fit right in with the C-Team of election deniers, conspiracy theorists, and absolute weirdos that make up Donald Trump’s MAGA takeover of the GOP. This latest report just confirms that Trump’s soft on crime approach for the violent insurrections who stormed the Capitol on January 6 extends to tax cheats and fraudsters as well. Given the RNC’s desperate financial state, we can’t imagine what could go wrong with hiring a convicted con man like Manafort to help run a multimillion-dollar convention.”

Despite Manafort’s multiple convictions for fraud, Donald Trump is pushing to bring him on to help run the Republican convention. 

New York Times: “Paul Manafort, a top adviser to Donald J. Trump’s 2016 campaign who was pardoned by the former president at the end of his White House term, is in discussions to return to help with the Republican National Convention, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter.”

“Mr. Manafort was found guilty in late August 2018 of a range of financial crimes, including tax and bank fraud.

“In September 2018, Mr. Manafort pleaded guilty to additional charges brought by Mr. Mueller and agreed to cooperate. But as the case proceeded, Mr. Mueller said that Mr. Manafort had not been truthful in his cooperation, breaching that plea deal.”

Washington Post: “Former president Donald Trump is expected to enlist Paul Manafort, the former campaign manager he pardoned, as a campaign adviser later this year, according to four people familiar with the talks.

“The job discussions have largely centered around the 2024 Republican convention in Milwaukee in July and could include Manafort playing a role in fundraising for the presumptive GOP nominee’s campaign, according to these people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private deliberations. While no formal decision has been made, the four people described the hiring as expected and said Trump was determined to bring Manafort back into the fold.”

Manafort would join recent GOP hires like Scott Presler – a far-right MAGA extremist who has peddled QAnon-fueled conspiracy theories and lies about the 2020 election – and Christina Bobb, a self-described “conspiracy theorist” who had a role in the fake electors scheme.

WCCO: “Presler, a Virginia native, planned several ‘stop the steal’ rallies in addition to being on the Capitol grounds the day of the insurrection. Presler also described the siege on the Capitol as ‘the largest civil rights protest in American history.’”

Pennsylvania Capital-Star: “The Trump rally was organized by Scott Presler, formerly a paid organizer for the Virginia Republican Party, and a speaker at the Conservative Political Action Conference this year. He called for an audit of the election results.”

“Attendees, including Presler, repeated false claims of voter fraud in Michigan, stemming from a typo in results from a small county, according to the New York Times. Presler could not cite any examples of voter fraud in Pennsylvania.

‘Be assured, if I have to set up my own independent commission, I will be looking through votes to make sure there is no fraudulent, illegal activity,’ Presler said.”

Media Matters: “Media Matters previously documented that Presler promoted QAnon in dozens of instances on his Instagram account. Presler has also worked for the anti-Muslim group Act for America, which, The Associated Press wrote, ‘is identified by the Anti-Defamation League as the largest anti-Muslim group in America.’”

CNN: “[Bobb] also played a key role in the Trump campaign’s fake electors scheme after he lost the 2020 election, working closely with Trump advisers to organize the plan in seven battleground states. The scheme formed the basis of parts of Smith’s election subversion indictment against the former president, which says Trump and his allies created ‘fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding’ in Congress on January 6, 2021, and ‘disenfranchise millions of voters.’”

CNN: “Bobb was also a correspondent during the 2020 election for the fringe pro-Trump network OAN, where she promoted false claims that the election was rigged. The voting technology company Dominion sued Bobb and OAN for defamation in 2021. Some of her on-air segments were also referenced in a separate defamation case against OAN filed by Smartmatic, another aggrieved voting company. OAN and Bobb have denied wrongdoing in these civil cases.”

New York Times: “A self-described conspiracy theorist and election denier, Ms. Bobb will take on a role overseeing Republican election integrity efforts — after years of aggressively promoting false claims about the 2020 election. Her appointment reflects the ascendant role of election deniers in Republican leadership and in Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign.”

As the RNC merges with the Trump campaign and continues their extreme MAGA rebrand, the roster of MAGA extremists and conspiracy theorists among their leadership only continues to grow. 

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.”

CNN: “Likely frontrunner for RNC chair parroted Trump’s 2020 election lies”

“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.’”

The post DNC Statement on Trump’s Plans To Staff Up GOP Convention With Convicted Felon Paul Manafort appeared first on Democrats.

In celebration of Women’s History Month and the upcoming anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, we’re highlighting the work that President Biden and Vice President Harris are doing every day to fight for women across America — from working to protect reproductive freedom and health care, to securing economic equity and opportunity. Meanwhile, MAGA Republicans up and down the ballot are trying to turn back the clock and undermine women’s rights. 

DNC Director of Outreach Communications Tracy King released the following statement: 

“The Biden-Harris administration is delivering on their promise to protect health care from the MAGA Republicans who are hellbent on ripping it away. From lowering insurance premiums to investing in women’s health research, President Biden and Vice President Harris are protecting and expanding essential health care for women across America. Meanwhile, Donald Trump wants to kill the Affordable Care Act, which would leave millions of women without coverage and could force them to pay exorbitant out-of-pocket costs or forego care, and oversaw the gutting of federal funds for nearly 900 women’s health clinics across the country. Trump doesn’t want to build and strengthen health care coverage — he wants to police women’s bodies and rip away the essential care we need.” 

The Biden-Harris administration is fighting to lower insurance premiums so that all Americans can have access to high-quality health care. 

White House Fact Sheet: “Thanks to the President’s American Rescue Plan and Inflation Reduction Act, millions of Americans are saving on average $800 a year on premiums.”

Center for American Progress: “The Inflation Reduction Act, when passed by the House of Representatives and signed into law by President Joe Biden, will give a lifeline to people struggling with health costs by providing much-needed financial relief for the health coverage and medications they need to survive and thrive. The bill improves health care and affordability by:

• Empowering Medicare to negotiate with drug companies to lower prices
• Preventing drug companies from raising Medicare prices in excess of inflation
• Setting a new cap for Medicare beneficiaries on annual out-of-pocket costs for drugs, plus a $35 monthly cap on insulin cost sharing
• Providing more generous subsidies for health insurance marketplace coverage, thereby granting financial help to middle-class families facing high premiums and guaranteeing that lower-income people have a $0 premium plan option”

The Biden-Harris administration is working with providers and researchers to tackle women’s health disparities.

NBC News: “President Joe Biden will sign an executive order Monday aimed at expanding research on women’s health care, including strengthening data standards.

“The president is also expected to announce more than 20 new actions and commitments by federal agencies, including $200 million for research at the National Institutes of Health. The White House described the investments as a first step toward a ‘Fund on Women’s Health’ that Biden called on Congress to invest in during his State of the Union address this month.”

“The president is directing federal agencies ‘to integrate women’s health across the federal research portfolio,’ prioritizing investment in research and innovation through entities like the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health ARPA-H and the Small Business Innovation Research program, Klein said. The effort aims to galvanize research on women’s midlife health, including post-menopause diseases and conditions such as heart attacks, Alzheimer’s disease and osteoporosis, and ‘to assess unmet needs to support women’s health research by identifying gaps in federal funding and requiring agencies to report on their progress in improving women’s health,’ she said.”

White House Fact Sheet: “President Biden Issues Executive Order and Announces New Actions to Advance Women’s Health Research and Innovation”

Axios: “Biden admin commits $100M for women’s health research”

White House Fact Sheet: “Deliver concrete recommendations to advance women’s health research. 

“Within 45 days, Initiative members will recommend concrete actions that the Biden-Harris Administration can take to improve how research on women’s health is conducted and maximize the Administration’s investments in women’s health research, including to address health disparities and inequities.”

Associated Press: “Jill Biden announces $100 million for ‘life-changing’ research and development into women’s health 

“Biden has said women don’t know enough about their health because the research historically has been underfunded and lacking. The White House initiative aims to change the approach to and increase funding for women’s health research.”

President Biden is holding greedy insurance companies accountable for attempting to undermine or reduce coverage guarantees.

Roll Call: “HHS will be reviewing and reconsidering policies that are antithetical to the purpose of coverage under the health law and Medicaid. 

“Those policies to be reviewed include any efforts to undermine protections for pre-existing health conditions or the individual market or that make receiving marketplace coverage harder or more expensive.

“A Biden White House official on Thursday stressed the importance of protecting access to Medicaid, the federal-state program for the poor, and said CMS would be instructed to review any waivers that reduce coverage. This will likely include Medicaid waivers that some states have sought to add work requirements as a condition of Medicaid expansion coverage.”

Under President Biden’s leadership, the U.S. is making strides in protecting maternal health, including addressing racial disparities. 

NBC News: “In December, Vice President Kamala Harris hosted the first federal Maternal Health Day of Action at the White House, where she issued a call to improve health outcomes for parents and infants in the U.S. Months later, she is still using the vice presidential bully pulpit to push for policy and structural changes aimed at saving lives. 

“‘In our nation, we are looking at the fact that more women are facing death because of childbirth than in any other developed nation,’ Harris told journalists during a call on Thursday during Black Maternal Health Week. ‘We are looking at the likelihood that Black women are three times more likely to die in connection with childbirth, that Native women are twice as likely to die, that rural women are one and a half times more likely to die.’

“Black Maternal Health Week is an education and advocacy campaign founded and led by the Black Mamas Matter Alliance that is observed each April. The White House officially recognized the designated week in 2021, and President Joe Biden issued a proclamation for it this year.”

Spectrum News: “The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services are working with 11 states, plus Washington, D.C., to expand postpartum coverage for new mothers to a full year after they give birth. Louisiana, Virginia, New Jersey and Illinois already offer such services to patients. The new states hoping to elongate postpartum healthcare coverage are California, the District of Columbia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Oregon, New Mexico, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia.

“Should the efforts be successful, up to 720,000 people could benefit from guaranteed Medicaid and  Children’s Health Insurance Program coverage for 12 months after birth. Typically, mothers are covered for a minimum of 60 days after birth.”

Trump was one vote away from repealing the Affordable Care Act and wants to terminate it in a second term.

New York Times: “Attention All Women: Trump Is Coming for Your Health Care” 

“In the middle of a catastrophic public health crisis, the Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to overturn the entire Affordable Care Act. This is dangerous for many reasons — but for women, it’s devastating. They would be stripped of the protections they have had in the decade since passage of the law, known as Obamacare.

“Before the law, insurance companies routinely discriminated against women. Those who didn’t work for employers that offered health coverage or who weren’t old enough or poor enough to qualify for Medicare or Medicaid struggled to buy health insurance in the private market, where insurance companies made all the rules.”

The Trump administration instituted a gag rule that halted funding for nearly 900 women’s health clinics, disproportionately affecting health care access for low-income women of color.

NBC News: “Nearly 900 women’s health clinics have lost federal funding over gag rule”

“The lack of funding could affect access to reproductive health services, including breast cancer screenings, HIV tests and birth control for over 8.7 million women living in 390 counties in the U.S.

“Paloma Zuleta, director of media relations at Power to Decide, told NBC that any changes in the way reproductive health clinics do business will mainly affect low-income women of color — defeating the purpose of the family planning program known as Title X, which was created to help low-income women.”

The Trump administration promoted insurance plans that wouldn’t even come close to covering women’s basic health care needs. 

Commonwealth Fund: “Trump Administration Promotes Coverage That Fails to Adequately Cover Women’s Key Health Care Needs”

“The Affordable Care Act (ACA) expanded women’s access to comprehensive coverage. Congress has failed to repeal the law, but the Trump administration is seeking to overturn it in a case before the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, the administration has promoted coverage options that are exempt from the ACA’s consumer protections, including short-term plans and health care sharing ministries (HCSMs).”

KFF Health News: “A larger share of non-elderly adult women (30%) than men (24%) have declinable pre-existing conditions in 2018, unchanged from 2015.  We estimate that 23.7 million men have a pre-existing condition that would have left them uninsurable in the individual market pre-ACA, compared to 30.1 million women.”

Commonwealth Fund: “All 12 short-term plans we reviewed exclude or severely limit the four key health services:

• At least six fail to cover all preventive services women with an ACA-compliant plan can obtain without cost sharing; five explicitly exclude contraceptive coverage.

• All 12 exclude maternity care.

• Nine exclude outpatient prescription drug coverage, including medications required to treat chronic conditions and some forms of contraception.

• At least eight exclude mental health care or substance-use disorder treatment or both.”

Trump isn’t just waging war against American women’s health care — he’s also attempted to rip away family planning services in other countries.

Foreign Policy: “Trump’s War on the Concept of Women’s Health”

“The United States has joined with a group of authoritarian countries in opposing not just abortion, but also basic medical vocabulary that applies to women.”

The Independent: “Within the first 100 days of Mr Trump in office, his administration gutted funding for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), which provides family planning and reproductive services to more than 150 countries globally.”

NBC News: “With the stroke of a pen, President Donald Trump reinstated a controversial rule that blocks foreign aid for family planning services. Known as the ‘Mexico City policy’ or the ‘Global Gag Rule,’ the policy bars foreign aid or federal funding for international programs that provide abortions — or even information about the procedure.”

The post President Biden and Vice President Harris Are Expanding and Protecting Access to the Affordable Care Act for Women Nationwide appeared first on Democrats.

Approaching the anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, DNC Rapid Response Spokesperson Aida Ross released the following statement: 

“Donald Trump and his MAGA Republican allies have already made it clear they are hellbent on taking away women’s access to reproductive care — and they’ll use every available avenue to do it, including killing the Affordable Care Act. Thanks to the ACA, more women than ever have access to birth control and the kinds of basic reproductive care that they’d previously been denied because of preexisting conditions or financial barriers. But Trump and his MAGA minions’ plan to ‘terminate’ the ACA would endanger women’s health and rip away reproductive freedom as part of their extreme agenda. The fate of Americans’ health care is on the ballot this November, and voters won’t let Donald Trump once again attempt to deny millions of women access to essential care.” 

For over a decade, the Affordable Care Act has helped millions of women across the country gain access to health care — including reproductive care. 

Planned Parenthood: “By expanding health coverage and access to birth control to millions, Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been a game changer for women. Before the ACA, millions of women were denied coverage because of so-called ‘pre-existing conditions’ like breast cancer, pregnancy, or domestic abuse; some were forced to pay more for insurance just because they were women; and some were only allowed limited plans that excluded coverage for any health concerns they already had.”

Kaiser Family Foundation: “A new KFF review of more than three dozen studies published between April 2021 and June 2023 finds that Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act is associated with beneficial effects on a range of sexual and reproductive health outcomes.”

American Journal of Public Health: “The ACA was associated with expanded insurance coverage and improvements in access to care for women of reproductive age, particularly for those with lower incomes.”

Let’s be clear: Ripping away access to affordable care — including reproductive care — is extremely unpopular with the American people.

Center for American Progress: “According to new estimates from the Center for American Progress, 135 million people under age 65, or about half of nonelderly people, have a preexisting condition that an insurer could use to discriminate against them if they ever sought coverage through the individual market in the absence of ACA protections.”

Jon Favreau: “If Trump wins, 40 million people could lose their health care, and insurance companies would get to deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions. If Biden wins, that…won’t happen.”

NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll: “Thirteen years after the Affordable Care Act was signed into law, more than eight in ten Americans (83%) either agree or strongly agree that all Americans have a basic right to healthcare coverage.”

19th News: “Abortion bans are unpopular. Republicans are passing them anyway.”

“With abortion bans becoming increasingly unpopular, Republican-led statehouses are walking a delicate line: Trying to advance bills that would restrict access to the procedure without drawing attention, circumventing normal processes to cram new policies through as legislative sessions come to a close.”

Navigator Research: “A majority of constituents in battleground districts believe Republicans are too extreme on the issue of abortion and are far more extreme than Democrats on the issue.”

Donald Trump has a shameful record of ripping away reproductive care provided by the Affordable Care Act and continues to double down on his plans to get rid of the ACA in a second term. 

New York Times: “Trump Administration Rolls Back Birth Control Mandate” 

Vox: “In Trump’s first year in office, federal agencies weakened the ACA’s contraceptive mandate, allowing employers to deny birth control coverage if they had a religious or moral objection. Though the rollback was quickly tied up in the courts, dozens of employers signed separate settlements with the administration allowing them to refuse to cover birth control.

“Meanwhile, the Trump administration took aim at other federal programs designed to promote reproductive health and access to birth control, including Title X, which funds services like contraceptive counseling and cervical cancer screenings for low-income Americans. The result was that when Covid-19 hit, the country’s safety net was already weakened, with shuttered clinics and reduced hours making it harder to provide the low-cost care that Americans — many of them facing layoffs and loss of health insurance — needed more than ever.

“Then, in the midst of the pandemic, the Supreme Court dealt another blow to birth control access: The justices upheld the administration’s rollback of the ACA contraceptive mandate in July, a ruling that could mean the loss of contraceptive coverage for 126,000 American workers.”

Rolling Stone: “Inside the MAGA Plan to Attack Birth Control, Surveil Women and Ban the Abortion Pill”

Associated Press: “Trump remaking federal policy on women’s reproductive health”

“Step by methodical step, the Trump administration is remaking government policy on reproductive health — moving to limit access to birth control and abortion and bolstering abstinence-only sex education.”

Just like Trump, MAGA Mike Johnson is an anti-abortion extremist who has a yearslong record of trying to deny women access to essential health care — including those provided by the Affordable Care Act. 

HuffPost: “The same goes for the Affordable Care Act, which is quite a change from the many years Republicans talked endlessly about repealing it. They finally got their chance in 2017, while Donald Trump was president and Johnson, then new to Congress, voted yes. The effort famously failed, but not before provoking a massive political backlash that helped Democrats retake control of the House ― and, two years later, the presidency and Senate too.”

“But that doesn’t mean Republicans have made their peace with the 2010 health care law, or that they’ve given up on their ideas for replacing it with conservative alternatives. And you’ll find no better proof than in a 2019 proposal from the Republican Study Committee, which at the time Johnson was leading.

“The word ‘repeal’ appears only a few times, always in a narrow context. But the pieces of repeal legislation are all there.”

Mike 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.’”

And more of Trump’s MAGA Minions on the Hill are willing to revive his attempts to repeal the ACA. 

Axios: “A fresh repeal effort could be just as perilous, but Trump’s continued fixation with the law could put pressure on Republican lawmakers to make another run at it if the GOP gains full control of Washington next year. … Two top Senate Republicans signaled they could be open to a revived effort.”

“‘I think Obamacare has been one of the biggest deceptions on the American people,’ said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas). ‘I mean just look at your health care premiums.’”

“Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), who’s in line to run the Finance Committee if the GOP retakes the Senate, said he’s open to plans that were similar to the 2017 repeal and replace bills.”

The post REMINDER: MAGA Republicans’ Plan to Kill the ACA Includes Ripping Away Basic Reproductive Care appeared first on Democrats.

In response to RNC Co-Chair Lara Trump pushing election-denying conspiracy theorist Scott Presler as a new RNC hire, DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement: 

“Scott Presler is an election-denying conspiracy theorist, which just makes him par for the course in terms of new major RNC staff hires. Presler isn’t even the first election-denying conspiracy theorist the RNC has announced hiring this week. Once again, Donald Trump’s extreme MAGA makeover of the RNC is showing that democracy is on the line in this election as he and his allies elevate extremists who would rather defend Roy Moore and QAnon than our democracy.”

NEW: In the same breath that she continued to peddle 2020 election conspiracy theories, Lara Trump announced plans to hire election denier and conspiracy theorist Scott Presler to work on ballot harvesting — and hinted at him being offered a role in Trump’s orbit beyond the election too. 

RNC Co-Chair Lara Trump: “There are millions of people, I’m gonna say 75 million plus Americans who still are like, what, ‘what the hell happened in 2020?’ They didn’t get any answers. They all wanted us to move on. But they all feel like something was awry, something was amiss.”

“I’m going to have a call very soon with Scott Presler, who is an amazing vote registerer. He has registered so many people in this country. I think he’s fantastic. I want him on our legal ballot harvesting division.

“I said, if I end up there, if I’m co-chair of the RNC, I want to bring him in. Because what a job that guy has done. Not only should he be rewarded for it, but we want to give him more jobs to do up until November 5, and then well beyond.”

Presler is a far-right MAGA extremist who has peddled QAnon-fueled conspiracy theories and lies about the 2020 election, worked for an anti-Muslim hate group, and was literally on Capitol grounds during the January 6 insurrection. 

WCCO: “Presler, a Virginia native, planned several ‘stop the steal’ rallies in addition to being on the Capitol grounds the day of the insurrection. Presler also described the siege on the Capitol as ‘the largest civil rights protest in American history.’”

Pennsylvania Capital-Star: “The Trump rally was organized by Scott Presler, formerly a paid organizer for the Virginia Republican Party, and a speaker at the Conservative Political Action Conference this year. He called for an audit of the election results.

“Attendees, including Presler, repeated false claims of voter fraud in Michigan, stemming from a typo in results from a small county, according to the New York Times. Presler could not cite any examples of voter fraud in Pennsylvania.

‘Be assured, if I have to set up my own independent commission, I will be looking through votes to make sure there is no fraudulent, illegal activity,’ Presler said.”

Media Matters: “Media Matters previously documented that Presler promoted QAnon in dozens of instances on his Instagram account. Presler has also worked for the anti-Muslim group Act for America, which, The Associated Press wrote, “is identified by the Anti-Defamation League as the largest anti-Muslim group in America.”

And Presler backed disgraced Senate candidate Roy Moore, who was accused of sexually assaulting women and minors. 

@ScottPresler: “The first test is September 26th, the Alabama senate runoff.

Luther Strange is Mitch McConnell-back pick. Vote Roy Moore.

#DrainTheSwamp”

@ScottPresler: “If Judge Roy Moore wins the September 26th #ALsen runoff, it will signal that 2018 will not be kind to establishment Republicans.

VOTE!”

As the RNC merges with the Trump campaign and continues their extreme MAGA rebrand, the roster of MAGA extremists and conspiracy theorists among their leadership only continues to grow. 

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.”

CNN: “Likely frontrunner for RNC chair parroted Trump’s 2020 election lies”

“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.’”

CNN: “She also played a key role in the Trump campaign’s fake electors scheme after he lost the 2020 election, working closely with Trump advisers to organize the plan in seven battleground states. The scheme formed the basis of parts of Smith’s election subversion indictment against the former president, which says Trump and his allies created ‘fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding’ in Congress on January 6, 2021, and ‘disenfranchise millions of voters.’”

“Bobb was also a correspondent during the 2020 election for the fringe pro-Trump network OAN, where she promoted false claims that the election was rigged. The voting technology company Dominion sued Bobb and OAN for defamation in 2021. Some of her on-air segments were also referenced in a separate defamation case against OAN filed by Smartmatic, another aggrieved voting company. OAN and Bobb have denied wrongdoing in these civil cases.”

New York Times: “A self-described conspiracy theorist and election denier, Ms. Bobb will take on a role overseeing Republican election integrity efforts — after years of aggressively promoting false claims about the 2020 election. Her appointment reflects the ascendant role of election deniers in Republican leadership and in Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign.”

The post BREAKING: RNC Plans to Hire Yet Another Conspiracy Theorist As Part of Election-Denying MAGA Makeover appeared first on Democrats.

In response to congressional Republicans’ desperate attempts to avoid talking about their extreme position on in vitro fertilization and Donald Trump’s own deep ties to the anti-IVF movement, DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement:

“Facts are facts: Donald Trump and his MAGA allies like Mike Johnson have spent years pushing an extreme anti-choice agenda to rip away Americans’ basic rights, and if given the chance, MAGA Republicans will put IVF at risk for every American. Trump used his time in office to elevate extreme anti-choice ideologues who oppose IVF access. Now, Johnson has made it clear that he doesn’t think Congress should protect IVF at all – instead, he and his far-right allies want to pass a national abortion ban that would also threaten access to IVF for Americans trying to grow or start their families. Voters see right through MAGA Republicans’ desperate excuses to hide their extreme platform that would ban abortion and put basic access to IVF on the chopping block, and they will reject the GOP’s unpopular anti-freedom agenda in November.”

MAGA Mike Johnson and his clown caucus are desperately trying to hold together their faltering coalition of anti-choice activists and openly dismissing the need for any IVF protections.

CNN: “Johnson dismisses need for IVF legislation as GOP wrestles with reproductive issues”

“‘It’s not my belief that Congress needs to play a role here,’ the Louisiana Republican told reporters at the annual Republican issues conference held at The Greenbrier, a resort in West Virginia. ‘I think this is being handled by the states.’”

“In a remarkable split screen illustrating how the parties are handling the issue heading into November, Vice President Kamala Harris will visit a Planned Parenthood clinic in Minnesota also later Thursday, marking a significant and high-level visit to an abortion provider where she is expected to walk through the facility and speak with staff about reproductive rights.

“Efforts in the Democratically-controlled Senate to protect IVF have also struggled to advance, as a pair of legislative efforts were blocked by Republicans in recent weeks. Democrats tried to pass bills on IVF based on unanimous consent, a process that is faster than usual Senate procedure but allows any one Senate member to object to advancing the legislation, something Republican senators did both times.”

Donald Trump has worked for years with the country’s most extreme, far-right personalities bent on ripping away access to IVF, and elevated some to positions of power.

HuffPost: “Donald Trump Has Deep Ties To Anti-IVF Movement”

“Like many Republicans, Trump’s words of support don’t align with his past actions on IVF. The current Republican presidential nominee ― who has repeatedly bragged about his role in repealing federal abortion protections ― has deep ties to extreme right-wing organizations that actively oppose IVF.”

“While in the White House, Trump and his administration praised, appointed and worked with some of the nation’s most extreme thought leaders who believe the IVF process is akin to murder. Trump hosted the Alabama Supreme Court chief justice who wrote the IVF ruling twice: once during his 2016 campaign and in 2018 at the White House. (This is the same chief justice who recently appeared on a QAnon conspiracist’s show.)”

“The former president also met multiple times while in office with Lila Rose, president and founder of the anti-abortion group Live Action, who recently said she was ‘proud’ of the Alabama Supreme Court for acknowledging that ‘a baby conceived via IVF should have the same legal protections as a baby conceived naturally.’”

“During his time as president, Trump appointed several extreme anti-IVF advocates to positions of power, including Tim Wildmon, who served on the Trump administration’s faith advisory council. Wildmon is the president of the American Family Association, an extreme anti-abortion organization that just last week opposed a Mississippi bill aimed at protecting IVF because it would open the door to ‘procedures like human cloning, designer babies, three-parent babies and even human-animal hybrids.’

“He also appointed a woman who spent much of her career attacking assisted reproductive technologies, such as IVF and surrogacy, to a lifetime federal judicial appointment. Sarah Pitlyk, who was deemed ‘not qualified’ by the American Bar Association, wrote in multiple rulings that states should treat embryos as humans. Trump put Pitlyk on a shortlist of Supreme Court justice picks. The job went to Amy Coney Barrett, who publicly supported an anti-abortion group that believes IVF should be criminalized.”

“Trump has not endorsed any IVF protections on the national or state level. And despite Republican claims of supporting IVF access, they blocked Democrats’ attempt to pass legislation to safeguard fertility treatments on the federal level.

“Abortion rights advocates have warned that the anti-choice movement would come for IVF and fertility treatments once Roe v. Wade fell. Currently, more than a dozen states are considering laws that would enshrine fetal personhood, threatening IVF and other fertility treatments.”

Senate Republicans blocked basic protections for IVF just weeks ago in the wake of the Alabama Supreme Court’s decision that threatened families’ access to IVF.

Associated Press: “Republicans block Senate bill to protect nationwide access to IVF treatments”

The Hill: “Senate Republicans blocked an effort Wednesday to pass legislation that would federally protect access to in vitro fertilization (IVF).”

125 House Republicans – including Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson – have supported the Life at Conception Act, which could rip away IVF access from families nationwide.

Daily Beast: “Republicans Struggle to Explain Away Their Hypocrisy on IVF”

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.”

Politico: “Dozens of congressional Republicans have signed onto so-called personhood legislation with no carve-out for embryos in clinics, which, if enacted, would upend how the procedure is practiced in the United States.”

Donald Trump made possible the Alabama Supreme Court ruling that threatened IVF treatment – and Trump is still bragging about his role in overturning Roe v. Wade while demanding credit for extreme abortion bans across the country.

CNN: “How the reversal of Roe v. Wade led to the Alabama Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos are children”

New York Times: “[The Alabama ruling 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.”

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: “I was able to kill Roe v. Wade… 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!!!”

Rolling Stone: “Trump Claims Credit for All Abortion Bans”

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”

FWIW: “This week, we found more evidence that the Trump campaign has no interest in ‘moderating’ on the issue of abortion. On Monday, his team began running new Facebook video ads targeting voters in Iowa, referring to Trump as ‘THE MOST Pro-Life President in history.’”

Trump campaign radio ad: “Trump nominated conservative judges, leading to Roe v. Wade being overturned.”

The post REALITY CHECK: MAGA Republicans Continue to Oppose Any Protections for IVF appeared first on Democrats.

In response to RNC Chair Michael Whatley accidentally admitting the truth all Americans know – that we are better off today than four years ago – DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement: 

“It’s refreshing to finally hear someone like Michael Whatley – who has otherwise spent his time peddling lies and conspiracy theories about the 2020 election – admit the truth: of course Americans are better off today than they were four years ago in March 2020. In case anyone else needs a reminder, four years ago, Donald Trump was already failing the American people with a botched coronavirus response while the stock market was in free fall. President Biden led the country through the pandemic, and under his steady leadership, the market has reached record highs and over 15 million new jobs have been created. Don’t take it from us, take it from the RNC: we are better off today than four years ago.”

Donald Trump was already failing in the country’s coronavirus response, having already shut down a pandemic planning office and failing to take responsibility for massive testing delays. 

Business Insider: “’I don’t take responsibility’: Trump says he’s not to blame for persistent delays in coronavirus testing from the CDC”

“The US was far slower to produce test kits through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention than other countries, creating ongoing delays in getting the tests to state-level public-health authorities and healthcare providers. 

“Not only has the US tested far fewer of its citizens per capita than other developed countries, but doctors and patients have also expressed frustration at US patients not meeting the CDC guidelines for testing or being able to get a test despite showing symptoms consistent with COVID-19.”

Associated Press: “Trump disbanded NSC pandemic unit that experts had praised”

“Public health and national security experts shake their heads when President Donald Trump says the coronavirus ‘came out of nowhere’ and ‘blindsided the world.’

“They’ve been warning about the next pandemic for years and criticized the Trump administration’s decision in 2018 to dismantle a National Security Council directorate at the White House charged with preparing for when, not if, another pandemic would hit the nation.

“‘It would be nice if the office was still there,’ Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institute of Health, told Congress this week.”

Meanwhile, the stock market was in free fall as businesses began feeling significant economic pain under Trump’s flailing response.

CNBC: “Dow drops nearly 3,000 points, as coronavirus collapse continues; worst day since ’87”

“Stocks fell sharply Monday — with the Dow suffering its worst day since the ‘Black Monday’ market crash in 1987 and its third-worst day ever — even after the Federal Reserve embarked on a massive monetary stimulus campaign to curb slower economic growth amid the coronavirus outbreak. 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 2,997.10 points lower, or 12.9%, at 20,188.52. The 30-stock Dow was briefly down more than 3,000 points in the final minutes of trading. The S&P 500 dropped 12% to 2,386.13 — hitting its lowest level since December 2018 — while the Nasdaq Composite closed 12.3% lower at 6,904.59 in its worst day ever.”

‘The markets are getting no break with yesterday’s historic Fed actions and COVID-19 dominating the world’s headlines,’ Frank Cappelleri, executive director at Instinet, said in a note. “While the news continues to worsen and with the price action doing things we’ve only seen a handful of other times in the last century, it’s nearly impossible to keep things in perspective.’”

New York Times: “Coronavirus Cost to Businesses and Workers: ‘It Has All Gone to Hell’”

“Not since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has a crisis enveloped so much of the economy so quickly. Broadway is dark. The college basketball tournaments are canceled and professional sports are on indefinite hold. Conferences, concerts and St. Patrick’s Day parades have been called off or postponed. Even Disneyland — which stayed open through a recession a decade ago that wiped out millions of American jobs and trillions of dollars in wealth — is shuttered.

‘This hits the heart of the economy, and it hits the economy on all sides,’ said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Grant Thornton. ‘It’s not just that we’re slowing down things. We’re actually hitting the pause button, and there is no precedent, there is no mold for that.’”

While President Biden has helped create nearly 15 million new jobs, Trump had the worst job record since Herbert Hoover – and job growth had slowed even before the pandemic.

Fortune: “Trump to leave office with the worst jobs record since Herbert Hoover”

Washington Post: “President Trump took office at the crest of the longest economic expansion in U.S. history. He leaves presiding over the worst labor market in modern U.S. history, as an already-sputtering economic recovery has turned negative.”

Bloomberg: “Trump’s Jobs Record Fell Short of Promises Even Before the Virus”

Bloomberg: “Job growth was slightly slower in Trump’s first three years before Covid than it was during the last three years of the Obama administration, when the economy added 2.7 million jobs a year on average. Under Trump, that average was 2.2 million, until this year’s tumult more than wiped out the gains.”

The post RNC Chair Whatley: “We Are Better Off Today” Than Four Years Ago appeared first on Democrats.

MAGA Republicans stooped to new lows this week with their extremism, hypocrisy, chaos, and — as President Biden would call it — malarkey. In case you missed it: Trump once again called for cuts to Social Security and Medicare; Trump met with and once again praised another dictator; and the RNC hired an election denier and self-described “conspiracy theorist”… to lead their “election integrity” unit.

Meanwhile, MAGA Republican senators blocked IVF protections; anti-abortion extremists with ties to Trump are pushing to ban IVF access; Republicans have decided they want to talk more about their cruel anti-choice agenda; and Trump’s MAGA minion Elise Stefanik bragged about bringing federal infrastructure money home to her district despite the fact that she voted against the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

This week, Donald Trump doubled down on his plans to gut Social Security and Medicare, which voters overwhelmingly don’t want.

Joe Kernen, CNBC: “Have you changed your outlook on how to handle entitlements, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid?”

Trump: “So first of all, there is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting.”

Vox: “Trump just opened the door to Social Security cuts. Take him seriously.”

CNN: “Trump suggests he’s open to cuts to Medicare and Social Security after attacking primary rivals over the issue”

NBC News: “Trump floats ‘cutting’ retirement spending, drawing quick pushback from Biden”

Trump met with authoritarian leader Viktor Orbán and doubled down on his habit of praising dictators.

Trump: “Well, first of all he’s a fantastic guy.”

Trump: “There’s nobody that’s better, smarter or a better leader than Viktor Orbán. … He’s the boss and he’s a great leader, fantastic leader. In Europe and around the world, they respect him.”

CNN: “Trump former advisers sound the alarm that he praises despots in private and on the campaign trail”

“To Donald Trump, Hungarian strongman Viktor Orbán is ‘fantastic,’ Chinese leader Xi Jinping is ‘brilliant,’ North Korea’s Kim Jong Un is ‘an OK guy,’ and, most alarmingly, he allegedly said Adolf Hitler ‘did some good things,’ a worldview that would reverse decades-old US foreign policy in a second term should he win November’s presidential election, multiple former senior advisers told CNN.

“‘He thought Putin was an OK guy and Kim was an OK guy — that we had pushed North Korea into a corner,’ retired Gen. John Kelly, who served as Trump’s chief of staff, told me. ‘To him, it was like we were goading these guys. ‘If we didn’t have NATO, then Putin wouldn’t be doing these things.’”

The RNC’s Trump-led extreme MAGA shakeup is officially underway, and one of their first orders of business was to hire election denier Christina Bobb to lead their “election integrity” efforts.

HuffPost: “Election Deniers Have Taken Over The RNC After A Trump Shake-Up”

Washington Post: “LaCivita is installing Christina Bobb — a former OAN reporter who has espoused false claims that the 2020 election was stolen — as senior counsel for election integrity. Bobb is the author of a book called ‘Stealing Your Vote: The Inside Story of the 2020 Election and What It Means for 2024’ and promoted the audit of Arizona elections.”

Media Matters: “Within a two-week span, Christina Bobb, an attorney for former President Donald Trump, has gone on multiple online shows affiliated with the QAnon conspiracy theory movement to promote her new book about supposed election fraud. During her appearances, Bobb has discussed being part of Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, pushed false claims of election fraud, and floated new conspiracy theories, while calling herself ‘a conspiracy theorist.’”

HuffPost: “Christina Bobb, who spouted election falsehoods as a host for ultra-conservative One America News Network, not only embraced Trump’s big lie that he was robbed of victory in the 2020 election but also wrote a book about it, ‘Stealing Your Vote: The Inside Story of the 2020 Election and What It Means for 2024.’” 

MAGA Senate Republicans blocked a bill that would help service members and veterans access IVF.

Alanna Vagianos, HuffPost: “Just now: Senate Republicans block a bill to protect IVF & other fertility services for veterans & service members.”

Sen. Patty Murray: “…It’s pretty clear Republicans do not support IVF despite their language — not even for wounded service members and for veterans.”

“I will not stop working on this — it’s the right thing to do.”

Sen. Patty Murray: “If Republicans really do now want to support IVF, if they really do want to help people trying to grow their family — why not start with our veterans and our service members? These are the men and women who fought to protect our families. Why don’t we make sure they have the support they need to grow theirs?”

Extreme MAGA anti-abortion groups with ties to Donald Trump are openly pushing Republicans to restrict IVF access – and their ultimate goal is banning IVF.

Politico: “‘License to kill’: Anti-abortion groups rage against the GOP”

“As many politicians raced in recent weeks to get to the right side of public opinion on IVF, some of the country’s biggest and most influential anti-abortion groups are pushing back.”

“In Alabama, the anti-abortion movement resoundingly condemned a bill shielding IVF providers from criminal and civil charges, and pressured GOP Gov. Kay Ivey to veto it.”

“In Congress, anti-abortion groups are vowing to penalize GOP members if they support pro-IVF bills they believe go too far.”

“This week, leaders of two of the country’s biggest groups — Susan B. Anthony List and March for Life — will attend House Republicans’ annual policy retreat. … They want lawmakers to seize the moment created by the Alabama decision to impose restrictions on the way IVF is commonly practiced in the U.S.”

“Some Republicans lawmakers are heeding the anti-abortion movement’s concerns. In Iowa, House GOP lawmakers voted last week to advance legislation that would give embryos and fetuses personhood rights, despite concerns from Democrats and others that the legislation would hamper IVF access. And GOP lawmakers in Tennessee recently rejected legislation proposed by their Democratic colleagues to protect IVF access, saying that such legislation was unnecessary.”

Republicans have a new losing strategy – talking MORE about their cruel and unpopular anti-abortion agenda that is ripping away women’s freedoms.

Wall Street Journal: “Republicans’ New Abortion Strategy: Talk About It More, Not Less”

“Republicans leading the party’s effort to defend the House in this fall’s elections are pushing GOP colleagues to openly discuss their positions on abortion, rather than try to sidestep the issue like many did in the previous campaign, arguing that doing so will be critical to winning competitive races.”

“Abortion has weighed on the party’s success in recent years. Republicans won back the House in 2022 but by a narrower-than-expected margin, a far cry from the ‘red wave’ they had hoped would sweep them to a big majority in the chamber. Lawmakers from both parties say the Supreme Court’s decision that year ending the right to an abortion revved up abortion-rights voters and helped Democrats defend seats.”  

“More than a dozen GOP-controlled states have enacted a near ban on abortion, many of those with few exceptions for rape or incest. Others, like Florida, have banned abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.”

“While some congressional Republicans do support near-complete bans on abortions or restrictions that kick in at six weeks, others have backed bans after 15 weeks of pregnancy.”

“Issues around reproductive rights are already causing headaches for Republicans in this election cycle.”

Trump’s MAGA minion Elise Stefanik got caught in a bold-faced lie after taking credit for water infrastructure funding, provided in part by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that she voted against.

MSNBC: “Stefanik is the latest Republican to tout funding she voted against”

“GOP lawmakers have a habit of voting against Democratic legislation, only to turn around and take credit when the Democratic legislation makes investments in their states and districts.

“Take this week, for example. House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik issued this press release touting news in her upstate New York district.”

“A day later, there was some discussion about the funding for the local project coming by way of the Inflation Reduction Act, which Stefanik opposed and condemned.

“But that apparently wasn’t quite right: The funding came from a different Democratic bill — which Stefanik also opposed and condemned.”

Brian Tyler Cohen, MSNBC: “You voted against it, @RepStefanik. Perhaps you should mention that part.”

The post MAGA Malarkey: The Extremism You Missed From Republicans This Week appeared first on Democrats.

 

Last night, the RNC’s new MAGA leadership team doubled down on their commitment to undermining our democracy and the will of the voters by hiring election denier and self-described “conspiracy theorist” Christina Bobb as their new in-house senior counsel. Between Bobb’s long record of “peddl[ing] lies about the 2020 election being stolen” and her “key role in the Trump campaign’s fake electors scheme,” the RNC is becoming a who’s who of Donald Trump’s favorite election deniers — and it’s another clear sign that democracy is at stake this November. 

Here’s a look at Christina Bobb’s election-denying extremism:

CNN: “She also played a key role in the Trump campaign’s fake electors scheme after he lost the 2020 election, working closely with Trump advisers to organize the plan in seven battleground states. The scheme formed the basis of parts of Smith’s election subversion indictment against the former president, which says Trump and his allies created ‘fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding’ in Congress on January 6, 2021, and ‘disenfranchise millions of voters.’”

“Bobb was also a correspondent during the 2020 election for the fringe pro-Trump network OAN, where she promoted false claims that the election was rigged. The voting technology company Dominion sued Bobb and OAN for defamation in 2021. Some of her on-air segments were also referenced in a separate defamation case against OAN filed by Smartmatic, another aggrieved voting company. OAN and Bobb have denied wrongdoing in these civil cases.”

The New York Times: “A self-described conspiracy theorist and election denier, Ms. Bobb will take on a role overseeing Republican election integrity efforts — after years of aggressively promoting false claims about the 2020 election. Her appointment reflects the ascendant role of election deniers in Republican leadership and in Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign.”

HuffPost: “Christina Bobb, who spouted election falsehoods as a host for ultra-conservative One America News Network, not only embraced Trump’s big lie that he was robbed of victory in the 2020 election but also wrote a book about it, ‘Stealing Your Vote: The Inside Story of the 2020 Election and What It Means for 2024.’ She also pressed for the audit of Arizona elections, The Washington Post noted.”

“On the day of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection (before she worked for Trump), she urged then Vice President Mike Pence to not certify the election results in the debunked belief that Pence could unilaterally change the outcome, Mediaite noted.

“On a talk show appearance with white nationalist Stew Peters, she seconded the host’s idea for so-called traitors who have ‘stolen’ elections from conservatives, such as far-right Kari Lake in Arizona, to be tried for treason.”

Rolling Stone: “TRUMP IS RESHAPING the Republican National Committee to the point that its leadership were not only on his payroll, but peddled lies about the 2020 election being stolen.” 

“Bobb has been made the RNC’s senior counsel of election integrity and is the author of the 2023 book Stealing Your Vote: The Inside Story of the 2020 Election and What It Means for 2024, which claims to document how the 2020 presidential election was stolen. The book includes an introduction by former Trump adviser Steve Bannon.”

“Bobb also tweeted on Jan. 6, 2021, that former Vice President Mike Pence ‘can solve this now by sending it back to the legislators,’ referring to the false claim pushed by Jan. 6 rioters that Pence had the power to overturn the results of the 2020 election before they were certified by Congress.”

The New Republic: “Bobb’s appointment should be a major cause for concern. Bobb joined Trump’s legal team last year, and before that, she was an anchor at the far-right network OAN. She was a vocal supporter of 2020 election fraud conspiracy theories, and a nonprofit she founded donated more than $600,000 to the bogus ‘audit’ of votes in Maricopa County, Arizona.

“During the 2022 midterm elections, Bobb continued to push falsehoods that the elections might be rigged. She said that any delay in election results should be considered ‘suspicious,’ stoking fear about valid votes.”

The post Meet Christina Bobb: The RNC’s New Election-Denying Self-Described “Conspiracy Theorist”  appeared first on Democrats.

In response to MAGA Republicans pushing each other to talk more about their extreme anti-choice agenda, DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement: 

“MAGA Republicans are doing Democrats’ work for us by making clear to voters that they will continue to push a cruel anti-choice agenda to ban abortion nationwide, threaten access to IVF, and rip away freedoms from women across this country. House Republicans are taking a page from Trump’s losing playbook – Trump, who is already hemorrhaging support with women, is on the campaign trail losing more votes by the day as he brags about his role in overturning Roe v. Wade, takes credit for extreme abortion bans across the country, and advocates for a national ban. No matter how many elections MAGA Republicans lose, they keep doubling down on their unpopular anti-freedom platform that voters will reject up and down the ballot once again this November.” 

NEW: Republicans’ new strategy is to talk more about their cruel anti-freedom MAGA agenda that is ripping away reproductive rights from women across the country. 

Wall Street Journal: “Republicans’ New Abortion Strategy: Talk About It More, Not Less”

“Republicans leading the party’s effort to defend the House in this fall’s elections are pushing GOP colleagues to openly discuss their positions on abortion, rather than try to sidestep the issue like many did in the previous campaign, arguing that doing so will be critical to winning competitive races.”

“Abortion has weighed on the party’s success in recent years. Republicans won back the House in 2022 but by a narrower-than-expected margin, a far cry from the ‘red wave’ they had hoped would sweep them to a big majority in the chamber. Lawmakers from both parties say the Supreme Court’s decision that year ending the right to an abortion revved up abortion-rights voters and helped Democrats defend seats.”  

“More than a dozen GOP-controlled states have enacted a near ban on abortion, many of those with few exceptions for rape or incest. Others, like Florida, have banned abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.”

“While some congressional Republicans do support near-complete bans on abortions or restrictions that kick in at six weeks, others have backed bans after 15 weeks of pregnancy.”

“Issues around reproductive rights are already causing headaches for Republicans in this election cycle. … Both parties know it is a key issue for voters. In a Wall Street Journal poll this past month, voters of both parties ranked abortion as the top issue that they must agree with a candidate’s stance on. When asked to name the one issue on which they wouldn’t vote for a candidate who disagreed with them, 22% said abortion.”

REMINDER: Donald Trump wants to ban abortion nationwide. 

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

Rolling Stone: “Trump Floats National Abortion Ban After Claiming He’s ‘On the Side of Women’”

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.”

Trump: “We’ll pick something that’s going to be very, very good for pro-life … I’m going to be in there pushing.”

Trump won’t stop bragging about his role in overturning Roe v. Wade while demanding credit for cruel abortion bans across the country and doubling down on his extreme record.

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: “I was able to kill Roe v. Wade … 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!!!”

Rolling Stone: “Trump Claims Credit for All Abortion Bans”

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”

FWIW: “This week, we found more evidence that the Trump campaign has no interest in ‘moderating’ on the issue of abortion. On Monday, his team began running new Facebook video ads targeting voters in Iowa, referring to Trump as ‘THE MOST Pro-Life President in history.’”

Trump campaign radio ad: “Trump nominated conservative judges, leading to Roe v. Wade being overturned.”

Trump: “There has to be some form of punishment [for women who have abortions].”

The Hill: “The Trump administration formally backed a House bill Monday that would ban abortions after 20 weeks. … It would make it a crime to perform or attempt an abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy, with the possibility of a fine, up to five years in prison or both.”

Senate Republicans have blocked basic protections for IVF, and 125 House Republicans – including Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson – have supported the Life at Conception Act, which could rip away IVF access from families nationwide.

Alanna Vagianos, HuffPost: “Just now: Senate Republicans block a bill to protect IVF & other fertility services for veterans & service members.”

Associated Press: “Republicans block Senate bill to protect nationwide access to IVF treatments”

The Hill: “Senate Republicans blocked an effort Wednesday to pass legislation that would federally protect access to in vitro fertilization (IVF).”

Daily Beast: “Republicans Struggle to Explain Away Their Hypocrisy on IVF”

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.”

Politico: “Dozens of congressional Republicans have signed onto so-called personhood legislation with no carve-out for embryos in clinics, which, if enacted, would upend how the procedure is practiced in the United States.”

Trump made possible the Alabama Supreme Court ruling that threatened IVF treatment by paving the way for the reversal of Roe v. Wade.

CNN: “How the reversal of Roe v. Wade led to the Alabama Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos are children”

New York Times: “[The Alabama ruling 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.”

REMINDER: MAGA Republicans’ extreme anti-abortion agenda is overwhelmingly unpopular with voters.

USA Today: “Americans overwhelmingly oppose the next goal of many anti-abortion activists, to enact a federal law banning abortion nationwide. By 80%-14%, those surveyed opposed that idea, including 65% of Republicans and 83% of independents.”

Axios: “Most Americans support abortion access one year after Roe v. Wade: poll”

CNN: “A 64% majority of US adults say they disapprove of last year’s Supreme Court ruling that women do not have a constitutional right to an abortion, with half strongly disapproving – an assessment that’s almost entirely unchanged from CNN’s poll last July in the immediate wake of the decision.”

The post NEW: House GOP Retreat Message: Talk MORE About Their Cruel, Unpopular Plan To Ban Abortion appeared first on Democrats.

In response to MAGA Republicans yet again blocking legislation to protect access to IVF, DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement: 

“Anti-freedom Republicans just proved once again that they will stop at nothing to block IVF protections – even for our nation’s veterans and service members. Donald Trump’s MAGA allies in Congress only care about pushing their cruel anti-freedom agenda, including threatening IVF access and banning abortion nationwide. Voters will remember how Republicans blocked any and all attempts to safeguard our basic rights, and will make them pay the price for their anti-choice extremism this November.”

Senate Republicans AGAIN blocked basic protections for IVF.

Alanna Vagianos, HuffPost: “Just now: Senate Republicans block a bill to protect IVF & other fertility services for veterans & service members.”

Senate Republicans blocked basic protections for IVF just weeks ago in the wake of the Alabama Supreme Court’s decision that threatened countless families’ access to IVF.

Associated Press: “Republicans block Senate bill to protect nationwide access to IVF treatments”

The Hill: “Senate Republicans blocked an effort Wednesday to pass legislation that would federally protect access to in vitro fertilization (IVF).”

125 House Republicans – including Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson – have supported the Life at Conception Act, which could rip away IVF access from families nationwide.

Daily Beast: “Republicans Struggle to Explain Away Their Hypocrisy on IVF”

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.”

Politico: “Dozens of congressional Republicans have signed onto so-called personhood legislation with no carve-out for embryos in clinics, which, if enacted, would upend how the procedure is practiced in the United States.”

Donald Trump made possible the Alabama Supreme Court ruling that threatened IVF treatment – and Trump is still bragging about his role in overturning Roe v. Wade while demanding credit for extreme abortion bans across the country.

CNN: “How the reversal of Roe v. Wade led to the Alabama Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos are children”

New York Times: “[The Alabama ruling 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.”

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: “I was able to kill Roe v. Wade… 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!!!”

Rolling Stone: “Trump Claims Credit for All Abortion Bans”

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”

FWIW: “This week, we found more evidence that the Trump campaign has no interest in ‘moderating’ on the issue of abortion. On Monday, his team began running new Facebook video ads targeting voters in Iowa, referring to Trump as ‘THE MOST Pro-Life President in history.’”

Trump campaign radio ad: “Trump nominated conservative judges, leading to Roe v. Wade being overturned.”

Trump also supports a national abortion ban and has an extreme anti-abortion record. 

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

Rolling Stone: “Trump Floats National Abortion Ban After Claiming He’s ‘On the Side of Women’”

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.”

Trump: “We’ll pick something that’s going to be very, very good for pro-life… I’m going to be in there pushing.”

Trump: “There has to be some form of punishment [for women who have abortions].”

The Hill: “The Trump administration formally backed a House bill Monday that would ban abortions after 20 weeks… It would make it a crime to perform or attempt an abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy, with the possibility of a fine, up to five years in prison or both.”

Extreme MAGA anti-abortion groups are pushing Republicans to restrict IVF access – and their ultimate goal is completely banning IVF nationwide.

Politico: “As many politicians raced in recent weeks to get to the right side of public opinion on IVF, some of the country’s biggest and most influential anti-abortion groups are pushing back.”

“In Congress, anti-abortion groups are vowing to penalize GOP members if they support pro-IVF bills they believe go too far. … They want lawmakers to seize the moment created by the Alabama decision to impose restrictions on the way IVF is commonly practiced in the U.S.”

“Some Republicans lawmakers are heeding the anti-abortion movement’s concerns. In Iowa, House GOP lawmakers voted last week to advance legislation that would give embryos and fetuses personhood rights, despite concerns from Democrats and others that the legislation would hamper IVF access. And GOP lawmakers in Tennessee recently rejected legislation proposed by their Democratic colleagues to protect IVF access, saying that such legislation was unnecessary.

“Even the Alabama Legislature watered down its original proposal, which would have carved out embryos created during the IVF process but not implanted into the uterus from the definition of ‘human life.’”

“As the debate rages at the state and national levels, Perkins and other anti-abortion leaders say they’re hopeful, despite recent setbacks, that the conversation ignited by the Alabama ruling will eventually lead to more restrictions on IVF.”The Atlantic: “The People Rooting for the End of IVF”
“Those in the wider anti-abortion movement who oppose IVF are feeling hopeful. Whatever the outcome in Alabama, the situation has yanked the issue ‘into the public consciousness’ nationwide, Aaron Kheriaty, a fellow at the conservative Ethics and Public Policy Center, told me. … In his ideal world, the anti-abortion movement would make ending IVF its new goal—the next frontier in a post-Roe society. … He and his allies see the Alabama ruling as a chance to start a national conversation about the morality of IVF—even if, at first, Americans don’t want to listen.”

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