Category: US Democratic Party

After JD Vance visited Michigan today to double down on Donald Trump’s extensive economic failures and attack manufacturing funding, DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement: 

“Just last week, JD Vance made clear that a second Trump term means a rerun of the same job losses and plant closures that defined his first term. Now, he’s making it clear that the Trump-Vance economic agenda would double down on Trump’s disastrous MAGAnomics blueprint that incentivized outsourcing and gave tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy at the expense of the middle class. Michigan voters rejected these failures and broken promises four years ago, and they’ll do the same thing four weeks from now when they send Vice President Harris and Governor Walz to the White House.”

JD Vance visited Michigan after signaling last week that Donald Trump will let their manufacturing plants close (again).

Detroit News: “Vance won’t commit to $500M federal grant for building EVs at Michigan auto plant”

“Republican vice presidential hopeful JD Vance would not commit a second Trump administration to honoring the Biden administration’s $500 million federal grant to General Motors Co. to convert a Cadillac sedan assembly plant in Michigan into a future electric vehicle plant.

“The Biden administration has said the conversion of GM’s Lansing Grand River Plant to assembling EVs would save 650 jobs and create 50 new positions. The Detroit automaker has signaled the assembled battery packs for the Lansing plant would come from the new battery plant it is constructing in nearby Delta Township, west of Lansing. …

“Vance’s comments on EVs while in Michigan on Wednesday tracked with Trump’s criticism of the Biden administration’s incentives for automakers to produce more electric vehicles.

“The Biden administration has not imposed a ban on gas-powered vehicle or required consumers to purchase EVs. But it has put in place numerous incentives and restrictions on future tailpipe emissions that incentivized automakers to build and sell more EVs.”

REMINDER: Trump’s disastrous record includes offshored jobs, shuttered factories, and manufacturing job losses in Michigan and across the country.

Federal Economic Data: “Michiganders lost 31,000 manufacturing jobs over the course of Trump’s presidency.”

MLive: “On the 2016 campaign trail in Warren, Trump pledged ‘you won’t lose one plant’ if he were elected. GM announced last year it would end production at five North American plants.”

CNN: “Trump told GM workers he could save their plant, but it’s gone for good”

“Manufacturing activity in September [of 2019] fell to its lowest point in a decade. The Rust Belt states of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan, which Trump flipped, have all lost manufacturing jobs since June. Many of those jobs have moved overseas.”

Wall Street Journal: “President Trump’s trade war against China didn’t achieve the central objective of reversing a U.S. decline in manufacturing, economic data show, despite tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese goods to discourage imports.”

Detroit Free Press: “Trump, tweets couldn’t save U.S. auto jobs in 2017”

New York Times: “After Years of Growth, Automakers Are Cutting U.S. Jobs”

Bloomberg: “The Offshoring of U.S. Jobs Increased on Trump’s Watch”

Washington Post: “Trump promised ‘America First’ would keep jobs here. But the tax plan might push them overseas.”

Bureau of Labor Statistics: “When Trump left office, there were over 170,000 fewer manufacturing jobs than when he started.”

Trump’s MAGAnomics tax scam rigged the economy for the ultra-wealthy and big corporations while leaving working families behind and skyrocketing the deficit.

The Guardian: “Donald Trump’s $1.5tn tax cuts have helped billionaires pay a lower rate than the working class for the first time in history.”

CBS News: “Two years after Trump tax cuts, middle-class Americans are falling behind”

Washington Post Analysis: “One of President Donald Trump’s lesser-known but profoundly damaging legacies will be the explosive rise in the national debt that occurred on his watch. The financial burden that he’s inflicted on our government will wreak havoc for decades, saddling our kids and grandkids with debt. The national debt has risen by almost $7.8 trillion during Trump’s time in office.

“The growth in the annual deficit under Trump ranks as the third-biggest increase, relative to the size of the economy, of any U.S. presidential administration, according to a calculation by Eugene Steuerle, co-founder of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. …

The combination of Trump’s 2017 tax cut and the lack of any serious spending restraint helped both the deficit and the debt soar.”

Vance: “The left attacked Donald Trump for those tax cuts and said they would make the deficit worse when in reality we took in more revenue because the government got out of the way on the regulatory side and the tax cuts spurred a lot of growth which means more people working, which meant more economic production which meant the entire economy was healthier … I think we have a pretty common sense regulatory and tax agenda.”

New York Times: “The 2017 corporate tax cuts signed into law by Mr. Trump have not increased government revenue … In fact, they have had the opposite effect.”

The Trump-Vance ticket now wants to enact their extreme, unpopular, and unaffordable Project 2025 agenda that would rig the economy for the ultra-wealthy again and risk supercharging inflation.

Axios: “Trump’s inflation bomb: How his second-term plans could make it worse”

The Atlantic: “Trump’s Plan to Supercharge Inflation”

Wall Street Journal: “A drumbeat of reports from Wall Street economists have warned that Trump’s plans could substantially slow economic growth while driving up consumer prices.”

CNBC: “Trump budget would spike deficits by nearly 5 times Harris proposal, says Penn Wharton”

Washington Post: “Trump and his advisers have discussed deeper cuts to both individual and corporate tax rates that would build on his controversial 2017 tax law … Further cutting corporate taxes … would primarily benefit large firms.”

Trump: “You’re all people that have a lot of money … You’re rich as hell. … We’re gonna give you tax cuts.”

Vanity Fair: “Donald Trump Wants to Give His Favorite Corporations Another Giant Tax Cut in a Second Term: Report”

Vance on Trump’s plan that would raise tariffs and raise costs for hardworking Americans: “This is a fascinating proposal and we could talk for a while about it.”

Vance: “I’ve reviewed a lot of [Project 2025]. There’s some good ideas in there.”

New York Times: “Senator JD Vance of Ohio, former President Donald J. Trump’s running mate, denied in an interview with NBC News on Sunday that tariffs had caused higher costs for Americans, as economists have documented.”

Trump was one of the most anti-worker and anti-union presidents in American history — and Vance also stands firmly against working people.

Trump: “I know the unions. They’re dues-sucking people. They just want their dues and they couldn’t care less.”

New York Times: “Does [Trump] support unions? He has had ‘great success’ in New York building with unions and also in Florida without unions. ‘If I had my choice,’ he said, ‘I think I’d take it without.’”

Associated Press: “During Trump’s presidency, the National Labor Relations Board reversed several key rulings that made it easier for small unions to organize, strengthened the bargaining rights of franchise workers and provided protection against anti-union measures for employees.

“The Supreme Court’s conservative majority — including three justices that Trump nominated — overturned a decades-old pro-union decision in 2018 involving fees paid by government workers. The justices in 2021 rejected a California regulation giving unions access to farm property so they could organize workers.”

Politico: “Vance has consistently opposed the PRO Act, the ‘holy grail of pro-union labor reform’ that organized labor and its allies on the Hill have been fighting for over two years to get passed. … Vance’s skepticism of the PRO Act is part of a more fundamental skepticism that he harbors toward organized labor.”

Fast Company: “Vance also voted in favor of a resolution to strike down the NLRB’s updated joint-employer rule, which would have given workers more leverage when organizing at companies—like Amazon—that rely heavily on third-party contractors, by forcing both employers to participate in labor negotiations.”

The post Trump-Vance Economic Agenda: Offshored Jobs, Shuttered Plants, and Attacking Manufacturing appeared first on Democrats.

As Donald Trump and JD Vance push an extreme Project 2025 agenda that includes gutting Medicare and Medicaid, DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement: 

“Donald Trump spent every year of his presidency trying to gut Medicare and Medicaid – and he’s already made clear his plans for a second term include ‘cutting’ these critical benefits for our seniors. The Trump-Vance ticket is pushing an extreme Project 2025 blueprint that would undo the Biden-Harris administration’s efforts to lower prescription drug costs for seniors while putting Medicare and Medicaid on the chopping block. While Vice President Harris and Governor Walz are focused on expanding Medicare for our seniors, Trump and JD Vance will leave millions of Americans high and dry as they push a dangerous, out of touch, and unpopular Project 2025 agenda.”

Donald Trump has floated cuts to crucial programs like Medicare and Medicaid after years of railing against and threatening them.

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.”

Forbes: “Trump Floats ‘Cutting’ Spending On Entitlements Like Social Security And Medicare”

Rolling Stone: “Trump Floats Cuts to Social Security and Medicare”

CNN: “Trump now says he’s open to entitlement cuts, including Medicare”

Mediaite: “During a Fox News town hall, President Donald Trump promised to cut entitlements like Medicare and Social Security if he were to win a second term. … ‘But if you don’t cut something in entitlements, you will never really deal with the debt,’ town hall co-moderator Martha MacCallum interjected, alluding to social safety programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. ‘Oh, we’ll be cutting,’ Trump rushed to confirm.”

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: “President Trump has made clear that his goal remains to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), including its expansion of Medicaid to low-income adults, and to impose rigid caps on the federal government’s Medicaid spending.”

Trump proposed cuts to Medicare and Medicaid in every single one of his budgets as president, left children uninsured when he cracked down on Medicaid, and more.

Washington Post: “His avowed stance, however, is at odds with Trump’s own record as president: Each of his White House budget proposals included cuts to Social Security and Medicare programs.”

Vox: “Trump said he wouldn’t cut Medicaid, Social Security, and Medicare. His 2020 budget cuts all 3.”

2019 and 2020: Trump proposed budgets that included hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts to Medicare.

In his FY18, FY19, FY20, and FY21 budgets, Trump repeatedly proposed hundreds of billions in cuts to Medicaid.

ProPublica: “The Trump Administration Cracked Down on Medicaid. Kids Lost Insurance.”

Los Angeles Times: “Rebuffed by the courts in its previous efforts to gut Medicaid, the Trump administration teed up a new, far-reaching attack on the program that could affect the health of millions of low-income Americans.”

New York Times: “The Trump administration said on Thursday that it would allow states to cap Medicaid spending for many poor adults, a major shift long sought by conservatives that gives states the option of reducing health benefits for millions who gained coverage through the program under the Affordable Care Act.” 

CBS News: “Trump administration to withhold Medicaid funding from California over abortion insurance requirement”

JD Vance has railed against Medicare and other entitlement programs that Americans depend on.

Vance: “[Social Security and Medicare] are the biggest roadblocks to any kind of real fiscal sanity.”

Vance: “The way forward is as obvious as it is politically difficult: … reform current entitlements and avoid enacting new ones.”

Vance: “We’ve got to, frankly, stop spending so much on welfare benefits and start having a lot more workers who are paying into the system.”

Project 2025 — an “undeniably” Trump-driven operation — includes plans to accelerate efforts to privatize Medicare, cut Medicaid benefits, and repeal provisions in President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act that allow Medicare to negotiate lower prescription drug prices. 

Project 2025: “Add work requirements and match Medicaid benefits to beneficiary needs. Because Medicaid serves a broad and diverse group of individuals, it should be flexible enough to accommodate different designs for different groups.”

Project 2025: “This ‘negotiation’ program should be repealed, and reforms in Part D that will have meaningful impact for seniors should be pursued…

“In addition, intermediate tax reform should repeal all tax increases that were passed as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, including the book minimum tax, the stock buyback excise tax, the coal excise tax, the reinstated Superfund tax, and excise taxes on drug manufacturers to compel them to comply with Medicare price controls.”

Rolling Stone: “Republicans Are Planning to Totally Privatize Medicare — And Fast”

“Such a policy would hasten the end of the traditional Medicare program, as well as its foundational premise: that seniors can go to any doctor or provider they choose. The change would be a boon for private health insurers — which generate massive profits and growing portions of their revenues from Medicare Advantage plans — and further consolidate corporate control over the United States health care system.

“It would not likely benefit seniors, since the private plans limit the doctors they can see and often wrongfully deny patients’ care. Because the plans are costly, experts say the GOP proposal could threaten the Medicare program’s solvency.”

Axios: “This is undeniably a Trump-driven operation. The biggest tell: Johnny McEntee — one of Trump’s closest White House aides, and his most fervent internal loyalty enforcer — is a senior adviser to Project 2025. One of the most powerful architects is Stephen Miller, a top West Wing adviser for the Trump administration.”

The Week: “Many of Trump’s indicated plans for a second term fall in line with the Project 2025 outline.”

New York Times: “Roberts told me that he views Heritage’s role today as ‘institutionalizing Trumpism.’ This includes leading Project 2025, a transition blueprint that outlines a plan to consolidate power in the executive branch, dismantle federal agencies and recruit and vet government employees to free the next Republican president from a system that Roberts views as stacked against conservative power. The lesson of Trump’s first year in office, Roberts told me, is that ‘the Trump administration … simply got a slow start. And Heritage and our allies in Project 2025 believe that must never be repeated.’”

The post Trump-Vance’s Project 2025 Agenda: Put Medicare and Medicaid on the Chopping Block appeared first on Democrats.

As Early Voting Begins in California, Democrats Urge Californians To Make Their Voices Heard 

Today, as Californians celebrate the opening of ballot drop boxes across the state, the DNC is ensuring voters have all the information they need to make voting early easy in the most important election of our lifetimes. 

“Californians understand the stakes of this election: economic opportunity, fundamental freedoms, and the democratic values that unite us,” said DNC Spokesperson Cameron Niven. “On the first day Californians can return their ballots via ballot drop-off locations in California, it has never been more important to participate in our democracy, talk to your friends and family about voting, and ensure every Californian is empowered with the information they need to request and cast their ballot. Donald Trump and JD Vance are pushing an extreme Project 2025 agenda that would benefit only the ultra-wealthy and corporations, roll back our rights, and raise prices for hardworking people. Californians can head to IWillVote.com/CA to learn how to reject Trump’s extreme agenda by making their voices heard and voting early in person, sending their ballot by mail, dropping them off at drop off locations, or casting their vote on Election Day. In the most important election of our lifetimes, Californians have the power to chart a New Way Forward with Vice President Kamala Harris, Governor Tim Walz, and Democrats up and down the ticket.” 

I Will Vote is the Democratic Party’s one-stop shop for voter education and information. Voters can check if they are registered to vote, learn how to register, register online if their state allows it, find their polling location and learn how to cast a mail-in or early ballot. The Text-Line is the latest voter assistance feature of the DNC’s I Will Vote program, with support also available through IWillVote.com and the National Voter Information Hotline in English and Spanish, with additional languages to come ahead of Election Day. Voters can access I Will Vote by texting VOTE to 70888 or VOTO to 70888 for Spanish. IWillVote.com is also available in Spanish at VoyAVotar.com.

The post As Early Voting Begins in California, Democrats Urge Californians To Make Their Voices Heard  appeared first on Democrats.

In response to the rank hypocrisy of Donald Trump’s MAGA Republicans, who voted against FEMA funding, DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement:

“While Hurricane Helene was barreling towards the Southeast, dozens of Donald Trump’s cronies in the House voted against extending FEMA funding – and are now spending their time spouting dangerous misinformation in the aftermath. As president, Trump showed us how he’d respond to natural disasters: he spread reckless conspiracy theories and tried to personally withhold aid from disaster-stricken communities for his own selfish political priorities. Now, he’s pushing a Project 2025 agenda that would gut funding for weather preparedness and restrict disaster response efforts. Time and time again, Trump and his MAGA allies have proven that in times of crisis, they can’t be trusted to lead, and will put politics over American lives.”

Not even two weeks ago, as Hurricane Helene was barreling towards the Southeast, dozens of Donald Trump’s MAGA Republicans in the House voted AGAINST extending FEMA funding.

The post FACT: Donald Trump’s MAGA Minions Voted AGAINST Disaster Relief Funding appeared first on Democrats.

Today, as Hoosiers celebrate the first day of early voting, the DNC is ensuring voters have all the information they need to make voting early easy in the most important election of our lifetimes. 

“Voters across Indiana understand the stakes of this election: economic opportunity, fundamental freedoms, and the democratic values that unite us,” said DNC Communications Director Rosemary Boeglin. “As early voting begins in Indiana, it has never been more important to participate in our democracy, talk to your friends and family about voting, and ensure every Hoosier is empowered with the information they need to cast their ballot. Hoosiers can head to IWillVote.com/IN to learn how to make their voices heard by voting absentee in-person with their ID. In the most important election of our lifetimes, Hoosiers have the power to chart a New Way Forward by sending Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz to the White House and electing Jennifer McCormick to the governor’s office.”

I Will Vote is the Democratic Party’s one-stop shop for voter education and information. Voters can check if they are registered to vote, learn how to register, register online if their state allows it, find their polling location, check requirements such as voter ID, and learn how to cast a mail-in or early ballot. The Text-Line is the latest voter assistance feature of the DNC’s I Will Vote program, with support also available through IWillVote.com and the National Voter Information Hotline in English and Spanish, with additional languages to come ahead of Election Day. Voters can access I Will Vote by texting VOTE to 70888 or VOTO to 70888 for Spanish. IWillVote.com is also available in Spanish at VoyAVotar.com.

The post As Early Voting Begins in Indiana, Democrats Urge Hoosiers To Make Their Voices Heard  appeared first on Democrats.

Today, following the Georgia Supreme Court reinstating the extreme abortion ban Donald Trump enabled in the state, DNC Spokesperson Maddy Mundy released the following statement: 

“Once again, women in Georgia have lost their fundamental right to access reproductive care and Donald Trump is to blame. Trump ‘proudly’ orchestrated the overturn of Roe v. Wade, and now, women are once again no longer safe in Georgia. Women in Georgia are dying under this ban. With this decision, women and medical professionals across the state are trapped in a dangerous cycle of chaos and confusion as MAGA Republicans continue to force the government in between a woman and her doctor. If Donald Trump and JD Vance reach the White House, they will enact their dangerous Project 2025 agenda and ban abortion nationwide, while threatening IVF and contraception access. Georgia voters and Americans across the country will put a stop to Donald Trump’s relentless attacks on women’s reproductive rights this November as they elect Vice President Harris and Governor Walz.”  

Trump is the reason Georgians live under a cruel law that bans abortion before many women know they’re pregnant and threatens jail time. And he’s proud of it.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “The state Supreme Court reinstated Georgia’s restrictive abortion law, one week after a Fulton County Superior Court judge ruled the law was unconstitutional.”

Trump: “I was proudly the person responsible for the ending of … Roe v. Wade.”

Slate: “Georgia Just Criminalized Abortion. Women Who Terminate Their Pregnancies Would Receive Life in Prison.”

“On Tuesday, Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed a ‘fetal heartbeat’ bill that seeks to outlaw abortion after about six weeks. The measure, HB 481, is the most extreme abortion ban in the country—not just because it would impose severe limitations on women’s reproductive rights, but also because it would subject women who get illegal abortions to life imprisonment and the death penalty.”

New York Times: “Georgia Supreme Court Allows State’s Six-Week Abortion Ban to Remain in Effect”

“The ruling means that abortion remains banned in the state, with limited exceptions, after the sixth week of pregnancy — a point when most women have not yet even realized they are pregnant. With North Carolina now banning most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy, South Carolina after six weeks, and Florida doing the same, pending a legal challenge, the ruling ensures that abortion will be largely inaccessible in the Deep South, forcing women there to travel farther for care, to more distant states like Virginia or Illinois.”

Washington Post: “Monica Simpson, executive director of SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, the lead plaintiff in the case, called the Tuesday decision ‘devastating.’

“‘This abortion ban has forced Georgians to travel across state lines at great expense or continue the life-altering consequences of pregnancy and childbirth against their wills,’ she said.”

Georgia Recorder: “More consequentially, it raises risks for women who want to end their pregnancies and those who help them do so. Abortion rights advocates express concerns that murder charges could be leveled against abortion patients along with conspiracy charges against people who help them.”

Reporting shows that abortion bans are delaying critical emergency care across the country, leading to two women dying in Georgia.

ProPublica: “Abortion Bans Have Delayed Emergency Medical Care. In Georgia, Experts Say This Mother’s Death Was Preventable.”

“In her final hours, Amber Nicole Thurman suffered from a grave infection that her suburban Atlanta hospital was well-equipped to treat.

“She’d taken abortion pills and encountered a rare complication; she had not expelled all of the fetal tissue from her body. She showed up at Piedmont Henry Hospital in need of a routine procedure to clear it from her uterus, called a dilation and curettage, or D&C.

“But just that summer, her state had made performing the procedure a felony, with few exceptions. Any doctor who violated the new Georgia law could be prosecuted and face up to a decade in prison…

“But ProPublica obtained reports that confirm that at least two women have already died after they couldn’t access legal abortions and timely medical care in their state…

“Thurman’s case marks the first time an abortion-related death, officially deemed ‘preventable,’ is coming to public light… 

“But since abortion was banned or restricted in 22 states over the past two years, women in serious danger have been turned away from emergency rooms and told that they needed to be in more peril before doctors could help. Some have been forced to continue high-risk pregnancies that threatened their lives. Those whose pregnancies weren’t even viable have been told they could return when they were ‘crashing.’”

Georgia’s abortion ban disproportionately hurts Black women — in a state where the Black maternal mortality rate is already unacceptably high.

11Alive: “It also provides a look at who the bill may impact the most: Black people, younger patients and those with less education. Researchers said with the new restrictions, many of these patients won’t be able to access safe, legal abortions.”

“‘Lack of access to safe and legal abortion could also add to the maternal mortality rate in Georgia,’ Mosley said, ‘with numbers showing a possible increase of 18%.’”

“In 2019, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights, Georgia had the worst maternal mortality ratio of any state in the country. Black, American Indian/Alaska and Indigenous women are also two to three times more ‘likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than white women.’ Experts said overturning Roe v. Wade will disproportionately affect communities of color in Georgia, as for years, they have already faced many barriers to maternal health.”

The post Because of Donald Trump, Health Care for Millions of Georgia Women Thrown Into Chaos appeared first on Democrats.

On the anniversary of the October 7th attack, DNC Chair Jaime Harrison released the following statement:

“One year ago, a joyful day filled with music, love, and laughter spiraled into the deadliest attack on the Jewish community since the Holocaust. More than 1,200 people  — young adults, babies, grandparents — were killed in an act of hatred and terrorism at the hands of Hamas, including 46 Americans. 254 more were taken hostage, including 12 Americans, with many having since been tragically killed in captivity. Today, we honor their lives, mourn with their friends and family, and recommit ourselves to bringing the hostages home. 

“The pain and suffering of the October 7 victims is unimaginable, and our hearts break with their families as they fight to bring their loved ones home. Jon Polin, whose son Hersh was taken hostage and murdered by Hamas, said, ‘Maybe, just maybe, your death is the stone, the fuel that would bring all the remaining 101 hostages.’ Today, we must not let hate win, and we must condemn antisemitism and prejudice whenever we see it. We must continue working for the release of all the hostages, including the seven American citizens, living and deceased, still held: Omer, Edan, Sagui, Keith, Judy, Gad, and Itay. In Israel, in Gaza, and around the world, we must ask for peace, love, and appreciation for all humanity.

“Throughout history, the Jewish community has proven to be strong in the face of hate and resilient when they are made to suffer. Let us use this moment to come together as people. Our hearts are with the families and friends of those who were killed in this attack and are suffering amidst escalating violence, and we stand shoulder to shoulder with you.”

The post DNC Statement on the Anniversary of October 7th Attack appeared first on Democrats.

MAGA Republicans stooped to new lows last week with their extremism, hypocrisy, chaos, and — as President Biden would call it — malarkey. In case you missed it: JD Vance refused to admit Donald Trump lost the 2020 election and again whitewashed the violence of January 6; Trump still refuses to commit to accepting this November’s election results; Vance called Marjorie Taylor Greene — a notorious ultra-MAGA hurricane conspiracy theorist and election denier — a “great friend”; new reporting revealed Trump repeatedly inserted politics into natural disasters as president; Vance fundraised with election denier Scott Taylor; Vance brazenly lied to the American people about Trump’s efforts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act; new reporting made clear that another Trump term would bring more failures and broken promises to America’s auto industry, and Vance indicated that Trump will again let manufacturing plants in Michigan close; reporting revealed that Vance asked the Biden-Harris administration for over $200 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law despite spending months trashing the bill; and RNC Co-Chair Lara Trump dismissed abortion as a “niche issue.”

At the vice presidential debate, JD Vance refused to admit Donald Trump lost the 2020 election and once again whitewashed the violence of January 6…

ABC News: “At VP debate, JD Vance refuses to say Trump lost in 2020, downplays events of Jan. 6”

“In one of the most notable exchanges of the vice presidential debate, Republican candidate JD Vance refused to say former President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election and downplayed the events of Jan. 6, 2021, when a pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol to try to stop the ceremonial certification of the results.

“The Ohio senator also declined to rule out challenging the outcome of the 2024 race, even if votes were certified by every state leader as legitimate.

“Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, expressed exasperation and disbelief. He said such denialism had to stop because it was ‘tearing our country apart.’”

NBC News: “‘Damning non-answer’: Vance refuses to acknowledge Trump lost the 2020 election”

“JD Vance refused to acknowledge that Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election during the vice presidential debate Tuesday and downplayed the seriousness of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, which injured more than 140 law enforcement officers. He also declined to say whether he would seek to challenge the results of this year’s election.”

… while Trump STILL refuses to commit to accepting this November’s election results.

Washington Post: “Donald Trump continued to stir doubt Tuesday about whether he will accept the outcome of the November presidential election. Asked in Milwaukee whether he trusts the election process, the former president told reporters, ‘I’ll let you know in about 33 days.’

“Trump, who has repeatedly denied his 2020 reelection loss, made the comment after saying in response to a previous question that he wants a ‘fair, honest election.’”

Vance called Marjorie Taylor Greene — a notorious ultra-MAGA hurricane conspiracy theorist and election denier — a “great friend.”

JD Vance: “We have got another great, strong, woman leader in Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene — I know we’re in her district, where’s Marjorie? Please say hello. Now you may not know this, but one of the very first endorsements, and frankly the first really important endorsement, that I got when I was running in the Republican Senate primary in Ohio a few years ago was from Marjorie Taylor Greene, so she’s been a great friend of mine. She’s a loyal person, and you guys have a hell of a congresswoman here in Marjorie.”

Marjorie Taylor Greene: “Yes they can control the weather.

It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.”

ABC News: “Marjorie Taylor Greene says if she ran Jan. 6 Capitol attack, ‘We would have won’”

Newsweek: “Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has shared a video to Twitter that argues that the 2020 presidential election was stolen through a combination of the COVID-19 pandemic and voter fraud.”

Daily Beast: “Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Trump-backed candidate who won a Republican primary runoff this week and will very likely win the general race in her deep-red district, said in 2018 video unearthed by Media Matters: ‘We had witnessed 9/11, the terrorist attack in New York and the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania and the so-called plane that crashed into the Pentagon. It’s odd there’s never any evidence shown for a plane in the Pentagon. But anyways, I won’t—I’m not going to dive into the 9/11 conspiracy. But 9/11 had happened. Our country was very much into a war.’”

As Americans are still recovering from Hurricane Helene, new reporting revealed Trump repeatedly inserted politics into natural disasters as president.

E&E News: “Trump initially refused to give California wildfire aid because it’s a blue state, ex-aide says”

“[A] review of Trump’s record by POLITICO’s E&E News and interviews with two former Trump White House officials show that the former president was flagrantly partisan at times in response to disasters and on at least three occasions hesitated to give disaster aid to areas he considered politically hostile or ordered special treatment for pro-Trump states.

“Mark Harvey, who was Trump’s senior director for resilience policy on the National Security Council staff, told E&E News on Wednesday that Trump initially refused to approve disaster aid for California after deadly wildfires in 2018 because of the state’s Democratic leanings.

“Trump changed his mind after Harvey pulled voting results to show him that heavily damaged Orange County, California, had more Trump supporters than the entire state of Iowa, Harvey said.

“‘We went as far as looking up how many votes he got in those impacted areas … to show him these are people who voted for you,’ said Harvey, who recently endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris alongside more than 100 other Republican former national security officials.”

Washington Post: “No, Biden didn’t take FEMA relief money to use on migrants — but Trump did”

“Trump falsely claims FEMA has run out of disaster money — and then falsely says that’s because money instead was spent on migrants. There is no evidence the Biden administration spent FEMA disaster money on migrants. Rather, that’s what Trump did.”

A former Trump official admitted “it would be impossible to do a transition without including Project 2025 people.”

New York Post: “‘Heritage, because of Project 2025, is radioactive,’ Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick told The Post … one former member of the Trump presidential personnel office (PPO) [claimed] ‘it would be impossible to do a transition without including Project 2025 people.’

“Lutnick’s team has ‘already reached out’ to people affiliated with Project 2025, the source went on, arguing there is no possibility of staffing a second Trump administration ‘unless he’s going outside of the conservative movement.’

“The former PPO staffer added that the Project 2025 database includes Republicans from a wide-ranging list of different groups, including Turning Point USA and ‘state legislative staff.’”

Vance fundraised with Scott Taylor, an election-denying extremist who has spread baseless conspiracies about the 2020 election results.

Scott Taylor: “Look, as I said before, there are tons of irregularities in the 2020 election that never happened before, right? There are people that have problems with it … There’s tons of things out there that changed in 2020 that are still there now.”

Vance: “President Trump has said … there were problems in 2020 and my own belief is that we should fight about those issues.”

Vance: “[Trump] peacefully gave over power on January the 20th.”

Vance: “Donald Trump and I think that there were problems in 2020.”

On the debate stage, Vance brazenly lied to the American people about Trump’s numerous efforts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act. 

Roll Call: “Vance’s attempt to rewrite Trump’s Obamacare history”

“In a brazen attempt at rewriting history, Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance claimed during Tuesday night’s debate that former President Donald Trump was working to ‘salvage’ the 2010 health care law while in office.

“Trump’s clear intent, along with Republicans when they controlled both the House and Senate during the first two years of his term, was to repeal and replace the 2010 health care law, which is often referred to as Obamacare. The then-president held a preemptive victory celebration at the White House when one version of a bill to repeal the law passed the House, and at one point pushed for repealing now and replacing later if Senate Republicans could not coalesce around an alternative.”

New reporting made clear that another Trump term would only bring more failures and broken promises to America’s auto industry…

Detroit News: “History casts doubt on Donald Trump’s auto industry promises”

“Former President Donald Trump has been promising Michigan voters this fall that he can revive the state’s auto industry and return it to ‘greatness,’ but the Republican nominee failed to fully deliver on similar guarantees, made eight years ago, before his first term in the White House.

“On Friday night, Trump told a crowd at Macomb Community College in Warren that if he’s elected this fall, he’s going to bring back Michigan’s auto industry ‘at levels that have never been seen before.’ About eight years ago, on Oct. 31, 2016, at the same venue, Trump told another Michigan crowd that he would ‘bring your jobs back’ and, if elected in November 2016, ‘you won’t lose one plant.’

“Yet, the number of jobs in vehicle and parts manufacturing in Michigan declined during Trump’s first term — including before the COVID-19 pandemic hit — according to data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. And while there were some additional investments made by the industry in Michigan over his four years in office, there were also auto plants that closed in the state, including the General Motors Co. Warren Transmission plant in 2019.”

… and Vance indicated that Trump would again let manufacturing plants in Michigan close.

Detroit News: “Vance won’t commit to $500M federal grant for building EVs at Michigan auto plant”

“Republican vice presidential hopeful JD Vance would not commit a second Trump administration to honoring the Biden administration’s $500 million federal grant to General Motors Co. to convert a Cadillac sedan assembly plant in Michigan into a future electric vehicle plant.

“The Biden administration has said the conversion of GM’s Lansing Grand River Plant to assembling EVs would save 650 jobs and create 50 new positions. The Detroit automaker has signaled the assembled battery packs for the Lansing plant would come from the new battery plant it is constructing in nearby Delta Township, west of Lansing. …

“Vance’s comments on EVs while in Michigan on Wednesday tracked with Trump’s criticism of the Biden administration’s incentives for automakers to produce more electric vehicles.

“The Biden administration has not imposed a ban on gas-powered vehicle or required consumers to purchase EVs. But it has put in place numerous incentives and restrictions on future tailpipe emissions that incentivized automakers to build and sell more EVs.”

Recent reporting revealed that Vance asked the Biden-Harris administration for over $200 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law — despite spending months trashing it as “crazy” and a “huge, huge mistake.”

Associated Press: “Vance criticized an infrastructure law as a candidate then embraced it as a senator”

“As he campaigned for the Senate two years ago, JD Vance harshly criticized a bipartisan 2021 law to invest more than $1 trillion in America’s crumbling infrastructure, calling it a ‘huge mistake’ shaped by Democrats who want to spend big taxpayer dollars on ‘really crazy stuff.’

“That hasn’t stopped the first-term Ohio senator and Republican vice-presidential nominee from seeking more than $200 million in federal money made available through the law for projects across his state, according to records reviewed by The Associated Press.”

RNC co-chair Lara Trump dismissed abortion as a “niche issue,” even as women across the country are suffering the horrifying impacts of Trump’s abortion bans.

Lara Trump: “[Democrats] are focusing on very niche issues like abortion.”

NBC News: “A dramatic rise in pregnant women dying in Texas after abortion ban”

ProPublica: “Abortion Bans Have Delayed Emergency Medical Care. In Georgia, Experts Say This Mother’s Death Was Preventable.”

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

In response to JD Vance saying he would seek to defund Planned Parenthood, DNC Spokesperson Aida Ross released the following statement:

“Women are dying preventable deaths because Donald Trump overturned Roe v. Wade, and JD Vance made clear he and Trump would further rip away access to reproductive health care by defunding Planned Parenthood. Vance is once again proving he doesn’t care about protecting lives — just Trump’s extreme anti-choice Project 2025 agenda to ban abortion nationwide. Voters see through this cynical attack on reproductive health care services from contraception to cancer screenings. This November, women across the country will make it loud and clear that they want nothing to do with the Trump-Vance ticket’s dangerous, out-of-touch, and downright horrifying assault on our basic freedoms.”

🚨 BREAKING: JD Vance made clear a Trump-Vance administration would defund reproductive health care services if given the chance, which is wildly unpopular with the American people.

Vance: “On the question of defunding Planned Parenthood…our view is we don’t think that taxpayers should fund late term abortions. That has been a consistent view of the Trump campaign the first time around, it will remain a consistent view.”

Vance’s anti-choice record includes wanting abortion to be “illegal nationally,” attacking exceptions for rape and incest, bailing on reproductive freedoms, and more.

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.’”

Vice: “JD Vance Compared Abortion to Slavery”

Ohio Capital Journal: “U.S. Senate GOP prevents contraception access bill from moving ahead”

“Ohio Republican U.S. Sen. JD Vance didn’t vote.”

Independent: “JD Vance didn’t even show up to vote on [IVF protections].”

Jennifer Bendery, Huffington Post: “Vance won’t be at today’s Senate vote…”

The Hill: “Senate Republicans block legislation to codify IVF access”

Republicans who voted against include: JD Vance.

Vanity Fair: “On Wednesday, Senate Republicans are expected to object to Tammy Duckworth’s Right to Build Families Act, because, surprise: They don’t actually care about families and aren’t ‘pro-life.’

“‘It’s idiotic for us to take the bait,’ Senator JD Vance told Politico, as though the measure were some kind of political trap. (He also noted that he had not actually read the bill yet.)”

NBC News: “Senate Republicans block Democratic bill codifying Roe v. Wade abortion protections”

Republicans who voted against include: JD Vance.

TRUMP DID THIS: Reporting shows that abortion bans across the country — which Donald Trump “proudly” made possible and said are “working very brilliantly” — delaying emergency medical care and leading to “preventable” deaths.

NBC News: “A dramatic rise in pregnant women dying in Texas after abortion ban”

ProPublica: “Abortion Bans Have Delayed Emergency Medical Care. In Georgia, Experts Say This Mother’s Death Was Preventable.”

“But ProPublica obtained reports that confirm that at least two women have already died after they couldn’t access legal abortions and timely medical care in their state…

“Thurman’s case marks the first time an abortion-related death, officially deemed ‘preventable,’ is coming to public light. ProPublica will share the story of the second in the coming days… 

“But since abortion was banned or restricted in 22 states over the past two years, women in serious danger have been turned away from emergency rooms and told that they needed to be in more peril before doctors could help. Some have been forced to continue high-risk pregnancies that threatened their lives. Those whose pregnancies weren’t even viable have been told they could return when they were ‘crashing.’”

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: “I was proudly the person responsible for the ending of Roe v. Wade”

Vance, Trump, and their Project 2025 allies are pushing a dangerous Project 2025 agenda that would ban abortion nationwide, threaten access to IVF and contraception, and rip away reproductive freedoms.

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

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

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

Barbara Barr, WGAL: “There are ads running that say that you would support certain states with bans monitoring a woman’s pregnancy.”

Trump: “Well that would be up to the states, again. They will make a decision as to how they do it.”

Washington Post: “Vance urged DOJ to enforce Comstock Act, crack down on abortion pills”

New Republic: “On January 20, 2025, conservatives plan to resurrect a 150-year-old defunct law to ban abortion across the nation. This is not a secret plan—far from it. It’s part of the 180-Day Playbook produced by Project 2025, detailing priorities for an incoming conservative president on day one.” 

Politico: “Anti-abortion advocates worked for five decades to topple Roe v. Wade. They’re now laying the groundwork for a yearslong fight to curb in vitro fertilization.

“Since the Alabama Supreme Court ruled last month that frozen embryos are children, the Heritage Foundation and other conservative groups have been strategizing how to convince not just GOP officials but evangelicals broadly that they should have serious moral concerns about fertility treatments like IVF and that access to them should be curtailed.”

Media Matters: “The Heritage Foundation quietly released draconian new IVF policy recommendations for the next GOP president”

“Heritage has been a staunchly anti-IVF voice, supporting Alabama’s controversial Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos cultivated through IVF treatment have the same rights as living children, and that a person can be held liable for destroying embryos.” 

The 19th: “RNC approves platform that would give rights to fetuses, endangering abortion, IVF” 

“Fetal personhood is widely seen as being in conflict with in vitro fertilization (IVF), which creates embryos outside of the uterus that are later implanted. Fetal personhood bestows the same rights currently reserved for people to embryos from the moment of fertilization.”

Reproductive Freedom for All: “The extensive mandate calls to gut reproductive freedom, including effectively banning medication abortion, ending access to emergency abortion care, attacking contraception, deploying fetal personhood, and undermining IVF in federal policy…

“Project 2025 includes personhood language and policies that propagate the belief that life begins at conception—which could have devastating impacts should it be put into law. This so-called “personhood” language could ban not only abortion but also some forms of birth control and assisted fertility treatments like IVF.”

The Nation: “Project 2025 Has Bad Medicine for HHS”

“And by declaring that life begins at conception, his manifesto appears to commit HHS to finding ways to outlaw IVF, which relies on generating multiple embryos, most of which are not implanted.”

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

Vance: “I’ve reviewed a lot of [Project 2025]. There are some good ideas in there.”

Axios: “[Project 2025] is undeniably a Trump-driven operation.”

The post 🚨 Trump-Vance Ticket: We Would Defund Planned Parenthood appeared first on Democrats.

In response to JD Vance praising Marjorie Taylor Greene — a notorious election denier and conspiracy theorist — as a “great friend” in Georgia today, DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement:

“JD Vance took time in Georgia today to shout out his ‘great friend’ right after she finished spreading fresh conspiracy theories about how ‘they’ can control the weather while Georgia is still recovering from Hurricane Helene. Let’s be clear: Marjorie Taylor Greene is a wildly out-of-touch conspiracy theorist and election-denying extremist who is as toxic to voters as the Trump-Vance Project 2025 agenda itself — and that’s just another reason why we’re sure that Vance will have plenty more free time to spend with his ‘great friend’ after this November.”

JD Vance took time in Georgia today to shout out Marjorie Taylor Greene — a notorious extremist, election denier, and unhinged conspiracy theorist.

JD Vance: “We have got another great, strong, woman leader in Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene — I know we’re in her district, where’s Marjorie? Please say hello. Now you may not know this, but one of the very first endorsements, and frankly the first really important endorsement, that I got when I was running in the Republican Senate primary in Ohio a few years ago was from Marjorie Taylor Greene, so she’s been a great friend of mine. She’s a loyal person, and you guys have a hell of a Congresswoman here in Marjorie.”

Greene is a MAGA extremist who has constantly spread conspiracy theories, denied the results of the 2020 election, and downplayed January 6.

Marjorie Taylor Greene: “Yes they can control the weather.

It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.”

The Guardian: “Marjorie Taylor Greene led delegation to visit Capitol attack defendants in jail”

CNN: “Greene again downplays Capitol riot and says it would have been armed if she led it”

ABC News: “Marjorie Taylor Greene says if she ran Jan. 6 Capitol attack, ‘We would have won’”

Newsweek: “Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has shared a video to Twitter that argues that the 2020 presidential election was stolen through a combination of the COVID-19 pandemic and voter fraud.

“Greene, who was recently appointed to serve on the powerful House of Representatives’ Oversight Committee, shared the video entitled ‘How to steal an election’ on Saturday morning.

“In just over a minute, a narrator alleges a vast conspiracy to steal the 2020 presidential election from Donald Trump involving the media, ‘Big Tech,’ the Democratic Party and others, with a particular focus on President Joe Biden.”

HuffPost: “Controversial Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) is still convinced the 2020 presidential election was rigged but admits she has no evidence of election fraud.

“Greene admitted she had no proof during an interview Friday at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida, but is sticking with her conviction that the presidential vote was rigged, even though she apparently doesn’t dispute the 2020 election results that made her a congresswoman:

“‘I proudly objected on Jan. 6,’ Greene said. ‘I would object again today because I know for a fact there was so much wrong in that election and I believe it was stolen. Do I know how? No, I don’t know how.’”

Greene, an anti-abortion extremist, has attacked those who support abortion ban exceptions — including a rape survivor — and wants to ban abortion nationwide.

Vanity Fair: “Greene has previously said the overturning of Roe v. Wade was a ‘blessing’ and a ‘miracle,’ and called another Republican lawmaker and rape survivor ‘trash’ for supporting rape exceptions. She’s also told women that if they don’t want to get pregnant they should ‘make better choices’ and ‘choose to not have sex.’”

NBC News: “Marjorie Taylor Greene starts screaming match with Democrats over abortion rights bill”

Tennessee Lookout: “A total of 145 members of Congress from 36 states, who opposed access to mifepristone remaining as it is today, submitted their own 39-page brief in the case, calling on the Supreme Court to limit access.”

Signers include: Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Greene has made mind-boggling, false claims about the September 11, 2001 attacks on our country.

Daily Beast: “Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Trump-backed candidate who won a Republican primary runoff this week and will very likely win the general race in her deep-red district, said in 2018 video unearthed by Media Matters: ‘We had witnessed 9/11, the terrorist attack in New York and the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania and the so-called plane that crashed into the Pentagon. It’s odd there’s never any evidence shown for a plane in the Pentagon. But anyways, I won’t—I’m not going to dive into the 9/11 conspiracy. But 9/11 had happened. Our country was very much into a war.’”

She’s right about one thing: Greene previously vented about her fellow House Republicans and said that Republican voters are “sick and tired of Republicans because they never do anything” and “say all this garbage.”

Greene: “Republican voters across the country are sick and tired of Republicans because they never do anything… [Republicans] say all this garbage… [Americans] feel that Republicans in Congress completely fail them.”

HuffPost: “Marjorie Taylor Greene Makes Startlingly Accurate Confession About Her Own Party”

“Greene, a conspiracy theorist who once spoke at a white nationalist event, said voters must feel that Republicans in Congress have failed them.”

The post JD Vance on Ultra-MAGA Hurricane Conspiracy Theorist Marjorie Taylor Greene: A “Great Friend” appeared first on Democrats.