Political pandering from Democratic 2020 hopefuls at first presidential debate was muy loco.
Warren, de Blasio: I Would Abolish Private Health Insurance
By Alana Mastrangelo
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio admitted they would abolish private health insurance during the 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary debate on Wednesday evening.
“Many people watching at home have health insurance coverage through their employer,” asked NBC’s Lester Holt, “Who here would abolish their private health insurance in favor of a government-run plan? Just a show of hands.”
Sen. Warren and Mayor de Blasio raised their hands in response to Holt’s question, admitting that they would abolish private health insurance in favor of cradle to grave, government-run healthcare.
Warren and de Blasio, however, are likely not the only candidates on stage who agree with abolishing private health insurance, but rather, the only candidates bold enough to actually admit it.
The Green New Deal, for example, would ban private health insurance, including employer-provided insurance plans. The Green New Deal was endorsed by Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), and Representative Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke (D-TX), two presidential candidates who shared the debate stage with Warren and de Blasio on Wednesday night.
Moreover, over 100 Democrats have endorsed “Medicare for All,” a proposal that would also effectively do away with private health insurance.
Another Democratic Presidential candidate, Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) — although not present on Wednesday night — has also admitted to wanting to eliminate private health insurance to replace it with a single-payer, government-run “Medicare for All” program.
Less than 24 hours later, however, Harris seemed to have thought better of her statement, quickly walking back her call to abolish private health insurance, and later insisting that “Medicare for All” would not eliminate the entire private health insurance industry.
While it is apparent that not every 2020 Democratic Presidential candidate may be comfortable with confessing their views on private health insurance just yet, the fact that some are willing to openly endorse socialist policies is a cause for concern, and a testimony to the radical shift the Democratic Party has taken over recent years.
WOW! Beto O’Rourke & Cory Booker Speak Spanish At The Democratic Party Debates!
Published on Jun 27, 2019
Revolutionary! Authentic! Beto & Cory Booker speak Spanish in the American election debates because “woke”!
CIRCUS COMES TO MIAMI!
By Laurie Kellman
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sixty seconds for answers, a television audience of millions and, for some candidates, a first chance to introduce themselves to voters.
The back-to-back Democratic presidential debates beginning Wednesday are exercises in competitive sound bites featuring 20 candidates hoping to oust President Donald Trump in 2020. The hopefuls range widely in age, sex and backgrounds and include a former vice president, six women and a pair of mayors.
The challenge: Convey their plans for the nation, throw a few elbows and sharpen what’s been a blur of a race so far for many Americans.
What to watch Wednesday at 9 p.m. Eastern on NBC, MSNBC and Telemundo:
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WHAT’S HER PLAN?
Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s task is to harness the recent momentum surrounding her campaign to prove to voters that she has what it takes to defeat Trump. As the sole top-tier candidate on stage Wednesday, she could have the most to lose.
The Massachusetts senator and former Harvard professor is known for her many policy plans and a mastery of classical, orderly debate. But presidential showdowns can be more “Gladiator”-style than the high-minded “Great Debaters.” This is no time for a wonky multipoint case for “Medicare for All,” student debt relief or the Green New Deal.
So, one challenge for Warren, 70, is stylistic. Look for her to try to champion her progressive ideas — and fend off attacks from lesser-known candidates — with gravitas, warmth and the brevity required by the format.
“Preparing for the debates is trying to learn to speak in 60 seconds or less,” she said in Miami, ahead of a visit she live-streamed to a migrant detention center in Homestead, Florida.
Another obstacle is to do so without alienating moderates any Democrat would need in a general election against Trump.
Being the front-runner on stage conveys a possible advantage: If the others pile on Warren, she gets more time to speak because the candidates are allowed 30 extra seconds for responses.
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WHO’S THAT?
There may be some familiar faces across the rest of the stage, such as New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, 50, or former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke, 46. But a few names probably won’t ring any bells at all.
These virtual strangers to most Americans may be enjoying their first — and maybe last — turn on the national stage, so they have the least to lose.
Take John Delaney, 56, a former member of the House from Maryland. Look for him to try to make an impression by keeping up his criticism of Warren’s plans.
Or Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan, 45, who sits on the powerful House Appropriations Committee. He has likened the Democratic primary to “speed dating with the American people.”
BREAKING OUT, GOING VIRAL
For several of the candidates onstage Wednesday, the forum is about finding the breakout moment — a zinger, a burn — that stays in viewers’ minds, is built for social media and generates donations, the lifeblood of campaigns.
In 2015, Carly Fiorina won applause and a short surge for her response to Trump, who had been quoted in Rolling Stone as criticizing Fiorina’s face.
“Look at that face,” Trump was quoted as saying. “Would anyone vote for that?”
Asked on CNN to respond, Fiorina evenly replied: “I think women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said.”
For candidates such as O’Rourke, a breakthrough moment on Wednesday is critical to revitalizing a campaign that has faded. The 10 White House contenders have two hours on stage that night and up until the curtain rises on the star-studded second debate the next day to make their mark. Former Vice President Joe Biden, 76, and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, 77, headline Thursday’s debate and are certain to take up much of the spotlight.
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BREAKING OUT BADLY
An “oops” moment can be politically crippling to any presidential campaign.
Just ask Energy Secretary Rick Perry, the former Texas governor who, in a 2011 debate, blanked on the third agency of government he had said would be “gone” if he became president.
“Commerce, Education and the, uh, what’s the third one there?” Perry said.
“EPA?” fellow Republican Ron Paul offered. Yep, Perry said, the Environmental Protection Agency.
“Oops,” he finished. Perry’s campaign, already struggling, never recovered.
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WHAT ISSUES?
There’s simply no time for an in-depth discussion of issues. But the migrant crisis would be an apt topic, even in shorthand. Dominating the news in the hours before the showdown were vivid reports and images of the toll of the administration’s policy on children, especially.
Expect at least a mention, or perhaps the appearance, of a bracing photo of the bodies of a migrant father and his 23-month-old daughter face-down along the Rio Grande.
In addition to Warren, other candidates, such as Sen. Amy Klobuchar, were visiting the migrant center.
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TRUMP
This is the Democrats’ night.
But Trump has dominated the political conversation since that escalator ride four years ago, and he loathes being upstaged. It’s worth asking: Will he tweet during the debates? And if he does, will NBC and the moderators ignore him or respond in real time?
NBC News executive Rashida Jones said the focus will be on the candidates and the issues.
“Beyond that, it has to rise to a certain level,” she said.
During Wednesday’s debate, Trump will be on Air Force One on his way to the Group of 20 summit in Osaka, Japan. The plane’s cable televisions are usually turned to Fox News, which is not hosting the debates. For the second debate, Trump will be beginning meetings at the G-20.
Trump told Fox Business Network on Wednesday that he’d watch because “it’s part of my life” but that “It just seems very boring. … That’s a very unexciting group of people.”
Bernie Sanders Campaign Uses E-mail List to Warn of ICE Raids
By Nate Church
On Saturday, just hours before ICE raids were set to begin, socialist presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders’ campaign used their e-mail network to warn supporters.
“ICE raids targeting 10 cities start Sunday. Know your rights,” the subject read. Appended to the e-mail were two graphics — one in English, the other Spanish — describing immigrant rights via guidance by the American Civil Liberties Union.
“It’s not strictly on point when it comes to building out a presidential campaign [to use campaign data] for the purpose other than running for president,” Ruthie Epstein, the ACLU deputy director of immigration policy, said. She reportedly claimed that the organization “played no role” in the e-mail alert.
The e-mail came from Sanders’ Press Secretary Belén Sisa, an undocumented immigrant through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. According to Vox, it read:
Multiple news outlets are reporting that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is planning deportation raids against immigrant families in Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, New York City, and San Francisco starting early Sunday morning.
Whether or not you are an immigrant, please share this “Know Your Rights” information widely to help those who might fall victim to the cruel and inhumane policies of the Trump administration.
Sisa stood by her actions. “It is no longer enough to talk about issues like immigration, but we must take real action to fight back and protect our undocumented community, like we did on Saturday,” she told Vox. “There isn’t much else that anybody can do other than stand up in unity.”
And Sanders has pivoted hard into this issue for his 2020 campaign, though he has deliberately stopped short of advocating for open borders. “What we need is comprehensive immigration reform,” Sanders said at a town hall in Iowa.
“If you open the borders, my God, there’s a lot of poverty in this world, and you’re going to have people from all over the world,” he continued. “And I don’t think that’s something that we can do at this point. Can’t do it. So that is not my position.”
DAVID KNIGHT SHOW: REPARATIONS OR RECRIMINATIONS? DEMS PUSH TRIBAL WARFARE
Left-wing identity politics are center stage as Congress debates reparations
By David Knight
On this Thursday broadcast, David Knight covers the latest news including Wednesday’s reparations hearings in Congress and much more.
Don’t forget to share this highly censored link to continue fighting for free speech as the tech elite ramp up their anti-First Amendment agenda.
Watch Live: House Holds Slavery Reparations Hearing
By Penny Starr
The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties is holding a hearing on Wednesday to discuss H.R. 40, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee’s bill entitled “Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act.”
The text of the bill states:
To address the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery in the United States and the 13 American colonies between 1619 and 1865 and to establish a commission to study and consider a national apology and proposal for reparations for the institution of slavery, its subsequent de jure and de facto racial and economic discrimination against African-Americans, and the impact of these forces on living African-Americans, to make recommendations to the Congress on appropriate remedies, and for other purposes.
The bill includes findings the commission would study:
(1) Approximately 4,000,000 Africans and their descendants were enslaved in the United States and colonies that became the United States from 1619 to 1865;
(2) The institution of slavery was constitutionally and statutorily sanctioned by the Government of the United States from 1789 through 1865;
(3) The slavery that flourished in the United States constituted an immoral and inhumane deprivation of Africans’ life, liberty, African citizenship rights, and cultural heritage, and denied them the fruits of their own labor;
(4) A preponderance of scholarly, legal, community evidentiary documentation and popular culture markers constitute the basis for inquiry into the on-going effects of the institution of slavery and its legacy of persistent systemic structures of discrimination on living African-Americans and society in the United States; and
(5) Following the abolition of slavery the United States Government, at the Federal, State, and local level, continued to perpetuate, condone and often profit from practices that continued to brutalize and disadvantage African-Americans, including sharecropping, convict leasing, Jim Crow, redlining, unequal education, and disproportionate treatment at the hands of the criminal justice system; and
(6) As a result of the historic and continued discrimination, African-Americans continue to suffer debilitating economic, educational, and health hardships including but not limited to having nearly 1,000,000 black people incarcerated; an unemployment rate more than twice the current white unemployment rate; and an average of less than 1⁄16 of the wealth of white families, a disparity which has worsened, not improved over time.
The list of witnesses includes presidential hopeful Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and actor Danny Glover.
Other witnesses set to testify at the hearing at 10 a.m. EST are: Ta-Nehisi Coates, Distinguished Writer in Residence, Arthur J. Carter Journalism Institute of New York University; Katrina Browne, documentarian, Traces of the Trade; Coleman Hughes Writer, Quilette;v Burgess Owens, speaker and writer; Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton, Episcopal Bishop of Maryland, Dr. Julianne Malveaux, economist and political commentator; and Eric Miller, professor of law, Loyola Law School, Loyola Marymount University.
2020: Dems Won’t Criticize Biden’s Time as Vice President for Fear of Attacking Obama Legacy ‘political suicide’ to ‘question Obama’s record’
By Nate Church
Joe Biden’s rivals in the race for the 2020 Democrat presidential nomination are attacking him from all angles, save one: Biden’s time as Barack Obama’s vice president.
“People are very nostalgic for that time,” an activist told Politico. Among liberal voters, the Obama administration is inextricably entwined with pre-Trump nostalgia. Years after his presidency, Obama remains extremely popular with his base. That is good news for Joe “Malarkey” Biden, who is riding that goodwill toward the Oval Office.
“It’s going to be challenging for progressives to attack that legacy,” said chief executive Yvette Simpson, of the “Democracy for America” PAC. “Because Obama not only is and was so popular, but people are very nostalgic for that time, particularly after a few years of Trump.”
Cory Booker has called a crime bill that Biden helped write in 1994 “awful” and “shameful.” Bernie Sanders has gone after Biden for his support of the Iraq War and NAFTA, while Elizabeth Warren has criticized him as “on the side of the credit card companies.” None of them, however, seem willing to contest any matter from his actual White House tenure, despite Politico noting the left has plenty of issues with the Obama administration’s legacy:
For years, left-wing activists have disapproved of the Obama administration’s management of the economic crash, opioid crisis, immigrant deportations, and ill-fated attempts to compromise with Republicans. But many believe it would be political suicide for progressive presidential candidates to question Obama’s record at length, even in the service of defeating Biden.
Sean McElwee, the co-founder of the left-wing think tank Data for Progress, had an arch response: “The biggest weaknesses Biden has, for the most part, are not things he did in the Obama administration,” he said. “Luckily for progressives, Joe Biden is literally 150 years old, which means he has a half-century of a career otherwise to attack.”
Adam Green, co-founder of Progressive Change Campaign Committee — which recently endorsed Warren over Biden — simply does not think Joe is right for the job. “It’s perfectly consistent to say that President Obama righted the ship and aimed it in a better direction,” he claimed, “but now we have an opportunity to move the ship much further and much faster toward progress.”
“The person to do that is clearly not Joe Biden,” Green added, “as he moves backwards on issues ranging from the Hyde Amendment to NAFTA to a ‘middle ground’ on the existential climate crisis.”
Meanwhile, Biden has drawn a sought-after demographic into his fold: black Americans who supported his “buddy Barack.” Yvette Simpson, head of the progressive Democracy for America PAC acknowledged the risk of alienating that demographic. “Biden’s early advantage among African-Americans has more to do with Obama than Biden. And if you attack that, you start to alienate those voters,” she said.
“Biden is winning, or at least is ahead, because nobody has made the argument that Obama’s policies are the reason that Democrats lost in 2016,” said Matt Stoller, a former Senate Budget Committee aide under Bernie Sanders. “They’re not challenging the fundamental narrative that Joe Biden is running on, which is that Obama did a good job and we need to get back to that.”
“I’ve been bugging the campaigns about it,” he said, but “they’re like, ‘Yeah, yeah, we know, but we don’t have a way to do it.’”
House to Hold Hearing on Slavery Reparations
By Tony Lee
A House Judiciary subcommittee will hold hearings on reparations next Wednesday, marking the first time in more than a decade that the House will discuss potentially compensating the descendants of slaves.
“The Case for Reparations” author Ta-Nehisi Coates and actor Danny Glover are reportedly set to testify before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, and the hearing’s stated purpose will be “to examine, through open and constructive discourse, the legacy of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, its continuing impact on the community and the path to restorative justice,” according to a Thursday Associated Press report.
The June 19 hearing also “coincides with Juneteenth, a cultural holiday commemorating the emancipation of enslaved blacks in America.”
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), who sits on the subcommittee, again introduced H.R. 40 earlier this year to create a reparations commission. Jackson Lee said her bill would create a commission “to study the impact of slavery and continuing discrimination against African-Americans, resulting directly and indirectly from slavery to segregation to the desegregation process and the present day.” She added in January that the “commission would also make recommendations concerning any form of apology and compensation to begin the long delayed process of atonement for slavery.”
“The impact of slavery and its vestiges continues to effect African Americans and indeed all Americans in communities throughout our nation,” Jackson Lee said. “This legislation is intended to examine the institution of slavery in the colonies and the United States from 1619 to the present, and further recommend appropriate remedies. Since the initial introduction of this legislation, its proponents have made substantial progress in elevating the discussion of reparations and reparatory justice at the national level and joining the mainstream international debate on the issues. Though some have tried to deflect the importance of these conversations by focusing on individual monetary compensation, the real issue is whether and how this nation can come to grips with the legacy of slavery that still infects current society. Through legislation, resolutions, news, and litigation, we are moving closer to making more strides in the movement toward reparations.”
Jackson Lee argued that despite the progress of African-Americans in the private sector, education, and the government in addition to “the election of the first American President of African descent, the legacy of slavery lingers heavily in this nation.”
“While we have focused on the social effects of slavery and segregation, its continuing economic implications remain largely ignored by mainstream analysis,” she continued. “These economic issues are the root cause of many critical issues in the African-American community today, such as education, healthcare and criminal justice policy, including policing practices. The call for reparations represents a commitment to entering a constructive dialogue on the role of slavery and racism in shaping present-day conditions in our community and American society.”
In the Senate, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), a 2020 presidential candidate, introduced the companion legislation, saying creating a reparations committee “is a way of addressing head-on the persistence of racism, white supremacy, and implicit racial bias in our country.”
“It will bring together the best minds to study the issue and propose solutions that will finally begin to right the economic scales of past harms and make sure we are a country where all dignity and humanity is affirmed,” Booker said in April.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), in addition to nearly every Democrat running for president, has endorsed Jackson Lee’s bill.
And though Coates praised Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-CA) this week on the reparations issue, Warren, like nearly every other 2020 Democrat with the exception of former San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, has squirrelly dodged questions about whether the United States government should make cash payments to the descendants of slaves.
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