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The new voter protection director for Florida Democrats told party activists on Saturday that they should assume there will be a recount during next year’s presidential election.

“We are going to be prepared,” Brandon Peters told a packed room of Democratic activists at the state party’s Leadership Blue 2019 meeting at Walt Disney World in Orlando. 

Peters, who was hired by the state party last month, said there will be teams of volunteers trained in how to monitor county canvassing boards for recount problems around the state, should one take place in the 2020 presidential election.

Florida became famous for recounts after the 2000 presidential election, and last year there were recounts in three statewide races. The Florida Democratic Party is the second state Democratic party in the nation to hire a voter protection director, behind the Georgia Democratic Party.

Peters said by July 2020 he hopes to have 15,000 lawyers and volunteers in place around the state to address any voter problems.

Those problems include making it difficult for ex-convicts to register after Florida voters last year passed a constitutional amendment restoring voting rights to as many as 1.4 million felons and creating earlier deadlines for mail-in ballots, Peters said.

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has pledged to sign a bill requiring repayment of financial obligations before felons’ voting rights are restored.

Other nonelectoral changes in Florida could have consequences for voters, such as the rollout this month of new driver’s licenses with magnetic strips removed, Peters said. 

Voters often check in at polls where information on the strip is run against a database for ID verification. Without that, poll workers may have to resort to manually checking the ID against paper rolls, creating long lines, Peters said.

The state party is coordinating with the Democratic National Party to set up a tool to track election problems in real time. There also will be a hotline for volunteers to call in problems, Peters said.

“If you see something, say something,” Peters said. “Once we are aware of the problem, we will do something about it.”

Even though President Trump is announcing his re-election campaign in Orlando in less than two weeks, and Florida promises to be crucial for any path to the White House, none of the major Democratic presidential candidates were at the Florida conference since most of them were attending a competing event hosted by Iowa Democrats this weekend. 

Some candidates sent video messages that were played at a dinner for the Florida Democrats, and two candidates, U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris and South Bend Mayor Peter Buttigieg, made plans to send their spouses. But Buttigieg’s husband, Chasten, was a no-show after running into a transportation snafu.

Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez encouraged the Florida Democrats “to date” all the presidential candidates.

“Fall in love with multiple people at one time. Date as many people as you want,” Perez said. “And then when we have our nominee, fall in line together as Democrats. Our unity is our greatest strength and it’s Donald Trump’s biggest fear.”

…

The new voter protection director for Florida Democrats told party activists on Saturday that they should assume there will be a recount during next year’s presidential election.

“We are going to be prepared,” Brandon Peters told a packed room of Democratic activists at the state party’s Leadership Blue 2019 meeting at Walt Disney World in Orlando. 

Peters, who was hired by the state party last month, said there will be teams of volunteers trained in how to monitor county canvassing boards for recount problems around the state, should one take place in the 2020 presidential election.

Florida became famous for recounts after the 2000 presidential election, and last year there were recounts in three statewide races. The Florida Democratic Party is the second state Democratic party in the nation to hire a voter protection director, behind the Georgia Democratic Party.

Peters said by July 2020 he hopes to have 15,000 lawyers and volunteers in place around the state to address any voter problems.

Those problems include making it difficult for ex-convicts to register after Florida voters last year passed a constitutional amendment restoring voting rights to as many as 1.4 million felons and creating earlier deadlines for mail-in ballots, Peters said.

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has pledged to sign a bill requiring repayment of financial obligations before felons’ voting rights are restored.

Other nonelectoral changes in Florida could have consequences for voters, such as the rollout this month of new driver’s licenses with magnetic strips removed, Peters said. 

Voters often check in at polls where information on the strip is run against a database for ID verification. Without that, poll workers may have to resort to manually checking the ID against paper rolls, creating long lines, Peters said.

The state party is coordinating with the Democratic National Party to set up a tool to track election problems in real time. There also will be a hotline for volunteers to call in problems, Peters said.

“If you see something, say something,” Peters said. “Once we are aware of the problem, we will do something about it.”

Even though President Trump is announcing his re-election campaign in Orlando in less than two weeks, and Florida promises to be crucial for any path to the White House, none of the major Democratic presidential candidates were at the Florida conference since most of them were attending a competing event hosted by Iowa Democrats this weekend. 

Some candidates sent video messages that were played at a dinner for the Florida Democrats, and two candidates, U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris and South Bend Mayor Peter Buttigieg, made plans to send their spouses. But Buttigieg’s husband, Chasten, was a no-show after running into a transportation snafu.

Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez encouraged the Florida Democrats “to date” all the presidential candidates.

“Fall in love with multiple people at one time. Date as many people as you want,” Perez said. “And then when we have our nominee, fall in line together as Democrats. Our unity is our greatest strength and it’s Donald Trump’s biggest fear.”

…

The new voter protection director for Florida Democrats told party activists on Saturday that they should assume there will be a recount during next year’s presidential election.

 

“We are going to be prepared,” Brandon Peters told a packed room of Democratic activists at the state party’s Leadership Blue 2019 meeting at Walt Disney World in Orlando. 

 

Peters, who was hired by the state party last month, said there will be teams of volunteers trained in how to monitor county canvassing boards for recount problems around the state, should one take place in the 2020 presidential election.

 

Florida became famous for recounts after the 2000 presidential election, and last year there were recounts in three statewide races. The Florida Democratic Party is the second state Democratic party in the nation to hire a voter protection director, behind the Georgia Democratic Party.

 

Peters said by July 2020 he hopes to have 15,000 lawyers and volunteers in place around the state to address any voter problems.

 

Those problems include making it difficult for ex-convicts to register after Florida voters last year passed a constitutional amendment restoring voting rights to as many as 1.4 million felons and creating earlier deadlines for mail-in ballots, Peters said.

 

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has pledged to sign a bill requiring repayment of financial obligations before felons’ voting rights are restored.

 

Other nonelectoral changes in Florida could have consequences for voters, such as the rollout this month of new driver’s licenses with magnetic strips removed, Peters said. 

 

Voters often check in at polls where information on the strip is run against a database for ID verification. Without that, poll workers may have to resort to manually checking the ID against paper rolls, creating long lines, Peters said.

 

The state party is coordinating with the Democratic National Party to set up a tool to track election problems in real time. There also will be a hotline for volunteers to call in problems, Peters said.

 

If you see something, say something,'' Peters said.Once we are aware of the problem, we will do something about it.”

 

Even though President Trump is announcing his re-election campaign in Orlando in less than two weeks, and Florida promises to be crucial for any path to the White House, none of the major Democratic presidential candidates were at the Florida conference since most of them were attending a competing event hosted by Iowa Democrats this weekend. 

 

Some candidates sent video messages that were played at a dinner for the Florida Democrats, and two candidates, U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris and South Bend Mayor Peter Buttigieg, made plans to send their spouses. But Buttigieg’s husband, Chasten, was a no-show after running into a transportation snafu.

 

Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez encouraged the Florida Democrats “to date” all the presidential candidates.

 

Fall in love with multiple people at one time. Date as many people as you want,'' Perez said.And then when we have our nominee, fall in line together as Democrats. Our unity is our greatest strength and it’s Donald Trump’s biggest fear.”
…

The new voter protection director for Florida Democrats told party activists on Saturday that they should assume there will be a recount during next year’s presidential election.

 

“We are going to be prepared,” Brandon Peters told a packed room of Democratic activists at the state party’s Leadership Blue 2019 meeting at Walt Disney World in Orlando. 

 

Peters, who was hired by the state party last month, said there will be teams of volunteers trained in how to monitor county canvassing boards for recount problems around the state, should one take place in the 2020 presidential election.

 

Florida became famous for recounts after the 2000 presidential election, and last year there were recounts in three statewide races. The Florida Democratic Party is the second state Democratic party in the nation to hire a voter protection director, behind the Georgia Democratic Party.

 

Peters said by July 2020 he hopes to have 15,000 lawyers and volunteers in place around the state to address any voter problems.

 

Those problems include making it difficult for ex-convicts to register after Florida voters last year passed a constitutional amendment restoring voting rights to as many as 1.4 million felons and creating earlier deadlines for mail-in ballots, Peters said.

 

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has pledged to sign a bill requiring repayment of financial obligations before felons’ voting rights are restored.

 

Other nonelectoral changes in Florida could have consequences for voters, such as the rollout this month of new driver’s licenses with magnetic strips removed, Peters said. 

 

Voters often check in at polls where information on the strip is run against a database for ID verification. Without that, poll workers may have to resort to manually checking the ID against paper rolls, creating long lines, Peters said.

 

The state party is coordinating with the Democratic National Party to set up a tool to track election problems in real time. There also will be a hotline for volunteers to call in problems, Peters said.

 

If you see something, say something,'' Peters said.Once we are aware of the problem, we will do something about it.”

 

Even though President Trump is announcing his re-election campaign in Orlando in less than two weeks, and Florida promises to be crucial for any path to the White House, none of the major Democratic presidential candidates were at the Florida conference since most of them were attending a competing event hosted by Iowa Democrats this weekend. 

 

Some candidates sent video messages that were played at a dinner for the Florida Democrats, and two candidates, U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris and South Bend Mayor Peter Buttigieg, made plans to send their spouses. But Buttigieg’s husband, Chasten, was a no-show after running into a transportation snafu.

 

Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez encouraged the Florida Democrats “to date” all the presidential candidates.

 

Fall in love with multiple people at one time. Date as many people as you want,'' Perez said.And then when we have our nominee, fall in line together as Democrats. Our unity is our greatest strength and it’s Donald Trump’s biggest fear.”
…

As Washington and Mexico City both took victory laps Saturday over a deal that headed off threatened tariffs on Mexican imports, it remained to be seen how effective it may be, and migration experts raised concerns about what it could mean for people fleeing poverty and violence in Central America.  

  

Other than a vague reiteration of a joint commitment to promote development, security and growth in Central America, the agreement focuses almost exclusively on enforcement and says little about the root causes driving the surge in migrants seen in recent months.  

  

My sense is overall the Mexican government got out of this better than they thought. The agreement though leaves a lot of big question marks,'' said Andrew Selee, president of the Migration Policy Institute.It’s good that the two sides reached an agreement which allows both of them to save face, but it’s not clear how easy it is to implement.” 

Guard deployment

 

The deployment of 6,000 National Guard troops appears to be the key commitment in what was described as “unprecedented steps” by Mexico to ramp up enforcement, though Interior Secretary Olga Sanchez Cordero said that had already been planned and was not a result of external pressure.  

  

I have said before, migration into Mexico also has to be regulated ... orderly, legal and safe,'' Sanchez Cordero told The Associated Press.So the National Guard that we were going to deploy anyway, we’re going to deploy. It’s not because they tell us to, but rather because we’re going to do it anyway.”  

​Mexican measures

  

Mexico was already increasing enforcement with detentions, deportations and checkpoints. In recent weeks it broke up the latest migrant caravan, snuffing out most of the appetite for traveling in large, visible groups.  

  

If Mexico does more as promised, it’s likely to be seen in intensification of those same efforts, experts said — raids on hotels where migrants stay or on bus companies transporting them north to the U.S. border. The two countries also agreed to share information on and disrupt people-smuggling networks, a new focus seen earlier this week when Mexico arrested two migration activists and froze accounts of over two dozen people alleged to have organized caravans.  

  

A concern is that even more aggressive enforcement could put migrants with legitimate asylum claims at risk of being deported from Mexico to the dangers they fled in the first place. Also, Mexican security forces are known for often being corrupt and shaking migrants down for bribes. A renewed crackdown is seen as making migration through Mexico more difficult and more dangerous, but doing little to discourage Central Americans desperate to escape poverty, hunger and violence.  

  

People are fleeing their homes regardless of what the journey might mean and regardless of what chance they may have for seeking protections in Mexico or in the United States,'' said Maureen Meyer, an immigration expert at the Washington Office on Latin America,simply because they need to leave.” 

Human element missing

 

It seems like in all these discussions [about tariffs and immigration], the human reality of these people and why they're leaving Central America was lost,'' she continued.It was ‘what can we do to stop them,’ and not ‘what can we really do to create the conditions in their home countries so that people don’t have to leave.’ ”  

  

Another key element of the deal is that the United States will expand a program known as the Migrant Protection Protocol, or MPP. According to Mexican immigration authorities, since January there have been 10,393 returns by migrants to Mexico while their cases wend their way through U.S. courts.  

  

MPP has been plagued by glitches and so far has been introduced only in California and El Paso, Texas, and Selee said there are logistical hurdles to further expansion. Right now the MPP figure of 10,000 or so represents “a drop in the bucket” compared with overall migration, he added.    

Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard, who led the negotiations, said the agreement does not include any quotas.  

  

If MPP does roll out on a mass scale along the United States’ entire southern border, it could overwhelm Mexican border cities. Mexico promised to offer jobs, health care and education for returnees, but has little infrastructure to do so. Currently most shelters and support programs are run by the likes of NGOs and the Roman Catholic Church.  

  

And if the program were to include places like Tamaulipas, the Gulf coast state where cartels and gangs control large swaths of territory, migrants could be at even greater risk.  

Dangerous area

  

This is an area that the U.S. government considers that it's not safe for any American citizen,'' Meyer said, referring to the State Department's highest-level warning against all travel to Tamaulipas  because of crime and kidnappings.And yet it’s OK for us to send people back there?”  

  

Still, the deal was hailed by many in Mexican industry and politics.  

  

Arturo Rocha, a Foreign Relations Department spokesman, tweeted late Friday that it was an unquestionable triumph for Mexico.'' Avoiding tariffs sends a calming message to ratings agencies worried about a possible trade war, he said, adding that President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's government had won U.S. recommitment to Central American development and resistedsafe third country” designation, a concession sought by Washington that would have required asylum seekers to apply first in Mexico.  

  

However, Abdel Camargo, an anthropologist at the Frontera Sur College in southern Mexico, said that by accepting MPP returnees, “Mexico does not become a safe third country but de facto is going to act as one.”  

  

Some such as ex-President Felipe Calderon of the conservative opposition National Action Party questioned whether Mexico was truly master of its own migratory policy. But Jose Antonio Meade, a five-time Cabinet minister who lost last year’s election to Lopez Obrador, praised Ebrard for avoiding damaging tariffs “in the face of very complex conditions.”  

  

In San Jose del Cabo for a summit of North American mayors, Juan Manuel Gastelum of Tijuana, across from San Diego, said he’s fine with more migrants being returned to his city as long as the federal government invests in caring for them. He added that the threat of tariffs may have been necessary to force his country’s hand.  

  

“How else was Mexico going to understand that it is not right to leave migration uncontrolled?” said Gastelum, who is also a member of National Action.  

​Tijuana rally

  

Meanwhile, a rally later Saturday in Tijuana that Lopez Obrador called to defend Mexican pride and dignity was expected to take on more of a festive atmosphere.  

  

It was [originally supposed to be] a meeting to show support for the incoming governor ... that turned into a demand for peace and respect on the tariffs issue,'' local restaurateur and businessman Francisco Villegas said.But since the tariffs issue was sorted out by having Marcelo Ebrard and his team up there, it is now turning into a celebration.” 
…

To save babies from brain-damaging birth defects, University of Pittsburgh scientist Carolyn Coyne studies placentas from fetuses that otherwise would be discarded — and she’s worried this kind of research is headed for the chopping block.

The Trump administration is cracking down on fetal tissue research , with new hurdles for government-funded scientists around the country who call the special cells vital for fighting a range of health threats. Already, the administration has shut down one university’s work using fetal tissue to test HIV treatments, and is ending other fetal tissue research at the National Institutes of Health.<

“I knew this was something that’s going to trickle down to the rest of us,” said Coyne. She uses the placenta, which people may not think of as fetal tissue but technically is classified as such because the fetus produced it, to study how viruses such as Zika get past that protective barrier early in pregnancy.

“It seems to me what we’re moving toward is a ban,” she added. If so, when it comes to unraveling what happens in pregnancy and fetal development, “we’re going to stay ignorant to a lot of things.”

Different types of tissue left over from elective abortions have been used in scientific research for decades, and the work has been credited with leading to lifesaving vaccines and other advances. Under orders from President Donald Trump, the Health and Human Services Department abruptly announced on Wednesday the new restrictions on taxpayer-funded research, but not privately funded work.

Aside from the cancellation of an HIV-related project at the University of California, San Francisco, university-led projects that are funded by the NIH — estimated to be fewer than 200 — aren’t affected right away.

But as researchers seek to renew their funding or propose new studies, HHS said it will have to pass an extra layer of review, beyond today’s strict scientific scrutiny. Each project will have a federal ethics board appointed to recommend whether NIH should grant the money.

HHS hasn’t offered details but under the law authorizing the review process, that board must include not just biomedical experts but a theologian, and the nation’s health secretary can overrule its advice.

“I predict over time we will see a slow and steady elimination of federal funding for research that uses fetal tissue, regardless of how necessary it is,” said University of Wisconsin law professor Alta Charo, a nationally recognized bioethics expert.

Necessity is the crux of a fierce debate between abortion foes and scientists about whether there are alternatives to fetal tissue for research.

Zika offers a glimpse at the difficulty. Somehow, the Zika virus can sneak from the mother’s bloodstream across the placenta, which protects and nourishes the fetus, and target the fetus’ brain. It’s something researchers hope to learn to block.

Studying the placentas of small animals or even monkeys isn’t a substitute because they differ from the human organ, said Emory University researcher Mehul Suthar. For example, the specific type of placental cell where Zika can lurk in humans isn’t thought to be present in mouse placentas.

And because the placenta continually changes as the fetus that created it grows, first-trimester tissue may show a very different vulnerability than a placenta that’s expelled during full-term birth, when it’s no longer defined as fetal tissue but as medical waste.

Suthar recently submitted a new grant application to study first- and second-trimester placental tissue, and is worried about its fate under the still uncertain ethics provision.

It “sounds a bit murky as to what the impact could be,” he said. It could be small, “or it could be an outright ban on what we’re doing.”

Anti-abortion groups argue there are alternatives, such as stem cells, growing organ-like clumps of cells in lab dishes, or using tissue taken from newborns as they have heart surgery.

Indeed, NIH is funding a $20 million program to research alternatives to fetal tissue and to prove whether they work as well.

“Taxpayer funding ought to go to promote alternatives that are already being used in the production of treatments, vaccines and medicines, and to expand approaches that do not depend on the destruction of unborn children,” said Mallory Quigley of the Susan B. Anthony List, which works to elect anti-abortion candidates to public office.

But dozens of medical and science organizations have told HHS there is no substitute for fetal tissue in studying certain — not all — health disorders, such as HIV, Zika, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, spinal cord injury, and a variety of eye diseases.

To Pittsburgh’s Coyne, part of the political debate is a “completely unsubstantiated belief that not allowing research and science is going to prevent or stop abortions, which is not the case.”

Medical research using fetal tissue won’t stop but will move to other countries, said Charo, who advised the Obama administration. The United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore and China are among the countries using fetal tissue to seek breakthroughs.

“Other countries work with this in a regulated fashion and they will continue to outstrip us,” she said. “We have allowed patients’ interests to become collateral damage in the abortion wars.”

…

To save babies from brain-damaging birth defects, University of Pittsburgh scientist Carolyn Coyne studies placentas from fetuses that otherwise would be discarded — and she’s worried this kind of research is headed for the chopping block.

The Trump administration is cracking down on fetal tissue research , with new hurdles for government-funded scientists around the country who call the special cells vital for fighting a range of health threats. Already, the administration has shut down one university’s work using fetal tissue to test HIV treatments, and is ending other fetal tissue research at the National Institutes of Health.<

“I knew this was something that’s going to trickle down to the rest of us,” said Coyne. She uses the placenta, which people may not think of as fetal tissue but technically is classified as such because the fetus produced it, to study how viruses such as Zika get past that protective barrier early in pregnancy.

“It seems to me what we’re moving toward is a ban,” she added. If so, when it comes to unraveling what happens in pregnancy and fetal development, “we’re going to stay ignorant to a lot of things.”

Different types of tissue left over from elective abortions have been used in scientific research for decades, and the work has been credited with leading to lifesaving vaccines and other advances. Under orders from President Donald Trump, the Health and Human Services Department abruptly announced on Wednesday the new restrictions on taxpayer-funded research, but not privately funded work.

Aside from the cancellation of an HIV-related project at the University of California, San Francisco, university-led projects that are funded by the NIH — estimated to be fewer than 200 — aren’t affected right away.

But as researchers seek to renew their funding or propose new studies, HHS said it will have to pass an extra layer of review, beyond today’s strict scientific scrutiny. Each project will have a federal ethics board appointed to recommend whether NIH should grant the money.

HHS hasn’t offered details but under the law authorizing the review process, that board must include not just biomedical experts but a theologian, and the nation’s health secretary can overrule its advice.

“I predict over time we will see a slow and steady elimination of federal funding for research that uses fetal tissue, regardless of how necessary it is,” said University of Wisconsin law professor Alta Charo, a nationally recognized bioethics expert.

Necessity is the crux of a fierce debate between abortion foes and scientists about whether there are alternatives to fetal tissue for research.

Zika offers a glimpse at the difficulty. Somehow, the Zika virus can sneak from the mother’s bloodstream across the placenta, which protects and nourishes the fetus, and target the fetus’ brain. It’s something researchers hope to learn to block.

Studying the placentas of small animals or even monkeys isn’t a substitute because they differ from the human organ, said Emory University researcher Mehul Suthar. For example, the specific type of placental cell where Zika can lurk in humans isn’t thought to be present in mouse placentas.

And because the placenta continually changes as the fetus that created it grows, first-trimester tissue may show a very different vulnerability than a placenta that’s expelled during full-term birth, when it’s no longer defined as fetal tissue but as medical waste.

Suthar recently submitted a new grant application to study first- and second-trimester placental tissue, and is worried about its fate under the still uncertain ethics provision.

It “sounds a bit murky as to what the impact could be,” he said. It could be small, “or it could be an outright ban on what we’re doing.”

Anti-abortion groups argue there are alternatives, such as stem cells, growing organ-like clumps of cells in lab dishes, or using tissue taken from newborns as they have heart surgery.

Indeed, NIH is funding a $20 million program to research alternatives to fetal tissue and to prove whether they work as well.

“Taxpayer funding ought to go to promote alternatives that are already being used in the production of treatments, vaccines and medicines, and to expand approaches that do not depend on the destruction of unborn children,” said Mallory Quigley of the Susan B. Anthony List, which works to elect anti-abortion candidates to public office.

But dozens of medical and science organizations have told HHS there is no substitute for fetal tissue in studying certain — not all — health disorders, such as HIV, Zika, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, spinal cord injury, and a variety of eye diseases.

To Pittsburgh’s Coyne, part of the political debate is a “completely unsubstantiated belief that not allowing research and science is going to prevent or stop abortions, which is not the case.”

Medical research using fetal tissue won’t stop but will move to other countries, said Charo, who advised the Obama administration. The United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore and China are among the countries using fetal tissue to seek breakthroughs.

“Other countries work with this in a regulated fashion and they will continue to outstrip us,” she said. “We have allowed patients’ interests to become collateral damage in the abortion wars.”

…

Sen. Elizabeth Warren electrified California Democrats on Saturday with a pledge for bold action, matching if not outshining enthusiasm for the state’s own Sen. Kamala Harris to kick off a day when more than a dozen presidential candidates planned to make their cases to thousands of activists in the nation’s largest liberal stronghold. 

 

Some say if we all just calm down, the Republicans will come to their senses,'' Warren said in bringing the crowd to its feet with a thinly veiled shot at former Vice President Joe Biden, who has expressed hope the GOP will havean epiphany” after President Donald Trump is gone. “But our country is in a crisis. The time for small ideas is over.” 

  

Biden was the only major candidate not attending the three-day gathering in San Francisco, opting instead to campaign in Ohio. 

 

California has shifted its 2020 primary earlier on the calendar, to March 3, part of the Super Tuesday collection of contests, in hopes of giving the state more sway in choosing the party’s nominee. California will offer the largest delegate haul, but it is a notoriously difficult state to campaign in, given its massive size and expensive media markets. 

Harris, with a built-in advantage, looked to make a show of force in Saturday’s prime speaking slot to kick off addresses from presidential hopefuls, the day’s main event. She played up her deep connection to California voters, having won statewide office three times, once to the U.S. Senate and twice as the state’s attorney general, and also having been elected as San Francisco’s district attorney. 

 

Harris, too, sparked a standing ovation when she declared, “We need to begin impeachment proceedings and we need a new commander in chief!” 

 

Earlier, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, also a Californian, avoided mentioning impeachment in her remarks but said the House would hold Trump accountable.  

Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke addressed the morning session of the convention, slipping seamlessly between Spanish and English, a key move in a state with a large Hispanic population. He praised California Democrats for their massive turnout in the 2018 midterms, when the party flipped seven U.S. House seats held for years by Republicans, and noted that his unsuccessful Senate bid drew record Democratic turnout as well.  

  

You, California Democrats, have offered the rest of the country an example,'' he said.And in Texas we were right there with you.”  

  

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is expecting to build heavily on the California organization he built in the last presidential campaign. He wasn’t scheduled to address the full crowd until Sunday, but he greeted union workers at a Saturday morning breakfast and received an enthusiastic reception Friday night at a meeting of the Chicano-Latino caucus, which endorsed him during the close 2016 contest with Hillary Clinton. 

“This time we are going to win California,” he declared.  

  

Other candidates attending the gathering: New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker; New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand; Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard; South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg; California Rep. Eric Swalwell; Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar; former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper; Washington Gov. Jay Inslee; former Obama housing chief Julian Castro; and former Maryland Rep. John Delaney.
…

Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg knows firsthand the burden of six-figure student loan debt. He and his husband, Chasten, are far from alone, though, and their personal college indebtedness is helping to keep the issue on the national stage. 

 

With loans totaling more than $130,000, they are among the 43 million people in the United States who owe federal student loan debt. 

 

The debtors are so numerous and the total debt so high — more than $1.447 trillion, according to federal statistics — that several of the Democratic candidates have made major policy proposals to address the crisis. Their ideas include wiping away debt, lowering interest rates, expanding programs that tie repayment terms to income, and making college free or debt-free. 

 

Student loan debt is often discussed as an issue that mostly affects millennials, but it cuts across age groups. Federal statistics show that about 7.8 million people age 50 and older owe a combined $291.9 billion in student loans. People age 35 to 49, a group that covers older millennials such as Buttigieg as well as Generation X, owe $548.4 billion. That group includes more than 14 million people.  

One of the most detailed plans to help solve the problem has come from Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who says she would entirely erase student debt for 75% of borrowers while making public colleges and universities free. Her plan would be paid for by a tax on “ultramillionaires,” those households with a net worth of $50 million or more. Warren wants to cancel $50,000 in student loan debt for each borrower with a household income under $100,000 and would cancel smaller amounts for those who earn more.  

  

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont has outlined a plan to make public universities tuition-free and says he wants to lower student loan rates and “substantially lower student debt.”  

  

Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas stops short of advocating for programs to cancel all debt, like Warren wants to do. Instead, he has suggested wiping away debt for people who go into jobs where there’s a manpower shortage, such as doctors in rural areas, but it’s not clear which professions would qualify. 

 

He also has said he wants to give Americans two years of free tuition at community colleges, make four-year state universities debt-free for those with low and modest incomes and allow borrowers to refinance student loans at lower interest rates.  

Julian Castro, housing secretary in the Obama administration, says he wants to eliminate tuition at public colleges and universities. He has issued a plan that would not require loan repayment until borrowers earn more than 250% of the federal poverty level, currently $25,750 for a family of four. It would cap monthly payments at 10% of their income after that.   

  

Sen. Kamala Harris of California has publicly called for debt-free college, wants to allow people to refinance their loans at a lower interest rate, base repayment on income and simplify financial aid applications to make it easier for needy students to apply.  

  

If elected, Buttigieg, the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Ind., would likely be the first president with student loan debt. Barack and Michelle Obama said they paid off their student loans a few years before he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2006.  

  

Buttigieg often speaks about the experience that he and his husband have had with student loan debt. Buttigieg graduated from Harvard in 2004, then won a Rhodes scholarship and graduated from Oxford in 2007. The mayor previously told Vice that he got through school without much debt, but that Chasten racked up loans while getting bachelor’s and master’s degrees to become a teacher.  

  

In his financial disclosure filed with the Office of Government Ethics in mid-May, Buttigieg reported that he and his husband have between $110,000 and $265,000 in student loan debt. The report requires a range rather than a specific dollar amount. Chris Meagher, a campaign spokesman, said the exact amount is $131,296.  

Americans with student loans owe on average $33,000, so the Buttigiegs’ debt is on the high end. They are among the 2.8 million Americans who owe more than $100,000 in federal student loan debt. 

 

Meagher did not answer questions about whether the loans belonged to Buttigieg or his husband, or both. 

 

The disclosure statement shows that the couple has 20 loans outstanding, with interest rates ranging from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent, on loans that were opened between 2009 and 2017. Fifteen of those accounts, more than $100,000 of the balance, were reported to be on an income-based repayment plan. 

 

Buttigieg has spoken about making it easier to refinance student loan debt. During a town hall hosted by Fox News, he discussed expanding the federal Pell Grant program and making it easier to pay off debt through public service. On his website, he called for middle- and low-income families to pay zero tuition'' at public colleges, or to attend themdebt free.”  

  

Buttigieg has also called for more support for students who enter public service, such as teaching. 

 

Seven 2020 presidential contenders have proposed legislation in the Senate to do that. The bill would simplify and expand a program that forgives federal loans for public service workers who make 120 monthly loan payments while working for a government agency or qualified nonprofit. Only about 1% of borrowers who applied to the program were approved. The candidates backing the legislation are Warren, Sanders, Harris, and Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Cory Booker of New Jersey and Michael Bennet of Colorado.  

  

Former Vice President Joe Biden made a call for a similar simplification and expansion Tuesday in a speech in Houston before one of the nation’s largest teachers unions. 
…

Beto O’Rourke stumbled with women from the start, featuring his wife sitting silently in his presidential campaign launch video and joking repeatedly about being a part-time parent.

But with his campaign at risk of stalling, O’Rourke is attempting to improve his standing with female voters. His wife, Amy, will begin a rare string of campaign appearances on Friday in Iowa, speaking at joint events and making herself available to chat and take pictures with would-be supporters.

Her presence will be an important test of whether Beto O’Rourke can reverse his less-than-favorable first impressions with women. It’s an unusual position for a candidate whose appeal with women helped make him a national political phenomenon while nearly upsetting Texas Sen. Ted Cruz last fall. And it shows how much work has to be done to get his presidential bid back on track.

“Any perceived entitlement by a young white male candidate did disqualify him with some young women activists,” Judy Downs, executive director of the Des Moines-area Polk County Democratic Party, said of O’Rourke. Downs remains undecided in the party’s 2020 primary but added, “In a field where we have 24 qualified candidates, that kind of small-level of gaffe can be enough to cut someone off the list.”

This Iowa swing comes as O’Rourke seeks to reintroduce himself to voters.

He burst into the presidential race at a breakneck pace, bouncing around the country and prioritizing town hall crowds over national media appearances and building out a campaign infrastructure. When initial buzz fizzled, O’Rourke changed course, hiring dozens of new staffers, appearing more often on national TV and rolling out detailed proposals on immigration and other hot-button issues, attempting to shake perceptions he offered more style than substance.

Aides insist that strategy shift doesn’t extend to Amy O’Rourke, noting that she campaigned in New Hampshire last month. They say her stepping more into the presidential race spotlight is due to the logistics of their three children finishing the school year — not an acknowledgement that his campaign needs her help.

“When she can get on the road, she wants to get on the road,” O’Rourke spokesman Chris Evans said. “She is as much of the core of the campaign as he is.”

But others in O’Rourke’s orbit acknowledge there’s ground to be made up.

“He has this kind of persona of the preppy rich kid and it’s easy to say, He's just another privileged white guy and does America need that now?' I totally see that," said Tzatzil LeMair, who helped organize campaign events while O'Rourke was running for Senate in Texas and helms the "Latinos for Beto" page on Facebook. "Beto is like this product, but you have to try it. You have to get people to meet him. You need toexperience’ Beto.”

Iowa state Sen. Clarie Celsi remains undecided in the primary but said O’Rourke’s parenting quip was a “deal breaker for me,” despite his quickly apologizing and abandoning it during the campaign’s opening days.

“You see young men with five kids running for office, and you’re like, `Oh, I wonder how you’re able to do that — oh, you have a wife at home, great.’ But women have to fight a lot harder to be able to have that much freedom,” she said.

Playing an active role in the campaign, Amy O’Rourke could smooth over such impressions. A 37-year-old teacher and school administrator, she advised on policy and strategy during the Senate race and is doing the same for the presidential bid, aides say. Even while not personally campaigning, she helps plan travel schedules, reviews major issue proposals and critiques things like designs on campaign shirts.

“We’re better when Amy talks. We’re better when she’s talking, be it in a video, on stage or in Beto’s ear,” said Kim Olson, a friend of the O’Rourkes who campaigned unsuccessfully for Texas agriculture commissioner last year and is now running for Congress in a district between Fort Worth and Dallas.

Winning over women will be crucial to success in Iowa. Women made up a majority of Iowa voters who supported Democratic House candidates, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of voters from the 2018 midterms, and they typically turn out in stronger numbers than men for the caucuses, which begin the presidential nominating process.

O’Rourke received 52 percent of the 2018 female vote in the nation’s largest red state compared to 48 percent for Cruz, according to VoteCast, though Cruz won the race by 2.6 percentage points. O’Rourke’s campaign also points to recent polling suggesting he could beat President Donald Trump in a head-to-head, 2020 matchup, fueled by strong favorability ratings with women.

Even as he reboots his campaign, though, the new Beto O’Rourke at times looks like the old one. He recently livestreamed getting a haircut, a move he also made while running for Senate. But he joked this time about “cutting off some of this ear hair you get when you get older,” a quip that women on social media quickly noted a female candidate wouldn’t have been able to live down.

Avery Blank, an adviser to the Washington-based Wilson Center’s Women in Public Service Project, wrote a column about Amy’s nonspeaking role in the O’Rourke launch video. She says the campaign missed a chance to leverage what she knew about her husband as a person — but appearing together before voters can fix that.

“Let Amy speak,” Blank said. “Give her the mic.”
…

Beto O’Rourke stumbled with women from the start, featuring his wife sitting silently in his presidential campaign launch video and joking repeatedly about being a part-time parent.

But with his campaign at risk of stalling, O’Rourke is attempting to improve his standing with female voters. His wife, Amy, will begin a rare string of campaign appearances on Friday in Iowa, speaking at joint events and making herself available to chat and take pictures with would-be supporters.

Her presence will be an important test of whether Beto O’Rourke can reverse his less-than-favorable first impressions with women. It’s an unusual position for a candidate whose appeal with women helped make him a national political phenomenon while nearly upsetting Texas Sen. Ted Cruz last fall. And it shows how much work has to be done to get his presidential bid back on track.

“Any perceived entitlement by a young white male candidate did disqualify him with some young women activists,” Judy Downs, executive director of the Des Moines-area Polk County Democratic Party, said of O’Rourke. Downs remains undecided in the party’s 2020 primary but added, “In a field where we have 24 qualified candidates, that kind of small-level of gaffe can be enough to cut someone off the list.”

This Iowa swing comes as O’Rourke seeks to reintroduce himself to voters.

He burst into the presidential race at a breakneck pace, bouncing around the country and prioritizing town hall crowds over national media appearances and building out a campaign infrastructure. When initial buzz fizzled, O’Rourke changed course, hiring dozens of new staffers, appearing more often on national TV and rolling out detailed proposals on immigration and other hot-button issues, attempting to shake perceptions he offered more style than substance.

Aides insist that strategy shift doesn’t extend to Amy O’Rourke, noting that she campaigned in New Hampshire last month. They say her stepping more into the presidential race spotlight is due to the logistics of their three children finishing the school year — not an acknowledgement that his campaign needs her help.

“When she can get on the road, she wants to get on the road,” O’Rourke spokesman Chris Evans said. “She is as much of the core of the campaign as he is.”

But others in O’Rourke’s orbit acknowledge there’s ground to be made up.

“He has this kind of persona of the preppy rich kid and it’s easy to say, He's just another privileged white guy and does America need that now?' I totally see that," said Tzatzil LeMair, who helped organize campaign events while O'Rourke was running for Senate in Texas and helms the "Latinos for Beto" page on Facebook. "Beto is like this product, but you have to try it. You have to get people to meet him. You need toexperience’ Beto.”

Iowa state Sen. Clarie Celsi remains undecided in the primary but said O’Rourke’s parenting quip was a “deal breaker for me,” despite his quickly apologizing and abandoning it during the campaign’s opening days.

“You see young men with five kids running for office, and you’re like, `Oh, I wonder how you’re able to do that — oh, you have a wife at home, great.’ But women have to fight a lot harder to be able to have that much freedom,” she said.

Playing an active role in the campaign, Amy O’Rourke could smooth over such impressions. A 37-year-old teacher and school administrator, she advised on policy and strategy during the Senate race and is doing the same for the presidential bid, aides say. Even while not personally campaigning, she helps plan travel schedules, reviews major issue proposals and critiques things like designs on campaign shirts.

“We’re better when Amy talks. We’re better when she’s talking, be it in a video, on stage or in Beto’s ear,” said Kim Olson, a friend of the O’Rourkes who campaigned unsuccessfully for Texas agriculture commissioner last year and is now running for Congress in a district between Fort Worth and Dallas.

Winning over women will be crucial to success in Iowa. Women made up a majority of Iowa voters who supported Democratic House candidates, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of voters from the 2018 midterms, and they typically turn out in stronger numbers than men for the caucuses, which begin the presidential nominating process.

O’Rourke received 52 percent of the 2018 female vote in the nation’s largest red state compared to 48 percent for Cruz, according to VoteCast, though Cruz won the race by 2.6 percentage points. O’Rourke’s campaign also points to recent polling suggesting he could beat President Donald Trump in a head-to-head, 2020 matchup, fueled by strong favorability ratings with women.

Even as he reboots his campaign, though, the new Beto O’Rourke at times looks like the old one. He recently livestreamed getting a haircut, a move he also made while running for Senate. But he joked this time about “cutting off some of this ear hair you get when you get older,” a quip that women on social media quickly noted a female candidate wouldn’t have been able to live down.

Avery Blank, an adviser to the Washington-based Wilson Center’s Women in Public Service Project, wrote a column about Amy’s nonspeaking role in the O’Rourke launch video. She says the campaign missed a chance to leverage what she knew about her husband as a person — but appearing together before voters can fix that.

“Let Amy speak,” Blank said. “Give her the mic.”
…

After two days of intense criticism, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden reversed course Thursday and declared that he no longer supports a long-standing congressional ban on using federal health care money to pay for abortions.

“If I believe health care is a right, as I do, I can no longer support an amendment” that makes it harder for some women to access care, Biden said at a Democratic Party fundraiser in Atlanta.

The former vice president’s reversal on the Hyde Amendment came after rivals and women’s rights groups blasted him for affirming through campaign aides that he still supported the decades-old budget provision. The dynamics had been certain to flare again at Democrats’ first primary debate in three weeks.

Centrist risks

Biden didn’t mention this week’s attacks, saying his decision was about health care, not politics. Yet the circumstances highlight the risks for a 76-year-old former vice president who’s running as more of a centrist in a party where some skeptical activists openly question whether he can be the party standard-bearer in 2020.

And Biden’s explanation tacitly repeated his critics’ arguments that the Hyde Amendment is another abortion barrier that disproportionately affects poor women and women of color.

“I’ve been struggling with the problems that Hyde now presents,” Biden said, opening a speech dedicated mostly to voting rights and issues important to the black community.

“I want to be clear: I make no apologies for my last position. I make no apologies for what I’m about to say,” he explained, arguing that “circumstances have changed” with Republican-run states, including Georgia, where Biden spoke, adopting new, severe restrictions on abortion.

‘Middle ground’ on abortion

A Roman Catholic who has wrestled publicly with abortion policy for decades, Biden said he voted as a senator to support the Hyde Amendment because he believed that women would still have access to abortion even without Medicaid insurance and other federal health care grants and that abortion opponents shouldn’t be compelled to pay for the procedure. It was part of what Biden has described as a “middle ground” on abortion.

Now, he says, there are too many barriers that threaten that constitutional right, leaving some women with no reasonable options as long as Republicans keep pushing for an outright repeal of the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide.

The former vice president said he arrived at the decision as part of developing an upcoming comprehensive health care proposal. He has declared his support for a Medicare-like public option as the next step toward universal coverage. He reasoned that his goal of universal coverage means women must have full and fair access to care, including abortion.

​Reversal praised

A Planned Parenthood representative applauded Biden’s reversal but noted that he has been lagging the women’s rights movement on the issue.

“Happy to see Joe Biden embrace what we have long known to be true: Hyde blocks people, particularly women of color and women with low incomes, from accessing safe, legal abortion care,” said Leana Wen of Planned Parenthood, the women’s health giant whose services include abortion and abortion referrals.

Other activists accepted credit for pushing Biden on the issue.

“We’re pleased that Joe Biden has joined the rest of the 2020 Democratic field in coalescing around the party’s core values — support for abortion rights, and the basic truth that reproductive freedom is fundamental to the pursuit of equality and economic security in this country,” said Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL, a leading abortion-rights advocacy group.

Reaction on both sides

Repealing Hyde has become a defining standard for Democrats in recent years, making what was once a more common position among moderate Democrats more untenable, particularly given the dynamics of primary politics heading into 2020. At its 2016 convention, the party included a call for repealing Hyde in the Democratic platform, doing so at the urging of nominee Hillary Clinton.

At least one prominent Democratic woman remained unconvinced.

“I am not clear that Joe Biden believes unequivocally that every single woman has the right to make decisions about her body, regardless of her income or race,” said Democratic strategist Jess Morales Rocketto, who worked for Clinton in 2016. “It is imperative that the Democratic nominee believe that.”

Republicans pounced, framing Biden’s change in position as a gaffe.

“He’s just not very good at this. Joe Biden is an existential threat to Joe Biden,” said Tim Murtaugh, the communications director for President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign.

A senior Biden campaign official said some aides were surprised at the speed of the reversal, given Biden’s long history of explaining his abortion positions in terms of his faith. But aides realized that as the front-runner, the attacks weren’t going to let up, and his campaign reasoned that the fallout within the Democratic primary outweigh any long-term benefit of maintain his previous Hyde support.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal conversations.
…

More than two years after voter check-in software failed on Election Day in a North Carolina county, federal authorities will conduct a forensic analysis of electronic poll books for evidence of tampering by Russian military hackers. 

 

The Department of Homeland Security analysis of laptops used in Durham County is the first known federal probe of voting technology that malfunctioned during the 2016 election. 

 

State election officials had renewed their long-dormant request for the forensic exam based on the report by special counsel Robert Mueller on Russian election interference.  

  

Poll book provider VR Systems says that contrary to Mueller’s findings, it does not believe its network was infiltrated. 

 

The malfunction in heavily Democratic Durham County forced voters to use paper ballots and wait in line during extended voting hours.
…

More than two years after voter check-in software failed on Election Day in a North Carolina county, federal authorities will conduct a forensic analysis of electronic poll books for evidence of tampering by Russian military hackers. 

 

The Department of Homeland Security analysis of laptops used in Durham County is the first known federal probe of voting technology that malfunctioned during the 2016 election. 

 

State election officials had renewed their long-dormant request for the forensic exam based on the report by special counsel Robert Mueller on Russian election interference.  

  

Poll book provider VR Systems says that contrary to Mueller’s findings, it does not believe its network was infiltrated. 

 

The malfunction in heavily Democratic Durham County forced voters to use paper ballots and wait in line during extended voting hours.
…

U.S. President Donald Trump, in Europe to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day, took time Thursday to unleash new broadsides at political targets back home for their roles in investigating him, special counsel Robert Mueller and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Trump contended in a Fox News interview that Mueller made “such a fool” of himself last week when he delivered his first and only public statement on his 22-month investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and whether Trump, as president, obstructed justice by trying to thwart it. 

Mueller said that with the long-time Justice Department policy forbidding the filing of criminal charges against sitting presidents, “Charging the president with a crime was not an option we could consider.” Even so, Mueller said, “If we had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said that” and declined to exonerate him of obstruction allegations. Instead, Mueller said that prosecutors made no determination on whether charges were warranted.

Attorney General William Barr and then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had earlier decided charges were not warranted against Trump, with Barr saying that Mueller had assured him, as he wound up his investigation, that he was not saying that obstruction charges would have been warranted absent the Justice Department policy banning charges against a sitting president.

Trump noted that after Mueller made his public statement, the Justice Department and Mueller’s office clarified there was “no conflict” between their views. Trump claimed that Mueller had “to straighten out his testimony because his testimony was wrong.” Mueller has not testified before any Congressional committees about his report.

With Mueller declining to clear Trump of obstruction allegations, about a quarter of opposition Democrats in the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives have called for Trump’s impeachment or the start of an impeachment inquiry, which Trump says is unwarranted.

Pelosi has resisted calls to open an impeachment proceeding against Trump, preferring to continue wide-ranging House committee investigations of the obstruction allegations, Trump’s finances and other Trump administration policies during his 29-month presidency. 

But the political news site Politico reported that she told Democratic colleagues in a meeting this week, “I don’t want to see him impeached, I want to see him in prison.” Pelosi has said she prefers to defeat Trump in the 2020election and then prosecute him for his alleged crimes once he is out of office.

“Nancy Pelosi, I call her Nervous Nancy,” Trump said, saying he does not care whether Democrats call Mueller to testify about his investigation. “Nancy Pelosi is a disaster, OK? Let her do what she wants. You know what, I think they’re in big trouble.” 
…

U.S. President Donald Trump, in Europe to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day, took time Thursday to unleash new broadsides at political targets back home for their roles in investigating him, special counsel Robert Mueller and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Trump contended in a Fox News interview that Mueller made “such a fool” of himself last week when he delivered his first and only public statement on his 22-month investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and whether Trump, as president, obstructed justice by trying to thwart it. 

Mueller said that with the long-time Justice Department policy forbidding the filing of criminal charges against sitting presidents, “Charging the president with a crime was not an option we could consider.” Even so, Mueller said, “If we had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said that” and declined to exonerate him of obstruction allegations. Instead, Mueller said that prosecutors made no determination on whether charges were warranted.

Attorney General William Barr and then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had earlier decided charges were not warranted against Trump, with Barr saying that Mueller had assured him, as he wound up his investigation, that he was not saying that obstruction charges would have been warranted absent the Justice Department policy banning charges against a sitting president.

Trump noted that after Mueller made his public statement, the Justice Department and Mueller’s office clarified there was “no conflict” between their views. Trump claimed that Mueller had “to straighten out his testimony because his testimony was wrong.” Mueller has not testified before any Congressional committees about his report.

With Mueller declining to clear Trump of obstruction allegations, about a quarter of opposition Democrats in the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives have called for Trump’s impeachment or the start of an impeachment inquiry, which Trump says is unwarranted.

Pelosi has resisted calls to open an impeachment proceeding against Trump, preferring to continue wide-ranging House committee investigations of the obstruction allegations, Trump’s finances and other Trump administration policies during his 29-month presidency. 

But the political news site Politico reported that she told Democratic colleagues in a meeting this week, “I don’t want to see him impeached, I want to see him in prison.” Pelosi has said she prefers to defeat Trump in the 2020election and then prosecute him for his alleged crimes once he is out of office.

“Nancy Pelosi, I call her Nervous Nancy,” Trump said, saying he does not care whether Democrats call Mueller to testify about his investigation. “Nancy Pelosi is a disaster, OK? Let her do what she wants. You know what, I think they’re in big trouble.” 
…

Just six weeks into his presidential campaign, Joe Biden is running as the Democrat to beat, charting a distinct path through the primary states, taking positions that may rile the party base and working with a single goal in mind: not being lumped in with the rest of the field.

While most Democrats crowd an Iowa dinner this weekend, he won’t be on the campaign trail. While most Democrats tout their support of abortion rights, Biden is offering a more nuanced, middle-ground position. And while most Democrats are preparing to battle one another, Biden is focused on President Donald Trump.

Biden’s moves suggest a candidate looking beyond the Democratic primary to the general election, laser-focused on issues that could shore him up with swing voters in key battleground states even if it spurs consternation from some Democrats now. At the moment, the strategy seems to be working as Biden enjoys a sizable lead in most early polls. But that could change with the first presidential debate of the season just weeks away.

“You are still running for the Democratic Party nomination, and you have to respect where the party is … and avoid pitfalls,” said Karen Finney, a key adviser in 2016 to Hillary Clinton, who navigated a fraught relationship with Democrats’ left flank to win the nomination but went on to lose the election. “It’s a very fine line he’s trying to walk.”

There are fresh signs of the peril he faces atop the field.

In a span of 24 hours this week, a staffer appeared to cut short a question-and-answer session with New Hampshire voters after the candidate called China “xenophobic,” suggesting the campaign remains anxious about Biden’s tendency to go off script. Aides admitted the campaign published a climate policy proposal without properly sourcing some material, a sign of a potential lack of discipline that sank Biden’s previous White House bids.

And Biden’s defense of his abortion views enraged fellow Democrats and left him uncomfortably close to Trump, whose campaign happily noted the president also opposes federal money supporting abortion.

More broadly, Biden risks contending with the same air of inevitability that Clinton confronted in 2016, magnifying every misstep and turning some voters against her.

“There are just places where he is out of step with the party,” Finney observed, citing his middle ground on abortion. “The question becomes whether there’s an assumption by this campaign that parts of the base might not like various positions but because people want to win, they’ll be willing to look past it.”

Biden’s Democratic competitors have been reluctant to attack publicly. Even as they disagreed with Biden’s abortion views on Wednesday, they generally avoided referring to him by name.

In private, however, rival campaigns are eager to complain that Biden hides from scrutiny. He’s among the only top-tier candidates yet to appear in a cable news town hall, and in contrast with many of his opponents, he rarely takes questions from groups of reporters after his campaign appearances.

Some of Biden’s top-tier opponents acknowledge they fear voter backlash should they engage the popular Biden more directly. They expect to debate policy differences, but most want to avoid the kind of scorched-earth attacks that fueled Trump’s rise during the 2016 Republican primary.

Only groups like the Progressive Change Campaign Committee — which backs Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren — have called Biden out aggressively. The group this week tweeted a picture of Biden’s schedule for June that features 10 days of campaigning; several days are limited to invitation-only fundraisers.

“You can hide for a few weeks during the primary, but you can’t hide from public engagement during the general election against Trump,” said PCCC co-founder Adam Green.

At Biden headquarters, aides don’t deny a front-runner’s approach, but they dispute any characterization that the former vice president isn’t engaging voters. Days when he’s not on the campaign trail, they say, are devoted to meetings with policy advisers and campaign aides. Indeed, Biden has unveiled two comprehensive policy outlines (education and climate) before the 40-day mark of his campaign, a faster clip than the gaggle of candidates who launched their bids in January and February.

And they say Biden made it to all four early voting states faster than most of his top-tier rivals.

Biden isn’t skipping large-scale Democratic events altogether. On Thursday, he’ll be in Atlanta at a Democratic National Committee event focused on minorities and voting rights. Later in June, he’ll spend two days at the South Carolina state party convention, an important stop ahead of the South’s first primary and the first nominating contest to feature a large black contingent.

And allowing a press pool at fundraisers — something his opponents aren’t doing systematically — means any misstep is captured, even if not on camera. He’s attended house parties and lunchtime meet-and-greets and taken questions in New Hampshire and Iowa, even if not as much as barnstormers like Warren or New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker.

Scott Brennan, a former Iowa Democratic Party chairman, said Biden’s strength in early polls allows him to “get a pass” from some of the criticism for now. But he warned that Biden should be aware of a nebulous measure: “Whether voters feel like you’re accessible.”

Then-Sen. Barack Obama skipped Iowa’s Hall of Fame dinner in 2007 — the same event Biden will miss this weekend. But Obama went on to win Iowa, largely because of his lengthy sessions answering questions from voters in more personal settings.

In New Hampshire on Tuesday, voters offered a mixed assessment.

Cynthia Tomai, a 51-year-old who is self-employed, said Biden has to play “catch up” to other candidates. “Would I like to see a little bit more aggressiveness in him?” Tomai said. “Yeah, I would. I think he does need to change his message a little bit.”

Lloyd Murray, a 67-year-old military veteran and business owner, said Biden’s front-runner approach is smart.

“I’m scared for him,” Murray said. “He’s known to make [gaffes] in the past. I want him to play it safe. He’s in the lead.”

 

 
…

Just six weeks into his presidential campaign, Joe Biden is running as the Democrat to beat, charting a distinct path through the primary states, taking positions that may rile the party base and working with a single goal in mind: not being lumped in with the rest of the field.

While most Democrats crowd an Iowa dinner this weekend, he won’t be on the campaign trail. While most Democrats tout their support of abortion rights, Biden is offering a more nuanced, middle-ground position. And while most Democrats are preparing to battle one another, Biden is focused on President Donald Trump.

Biden’s moves suggest a candidate looking beyond the Democratic primary to the general election, laser-focused on issues that could shore him up with swing voters in key battleground states even if it spurs consternation from some Democrats now. At the moment, the strategy seems to be working as Biden enjoys a sizable lead in most early polls. But that could change with the first presidential debate of the season just weeks away.

“You are still running for the Democratic Party nomination, and you have to respect where the party is … and avoid pitfalls,” said Karen Finney, a key adviser in 2016 to Hillary Clinton, who navigated a fraught relationship with Democrats’ left flank to win the nomination but went on to lose the election. “It’s a very fine line he’s trying to walk.”

There are fresh signs of the peril he faces atop the field.

In a span of 24 hours this week, a staffer appeared to cut short a question-and-answer session with New Hampshire voters after the candidate called China “xenophobic,” suggesting the campaign remains anxious about Biden’s tendency to go off script. Aides admitted the campaign published a climate policy proposal without properly sourcing some material, a sign of a potential lack of discipline that sank Biden’s previous White House bids.

And Biden’s defense of his abortion views enraged fellow Democrats and left him uncomfortably close to Trump, whose campaign happily noted the president also opposes federal money supporting abortion.

More broadly, Biden risks contending with the same air of inevitability that Clinton confronted in 2016, magnifying every misstep and turning some voters against her.

“There are just places where he is out of step with the party,” Finney observed, citing his middle ground on abortion. “The question becomes whether there’s an assumption by this campaign that parts of the base might not like various positions but because people want to win, they’ll be willing to look past it.”

Biden’s Democratic competitors have been reluctant to attack publicly. Even as they disagreed with Biden’s abortion views on Wednesday, they generally avoided referring to him by name.

In private, however, rival campaigns are eager to complain that Biden hides from scrutiny. He’s among the only top-tier candidates yet to appear in a cable news town hall, and in contrast with many of his opponents, he rarely takes questions from groups of reporters after his campaign appearances.

Some of Biden’s top-tier opponents acknowledge they fear voter backlash should they engage the popular Biden more directly. They expect to debate policy differences, but most want to avoid the kind of scorched-earth attacks that fueled Trump’s rise during the 2016 Republican primary.

Only groups like the Progressive Change Campaign Committee — which backs Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren — have called Biden out aggressively. The group this week tweeted a picture of Biden’s schedule for June that features 10 days of campaigning; several days are limited to invitation-only fundraisers.

“You can hide for a few weeks during the primary, but you can’t hide from public engagement during the general election against Trump,” said PCCC co-founder Adam Green.

At Biden headquarters, aides don’t deny a front-runner’s approach, but they dispute any characterization that the former vice president isn’t engaging voters. Days when he’s not on the campaign trail, they say, are devoted to meetings with policy advisers and campaign aides. Indeed, Biden has unveiled two comprehensive policy outlines (education and climate) before the 40-day mark of his campaign, a faster clip than the gaggle of candidates who launched their bids in January and February.

And they say Biden made it to all four early voting states faster than most of his top-tier rivals.

Biden isn’t skipping large-scale Democratic events altogether. On Thursday, he’ll be in Atlanta at a Democratic National Committee event focused on minorities and voting rights. Later in June, he’ll spend two days at the South Carolina state party convention, an important stop ahead of the South’s first primary and the first nominating contest to feature a large black contingent.

And allowing a press pool at fundraisers — something his opponents aren’t doing systematically — means any misstep is captured, even if not on camera. He’s attended house parties and lunchtime meet-and-greets and taken questions in New Hampshire and Iowa, even if not as much as barnstormers like Warren or New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker.

Scott Brennan, a former Iowa Democratic Party chairman, said Biden’s strength in early polls allows him to “get a pass” from some of the criticism for now. But he warned that Biden should be aware of a nebulous measure: “Whether voters feel like you’re accessible.”

Then-Sen. Barack Obama skipped Iowa’s Hall of Fame dinner in 2007 — the same event Biden will miss this weekend. But Obama went on to win Iowa, largely because of his lengthy sessions answering questions from voters in more personal settings.

In New Hampshire on Tuesday, voters offered a mixed assessment.

Cynthia Tomai, a 51-year-old who is self-employed, said Biden has to play “catch up” to other candidates. “Would I like to see a little bit more aggressiveness in him?” Tomai said. “Yeah, I would. I think he does need to change his message a little bit.”

Lloyd Murray, a 67-year-old military veteran and business owner, said Biden’s front-runner approach is smart.

“I’m scared for him,” Murray said. “He’s known to make [gaffes] in the past. I want him to play it safe. He’s in the lead.”

 

 
…

Democratic presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday criticized U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on Mexico as “random dart throwing” that lacks a coherent strategy.

Trump unexpectedly told Mexico last week to take a harder line on curbing illegal immigration or face 5% tariffs on all its exports to the United States, rising to as much as 25% later in the year. On Tuesday, Trump said he expected to impose the tariffs as of Monday.

“Trump’s random dart throwing ain’t helping anybody,” Warren, a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, told reporters after a campaign event in Elkhart, Indiana.

Moments earlier, before a crowd of about 600 in the town with a large manufacturing sector, Warren assailed companies that are moving production abroad. While that echoed Trump’s criticism, she faulted his approach.

“Lets be clear — tariff policy by tweet does not work,” Warren said. “Randomly raising tariffs on a handful of goods with no coherent policy and doing it nation by nation makes no sense at all.”

Warren is one of more than 20 Democrats vying for the Democratic nomination to challenge Trump in the November 2020 election.

Mexican officials will seek to persuade the White House in talks hosted by U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday that their government has done enough to stem immigration and avoid looming tariffs. The tariff fight merges two of Trump’s biggest campaign promises, on immigration and fair trade.

“Nobody goes into battle by themselves when they can be stronger by having allies in it,” Warren said, calling for a “coherent trade policy.”

Other Candidates Weigh In

U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar, who is also running to be a Democratic presidential nominee, criticized Trump for creating “chaos” by creating the tariffs and promising more.

“That’s the kind of chaos he likes,” Klobuchar said in an appearance on CNN on Tuesday. “And I just think that’s not how you embark on international diplomacy with one of our best allies.

U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, another Democratic presidential hopeful, had a similar criticism.

“This president has no plan and no ability to have a thoughtful approach towards trade or the economy,” Gillibrand said on Monday in a town hall on Fox News. “Because if he wanted to reduce the trade deficit, he’s only grown it.”
…

Democratic presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday criticized U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on Mexico as “random dart throwing” that lacks a coherent strategy.

Trump unexpectedly told Mexico last week to take a harder line on curbing illegal immigration or face 5% tariffs on all its exports to the United States, rising to as much as 25% later in the year. On Tuesday, Trump said he expected to impose the tariffs as of Monday.

“Trump’s random dart throwing ain’t helping anybody,” Warren, a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, told reporters after a campaign event in Elkhart, Indiana.

Moments earlier, before a crowd of about 600 in the town with a large manufacturing sector, Warren assailed companies that are moving production abroad. While that echoed Trump’s criticism, she faulted his approach.

“Lets be clear — tariff policy by tweet does not work,” Warren said. “Randomly raising tariffs on a handful of goods with no coherent policy and doing it nation by nation makes no sense at all.”

Warren is one of more than 20 Democrats vying for the Democratic nomination to challenge Trump in the November 2020 election.

Mexican officials will seek to persuade the White House in talks hosted by U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday that their government has done enough to stem immigration and avoid looming tariffs. The tariff fight merges two of Trump’s biggest campaign promises, on immigration and fair trade.

“Nobody goes into battle by themselves when they can be stronger by having allies in it,” Warren said, calling for a “coherent trade policy.”

Other Candidates Weigh In

U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar, who is also running to be a Democratic presidential nominee, criticized Trump for creating “chaos” by creating the tariffs and promising more.

“That’s the kind of chaos he likes,” Klobuchar said in an appearance on CNN on Tuesday. “And I just think that’s not how you embark on international diplomacy with one of our best allies.

U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, another Democratic presidential hopeful, had a similar criticism.

“This president has no plan and no ability to have a thoughtful approach towards trade or the economy,” Gillibrand said on Monday in a town hall on Fox News. “Because if he wanted to reduce the trade deficit, he’s only grown it.”
…

Democratic U.S. presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders on Wednesday told Walmart shareholders and top executives that the world’s largest retailer should boost the “starvation”-level wages it pays its workers and stop fueling income inequality.

Speaking at Walmart’s shareholder meeting, the U.S. senator said: “Despite the incredible wealth of Walmart’s owners” the company pays “starvation wages.”

He presented a shareholder proposal asking the company to give hourly employees a seat on its board and raise base wages to $15 an hour.

Walmart’s “wages are so low, many of these employees are forced to rely on government programs like food stamps, Medicaid and public housing in order to survive,” Sanders said.

“The American people are so tired of subsidizing the greed of some of the largest corporations in the United States,” he added.

Sanders had three minutes to present and make comments. His remarks at the meeting drew attention to his campaign for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination as well as to the drive for higher hourly U.S. wages, one of his signature issues.

The proposal, filed by Walmart worker Carolyn Davis, was buried at the end of the annual proxy filing. It had no chance of passing since a majority of shares are owned by the family of the founder, the late Sam Walton, and the retailer has asked shareholders to vote against it.

Sanders also complained that “Walmart’s CEO is making a thousand times more than the average Walmart employee.”

Walmart’s CEO received a 423.6 million pay package last year. The ratio compared with that of the median associate was 1,076 to 1.

Protesters gathered outside the meeting, many from the labor group “United for Respect” which has pushed for a worker presence on Walmart’s board. They held signs supporting Sanders 2020 presidential campaign and calling for a $15 per hour U.S. minimum wage.

“What do we want? 15. When do we want it? Now!” the protesters chanted as Sanders briefly addressed workers and the media in a parking lot outside the meeting.

Final results of the vote were expected later in the afternoon.

Walmart has raised its minimum wage twice since 2016 to $11 an hour, still lower than the $15 an hour that rival Amazon.com Inc pays employees. Retailers Target and Costco also pay higher rates than Walmart.

Chief Executive Officer Doug McMillon said Walmart has raised wages in the United States by 50 percent in the past four years and continues to increase wages on a market-by-market basis to hire and retain talent. He also urged Congress to raise the federal minimum wage, calling the current minimum of $7.25 an hour “too low.”

“We are not perfect, but together we are learning, we are listening and changing,” he said.

Walmart has said it pays an average of $17.50 an hour to its hourly employees, including benefits.

Last year, Sanders introduced the Stop Walmart Act, a bill that would prevent large companies from buying back stock unless they pay all employees at least $15 an hour.

The U.S. Senator has also backed campaigns to push Amazon and Disney  to raise their minimum wages, an issue that has found support with all Democratic candidates running for the presidential nomination.

Walmart, which employs nearly 1.5 million Americans and is the largest U.S. private-sector employer, drew sharp criticism from labor groups and unions when it changed the format of its annual meeting last year, splitting it into two separate events.

The business meeting at which Sanders spoke is now held a few days before the big shareholder event, which draws thousands of employees. This year and the year before, the company rushed through shareholder proposals at the business meeting, which had a fraction of the attendees, in less than 30 minutes.
…

Joe Biden is under fire from his Democratic presidential rivals and women’s rights advocates for his defense of a decades-old prohibition on federal money paying for abortions.

Most Democratic White House hopefuls reflect their party’s latest platform calling for the outright repeal of the Hyde Amendment, which traces back to a compromise made when Biden was a young Delaware senator in the years after the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling legalized abortion nationwide.

But a Biden campaign spokesman said Wednesday that the former vice president supports the measure, though he “would be open to repealing it” if abortion access is further threatened by restrictive state laws, like those recently passed in Georgia and Alabama.

The hedging prompted intraparty outcry, with top Democrats reaffirming their commitment to abortion rights and scrapping the Hyde Amendment. They generally avoided mentioning Biden by name, but the pushback marked the first significant instance in which virtually the entire crowded 2020 field united to critique Biden, who has emerged as an early Democratic front-runner .

New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who has campaigned as an unapologetic feminist, tweeted “reproductive rights are human rights, period. They should be nonnegotiable for all Democrats.” On Capitol Hill, California Sen. Kamala Harris told The Associated Press she was “absolutely opposed to the idea that a woman is not going to have an ability to exercise her choice based on how much money she’s got.”

Campaigning in Indiana, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren said, “This isn’t about the politics, this is about what’s right. The Hyde Amendment should not be the law.”

Other presidential candidates, including Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke, also voiced support for ending the Hyde Amendment.

Biden’s abortion views came under scrutiny recently after video emerged of a conversation between him and a South Carolina activist that appeared to suggest he backed the Hyde Amendment’s repeal. His campaign said Biden thought the activist was asking about the so-called Mexico City rule, which prohibits U.S. foreign aid to non-American organizations that provide abortion services.

The campaign said Biden supports ending the Mexico City rule but backs the Hyde Amendment for now. That would change, it said, “if avenues for women to access their protected rights under Roe v. Wade are closed.”

Biden, a Roman Catholic, has long been a supporter of the once-bipartisan Hyde Amendment, which President Bill Clinton signed into law in 1993. It bars the use of federal funds for abortion other than in cases of incest, rape or to save the life of the mother.

That position aligns the former vice president with the man he’s trying to unseat next year, President Donald Trump. Campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh said Wednesday that “President Trump opposes taxpayer funding of abortions and supports the Hyde Amendment.”

Biden has said in the past he agrees with his church’s opposition to abortion personally but doesn’t think the government should impose his views on others. After the Supreme Court decided the Roe v. Wade case, Biden originally worried the decision “went too far,” though he later became a staunch defender of it.

“I’ve stuck to my middle-of-the-road position on abortion for more than 30 years,” he wrote in his 2007 book “Promises to Keep.” `’I still vote against partial birth abortion and federal funding, and I’d like to make it easier for scared young mothers to choose not to have an abortion, but I will also vote against a constitutional amendment that strips a woman of her right to make her own choice.”

As a party, Democrats didn’t expressly state opposition to the Hyde Amendment until 2016. The Democratic platform that year also introduced a specific mention of Planned Parenthood, as it was adopted amid a rash of Republican-run state legislatures trying to strip Medicaid financing for the women’s health giant whose services include abortion and abortion referrals.

Abortion rights supporters also condemned the Hyde Amendment on Wednesday.

“As abortion access is being restricted and pushed out of reach in states around the country, it is unacceptable for a candidate to support policies that further restrict abortion,” Kelley Robinson, executive director of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said in a statement.

Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said Biden’s position “further endangers women and families already facing enormous hurdles and creates two classes of rights for people in this country, which is inherently undemocratic.”

Biden ally and California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein said in an interview, “I respect Joe. I just disagree.” She said it wouldn’t affect her support, but she planned to raise the issue with him: “Oh, yeah. We’ll talk about it. No question.”

Hawaii Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono went further, saying she was “very disappointed” in Biden’s position and urged Democratic presidential candidates to “come together” in full support of abortion rights.

“This is why there are going to be a lot of women and others who are going to be asking Biden, `Where exactly are you on the issue of a woman’s right to choose?”’ Hirono said.

 
…

Joe Biden is under fire from his Democratic presidential rivals and women’s rights advocates for his defense of a decades-old prohibition on federal money paying for abortions.

Most Democratic White House hopefuls reflect their party’s latest platform calling for the outright repeal of the Hyde Amendment, which traces back to a compromise made when Biden was a young Delaware senator in the years after the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling legalized abortion nationwide.

But a Biden campaign spokesman said Wednesday that the former vice president supports the measure, though he “would be open to repealing it” if abortion access is further threatened by restrictive state laws, like those recently passed in Georgia and Alabama.

The hedging prompted intraparty outcry, with top Democrats reaffirming their commitment to abortion rights and scrapping the Hyde Amendment. They generally avoided mentioning Biden by name, but the pushback marked the first significant instance in which virtually the entire crowded 2020 field united to critique Biden, who has emerged as an early Democratic front-runner .

New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who has campaigned as an unapologetic feminist, tweeted “reproductive rights are human rights, period. They should be nonnegotiable for all Democrats.” On Capitol Hill, California Sen. Kamala Harris told The Associated Press she was “absolutely opposed to the idea that a woman is not going to have an ability to exercise her choice based on how much money she’s got.”

Campaigning in Indiana, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren said, “This isn’t about the politics, this is about what’s right. The Hyde Amendment should not be the law.”

Other presidential candidates, including Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke, also voiced support for ending the Hyde Amendment.

Biden’s abortion views came under scrutiny recently after video emerged of a conversation between him and a South Carolina activist that appeared to suggest he backed the Hyde Amendment’s repeal. His campaign said Biden thought the activist was asking about the so-called Mexico City rule, which prohibits U.S. foreign aid to non-American organizations that provide abortion services.

The campaign said Biden supports ending the Mexico City rule but backs the Hyde Amendment for now. That would change, it said, “if avenues for women to access their protected rights under Roe v. Wade are closed.”

Biden, a Roman Catholic, has long been a supporter of the once-bipartisan Hyde Amendment, which President Bill Clinton signed into law in 1993. It bars the use of federal funds for abortion other than in cases of incest, rape or to save the life of the mother.

That position aligns the former vice president with the man he’s trying to unseat next year, President Donald Trump. Campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh said Wednesday that “President Trump opposes taxpayer funding of abortions and supports the Hyde Amendment.”

Biden has said in the past he agrees with his church’s opposition to abortion personally but doesn’t think the government should impose his views on others. After the Supreme Court decided the Roe v. Wade case, Biden originally worried the decision “went too far,” though he later became a staunch defender of it.

“I’ve stuck to my middle-of-the-road position on abortion for more than 30 years,” he wrote in his 2007 book “Promises to Keep.” `’I still vote against partial birth abortion and federal funding, and I’d like to make it easier for scared young mothers to choose not to have an abortion, but I will also vote against a constitutional amendment that strips a woman of her right to make her own choice.”

As a party, Democrats didn’t expressly state opposition to the Hyde Amendment until 2016. The Democratic platform that year also introduced a specific mention of Planned Parenthood, as it was adopted amid a rash of Republican-run state legislatures trying to strip Medicaid financing for the women’s health giant whose services include abortion and abortion referrals.

Abortion rights supporters also condemned the Hyde Amendment on Wednesday.

“As abortion access is being restricted and pushed out of reach in states around the country, it is unacceptable for a candidate to support policies that further restrict abortion,” Kelley Robinson, executive director of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said in a statement.

Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said Biden’s position “further endangers women and families already facing enormous hurdles and creates two classes of rights for people in this country, which is inherently undemocratic.”

Biden ally and California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein said in an interview, “I respect Joe. I just disagree.” She said it wouldn’t affect her support, but she planned to raise the issue with him: “Oh, yeah. We’ll talk about it. No question.”

Hawaii Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono went further, saying she was “very disappointed” in Biden’s position and urged Democratic presidential candidates to “come together” in full support of abortion rights.

“This is why there are going to be a lot of women and others who are going to be asking Biden, `Where exactly are you on the issue of a woman’s right to choose?”’ Hirono said.

 
…

Beto (BET’-oh) O’Rourke has unveiled a voting rights proposal he says can increase voter registration by 50 million and raise nationwide voter turnout to 65%.

He’s seeking to ensure 35 million new voters cast ballots in 2024’s presidential race.

The former Texas congressman and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate announced Wednesday he’d champion legislation ensuring automatic voter registration, including preregistration starting at age 16 and same-day registration. He’d make Election Day a holiday, extend early voting and strengthen the Voting Rights Act.

O’Rourke promises to direct the Justice Department to combat strict voter ID laws around the country and keep some state officials from “purging” voter rolls. He’d back a constitutional amendment imposing 12-year House and Senate term limits and 18-year limits for Supreme Court justices.

The Pew Research Center says voter turnout was 61% in 2016.
…