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Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren Campaign in Ohio
On Monday, Hillary Clinton and Senator Elizabeth Warren spoke at a rally in Cincinnati, Ohio. Warren spoke first going after Republican Donald Trump and explaining why she fully supports Clinton for president. Clinton then addressed the enthusiastic crowd attacking Trump for his divisive language while speaking about a number of platform points including women's health and increasing the minimum wage. This was the first time Clinton and Warren have appeared at a rally together.
News Source: Chicago Tribune, NPR
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Worst Anti Choice Laws Struck Down By Supreme Court
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday struck down one of the nation's toughest restrictions on abortion, a Texas law that women's groups said would have forced more than three-quarters of the state's clinics to shut down.
The decision was 5-3.
Passed in 2013, the law said clinics providing abortion services must meet the same building standards as ambulatory surgical centers. And it required doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals.
Since the law was passed, the number of clinics providing abortion services in Texas dropped to 19 from 42. Opponents said that number would fall to ten if the Supreme Court upheld the law.
The Center for Reproductive Rights called the law "an absolute sham," arguing that abortion patients rarely require hospitalization and that many patients simply take two pills.
Abortion Rights Advocate: 'Women Across America Constitutional Rights Vindicated' 0:50
Justice Stephen G. Breyer in writing the majority opinion said "neither of these provisions offers medical benefits sufficient to justify the burdens upon access that each imposes. Each places a substantial obstacle in the path of women seeking a pre-viability abortion, each constitutes an undue burden on abortion access, and each violates the Federal Constitution."
Abortion Rights Advocate: 'Women Across America Constitutional Rights Vindicated' 0:50
Clinton: Trump would cause an 'economic catastrophe'
In an Ohio speech on Tuesday, Hillary hit Donald Trump where it hurts him most: in his finances. She called him out for his business failures. Now, for most presidential candidates, failed business ventures wouldn’t be such a relevant talking point.
But in Trump’s case, he talks ad nauseam about how his business experience qualifies him for the presidency. She had such memorable lines as “He’s written a lot of books about business, they all seem to end at Chapter 11.” She then said that his effects on the economy would be disastrous. He would almost certainly bankrupt America like “one of his failed casinos.”
She’s definitely hitting him where it hurts most. We’ve all seen by now how delicate Trump’s pride is, after all. It will be interesting to see him fumbling and trying to make a comeback for this during his Wednesday speech.
So Where Did All The Trump Campaign Money Go
Trump spent $6.7 million in May. That’s down from $9.4 million in April, but it’s actually a pretty stunning amount when you consider that he’s not advertising or building a serious field operation. So where did all the money go? Matea Gold and Anu Narayanswamy report that the campaign paid out more than $1 million to Trump-owned companies and to reimburse his own family for travel expenses. Here are some of the campaign's biggest expenditures:
- Campaign swag and printing - $958,836: Hats, pens, T-shirts, mugs and stickers
- Air charters - $838,774: “Nearly $350,000 of the money spent on private jets went to Trump's own TAG Air.”
- Event staging and rentals - $830,482: This includes the fees for renting facilities such as the Anaheim Convention Center ($43,000) and the Fresno Convention Center ($24,715). But the biggest sum went to Trump's own Mar-A-Lago Club, which was paid $423,317.Meanwhile, the Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Florida, got $35,845, while the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Fl., was paid $29,715. And Trump’s son Eric’s wine company received nearly $4,000.
-- The FEC reports show that Trump has about 70 staffers total, one-tenth as many as Clinton’s 683. But, instead of rushing to staff up, he bragged about it during an interview with Bill O’Reilly on Fox News last night.
Trump lashes out at GOP — threatens to stop fundraising if they don’t rally around him
Trump Lashes Out At Republicans
Donald Trump spoke out Saturday against some Republicans trying to thwart him, calling them "an insurgent group." The New York real estate mogul also threatened to stop fundraising if the Republicans don't rally around him. Trump's comments come amid his bid to get support from those who did not back him during the primary season, but…
Anti-Trump Super PAC Releases BRUTAL Video… Makes Trump Look Like A FOOL!
The ad details a list of liberal statements made by Trump, from supporting partial birth abortion to being against guns.
“Our Principles PAC”, an anti-Trump Super PAC founded by a Romney 2012 campaign staffer, released an ad that shows repeated videos of Trump expressing non-conservative views.The goal of the Super PAC is, “Our Principles PAC has focused on conservative principles and ensuring that voters have the necessary information to make a wise decision on Election Day.”
Donald Trump Has No Campaign Part 3
UPDATE:
According to this new story out from AP, the Trump campaign estimates that it currently has a nationwide field staff of 30 people. 30. This in a country with 50 states.
Trump is largely outsourcing what's typically called a campaign's ground game, which includes the labor-intensive jobs of identifying and contacting potential supporters. Ed Brookover, recently tapped to serve as the Trump's liaison to the RNC, says the campaign is making progress on adding its own staff in key states.
The campaign estimates it currently has about 30 paid staff on the ground across the country.
It is difficult to overstate just how many crazy notions are embedded in this package. No presidential campaign can really outsource its field operation to the party. That just means that the party has to build a whole additional field staff in addition to the one its already building (set aside not being able to control its strategy, quality of work etc.) That's not possible, or at least not possible to do well. The way this works in the modern campaign is that the presidential campaign has its field operation, the party has an additional field operation and they are coordinated together and in some ways integrated together in the fall for maximal impact.
The party, necessarily has more focus on all the other races besides the presidential. The presidential campaign mainly focuses on itself. But they work together (in the bounds of certain restrictions on coordination). And at the end of the day, every solid Republican voter who gets brought to the polls helps everyone up and down the ticket. Down ticket races are heavily, heavily dependent on these two massive field operations; they get pulled along with the wave of turnout these and other campaign committees coordinate.
Trump seems to have decided he's just not going to have one. Maybe he'll decide that's ridiculous and he wants to build on after all. But you can't just build a campaign operation overnight. And Trump is way, way behind.
Just to calibrate expectations, it's not like no Republicans will vote just because there's a weak field operation.
We reported last week Donald Trump Has No Campaign
NBC News’ Benjy Sarlin, Katy Tur, and Ali Vitali had a great report this week that Trump “is a candidate without a campaign,” and it’s a problem that’s getting worse, not better.
The Wall Street Journal reported this week that Trump, who’s abandoned his promises about self-financing, finds himself “reliant on party fundraisers who haven’t all swung into action and aren’t always in sync with his campaign promises.”
This New York Times article today won’t improve the party’s confidence in Team Trump’s strategic thinking.
Donald J. Trump has hired a new pollster to help him capture an elusive Republican victory in New York, his home state, two people briefed on the move said.The pollster, John McLaughlin, will be focusing exclusively on New York, polling to determine what type of climb Mr. Trump would face in a state that hasn’t voted for a Republican in a presidential race since Ronald Reagan in 1984.
Though recent polls show Hillary Clinton leading Trump in hypothetical match-ups in the Empire State, the Times article added that the Republican is nevertheless “adamant” about winning New York.
As for how, exactly, he intends to pull this off, Trump isn’t just hiring a pollster. Failed New York gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino, Trump’s campaign’s co-chair in the state, told CNN the campaign will prevail by “blanketing the upstate region with signs and bumper stickers.”
You might think I’m making this up. I’m not. Hitting upstate New York with yard signs is part of the campaign’s recipe for success in one of the nation’s most populous states. (Carl Paladino lost his 2010 gubernatorial race in New York by 29 points. I just thought I’d mention that.)
Note, the same CNN report added that Republican officials in North Carolina and Michigan are “yet to hear from” anyone with the Trump campaign, and the presumptive GOP nominee “doesn’t have so much as a state director” in battlegrounds such as Ohio and Colorado.
When Republicans talk about their anxieties surrounding Trump’s candidacy, they tend to focus on his rhetoric: he has an ugly habit of saying outrageous and insulting things that antagonize most of the country. But it’s important to remember that the scope of the GOP’s fears should go much further.
The Trump campaign has real financial problems as the general election gets underway, and what limited resources he has, the candidate wants to invest in things like New York polling – as if this is a state that’s within reach.
NBC News’ Benjy Sarlin, Katy Tur, and Ali Vitali had a great report this week that Trump “is a candidate without a campaign,” and it’s a problem that’s getting worse, not better.
Has anyone considered the possibility that Trump studied Campaign Management 101 at Trump U?
Dolores Huerta, Alicia Machado Expose Trump's 'Year Of Hate' In Ad
On Wednesday, former Miss Universe Alicia Machado and civil rights leader Dolores Huerta announced the launch of People For the American Way’s new campaign, “Donald Trump’s Year of Hate.” “Donald Trump has demonstrated over the past year that he is unfit to be a leader for Latino communities and for all Americans,” Huerta said during a…
GOP LT GOV APOLOGIZES FOR LGBT TREATMENT
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Utah Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox apologized for his past comments and opinions regarding LGBT people in light of the Orlando terrorist attack at a gay nightclub which left 49 dead and 53 injured. "I grew up in a small town and went to a small rural high school. There were some kids in my class that were different," he said. "Sometimes I wasn't kind to them. I didn't know it at the time, but I know now that they were gay. I will forever regret not treating them with the kindness, dignity and respect—the love—that they deserved. For that, I sincerely and humbly apologize."Confirmed Media is Responsible For Donald Trump's Campaign
A new Harvard University study highlighted how the media’s excessively positive coverage of Donald Trump during the primaries gave the candidate the platform he needed to secure the Republican presidential nomination.
The study found that while media usually determined the highest polling candidate as the most newsworthy, this was not the case with Trump. He was neither leading in fundraising nor in the polls when his exaggerated coverage began. Additionally, the study found that though he eventually rose in the polls to warrant such coverage, “he was lifted to that height by an unprecedented amount of free media” (emphasis added):
So what explains the news media’s early fascination with Trump? The answer is that journalists were behaving in their normal way. Although journalists play a political brokering role in presidential primaries, their decisions are driven by news values rather than political values. Journalists are attracted to the new, the unusual, the sensational—the type of story material that will catch and hold an audience’s attention. Trump fit that need as no other candidate in recent memory. Trump is arguably the first bona fide media-created presidential nominee. Although he subsequently tapped a political nerve, journalists fueled his launch.Journalists seemed unmindful that they and not the electorate were Trump’s first audience. Trump exploited their lust for riveting stories. He didn’t have any other option. He had no constituency base and no claim to presidential credentials. If Trump had possessed them, his strategy could have been political suicide, which is what the press predicted as they showcased his tirades. Trump couldn’t compete with the likes of Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, or Jeb Bush on the basis of his political standing or following. The politics of outrage was his edge, and the press became his dependable if unwitting ally.
In 2015, after announcing his bid for president in June, the Trump campaign received an unprecedented amount of coverage from network nightly news broadcasts. According to television news analyst Andrew Tyndall, though Trump announced his candidacy in mid 2015, he was only surpassed by weather reports in total airtime. Fox News gave Trump almost $30 million in free airtime in 2015, resulting in nearly 24 hoursworth of exposure.
The Harvard study pointed out “Trump’s coverage was positive in tone,” with the press using statements and interviews with Trump supporters that legitimized his comments. . The media also lauded Trump as “presidential” after winning the New York primary despite his repeated racist and sexists statements.
After reading the Harvard University study, The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza acknowledged the media’s obsession with and overtly positive coverage of Trump contributed to his rise (emphasis added):
I think it's important to always take stock of how we are doing in terms of our coverage and what we did wrong and what we could do better. And I think that self-examination includes, when necessary, acknowledging when an argument you had made is no longer backed up by evidence. It's hard for me to look at the Shorenstein Center study and conclude anything other than that the media played a larger role in the rise of Trump than I previously believed.[...]Still. For those of you who screamed when I wrote that the media bore no culpability in Trump's rise, you had it right. I'll try to do better next time.
Source MediaMatters.org
Hillary Clinton Wins Washington, DC Primary
On Tuesday, Hillary Clinton won the Democratic primary in Washington, DC defeating rival Senator Bernie Sanders. With 46.9% of precincts reporting, Clinton currently leads Sanders 78.9% to 20.9%. Clinton secured enough delegates to grab the Democratic nomination following last week's primaries, and tonight's election in DC represents the last primary in the cycle. The next event for the Democratic Party will be the Democratic Convention July 25-29, 2016.
Tonight, Clinton and Sanders were expected to meet in Washington, DC to discuss the path forward and ensure that Republican Donald Trump is not elected president in November.
We just won Washington, D.C.! Grateful to everyone who voted.pic.twitter.com/ImPsK42yGd— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 15, 2016
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News Source: Politico
Wasserman Schultz, House Dems mulling more FDA funding to end ban on gay men blood donations
Top House Democrats are eyeing more funding for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to help speed up the agency’s effort to eliminate the decades-old policy preventing many gay men from donating blood.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, said she spoke by phone to the head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Sunday night, hours after more than 100 people were shot in a gay nightclub in her home state.
The tragedy in Orlando, which left 50 people dead, spurred an outpour of support from gay and bisexual men who wanted to donate blood, but were turned away because of the 1983 FDA policy. Under current rules, men cannot give blood if they have had sexual contact with other men within one year.
Wasserman Schultz said she asked the FDA commissioner, Robert Califf, if more funding would help – and he said yes.
“They are absolutely moving forward [with this change],” Wasserman Schultz said at a briefing Tuesday afternoon that also included Rep. Xavier Becerra, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus. “We need to expedite that process.”
Wasserman Schultz pointed out that she sits on the Appropriations Committee with Reps. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) and Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) – both of whom have been longtime leaders on the issue.
Rep. Sam Farr (D-Calif.), who also attended Tuesday’s press conference, highlighted his role as ranking member of the House Appropriations subcommittee that controls FDA funding.
Democrats also began circulating a letter on Tuesday that urges Califf and his staff to “move swiftly toward future changes” that judge an individual’s risk for diseases like HIV/AIDS based on their behaviors, rather than their sexual orientation.
The ban remains a divisive issue among government health officials, even as groups such as the American Medical Association and the American Red Cross call it “medically and scientifically unwarranted.”
“It is our view that this tragedy, more than any other, shines a light on the need for a permanent reversal of this policy,” the letter to Califf reads.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Tuesday that the administration did not have specific plans to change the blood donation policy.
“We’re going to rely on scientific advice,” Earnest told reporters on Tuesday. “It’s going to be rooted in the advice we’re getting from scientists at the FDA.”
Wasserman Schultz said Earnest’s remarks did not indicate that the White House was unwilling to review its policy – just that it is not yet doing so.
Opponents of the ban have seen some success in the past year: The FDA announced in December that it would partially roll back the lifetime ban on blood donations from gay men.
But the new policy only allows gay men to donate if they have refrained from having sex with another man for at least 12 months, which critics say remains a “de facto” ban for many gay men.
Donald Trump Ignores RNC Advice
| Donald J. Trump has repeatedly promised a “pivot” toward a softer, gentler, more refined version of his candidacy since he emerged as the presumptive Republican nominee. But on Monday, Mr. Trump’s television interviews and speeches made clear that such a pivot would never come. |
| In four morning interviews, Mr. Trump stood by his ban on Muslim immigrants and said that President Obama was incompetent or knew much more than he was letting on about the type of terrorist threat the country faces. That statement, which Mr. Trump declined to completely clarify in a statement to Bloomberg Politics late in the day, was taken by some as implying that Mr. Obama, whose critics have tried to smear him as a Muslim in disguise, was sympathetic to terrorists. |
| Later in the day, in a speech in New Hampshire, Mr. Trump expanded on his proposed immigration ban and also called for large-scale surveillance of activities of Muslims in the country. |
| The speech was a stark contrast to one delivered shortly before by Hillary Clinton, who made no direct mention of Mr. Trump and urged the type of conciliatory notes that the nation struck immediately after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. She made a muscular defense argument, similar to the one Mr. Trump struck, but she proposed a more globalist view of the world than he did. |
| Mr. Trump is making a bet that a nation terrified of another attack like the one at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., over the weekend will be open to proposals that are fundamentally different from anything any major-party nominee has recommended in modern history. That bet will not be clear until closer to Election Day. |
Hillary Clinton Addresses Terrorism in Cleveland
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at the Cleveland Industrial Innovation Center, Monday, June 13, 2016, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)
Following yesterday's terror inspired shooting at an Orlando, Florida night club, Hillary Clinton delivered a counter-terrorism speech today in Cleveland, Ohio. Clinton was previously scheduled to appear in Cleveland today, but she changed the subject of her speech following yesterday's devastating shooting. During her speech, Clinton called for a bipartisan response to not only fight ISIS, but to restore an assault rifle ban that was in effect during the 1990s. She said, "It’s essential that we stop terrorists from getting the tools they need to carry out the attacks, and that is especially true when it comes to assault weapons like those used in Orlando and San Bernardino."
Clinton reached out to the LGBT community saying, "I want to say this to all the LGBT people grieving today in Florida and across our country, you have millions of allies who will always have your back. I am one of them." She also reached out to the country's Muslim allies saying that blaming all of Islam is not the answer. While she did not say his name, she referred to Republican Donald Trump's proposal to ban all Muslims from entering the country. Clinton said, "Inflammatory, anti-Muslim rhetoric—and threatening to ban the families and friends of Muslim Americas as well as millions of Muslim business people and tourists from entering our country—hurts the vast majority of Muslims who love freedom and hate terror." A full video from Clinton's speech is below and a transcript can be read HERE.
Earlier in the day, Clinton called in to NBC's The Today Show and spoke with Savannah Guthrie. Clinton discussed the importance of not blaming Muslims for the shooting, but the person who carried it out and the system that enabled him to purchase an assault rifle. She also criticized Trump for his rhetoric and said that it is ignoring the key issue of going after ISIS and preventing them from using social media to recruit. Audio from Clinton's interview is below.
Meanwhile in New York City, a fundraiser was held in partnership with Hillary for America. The event featured a conversation with Cheif Finanical Officer Gary Gensler and was hosted by Mike Bodson, Donna Milrod, Larry Thompson, and Mark Wetjen. Clinton was scheduled to attend a fundraiser in Cincinnati, but the event was postponed.