The clash between Vice President Harris and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is heating up over education standards for teaching slavery, giving the vice president a hot-button topic to take on during the campaign and an enemy No. 1 in the GOP primary.
DeSantis earlier this week suggested the two debate the topic of teaching slavery, prompting the vice president to bash the idea and attack the education standards head-on during one of her recent trips to Florida on Tuesday.
While former President Trump, the GOP front-runner, is enemy No. 1 for President Biden, Harris is making a point to keep DeSantis and his policies in the spotlight as the governor fights to close the polling gap between him and Trump.
“Right here in Florida, they plan to teach students that enslaved people benefited from slavery,” Harris said Tuesday in Orlando.
“I’m here in Florida and I will tell you, there is no roundtable, no lecture, no invitation we will accept to debate an undeniable fact: There were no redeeming qualities of slavery,” she said.
That moment when Dorothy announced the Trump indictments: pic.twitter.com/7NUO5J7tJk
— Paul Rudnick (@PaulRudnickNY) August 1, 2023
Former President Donald Trump was indicted Tuesday on four felony charges stemming from his illegal and corrupt efforts to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election. Trump will be arraigned Thursday before Federal District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan.
The prosecution and imprisonment of Trump for his actions leading up to and during the fascistic insurrection of January 6, 2021 is entirely justified and necessary. The charges brought by a Washington D.C. grand jury convened by Special Counsel Jack Smith are presented in cautious and legalistic language, but the indictment is nonetheless damning.
However, it details only a fraction of Trump’s crimes and is silent on his greatest crime: the attempt to overthrow the government by force and maintain himself in the White House as president-dictator.
The four charges detailed in the indictment are: conspiracy to defraud the federal government (through filing false slates of electors in seven closely contested states won by Democrat Joe Biden); conspiracy to violate the rights of the American people (the right to vote and to have one’s vote counted); conspiracy to obstruct a federal proceeding, namely the certification of the Electoral College vote by Congress on January 6, 2021; and actual obstruction of the federal proceeding, since the mob which he summoned to Washington and then unleashed on the Capitol did actually delay the congressional certification by many hours.
Nearly all 123 paragraphs of the indictment are concerned with Trump’s efforts to substitute bogus Trump electors for the Biden electors chosen by the voters in seven states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. This involved various illegal backroom maneuvers devised by his lawyer co-conspirators, involving state legislators, the Department of Justice and Vice President Mike Pence.
These actions have become widely known over the past two years: setting up phony slates of Trump “electors,” who submitted false affidavits to Congress; seeking to induce state legislatures to claim the right to appoint electors to replace those elected in November; asking the Justice Department to send out letters to state legislatures saying that the DOJ was investigating credible claims of election fraud in their states; and finally, having Pence use his ceremonial position, presiding over the counting of the Electoral College votes on January 6, to block certification of Biden electors, either substituting Trump electors outright or sending the issue back to the states where Republican-controlled state legislatures would do the dirty job.
The indictment makes clear that Trump’s actions were an attack on democracy: “on the pretext of baseless fraud claims, the defendant pushed officials in certain states to ignore the popular vote; disenfranchise millions of voters; dismiss legitimate electors; and ultimately, cause the ascertainment of and voting by illegitimate electors in favor of the defendant…”
The indictment lists six unindicted co-conspirators only by number, although the description of their activities is so detailed that at least five have been identified, all lawyers: Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Sidney Powell, and Kenneth Chesebro, all working for Trump and his reelection campaign; and Jeffrey Clark, who was an assistant attorney general at the time.
The tide of freedom in America is receding. Reproductive rights, affirmative action, lgbtq+ rights and the accuracy and integrity of Black history have been crippled for the comfort and convenience of a radically conservative minority. A minority disproportionately represented in our highest court.
Since the abolition of slavery the fight for racial equality has moved at a glacial pace. Despite periods of stagnation, there has been relatively consistent forward motion.
Now, three rapid-fire reversals of Supreme Court precedents based on religious dogma and bigotry have set equality back decades for people of color, women and the lgbtq community. (Since its inception the court has reversed legal precedents in less than one half of one percent of its decisions) In its wake, the stench of newly created, whitewashed standards for teaching Black History have been passed by Florida’s Board of Education. Middle school students must now be taught the “benefits” of slavery such as, “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”
These new standards are not just ignorant, they open generational wounds and incite rage among people of conscience. Forcing a false narrative upon a new generation undermines 250 years of hard-fought progress.
In my fifty years of social justice advocacy, from an early 1970s internship at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, to serving as founding board president of Philadelphia’s 30 year old lgbtq youth center, The Attic, I’ve seen my share of social justice setbacks, but none so blatantly created by harnessing fear and hate. The atmosphere created by Ron DeSantis’ “war on wokeness” is rancid to the point of enabling the whitewashing of slavery. So let’s examine the source. Fear and hate. We know it’s learned. Can it be unlearned?
Rep. Paul Gosar yesterday used his House.gov newsletter to promote USSA News, a fringe site that has posted content calling the Holocaust “the Holohoax” and telling readers to “stand up for Hitler.” Gosar’s promotion of the antisemitic outlet comes just months after he sent followers to a different site that has also denied the Holocaust and praised Adolf Hitler.
Gosar has frequently promoted antisemitic media in recent years. He has met with Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes and repeatedly spoke at his conferences; and he’s promoted virulent antisemite Vincent James Foxx.
Gosar drew criticism in April after he used his newsletter to direct people to a story that praised him for attacking “Jewish warmongers” for their support of Ukraine. Gosar linked to Veterans Today, an antisemitic website that has called the Holocaust a “lie” and a “hoax” and praised Hitler as a “great man” and “a man of valor.” TPM reported in May that Gosar has employed an aide that's connected to Fuentes and the white nationalist movement.
In his July 23 newsletter, under the section “Gosar in the News and Other Must-Read Stories,” Gosar wrote: “USSA News: Biden White House Out To ‘Censor’ Press, ‘Silence’ Opponents, Lawmakers Charge” and sent readers to USSANews.com. Gosar was linking to the site even though the article is a repost of a piece from The Heritage Foundation publication The Daily Signal. (Elsewhere in the newsletter, Gosar writes that “there is zero room in our society for these vile, hateful and bigoted comments in the Halls of Congress” and “anti-Jewish and anti-Israel statements by members of Congress must be condemned.”) Gosar previously linked to USSA News on April 2 and August 7, 2022.
The group, American Values 2024, reported receiving $5m from Timothy Mellon, a wealthy businessman from Wyoming, according to NBC News and Politico. It registered with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) in April, days before Kennedy officially launched his campaign, according to FEC records.
The Super Pac, which described federal policies aimed at containing Covid-19 as “draconian”, received nearly all of the rest of its funding from another billionaire donor, Gavin de Becker, an author and security specialist associated with Jeff Bezos. De Becker has given to both Republican and Democratic candidates, according to FEC records, more recently including Ron Johnson, a Republican senator of Wisconsin, and businessman and the failed 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang.
Together, Mellon and De Becker account for about 97% of total donations to the Super Pac.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) suggested congressional leaders conspire to "trigger" her in hearings.
During an interview on Real America's Voice, Greene attacked Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) after he pointed out that Devon Archer, a business associate of Joe Biden's son, could not connect the president to any wrongdoing.
Although Goldman has held a job as a prosecutor, she claimed he "never worked a day in his life."
"And he uses his job every single day to continue to prosecute President Trump in our committee hearings, no matter the issue, no matter the topic," she complained. "He finds any way possible to attack President Trump in the five minutes that he's given on our very important committee hearings. Not only does he attack President Trump, he attacks me much of the time."
ICYMI: Murray Leads Senate Democrats in Pushing Commonsense Bills to Protect Women’s Fundamental Freedoms; Speaks on Senate Floor About Dobbs Fallout – MORE HERE
Pullman Planned Parenthood clinic has seen a 47 percent jump in patients since the Dobbs decision; Planned Parenthood Greater Washington and Northern Idaho has seen a 20 percent increase in patients overall
Senator Murray: “As long as I’m in DC, I’m going to keep fighting as hard as I can and at every single opportunity to protect abortion access from Republicans’ continued attacks, introduce new legislation that will help women and providers, and get the votes to reinstate Roe so we can guarantee that every woman in every state has the right to make her own health care decisions.”
***PHOTOS AND B-ROLL OF THE EVENT HERE***
Pullman, WA – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a senior member and former chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), hosted a roundtable on women’s reproductive health and the challenges facing providers in East Washington in the post-Dobbs landscape. Senator Murray met with providers and staff from Planned Parenthood Greater Washington and Northern Idaho, as well as staff from WSU’s Women’s Center and a student from the University of Idaho. In the year since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, clinics in Eastern Washington have seen a more than 20 percent jump in patients, many of them from neighboring Idaho, which now has one of the strictest abortion bans in the nation. The Planned Parenthood clinic in Pullman alone has seen a 47 percent increase in patients over the last year.
At the roundtable, Murray heard from providers about the challenges
they are facing and the federal support that would help, and spoke about
her continued fight to reinstate Roe and protect women’s
reproductive health care at every possible opportunity from Republican
attacks—including as she works to write and pass the nation’s government
funding bills.
“Since the Dobbs decision, 14
states, including Idaho, have passed total bans on abortions, and more
than a dozen other states have severely limited abortion access or had
their abortion bans blocked in court. This is not just harming people in
other states—women and providers in Washington state are also really
suffering the consequences,” said Senator Murray. “That’s
why I’m here: to get a better sense of what you’re seeing and hearing
on the ground, so I can take that back with me as I keep up the fight
for women’s health care freedom in the other Washington. As long as I’m
in DC, I’m going to keep fighting as hard as I can and at every single
opportunity to protect abortion access from Republicans’ continued
attacks, introduce new legislation that will help women and providers,
and get the votes to reinstate Roe so we can guarantee that every woman in every state has the right to make her own health care decisions.”
“We want to thank Senator Patty Murray for meeting us here at the Washington-Idaho border at our Pullman health center where some of the greatest disparities in abortion access currently exist,” said Lindsay Johnson, Chief External Affairs Officer at Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington and North Idaho. “Our health center staff are delivering care to people every day who are experiencing the fear, chaos and confusion caused by the ban on abortion in Idaho. It is more important than ever that we continue being there for local patients and those forced to travel outside of their communities for the care they need and deserve. We are grateful to Senator Murray for being a champion for reproductive health and rights in Washington and nationwide.”
Senator Murray is a longtime leader in the fight to protect and
expand access to reproductive health care and abortion rights, and since
the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year, she has led Congressional efforts to fight back. Murray led her colleagues
at the very outset of this Congress to make crystal clear that Senate
Democrats are continuing to fight to protect every American’s
reproductive rights and will be a firewall against Republicans’
continued attacks on women’s rights—and that’s exactly what she’s doing
now. Murray has introduced more than a dozen pieces of legislation to
protect reproductive rights from further attacks, protect providers, and help ensure women get the care they need; she also co-led introduction of the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would restore the right to abortion nationwide.
Ahead of the one year anniversary of the Dobbs decision, Senator Murray led
Senate Democrats in seeking unanimous consent on the Senate floor for
four common-sense bills to protect women’s fundamental freedoms. After
Senate Republicans blocked every single bill, Senator Murray spoke
on the Senate floor about the health care crisis Republicans have
created, and how Senate Democrats are standing with Americans across the
country to fight back.
###
DeSantis’s claim that he has not demeaned anyone since his time in office is a direct contrast to the video’s message, which brags about the barrage of legislation he has signed decimating LGBTQ+ rights.
The ad opens with several clips of Trump expressing support for LGBTQ+ people, framing these comments as damning. After the clips of Trump – most of which came from before he was elected president in 2016 – the video abruptly shifts to intense music and a photo of DeSantis shooting lasers out of his eyes, followed by snapshots of headlines about the anti-LGBTQ+ laws DeSantis has passed.
The video proudly shares that DeSantis has been called “evil,” “dangerous,” “draconian,” and “public enemy no. 1” and even includes a clip accusing DeSantis of passing legislation “that literally threatens trans existence.” It also contains images of shirtless buff muscle men inter-spliced with these statements about how DeSantis is hurting LGBTQ+ people in his state.
DeSantis was universally mocked for the ad, but initially defended himself by saying, “Identifying Donald Trump as really being a pioneer in injecting gender ideology into the mainstream, where he was having men compete against women in his beauty pageants — I think that’s totally fair game. Because he’s now campaigning saying the opposite.”
While the video appeared to come from a supporter outside the campaign, it has since been revealed that staffers were involved in its creation and dissemination.
Despite it being “the weirdest ad in American political history,” as The New Republic called it, the video is nonetheless an accurate portrayal of DeSantis’s time in office – which he has devoted to attacking – or perhaps one could describe it as demeaning – LGBTQ+ equality, as well as the rights of people of color.
DeSantis has gone to war with Disney over its opposition to the Don’t Say Gay law, has launched numerous blindsides attacking “woke indoctrination” in schools, and has taken control of the state’s education system with handpicked administrators and the power of the bully pulpit. His staff has regularly smeared LGBTQ+ people and allies on social media with vile slurs and insinuations of sexual abuse.
The Don’t Say Gay law – which has been expanded to all grades – has led to the banning of LGBTQ+ books in schools and the forced outing of students to their parents by school administrators.
In 2021, DeSantis signed a bill banning trans students from participating in school sports.
DeSantis has ranted against “woke gender ideology” and once claimed, “In the state of Florida, we are not going to allow them to inject transgenderism into kindergarten.”
LGBTQ+ students in Florida have been so scared of repercussions that many have refused to speak with LGBTQ Nation about their experiences. Earlier this year, a non-LGBTQ+ student told us that terrified queer students are learning to “shut up and keep their head low.”
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