Quick programming note: if you're a Democratic member of the House and went to the DCCC tonight to see their secret autopsy report, let me know what was in it.
Republicans, with the clock ticking toward a shutdown, continue to spend their time pretending they have the votes for a new health care bill. As Matt Fuller reports tonight, they don't. That doesn't mean they can't get there, but as of now they're bluffing.
Okay: So Donald Trump's FCC chair announced his plans yesterday to try to end net neutrality rules. There is, of course, the hypocrisy here, that Trump ran as a populist who'll help everyday people and instead is trying to hand power over the internet to giant cable companies. But this will not be as easy as Trump thinks, and his FCC chairman seems to know it. He was a complete and total nervous wreck while giving his speech, which suggests he knows just how difficult this will be. Resistance to this move is going to be fierce (and is already starting; the group that beat back the effort two years ago started raising $100k today to fight).
Here's Dana Liebelson's story on the launch of this new battle to decide whether the internet is controlled by a handful of monopolies or by the people. (HuffPost, in case people aren't aware, is actually owned Verizon, but to their credit they have never tried to influence our coverage of net neutrality. They'd be a primary beneficiary if Trump succeeds in this move.)
Today was take-your-daughter-to-work day and I brought Iris, Sidney and Virginia with me, so they joined me for a live TYT segment about Trump's tax plan. I don't wanna spoil the ending, but it involves a potty emergency. Once we got that solved, I came back about an hour later and this time interviewed two women, a mom and a daughter, visiting DC from North Dakota, both Native American Trump supporters who think he's doing a terrible job but still, mostly, support him -- the mom more than the daughter. Of the two, both were fans of Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, the Democrat up for reelection there in 2018, and at least one plans to vote for her, even though she backed Trump.
I interviewed Elizabeth Warren earlier this week and one thing I asked her about was the debate over abortion rights that blew up after the Sanders-Perez trip through Omaha.
Elizabeth Warren Wades Into Democratic Party's Debate On Candidates' Abortion Views
DNC Chairman Tom Perez announced last week that no Democrat who broke with the party on abortion rights would get any support from the national party, reversing his previous decision on the matter.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who caucuses with Democrats, have argued instead that there should be no litmus test and that the party should be open to supporting some Democratswho break with the party platform on the issue.
Warren, in an interview with HuffPost as part of her book tour, began by re-affirming her own strong support for reproductive freedom. "Let me start with this part, because these are deep-down issues. I am strongly pro-choice. I am strongly pro-choice, and I will fight," she said.
But that's not how everyone in the party feels, she said, and she respects that. "I recognize that not all of my colleagues agree with me. I'll do everything I can to persuade them, but they are my colleagues, and that's just how it is with the Democrats," she said. "But I got to say, it does not dampen my energy in this fight."
The debate was not one that Democrats were necessarily looking to have, but it jumped out of Omaha, Nebraska, as the DNC and Sanders were headed to town to campaign on behalf of a Democratic candidate for mayor, Heath Mello, who was running against a rock-ribbed anti-abortion politician, the incumbent mayor.
FULL STORY
You're getting this email because you either signed up for it or you took a survey and opted in to this newsletter -- or, probably, you declined to opt out. Either way, I hope you're enjoying it. I'm a political reporter and editor with The Huffington Post and I send this several times a week. If you see an ad here, it's there because sending mass emails turns out to be really expensive. I'm not making any money off of it; it goes to the email service provider and just defrays the cost a bit. If you want to contribute directly to help keep the thing running, you can do so here, though be warned a donation comes with no tote bags or extra premium content or anything. If somebody forwarded you this note, you can sign up to start getting your own copy here.
No comments:
Post a Comment