In The News
Ocasio-Cortez Mistakes Fellow Dem for Republican
A Twitter attack on older white male Republicans has backfired on Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
“GOP: Let’s pose our older male members next to cardboard cutouts of young female legislators,” she wrote in a now-deleted tweet, referring to a photo of a politician standing next to a cardboard cutout of her. However, the politician pictured was fellow Democrat Rep. John Yarmuth.
“In this tweet, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez shows she has no idea who John Yarmuth even is,” one Twitter critic responded. “He’s a Kentucky Democrat who just happens to be the Chair of the House Budget Committee. Major yikes.”
Perez: We’re in a Cyber War and Trump is ‘Compromised’
Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez on Thursday said the U.S. is engaged in a cyber war and the President is “compromised.”
“We are at war right now. It is a cyber war. Unfortunately, because our commander-in-chief is compromised, the federal government is asleep at the switch,” Perez stated. “And that is why the DNC and others in the Democratic Party eco-system are working tirelessly to make sure that we are protecting our data. We’re working with every campaign to provide cybersecurity training. We can’t expect help from the administration.”
Perez added that “we need to restore the basic institutions of our democracy.”
O’Rourke Criticizes Previous Admins for Immigrant Policies
Democrat presidential hopeful Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke criticized both the Obama and Trump administrations for their immigration practices Wednesday at the “She The People Forum” at Texas Southern University in Houston.
Asked if the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency should be disbanded, O’Rourke responded, “I hear you on this. The practices under this president, the practices under the last president where families were broken up. Where you had internal enforcement, I think in one year alone in the previous administration 400,000 deportations from inside the United States.”
“[W]e don’t need those internal roundups and deportations and enforcement. We do need to make sure that whoever threatens the lives of our fellow Americans or has used violence that there is accountability,” he added.
Biden Launches Campaign With Debunked Charlottesville Claim
Announcing his third presidential campaign on Thursday, former Vice President Joe Biden cited, as his primary motivation for running, the debunked claim that President Trump had referred to neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, Virginia, as “very fine people.”
“Charlottesville is also home to a defining moment for this nation in the last few years,” Biden said in a 3.5-minute YouTube video, referring to the 2017 riots against Trump, followed by footage of neo-Nazis marching.
“And that’s when we heard the words of the President of the United States that stunned the world and shocked the conscience of this nation. He said there were, quote, some ‘very fine people on both sides.’ Very fine people on both sides? With those words, the president of the United States assigned a moral equivalence between those spreading hate, and those with the courage to stand against it.”
Booker: Omar Critics ‘Trafficking in Islamophobia’
Wednesday at the “She the People” presidential forum in Houston, Sen. Cory Booker defended Rep. Ilhan Omar’s anti-Semitic comments about AIPAC.
The moderator noted that Omar has been on the receiving end of condemnation from the President and members of her own party, as well as death threats. “What will you do as president to protect the right of courageous women of color to criticize U.S. policy even when directed at allies?”
“The criticisms of Congresswoman Omar, what Donald Trump has been saying about her is reprehensible, it is trafficking in Islamophobia, and it should be condemned by everyone,” Booker answered. “This kind of selective condemnation should be a chorus of people condemning it.”
Harris: Blacks Jailed For Pot ‘Were Ahead of the Curve’
Discussing marijuana policy Wednesday at the “She the People” presidential forum in Houston, candidate Sen. Kamala Harris said young black men who were arrested for selling pot should be first in line for legal pot jobs.
“[T]his is one of the fastest growing money-making industries in our country and the very young men who were trying to make money doing the same thing, but got criminalized and have now been branded felons for life are excluded from the economic opportunities that are now available because of this new industry.
“There have to be policies in place and look at the background and actually do the work of saying some of those young men should be first in line to get the jobs that are available,” Harris continued. “They were ahead of the curve.”