saywhat-politics - Tumblr blog

[saywhat-politics]

Woman in Trump jury pool breaks down in tears

Another prospective alternate juror in former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial is excused after saying she couldn't serve and starting to cry. CNN’s Kristen Holmes reports.

[saywhat-politics]

The House voted Friday in a bipartisan manner to advance a key foreign aid package, a significant step in sending aid to Ukraine and Israel and setting up a final vote as soon as Saturday.

In an extraordinary move, more Democrats (165) supported the measure than Republicans (151). The Democratic votes were necessary to overcome opposition from Speaker Mike Johnson’s right flank, who will likely only increase their calls to oust him.

The fight over the bills – and the potential for right-wing members of the GOP to attempt to oust Johnson over it – adds up to the most intense pressure that the speaker has faced over his future in his short time in the role. Rep. Thomas Massie on Tuesday said he would co-sponsor Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s motion to vacate, which would boot Johnson from the speakership if it passed, leading the speaker to defiantly tell reporters that he would not be resigning.

Greene left the US Capitol on Friday following the vote without moving to oust Johnson.

The GOP-led House Rules Committee late Thursday night also used Democratic support to advance the bills.

The move is likely to further inflame conservatives who are against additional aid to Ukraine and have threatened Johnson’s job over the issue.

The committee activity capped off another contentious day on Capitol Hill as the renewed push to send foreign aid to Ukraine has divided House Republicans. The right wing of the GOP conference has come out against the plan and vented their anger over a separate effort to change House rules regarding the process for removing the speaker – a rule change Johnson said Thursday he would not make.

[saywhat-politics]

Emergency crews rushed away a person on a stretcher after a fire was extinguished outside the courthouse where jury selection for former President Donald Trump's trial is taking place. Witnesses say they saw a man pour liquid over his head and set himself on fire.

Multiple people witnessed the incident, including a guest being interviewed by CNN.

[saywhat-politics]

[saywhat-politics]

Lawrence: Gagged Trump's jury pool attacks are a big problem for his lawyers

MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell explains how Donald Trump’s lies on social media and in public statements will make it difficult for his lawyers to argue against a gag order.

[saywhat-politics]

Kirk: “I think he should just defy the order and go to Barron's graduation. Get arrested. It's just more indictments, not as if you're already not facing 700 years in federal prison.”

As FactCheck.org and others have noted, Judge Juan Merchan has not yet ruled on Donald Trump's request to skip his criminal trial for his son's graduation.

[saywhat-politics]

The program underscores Trump’s fixation with election security, which he deployed in an effort to undermine results of the 2020 election.

Former President Donald Trump’s political operation said Thursday that it plans to deploy more than 100,000 attorneys and volunteers across battleground states to monitor — and potentially challenge — vote counting in November.

The initiative — which the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee described as “the most extensive and monumental election integrity program in the nation’s history” — will include training poll watchers and workers as well as lawyers.

[saywhat-politics]

The so-called “Kraken” of the legal system has won a personal and professional victory in the Lone Star State.

On Thursday, a Dallas-based court of appeals upheld a trial court decision that decided against any form of discipline for attorney Sidney Powell over her November 2020 lawsuits that sought “to prevent the certification of election results in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin.”

In early 2023, the case was tossed on a defense motion to dismiss because of mislabeled evidence and several other deficiencies.

A three-judge panel of Democratic Party judges said the problems with the case against Powell were even worse than that.

[saywhat-politics]

This blog is now back online

I have no idea what happened but this blog, and one other that I run, were both mysteriously deleted by Tumblr in the past week.

They did not say why it happened, but I assume they thought the blogs were run by bots due to the nature of how I run these blogs (queuing linked posts).

Hopefully this won't happen again.

[saywhat-politics]

[saywhat-politics]

Already we’re seeing fallout from the Arizona Republican Party’s disastrous embrace of that 1864 law that criminalizes abortion.

On Wednesday, Sabato’s Crystal Ball pronounced Democrat Ruben Gallego as the narrow favorite to win Arizona’s open Senate seat.

The race previously had been designated a “toss-up” by Sabato, who directs the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics and is considered one of the nation’s most accurate forecasters of federal races.

It’s bad news for Republican Rep. Juan Ciscomani as well. Sabato moved his rematch against Democrat Kirsten Engel from “leans Republican” to toss-up.

[saywhat-politics]

Activist and author DeRay McKesson joins Chris Hayes to discuss the latest ruling in the ongoing lawsuit against him. “It seems to me you've got a real rogue 5th circuit here that is opening a very dangerous door for peaceful protest,” says Hayes.

April 17, 2024

[saywhat-politics]

If Mike Johnson’s plan for Ukraine aid fails in the House, he might have Sen. J.D. Vance partially to blame.

Last week, the Ohio Republican authored a New York Times op-ed headlined “The Math on Ukraine Doesn’t Add Up,” and he’s followed that up by meeting with the House’s Republican Study Committee on Wednesday to whip against Johnson’s Ukraine bill.

[saywhat-politics]

WASHINGTON (AP) — One woman miscarried in the restroom lobby of a Texas emergency room as front desk staff refused to admit her. Another woman learned that her fetus had no heartbeat at a Florida hospital, the day after a security guard turned her away from the facility. And in North Carolina, a woman gave birth in a car after an emergency room couldn’t offer an ultrasound. The baby later died.

Complaints that pregnant women were turned away from U.S. emergency rooms spiked in 2022 after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, federal documents obtained by The Associated Press reveal.

The cases raise alarms about the state of emergency pregnancy care in the U.S., especially in states that enacted strict abortion laws and sparked confusion around the treatment doctors can provide.

“It is shocking, it’s absolutely shocking,” said Amelia Huntsberger, an OB/GYN in Oregon. “It is appalling that someone would show up to an emergency room and not receive care -- this is inconceivable.”

[saywhat-politics]

A new abortion rights advocacy organization, Montanans Securing Reproductive Rights, officially launched its ballot initiative, which aims to enshrine abortion rights in Montana’s state constitution. If the petition drive succeeds, it will make abortion central to the 2024 campaign and likely give vulnerable Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, a staunch abortion rights supporter, a boost.

“Abortion is a topic that’s become politicized and stigmatized, but in reality, we all love someone or are someone who’s had an abortion,” Martha Fuller, CEO and president of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Montana, said during the official launch event. “We can no longer let politicians threaten access to the lifesaving, essential care that thousands of Montanans need and deserve. Montanans must act now to proactively secure our right to abortion.”

[saywhat-politics]

Donald Trump was cold on Thursday.

The former president complained that temperatures were too low in the courtroom where he is on trial in the Stormy Daniels hush money case.

“I’m sitting here for days now, from morning til night, in that freezing room, freezing, everybody was freezing in there,” Trump griped after day three of his trial.

[saywhat-politics]

New report shows role of Republican useful idiots in weakening U.S., advancing Putin’s goals

New reporting in the Washington Post describes a Russian foreign policy document laying out a strategy of undermining Western support for Ukraine by weakening countries Russia sees as adversaries, including the United States, with tactics that include spreading some of the same propaganda that some Republican lawmakers have been reciting. Senator Chris Murphy joins to discuss with Alex Wagner.