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A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

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Deploy the moving finger of emphasisity!

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No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

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You are here: Home / Archives for Past Elections / Election 2016 / I'm With Her

I'm With Her

Monday Morning Open Thread: Back to the Daily Leap of Faith

by Anne Laurie|  December 2, 20194:56 am| 113 Comments

This post is in: 2020 Elections, Dog Blogging, I'm With Her, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Warren for President 2020, Daydream Believers

This is Toffi. She tried her best and that’s all we can ask for. 12/10 and the couch is cancelled pic.twitter.com/dRfHhclbZL

— WeRateDogs® (@dog_rates) November 27, 2019

And a little start-the-week-well self-indulgence, because she’s not just my favorite candidate…

Seems the ?@ewarren? campaign scheduled this Chicago town hall perfectly to ward off the impending narrative about dwindling enthusiasm pic.twitter.com/4bkKuhnQ6j

— Zak Hudak (@cbszak) December 1, 2019


Later, in Iowa:

Asked by an audience member about healing divides in the Democratic Party, Warren says the debates make it seem like Democrats are more divided than they really are: pic.twitter.com/yB6JKPEx05

— Iowa Starting Line (@IAStartingLine) December 2, 2019

I was waiting to see if/how Warren would shake things up; this event definitely has. Long, game answer on Medicare-for-all (walking through each step), some goofball crowd work.

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) December 2, 2019

One woman asks Elizabeth Warren about a Senate impeachment trial, says she’s worried it’ll mess up her campaign by keeping her in DC

“Some things are bigger than politics, and one of them is the Constitution of the United States of America,” Warren responds pic.twitter.com/w2nnmlW7RU

— Iowa Starting Line (@IAStartingLine) December 2, 2019

Another not-so-typical Q from the town hall in Marion tonight. A lawyer asked Warren if McConnell should be disqualified from voting on impeachment

"On this one, you gotta let all of the folks who took the oath of office in the House in the Senate, come in and live that oath…" pic.twitter.com/h8fdotLE6K

— Deepa Shivaram (@deepa_shivaram) December 2, 2019

Ahead of the next phase of the impeachment inquiry, @ewarren tells #FoxNews she’s caught up on previous testimony, saying she’s also “done a lot of reading around it as well.” Says Trump used “American taxpayer dollars as bait & [used] a trip to the White House as a sweetener.” pic.twitter.com/ccMJTQ9YZ7

— Tara Prindiville (@taraprindiville) December 1, 2019

Monday Morning Open Thread: Back to the Daily Leap of FaithPost + Comments (113)

Election Open Thread: The 2020 Campaign Seems to Have Kicked Up A Notch…

by Anne Laurie|  November 22, 20194:11 am| 64 Comments

This post is in: 2020 Elections, I'm With Her, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Warren for President 2020

On Thursday, two of the Democratic frontrunners went to South Carolina — not ‘First in the Nation’, but the first primary state where voters aren’t disproportionatly white. The NYTimes chose to highlight the Dems in disarray!!! angle, and to focus on Joe Biden. But IMO what’s important about the separate incidents is how the candidates handled them.

Elizabeth Warren’s event:

Pressley: “When you are born into an inequitable world, you are born immediately into struggle.”
She and Warren campaigned together here for Stacey Abrams last year. pic.twitter.com/XU6Br3KJ2d

— Greg Krieg (@GregJKrieg) November 21, 2019

… Ms. Warren was in the opening minutes of her speech, a major address on racial inequities, when she was disrupted. In an interview, an organizer of the protest, Dianechia Fields, 40, who is from Memphis, criticized Ms. Warren for pledging to cut funding for charter schools. Ms. Warren’s education plan calls for ending federal funding for opening new charter schools and banning for-profit charters.

Ms. Warren eventually received some assistance from Representative Ayanna S. Pressley of Massachusetts, who had introduced her at the event. Ms. Pressley came back onstage and urged the protesters to let Ms. Warren proceed with her speech, which highlighted the story of black washerwomen who went on strike in Atlanta in 1881.

“We are grateful for your activism and your voice and you are welcome here, and we would love to convene after this about the issue that you are here to stoke our consciousness about,” Ms. Pressley said. “But when these women have been ignored this long, this is their moment, and we are going to hear the story.”…

A group funded by some of the richest people in the world, the Waltons, just disrupted an @ewarren speech on the 1881 Atlanta washerwomen strike. Can’t make this stuff up. https://t.co/1x6brZv9tt

— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) November 22, 2019

The organization is 100% funded by the Walton Foundation. Carpenter had claimed to reporters the group started organically a few weeks ago in response to Warren’s charter plan. pic.twitter.com/9jEswc43mj

— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) November 22, 2019

Meanwhile, Warren’s speech synthesizes a lot of the issues she’s discussed with black audiences: "Repeal the 1994 Crime Bill. Legalize marijuana. Undo the legacy of the War on Drugs. End cash bail and every law that criminalizes poverty."

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) November 22, 2019

"The rich and powerful want us to be afraid of each other. Why? Because they’re afraid of us. Afraid of our numbers. Afraid of seeing us stand together. Afraid that we will take up each other’s fights as our own. Afraid that they will lose their power." (3/3)

— Steadman™ (@AsteadWesley) November 22, 2019

Warren’s speech is so good that even the former protestors are clapping. That’s important. #AtlantaWithWarren

— blackness everdeen ?? (@traceyecorder) November 22, 2019

show full post on front page

That’s what I wanna see out of a candidate. At her @ClarkUniversity speech @ewarren got protested by a group of black charter school supporters who shouted her down. How did she react – she waited, listened, respected their protest & didn’t have anybody thrown out or arrested. pic.twitter.com/iytvyNn4pI

— Rep. Renitta Shannon (@RenittaShannon) November 22, 2019

Warren tells me she met with them after the rally and had a nice conversation

— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) November 22, 2019

I’m here to make a commitment: When I am president of the United States, the lessons of Black history will not be lost. Those lessons, they will live in every part of my presidency—and I will ask you to hold me accountable for that promise every single day. pic.twitter.com/kIhG74rLCU

— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) November 21, 2019

Same state, different world:

A big welcome for @JoeBiden, who greets this Greenwood crowd wearing a @follow_lander ball cap. pic.twitter.com/8Jsxb2qUv1

— Meg Kinnard (@MegKinnardAP) November 22, 2019

Joe Biden was just asked in Greenwood, S.C., about his immigration plan. He said Dreamers are “American more than most Americans are.” Other undocumented immigrants should have a path to citizenship, he said, if they “learn the language, etc., you go through the same process.” pic.twitter.com/SvPZsbqttN

— Eric Bradner (@ericbradner) November 22, 2019

“You should vote for Trump,” Joe Biden tells @CosechaMovement protester Carlos Rojas at tonight’s town hall in Greenwood, S.C.

Rojas and other protesters from the group were criticizing Obama-era deportations and asked Biden to say he’d end all deportations — which he rejected. pic.twitter.com/od188WIlrQ

— Eric Bradner (@ericbradner) November 22, 2019

… For more than six minutes in a palpably tense gym here during a town hall-style event at Lander University, Mr. Biden sparred with the activist, Carlos Rojas, an organizer with the immigrants’ rights group Movimiento Cosecha. The organization is urging presidential candidates to back a moratorium on deportations on their first day in office and has protested Mr. Biden before.

“You should vote for Trump,” Mr. Biden admonished Mr. Rojas during one of the most heated moments, after Mr. Rojas rattled off deportation figures under the Obama administration amid scattered cries of “give him the mic!”…

“If you were to be president, will you stop deportations on Day 1 through executive action?” Mr. Rojas asked.

“No,” Mr. Biden responded. “I will not stop all deportations. I will prioritize deportations only of people who have committed a felony or a serious crime, number one.”

He walked over to stand near Mr. Rojas and Silvia.

“Number two,” he continued, “to compare President Obama to this guy is outrageous.”

Mr. Biden went on to defend the Obama administration’s record on immigration, and said he would not discuss any areas of internal disagreement with Mr. Obama. And he repeatedly said he would not back a total moratorium on deportations, even as his remarks were punctuated several times by protesters who shouted, “Not one more deportation.” After Mr. Biden promised that there would not be family separations under his administration, someone shouted, “That’s a lie!”

“No matter what happens, someone commits murder, they shouldn’t be deported,” Mr. Biden said, characterizing the protesters’ position with an edge in his voice. By then, Mr. Rojas had left his seat and was standing next to Mr. Biden in the center of the room. “No, I’m asking you a question,” Mr. Biden added.

The exchange finally ended as the protesters left the room and the rest of the audience applauded Mr. Biden…

The clashes upended what had been an otherwise friendly town hall — but some voters afterward commended Mr. Biden’s stewardship of the incident.

Dan Healy, 70, said that he liked that Mr. Biden “said he wouldn’t stop deportations for criminals.”

“Yeah, he didn’t back down,” Mr. Healy’s wife, Lora Healy, 72, said…

A pretty intense moment as the protestor approached the former vice president. Biden discouraged aides from removing him, and attempted to engage him, but to no avail. Unsatisfied with Biden's response, the chants began again, and he walked away. pic.twitter.com/z6pzGdCxp7

— Meg Kinnard (@MegKinnardAP) November 22, 2019

Difficult night for Biden. After climate protesters were escorted out, a woman asked him to “please don’t take money from corporations.” His response: “You listen to Bernie too much.”

— Cleve R. Wootson Jr. (@CleveWootson) November 22, 2019

Here’s the second outburst, where several people shouted out that @JoeBiden accepts donations from corporations. He said he doesn’t. pic.twitter.com/cPfxSeej5s

— Meg Kinnard (@MegKinnardAP) November 22, 2019

The rules are changing. One of the things that impressed me about candidate Barack Obama, back in 2008, is that he’d learned valuable lessons from his time as a professional community organizer. It’s a much harder job than the scornful pundits’ conventional wisdom would have you believe, and part of the difficulty is that you can’t succeed unless / until you get ‘buy in’, however grudging, from a working majority of your coalition. Which means spending a lot of time dealing with tiresome cranks, one-issue fanatics, dedicated opponents determined to shout you down, and confused individuals who just wanna get the potholes on their particular street repaired. Mostly it’s enduring hours of boredom, but the kind of boredom where you can’t afford to lose focus, because while everybody must have their say, you can’t let the shouters intimidate the meek, or the ‘unwinnable’ derail the conversation.

Biden came up in Old School Original Gangster politics, where a guy made his bones by shouting down hecklers or encouraging his fans to do it for him. Every now and then, the OG would climb down into the pit to perform a primate dominance ritual, massaging a protestor into silence if they couldn’t be persuaded by a firm grip and a show of white teeth. This method… doesn’t work as well, a least for Democrats, in 2019.

Warren — and Pressley — only got into politics as the rules were changing. (And that’s been an advantage for them, because primate dominance never worked well for women.) They know they need to persuade the hecklers that their concerns are being taken seriously… while not letting any individual or subgroup derail the event, and without discouraging or frightening the rest of the audience.

The NYTimes, and the rest of the Media Village Idiots, still prefer the Stand-Up Performance they’ve gotten so expert at reporting, but this is just one more indication that the future is passing the NYTimes by. Big Swinging Dick arena performances still (seem to) work for Trump, and the (shrinking) Republican voter pool, but the Democratic candidates drawing enthusiastic attention right now seem to be those who hustle to ‘make connections’ with potential voters on a much more intimate scale. It’s not manly, it doesn’t make for a good ‘horse race’ lede, but I think our politics will be better for the evolution.

Election Open Thread: The 2020 Campaign Seems to Have Kicked Up A Notch…Post + Comments (64)

Pre-Debate Open Thread: Not Yet Endorsing, But You Know I Have A Favorite

by Anne Laurie|  November 20, 20194:54 pm| 34 Comments

This post is in: 2020 Elections, I'm With Her, Open Threads, Warren for President 2020

.@ewarren’s campaign is handing out cacti in Las Vegas tonight – “Warren has a plant for that” pic.twitter.com/H04HK1kxKX

— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) November 18, 2019

Warren now has a health care plan, a backup health care plan, and a backup backup health care plan. https://t.co/ETcvwXuPwj

— Margot Sanger-Katz (@sangerkatz) November 18, 2019

Two years ago, Elizabeth Warren invited a well-known single-payer advocate to a meeting at her home.

Over tea, the senator peppered her guest with questions about universal coverage.

Days later, she called for Medicare for all for the first time.https://t.co/cmpz5wVyqs

— Sarah Kliff (@sarahkliff) November 18, 2019

'She would also seek to add a dental benefit to the Medicare program, by reinterpreting language in the statute that says dental care can be covered only if it is “medically necessary.”'

This is the most significant bit. Can you create a $20-30bn entitlement by executive order? https://t.co/7Ilh5GjSS8

— Chris Pope (@CPopeHC) November 18, 2019

This is one of the oldest Warren plans, pre-dating not just the 2016 Bernie campaign but the 2014 effort to draft her into the race. https://t.co/hjAGIWyP75 https://t.co/vdR7Fw1C7S

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) November 19, 2019

The morning after the Nevada Dems dinner, Warren is speaking at the Nevada Partners "Westside Pride" Black Community Summit. She’s starting with a focus on housing: “Safe, decent, affordable housing is a basic human right.” pic.twitter.com/jvKgplgrNt

— MJ Lee (@mj_lee) November 18, 2019

Democrat Warren vows to use 'every tool' to combat white nationalist violence https://t.co/RV5EJv61SI

— Amanda Becker (@AmandaBecker) November 19, 2019

Too many @ewarren plans for one wall so we had to start another one… https://t.co/h0znhOvxgn

— Janice Rottenberg (@janicero) November 20, 2019

Pre-Debate Open Thread: Not Yet Endorsing, But You Know I Have A FavoritePost + Comments (34)

Monday Morning Open Thread: Gonna Be Another Busy Week…

by Anne Laurie|  November 18, 20194:34 am| 155 Comments

This post is in: 2020 Elections, I'm With Her, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat

Awwww…

“I never really seriously considered it”- @HillaryClinton this morning on @SkyNews makes clear she had no intention of running for President again: pic.twitter.com/O7mgKcLE4o

— daphna (@daphna27) November 16, 2019

citing Trump's rallies in KY and LA and losses there:
"You know what I want to know–where is the president going to go next?" @amyklobuchar says, arguing the elections were about the economy and healthcare but "it was also a values check. It was a patriotism check."

— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) November 18, 2019

Speaking of which…

"If [Trump] could fly, he could convey that he is as Jeanine Pirro suggests, superhuman. But if his shuffling, unsteady gait is any guide, that's a big if." https://t.co/kViYuiKwNS

— Schooley (@Rschooley) November 17, 2019

Trumpland sounds like some blown up Florida scheme that left behind a thousand lawsuits. https://t.co/W3h9DLyATG

— Schooley (@Rschooley) November 18, 2019

The NYTimes smells blood in the water. “President Trump Bet Big This Election Year. Here’s Why He Lost”:

… The results in Kentucky and Louisiana are particularly ominous for the president, in part because they indicate that his suburban problem extends to traditionally conservative Southern states and may prove even more perilous in the moderate Midwest next year.

They also reveal political weakness for the president at a moment he is embroiled in a deepening impeachment inquiry and desperately needs to project strength with his own party. And as he enters what will likely be a difficult re-election campaign, the two states emphatically demonstrated that he has become just as much of a turnout lever for the opposition as with his own supporters…

The Louisiana results are a stinging rebuke for the president, because he spent so much time there and because Trump allies couldn’t chalk it up entirely to local factors as they did for Kentucky, where Mr. Bevin was deeply unpopular. And even before the Louisiana race was called on Saturday night, finger-pointing from the Capitol to the White House to Mr. Trump’s campaign broke out about why he spent so much political capital on the race in the first place…

Still, the main instigator for the president’s involvement in the races, many Republicans said, was Mr. Trump himself, who simply craves the adulation of his supporters and is singularly focused on notching victories, no matter the details. He is even more eager to flex his political muscle in the face of impeachment, and has surrounded himself with several aides who either defer to his whims regardless of the neon-flashing signs of risk before them, or know little about politics.

People close to Mr. Trump — who spoke anonymously to discuss sensitive matters — said he viewed the campaigns he had weighed in on mostly as opportunities for gratification. And with few seasoned political advisers in his inner circle — his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who has control over the president’s campaign, has never worked on another race — there was nobody to tell him that attacking an anti-abortion rights, pro-gun Democrat like Mr. Edwards as a radical would be folly. ..

Mr. Trump, of course, is not the first president to be faulted for his party’s losses. But few have so openly invited the risk of being blamed for them.

“Donald Trump just happens to relish this centrality more than most,” said Liam Donovan, a Republican strategist, “and has a tendency to say the quiet part loud, sometimes to his detriment.”

pic.twitter.com/iWfEcI35jX

— Schooley (@Rschooley) November 18, 2019

Monday Morning Open Thread: Gonna Be Another Busy Week…Post + Comments (155)

Election 2020 Open Thread: Smart Move, Sen. Harris

by Anne Laurie|  November 2, 20191:56 pm| 72 Comments

This post is in: 2020 Elections, C.R.E.A.M., I'm With Her, Kamala Harris 2020, Open Threads, All Too Normal

IA is more important than NH. Tank in Iowa, you’re prob done. Don’t do IA, NH voters will flit away to someone who did well in IA. You won’t beat someone in NH who’s from MA or VT. NH doesn’t reward you for not doing IA, good result in IA softens punishment for doing little in NH https://t.co/oohzu91qxo

— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) November 1, 2019

The horse-race touts at Politico would *very much* like Kamala Harris to shut up and go back to her knitting the Senate, but Houle’s right; New Hampshire would not vote for a woman of color from the opposite coast even if she promised to rebuild the Old Man of the Mountain at (other states’) public expense. The state is very white and its politics are very retro; they’re working as hard as any formerly Confederate state to make sure the college kids who might not understand ‘our local traditions’ can’t corrupt the purity of their voting pool. Even leaving aside the cranky libertarians who’ll swarm the Dem primary before voting for Trump next year, Democratic primary voters are pretty much divided between Sanders and Warren. Also, too:

the Live Free or Die state was always going to be her worst considering her background as a DA and AG so it's not surprising she is skipping.

— ????James 'Jinxed Time Cover' Polls???? (@james_polls) November 1, 2019

So Kamala went to Iowa, later that day, and did this:

“And to win, we’re gonna need a nominee on that stage with Donald Trump, who has the ability to go toe to toe with Donald Trump and Iowa, you’re looking at her,” #ForThePeople #LJ19 pic.twitter.com/nMEKktbony

— Daryon (@daryongeronimo) November 2, 2019

show full post on front page

Harris is delivering the best speech I've heard from her at these all-candidate events, a rat-a-tat of applause lines with the tight delivery we saw at the first debate.

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) November 2, 2019

Senator @KamalaHarris so far has the loudest crowd of the night in Iowa. #LJ19

— kendis (@kendisgibson) November 2, 2019

Even @PeteButtigieg supporters LOVED Kamala Harris tonight. —>pic.twitter.com/2XHU2SIU6w

— Ammar Moussa (@ammarmufasa) November 2, 2019

Agreed. Best speech of the night so far… #LJ19 https://t.co/kfSrEAB6wt

— kendis (@kendisgibson) November 2, 2019

I’ve heard all year, from those who know her best, that @KamalaHarris is best when her back is against the wall. Let me know what you think about her speech in Iowa tonight. In this volatile Dem primary, it’s worth a listen:https://t.co/WhY477TDuY

— Kyung Lah (@KyungLahCNN) November 2, 2019


Anybody counts Harris out at this point, I suspect, will regret it later.

Election 2020 Open Thread: Smart Move, Sen. HarrisPost + Comments (72)

Election 2020 Open Thread: Kamala Harris Took the Lead This Weekend

by Anne Laurie|  October 28, 20199:30 pm| 87 Comments

This post is in: 2020 Elections, Civil Rights, Criminal Justice, I'm With Her, Kamala Harris 2020, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Seriously

We must change people’s perceptions, and it starts at the top. When those in charge don’t see the value of people like Tamir Rice or Atatiana Jefferson, there can be lethal consequences. pic.twitter.com/J4MznO7Abb

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) October 27, 2019

Rep. Shirley Chisholm, one of my earliest political idols, said “If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.” After Friday’s HBCU Trump debacle, Senator Harris took her chair, and changed the conversation.

Good story on @KamalaHarris today. https://t.co/oYKH04lQ7i

— Bakari Sellers (@Bakari_Sellers) October 27, 2019

… In the hours after Harris initially announced she wouldn’t be present at the forum, talks began between her campaign, Mayor Benjamin and Benedict College to create an end result that didn’t include the 20/20 Bipartisan Justice Center with a breakthrough happening overnight, a Harris campaign aide said.

“People were figuring out a solution where the group honoring President Trump wasn’t involved and students had access to speeches and the ability to ask questions,” the aide said.

Another aide said Harris, the only graduate of a historically black college in the 2020 field, wouldn’t stand for the 20/20 Bipartisan Justice Center “disrespecting” the legacy of HBCUs and their history rooted in protest, justice and equality.

“When it became clear Donald Trump would receive an award after decades of celebrating mass incarceration, pushing the death penalty for innocent Black Americans, rolling back police accountability measures and racist behavior that puts people’s lives at risk, and then learned all but ten Benedict students are excluded from participating, I cannot in good faith be complicit in papering over his record,” Harris said in a statement Friday…

Kamala Harris: "What do we have in Donald Trump? Someone who dares — dares — to use the word 'lynching' with the blood that has been poured on the soil of South Carolina and so many places." https://t.co/Hg8Ui0kIWv

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) October 26, 2019

“On that debate stage in terms of whose running, l am probably the only or one of a very few who has spent her career actually working on reforming the system as oppose to just talking about it.” pic.twitter.com/SQ06vteqbU

— Daryon (@daryongeronimo) October 26, 2019

Folks, let's stop for a minute and reflect on what Kamala Harris did in the last 24 hours.

— Wyeth Ruthven (@wyethwire) October 26, 2019

So Kamala Harris pulled her support for the forum. She was prepared to hold a counter-program with her own people.

— Wyeth Ruthven (@wyethwire) October 26, 2019

show full post on front page

It's also important to note that Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin, one of the co-sponsors of the event, had a choice to make — he could side with the Trump friendly sponsors, or side with Kamala.

He sided with Kamala.

— Wyeth Ruthven (@wyethwire) October 26, 2019

So tactically and strategically, this was a big win for Team Kamala. /end

— Wyeth Ruthven (@wyethwire) October 26, 2019

"Kamala Harris stood on principle, but she had to stand alone. The fact that the entire composition of the event was changed as a result of her protest speaks to the power an individual with moral clarity and determination can have." https://t.co/RUR5BKrJgg

— Kirsten Allen (@knicole_a) October 27, 2019

I see a lot of valid commentary about Kamala standing alone in her advocacy at the criminal justice forum but at the same time I feel like that was absofuckinglutely the precise point she intended to make. What better platform to set herself apart, and with what better audience?

— Propane Jane™ (@docrocktex26) October 27, 2019

It was also a premeditated and fearless confrontation of the “Kamala is a cop” propaganda, truth be told. She isn’t afraid to put her entire record under scrutiny, in fact she reformed the whole forum to make sure ample Black stakeholders/voters were in attendance.

— Propane Jane™ (@docrocktex26) October 27, 2019

Kamala isn’t waiting for the game to catch up to her, she’s changing the game on the ground in real time. She was ready for every question that came from the audience she cultivated, but the frontrunners weren’t. That’s not ‘standing alone’, it’s leading and rallying the troops. pic.twitter.com/S7egYCjodQ

— Propane Jane™ (@docrocktex26) October 27, 2019

Let me be clear: the core of any fight for justice is that you speak truth, no matter how uncomfortable it may be. Thank you to the grassroots supporters who joined me in this fight. https://t.co/mW3wBDfvdy

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) October 29, 2019

Election 2020 Open Thread: Kamala Harris Took the Lead This WeekendPost + Comments (87)

Amy, Amy, AMY

by Betty Cracker|  October 23, 20192:25 pm| 48 Comments

This post is in: I'm With Her, Open Threads, Trump Crime Cartel

Amy Klobuchar isn’t as flashy as poor Winehouse was, but Klobuchar gets shit done. Here’s an example from Mother Jones:

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) released evidence on Tuesday that the Justice Department buried the whistleblower complaint about President Donald Trump’s call with the Ukrainian president by failing to refer the matter to the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Klobuchar suggested the Justice Department violated a longstanding agreement between the agencies to share information about possible campaign finance violations for potential enforcement action…

This is clever because while everyone else was understandably focused on Barr hiding the whistleblower complaint from House Democrats, Klobuchar laid the groundwork to expose further wrongdoing by verifying that Barr hadn’t notified the Federal Election Commission either. Turns out that is required!

[U]nder a 1978 memorandum of understanding between the [Justice D]epartment and the FEC—which, like Justice is authorized to penalize campaign finance violations—the complaint should have been passed onto the FEC even if the department declined to launch a criminal investigation, so the election watchdog can determine whether a civil penalty is called for.

Earlier this month, Klobuchar set out to uncover whether the Justice Department had honored this agreement, sending two letters to the FEC inquiring whether it had received any such referral. On October 18, the commission’s Democratic chair, Ellen Weintraub, confirmed to Klobuchar that the FEC had not been notified. “The refusal to inform the FEC and refer the matter regarding the President’s call to the FEC as required to do, as the Justice Department is required, undermines our campaign finance system and is unacceptable in a democracy,” Klobuchar said in Tuesday statement.

I haven’t watched much news coverage of the shit-show this week because disgust and baseball. That said, I doubt Klobuchar’s revelation got a lot of attention, what with the SS Trumptanic taking shots below the waterline. But this week, Klobuchar produced further hard evidence that Barr is a crook.

Thanks to the courage of the whistleblower, Barr’s attempt to make the complaint go away by fiat didn’t succeed, but Barr was sticking to the original lie/rationale (“it was a nothingburger!”) to protect Trump from Congress. Notifying the FEC isn’t optional, even if it’s deemed a “nothingburger,” according to the longstanding agreement between the federal agencies. That Barr failed to provide the notification is more evidence of a cover up. Way to go, Klobuchar!

Amy, Amy, AMYPost + Comments (48)

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