Trump attacks congresswomen and Democrats return fire
On Sunday, President Donald Trump hurled an ugly insult at a group of four first-term congresswomen of color, saying they should “go back” to the countries they came from, despite the fact that all are U.S. citizens and all but one was born in the country.
Trump’s remark ignited fury and condemnation from congressional Democrats and a unified response from the four congresswomen, who are known in some circles as “the squad”: Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna S. Pressley of Massachusetts. The House voted, nearly along party lines, to condemn Trump’s comments as racist.
Many of the Democrats seeking to defeat Trump in the general election roundly criticized him for the comments as well, calling them “reprehensible,” “disgusting” and “un-American.”
Sen. Kamala Harris of California condemned the remarks in intensely personal terms. “I‘ve personally been told, ‘Go back to where you came from,’” she said Tuesday. “It is vile, ignorant, shallow, and hateful. It has to stop.”
The stage is set for the next round of debates
Harris will face off against former Vice President Joe Biden once again — and while this is no boxing match, the Democratic debates are starting to feel like reality television.
CNN, which will host the next round of debates this month, broadcast an elaborately staged “live drawing” to determine the lineups, complete with overhead cameras and multiple boxes.
We learned that Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts will square off against Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont on the first night, July 30, pitting the two top liberals in the race against each other. That debate will also feature Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota standing next to Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana. Klobuchar has expressed displeasure that less-experienced male candidates like Buttigieg have received gobs of media attention, and now the debate will give her a chance to take him down a peg.
The second night, July 31, could generate another Harris-Biden clash, a month after Harris highlighted Biden’s record on race and desegregation. And Biden will also face Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, who memorably called on Biden to apologize for his comments about segregationist senators.
Here are the lineups:
Night 1, July 30:
Marianne Williamson, Tim Ryan, Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Beto O’Rourke, John Hickenlooper, John Delaney and Steve Bullock.
Night 2, July 31:
Michael Bennet, Kirsten Gillibrand, Julián Castro, Cory Booker, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Andrew Yang, Tulsi Gabbard, Jay Inslee and Bill de Blasio.
5 big fundraisers lead the money race
Reports detailing how much money the 2020 Democrats raised during the second quarter of the year were released on Monday. Broadly speaking, they showed that five of the Democratic presidential candidates are ahead of the pack.
Those five candidates, Buttigieg, Warren, Biden, Sanders and Harris, raised a combined $96 million from individual donors in the last three months — about three-quarters of the total fundraising by the entire Democratic field.
Some other takeaways:
— Buttigieg raised more money from individual donors than any other Democrat.
— Sanders has the most cash in the bank ($27.3 million).
— Trump has more than twice that amount of cash on hand ($56.7 million).
— Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas raised only $3.6 million in the last three months — a sign of serious money struggles.
Is Trump getting a new primary challenger?
Well, maybe.
Former Rep. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., said Tuesday that he was considering challenging Trump for the Republican presidential nomination. If he does, Sanford, who is also a former governor of the state, said he aimed to campaign as a fiscal conservative intent on ending what he views as the country’s profligate spending.
He is the second Republican to say publicly that he is exploring a primary challenge against Trump; William F. Weld, the former governor of Massachusetts, formally entered the race in April.
Sanford has a bit of a history with Trump, whom he initially supported in 2016. He quickly became one of the president’s most vocal Republican critics in Congress. With that in mind, Trump unleashed a last-minute Twitter attack on Sanford last summer that helped ensure he would lose his primary.
Sanford plans to use the next month to consider a fresh primary run, he told The Post and Courier.
“Sometimes in life you’ve got to say what you’ve got to say, whether there’s an audience or not for that message,” Sanford told the newspaper. “I feel convicted.”
Harris jumps out front in California
A new Quinnipiac University Poll released this past week has Harris leading the field in California with the backing of 23% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters in her delegate-rich home state.
Like several other surveys conducted after the June Democratic debates, the poll shows that a clear top tier has emerged. Biden registered 21% support, followed by Sanders at 18% and Warren at 16%. No other candidate garnered more than 3% support in the California poll.
The survey also shows how much the race has tightened and changed since April when Quinnipiac last conducted a poll of California Democrats. At that time, Harris trailed both Biden — who had yet to formally enter the race — and Sanders, having earned 17% support. And at the time, only 7% of voters said they would vote for Warren.
Sanders and Biden clash over health care
Two of the top candidates to become the Democratic nominee offered starkly different visions of health care in America this week.
On Monday, Biden unveiled his health care proposal. In essence, his plan would seek to improve the Affordable Care Act instead of replacing it with the sort of single-payer “Medicare for all” system favored by Sanders. Specifically, Biden’s plan would create a public option that would enable anyone to sign up for a government-run health plan like Medicare.
The policy rollout came after Biden attacked Sanders’ “Medicare for all” plan days earlier, citing its $3 trillion price tag and saying that Sanders would raise taxes on the middle class.
On Wednesday Sanders punched back, defending “Medicare for all” in a speech in which he also called on his Democratic rivals to reject contributions from the health care industry.
“My Republican friends, and some others, seem to think that the American people hate paying taxes but they just love paying insurance premiums,” Sanders said, taking an apparent shot at Biden.
“Frankly,” he added, “I am sick and tired of talking to doctors who tell me about the patients who died because they came into their offices too late because they were uninsured or underinsured.”
And in other policy news:
Several candidates released policy proposals this week aimed at supporting farmers, families and seniors.
— Biden detailed a plan for rural America that promises investment in clean energy, the creation of a White House “StrikeForce” that would help rural communities gain access to federal funds and various efforts aimed at keeping rural hospitals open. Former Rep. Joe Sestak also released an agriculture plan in which he pledged to stop imposing “reckless” tariffs, strengthen antitrust laws and end subsidies for industrial farming corporations.
— Biden also unveiled a plan for older Americans that seeks to decrease the cost of prescription drugs, protect Medicare and Medicaid and strengthen Social Security. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s “Aging With Dignity” plan similarly seeks to expand Social Security and lower drug prices.
— Gillibrand’s plan for older Americans would also enact paid family leave that would cover workers needing to care for aging family members. In a similar vein, Booker rolled out a plan that would expand access to long-term care and support for older Americans.
— Gov. Jay Inslee’s “Putting Families First” plan would institute paid family leave, too, and would also provide benefits like subsidized child care and free or reduced college tuition in an effort to “strengthen families at every stage of life.”
Separately:
— Harris released her “People Over Profit” plan that seeks to lower prescription drug costs by taxing any pharmaceutical company profits made from selling a drug above the fair price and sending the funds back to consumers in the form of a rebate. Her plan would also close a tax loophole used by pharmaceutical companies related to their advertising expenses. And Harris pledged to take executive action if necessary to investigate all “predatory” pharmaceutical companies.
— Warren released a “plan to rein in Wall Street” that includes a series of measures aimed at transforming the private equity industry. The plan also calls for tough new executive compensation rules to discourage speculation, a postal banking program and more.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.