In a virtual town hall, Oprah officially came out in support of John Fetterman, the Democratic candidate for senate in Pennsylvania. Fetterman is running against Republican candidate Mehmet Oz, MD—better known as the TV personality Dr. Oz—who was a frequent guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show and later had his own talk series, The Dr. Oz Show.
Now that early voting for the midterms has started, and with election day less than a week away, Oprah hosted a town hall encouraging people to exercise their right to vote. She moderated a panel, “Freedom Is on the Ballot,” that included Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, a U.S. Representative from Ohio, among other political thinkers, lawyers, and activists.
When the discussion veered toward the race in Pennsylvania, Oprah commented on it for the very first time. Read her statement below:
“At the beginning of the midterm campaigns, I said it was up to citizens to vote for who would represent them. If I lived in Pennsylvania, I would have already cast my vote for John Fetterman. There are clear choices and some dynamic candidates who are working to represent the values that so many of us hold dear—like inclusion, compassion, and community. So I ask that voters use discernment and choose wisely for the democracy of our country.”
During tonight’s town hall, Oprah also shared her support for several other Democratic candidates for midterm races across the country, including Beto O’Rourke, who is running for governor of Texas, and Stacey Abrams, a candidate for governor of Georgia. Oprah also recently joined Abrams at a campaign event.
A message to my Republican colleagues: No. You don’t reduce inflation by giving tax breaks to billionaires and cutting benefits for the elderly, the sick, the children and the poor. You combat inflation by taking on corporate greed. https://t.co/51mnPZaXMv
Screw the orange turd, and the stupidity slime mold it slithered in on. I’m ready to volunteer for the anti-DeSh##face POTUS grassroots. Hope you and JD are doing well, LD. Go, Beto!!
Bernie Sanders has criticized Democrats for not doing enough to motivate voters around the economic issues that have an impact on everyday life, as he warned next week’s midterm elections are the most “consequential” in modern American history.
In an interview with the Guardian in Texas, the leftwing Vermont senator said: “Obviously, everybody should be turning out for what is the most consequential midterm election in the modern history of this country. Democracy is on the ballot. Women’s right to control their own bodies is on the ballot. Climate change is on the ballot, so everybody should come out.”
But Sanders said he worried “very much that Democrats have not done a good enough job of reaching out to young people and working-class people and motivating them to come out and vote in this election”.
Sanders, a Democratic socialist who ran for president in 2016 and 2020, maintains a strong core of support in the Democratic party. He has been a fierce critic of Republicans, particularly Donald Trump, but has also been unafraid to point out what he sees as flaws in Democratic strategy.
Sanders was in Texas last weekend as part of a barnstorming trip across the US ahead of next week’s midterm elections that he wants to use to highlight economic issues, which are emerging as the primary concern for many voters.
“People are hurting. You got 60% of our people living paycheck to paycheck, and for many workers, they are falling further behind as a result of inflation. Oil company profits are soaring, food company profits are soaring, drug company profits are soaring. Corporate profits are at an all time high. The rich are getting much richer, and Democrats have got to make that message,” he said.
In assessing his party’s success at communicating the threat of corporate profiteering to the cost of living, Sanders said, “It’s not a question of [Democrats being] successful. They haven’t tried.”
Aan Marcos’s Sewell Park on Texas State University’s campus, was packed with people on Saturday. Harry Styles’s As It Was’ and Dua Lipa’s Levitating provided the soundtrack to a mostly young crowd, who gathered around the stage and eagerly awaited its headliner: Senator Bernie Sanders.
With just days left before polls close and Republicans’ midterm fortunes seemingly on the rise, Sanders is hitting the campaign trail, holding nine rallies across five battleground states in the week and a half leading up to election day.
Sanders and his progressive allies hope to deliver a closing argument to young and working-class voters that Democrats are the better stewards of the US economy, in the hopes of avoiding a Republican landslide on 8 November.
Sanders’ rallies come as Democratic candidates appear to be on the defensive in key races that could determine control of the House and the Senate. Republicans have regained their lead on the generic congressional ballot, according to FiveThirtyEight, and voters’ mounting concerns over the state of the economy appear to be hurting Democrats’ prospects in the crucial final stretch of campaigning.
In an interview with the Guardian, Sanders warned that Democrats have not done enough to mobilize many of the voters who were so instrumental in the party’s victories in 2020.
“Obviously everybody should be turning out for what is the most consequential midterm election in the modern history of this country,” Sanders said before his rally in Austin, Texas. “But in the real world, I worry very much that Democrats have not done a good enough job of reaching out to young people and working-class people and motivating them to come out and vote in this election.”
Texas State University student and first-time voter Gabrielle Diedrick, 18, can easily be spotted in the crowd in San Marcos by her black 10-gallon hat, cowboy boots and blue Bernie T-shirt. For Diedrick, raising the minimum wage is her top priority as a constituent and Sanders’ position resonates with her.
Diedrick said: “It’s hard to pay off tuition here at San Marcos. Every job here is like $10 an hour and tuition is about $10,000 every like five months or semester.”
Sanders has repeatedly hammered his economy-based message in the closing days of the 2022 election season, expressing concern that Democrats have focused too heavily on abortion rights in their campaign messaging. In a Guardian op-ed written earlier this month, Sanders urged progressive candidates to outline a pro-worker vision for the country, saying it would be “political malpractice for Democrats to ignore the state of the economy and allow Republican lies and distortions to go unanswered”.
More Democrats have acknowledged the wisdom of Sanders’ argument in recent weeks, as surveys show a large share of the electorate identifies the economy as their top priority. An ABC News/Ipsos poll taken last week found that 49% of Americans named the economy or inflation as the most important issue determining their vote for Congress, while just 14% said the same of abortion.
That trend could sink many Democratic congressional candidates, as voters consistently say Republicans are better equipped to manage the US economy. Sanders considers that widely held belief to be a misapprehension, insisting Republicans are not prepared to address the near record-high inflation currently affecting millions of American families, and he said Democrats must press their opponents on economic policy.
The rich are getting much richer, and Democrats have got to make that message
Bernie Sanders
“We should take the fight to the Republicans,” Sanders told the Guardian. “What are they doing about inflation? What are their ideas? Their ideas, among other things, is to give massive tax breaks for the rich and then cut social security, Medicare and Medicaid.”
In an attempt to turn the inflation conversation on its head, Sanders has framed the problem as a result of corporate greed, and there is some evidence to support his theory. One analysis released in April by the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning thinktank, concluded that about 54% of inflation could be attributed to increased corporate profits.
“People are hurting. You got 60% of our people living paycheck to paycheck. And for many workers, they are falling further behind as a result of inflation,” Sanders said. “Corporate profits are at an all-time high. The rich are getting much richer, and Democrats have got to make that message.”
Joe Biden appears to have taken the hint, lambasting corporate greed in the closing days of the campaign season. On Monday, the president delivered remarks criticizing oil companies for posting record profits as gas prices have climbed. “It’s time for these companies to stop war profiteering, meet their responsibilities to this country, and give the American people a break and still do very well,” Biden said in a speech at the White House.
Sanders credited Biden with directly addressing the concerns of working Americans, but he lamented that Democratic leaders have not done enough to change voters’ minds about the party’s economic agenda, as they have instead focused more of their attention on abortion rights.
“We have not had the same unity and the same energy around the economic crisis facing working families and what Republicans would do,” Sanders said. “It’s not a question of what the president alone is doing. It’s a question of what the party is doing, where it’s putting its money, its resources, its energy.”
Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of the progressive group Our Revolution, echoed Sanders’ concerns that Democrats have fallen short when it comes to presenting a unified vision around improving Americans’ standard of living. But he acknowledged the inherent challenges of that task, when many of Democrats’ proposals aimed at helping families struggling under the weight of rising prices failed to pass Congress.
Democrats had originally hoped to establish a federal paid family leave program and extend monthly child tax credit payments through their Build Back Better Act, which stalled in the Senate late last year. Democrats instead passed the Inflation Reduction Act this summer, but many of progressives’ economic proposals were stripped out of that bill to ensure the support of centrists like Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema.
“I agree Democrats have not delivered enough,” Geevarghese said. “I don’t want to belittle [Biden’s] accomplishments, but what he has delivered is much less than what was originally promised, so that’s the fundamental problem.”
That being said, Geevarghese suggested Biden and fellow Democrats could use the hurdles they have encountered to their advantage. After all, if more progressives are elected to Congress, Democrats could revive portions of Build Back Better that were left on the cutting room floor.
“Biden should level with the American people,” Geevarghese said. “He tried to pass transformative legislation that would improve the standard of living of working-class voters, and he was stymied by people in his own party like [Sinema and Manchin], and you know what? That’s why he needs Democrats who will vote with the Democratic caucus.”
Sanders could serve as a pivotal messenger on that front in the final days of the campaign. In his two presidential runs, Sanders demonstrated how a platform of economic populism could invigorate young and working-class voters.
“We know that he is the most popular youth vote candidate. He’s one of our oldest, but he’s one of the most popular hands down,” said Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez, president of the youth voting group NextGen America, which is co-hosting Sanders’ rallies. “No one can mobilize young people and working-class people like Bernie Sanders can.”
When Sanders traveled to the border town of McAllen to rally for congressional candidate Michelle Vallejo’s campaign, Vallejo described “a packed house”.
Vallejo told the Guardian: “To have Senator Bernie Sanders come join us was really exciting. It meant a lot to me. And it meant a lot to the people of [district] 15, because we want to be heard, and we want to be seen for who we are and be respected for the solutions, opportunities and resources that we know that we need in order to live the best quality life possible.”
Although House Democrats’ campaign arm, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), has chosen not to invest heavily in Vallejo’s race in the face of a potential Republican wave election, she expressed optimism about her chances on 8 November.
“While we did not see any large TV buys on our behalf of the DCCC, we are focusing on connecting with our voters and running this campaign the way that we’ve run it since day one: which is just centered on our community members and on the efforts that really are rooted from our home and on the ground,” Vallejo said.
Early voting data has raised alarm among some Democrats that younger Americans will not cast ballots at the record-breaking levels seen in 2020, which could prove disastrous for the party’s hopes of maintaining control of Congress. But Ramirez expressed confidence that young voters will once again turn out in large numbers because they understand exactly what is at stake on November 8.
“What we’re going to be telling young people is that, in 2020, we beat back fascism. We beat it back for an election cycle. We didn’t kill it or destroy it,” Ramirez said. “We have to beat it out of the political body for our democracy to be truly healthy, and we’re not there yet at all.”
In recent polls, American voters ranked “threats to democracy” among the most important issues facing the country. At a time of climate collapse, inflation and a pandemic, this speaks powerfully to the fragility of America’s fundamental rights and freedoms.
The country is seeing a dizzying number of assaults on democracy, from draconian abortion bans to a record number of book bans. Politicians who spread lies and sought to delegitimize the 2020 election are pursuing offices that will put them in control of the country’s election machinery. Meanwhile, the supreme court is enforcing its own agenda on abortion, guns and environmental protections – often in opposition to public opinion.
When you read this piece carefully, notice the psycholinguistical slant. Where’s all the howling certainty about a massive GOPuke tsunami? It’s been carefully muted. I know the Guardian isn’t as obnoxious as the Borg Bezos rag, but they have their moments, too.
HELLO, WISCONSIN! Next Tuesday, we can elect progressive leaders up and down the ballot to build a government that works for the many, not just the privileged few. Join us LIVE NOW from Eau Claire, Wisconsin. https://t.co/V7ibB0xnrh
Trump advisor Kash Patel has been granted immunity by the Justice Department, NBC News confirmed, after a judge ruled that an immunity offer was the only way to compel Patel to testify in the ongoing probe of classified documents removed from the White House in the final days of former President Donald Trump’s first term.
Patel is expected to testify soon in the case, NBC reported.
Patel’s testimony is considered crucial to answering the question of whether Trump declassified any of the documents he took with him to his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago. FBI agents removed thousands of government documents during a raid of Trump’s property in August, including more than 100 that bore classification markings.
Trump has claimed that he declassified all the documents he took with him before he left office, but so far the aides who have testified before a grand jury have said they saw no evidence that Trump declassified anything. Presidents have broad powers to declassify documents, but declassification orders must follow a procedure, and there is no indication that Trump ever initiated this procedure before he took the documents with him.
Patel, however, claimed in an August interview with The Wall Street Journal that he had personally witnessed Trump verbally declassify documents.
Patel also indicated that Trump wanted the documents to be made public because the former president believed the records supported his claim that he had been unjustly targeted by the Justice Department over his campaign’s ties to Russia.
“It had to do with Russiagate. It had to do with the Hillary email scandal. It had to do with a whole lot of other stuff,” Patel told the Journal. “And [Trump] said, ‘This is all declassified.
But when Patel was called later to testify before the grand jury in October, he reportedly did not make the same assertions. Instead, he repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self incrimination.
I thought Patel would ultimately be the fallguy in regards to taking responsibility/the hear for the documents, so an interesting development.
Pennsylvania congressional candidate Summer Lee, a rising star on the left, won a May primary despite a withering assault from a super PAC set up by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) to defeat progressives in Democratic races. It was an important victory for grassroots activists in Pennsylvania’s historically Democratic 12th Congressional District, and for progressives nationally who have been looking forward to Lee joining the “Squad” of advocates for economic, social, and racial justice in the House.
But AIPAC hasn’t given up on beating Lee. Through its United Democracy Project, which spent more than $2 million against Lee in her primary, the group is now spending big money to bolster her right-wing Republican rival, Mike Doyle (who has the same name as the outgoing Democratic congressman). What’s ironic about the latest turn of events is that in the primary, the AIPAC-funded attacks targeted Lee for alleged disloyalty to the Democratic Party. Now, the group is trying to defeat Lee by recycling Republican talking points.
Over the weekend, the United Democracy Project reportedly spent $80,000 on an anti-Lee mailing that parroted the crime-focused attacks Republicans have been using against Democratic candidates, including Senate hopefuls John Fetterman in Pennsylvania and Mandela Barnes in Wisconsin.
Pennsylvania congressional candidate Summer Lee, a rising star on the left, won a May primary despite a withering assault from a super PAC set up by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) to defeat progressives in Democratic races. It was an important victory for grassroots activists in Pennsylvania’s historically Democratic 12th Congressional District, and for progressives nationally who have been looking forward to Lee joining the “Squad” of advocates for economic, social, and racial justice in the House.
By Tuesday, Pittsburgh’s WESA radio was reporting that the AIPAC-aligned project would spend as much as $1 million on an anti-Lee television advertising and mailing blitz in the district, where polls suggest that the Democrat’s lead has narrowed following a media assault from the National Republican Congressional Committee. The district is one of several where, as Axios notes, “Republicans are pouring cash into House districts that voted for President Biden by as much as 20 points, targeting under-the-radar battlegrounds amid growing signs of a red wave.”
The United Democracy Project is funded by a who’s who of investment bankers and financial services powerhouses such as Goldman Sachs, Elliott Management, and the Capital Group Companies. On its website, the group says it wants to “help elect candidates that share our vision and will be strong supporters of the U.S.-Israel relationship in Congress.”
Lee has made it clear that she “absolutely” respects Israel’s legitimacy as a Jewish state. So what’s AIPAC’s objection? Like former president Jimmy Carter and other leading Democrats, Lee couples her recognition of the need for Jewish people to have “a safe haven” in Israel with the position that it’s vital to “to protect and stand up for Palestinians.” That balanced stance has won her praise from J Street, the national group that organizes supporters of Israel who seek peace in the Middle East, and on-the-ground support from Bend the Arc, Jewish Action’s Pittsburgh affiliate.
But AIPAC’s still on the attack.
Since AIPAC and the United Democracy Project began its assault against Lee, leading Democratic officials have cried foul.
“Why would an organization go around criticizing someone like Summer Lee for not being a strong enough Democrat when they themselves have endorsed extreme right-wing Republicans?” asked Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who campaigned for Lee during the primary fight and will return to campaign with her on Sunday. “In my view, their goal is to create a two-party system, Democrats and Republicans, in which both parties are responsive to the needs of corporate America and the billionaire class.”
Laura Birnbaum, J Street’s National Political Director, put it more directly: “After spending nearly $30 million in Democratic primaries on ads that claimed to care about democratic values and priorities, this right-wing group isn’t lifting a finger to defend democracy itself from candidates willing to overturn elections and undermine belief in our core institutions. Instead, UDP is making its only expenditures in the General Election to target Democrats.”
Noting that AIPAC has endorsed and raised funds for 109 members of Congress who, on January 6, 2021, voted to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, Birnbaum says, “AIPAC’s actions make clear that they really mean it when they say that nothing matters to them other than unquestioning support for Israel—not the survival of American democracy, nor the core values and concerns of the majority of Jewish Americans.”
That’s a blunt statement. But Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s response was even blunter: “Shamefully, AIPAC is working for Republican control of Congress and further destabilization of US democracy.”
A word of caution, though: at least in VA, the very first results reported are likely to favor Rs. Extra caution is warranted in #VA07, where Prince William Co.'s mail ballots are critical to Rep. Abigail Spanberger's (D) path to victory and could be the last to be counted.
The new owner of Twitter — a self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist” — complains about activism and gets fact-checked by users on his own platform. pic.twitter.com/CYv3vX1jmM
Important to know that PA Law does NOT allow for counties to begin the process of sorting and counting early votes at 7 am on Election Day, so it could take days to sort through all of them.
Real disposable personal incomes have fallen to early 2020 levels as stimulus dries up and inflation takes a bite out of what's left. It's not hard to see why voters are anxious — this is "the economy" that people feel most personally, not the unemployment rate or stock market. pic.twitter.com/D2LFjMPcID
TODAY: We're on a NATIONAL tour across the U.S. right now with @MoveOn and our special guest @BernieSanders to turn out young voters in key states ahead of #ElectionDay!
Today, we're touring around the great state of Wisconsin – starting in Eau Claire! Watch this space 👀 pic.twitter.com/zn496d7cpW
wpDiscuz
From Oprah’s website: (first couple of articles are free)
T and R x 2, Ms. Benny!! 🙂 i’m surprised she didn’t mention Val Demings, but she may not know who Demings is.
I read the entire essay. Solidarity, Bernie!!
Orange man bad is planning to announce his 2024 bid soon.
He pretty much has to announce so he can continue with the whole ‘politically motivated prosection’ BS.
Screw the orange turd, and the stupidity slime mold it slithered in on. I’m ready to volunteer for the anti-DeSh##face POTUS grassroots. Hope you and JD are doing well, LD. Go, Beto!!
Looks like CREW is on the case.
‘They haven’t tried’: Bernie Sanders on Democrats’ economic messaging
Right On, Bernie!!
Bernie Sanders hits the campaign trail with days left before US midterms
When you read this piece carefully, notice the psycholinguistical slant. Where’s all the howling certainty about a massive GOPuke tsunami? It’s been carefully muted. I know the Guardian isn’t as obnoxious as the Borg Bezos rag, but they have their moments, too.
Bernie live now:
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/03/trump-news-kash-patel-granted-immunity-to-testify-in-mar-a-lago-documents-case-.html
I thought Patel would ultimately be the fallguy in regards to taking responsibility/the hear for the documents, so an interesting development.
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/aipac-summer-lee-pennsylvania/
Netanyaboob winning a third term sure won’t do AIPAC any favors especially among American Jews.
AIPAC needs to register as an agent for a foreign govt.
Tom Angell is an editor forMarijuana Moment.