DECEMBER 15 AND 16, 2019
NEWS AND VIEWS
POLITICS ELECTION 2020
2020 Democrats
Think Attacking Bernie Sanders Is ‘Not Smart Strategy’
The Vermont
senator is performing well in early state polls, but he’s avoiding intense
scrutiny from his rivals for the Democratic nomination
By Eliza Collins
and Joshua Jamerson
Dec. 14, 2019
7:00 am ET
Photograph --
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders speaking during a visit
to Morehouse College in Atlanta on Nov. 21. PHOTO: NICOLE CRAINE FOR THE WALL
STREET JOURNAL
Elizabeth
Warren and Pete Buttigieg have been sparring over their work histories and
health-care policies in recent weeks, but one Democratic 2020 candidate who
poses a major threat to both of them is for now going mostly unchallenged:
Bernie Sanders.
Aides to some
of the Vermont senator’s competitors said he is getting a pass for a reason. Democratic
candidates think Mr. Sanders’s core supporters are unlikely to leave his side,
so there is no point trying to pick off that support, the aides said. But they
also don’t think he can build his coalition enough to capture the nomination.
“Bernie has a
very clear ceiling and a very clear floor,” said an aide to a rival campaign.
“It’s not smart strategy to go after folks you’re not going to persuade or
dissuade.”
Mr. Sanders’s
supporters are the most sure that they will vote for their favored candidate, a
Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found in October. Fifty-seven percent of
his backers said they would definitely support him. By comparison, half of
former Vice President Joe Biden’s supporters and one-third of Ms. Warren’s said
they would stick with that choice.
After having a
heart attack and dipping in polls earlier this fall, the Vermont senator is in
strong position less than two months before the Feb. 3 Iowa caucuses. He is
ranked at or near the top in polls of every early state, has received
influential new endorsements and had the most cash on hand out of the
Democratic field last quarter, nearly $34 million. Some Democratic strategists
and Sanders backers think the other candidates are underestimating his chances.
“There are many
political pundits, campaigns and folks in the media who have written off the
Bernie Sanders campaign from the beginning, who do not believe he has a chance
to succeed,” said Sanders campaign manager Faiz Shakir. “We welcome their
resistance because they have always discounted us.”
“We have
continued to grow the movement despite the lack of attention,” he said.
Ms. Warren, the
Massachusetts Democrat, appears to have the most to gain from any dip in Mr.
Sanders’s support. In the WSJ/NBC News poll, 43% of his backers said she was
their second choice. That share is significantly higher than the 16% of Sanders
supporters who said their No. 2 was Mr. Biden and the 5% who picked Mr. Buttigieg,
the mayor of South Bend, Ind.
Ms. Warren has
largely avoided trying to contrast herself with Mr. Sanders. On Thursday, she
made thinly veiled swipes at Mr. Biden and Mr. Buttigieg in an economic speech,
but her remarks lacked even indirect critiques of Mr. Sanders.
While Mr.
Sanders wrote the Medicare for All legislation that Ms. Warren has endorsed,
she has faced the most questions about how to pay for expanding government-run
health insurance, taking fire from Mr. Biden and Mr. Buttigieg. She remains in
the top tier of candidates, but her polling has plateaued.
A contest
between Ms. Warren and Mr. Buttigieg over transparency—she recently released
medical records and disclosed her pay for corporate consulting work; he named
his clients at McKinsey & Co. and opened fundraisers to the media—has also
largely ignored Mr. Sanders and Mr. Biden.
It isn’t that
Mr. Sanders has gotten off completely free. Some of his aides recently got into
a tussle with Mr. Buttigieg’s over their plans to extend free college tuition
to more people. Both sides claimed the other’s arguments were “elitist.”
Still, a second
aide to a campaign for one of Mr. Sanders’s rivals said it is harder to build
attacks around Mr. Sanders because there is “less mystery” surrounding his
beliefs. He spent decades in Congress and ran for president in 2016. Ms.
Warren, on the other hand, appeared on the national stage in 2009 amid the
financial crisis and arrived in Congress after her 2012 Senate race, so her
views on many issues were less understood.
The first rival
campaign aide also said Democrats doubt that all Mr. Sanders’s supporters will
show up during the nominating process. Mr. Sanders’s campaign has acknowledged
that winning the nomination likely requires turning out people who don’t
typically vote in large numbers in primaries or caucuses, including young
voters.
Dan Pfeiffer, a
top aide to Barack Obama during his 2008 campaign and presidency, said that any
campaign dismissing Mr. Sanders’s chances was making a “fatal error in
politics,” pointing out that young people showed up in record numbers to make
Mr. Obama the nominee.
“I am not
underestimating him, and if I were these campaigns, I would not either,” Mr.
Pfeifer said of Mr. Sanders.
Tom Courtney,
the Democratic Party co-chair in Des Moines County, said based on the support
he sees on the ground for Mr. Sanders, he believes the Vermont lawmaker “has a
shot, at least in Iowa.”
Write to Eliza
Collins at eliza.collins@wsj.com. and Joshua Jamerson at
joshua.jamerson@wsj.com
TWO ARTICLES --
SANDERS AND SCHOLTEN ON BASEBALL. J D SCHOLTEN IS ANOTHER YOUNG POPULIST IN
CONGRESS WHO PLAYED PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL BEFORE HIS POLITICAL ACTIVITIES BEGAN.
Can baseball
help Bernie Sanders hit a 2020 home run?
By WILL
WEISSERT
DECEMBER 15, 2019
PHOTOGRAPH --
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., one of seven
scheduled Democratic candidates participating in a public education forum,
makes opening remarks, Saturday, Dec. 14, 2019, in Pittsburgh. Topics at the
event planned for discussion ranged from student services and special education
to education equity and justice issues. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)
BURLINGTON,
Iowa (AP) — Take Bernie out to the ball game?
Bernie Sanders,
the Vermont senator and Democratic presidential candidate, is aggressively
opposing a Major League Baseball plan to cut 42 minor league teams across the
country after 2020. Among the targeted are the Vermont Lake Monsters, the
Single-A affiliate of the Oakland Athletics in his hometown, Burlington.
Defending
low-profile ball clubs in far-flung places more fervently than anyone in the
crowded Democratic presidential field allows Sanders to potentially win over a
largely untapped 2020 constituency: baseball fans.
Sanders planned
to take batting practice indoors with minor league players Sunday in Burlington,
Iowa. In August, he played softball with reporters on the state’s corn
field-ringed “Field of Dreams,” the set of the Hollywood hit of the same name. And
he has tapped a former Yale second baseman, Faiz Shakir, to run his campaign.
Taking the
diamond demonstrates physical stamina for a 78-year-old who recently had a
heart attack, while also letting Sanders press a larger political point about
rich owners putting profits ahead of the national pastime. But it also shows
off a softer side of someone most known to supporters and detractors alike for
being a democratic socialist and backing progressive policy proposals such as
“Medicare for All.”
“The guys who
own the teams are billionaires,″ Sanders said in an interview, adding that “baseball
is not an institution that is hurting financially. And you can see that by,
just in the last few weeks, seeing major league teams signing star baseball
players for as much (as) $324 million.”
That refers to
the New York Yankees recently signing free-agent pitcher Gerrit Cole to a
reported 9-year, $324 million contract.
MLB is
negotiating a new agreement with the National Association of Professional
Baseball Leagues, the governing body of the minors. The initial contraction
proposal primarily would impact lower-level teams in short-season leagues.
Sanders met last month with Commissioner Rob Manfred to decry the plan
and the senator sent him a letter Saturday, arguing that baseball “has to be
considered more than just the bottom line.”
“Baseball is
not just another business,” Sanders said. “There’s a reason the president of
the United States throws out the first pitch of the season, why baseball is
considered a national pastime.”
More than 100
members of Congress from both parties signed a separate letter to Manfred opposing
shutting down minor league teams. But, so far, Sanders is alone among the
Democratic presidential hopefuls loudly opposing the idea.
“He’s the only
one I hear talking about it,” said J.D. Scholten, who pitched professionally
in Canada and for Iowa’s independent Sioux City Explorers. Scholten
challenged longtime Republican Rep. Steve King in 2018 and is trying again to
unseat him.
“I think it
kind of fits into his overall message of, right now, a lot of the way our lives
are being shaped by wealthy people who are dictating a lot of these things at
the top, and the people at the bottom are being left behind,” said Scholten,
who also played basketball this past week with another White House hopeful,
businessman Andrew Yang.
Scholten said
he tells crowds at town halls while campaigning that he’ll answer questions
about anything, including baseball.
“My baseball
background gets talked about quite a lot. I’m actually kind of surprised. I
haven’t played in 10 years, was a paralegal for a decade and nobody talks about
that,” Scholten joked.
Sanders’
baseball ties predate his 2020 campaign. He visited with the Los Angeles
Dodgers during spring training in 2018 and, as he was recovering at home
following his Oct. 1 heart attack, Sanders’ campaign released video of the
candidate batting balls around his backyard.
The senator
grew up loving the Brooklyn Dodgers until they moved to Los Angeles when he was
16. He now roots for the Boston Red Sox, like a lot of New Englanders.
While running
for the first elected office he won, mayor of Burlington in 1981, Sanders says
he thinks he remembers campaigning on landing a minor league team. He says “we
worked extremely hard” to accomplish just that.- bringing a Cincinnati Reds
affiliate to town three years later.
“Everybody
found it amusing because the name was the Vermont Reds,” Sanders, an avowed
democratic socialist even then, chuckled.
HERE IS ANOTHER
REALLY GOOD ROLLING STONE ARTICLE ON POLITICS.
OCTOBER 30,
2018 9:00AM ET
Chatting With
the Prairie Populist Who Wants to Oust the Biggest Racist in Congress
Can first-time
candidate J.D. Scholten get the best of Rep. Steve King?
By ANDY KROLL
PHOTOGRAPH --
JD Scholten vs Steve King
Thomas
McKinless/CQ Roll Call/AP, J. Scott Applewhite/AP/REX Shutterstock
J.D. Scholten
is somewhere in rural northern Iowa, aboard a Winnebago named Sioux City Sue
after the Gene Autry song, en route to the second-to-last stop on his third
tour of all 39 counties in the state’s 4th congressional district. When he calls
Rolling Stone, the connection cuts in and out. “We’re in one- and two-bar
country,” he says.
Scholten is a
38-year-old former professional baseball player and fifth-generation Iowan trying
to oust the most notorious xenophobe and racist in Congress, Rep. Steve King
(R-IA). It’s his first campaign, not just for Congress but anything, and
Scholten has taken inspiration from the prairie populist Democrats who
once represented this ruby-red swath of Iowa. He name-checks former Senator
Tom Harkin and ex-congressman Berkley Bedell, who ran with his slogan “The
1% controls our government. Does the 99% have a chance? Berkley Bedell
has some ideas.”
Scholten has
plenty of his own ideas. Health care dominates the conversation at his events
and town halls, and he supports a public option and eventually
Medicare-for-all. He gets into the weeds talking about tariffs, agriculture
policy, antitrust reform and putting more money into the pockets of Iowa
farmers. Yet in this deep-red district, Scholten says he connects with
independent and Republican voters on the issue of the corrupting effect of
money in politics.
SEE ALSO
Two women
kissing in Zola ad.
Lesbian Couple
Kissing Is Too Much for Hallmark Channel, So It Canceled Ads
Pardons by
Former Kentucky Governor Spark Outrage and Calls for Investigation
“I start off
every town hall by telling folks this stat: the average person in Congress is
58 years old with a net worth of a million dollars,” Scholten says. “I’m
different. I’m 20 years younger, and I’m about a million dollars short of that
average.”
Scholten was
always a long shot in a part of Iowa that Trump won by a 27-point margin. He
almost shut down his campaign early on, he says, after nearly running out of
money, but then he won the primary, snagged Sen. Bernie Sanders’ endorsement
and has pulled in nearly $1.8 million, outraising King by more than double.
On Friday, the district’s largest newspaper, the Sioux City Journal,
endorsed him after multiple past endorsements of King. A new poll released
Tuesday by Change Research shows him trailing King by a single percentage
point. Finally, he says, Democrats and Republicans alike in the 4th district
are fed up with King’s ugly antics.
Rolling Stone:
At a national level, Steve King is known as basically the biggest xenophobe
in Congress. He tweets things like “We can’t restore our civilization with
somebody else’s babies.” He endorses neo-Nazi sympathizers. Yet he keeps
getting reelected. Is there a different Steve King than the one that us folks
in the bubble see?
J.D. Scholten:
There’s a lot of folks here for the longest time who, even if they heard those
stories, they usually came from a Democratic opponent, and they were used to
saying, “Oh, that’s just Steve being Steve, like that crazy uncle.”
I think with
social media, whether it’s Twitter or Facebook, people now get to see that on
their own. And what we’re seeing is there are people who are saying, “Enough is
enough.”
They’re getting
the information directly. It doesn’t feel like it’s intermediated by somebody
or it’s in an attack ad.
Here’s the
thing that we’re seeing that’s different. In the Sioux City Journal — Sioux
City is the largest city in the district, and where I’m from — and the Mason
City Globe Gazette, they both had headlines [about King endorsing neo-Nazi sympathizer
and Toronto mayor candidate Faith Goldy]. The Mason City paper, it’s front
page. In the Journal, it was the second page. It flat-out said, “King endorses
white nationalist,” which is a headline that has never been in the district
before.
You’re now on
your third tour of all 39 counties in the 4th district.
I went to all
39 counties in my personal vehicle, putting 35,000 miles on that. And then we
bought a Winnebago RV, because they’re made in this district, and I threw my
logo on the side, and we went to all 39 counties in that, and now we’re doing
our third one — 39 counties, 39 town halls, in 38 days, but that’s just
coincidence. I could have slept in my bed one more night, I guess, if you
really want to do 39, 39, 39. Tonight is our second-to-last stop.
I modeled it
after my two political heroes: Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa and Representative
Berkley Bedell. Harkin is obviously more well known. Berkley Bedell was a
populist Democrat in the late Seventies and early Eighties in northwest Iowa, in
the ruby-red areas, and he would win with 60 percent [of the vote]. He would
hold town halls and ask folks, “How do I vote? How do you want me to vote on
this issue?” He just was really out there and engaged with his constituents.
PHOTOGRAPH -- October
20, 2018 - Sioux City, IOWA, USA - U.S. Sen. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT) greets
Iowa's 4th Congressional District Democratic candidate J.D. SCHOLTEN before
speaking about the upcoming midterm elections as he campaigns for Scholten at
the Morningside College's Eppley Auditorium in Sioux City, Iowa Saturday, Oct.
20 2018. Scholten is running against Iowa's Congressman Steve King. (Credit
Image: © Jerry Mennenga/ZUMA Wire)
Is it fair to
call you a populist?
I use a line
from Paul Wellstone [the former progressive senator from Minnesota]: “I’m
from the democratic side of the Democratic Party.” I have no problem
calling myself a populist, because this is a very working-class district. I
chased a dream playing minor league baseball, but I never made a dime in my
life. So when it comes to health care, I tell them in my off-seasons of my
baseball career, I would find two part-time jobs while trying to train full
time, and at a time when I was maximizing my body, I often didn’t have
health insurance.
The whole
controversial side of Steve King absolutely disgusts me. But there’s also that
backside of how ineffective and how out of touch he is with this district. And
he’s tweeted about the mayoral race in Toronto as much as he’s tweeted about an
issue in the 4th district in the last two months. It’s nuts.
The Democratic
Party is increasingly associated with urban areas, the coasts, and especially
big cities. How do you break through as Democrat in a rural region
nowadays?
Last week I saw
this tweet by David Wasserman about a blue wave for Democrats who are within 20
miles of a Whole Foods.
Dave Wasserman
✔
@Redistrict
Blue Wave in a
nutshell: Democrats are doing really, really well anywhere that’s within like a
20 minute drive from a Whole Foods Market.
4,134
11:32 AM - Oct
19, 2018
Twitter Ads
info and privacy
1,121 people
are talking about this
We don’t have a
Whole Foods in this district, but I’m fine. I see so much crossover with what
we’re trying to do. There’s Republican voters out there that are saying,
“You know what, I’m a Republican, but mental health is a huge deal here in
Iowa. Health care is a huge deal here in Iowa. J.D.’s the only one talking
about it.”
If you look at
the agriculture economy right now, the federal government’s attacking this
district in three different ways, whether it’s market consolidation and just
squeezing farmers, both on the input side and the output side. What we see is
that, of the consumer dollar, less than 15 cents makes it back to the farmer.
That’s the lowest of all time, and productions costs are just rising. Senator
Grassley (R-IA) talks about this stuff but doesn’t do anything about it. But
I’d be willing to work with Grassley, because that’s an Iowa issue, not
necessarily a Republican-Democrat [issue]. And then, obviously, the trade war
is the third one. We’re borrowing money from China to give to our farmers not
to sell their products to China. That just doesn’t make any sense to me.
What are the
issues that you hear about the most, or the issues that when you started the
campaign you didn’t think you’d be studying up on in the Winnebago between
events?
I talk about
three issues right away: A healthcare system that works for all. An economy
that works for all of us, because we don’t have a workforce. We’re shrinking in
population. We’re an aging population. So there’s a lot of issues with that in
this 4th District, and I’m trying to modernize it with technology and some
other rural revitalization.
And then the
third part of it is, we talk a lot about cleaning up Washington. There’s an
average of 22 lobbyists per person in Congress. People gasp when I say
that. I talk about campaign finance reform and trying to get money out of
politics, so we can get a government that’s back to of the people, by the
people, for the people — and one that includes the people.
Is money in
politics something that has that crossover appeal?
Absolutely. My
neighbor is a great guy. He’s probably mowing my lawn, either yesterday or
today, while I’m out on the road. He caucused for Mr. Trump, has a truck the
size of Texas and has five AR-15s. We don’t necessarily see eye to eye on
everything. But any time we go down a rabbit hole, we can always get back out
by talking about how frustrated we both are with the special interests that
dictate our democracy.
Iowa had more
counties that flipped from Obama to Trump in 2016 than any other state. Five of
those are in the 4th district. What do you think caused that Obama-Trump flip,
and how do you flip those people back to the Democratic Party?
I think both
campaigns really ran on hope and change. Trump ran on change and being
different, and I think that’s some of the appeal that we have to a lot of these
people, too. Because I’m not a traditional candidate. I’m a first-time
candidate and people, especially in Sioux City, know me more for baseball than
they do as being a Democrat.
People are
comforted by that and by our message that says, “Listen, I’m not out there to
run and just be a Democrat. I’m out there to fight for the district and work
for the people of my district.” But at the same time, I’m not shying away from
issues. I’m out there talking to Republican farmers about Medicare-for-all.
One of the
issues that I find fascinating about the 4th district is immigration. Rep. King
is anti-immigration and anti-reform in every way possible. Yet, as you’ve
talked about, immigration is vital to the economy there and many business
owners want real reform.
I remember
launching this campaign and I was told, “Oh, you should at least try to talk to
some consultants about shaping your stances and stuff.” I talked to somebody in
D.C. and they said, “Don’t talk about immigration.” I immediately said, “You
know what? I’m not dealing with consultants. I’m running my own campaign, and
just listening to the people.”
There are two
hog plants — one’s about to open and one’s been open for over a year — on two
different sides of the district, and both executive directors have talked
about a need for an immigrant workforce. And then one of the grain elevators
last harvest I went and talked to, and those folks were talking about how they
needed 39 people, seasonal workers, to help with their harvest last year. They
didn’t get one American citizen to apply. For us to have such an extreme
representative that is just so far removed from what this district is on this
issue, it’s absolutely insane. It’s so bizarre.
You’re doing
these town halls and talking about immigration, that the system is broken, that
the economy will thrive if we can fill these workforce needs. Yet Steve
King, the incumbent, literally wants to do the opposite of all of that and
supports an administration that’s scaring away what workforce is left. How
do people respond?
We haven’t had
a Democrat willing to get out there and travel as much as we have. You’re not
going to win people over by just having a good commercial. The first time we
went on the tour, it was mostly Democrats [turning out] at that point, and they
said, “Well, somebody should run against King. God bless you.” And then the
second time going around, they’re like, “Wow. He’s just not not Steve King.
He’s actually standing for something.”
And then the
third time around, they see that hope and that change. We started very humbly
with this campaign. I’m a first-time candidate, and my first quarter
[fundraising] was under $40,000. Now, a year and a half later, we’ve passed
$1.8 million. I didn’t hire a campaign manager right away. I didn’t hire a
finance director. I hired a comms person, and that’s why we have over 90,000
followers on Twitter because I knew we were running against King. And I knew
that if I could have a voice on Twitter, I could reach out to enough folks to
draw attention to this race.
That almost
backfired when I wasn’t bringing in money and all that stuff. I mean,
Thanksgiving last year, if we weren’t bringing in money in the next week, week
and a half, I was about to have to collapse the campaign. But we started
raising money, and success breeds success. We just haven’t looked back, and
here we are with under two weeks left to go, and not only do we have a chance
to win, I’m feeling more and more optimistic every day.
THIS VIDEO
TAKES SECOND PLACE TO THE HALF NUDE YOUNG WOMAN WHO REMOVED HER TOP AT AN EVENT
A COUPLE OF YEARS OR SO AGO. SHE HAD WRITTEN POLITICAL SLOGANS ALL OVER HER
BODY. SANDERS’ SOMEWHAT CONTROVERSIAL “GUY COMMENT” WAS THAT HE WAS LOOKING AT
HER SO CLOSELY BECAUSE HE “WANTED TO SEE WHAT SHE HAD TO SAY.” BUT REALLY, WHAT
DO YOU SAY WHEN SOMETHING LIKE THAT HAPPENS? BOTH SHE AND THIS TRUMP SUPPORTER
WERE REMOVED BY AUTHORITIES. BY THE WAY, BERNIE ISN’T “SHOUTING,” HERE AS THE
ARTICLE STATES. HE’S JUST ESTABLISHING ORDER. HE GAVE THE GUY A LITTLE OVER A
MINUTE AND THANKED HIM FOR HIS CONTRIBUTION TO THE DISCUSSION. WHEN HE KEPT ON
SHOUTING, TWO OFFICERS CAME TO ESCORT HIM OUT, BUT VERY GENTLY. BERNIE DIDN'T SUGGEST AS TRUMP DID THAT HIS FOLLOWERS PHYSICALLY ASSAULT A SIMILAR TRESPASSER AT HIS RALLY. THAT ISN'T JUST BECAUSE BERNIE'S SMART, BUT BECAUSE HE IS DECENT.
DECEMBER 15,
2019
Trump supporter
grabs spotlight at Sanders event with a message for the president
By Nick Givas |
Fox News
VIDEO -- A
Trump supporter took center stage at an Iowa campaign event for 2020
presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., on Saturday, where he stood
up and delivered a message to President Trump.
1:37 MIN. DURATION.
Sanders sensed
trouble from the beginning when he saw the young man approach the microphone
and said, "Oh, he's looking at his phone. I'm in trouble."
After being
given the mic to ask Sanders a question, the man addressed the commander in chief
directly, offering him words of encouragement.
"Mr.
Trump, keep going man. You're doing a good job," he said. "You know
what, I'm a liberal."
DID JOE BIDEN
CALL AN IOWA VOTER 'FAT' DURING HEATED EXCHANGE? TWITTER SURE THINKS SO
The man was
then briefly cut off by boos from the crowd before Sanders urged them to let
him finish. The man said he voted for Sanders during the 2016 Democratic
primary but is now fully behind the president.
"I don't
agree with anything you say. I used to. I voted for you in 2016," he said.
"And I've been to Vietnam and seen what socialism has done. It's destroyed
the lives [of many]."
The crowd
mockingly laughed at his claims before he hit back, and reiterated the failures
of socialism.
"You can
laugh all you want," he shouted. "Donald Trump is helping our
country. All right? He's a good man... Socialism does not work."
Bernie and the
unidentified man continued to shout over one another until the man was escorted
out of the room by what appeared to be law enforcement.
Fox News'
Andrew Craft contributed to this report.
Nick Givas is a
reporter with Fox News. You can find him on Twitter at @NGivasDC.
Bernie Sanders
calls Pete Buttigieg's health care plan 'a failed idea'
Nick Coltrain
Des Moines
Register
Published 11:38
PM ET, December 14, 2019
VIDEO – Full
speech: Bernie Sanders speaks at disability forum.
BURLINGTON,
Iowa — U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders said Saturday that South Bend, Indiana, Mayor
Pete Buttigieg's "Medicare for all who want it" health care hybrid
would be "unfair" to working families.
Sanders'
"I wrote the damn bill" quote about "Medicare for All" has
become a cheer line on debate stages and in rallies, and his decades-long
consistency on supporting universal health care coverage is a draw for many of
his supporters.
Buttigieg, like
many candidates seeking the Democratic nomination for president, outlined a
health care plan that stops short of Sanders' goal. Instead, Buttigieg
proposes giving people a choice between buying into a public option of health
care coverage or purchasing private insurance. And that's its fatal flaw,
Sanders said. It would overload the government with the most expensive
patients, he said.
"When you
talk about having a system where you're going to have private insurance and
you're going to have (a public) option going in, the rich and the healthy will
go into private insurance, the poor and the sick will go into Medicare and
cost that system an enormous amount of money," Sanders said. "So it's
a failed idea in my view."
He chastised
the prescription drug and health care industries as creating a
"dysfunctional, cruel system that is very, very expensive." He asked
attendees for stories about health care costs, and they shared tales of high
costs for inadequate care. When an attendee asked about Buttigieg's plan,
Sanders called it "unfair."
"If
Buttigieg or someone else wants to maintain that system, I think it's really
unfair to the working families of this country," Sanders said. "I'm
just suggesting to you we can substantially lower health care costs for working
families."
Buttigieg
surged to the lead in the most recent Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom Iowa
Poll, released in November. Sanders was No. 3, tied with former Vice
President Joe Biden. U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren was in second. Warren, Sanders
and Biden were all within a percentage point of each other, according to the
poll.
Nick Coltrain
is a politics and data reporter for the Register. Reach him at ncoltrain@registermedia.com
or at 515-284-8361.
WHAT HAPPENS
WHEN WE CHOOSE TO DISABLE OUR HUMAN REACTION MECHANISMS CALLED EMPATHY AND
JUDGMENT, FOR WHATEVER REASONS OR EXCUSES? WE BECOME LESS THAN HUMAN. I’M SO
GLAD TO SEE THAT THE CITY IS FORKING OVER A MAJOR MONEY SETTLEMENT, BUT THIS IS
THE KIND OF THING THAT THE BORDER PATROL HAS BEEN DOING AS WELL. THE DIFFERENCE
HERE IS THAT JAZMINE HEADLEY IS BLACK RATHER THAN HISPANIC.
THE MENTION OF
THE HUMAN RESOURCES ADMINISTRATION IN THIS STORY IS SOMEWHAT SOOTHING TO ME,
BECAUSE I DO BELIEVE THAT THE HIRING AND TRAINING, AND WHEN NEEDED, THE FIRING
OF OFFICERS WHO CROSS CERTAIN KINDS OF LINES IS RESPONSIBLE FOR MUCH OF THE
OUTCOME IN THESE CASES. WHEN THE VIDEO WENT OUT ACROSS THE INTERNET, THE CITY
WAS FORCED TO ACT. TOO OFTEN, THOUGH, NOTHING HAPPENS TO THE OFFICERS.
THANK GOD FOR
THE SPREAD OF SMART PHONES THROUGHOUT MOST OF THE COUNTRY. BEFORE VIDEOS LIKE
THESE, THERE WAS NEVER ANY PROOF OF WHAT HAPPENED, AND THE OFFICERS OR
MANAGEMENT WAS ALWAYS ASSUMED TO BE TRUTHFUL AND CERTAINLY NOT ABUSIVE. THAT
ASSUMPTION IS NO LONGER BEING MADE, IN AT LEAST SOME OF THESE CASES.
NYC to pay
$625,000 to mom whose baby was ripped from her arms by police
UPDATED ON:
DECEMBER 15, 2019 / 4:47 PM / CBS/AP
New York City
will pay $625,000 to settle a lawsuit from a woman whose baby was violently
pulled from her arms by police officers at a city facility, the city confirmed
to CBS News. The incident, which occurred in December 2018, was caught on video
and was widely viewed online.
In a statement,
the city said it hoped the settlement would bring Jazmine Headley, 24, and her
family "a degree of closure."
"Ms.
Headley came to the city seeking help, and we failed to treat her with the
dignity and respect she deserved," the city said. While this injustice
should have never happened, it forced a reckoning with how we treat our most
vulnerable and prompted us to make reforms at HRA [Human Resources
Administration] Centers across the city."
Trending News
Hallmark under
fire for pulling TV ads showing same-sex couple
Man accused of
slapping reporter's bottom is charged
13-year-old
faces murder charges in death of NYC student
Joe Biden's
niece pleads guilty in $110K theft
Lisa Schreibersdorf,
executive director of Brooklyn Defender Services, which represented Headley,
said they were "pleased" with the settlement.
Photograph --
181211-jazmine-headley.png
Jazmine Headley
addresses the media after being released from Rikers Island on Tue., Dec. 11,
2018.
CBS NEW YORK
"I am very
pleased that Ms. Headley will receive a settlement that reflects both the harm
that came to her and her son and an acknowledgement from the City of New
York of the extent of their wrongdoing in this matter," Schreibersdorf
said. "I hope that this recognition also results in changes to the way the
city treats people who are trying to access the help and services they need and
deserve."
Headley, 24,
was arrested and spent four days in jail in December 2018 before Brooklyn
District Attorney Eric Gonzalez dropped charges of obstructing governmental
administration, resisting arrest, endangering the welfare of a child and
trespassing.
Gonzalez said
he was "horrified by the violence depicted in the video" and said the
situation should have been handled differently.
Nyashia
Ferguson, a witness, said a security officer confronted Headley, who had been
sitting on the floor of the crowded city Human Resources Administration (HRA)
office for hours because of a lack of chairs. Headley's family told CBS
New York she had been waiting nearly four hours to renew daycare vouchers.
"The
security guard, I guess she came over and told her she couldn't sit there. So
she's like, 'Where am I going to sit?' She was like, 'I guess you're going
to just have to stand.' She said, 'Well, I'm not going to stand with my
son,'" Ferguson told CBS New York. "She was like, 'What is the crime?
What did I do wrong?' And then it just escalated."
Photograph --
1211-ctm-nypdbabyvideo-duncan-midwest-1731556-640x360.jpg
Police
responded, and the woman ended up lying face-up on the floor during a tug of
war over the child. At one point, an
officer can be seen on the video pulling her stun gun and pointing it at people
in the angry crowd.
Headley's
lawsuit alleged that her child suffered physical, mental and other injuries and
that Headley's name and image would forever be associated with that
"traumatic and violent experience."
The video, posted
to social media by an onlooker, caused a furor, spurring outrage from those
who say it's indicative of how social service recipients are treated.
First published
on December 15, 2019 / 2:39 PM
© 2019 CBS
Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this
report.
Trump Campaign
Bizarrely Edits His Head Onto Greta Thunberg's Body on Her TIME Cover
"How truly
childlike & embarrassing to this country," one Twitter user responded
By Sean Neumann
December 13, 2019 05:06 PM
VIDEO – GRETA
THUNBERG SPEAKING DURATION 2:22
President
Donald Trump‘s re-election campaign has routinely made bizarre, even trolling
choices in order to go viral while promoting him and his agenda.
The campaign
took that strangeness to another level Friday, posting an edited image of
President Trump’s head on climate activist Greta Thunberg‘s new TIME cover.
The
manipulation of Thunberg’s “Person of the Year” cover shows Trump’s 73-year-old
head pasted onto her 16-year-old body along with a list of his 2016 campaign
promises that his re-election team claims he has already accomplished.
“There’s only
one Person of The Year,” the campaign wrote with the altered cover. (Trump,
noted for his love of being on magazines, has a special fascination with TIME,
even making fake covers in the past.)
RELATED:
Melania Trump’s Rep Speaks Out After President Mocked a Teenager on Twitter
Trump War Room
(Text TRUMP to 88022)
✔
@TrumpWarRoom
When it comes
to keeping his promises, there's only one Person Of The Year:
✅Booming Economy
✅Record Job
Creation
✅Historic Tax
Cuts
✅#AmericaFirst
Trade Deals
✅ISIS Destroyed
✅Building the
Wall#TIMEPOY #PromisesMadePromisesKept
View image on
Twitter
8,927
11:04 AM - Dec
12, 2019
Twitter Ads
info and privacy
9,842 people
are talking about this
EVGENIA
ARBUGAEVA FOR TIME
From left:
Greta Thunberg and President Donald Trump MIQUEL BENITEZ/GETTY; PATRICK SEMANSKY/AP/SHUTTERSTOCK
Trump, who
was named a finalist for TIME’s “Person of the Year” honor earlier in 2019,
was not happy the distinction went to Thunberg.
“So
ridiculous,” he tweeted Thursday, sarcastically adding, “Greta must work on her
Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend!
Chill Greta, Chill!”
RELATED: Greta
Thunberg’s Subtle Clap-Back After Donald Trump Mocked Her Again on Twitter
The teen
activist, who has become a global face for the urgency of addressing climate
change, responded by subtly changing her Twitter bio to read “a teenager
working on her anger management problem. Currently chilling and watching a good
old fashioned movie with a friend.”
Thunberg had a
similar response when Trump previously attacked her on Twitter back in September.
Former First Lady Michelle Obama was among those who supported Thunberg this
time around, tweeting to her directly: “Don’t let anyone dim your light. …
Ignore the doubters and know that millions of people are cheering you on.”
Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
So ridiculous.
Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old
fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill!
https://twitter.com/RealRomaDowney/status/1204822160470093824 …
Roma Downey
✔
@RealRomaDowney
Congrats
@GretaThunberg https://twitter.com/time/status/1204743717132914688 …
229K
7:22 AM - Dec
12, 2019
Twitter Ads
info and privacy
178K people are
talking about this
Earlier this
week, the Trump campaign became the butt of many Twitter jokes after sharing an
edited clip from Avengers: Endgame which turned the president into the Marvel
supervillain Thanos.
Twitter users
were quick to point out the irony of comparing Trump to a mass-murdering
villain who ultimately fails at the end of the movie.
“Thanos was the
bad guy who was eventually defeated by the good guys. So great meme, idiots,”
one user bluntly responded.
The campaign’s
photo edit of Trump and Thunberg was equally met with ridicule on Friday.
RELATED: How
Greta Thunberg — Now the Youngest TIME Person of the Year Ever — ‘Destroys’
Asperger’s Stigma
Greta Thunberg
(center)
Greta Thunberg
(center) DREW ANGERER/GETTY
“How truly
childlike & embarrassing to this country,” one user wrote. Others responses
included a list of criticisms and claims against the president as well as a
political cartoon of Thunberg spanking Trump.
In a statement,
Melania Trump‘s spokeswoman appeared to say the first lady had differed with
the president’s decision to attack Thunberg.
For her part,
Thunberg this week responded to the argument that her climate activism was
political.
“If anyone
thinks that what I and the science are saying is advocating for a political
view – then that says more about that person than about me,” she tweeted
Thursday. “That being said – some are certainly failing more than others.”
By Sean Neumann
@neumannthehuman
How Greta
Thunberg — Now the Youngest TIME Person of the Year Ever — 'Destroys'
Asperger's Stigma
"Given the
right circumstances, being different is a superpower," Greta Thunberg
wrote on Twitter
By Rachel
DeSantis December 11, 2019 01:52 PM
VIDEO --
Teen climate
change activist Greta Thunberg has Asperger’s, a diagnosis that an estimated 1
in 250 people will receive, according to the Asperger/Autism Network.
But the way
she’s broken the mold surrounding the disorder is rare.
The Swedish 16
year old — who was named TIME’s Person of the Year on Wednesday, making her the
youngest person to ever be given the honor — hasn’t shied away from flipping
the script on her Asperger’s, at one point referring to it not as an obstacle
but as her “superpower.”
“Being
different is a good thing,” she told PEOPLE in October. “It’s something we
should aspire to be.”
The pride with which
she embraces her diagnosis has not been lost on others with Asperger’s, who now
view Thunberg as a role model. Case in point: the trending Twitter hashtag
“Autistics for Greta.”
“She is my
SHERO!” user @hmcooperauthor wrote in September. “Such a fearless, articulate
young woman. We might be considered ‘odd, weird, quirky….’ Or whatever
adjectives that you prefer to insert but I’m convinced folks on the Autism
Spectrum have superpowers that you all just don’t…”
PAID CONTENT
Special savings
on inspired reporting
Inspiration.
Understanding. Make them part of your daily routine.
From The New
York Times
User
@ThruThePrismArt agreed, writing, “I’m on the spectrum. Anyone who
underestimates Greta has NO IDEA how powerful the autistic brain is when set to
a specific goal. The strength of being #ActuallyAutistic is LIMITLESS.”
Amber
Ockerbloom
@AmberOckerbloom
This is
it!! This is what ASD is. Passion and
unending dedication to a cause. @GretaThunberg is a superhero to my daughter
and all those on the spectrum. ASD is why she is who she is. How can that ever
be something bad?! #AutisticsForGreta #GretaThurnberg #ASD https://twitter.com/GretaThunberg/status/1167916177927991296
…
Greta Thunberg
✔
@GretaThunberg
When haters go
after your looks and differences, it means they have nowhere left to go. And
then you know you’re winning!
I have
Aspergers and that means I’m sometimes a bit different from the norm. And -
given the right circumstances- being different is a superpower.#aspiepower
View image on
Twitter
94
10:02 AM - Sep
24, 2019
Twitter Ads
info and privacy
36 people are
talking about this
“This is it!!
This is what ASD is. Passion and unending dedication to a cause,” user
@AmberOckerbloom added. “@GretaThunberg is a superhero to my daughter and all
those on the spectrum. ASD is why she is who she is. How can that ever be
something bad?!”
Regardless of
why they’re paying attention to her, Thunberg told PEOPLE she knows she has
many eyes watching her every move — and hopes to make the best of it.
“Right now, I
have a lot of people listening to what I am saying, so I am using that platform
to try to achieve a change,” she said.
Asperger’s is a
type of autism that was adopted under the broader autism disorder umbrella in
2013, after previously being its own diagnosis.
The disorder is
characterized by having difficulty with social interactions, restricted
interests, a desire for sameness, and distinctive strengths, like “remarkable”
focus and persistence, an aptitude for recognizing patterns, and attention to
detail, according to Autism Speaks.
DANIEL
REINHARDT/PICTURE ALLIANCE/GETTY
Those strengths
have served Thunberg well, as she explained on CBS This Morning that her
Asperger’s actually helps her in seeing the world through a different lens.
“In some
circumstances it can definitely be an advantage to have some kind of
neurotypical diagnosis, to be neurodiverse, because that makes you different,
that makes you think differently,” she said. “And especially in such a big
crisis like this, when we need to think outside the box. We need to think
outside our current system, we need people who think outside the box and who
aren’t like everyone else.”
RELATED: Teen
Climate Activist Greta Thunberg Blasts World Leaders at the UN: ‘How Dare You!’
The interview
built upon an earlier tweet she’d written, in which she dismissed critics
insulting her “looks and differences,” and instead wrote that she considered
“being different” a “superpower.”
Greta Thunberg
✔
@GretaThunberg
· Aug 31, 2019
When haters go
after your looks and differences, it means they have nowhere left to go. And
then you know you’re winning!
I have
Aspergers and that means I’m sometimes a bit different from the norm. And -
given the right circumstances- being different is a superpower.#aspiepower
View image on
Twitter
Greta Thunberg
✔
@GretaThunberg
I'm not public
about my diagnosis to "hide" behind it, but because I know many
ignorant people still see it as an "illness", or something negative.
And believe me, my diagnosis has limited me before. >
104K
4:46 PM - Aug
31, 2019
Twitter Ads
info and privacy
7,246 people
are talking about this
“I’m not public
about my diagnosis to ‘hide’ behind it, but because I know many ignorant people
still see it as an ‘illness,’ or something negative,” she wrote.
Thunberg’s firm
pride in her Asperger’s subsequently serves as inspiration for those dealing
with the same thing, says Erica Remi, director of development for the
Asperger/Autism Network.
“I think she’s
a role model to everyone,” Remi told NBC News. “But I think for somebody who
has Asperger’s or is on the autism spectrum, her ability to be honest and
disclose it in such an empowering way is what’s inspirational. Greta is
disclosing it in a way that she’s proud of.”
Greta Thunberg
Greta Thunberg
KENA BETANCUR/AFP/GETTY
Collier Litel,
a 23-year-old who has Asperger’s, told the outlet he wished that he’d had a
figure like Thunberg to look up to as a child.
“It means a lot
that she’s willingly embraced Asperger’s syndrome and talks about it openly. It
creates a lot of awareness and destroys some stigmas,” he said. “I think it
would have had a tremendous impact on what I viewed as possible not only for
myself, but for cultivating relationships around me.”
Thunberg first
rose to prominence last year after the school strikes she held to protest
climate change caught on with younger people around the world.
“I think it’s
very hopeful, all the young people who are a part of the climate change movement,”
she previously told PEOPLE. “That keeps me going, to see that it actually has
made a difference. Because there is no second option.”
RELATED:
Swedish Environmental Activist Greta Thunberg, 16, Nominated for Nobel Peace
Prize
In August, she
sailed across the Atlantic Ocean in a zero-carbon emission boat to arrive in
New York City for the U.N. Climate Action Summit, where she urged leaders to
make much-needed changes for the sake of the planet.
Then in
September, she led the largest climate strike of all time, with millions of
people from more than 150 countries taking to the streets to demand that world
leaders take immediate action to lower carbon emissions.
If we don’t do
something about it now, she told PEOPLE, “It will only get worse. My hope is
that we can fix it in time.”
By Rachel
DeSantis
@Santis_DeRachel
Twitter Jeers
After Trump Campaign Video Turns Him Into Marvel Supervillain Thanos: 'Great Meme,
Idiots'
Thanos'
co-creator Jim Starlin, for one, wasn't laughing about the clip
By Sean Neumann
December 11, 2019 12:21 PM
Donald Trump‘s
re-election campaign may have learned the wrong lessons from Avengers: Endgame.
On Tuesday, a
Trump 2020 Twitter account posted a clip from Endgame that turned the
president, 73, into the purple-skinned genocidal maniac Thanos — aka the
supervillain, who is defeated.
Not so in the
Twitter clip, which had Trump-as-Thanos use his reality-warping powers to
turn leading Democratic lawmakers into dust.
“House
Democrats can push their sham impeachment all they want,” the campaign wrote.
Playing off of
one of Thanos’ favorite boasts, the campaign added, “President
Trump’s re-election is inevitable.”
While the tweet
was in keeping with Trump’s love of trolling memes, it quickly boomeranged
once other users began pointing out Thanos is the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s
mass murdering antagonist … who ultimately fails, despite his claims of “inevitability.”
RELATED:
President Trump Tries to Meme His Rejected Border Wall Into Reality — Game of
Thrones-Style
“Y’all realize
that Thanos loses? He wipes out half the universe’s population before the
Avengers can defeat him and reverse the snap, and you think that he’s the good
guy? Good grief,” one user wrote.
“Did you, uh….
did you happen to watch the rest of that movie?” another asked.
Trump War Room
(Text TRUMP to 88022)
✔
@TrumpWarRoom
House Democrats
can push their sham impeachment all they want.
President
Trump's re-election is 𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘃𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲.
Embedded video
42.3K
3:50 PM - Dec
10, 2019
Twitter Ads
info and privacy
33.7K people
are talking about this
Thanos’
co-creator Jim Starlin wasn’t laughing either.
On Tuesday, he
posted a critical response to the Trump campaign on Instagram for using the
clip, saying he felt “violated” that they edited his work for their own
purposes.
“After my
initial feeling of being violated, seeing that pompous dang fool using my
creation to stroke his infantile ego, it finally struck me that the leader
of my country and the free world actually enjoys comparing himself to a mass
murderer. How sick is that?” Starlin wrote. “These are sad and strange times we
are going through. Fortunately all things, even national nightmares, eventually
come to an end.”
In the Avengers
film, Thanos kills half of the universe’s population in a twisted bid to
achieve harmony for living things and the resources they need. However, he
is eventually outsmarted and killed by The Avengers, including Captain America
and Iron Man.
“Thank you for
making it clear that Donald Trump is a murderous villain who must be defeated
to save humanity,” television writer David Slack responded. “Very inspiring.”
The campaign’s
Twitter video includes a clip of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi from
Tuesday, when she and a group of Democratic House leaders announced two
articles of impeachment against Trump in connection with the Ukraine scandal.
Trump has been
under investigation by the House for months after he lobbied Ukraine to
investigate his political rivals. He is accused of allegedly pressuring
Ukraine’s government to do his bidding while withholding American support,
including some $400 million in military aid for Ukraine in its conflict with
Russia.
The president
steadfastly maintains he did nothing wrong. On Tuesday, following the
Democrats’ announcement, he tweeted, “WITCH HUNT!”
President
Donald Trump NOAM GALAI/WIREIMAGE
The 21-second
clip has been viewed more than 3.5 million times since it was posted Tuesday,
with more about 10 thousand retweets and a well of joking responses.
“So Trump is
Thanos and the Democrats are the Avengers trying to restore democracy that evil
Republicans have nearly destroyed,” a user tweeted back. “Glad we’re on the
same page.”
Another user
wrote: “Thanos was the bad guy who was eventually defeated by the good guys. So
great meme, idiots.”
Garbled pop
culture references aren’t new for Trump. Earlier this year, the president
posted a meme referencing Game of Thrones, which showed his face looming over a
picture of his proposed border wall with text that read, “The Wall is Coming” —
a play off the show’s tagline, “Winter is Coming.”
RELATED: Sophie
Turner, Maisie Williams and More Slam Trump for Game of Thrones-Inspired Tweet
Users quickly
pointed out that The Wall in Game of Thrones was dramatically destroyed in the
Season 7 finale.
The president
also had a campaign video removed from Twitter for copyright issues after he
posted a re-election clip using music from The Dark Knight Rises.
RELATED:
Trump’s 2020 Tweet Gets Blocked for Using Dark Knight Rises Score Without
Permission
THIS FROM TYT SHOWS
THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN VIDEO USING THE THANOS CHARACTER.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eGQ4avZ-AI
#TYT
#TheYoungTurks #Trump
Trump Thanos Ad
Tweeted By Campaign
156,824
views•Dec 10, 2019
THUMBS UP 4.6K
THUMBS DOWN 1.5K
Trump
campaign's weird Thanos video. Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian, hosts of The Young
Turks, break it down. Tell us what you think in the comments below.
MORE TYT:
https://tyt.com/trial
Read more here:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/thanos...
"A Twitter
account managed by Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign team posted a video depicting
the president as Marvel villain Thanos, inserting the president’s face in a
scene from “Avengers: Endgame.”
“I am
inevitable,” Trump’s Thanos says, snapping his fingers and causing
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others to dissolve into dust, much like what
happened to many Marvel heroes."*
Hosts: Cenk
Uygur, Ana Kasparian
Cast: Cenk
Uygur, Ana Kasparian
***
The Largest
Online News Show in the World. Hosted by Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian. LIVE
STREAMING weekdays 6-8pm ET. http://tyt.com/live
Subscribe to
The Young Turks on YouTube: http://youtube.com/subscription_cente...
TYT on
Facebook: http://facebook.com/theyoungturks
TYT on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/theyoungturks
TYT on
Instagram: http://instagram.com/theyoungturks
Merch:
http://www.shoptyt.com
Donate to TYT
https://patreon.com/tytnetwork
http://tyt.com/donate
Download audio
and video of the full two-hour show on-demand + the members-only postgame show
by becoming a member at http://tyt.com/join/. Your membership supports the day
to day operations and is vital for our continued success and growth.
Gift membership:
http://tyt.com/gift
Producer,
Senior Producer and Executive Producer membership: http://go.tyt.com/producer
Young Turk (n),
1. Young progressive or insurgent member of an institution, movement, or
political party. 2. A young person who rebels against authority or societal
expectations. (American Heritage Dictionary)
#TYT
#TheYoungTurks #Trump
Despite ‘Be
Best’ Campaign, Melania Trump Stays Mum as Husband Mocks Greta Thunberg
But Stephanie
Grisham, the White House press secretary, said in a statement that the first
lady communicates “differently” from President Trump.
By Katie Rogers
Dec. 13, 2019
PHOTOGRAPH --
Greta Thunberg in Madrid on Tuesday. The president mocked her on Twitter after
Time announced her as person of the year.
Greta Thunberg
in Madrid on Tuesday. The president mocked her on Twitter after Time announced
her as person of the year. Credit...Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images
WASHINGTON —
Melania Trump, who last year promoted anti-cyberbullying tips as part of her
child-focused kindness campaign called “Be Best,” sidestepped any comment
Friday on President Trump’s recent decision to mock Greta Thunberg, a
16-year-old climate activist, on Twitter.
“‘Be Best’ is
the first lady’s initiative, and she will continue to use it to do all she can
to help children,” Stephanie Grisham, the White House press secretary, said in
a statement first reported by CNN. “It is no secret that the president
and first lady often communicate differently — as most married couples
do."
A day earlier,
Mr. Trump targeted Ms. Thunberg after Time magazine named her its person of the
year. “So ridiculous,” Mr. Trump said on Twitter. “Greta must work on her Anger
Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill
Greta, Chill!”
The Trump
campaign also distributed a doctored image of a Time cover with the president’s
head superimposed on Ms. Thunberg’s body.
Trump War Room
(Text TRUMP to 88022)
✔
@TrumpWarRoom
When it comes
to keeping his promises, there's only one Person Of The Year:
✅Booming Economy
✅Record Job
Creation
✅Historic Tax
Cuts
✅#AmericaFirst
Trade Deals
✅ISIS Destroyed
✅Building the
Wall#TIMEPOY #PromisesMadePromisesKept
View image on
Twitter
8,924
11:04 AM - Dec
12, 2019
Twitter Ads
info and privacy
9,833 people
are talking about this
Ms. Thunberg,
who has criticized the president for not responding to climate change, was
quick to hit back, and received supportive messages from people like Michelle
Obama, the former first lady, who, in a tweet, encouraged her to “ignore the
doubters.”
The White House
at first declined to issue a statement on behalf of Mrs. Trump, whose “Be Best”
effort focuses on child well-being and internet kindness. The material the
first lady has distributed to followers of the initiative has tips for
protecting children against online harassment.
The East Wing
distributed a pamphlet last year called “Talking With Kids About Being Online”
that advises adults to talk to children about online manners. Among the tips:
“Remind them that real people with real feelings are behind profiles, screen
names and avatars.” The pamphlet was also the subject of plagiarism accusations
against the first lady, claims the East Wing denied.
Mrs. Trump is
fiercely protective of her own son, Barron, who is three years younger than Ms.
Thunberg, and reacted sharply when his name was invoked last week during a
congressional hearing.
Editors’ Picks
Lovers in
Auschwitz, Reunited 72 Years Later. He Had One Question.
‘S.N.L.’
Presents Kellyanne Conway’s ‘Marriage Story,’ Plus Baby Yoda
This Is What
Racism Sounds Like in the Banking Industry
Pamela S.
Karlan, a Stanford law professor testifying in support of Mr. Trump’s
impeachment, was trying to make a distinction between kings and presidents when
she mentioned Mrs. Trump’s son.
“The Constitution
says there can be no titles of nobility,” she said. “While the president can
name his son Barron, he can’t make him a baron.”
Ms. Grisham
flagged the comment for the first lady, who criticized Ms. Karlan for it on
Twitter.
“A minor child
deserves privacy and should be kept out of politics,” Mrs. Trump said. “Pamela
Karlan, you should be ashamed of your very angry and obviously biased public
pandering, and using a child to do it.”
Ms. Karlan
later apologized.
Ms. Grisham
said on Friday that there was a distinction between someone mentioning the name
of the youngest Trump child at a congressional hearing, and the president
mocking Ms. Thunberg, who has Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism.
“Their son is
not an activist who travels the globe giving speeches,” Ms. Grisham wrote. “He
is a 13-year-old who wants and deserves privacy.”
RELATED
President Trump
and Greta Thunberg
Trump Mocks
Greta Thunberg on Twitter, and She Jabs Back Dec. 12, 2019
RELATED
Greta Thunberg,
Climate Activist, Arrives in N.Y. With a Message for TrumpAug. 28, 2019
Katie Rogers is
a White House correspondent in the Washington bureau, covering the cultural
impact of the Trump administration on the nation's capital and beyond.
@katierogers
A version of
this article appears in print on Dec. 14, 2019, Section A, Page 17 of the New
York edition with the headline: Mrs. Trump Has No Reply As Mr. Trump Mocks a
Teen. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
RECENT SANDERS
YOUTUBE VIDEOS:
Bernie Sanders
On How He Would Fix Public Education | MSNBC
63,833 views •
Dec 14, 2019
THUMBS UP 1.6K
THUMBS DOWN 731
7:25 DURATION
MSNBC
At the Public
Education Forum 2020, Sen. Bernie Sanders talks about his plan to cancel
college and debt, and how he would fix public education to give equal
opportunity to all.
7:05 / 1:20:26
Bernie Rallies
with Working Families in Ottumwa, Iowa
10,148 views • Streamed
live 20 hours ago DECEMBER 16, 2019
THUMBS UP 1.5K
THUMBS DOWN 34
Bernie Sanders
260K
subscribers
NOT A TIME FOR
THINKING SMALL: You are far more powerful than the establishment allows you
to think you are. Our campaign is about recognizing that power to create a
government that works for all people, not just a wealthy few. Live from
Ottumwa, Iowa:
Category
News &
Politics
Bernie Rallies
with Working Families in Fairfield, Iowa
8,595 views • Streamed
live on Dec 15, 2019
THUMBS UP 966
THUMBS DOWN 28
Bernie Sanders
260K
subscribers
THE MOVEMENT
THAT SCARES TRUMP: Corporate America will be behind Trump with endless amounts
of money, and we need to energize millions of young people, working people and
new voters to beat him. We are the campaign to do that. Live from Fairfield,
Iowa:
Category
News &
Politics
30 Years of
Speeches
221,177 views •
Mar 24, 2016
THUMBS UP 17K
THUMBS DOWN 237
Bernie Sanders
Watch this
amazing video that a talented volunteer put together showing 30 years of
speeches.
Video by EJH
Category
News &
Politics
BERNIE IS ON
THE WARPATH HERE. I PERSONALLY CARE ABOUT BASEBALL, PROBABLY BECAUSE IN MY HOMETOWN
WE, TOO, HAD A MINOR LEAGUE TEAM. PLACES LIKE THOMASVILLE, NC HAD IN THOSE DAYS
VERY LITTLE FOR KIDS LIKE ME TO DO. WE DROVE TO NEARBY HIGH POINT FOR AN INDOOR
THEATER, BOWLING, SOME GOOD RESTAURANTS, ETC. THERE WAS A DRIVE-IN THEATER, PUBLIC
LIBRARY, A PARK AND A CITY SWIMMING POOL. THAT’S ABOUT ALL. WE HAD A POPULATION
OF TEN TO FIFTEEN THOUSAND.
Sanders
'outraged' after MLB threatens to cut ties with minor league teams
BY MARTY
JOHNSON - 12/14/19 07:24 PM EST
PHOTOGRAPH –
Bernie Sanders © Greg Nash
Sen. Bernie
Sanders (I-Vt.) sent a letter to Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred
Saturday to express his outrage at the league's threat to completely sever ties
with its affiliate minor league baseball teams.
“I’m outraged
to hear of your threat to eliminate the entire existing Minor League Baseball
system,” Sanders wrote in his letter.
“When we last
met, you gave me your word that you would be negotiating in good faith with
Minor League Baseball to preserve professional baseball in the communities that
currently have it," he added. "Threatening to walk away from the
entire minor league system is the exact opposite of negotiating in good faith.”
Bernie Sanders
✔
@BernieSanders
I’m outraged,
@MLB. Threatening to walk away from the entire minor league system is the exact
opposite of negotiating in good faith.
View image on
TwitterView image on Twitter
6,302
6:54 PM - Dec
14, 2019
Tensions
between Minor League Baseball (MiLB) and MLB have reached a boiling a
point as the two sides try to reach a new agreement. Their current deal expires
in 2020.
Friday night,
Minor League Baseball (MiLB) issued a report blaming MLB for “repeatedly and
inaccurately” describing MiLB's stance on the negotiations.
MLB responded Saturday,
saying "If the National Association [of Minor League Clubs] has an
interest in an agreement with Major League Baseball, it must address the very
significant issues with the current system at the bargaining table."
“Otherwise, MLB
clubs will be free to affiliate with any minor league team or potential team in
the United States, including independent league teams and cities which are not
permitted to compete for an affiliate under the current agreement," the
league continued.
Initially,
Manfred proposed to cut 42 minor league teams, an idea that didn't sit well
with many, including Sanders.
Sanders has
previously written to and met with Manfred, urging him to not cut any of the
teams.
“Shutting down
25 percent of Minor League Baseball teams, as you have proposed, would be an
absolute disaster for baseball fans, workers and communities throughout the
country,” Sanders initially wrote to the commissioner. “Not only would your
extreme proposal destroy thousands of jobs and devastate local economies, it
would be terrible for baseball.”
Bernie Sanders
✔
@BernieSanders
.@MLB is
proposing to cut 42 Minor League Baseball clubs.
This has
nothing to do with what's good for baseball and everything to do with greed.
It would
destroy thousands of jobs and devastate local economies.
I'm urging @MLB
Commissioner Manfred to stop this proposal.
View image on
TwitterView image on Twitter
20.8K
1:10 PM - Nov
25, 2019
Twitter Ads
info and privacy
5,778 people
are talking about this
In his first
letter, Sanders also called on Manfred to pay minor league players a living
wage.
According to
his campaign, Sanders will hold an event Sunday in Burlington, Iowa with minor
league officials and former players who are against the proposed reduction. Burlington is
home to the Burlington Bees – a Class A affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels –
one of the 42 teams that is on the chopping block.
TAGS MAJOR
LEAGUE BASEBALL BERNIE SANDERS MLB
**** ****
**** ****
Comments
Post a Comment