Pro-life group promises legal aid to those hurt by California's college 'abortion pill' law

The pro-life group Students for Life of America (SLA) said Friday it would offer legal assistance to any students or health care workers whose “conscience rights” were threatened by a new California law that requires all public universities in the state to supply students with the “abortion pill” at on-campus clinics.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, signed the bill into law Friday. It requires all 34 campuses in the University of California and California State University systems to provide the abortion medication on-campus to women who are less than 10 weeks pregnant. It is to take effect in 2023 as long as a state commission can raise more than $10 million in private donations to pay for it.
“California just ensured women will die in their dormitory bathrooms, bleeding out alone from the abortion pill,” SLA President Kristan Hawkins wrote on Twitter, reacting to Newsom's action. “The #prolifegen will not stand for this. We will fight to protect the preborn and their mothers, as well as the conscience rights of campus health center workers. #sb24”

“California just ensured women will die in their dormitory bathrooms, bleeding out alone from the abortion pill.”
— Kristan Hawkins, president, Students for Life of America

“#SB24 in California forces all public colleges to assist with dangerous toilet bowl abortions,” Students for Life also said on Twiiter. “If you are a student or employee who is worried how this affects your #consciencerights message us and we will assist you. The fight is not over.”
Hawkins, who also heads Students for Life Action, continued her argument in a separate statement.
“Governor Newsom’s reckless support for a new abortion pill distribution scheme on California college and university campuses will put students’ lives at risk and put schools at risk of lawsuits as conscience rights are violated,” she wrote.
In addition to helping students and healthcare workers in California, Hawkins said her organization is looking into providing legal assistance to women in other states whose legislatures are considering similar bills.
“Student fees underwrite the costs of the healthcare centers on campuses, which will now be required to distribute deadly chemical abortion pills,” Hawkins continued. “And healthcare professionals will also be forced to hand them out no matter the consequences to women’s health, but Students for Life of America will make sure to connect these victims of conscience right violations with legal help to stop the spread of a bad idea that is only good for propping up abortion vendors like Planned Parenthood.”
Medication abortion involves taking two pills — the first, taken at the clinic, blocks the hormone progesterone, while the second, taken days later at home without the supervision of a medical professional, produces a result similar to a miscarriage.

'Protected right'

The bill’s author, state Sen. Connie Leyva, D-Chino, a  told the Associated Press: “Abortion is a protected right, and it is important that everyone — including college students — have access to that right, if they so choose."

“Abortion is a protected right, and it is important that everyone — including college students — have access to that right, if they so choose."
— California state Sen. Connie Leyva, D-Chino

“After three years of working to expand access to medication abortion at our public universities, I'm ecstatic that #SB24 was signed into law! Today, California stood on the right side of history by protecting and prioritizing the right to choose,’ Levya also said in a statement. “Just because you have a constitutional right, if you don’t have access to that constitutional right, then it’s really no right at all. I’m tired of women being shamed.”

'Other states ... go backward'

Newsom, upon signing the bill, pointed to several Republican-led states, including Georgia, Kentucky and Mississippi, that have passed laws banning abortions at around six weeks into pregnancy once a fetal heartbeat is detected.
“As other states and the federal government go backward, restricting reproductive freedom, in California we are moving forward, expanding access and reaffirming a woman’s right choose,” Newsom said at news conference Friday, according to the Sacramento Bee. “We’re removing barriers to reproductive health -- increasing access on college campuses and using technology to modernize how patients interact with providers.”

“As other states and the federal government go backward, restricting reproductive freedom, in California we are moving forward, expanding access and reaffirming a woman’s right choose.”
— California Gov. Gavin Newsom

Former California Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a similar bill last year, arguing it was not necessary because abortion services were readily available off campus. Newsom, a former mayor of San Francisco who became governor in January, said the law is needed "as other states and the federal government go backward, restricting reproductive freedom."

Other pro-life reactions

Other Religious and pro-life groups also opposed the bill.
Live Action President Lila Rose said the law "turns universities into abortion centers."
Maria Jose Fernandez, legislative advocate for the California Catholic Conference, said the law is "trying to limit the alternatives for women."
"We're giving them the option to terminate a life, but what about those who want to continue on with that pregnancy? Where is the help for those women?" Fernandez told The Associated Press.
Bishop Jaime Soto, president of the California Catholic Conference, implored Catholics and other Christians in an open letter to pray for the dissolution of SB 24 in order to shield “infants and young college-age women from the scourge of abortion,” the Los Angeles Times reported.
The state's Republicans voted against the measure in committee hearings. A handful of Assembly Democrats abstained during floor debates. The Department of Finance, under Newsom’s office, also opposed the bill, citing a lack of resources, personnel expertise and private funds to support a program of such “size, scope or content.”
Also Friday, Newsom signed a law clarifying that Planned Parenthood can prescribe birth control via teleconference without a video chat, as it can in other states.
Jodi Hicks, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, said the bill signings show "that California understands reproductive health care is health care. And health care is a human right."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Trump blasts 'bulls--- impeachment' at Louisiana rally, says Nancy Pelosi 'hates the United States'

President Trump slammed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., during a Friday night rally in Louisiana, saying "Nancy Pelosi hates the United States of America."
In his second rally in as many nights -- following Thursday's rally in Minneapolis -- Trump also ridiculed the ongoing impeachment inquiry spearheaded by House Democrats, whom he called "scammers and con artists,"
"They know they can't win an election," Trump told a packed arena in Lake Charles, La., "so they're pursuing an illegal, unconstitutional bulls--- impeachment."

"They know they can't win an election so they're pursuing an illegal, unconstitutional bulls--- impeachment."
— President Trump

The president's use of the barnyard epithet drew a roar from the crowd, just as a profane joke about former President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden did a night earlier in Minnesota. On Friday, Pelosi described Trump's Obama-Biden crack as "disgraceful," possibly prompting the president's Louisiana remark about the speaker.
On Friday, Trump also attacked Biden and his son Hunter Biden over their Ukrainian business dealings for the second night in a row, accusing the media of covering up potential Biden corruption and complaining that if any of his children were similarly accused, the media wouldn't call the allegations unsubstantiated — "They would be saying, 'Where's the nearest cell?'"
The president decried the "rage-filled Democrat Party that has gone completely insane" accusing them of waging a "nonstop battle" to "overthrow" his presidency.
Trump also mocked ex-FBI officials and lovers Peter Strzok and Lisa Page again saying "these people are corrupt. These people are disgusting."
"This is the witch hunt," he said. "They've been trying to stop us for three years with a lot of crap."
Trump's appearance in Louisiana was scheduled to help rally Republican voters against the state's Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards.

President Donald Trump introduces Louisiana Republican gubernatorial candidates Eddie Rispone, left, and Ralph Abraham, during his campaign rally on the eve of the Louisiana election, in Lake Charles, La., Friday, Oct. 11, 2019. The two are running against incumbent Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards.

"Tomorrow you will head to the polls and vote to replace a liberal Democrat who has sold you out, John Bel Edwards, with a great Republican governor," Trump said in his remarks, encouraging Louisianians to get to the polls before Saturday night's big college football matchup between unbeaten Louisiana State University and the University of Florida or else they would feel guilty and "it will ruin your entire afternoon."
The president was joined onstage by both U.S. Rep. Ralph Abraham and businessman Eddie Rispone, but did not endorse either candidate in order to maximize chances that Edwards will fall below the 50 percent vote threshold needed to avoid a runoff in Saturday's gubernatorial "jungle primary," in which all the candidates appear on a single ballot.
"You're not allowed to hit your Republican opponent, you're only allowed to hit John Bel Edwards," Trump said, extending an olive branch between the two GOP candidates, who have been at loggerheads in the race to the governor's mansion.
The president's trip to Louisiana came one day after another fiery rally in Minneapolis, during which Trump also slammed House Democrats and their impeachment inquiry against him.
The president touted the country's economy and boasted about the truce reached with China just hours before he landed in Louisiana, which stipulates that China will purchase up to $50 billion worth of agricultural goods from American farmers and also will postpone tariffs on Chinese goods that were originally set to take effect next week.
"I just made a great China deal today for energy, for the farmers, for the banks... I want to tell you, I got China to order a lot!"
He did not mention the growing issue of censorship in the U.S. over ongoing pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.
"We've ended the war on American energy, and with your help, right here in Louisiana, the United States is now the number one producer of oil and natural gas anywhere on the planet!" Trump also boasted.
He also slammed Edwards for the state's tax hike, which was passed with Republican support.
"You are going to fire your Democratic governor who has done a lousy job and send a great Republican to the governor's mansion," Trump said.
Other top Republicans, including Vice President Pence and Donald Trump Jr., have paid visits to the state, which Trump won by nearly 20 percentage points in 2016.
Neither Abraham nor Rispone has been able to break away as the top competitor, even as Rispone poured $11 million of his own personal wealth into the campaign. Party leaders' efforts to keep the men from fighting each other have failed, raising concerns the backbiting could wound both GOP contenders and help Edwards. Republicans blame attacks among their own candidates for helping to elect Edwards four years ago.
Edwards isn't the type of liberal, anti-Trump Democrat with whom the president usually clashes.
Louisiana's governor is an anti-abortion, pro-gun West Point graduate who avoids criticizing Trump, talks about his strong rapport with the White House and calls the impeachment inquiry a distraction for Washington.
"He's 100 percent going to drop the second Amendment ... John Bel Edwards will not protect your second amendment," Trump told the crowd.
While Edwards' efforts to keep the president at bay in the governor's race have been unsuccessful, the Democratic incumbent isn't complaining about the rallies. Instead, he has downplayed them, calling it unsurprising that Trump backs members of his own party in the "hyperpartisan" environment of Washington. He said he would continue to "work well" with the president and focus on his own, bipartisan approach to governing.
"When my opponents realized just how much support my campaign had from the people of Louisiana, they started calling in help from forces in Washington, D.C.," Edwards said. "My opponents are obsessed with political partisanship because the only way they think they can win is to divide the state of Louisiana."
Republicans nationally have targeted Edwards for ouster since his longshot election victory four years ago. But work to unify around one major contender failed, with the state's top-tier, well-known GOP officials passing on the race.
Trump was also joined on stage by Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., who said: "I told you, Donald J. Trump loves Louisiana like the devil loves sin."
He also invited the Eastbank All-Stars, the Little League baseball championship team that joined him at the White House earlier in the day and then flew on Air Force One to the rally, to come on stage in Louisiana.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Fox News Cartoons

First ever pro-life summit to take place in D.C. in January 2020

A handful of conservative organizations are extending a hand to others ahead of the nation’s first ever pro-life summit. The one day event will take place next year and aims to recruit and train pro-life activists of all ages.
Students for Life America, Live Action, Alliance Defending Freedom and the Heritage Foundation are hoping to grow a grassroots movement in 2020. The summit titled ‘Casting a Vision for a Post-Roe America’ aims to advance the pro-life agenda by recruiting more allies. The event will feature prominent Republican speakers such as the vice president’s daughter, Charlotte Pence, and former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. The conference will focus on ways to encourage pro-life values and elect politicians who will prioritize pro-life laws. They will also discuss strategies for overturning the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court case.
Students for Life President Kristan Hawkins is set to take the stage, where she hopes to strike common ground with people on the other side of the aisle. Hawkins recently voiced her support for abolishing abortion and is encouraging fathers to take care of the babies they help create.
“After the Alabama and Georgia pro-life laws passed, pro-abortion feminists took to the internet saying that if abortion is gonna be illegal, men need to step up and be responsible — Amen sisters,” she said. “Despite what you may have heard, men play an important role in abortion.”
Hawkins went on to say a man’s primary job is to protect his family, which she claims begins with helping the woman he impregnates take care of their child. The SFLA leader said encouraging men to fulfill their fatherly duties may help reduce the number of abortions.
The 2020 National Pro-Life Summit will take place in Washington D.C. next January.

President Trump thanks OANN for providing ‘fair coverage and brilliant reporting’

President Trump gave One America News a shout-out on Thursday morning for our “fair coverage” and “brilliant reporting.” The president thanked the network in a tweet, saying “it is appreciated by many people trying so hard to find a new, consistent and powerful voice.”

Thank you to @OANN One America News for your fair coverage and brilliant reporting. It is appreciated by many people trying so hard to find a new, consistent and powerful VOICE! See you tonight at the Big Rally in Minneapolis.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 10, 2019

He added “See you tonight at the big rally in Minneapolis” in a nod to our commitment to provide full coverage of all of his rallies.
President Trump also tweeted about Fox News on Thursday, saying the media company “is so different than it used to be.” He criticized a new Fox poll, which claims 51 percent of Americans want him impeached. The president said he has never had a good Fox poll since the day he was elected.

From the day I announced I was running for President, I have NEVER had a good @FoxNews Poll. Whoever their Pollster is, they suck. But @FoxNews is also much different than it used to be in the good old days. With people like Andrew Napolitano, who wanted to be a Supreme….

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 10, 2019

He went on to say that Fox News has recently been going downhill, suggesting that contributors like Andrew Napolitano, Shepard Smith and Donna Brazile have changed the channel.
“Fox just doesn’t deliver for us anymore,” reiterated the president.
Shepard Smith was one of the only reporters at Fox to publicly criticize the president’s Ukraine call. Donna Brazile, a former CNN anchor, was hired by Fox in an effort to shift the network’s coverage to a more moderate stance.

'Trump watch party’ reinstated at Michigan restaurant after RNC chair Ronna McDaniel's tweet rallies the troops: report

Management at a Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant in Michigan had a sudden change of heart this week after initially canceling a plan by local Republicans to hold a “Trump watch party” at the location because of unspecified “complaints.”
Perhaps helping speed the reversal: Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel of the Republican National Committee – a former chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party whose grandfather was a Michigan governor – learned the event had been called off and alerted her 376,000 Twitter followers.
"Just learned @BWWings cancelled a Michigan viewing party for @realDonaldTrump’s rally," McDaniel wrote in a since-delated post, according to the Washington Examiner. " ... tell them the left's cancel culture has gone too far."
Soon the restaurant’s location in Howell, Mich., and the corporate office in Minneapolis were receiving calls and messages from Republicans, the Examiner wrote -- and officials decided to allow the Trump watch party to proceed.
A representative for the chain later told the Examiner that the cancellation had been “based on a misunderstanding.”
“The group has in fact previously hosted events at the restaurant without incident,” the statement said. “The franchise owner apologizes for the misunderstanding.”
McDaniel later tweeted a "thank you" message to the chain.
"Thank you @BBWings for letting the watch party proceed as planned," McDaniel wrote, "and thank you to everyone who expressed their support for @realDonaldTrump!
Howell is about 55 miles northwest of Detroit.

Trump protest in Minneapolis erupts in pepper spray, MAGA hat fires

Hundreds of protesters outside President Trump’s rally in Minneapolis Thursday night set fire to Make America Great Again hats and other memorabilia in an effort to show their defiance to the current administration before police broke up the crowd, reports said.
There were reports that multiple protesters were arrested. One report indicated that protesters threw urine.
Cell phone video posted by Star Tribune reporter Chao Xiong showed Trump supporters walking through a crowd of protesters outside the Target Center in Minneapolis, shouting, “Lock him up” and “Shame on you.”
A reporter for The Washington Post posted a video on Twitter that appeared to show a protester punch a Trump supporter in the back of the head as he left the rally. The crowd can be heard shouting “Nazi scum! Off our streets!” The video shows a Trump supporter being followed by protesters before someone calls out “There’s a Nazi over here,” prompting the attack.
The apparent Trump supporter was also slapped and pushed before eventually running to safety.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that police deployed pepper spray.
Police officers on horseback and bicycles formed a protective line in front of the arena, according to The Tribune. Officers with riot batons and shields also maneuvered through the crowd of protesters. The  Post captured video of one Hispanic family who wore pro-Trump clothing departing from the rally as one protester shouted “He hates you!” The mother repeated “Mexicanos for Trump!" as she left the scene.
Trump arrived in Minnesota as polls show Americans' support rising for impeachment. Democrats claim he used his office to pressure Ukraine into investigating the Bidens for his political gain. Trump insists that he was just making sure the country was doing its part to weed out corruption.
Trump was joined by Vice President Mike Pence, who had a separate schedule of appearances in the state Trump is trying to tip his way next year.
CLICK HERE FOR THE ALL-NEW FOXBUSINESS.COM
Trump praised police officers during his rally.  USA Today reported that Minneapolis police were not allowed to attend the rally in their uniforms, so they wore, "Cops For Trump" t-shirts.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Californian Gas Price Cartoons

Millions playing waiting game over electricity shutoffs

SONOMA, Calif. (AP) — Millions of Californians played a waiting game with the winds Thursday as Pacific Gas & Electric watched the weather before deciding whether to restore power to an enormous portion of the state blacked out on purpose.

The state’s largest utility pulled the plug to prevent a repeat of the past two years when wind-blown power lines sparked deadly wildfires that destroyed thousands of homes.

The unpopular move that disrupted daily life — prompted by forecasts calling for dry, gusty weather — came after catastrophic fires sent PG&E into bankruptcy and forced it to take more aggressive steps to prevent blazes.

The blackouts began Wednesday, hitting more than 500,000 homes and businesses north of San Francisco Bay, in the wine country, the Central Valley and the Sierra Nevada foothills, where a November wildfire blamed on PG&E transmission lines killed 85 people and virtually incinerated the town of Paradise.

Late Wednesday night, after a full day of delays, PG&E began cutting power in the Bay Area, excluding the city of San Francisco.

Overall, about 734,000 customers and as many as 2 million people could be affected. PG&E has warned that they might have to do without power for days after the winds subside because “every inch” of the power system must be inspected by helicopters and thousands of groundworkers and declared safe before the grid is reactivated.

“It’s just kind of scary. It feels worse than Y2K. We don’t know how long,” Tianna Pasche of Oakland said before her area was powered down. “My two kids, their school situation keeps moving every second. It’s not clear if we need to pack for a week and go out of town or what to do. So I’m just trying to make sure we have water, food, charging stations and gas.”

“For me, this is a major inconvenience in my life as a parent but also, if it saves a life, I’m not going to complain about it,” she said.

Residents of the Oakland Hills, where a wildfire in 1991 killed 25 people and destroyed thousands of homes, spent the morning buying bottled water, getting cash and filling their cars with gas.

In the northern wine country, most of downtown Sonoma was pitch black when Joseph Pokorski, a retiree, showed up for his morning ritual of drinking coffee, followed by beer and cocktails.

The Town Square bar was open and lit by lanterns, but coffee was out of the question and only cash was accepted. Pokorski decided to forgo a 30-minute wait for a cup of joe from the bakery next door and move on to beers and a couple greyhound cocktails of vodka and grapefruit juice.

“I’m not a coffee freak,” Pokorski said. “I can take it or leave. It’s no big thing.”

In the El Dorado Hills east of Sacramento, California, Ruth Self and her son were taking an outage in stride while leaving a Safeway grocery store that had been stripped nearly bare of bottled water and ice.

Self said she wasn’t upset, given the lives lost nearly a year ago in Paradise, invoking images of people who burned in their cars trying to escape.

“I just can’t imagine,” she said. “Hopefully (the outages) are only for a couple days. I think it’s more of a positive than a negative. Ask me again on Friday night when I haven’t had a shower in two days, when I’ve had to spend two days playing card games.”

There was some good news. PG&E also announced that by reconfiguring its power system, it had restored electricity to 44,000 customers who weren’t in areas of high fire risk, and it could bring back power to 60,000 to 80,000 customers in the Humboldt area, where gusty winds had subsided.

Also because of shifting forecasts, the utility said it was reducing the third phase of its blackout plan, set to begin Thursday, to only about 4,600 customers in Kern County — one-tenth of the original estimate.

Unsurprisingly, the unprecedented blackouts sparked anger. A customer threw eggs at a PG&E office in Oroville. A PG&E truck was hit by a bullet that shattered a window in Colusa County before Wednesday’s outages, although authorities couldn’t immediately say whether it was targeted. PG&E put up barricades around its San Francisco headquarters.

“We realize and understand the impact and the hardship” from the outages, said Sumeet Singh, head of PG&E’s Community Wildfire Safety Program. But he urged people not to take it out on PG&E workers.

“They have families that live in your communities, they have friends, they are members of your communities,” he said. “They’re doing this work in the interest of your safety.”

PG&E took drastic action because of hot, dry Diablo winds sweeping into Northern California, said Scott Strenfel, PG&E’s principal meteorologist. They were also part of a California-wide weather system that will produce Santa Ana winds in the south in the next day or so, he said.

“These (weather) events historically are the events that cause the most destructive wildfires in California history,” Strenfel said.

Winds gusting as high as 70 mph in places were forecast to begin hitting Southern California later Thursday. Southern California Edison warned that it might cut power to nearly 174,000 customers in nine counties, including Los Angeles and its surrounding areas. San Diego Gas & Electric has notified about 30,000 customers they could lose power in back-country areas.

While many people said the blackouts were a necessity, others were outraged — the word that Gov. Gavin Newsom used in arguing that PG&E should have been working on making its power system sturdier and more weather-proof.

“They’re in bankruptcy due to their terrible management going back decades,” Newsom said in San Diego. “They’ve created these conditions. It was unnecessary.”

Singh said the utility has more than 8,000 employees and contractors who have been clearing brush, inspecting power lines and putting power lines underground.

But he said the power grid wasn’t built to withstand the changing weather and the previous safety factor “no longer exists.”

Although fire agencies had beefed up their crews because of red-flag conditions of extreme fire danger, very few fires were currently burning in California. Only a tiny fraction of acreage has burned, so far, this year compared with recent years, though no one has attributed that to the power cuts.

___

Melley reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press writers Janie Har and Olga Rodriguez in San Francisco, Jocelyn Gecker in Moraga, Don Thompson in El Dorado Hills, Haven Daley in Oakland, and Christopher Weber and John Antczak in Los Angeles contributed to this story.

White House aides try disappearing act amid impeachment talk

WASHINGTON (AP) — They’ve skipped the high-profile Sunday TV shows and avoided driveway chat sessions with reporters. Few who are typically eager to defend the president have appeared at all on television so far this month.

White House officials close to President Donald Trump are pulling off a disappearing act, remaining largely absent from public view — in the middle of the storm over impeachment.

“We invited the White House on to answer questions on the show this morning,” CNN’s Jake Tapper explained to his viewers on Sunday’s “State of the Union.” ″They did not offer a guest.”

It’s a well-worn strategy in the Trump White House: Senior officials conveniently manage to be elsewhere when major controversies engulf the building. The frequent absences of Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, and presidential daughter Ivanka Trump during moments of consequence have long been a running joke among their detractors. Their detours included a trip to Florida during the partial government shutdown.

Plenty of others have jumped town during tense moments.

As Trump struggled with mounting Republican defections over his decision to declare a national emergency to pay for the stalled border wall, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney wasn’t at the Capitol cajoling his former colleagues or in the West Wing making calls. Instead, he was in Las Vegas for an annual friends and family getaway.

More recently, embattled national security adviser John Bolton scheduled a trip to Mongolia while Trump became the first sitting U.S. president to set foot in North Korea, a gesture that didn’t sit well with Bolton, who would leave the administration a few months later.

Indeed, knowing “when to be out of town” was one of the top nuggets of advice that Kevin Hassett, the president’s former top economic adviser, said he’d received from a predecessor and had to offer his successor.

The White House did not respond to questions about the tactic Wednesday. But even when they’re in Washington, many of the White House’s most visible officials have been staying out of public view, letting the president’s indignant Twitter feed and his frequent commentary drive the public conversation.

That includes White House spokesman Hogan Gidley, a frequent guest on Fox News shows and the gaggles with reporters that often follow on the White House driveway. White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, an aggressive defender of the president, has not made an appearance on the driveway since a highly contentious Sept. 27 gaggle in which she berated reporters and dismissed a question about whether the White House was organizing an impeachment war room.

“I’m the only person out here taking your questions,” Conway noted then. She did, however, appear at an event with first lady Melania Trump, speaking with teens and young adults about their experiences with electronic cigarettes and vaping.

Appearances have come instead from lower-profile staffers, including the vice president’s chief of staff, Marc Short; the acting director of Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought; and economic adviser Larry Kudlow, who tried to stay out of the controversy. He’s said repeatedly that questions about Ukraine and the president’s efforts to dig up damaging information about former Vice President Joe Biden are way out of his lane.

Adding to the vacuum is the continued lack of White House briefings. White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham has yet to hold one.

“It’s surprising that they’re not using the many levers on the most powerful communications platform in the world, which is the White House,” said Joe Lockhart, who served as press secretary during the impeachment of President Bill Clinton. He said that the White House is losing out on effective platforms to try to drive its message.

“Nobody is vouching for him or validating him and filling in the blanks,” Lockhart said of Trump.

Many aides to the president have grown reluctant to speak out on Trump’s behalf for fear the president will then contradict them. Instead, they allow the president to set the day’s message on his Twitter feed and vigorously defend himself.

But one of the reasons Clinton’s impeachment strategy was effective, Lockhart said, was that the president almost never talked about the impeachment drama. He relied on his lawyers, his communications staff and outside allies to make the case for him.

“The president shouldn’t be his own defender,” Lockhart said. “The president should be focused on doing the job of the president.”

But unlike Clinton, Trump has another tool at his disposal: a massive and well-funded campaign operation that has vigorously defended the president on Twitter and cut a series of ads that paint the impeachment inquiry as nothing more than a Democratic “coup” aimed at overturning the results of the 2016 election.

Another ad released Wednesday focuses on allegations against Biden and his son Hunter, which the president and his allies have been pursuing despite lacking evidence of any wrongdoing.

Tim Murtaugh, the Trump campaign’s communications director, said the campaign team speaks with its counterparts at the White House every day and work in tandem.

“At all times we take our lead from the White House,” he said. “The president is our boss and we are an extension of him we make made all of our decisions accordingly.”