The Squad Cartoons

‘Squad’ members not ‘all in’ on Sanders endorsement -- at least not yet

Is there dissension in the ranks of “The Squad”?
One day after reports emerged that the group of far-left House Democrats planned to endorse Sen. Bernie Sanders in the 2020 presidential race, it seemed only one of them – Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn. – was officially aboard the Bernie Bus:
As for the others:
-- Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had made no official endorsement but was still rumored to be attending a Sanders rally scheduled for this weekend in Queens, N.Y. – one of two New York city boroughs that include a portion of Ocasio-Cortez’s home district.
-- Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., clarified Wednesday that she had not yet endorsed a 2020 presidential candidate – even though CNN and Omar claimed Tlaib had backed Sanders.
-- Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., also hadn’t made an endorsement.
Pressley’s camp stressed that while the Squad members support one another in Congress, they don’t necessarily speak with one voice on all issues.
“Ayanna has tremendous respect for her sisters-in-service,” a Pressley spokesperson told Vox. “Ultimately, these political decisions are made as individuals.”

“Ayanna has tremendous respect for her sisters-in-service. Ultimately, these political decisions are made as individuals.”
— Spokeswoman for U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass.

One factor possibly stalling a Pressley endorsement of Sanders: She hails from the same state as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, so she might not be as eager to oppose a presidential candidate from her home area – the way that Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., for example, backed former Vice President Joe Biden instead of her fellow Californian, Sen. Kamala Harris.
According to Boston.com, Pressley’s ties to the Sanders campaign aren’t as strong as those of Ocasio-Cortez and Omar, with Pressley having backed Hillary Clinton over Sanders in 2016. In addition, Pressley has worked with Warren on legislation in Congress and also has close relationships with Harris and Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., who have been seeking her endorsement, the report said.
Tlaib, meanwhile, hasn’t ruled out a Sanders endorsement down the road, telling the Detroit Free Press she will host the U.S. senator from Vermont in her district later this month – just as she recently did recently with Warren. (Warren posted video from that visit online Wednesday -- and Tlaib retweeted it.)
"I am looking forward to bringing Senator Sanders to Michigan on Oct. 27 for a tour of our district that will highlight economic justice issues and corporate tax giveaways, and (include) a roundtable with housing justice advocates,” Tlaib said. “I need to know that anyone I choose to endorse will fight for my residents, and I appreciate the opportunity for them to have a dialogue with Sen. Sanders about these critically important issues.”

“I need to know that anyone I choose to endorse will fight for my residents, and I appreciate the opportunity for them to have a dialogue with Sen. Sanders about these critically important issues.”
— U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.

But regardless of what Tlaib and Pressley ultimately decide to do, the Sanders endorsement by Omar – and rumored endorsement by Ocasio-Cortez – were blows to the Warren campaign, coming on the same night that the senator fended off fierce attacks from fellow Democrats at the party’s presidential debate in Ohio.
As Boston.com noted, Warren has courted Ocasio-Cortez, having lunch with her in March, writing a blurb for Ocasio-Cortez’s entry in Time magazine’s “Time 100” listing, and filming a video with Ocasio-Cortez in which the pair reviewed the final episode of “Game of Thrones.”

Buttigieg tweeted support for Medicare-for-all in resurfaced tweet despite attacking Warren at debate

South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg attacked Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s Medicare-for-all plan at Tuesday night’s Democratic debate, saying that his Medicare-"for-All-Who-Want-It" plan is "just better."
He has criticized single-payer at the last few debates, claiming it would "obliterate private plans."
But in a resurfaced tweet from last year, Buttigieg professed support for it.
"I, Pete Buttigieg, politician, do henceforth and forthwith declare, most affirmatively and indubitably, unto the ages, that I do favor Medicare for all, as I do favor any measure that would help get all Americans covered," Buttigieg wrote in a February 2018 tweet, responding to whether he supported it.
A Buttigieg aide Wednesday said that he had not changed his position on Medicare for all, explaining that he supports it as an end goal but he wants to take a "glide path" to get there, The Hill reported.
“What I'll say is that I've laid out a plan that now explains how we're going to get there, that makes Medicare available to all and at the same time doesn't do away with private plans," Buttigieg told a reporter Wednesday who asked if his position had changed.
He added that he doesn’t think private plans need to be gotten rid of to make Medicare available to everyone, according to The Hill.
At the debate, Warren said Buttiegieg’s plan was really “Medicare-for-all-who-can-afford-it.”
Former President Obama aide and "Pod Save America" host Jon Favreau tweeted Wednesday that both Buttigieg and Kamala Harris have changed their positions on Medicare-for-all.
"And there can be perfectly legitimate reasons for that," he wrote. "The difference is, Harris hasn’t been openly attacking her old position. Trickier to pull off!"

Presidential pardons less of an obstacle for NY state prosecutors under new law: report

So you’ve committed a crime but received a pardon from the president of the United States.
That might no longer help you in New York state.
In what appeared to be an action aimed squarely at President Trump, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill into law Wednesday that lets the state’s prosecutors bring charges against those who’ve received presidential pardons for the crimes in question.
According to Politico, the U.S. Supreme Court has already ruled that state prosecutors can bring charges against people who have already faced similar federal charges. But New York’s state law had included ways of blocking the state-level trials.
Cuomo’s signature Wednesday helped erase those obstacles, the report said.
One test of the new law could come if Trump attorney and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani eventually faces charges of lobbying violations under the federal probe he is reportedly facing regarding business dealing in Ukraine, Politico reported.
"This critical new law closes a gaping loophole that could have allowed any president to abuse the presidential pardon power by unfairly granting a pardon to a family member or close associate and possibly allow that individual to evade justice altogether,” New York state Attorney General Tish James said in a statement Wednesday. “No one is above the law, and this commonsense measure will provide a reasonable and necessary check on presidential power today and for all presidents to come.”
In August, President Trump criticized The Washington Post after the newspaper printed a story saying the president claimed he would pardon aides if they broke the law in order to speed the process for building a U.S.-Mexico border wall before the 2020 presidential election.
“Another totally Fake story in the Amazon Washington Post (lobbyist) which states that if my Aides broke the law to build the Wall (which is going up rapidly), I would give them a Pardon,” Trump wrote at the time. “This was made up by the Washington Post only in order to demean and disparage - FAKE NEWS!”
Earlier this month Trump posthumously pardoned Zay Jeffries, a World War II scientist who helped develop tank-piercing artillery that helped defeat the Nazis. After the war, Jeffries was convicted of business actions that violated Sherman Anti-Trust Act.
Other recipients of Trump pardons have included Joe Arpaio, a former sheriff in Arizona; Lewis “Scooter” Libby, a former chief of staff to former Vice President Dick Cheney; Jack Johnson, a champion boxer; and Dinesh D’Souza, a conservative author and filmmaker.
Fox News' Danielle Wallace and Melissa Leon contributed to this story.

Elijah Cummings dead at 68

Rep. Elijah Cummings, the powerful House Democrat who represented Baltimore for more than two decades and was a vocal critic of President Trump, died early Thursday after battling health problems, his office said in a statement
Cummings, who was 68, died at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, his hometown. As chair of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, he was one of the most powerful Democrats in Washington, and played a key role in the House Democrats' ongoing efforts to impeach Trump.
"This is a terrible tragedy," Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont, tweeted. "Elijah is one of the most honest, thoughtful, decent people I ever met in politics. His moral compass was unfailing throughout his life in and out of politics. My deepest thanks to Elijah’s family for lending him to our country for all these years."
Cummings has not returned to work after an undisclosed medical procedure that he said would only keep him away for about a week.
In the House, Cummings built a substantial power base. At the time of his death, he was chairman of the influential House Oversight Committee and a leading voice in the Congressional Black Caucus. He played a key role in the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.
Cummings was born on Jan. 18, 1951. In grade school, a counselor told Cummings he was too slow to learn and spoke poorly, and he would never fulfill his dream of becoming a lawyer.
"I was devastated," Cummings told The Associated Press in 1996, shortly before he won his seat in Congress. "My whole life changed. I became very determined."
Cummings, a sharecropper's son-- one of seven children-- led multiple investigations of the president's governmental dealings, including probes in 2019 relating to the president's family members serving in the White House.
He clashed with Trump after the president criticized his district as a "rodent-infested mess" where "no human being would want to live."
Cummings replied that government officials must stop making "hateful, incendiary comments" that only serve to divide and distract the nation from its real problems, including mass shootings and white supremacy.
"Those in the highest levels of the government must stop invoking fear, using racist language and encouraging reprehensible behavior," Cummings said in a speech at the National Press Club.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

Elizabeth Warren Cartoons

Takeaways: Warren under fire, 70s club ignores age issue

A dozen Democratic presidential candidates participated in a spirited debate Tuesday over health care, taxes, gun control and impeachment. Takeaways from the three-hour forum in Westerville, Ohio.

WARREN’S RISE ATTRACTS ATTACKS

Sen. Elizabeth Warren found Tuesday that her rise in the polls may come with a steep cost. She’s now a clear target for attacks, particularly from more moderate challengers, and her many plans are now being subjected to much sharper scrutiny.

Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg slammed her for not acknowledging, as Bernie Sanders has, that middle-class taxes would increase under the single-payer health plan both she and Sanders favor.

“At least Bernie’s being honest with this,” Klobuchar said.

“I don’t think the American people are wrong when they say what they want is a choice,” Buttigieg told Warren. His plan maintains private insurance but would allow people to buy into Medicare.

Candidates also pounced on Warren’s suggestion that only she and Sanders want to take on billionaires while the rest of the field wants to protect them. Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke told Warren it didn’t seem like she wanted to lift people up and she is “more focused on being punitive.”

And they piled onto her signature proposal, a 2% wealth tax to raise the trillions needed for many of her ambitious proposals. Technology entrepreneur Andrew Yang noted that such a measure has failed in almost every European country where it’s been tried.

THAT 70s SHOW

The stage included three 70-something candidates who would be the oldest people ever elected to a first term as president — including 78-year-old Sanders, who had a heart attack earlier this month. Moderators asked all three how they could do the job. None really addressed the question.

Sanders invited the public to a major rally he’s planning in New York City next week and vowed to take the fight to corporate elites.

Biden promised to release his medical records before the Iowa caucuses next year and said he was running because the country needs an elder statesman in the White House after Trump.

Warren, whose campaign has highlighted her hours-long sessions posing for selfies with supporters, promised to “out-organize and outlast” any other candidate — including Trump. Then she pivoted to her campaign argument that Democrats need to put forth big ideas rather than return to the past, a dig at Biden.

__

ONE VOICE ON IMPEACHMENT

The opening question was a batting practice fastball for the Democratic candidates: Should Trump be impeached?

They were in steadfast agreement. All 12 of them. Largely with variations on the word “corrupt” to describe the president.

Warren was asked first if voters should decide whether Trump should stay in office. She responded, “There are decisions that are bigger than politics.”

Biden, who followed Sanders, offered a rare admission: “I agree with Bernie.”

The only hint of dissonance came from Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who was one of the last Democratic House members to back an impeachment inquiry. She lamented that some Democrats had been calling for Trump’s impeachment since right after the 2016 election, undermining the party’s case against him.

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KLOBUCHAR: MINNESOTA NOT-SO-NICE

Klobuchar has faded into the background in previous debates, but she stood out on the crowded stage.

She also went on the attack. She chided entrepreneur Andrew Yang for seeming to compare Russian interference in the 2016 election to U.S. foreign policy. But her main barbs were reserved for Warren. “I appreciate Elizabeth’s work but, again, the difference between a plan and a pipe dream is something you can actually get done,” she said.

After Warren seemed to suggest other candidates were protecting billionaires, Klobuchar pounced. “No one on this stage wants to protect billionaires,” Klobuchar said. “Even the billionaire doesn’t want to protect billionaires.”

That was a reference to investor Tom Steyer, who had agreed with Sanders’ condemnation of billionaires and called for a wealth tax — despite the fact that his wealth funded his last-minute campaign to clear the debate thresholds and appear Tuesday night.

Klobuchar also forcefully condemned Trump’s abandonment of the Kurds in Syria.

__

BOOKER THE PEACEMAKER

New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker has been trying to campaign on the power of love and unity. It hasn’t vaulted him to the top of the polls, but it drew perhaps the biggest cheers from the crowd Tuesday night.

As candidates bickered over their tax plans, Booker shut it down. “We’ve got one shot to make Donald Trump a one-term president and how we talk about each other in this debate actually really matters,” he said. “Tearing each other down because we have a different plan is unacceptable.”

Later, as candidates tussled over foreign policy and Syria, Booker again tried to bring the debate back to morals. “This president is turning the moral leadership of this country into a dumpster fire,” he said, before launching into a furious condemnation of Trump’s foreign policy.

The New Jersey senator’s inability to break out of the pack has puzzled Democrats who long saw him as a top-tier presidential candidate.

Warren comes under attack from all sides at Dem debate, as Biden defends son's business practices

Rising Democratic co-frontrunner Sen. Elizabeth Warren came under attack from all sides during Tuesday night's presidential debate, as former Vice President Joe Biden defiantly defended his son's business practices overseas and vehemently denied any wrongdoing.
All of the 12 Democrats onstage in Westerville, Ohio, meanwhile, backed the ongoing impeachment inquiry against President Trump. In a sign of apparent disunity and hesitation among Democrats, though, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said only minutes before the debate began that there would be no vote on formally commencing the inquiry.
The debate marked the first time the candidates met since Pelosi's news conference last month at which she unilaterally declared the inquiry had begun -- a move that the White House has said is legally insufficient. The candidate lineup set a record for most politicians on a single debate stage, topping the 11 Republican candidates who assembled in 2016.
JOE BIDEN DEFENDS SON HUNTER'S UKRAINE WORK: 'MY SON DID NOTHING WRONG. I DID NOTHING WRONG'
"Sometimes there are issues that are bigger than politics, and I think that's the case with this impeachment inquiry," Warren, D-Mass., asserted at the outset of the debate, when asked why Congress should bother with the process given the impending election.
Biden has been at the top of the crowded field for months, but has come under withering assault from the White House concerning his son Hunter's lucrative overseas business dealings.
The elder Biden faced something of a timid confrontation over the issue during the debate, when CNN anchor and debate moderator Anderson Cooper broached the topic by stating, without evidence, that President Trump's accusations of misconduct by the Bidens were "false."
But Cooper pressed Joe Biden on Hunter's admission in a televised interview earlier in the day that he made a mistake by obtaining a lucrative role on the board of a Ukraine company, with no relevant expertise, while his father was vice president and handled Ukraine policy. (“I know I did nothing wrong at all. Was it poor judgment to be in the middle of something that is a swamp in many ways? Yeah,” the younger Biden said Tuesday morning.)
Joe Biden recently pledged that no members of his family would engage in foreign deals if he were to be elected president -- a tacit admission, Republicans said, of previous poor judgment or even wrongdoing.
"Look, my son's statement speaks for itself," Biden said. “My son did nothing wrong. I did nothing wrong. I carried out the policy of the United States government which was to root out corruption in Ukraine, and that’s what we should be focusing on.”
Biden insisted he never discussed Ukraine matters with Hunter, although Hunter separately told The New Yorker magazine that the dealings had come up in one instance.
He concluded: "The fact of the matter is, this is about Trump's corruption. That's what we should be focused on."

Devon Archer, far left, with former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, far right, in 2014. Archer served on the board of the Ukrainian company Burisma Holdings with Hunter, and began serving before this picture was taken. Joe Biden has denied ever speaking to his son about his overseas business dealings.

Later on, as the debate heated up, Biden remarked: “These debates are kinda crazy." In a head-turning moment, he also stumbled over his words, saying wealthy individuals might be found "clipping coupons in the stock market."
Separately, asked about Trump's policy in Syria, Biden appeared to give an extended answer in which he meant to talk about Turkish President Recep Erdoğan -- but kept referencing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad instead.
Asked about his health toward the end of the debate, Biden vowed to release his medical records before the Iowa caucuses are held, and said his age (76) gives him "wisdom."
Hunter Biden obtained other high-paying board positions domestically and internationally, with no relevant expertise, while his father was a senator and vice president. For example, Hunter became an executive at the financial services company MBNA just two years after leaving law school. MBNA sources told Fox News this week that the company was trying to curry favor with Joe Biden, who was shepherding a bill favored by MBNA to passage in the Senate.
Meanwhile, Warren has climbed to co-front runner status but faces new questions about her dubious claims to Native American ancestry.
She was under attack from all sides at the debate for refusing to answer whether her "Medicare for All" plan would raise taxes for the middle class.  Warren once again dodged the issue, insisting only that "costs will go down" for the middle class.
"I appreciate Elizabeth's work, but again, the difference between a plan and a pipe dream is something you can actually get done," Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said to Warren. "At least Bernie’s being honest here. ... I’m sorry, Elizabeth.”

“These debates are kinda crazy."
— Joe Biden

South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg also lambasted Warren on health care: “Your signature is to have a plan for everything, except this," he said.
Buttigieg specifically knocked Warren for the nonanswer, saying her failure to offer a direct answer is "why people are so frustrated with politicians" and arguing that "Medicare-for-All" would "unnecessarily divide this country."
"We heard it tonight," Buttigieg said. "A yes-or-no question that didn't get a yes-or-no answer."  He said he wanted a plan that could be summed up as "Medicare-for-All" if you choose it, not whether you want it or not.
Former U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke also pressed Warren on the tax issue, to no avail. (Later on, O'Rourke had no answer when Cooper asked how he could confiscate Americans' firearms, given that the government has no way of knowing where the vast majority of AR-15s are located. He said only that he believes Americans "will do the right thing" voluntarily.)
Sen. Bernie Sanders, who wrote the "Medicare-for-All" legislation that Warren has embraced, said it was "appropriate to acknowledge taxes will go up."
Sanders, who Fox News has confirmed will soon be endorsed by New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, also spoke about his recent heart attack: “But let me take this moment, if I might, to thank so many people from all over this country, including many of my colleagues up here, for their love, for their prayers, for their well wishes. ... And I just want to thank you from the bottom of my heart, and I'm so happy to be back here with you this evening.”
Also during the debate, Democrats also piled onto Warren for her signature proposal, a 2 percent wealth tax to raise the trillions needed for many of her ambitious proposals. Technology entrepreneur Andrew Yang noted that such a measure has failed in almost every European country where it's been tried.
The event, hosted by CNN and The New York Times, was on the campus of Otterbein University, just outside Columbus in Ohio, a state that has long helped decide presidential elections but has drifted away from Democrats in recent years.

Democratic presidential candidate businessman Tom Steyer, left, and Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., right, listen as Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., speaks during a Democratic presidential primary debate hosted by CNN/New York Times at Otterbein University, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2019, in Westerville, Ohio. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Many of the candidates were struggling just to get noticed — trying to make up ground in a race that kicks off officially in just over three months with the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 3. Buttigieg and Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., are trying to crack the top tier.
In one possible indicator the debate was a lengthy one, Harris briefly mentioned her proposal to have Twitter take Trump's account down, and demanded that Warren explain why she felt that approach was unwise. Warren, who last week laughed openly when informed by a reporter of Harris' idea, responded that she wants Trump out of the White House, not just banned from Twitter.
Progressives and right-wing commentators alike were aghast at Harris' decision to again bring up the unrealistic and unpopular idea of somehow suspending Trump from Twitter.
"I cannot believe @KamalaHarris  is pushing this suspend Donald Trump's twitter account bullshit at a presidential debate," former Obama administration official and Pod Save America cohost Tommy Vietor wrote on Twitter. "It's so small ball. She is bigger and better than this."
Fellow Obama administration alumnus and podcast host Ben Rhodes added: "Seems like there are bigger issues in the world."
Also debating were Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, former Obama housing chief Julián Castro and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii. Making his debate debut — and likely angling for a splash — was billionaire activist Tom Steyer.
Gabbard hit The New York Times and CNN for waging what she called a propaganda campaign against her, while also promoting endless "regime-change wars."
"The New York Times and CNN have smeared veterans like myself for calling for an end to this regime change war," Gabbard said. "Just two days ago, The New York Times put out an article saying I'm a Russian asset and an Assad apologist, and all these different smears. This morning, a CNN commentator said on national television that I'm an asset of Russia. Completely despicable."
Gabbard has criticized Trump for how he's conducted the withdrawal in Syria, but said Tuesday that while Trump has "the blood of the Kurds on his hands. ... So do many of the politicians in both parties who supported this regime change war."
Gabbard, who was one of the last Democratic House members to back an impeachment inquiry, additionally lamented that some Democrats had been calling for Trump's impeachment since right after the 2016 election, undermining the party's case against him.
The debate's foreign policy discussion concluded without any mention by the moderators of the ongoing push by China to censor American companies, including the NBA and Blizzard Entertainment, from making or tolerating pro-Hong Kong statements. Buttigieg briefly mentioned that the Hong Kong protests were not receiving support from the White House.
Yang's plan for a universal basic income spurred a discussion onstage concerning whether a federal jobs guarantee is a better plan -- something of a remarkable achievement for Yang, who has struggled in the polls while advancing his own unique agenda.
On abortion, the Democrats agreed they would support a federal law "codifying" the Supreme Court's holding in Roe v. Wade, which found a constitutional right to abortion, as a kind of defense in case the Supreme Court overturned Roe. At the same time, Biden emphasized he would not support "court packing," or passing a federal law to expand the size of the Supreme Court to load it with Democratic justices.
Buttigieg then said he did not support court packing, but wanted "reforms" to make the court less significant -- including possibly a "fifteen member court, where five of the members can only be appointed by unanimous agreement of the other ten." A similar idea was being debated in the Yale Law Journal, Buttigieg said, in a shout-out to the left-wing student publication.
Gabbard said that Democrats were right decades ago when they said abortion should be "safe, legal, and rare" -- highlighting a shift to the left among Democrats.
The 2020 field, which once had swelled to two dozen, has been shrinking as the Democratic Party's rules have mandated that candidates meet higher donor and fundraising thresholds to debate.
Just 10 White House contenders qualified for September's debate, but Gabbard and Steyer made Tuesday's lineup a record.
Earlier contests featuring 20 candidates were divided between two nights.
Author Marianne Williamson, who was not physically present at the debate on Tuesday because she failed to meet polling thresholds, remarked on Twitter as it unfolded: "No, they're not the only Democratic candidates for President of the United States."
Fox News' Paul Steinhauser and The Associated Press contributed to this report.