Source: Atlanta Journal

Former Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday he no longer supports a controversial ban that blocked the use of federal funds for some abortions, reversing a position that put him at odds with many Democrats.

The White House hopeful told Democratic donors at an Atlanta fundraiser that anti-abortion measures adopted in Georgia and other states are a signal that Republicans are not going to “let up” on adopting aggressive abortion restrictions.

“I can’t justify leaving millions of women without access to the care they need and the ability to (access) their constitutionally protected right,” Biden said. "If I believe health care is a right, as I do, I can no longer support an amendment that makes that right dependent on someone's zip code," he said.

The Hyde Amendment is a four-decade-old law that prevents government health programs, such as Medicaid, from using federal funds for abortions except in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the woman.

Biden said he was forced to shift his stance because “women’s rights and women’s health are under assault like we haven’t seen in the last 50 years.”“Folks, times have changed,” Biden said. “I don’t think these guys are going to let up.”

Read more: https://www.ajc.com/blog/politics/biden-reverses-stance-hyde-amendment-atlanta-event/5jfSIcGb6rmg67t0Wzn36L/

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and in 2017 published an op-ed in the Washington Post defending the ACA from Republican attacks.

So he has done a lot to expand Medicaid and help poor people.

link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2017/07/17/joe-biden-as-a-nation-we-decided-that-health-care-is-for-all-republicans-want-to-roll-that-back/?utm_term=.93ec37a1138b

Biden is a strong supporter of Medicaid as this tweet shows.

https://twitter.com/joebiden/status/878378777549471744

His positions on abortion haven't always been popular but they always reflect his true beliefs.

Biden, for all his faults, has always been very transparent. We know where we stand with him, for better or for worse.

His posiitons on LGBTQ and the Green New Deal show he is a true progressive.

But growing up a strict Catholic has always made his abortion opinions very complex and difficult.

I do not agree with him but I respect his honesty.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi told senior Democrats that she’d like to see President Donald Trump “in prison” as she clashed with House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler in a meeting on Tuesday night over whether to launch impeachment proceedings.

Pelosi met with Nadler (D-N.Y.) and several other top Democrats who are aggressively pursuing investigations against the president, according to multiple sources. Nadler and other committee leaders have been embroiled in a behind-the-scenes turf battle for weeks over ownership of the Democrats’ sprawling investigation into Trump.

Nadler pressed Pelosi to allow his committee to launch an impeachment inquiry against Trump — the second such request he’s made in recent weeks only to be rebuffed by the California Democrat and other senior leaders. Pelosi stood firm, reiterating that she isn’t open to the idea of impeaching Trump at this time.

“I don’t want to see him impeached, I want to see him in prison,” Pelosi said, according to multiple Democratic sources familiar with the meeting. Instead of impeachment, Pelosi still prefers to see Trump defeated at the ballot box and then prosecuted for his alleged crimes, according to the sources.

link: https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/05/pelosi-impeachment-1355435

President Trump's recent posture of blocking former White House officials from appearing on Capitol Hill in response to subpoenas from congressional Democrats is unpopular with the vast majority of the public, according to a new Hill-HarrisX poll.

Nearly three-quarters of registered voters, 74 percent, said they believe that former senior White House officials should be required to testify before Congress when they are subpoenaed, according to the poll. Just 26 percent said they believe that former officials should not have to testify.

Majorities of every demographic group sampled in the May 24-25 poll came down strongly against the idea of allowing ex-White House officials to evade congressional subpoenas. Even Republicans, by a margin of 61 to 31 percent, said that former administration officials should testify before Congress when they are asked to appear.

Independent voters overwhelmingly said that former senior White House employees should submit to congressional subpoenas, with 73 percent in support and 27 percent not. Among Democrats, 87 percent said former administration officials should testify while 13 percent said otherwise.

Voters who called themselves conservative also supported the idea, with 71 percent of respondents who said they leaned conservative in favor of the former officials testifying and 56 percent who called themselves strong conservatives agreeing.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/poll-74-percent-of-americans-say-former-trump-officials-should-obey-congressional-subpoenas/ar-AACrzPb

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Wednesday said President Trump's threat to impose tariffs on all imports from Mexico is just a "distraction" from the Mueller report.

"I don't even think it rises to the level of policy, it's notion mongering, again," she said at a press conference. "Let's face what it is: It's a distraction from the Mueller report."

video:

https://twitter.com/ABC/status/1136291534280675328

The electoral college, and the way each state is given two senators regardless of population, can lead to very un-democratic results.

Which is the situation our country is in.

Thirty-one states lean more Republican than the country as a whole, according to FiveThirtyEight’s partisan lean metric, so it’s easy to see why the party currently holds a 53-seat majority in the Senate.

Here's the simple truth: to take over COMPLETE control of the U.S. government, including the Senate, Democrats will have to figure out how to appeal to rural voters and red-state voters.

I think there are ways to do that, if we are smart. But it might require some changes to our messaging, although not to our core values.

The truth is that people in small town America would be much better off with a Democratic government because we all know the GOP doesn't care about them, they just use them to take power so they can put in policies (and tax laws) to favor rich people.

Rural and small town America isn't rich. And they should be voting Democratic.

I just hope that our party leaders -- and candidates in the states where can flip red Senate seats --figure this out sooner than later.