People For Responds to Federal Hate Crime Verdict in Ahmaud Arbery Trial
In response to the verdict that a jury has found the three white men who killed Ahmaud Arbery guilty on all counts in a federal hate crime trial, President of People For the American Way Ben Jealous, released the following statement:
In response to the verdict that a jury has found the three white men who killed Ahmaud Arbery guilty on all counts in a federal hate crime trial, President of People For the American Way Ben Jealous, released the following statement:
"This verdict speaks to accountability at the federal level for a murder motivated by hate. This is a just verdict for three men that chased, cornered and killed Ahmaud Arbery. The case at the state level was tried because of the persistence of state prosecutors. The current verdict happened because the Department of Justice followed through on the federal government's commitment to indict killers on federal hate crimes charges. This is the kind of accountability we must have to address the ongoing terror of white supremacy that's reigned in our country for hundreds of years, where Black people can be killed with impunity. We must continue to fight for justice for every American who has been the victim of white domestic terrorism and the injustice it fosters."
People For the American Way works to build a democratic society that implements the ideals of freedom, equality, opportunity and justice for all. We encourage civic participation, defend fundamental rights, and fight to dismantle systemic barriers to equitable opportunity. We fight against right-wing extremism and the injustice it fosters.
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As Other Governors Boost Biden, Maura Healey Says 'Listen to the American People'
"Whatever President Biden decides, I am committed to doing everything in my power to defeat Donald Trump," the Massachusetts Democrat said.
While other Democratic governors across the United States reiterate their support for President Joe Biden amid calls for him to be replaced as the party's nominee for the November election, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey on Friday suggested that he should consider some of the criticism.
"President Biden saved our democracy in 2020 and has done an outstanding job over the last four years," Healey said in a statement, recalling his previous win over former President Donald Trump, who is now the presumptive Republican nominee.
"I am deeply grateful for his leadership. And I know he agrees this is the most important election of our lifetimes," Healey continued. "The best way forward right now is a decision for the president to make. Over the coming days, I urge him to listen to the American people and carefully evaluate whether he remains our best hope to defeat Donald Trump. Whatever President Biden decides, I am committed to doing everything in my power to defeat Donald Trump."
Despite mounting calls for Biden to step aside—and "pass the torch" to Vice President Kamala Harris or another top Democrat—since his poor performance in a CNN-hosted debate against Trump last week, the president has remained defiant, declaring at a campaign event in Wisconsin on Friday that "I am running and going to win again."
"I am running and going to win again."
President Joe Biden addressed the pressure to end his campaign during a rally in Wisconsin. pic.twitter.com/N1y6Pidkqp
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) July 5, 2024
After a Wednesday gathering with Democratic governors—including Healey—at the White House, the Biden-Harris reelection campaign sent out an email that said, "Coming out of the meeting, the message was clear: Joe Biden has governors' backs, and they are proud to have his."
The email highlighted recent supportive statements from Govs. John Carney of Delaware, Roy Cooper of North Carolina, Josh Green of Hawaii, Kathy Hochul of New York, Dan McKee of Rhode Island, Wes Moore of Maryland, Phil Murphy of New Jersey, Gavin Newsom of California, Tim Walz of Minnesota, and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan.
The president told governors at the meeting that "he needs to get more sleep and work fewer hours, including curtailing events after 8:00 pm," The New York Timesreported. "Biden also told the governors that he had been examined by his physician at some point in the days after the debate because of the cold he was suffering from and that he was fine."
On Capitol Hill, U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) "is attempting to assemble a group of Democratic senators to ask President Biden to exit the presidential race," The Washington Postreported Friday. The newspaper noted that "Warner spokeswoman Rachel Cohen would neither confirm nor deny that the senator thinks Biden needs to drop out of the race."
U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas became the first Democrat in Congress to call on Biden to withdraw from the race on Tuesday. The following day, Congressman Raúl Grijalva of Arizona became the second.
Biden is also facing pressure to drop out from some major donors. In a lengthy statement to CNBC on Thursday, Abigail Disney said: "I intend to stop any contributions to the party unless and until they replace Biden at the top of the ticket. This is realism, not disrespect. Biden is a good man and has served his country admirably, but the stakes are far too high."
Democrats and other critics urging Biden to reconsider his run have pointed to growing concerns about a second Trump term considering a new U.S. Supreme Court ruling giving the president king-like powers, the Republican's desire to be a dictator on "day one," and fears that Trump will work to impose the far-right's Project 2025 policy agenda.
In an effort to reassure voters, Biden's team has set up a televised interview with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos, which is set to air Friday at 8:00 pm ET. Viewers will also be able to watch the interview on the ABC application for smartphones or tablets, or online at ABC.com.
'Bullsh*t': Trump Slammed for Trying to Distance Himself From Project 2025
"Trump is now desperately trying to run from his deep ties to Project 2025... MAGA extremists' radical wish list for a second Trump term," President Joe Biden's campaign said.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday attempted to distance himself from a conservative coalition's agenda for a far-right takeover of the federal government, prompting derision from observers who underscored close ties between the presumptive 2024 Republican nominee and the blueprint's authors.
Trump took to his Truth social media platform to claim the knows "nothing about Project 2025," a sweeping initiative spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation to boost the power of the presidency and purge career federal civil servants, who would be replaced with Trump loyalists.
"I have no idea who is behind it," Trump added, a claim that numerous observers quickly countered.
In an email entitled, "Donald Trump & Project 2025: One and the Same," Democratic President Joe Biden's reelection campaign said that "Trump is now desperately trying to run from his deep ties to Project 2025—the Heritage Foundation's 900-page deeply unpopular manifesto drafted by former Trump officials that offers Americans a preview of MAGA extremists' radical wish list for a second Trump term."
"Project 2025 is the extreme policy and personnel playbook for Trump's second term that should scare the hell out of the American people," Biden campaign spokesperson Ammar Moussa said in a statement. "Project 2025 staff and leadership routinely tout their connections to Trump's team, and are the same people leading the [Republican National Committee policy platform, Trump's debate prep, campaign, and inner circle."
"Trump's Supreme Court and Project 2025 have designed the playbook for Trump to achieve his dream of being a dictator on day one, with unchecked, imperial power," Moussa added. "Allowing a self-absorbed convicted felon that kind of power would be devastating for our democracy and middle-class families. This November, voters must stop Trump from turning the Oval Office into his throne room."
As CNNdetailed Friday:
Paul Dans, the head of Project 2025, was chief of staff at the Office of Personnel Management during the Trump administration, and the group's roadmap for the next administration includes contributions from others who have worked for the former president, including his former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, former acting Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Ken Cuccinelli, and former deputy chief of staff Rick Dearborn. John McEntee, Trump's former director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office and one of his closest aides while in office, is also a senior adviser for the project.
Mother Jones Washington, D.C. bureau chief David Corn said: "This is B.S. Christian nationalist Russell Vought, who is one of the Trump allies in charge of the GOP platform effort, is a coordinator of Project 2025. Trump is gaslighting once again."
Others noted that Trump's own Make America Great Again, Inc. super PAC is running ads highlighting Project 2025.
Critics have called Project 2025 a "blueprint for autocracy"—an assessment bolstered by last week's U.S. Supreme Court ruling bestowing the president with what experts described as king-like powers, which Trump's advisers have reportedly vowed to exploit if he wins November's election.
The Associated Pressreported last month that a right-wing group allied with the presumptive GOP nominee was drafting a list of federal employees who are disloyal or insufficiently dutiful to Trump, an undertaking compared with the McCarthyite anti-communist crusade during the second Red Scare in the 1950s.
Kevin Roberts, who heads the Heritage Foundation, raised eyebrows earlier this week after he said that the coming right-wing "revolution" will "remain bloodless if the left allows it to be," which some observers took as a thinly veiled threat of violence.
In his Friday Truth post, Trump said that he disagrees with some of Project 2025's agenda and that "some of the things they're saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal."
"Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them," he reiterated.
Journalist Mehdi Hasan responded to Trump's claim in a social media post saying, "What's revealing about Donald Trump loudly disavowing Project 2025 and falsely denying any knowledge of it is that clearly he knows how damaging it can be to his election bid."
"So why on earth did neither Biden nor the CNN moderators bring it up at the debate last week?" he asked.
Kansas Supreme Court Affirms Abortion Rights, Strikes Down Restrictions
"This is an immense victory for the health, safety, and dignity of people in Kansas and the entire Midwestern region, where millions have been cut off from abortion access," said one advocate.
Reproductive rights defenders on Friday cheered a pair of Kansas Supreme Court decisions reaffirming the right to abortion and striking down various restrictions—rulings expected to impact people beyond the Midwestern state, given how many patients must now travel for care.
"The state devoted much of its brief to inviting us to reverse our earlier ruling in this case that the Kansas Constitution protects a right to abortion. We decline the invitation," Justice Eric Rosen wrote in the decision against Senate Bill 95, which outlawed a common abortion procedure for second-trimester pregnancies called dilation and evacuation (D&E).
Rosen was referring to the court's 2019 ruling that "Section 1 of the Kansas Constitution Bill of Rights affords protection of the right of personal autonomy," which "allows a woman to make her own decisions regarding her body, health, family formation, and family life—decisions that can include whether to continue a pregnancy."
The justice wrote Friday that "S.B. 95 does not further patient safety, it compromises patient safety," noting that "as the district court found and the state did not contest, S.B. 95 eliminates a safe and common medical procedure and leaves patients subject to procedures that are rarely used, are untested, and are sometimes more dangerous or impossible."
The court's other new ruling was about what critics call targeted restrictions on abortion providers (TRAP) policies. Both decisions were 5-1—with Justice Stegall Caleb dissenting and Justice K.J. Wall not participating—and followed Kansas voters rejecting a proposed anti-choice amendment to the state constitution in August 2022.
"Now the Kansas Supreme Court has decisively reaffirmed that the state constitution protects abortion as a fundamental right."
"Kansas voters made it loud and clear in 2022: The right to abortion must be protected. Now the Kansas Supreme Court has decisively reaffirmed that the state constitution protects abortion as a fundamental right," said Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, which was involved with both cases.
"This is an immense victory for the health, safety, and dignity of people in Kansas and the entire Midwestern region, where millions have been cut off from abortion access," Northup added. "We will continue our fight to ensure Kansans can access the essential healthcare they need in their home state."
The anti-choice ballot measure's failure two years ago came shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court's right-wing supermajority reversedRoe v. Wade with Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization—which bolstered GOP efforts to further restrict reproductive rights at the state level, forcing patients to more frequently travel for abortion care.
Kansas allows abortion care up until 22 weeks of pregnancy and has seen an influx of healthcare refugees from states that have imposed bans. The Guttmacher Institute said last month that "in Kansas, clinic numbers increased by 50% (from four to six) between 2020 and 2023, and the number of abortions rose by 152% (an increase of 12,440)."
Despite the fresh wins in court, the broader battle for reproductive freedom continues in Kansas. As KMUWreported Friday:
Several new abortion laws took effect in Kansas earlier this week, but one of them—a law requiring doctors to ask patients getting abortions their reason for doing so—is being challenged in court. A Johnson County judge said Monday that doctors could add the law to a larger lawsuit they brought against a handful of older state abortion restrictions, including a 24-hour waiting period. The judge agreed to temporarily block the older laws while the case proceeds.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment told providers it will "not, for now" enforce the abortion reasons law, providers said Monday. The health department has not responded to requests seeking to confirm that.
The Center for Reproductive Rights noted Friday that it "is currently representing abortion providers in another ongoing challenge to several onerous restrictions including a law forcing providers to falsely tell their patients that a medication abortion can be 'reversed,' an unproven claim not based on medicine or science."