Tag: Elizabeth Warren

Several Democrats have announced they will donate thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Harvey Weinstein to charity following a slew of sexual harassment allegations against the Hollywood film producer. Sens. Patrick Leahy (D.Vt. ), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said they would give to charity the amount of money equal to that of Weinstein's donations, The New York Times reports. Leahy is expected to donate $5,600, Blumenthal and Heinrich will donate $5,400 and Warren will donate $5,000. Leahy is expected to donate his campaign contributions to the Change the Story Initiative for the Vermont Women's Fund at the Vermont Community Foundation. Other Democratic lawmakers are expected to follow suit in light of The New York Times report on sexual harassment allegations against Weinstein. Weinstein has publicly and financially supported various Democratic lawmakers and causes over the years. He held a fundraiser at his New York City home in 2016 for former presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and endowed a faculty chair at Rutgers University in feminist icon Gloria Steinem's name.

Warren applauds judge for blocking Trump sanctuary city rules. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Friday praised a federal judge that ruled against the Trump administration's rules requiring so-called sanctuary cities to help enforce federal immigration laws in order to receive funding, calling it “good news.” “This is good news,” Warren said in a tweet. “At least for now, @realDonaldTrump & AG Sessions can’t bludgeon towns into complying with dumb & dangerous ICE policies.” U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber issued a nationwide preliminary injunction against the Department of Justice on Friday after Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced new rules governing DOJ law enforcement grants. Leinenweber said in his 41-page ruling that Chicago had shown a "likelihood of success" in its arguments that Sessions exceeded his authority in July when he announced that the DOJ would withhold public safety grants from sanctuary cities, which are cities that refuse to help federal authorities enforce immigration laws. The city of Chicago sued the Trump administration last month over the DOJ’s threat to withhold those grants from sanctuary cities. Sessions has previously blasted Chicago and other sanctuary cities, arguing that prohibiting law enforcement from cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement made cities less safe. “So-called sanctuary policies make all of us less safe because they intentionally undermine our laws and protect illegal aliens who have committed crimes,” Sessions said in a statement at the time.

The Politics of Bernie Sanders’s “Medicare for All” Bill. “This is where the country has got to go,” Sanders told the Washington Post’s David Weigel on Tuesday, a day before he unveiled a single-payer health-care-reform bill in the Senate. “When you have co-payments—when you say that health care is not a right for everybody, whether you’re poor or whether you’re a billionaire—the evidence suggests that it becomes a disincentive for people to get the health care they need,” Sanders told Weigel. (So has Sanders himself.) But that is the reality of Presidential politics these days: a semi-permanent campaign. In recent years, the biggest gains have come among self-identified independents, fifty-five per cent of whom now express support. “I think the American people are sick and tired of filling out forms,” Sanders told Weigel. You’ve got to argue with insurance companies about what you thought you were getting.” Shifting from the current system to a single-payer system would, however, be a huge transformation, and, when pollsters point out to survey participants some of the things such a change would entail, support for the Sanders approach tends to drop quite sharply. Eager to exploit Trump’s unpopularity in next year’s midterm elections, they know Republicans are keen to label the Democrats as the Party that wants to raise taxes and impose a government takeover of health care. “Democrats believe that health care is a right for all, and there are many different bills out there,” he said.