Dems go all-in on healthcare in midterms
Trump on rally blitz, tries to stave off Dems gains
PHOENIX, Oct 14, (Agencies): In a windowless conference room, Republican Senate candidate Martha McSally was asking executives at a small crane manufacturing company how the GOP tax cut has helped their business when one woman said: “I want to ask you a question about healthcare.”
Marylea Evans recounted how, decades ago, her husband had been unable to get health insurance after developing cancer, forcing the couple to sell some of their Texas ranch to pay for his treatment. Now she was worried about Democratic ads saying McSally, currently a congresswoman, supported legislation removing the requirement that insurers cover people with pre-existing medical conditions.
“It’s a lie,” McSally said quickly, accustomed to having to interrupt a discussion of the tax cut to parry attacks on healthcare.
The exchange demonstrated how Democratic arguments about healthcare are resonating with voters in the final weeks before the midterm elections. While Democratic enthusiasm this year has largely been fueled by anger toward President Donald Trump, candidates have targeted their messaging to focus more on healthcare.
It’s the subject of the greatest share of political ads on television now, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis, and a top issue in campaigns from Virginia to Arkansas to California – and especially in Arizona, where Democratic Rep Kyrsten Sinema has made it the foundation of her Senate campaign against McSally.
“Democrats believe that healthcare is the issue that’s going to deliver them the majority,” said Nathan Gonzalez, editor and publisher of the nonpartisan Inside Elections. “In 2016, Democrats learned that going all-in against Trump was not the right strategy, so they’re trying to be more specific.”
Furor
The Democratic furor around healthcare comes from Trump’s push to repeal the Affordable Care Act. House Republicans, including McSally, voted for a wide-ranging bill that would have, among other things, undermined protections for people with preexisting conditions and drastically changed and shrunk Medicaid. The Senate never took up the bill, and its own attempt to reverse the healthcare law failed by one vote.
This year, the Trump administration supported a group of GOP attorneys general who filed a lawsuit arguing the ACA is unconstitutional. The administration singled out protection for pre-existing conditions as unsustainable.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump gazes out over his rally crowd and looses a stream of insults with a theatrical flourish and playful grin. He jabs at Cory Booker the “disaster” mayor, Elizabeth Warren the “Pocahontas” pretender and “sleepy” Joe Biden.
“I want to be careful,” Trump tells the crowd, feigning a confession. He doesn’t want to hit his potential challengers too badly, he says, because then the Democrats may find “somebody that’s actually good to run against me. That would not be good.”
The venue may be Council Bluffs, Iowa, or Erie, Pennsylvania, or Topeka, Kansas, but the formula is largely the same.
Start with a few derisive nicknames, mix in some dreamy-eyed reminiscences of Election Night 2016, spice things up with an unexpected quip or zinger out of left field and you’ve got Trump’s recipe for a successful campaign rally.
Rallies
Trump’s rallies once were the cornerstone of an unconventional, star-powered presidential campaign that eschewed traditional organizing and defied every expectation. Now they’re being deployed with gusto as Trump and his team work frantically to defy polls and precedent and save his Republican majority in Congress in November’s midterm elections.
The rallies – more than two dozen so far to boost GOP candidates – never fail to delight Trump’s supporters.
Trump has been aggressively campaigning across the county to try to boost vulnerable Republicans before the Nov 6 elections, when the stakes couldn’t be higher. A Democratic takeover of Congress would stymie his agenda and mire his administration in endless investigations, including possible impeachment proceedings. Trump’s team believes his appearances fire up his loyal base, countering the wave of Democratic enthusiasm that polls suggest will lead to significant Democratic gains, especially in the House.
But after more than 350 rallies since he first began his presidential run, some things have changed.
Trump’s supporters remain as enthusiastic as ever, standing for hours in hot sun or driving rain and exploding into thundering applause when he takes the stage. They wave the same signs, wear the same hats, and chant the same “Build that wall!” and “Lock her up!” refrains that they did during the early days of Trump’s campaign.
In related news, he’s an Army veteran who was wounded in Afghanistan, criticizes New York’s liberal mayor and doesn’t support House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. Those are winning attributes for a politician in Trump Country, but the candidate in question, Max Rose, is a Democrat trying to unseat the only Republican member of Congress from New York City.
For all the national talk of a liberal “blue wave” in next month’s midterm election, Rose is part of a large corps of moderate Democrats who are playing up military experience and independence from their own party in districts that voted for President Donald Trump in 2016.
clobbered by the hurricane that made landfall Wednesday as a Category 4 storm, packing more than 140 mph winds and deadly storm surges. “At sunrise, we’ll start again on our search,” Baird said. “We hope that we’ll find more (survivors), but it’s more and more doubtful.” (RTRS)
Hurdles in proving abuse:
Immigration authorities detain and process thousands of people every month who cross the US border without permission.
But when detained people try to make claims of misconduct, advocates say they run into a series of hurdles that make their complaints difficult to substantiate.
An internal government report details the hurdles faced by two sisters who accused a Border Patrol agent of conducting an improper strip search.
In July 2016, two sisters reported within hours of being detained that an agent ordered them to remove their clothes. The allegations included that he touched their genitals during the search. The agent denied the allegations. (AP)