UPI

Kamala Harris urges ending Senate filibuster to pass abortion rights legislation

Published

4 months ago

September 24, 2024

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By Chris Benson

“I would also emphasize that while the presidential election is extremely important and dispositive of where we go moving forward, it also is about what we need to do to hold onto the Senate and win seats in the House,” U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris said Monday in an interview airing Tuesday. Photo by Samuel Corum/UPI

1 of 2 | “I would also emphasize that while the presidential election is extremely important and dispositive of where we go moving forward, it also is about what we need to do to hold onto the Senate and win seats in the House,” U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris said Monday in an interview airing Tuesday. Photo by Samuel Corum/UPI | License Photo

Sept. 24 (UPI) — Vice President Kamala Harris said this week she supports an “elimination” of the Senate’s filibuster rule in order to push federal legislation to codify reproductive freedom.

“I think we should eliminate the filibuster for Roe, and get us to the point where 51 votes would be what we need to actually put back in law the protections for reproductive freedom and for the ability of every person and every woman to make decisions about their own body,” Harris, the Democrat’s nominee for president, said Monday in a Wisconsin Public Radio interview that aired Tuesday, “and not have their government tell them what to do.”

The current make-up of the Senate is complicated with 47 Democrats, 49 Republicans and 4 Independents — some former Democrats — and Harris as a tiebreaker vote per constitutional order.

But the progressive wing is not able to codify the medical procedure into law. The filibuster requires 60 votes for any such effort to pass. That means that at least 10 Republican senators would have to buck their party to favor abortion-rights legislation, which is a hurdle in its own.

But in Monday’s interview, Harris said it is “well within our reach to hold onto the majority in the Senate and take back the House.”

Former President Donald Trump has more than once taken credit for ending Roe v. Wade, which for decades federally protected a woman’s right to abortion, ending shortly after Trump’s appointment of three conservative lawyers to the nation’s Supreme Court.

“I would also emphasize that while the presidential election is extremely important and dispositive of where we go moving forward, it also is about what we need to do to hold onto the Senate and win seats in the House,” she said during the interview.

Harris, 59, the first woman to be the nation’s vice president, has along with lowering inflation and working to advance economic opportunities has made “freedom” and reproductive rights a centerpiece of her sudden presidential campaign.

And she has not been shy about attacking Trump, 78, on the campaign trail to remind voters about his pledge to end the federal right to a medically safe abortion for American women and to instead let it be a state-by-state decision after Roe v. Wade’s original Supreme Court ruling was made more than 50 years ago.

If Democrats hold the Senate majority come November’s election, then advancing legislation protecting a woman’s right has a chance to be signed by Harris if she wins the election after Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said last week he is willing to carve out a filibuster exception for such legislation.

Her messaging around the topic of abortion has proven more effective in stark contrast to President Joe Biden, a 81-year-old Roman Catholic who has demonstrated a more nuanced approach on the issue.

But even Biden in 2022 was critical of the upper legislative chamber on the filibuster as it related to voting-rights legislation at the time. He served more than three decades in that chamber before being elected in 2008 as vice president.

“Sadly, the United States Senate, designed to be the world’s greatest deliberative body, has been rendered a shell of its former self,” he said at the time, adding that, as a self-described “institutionalist,” Biden believed that “the threat to our democracy is so grave that we must find a way to pass these voting rights bills, debate them, vote. Let the majority prevail.

The outgoing president had previously said “if that bare minimum is blocked, we have no option but to change the Senate rules, including getting rid of the filibuster for this.”

UPI

Georgia Supreme Court overturns absentee ballot extension in Cobb County

Published

3 months ago

November 5, 2024

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By Sheri Walsh

Elections workers in Georgia process absentee ballots Monday, as Georgia’s Supreme Court reversed a lower court’s 3-day ballot extension in the swing state. The court ruled that 3,000 absentee ballots — which were sent out late in Cobb County — will only be counted if they are received by Election Day. File Photo by Erik S. Lesser/EPA-EFE

Nov. 4 (UPI) — Georgia’s Supreme Court reversed a lower court’s ballot extension in the swing state Monday, ruling that 3,000 absentee ballots — which were sent out late in Cobb County — will only be counted if they are received by Election Day.

Monday’s ruling reversed a lower judge’s decision that originally gave voters an extension to Nov. 8, the same deadline for overseas ballots, after Cobb County elections officials missed the ballot mailing deadline.

Cobb County Board of Elections and Registration Chairwoman Tori Silas blamed faulty equipment and a late surge in absentee ballot requests for the delay.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Southern Poverty Law Center filed a lawsuit Friday to extend the deadline to Nov. 8.

On Monday, the higher court ordered the Cobb County Board of Elections to count only those votes received by 7 p.m. on Election Day.

The court also ordered elections officials to notify affected voters of the change and to “keep separate” any absentee ballots received after Election Day, but before Nov. 8, “in a secure, safe and sealed container separate from other voted ballots.”

Georgia is a critical battleground state in Tuesday’s presidential election between Republican nominee and former President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris.

“Huge election integrity victory in Georgia. Democrat-run Cobb County wanted to accept 3,000 absentee ballots after the Election Day deadline. We took this case to the Georgia Supreme Court,” Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley said in a statement Monday.

“We just got word that we won the case. Election Day is Election Day — not the week after. We will keep fighting, keep winning and keep sharing updates,” Whatley added.

The ACLU also released a statement, urging voters — impacted by the ruling — to vote in person on Election Day.

“Because of this ruling, we urge all affected voters to prioritize vote in person on Election Day, Nov. 5, 2024, if at all possible,” the ACLU said. “If a voter has their absentee ballot but cannot vote in person on Election Day, they should hand deliver that ballot to their county elections office as soon as possible.”

UPI

Elon Musk’s $1M cash giveaway for voters to continue, judge rules

Published

3 months ago

November 5, 2024

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By Sheri Walsh

Billionaire Elon Musk rallies supporters for former President Donald Trump at the Butler Farm Show grounds in Pennsylvania on October 5. On Monday, a judge in Pennsylvania declined to issue an injunction against Musk’s America PAC, allowing a $1 million daily giveaway to registered voters to continue. Photo by Archie Carpenter/UPI. | License Photo

Nov. 4 (UPI) — A judge in the swing state of Pennsylvania ruled Monday that Elon Musk‘s daily $1 million giveaway to registered voters in battleground states can continue, with one last prize to be handed out on Election Day.

Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Angelo Foglietta declined to issue an emergency injunction that would have stopped the tech billionaire’s America PAC giveaway, which rewards voters who sign a pledge to support the Constitution.

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner argued, in the lawsuit filed last week, that the giveaway was a data grab and was illegal.

“They were scammed for their information,” Krasner said. “It has almost unlimited use.”

Musk’s lawyers blasted the lawsuit, calling it a “dreadful violation of constitutional rights” and a violation of free speech. Musk, who supports Donald Trump, called Krasner’s lawsuit a “publicity stunt” for his disagreements with the former president. Monday’s hearing was delayed last week after Musk’s legal team filed to move the case to federal court.

Krasner testified the awards were supposed to be issued at random. “This was all a political marketing masquerading as a lottery,” Krasner claimed Monday.

America PAC attorney Chris Gober responded, saying the giveaway was not a lottery because winners are not determined by chance. They are spokespeople, who “earn” $1 million, he argued, adding “There is no prize to be won.”

The recipients “are selected based on their suitability to serve as a spokesperson for America PAC,” Gober said, claiming the money is payment for their work. “We know exactly who will be announced as the $1 million recipient today and tomorrow.”

Musk announced the contest during a Trump campaign rally on Oct. 19.

“Every day, from now through Nov. 5, America PAC will be giving away $1M to someone in swing states who signed our petition to support free speech and the right to bear arms!” Musk wrote in a post on X. “We want to make sure that everyone in swing states hears about this and I suspect this will ensure they do.”

UPI

N.C. gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson seeks $50M from CNN over ‘Nazi’ article

Published

3 months ago

October 15, 2024

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By Mike Heuer

North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson speaks at the 2024 Republican National Convention at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee on July 15. On Tuesday he sued CNN and another defendant for defamation for claiming he made offensive online posts and frequented a North Carolina pornographic video store. File Photo by Tannen Maury/UPI | License Photo

Oct. 15 (UPI) — North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson on Tuesday sued CNN for publishing posts allegedly made by Robinson on a pornographic website many years ago and seeks at least $50 million.

Robinson, who is the Republican candidate in North Carolina’s gubernatorial race, accuses CNN and co-defendant Louis Love Money of two counts of defamation in the lawsuit filed Tuesday in North Carolina’s Wake County Superior Court.

“This is a high-tech lynching on a candidate who has been targeted from day one by folks who disagree with me politically and want to see me destroyed,” Robinson told media during a press conference in Raleigh, N.C.

“We are glad to take these first steps to fight back against what we consider to be one of the greatest examples of political interference in this state’s history,” Robinson said.

Robinson described CNN as “one of the world’s most well-recognized media companies” and Money as a 52-year-old North Carolina resident and lead singer of a punk rock band called Trailer Park Orchestra. Robinson says Money recently changed his name from Louis Alan Wooten.

Robinson said that on Aug. 11 Money posted a music video titled “The Lt. Governor Owes Me Money” the depicts a masked man that Robinson says represents him entering a pornographic video store to buy and watch pornographic videos.

Money, in the video, sings lyrics that accuse Robinson of owing money for a “bootleg” pornographic video that Money allegedly made for the lieutenant governor.

Robinson said a “major online publication” called The Assembly — which he says is affiliated with George Soros — on Sept. 3 published an article titled, “Ex-Porn Shop Employees Say Mark Robinson Was a Regular. He Denies It.”

In the article, Money accuses Robinson of frequenting a pornographic video store where he worked during the 1990s and early 2000s and “spending a good amount of money” on viewing and buying pornographic videos, Robinson said.

CNN published an article on Sept. 19 titled, “‘I’m a black NAZI!’: NC GOP nominee for governor made dozens of disturbing comments on porn forum.”

“These falsely attributed statements include several lewd, sex-obsessed, racist and outrageous statements” allegedly made by Robinson on website called NudeAfrica, he said.

Robinson also said the CNN article falsely claims he made an account on AdultFriendFinder.com.

Robinson describes CNN as a “politically left-wing media outlet, whose reporting is often indistinguishable from Democrat party talking points and opposes politically conservative candidates for office.”

Robinson said his personal information was compromised by a data breach and anyone could have used that information to create accounts on the cited websites and others while hiding their respective names and identities.

Robinson said he sent a notice demanding a retraction to CNN on Oct. 1 and another notice requesting the source information on Oct. 3 for forensic analysis.

Robinson said CNN on Oct. 4 refused to retract the story or provide the source material.

“CNN had every reason to doubt the veracity of the data upon which it relied,” Robinson said.

The NudeAfrica website has deleted the section in which the posts allegedly were made, and all its posts, and CNN did not verify the information, Robinson said.

CNN also relied on “unverifiable, dark web-sourced data breach files” and “recklessly disregarded the fact” that his personal information, including email and passwords, had been stolen,” he said.

Robinson seeks compensatory and punitive damages of no less than $50 million from CNN and Money.

Several of Robinson’s top aides have resigned after CNN published the story.