SEATTLE — It’s a beautiful day here and this crowd has gathered 30 minutes before an Elizabeth Warren campaign event begins.
Seattle crowd now listening to Tom Petty’s I Won’t Back Down while waiting for Elizabeth Warren to take the stage.
Elizabeth Warren crowd from the press riser in Seattle.
Warren’s rally started about half an hour later than scheduled. So far it’s her standard stump speech — early life, father’s death at 12, and how her mother supported the family on a minimum wage job, which she laments is not possible today.
Warren now talking corruption and saying addressing it requires “big structural change” rather than little tweaks here or there.
“Whatever issue it is that brought you here — if there is a decision made in Washington, it’s been influenced by money.”
Warren gets applause for promising that as president she’d “enforce anti-trust laws” — not your typical crowd-pleaser line at rallies.
Elizabeth Warren defends her wealth tax in Seattle.
She adds: “I don’t propose a wealth tax because I’m cranky. I don’t propose it because I’m mad at anybody.”
Warren’s done speaking and now on Q&A. She got a couple of “Two cents! Two cents!” and “Warren! Warren!” chants, but her loudest applause line was “overturn Citizens United.”
New: Elizabeth Warren drew her largest crowd yet with an estimated 15,000 today in Seattle.
Asked about it after the rally, she leaned into it as “a sign that people are ready for change in Washington.”
Elizabeth Warren tells reporters that to achieve legislative success in the presidency, Democrats “need crowds like this — people who are pushing from the outside.”
Asked by a voter how she'd beat Donald Trump, Elizabeth Warren says she won't be cowed by his bullying, and adds: "We’re not gonna win this by just saying 'not Trump'... It’s not enough to be not Trump."
“No Obamacare,” Johnson responded, rolling his eyes. “The ACA is so deeply ingrained, we need massive reform to make this work and we got a lot of ideas on how to do that.”
Some Republicans want to stop fighting about ACA. Trump won't let them. He still calls for replacing it but hasn't laid out a plan —> "concepts of a plan." Now Johnson promises "massive" health care changes, saying physicians in the GOP caucus have ideas. nbcnews.com/politics/congr…
Donald Trump backs out of a previously scheduled presidential debate on ABC after Kamala Harris replaces Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket. Now he says he’ll agree to debate Harris if it’s hosted by Fox News in a “full arena audience.”
Harris campaign responds: “Donald Trump is running scared and trying to back out of the debate he already agreed to by running straight to Fox News to bail him out.” She will be at the ABC debate whether or not he shows up, campaign says, asking if he’s “too scared.”
Democrats remain haunted by what happened to Ginsburg. Rewind to 2014: She was 81, Obama was president, Dems had 55 Senate seats; liberals called on her to retire. She rejected them. And died in 2020, got replaced by Trump pick A.C. Barrett—the 6-3 SCOTUS. nbcnews.com/politics/supre…
BLUMENTHAL wants Sotomayor to “weigh the competing factors.”
“The old saying — graveyards are full of indispensable people, ourselves in this body included.”
Sen. WHITEHOUSE warns of a “full MAGA court” if it goes to 7-2.
“Certainly I think if Justice Ginsburg had it to do over again, she might have rethought her confidence in her own health.”
NEW: Republican Study Committee releases a sweeping budget plan
RSC chair is HERN; 170+ members incl Speaker and his full leadership team.
Highlights:
• Raises Social Security retirement age for future retirees
• Converts Medicare to "premium support" a la Paul Ryan plan
• Rolls back ACA
• Endorses Life At Conception Act
On Social Security, RSC budget endorses "modest adjustments to the retirement age for future retirees to account for increases in life expectancy." Calls for lowering benefits for the highest-earning beneficiaries. No changes for current/imminent retirees. nbcnews.com/politics/congr…
New RSC budget is a glimpse into how Republicans will seek to govern if they win power in 2024. It puts Trump in an awkward spot after he has been all over the map on what to do about Social Security and Medicare. One goal he and RSC agree on: undo ACA.
Ron Johnson: "How did we get ourselves in a situation where we’re being blamed for Biden's open border policy? How could that be possible? The answer is McConnell made that possible."