I want to tell you a story - one I don’t think I’ve ever told publicly before - about the man we have a chance to elect President of the United States today.

1/ A story about the day Joe Biden came to Connecticut - 2 months after Sandy Hook.

I hope you’ll read this.
2/ Biden came to give a speech at a forum on gun violence that we had organized at a state college just outside Newtown.

It was just 60 days after the shooting and the event was intended to help us push for the changes in gun laws we wanted at the federal and state levels.
3/ He stayed after his speech to meet with the Sandy Hook parents. In a somber room off the main hall, he spent about 2 hours with about 10 families. He told stories of his own loss, he explained how he rebuilt his life, he gave a lot hugs.

Then he did something else.
4/ A group of parents of gun violence victims in Hartford/Bridgeport were at the conference too. They wanted to meet Biden. They were understandably furious that America hadn’t cared when Black kids were getting murdered, but now had suddenly awoken to the gun violence crisis.
5/ Biden had promised to say hello, so they had stuck around. But by the time he got to them, he had already been in CT for 5 hours or so & he still had to fly back to DC. The cameras and press and all the other attendees were long gone. It was now just him and these families.
6/ I expected him to say hello and then head out. But that’s not what happened. He sat in that room, talking with those parents - FOR HOURS. Listening intently to each of their stories. Asking questions about their fallen sons. Learning about their pain.
7/ No one saw it. No press reported on it. But here was the Vice President of the United States sitting for hours with parents of urban gun crime, telling them their kids’ lives mattered. To him.

He didn’t need to do it, but he did - because that’s who Joe Biden is.

• • •

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More from @ChrisMurphyCT

17 Oct
Joe Biden - and all of us - SHOULD be furious that media outlets are spreading what is very likely Russian propaganda.

1/ I’ve seen the intel. The mainstreaming of misinformation is Russia’s 2020 goal. Here’s what we know, and why we can’t take it lying down.
2/ Russia knew it had to play a different game than 2016. So it built an operation to cull virulently pro-Trump Americans as pseudo-assets, so blind in their allegiance to Trump that they’ll willingly launder Kremlin constructed anti-Biden propaganda.

Guiliani was a key target.
3/ Andriy Derkach was a top Russian agent. He was unmasked by the Treasury Dept this summer. Derkach and his team recruited Guiliani and have been feeding him info all year. The White House knew this.
google.com/amp/s/www.wash…
Read 8 tweets
12 Oct
1/ Republicans are suddenly trying to pretend that their rush to confirm Amy Coney Barrett isn't about ACA repeal.

They are lying.

I've put together in one thread the story of their 10 year plan to get rid of the ACA. It all leads to this moment.

Please read the whole thing.
2/ From the start, Republicans were obsessed - I mean OBSESSED - with getting rid of the ACA. Nothing mattered more.

From 2010-2017, they tried to repeal all or part of the ACA 70 times. Their most high profile failure was, of course, in summer 2017.
newsweek.com/gop-health-car…
3/ At first, Republicans' chanted "repeal and replace" - but they NEVER had a plan to replace it.

In 2017, with much fanfare, Paul Ryan unveiled the most serious replacement bill Republicans had ever offered. It ended health care for 23 million Americans.
npr.org/2017/05/24/529…
Read 11 tweets
8 Oct
1/ In light of Amy Coney Barrett's dangerous views on choice and the ACA, her views on guns haven't gotten much attention.

But she's a radical - a blinking red outlier - on how she interprets the 2nd Amendment. Like, she wants felons to buy guns.

And you need to know. A THREAD:
2/ Like Gorsuch/Kavanaugh/Alito/Thomas, she is an "orginalist" on guns. It's total BS - just a way to legislate from the court and invalidate modern gun laws.

But basically, she believes that if the regulation didn't exist in 1787 then it's unconstitutional.
3/ So, for instance, that makes it easy for her to rule against bans on weapons that didn't exist in the 1700s (like semi-automatic weapons), or restrictions on guns in places that didn't exist (like airplanes), or background checks for felonies that post-date 1787.
Read 8 tweets
1 Oct
This hasn't gotten enough attention, but you need to know. Everybody needs to know.

1/ It's about the massive coverup campaign underway to disguise the octopus-like Russian election interference operation being run on Trump's behalf.

Please read this whole thing.
2/ Earlier this year, reports start coming into Congress about a giant, multi-layer Russian effort to help Trump in 2020. Bigger than what they did in 2016. Looks like Russians are trying to get U.S. persons - especially those close to Trump - to help.
3/ On July 13, Dem leadership writes a letter to FBI Director Wray, asking for an all-Congress briefing, especially because the reports we're reading suggest Russian agents are trying to find Members of Congress to assist their interference operation.
speaker.gov/newsroom/72020…
Read 10 tweets
30 Sep
1/ Let's be clear - Trump had a goal last night to get his right wing, white supremacists to organize an election day intimidation effort. He succeeded. Recruitment by Proud Boys and others is underway. Here's why this is especially worrying this year - and what you can do.
2/ In 2018 a federal judge ended a three decade long court order on the Republican National Committee that placed restrictions on the RNC's "ballot security" measures and Election Day activities at the polls. Why were these restrictions in place?
3/ In 1982, Republicans used illegal harassment and voter intimidation to discourage Black Americans from voting. They sent targeted mailings warning about the consequences of voter fraud & posted armed guards at polls in minority neighborhoods. Thus, the court intervened.
Read 4 tweets
29 Sep
1/ If Amy Coney Barrett gets to the Supreme Court, the ACA is gone, and in Connecticut, 260,000 will lose their insurance.

That's the equivalent combined population of these CT towns:

Litchfield
Easton
Durham
Haddam
Woodstock
Old Lyme
Essex...

(not done...see rest of thread)
2/

Lebanon
Westbrook
Brooklyn
New Hartford
Killingworth
Marlborough
Beacon Falls
Willington
Bethany
Harwinton
Pomfret
Chester
Barkhamsted
Ashford

(wait...not done...)
3/

Columbia
North Stonington
East Granby
Canterbury
Bolton
Preston
Deep River
Middlefield
Union
Canaan
Warren
Colebrook
Norfolk
Lisbon

(nope...not done)
Read 5 tweets

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