With the midterms just three weeks away, Democrats campaigning in red states have been advised to spend “as little time as possible” talking about immigration, according to a memo obtained by The New York Times from centrist think tank Third Way and the more liberal Center For American Progress.
ThinkProgress is an editorially independent newsroom housed at the Center for American Progress.
The memo, which has been shared at a number of briefings for Democrats, says candidate...
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The ‘blue wave’ may be real, but it’s unlikely to affect the Senate
It’s looking increasingly likely that the House may be hit by a “blue wave” this November, but new analyses have noted Senate Democrats are unlikely to experience the same kind of good fortune.
Right now, FiveThirtyEight gives Democrats a four in five chance of taking back the House. Democrats also have an advantage in generic ballot polling, leading the GOP 50.3 percent to 41.6 percent with less than a month to go before the midterm election, and rating reports li...
Trump lies about Medicare for All, says universal health care doesn’t work anywhere in the world.
President Donald Trump has been spreading a lot of misleading statements or flat-out lies about “Medicare for All” — a progressive health policy gaining traction among Democrats.
Most recently, Trump said that providing health insurance to everybody doesn’t work anywhere in the world. He avoided calling the policy Medicare for All — likely because 60 percent of the American public favors the idea. Instead, he referred to it as “socialist” he...
Missouri Senate nominee misleads on his pre-existing condition hypocrisy
Josh Hawley, the Republican nominee against Missouri’s US senator Claire McCaskill (D), has made protecting people with pre-existing conditions a key part of his campaign platform — even as he undermines those protections as his state’s attorney general.
Asked to reconcile that hypocrisy on Sunday, Hawley pretended that requiring that insurance companies offer some policy to the more than 100 million Americans with pre-existing medical conditions is the sa...
These 3 anti-LGBTQ lawsuits outline new conservative strategy in Texas
Conservatives in Texas have filed three lawsuits seeking to overturn LGBTQ protections in the name of “religious freedom.” As the Texas state legislature gears up for its 2019 session, the litigation suggests a bold and renewed effort to undermine civil rights for LGBTQ people, seemingly at every turn.
The three suits in question were filed last week — all within a few days of each other — by three of Texas’ most vocal anti-LGBTQ groups. Two of them tar...
Donald Trump smears former adviser with one of his favorite tactics
Donald Trump does not like to be criticized. When he is attacked — or even when he thinks he might have been attacked — he tends to fire back in the same way each time: with smears and vague aspersions. On Thursday, his former chief economic adviser Gary Cohn was the latest recipient of his apparent defamation.
When Cohn stepped down in March from his position as head of Trump’s National Economic Council director, Trump called him a “rare talent̶...
Ahead of midterms, Republicans suddenly pretend they haven’t opposed Medicare for decades
Once a upon a time, conservatives cautioned against the creation of a government-run health insurance program for people over 65, calling Medicare “socialized medicine.” But now — in campaign ads and speeches — Republicans across the country are positioning themselves as the real defenders of Medicare.
The new posturing helps conservatives claim they’re the ones preserving the status quo. Nevermind Republican lawmakers’ long quest to privatize Med...
Dean Heller attacks stage 4 cancer survivor while lying about his health care record
In a statement posted to his website, Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV) attacks stage 4 cancer survivor Laura Packard as a “Democrat political operative” while falsely claiming he’s “stood up for Nevadans for pre-existing conditions.”
In reality, as ThinkProgress detailed, Heller and every other Senate Republican with the sole exception of Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) voted on Wednesday “against blocking the Trump administration’s expansion of health plans tha...
24 million people could be affected by Trump administration’s ‘public charge’ immigration policy
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has released its reinterpretation of the antiquated “public charge” rule — a proposal that would drastically reduce access to green cards and various types of visas for immigrants who do not meet a certain income threshold or who are recipients of public benefits like Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), or Medicaid.
A new report by the Fiscal Policy Institute rev...
Senate Republicans show their true colors when it comes to pre-existing conditions
Protecting people with pre-existing conditions isn’t a priority for Republicans — lowering insurance premiums is. Senate Republicans said as much when they voted Wednesday against blocking the Trump administration’s expansion of health plans that can deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.
In a 50-50 vote, Republicans defeated Sen. Tammy Baldwin’s (D-WI) resolution to overturn the Trump administration’s rule permitting insurers to sell sho...