DNC: Duckworth cuts Trump down to size

SCREEN CAPTURE / NBC

Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth spoke virtually to the Democratic National Convention

In her speech at the Democratic National Convention Thursday night, Sen. Tammy Duckworth slammed Donald Trump saying that he's not worthy of being Commander-in-Chief.

Instead, she called him "Coward-in-Chief."

That's not the first time the Thai American has insulted Trump. In 2018, she dubbed him "Cadet Bonespurs," referring to the alleged physical ailment that gave Trump a draft deferment from serving in the military during the Vietnam War.

In her DNC speech, the Iraq War veteran, who lost both her legs when her helicopter was shot down, further emasculated Trump by comparing to Democratic nominee Joe Biden. 

Duckworth said Biden “knows the fear military families live with because he’s felt that dread of never knowing if your deployed loved one is safe” after his late son, Beau, deployed to Iraq.

“That’s the kind of leader our service members deserve: one who understands the risks they face and who would actually protect them by doing his job as commander-in-chief,” Duckworth said. “Instead, they have a coward-in-chief who won’t stand up to Vladimir Putin, read his daily intelligence briefings or even publicly admonish adversaries for reportedly putting bounties on our troops’ heads.”

Duckworth was reportedly a top contender for Biden's vice president pick. She was given a prime-time speaking spot on Thursday, the same day that Biden accepted his nomination.

The New York Times reported that her Biden's vetting team worried that Duckworth's birth in Thailand would make her vulnerable to birtherism attacks from Trump and the GOP even though she is eligible to be President because her father is an American citizen. Nevertheless, the withering attacks that would certainly come would spread uncertainty about her qualifications.

Since she was placed on Biden's short list of vice president contenders, Duckworth's national profile has risen giving rise to speculation that a spot in a prospective Biden administration awaits her.

Most of her speech centered on the need to increase care for veterans and their families, citing her own recovery from her injuries as examples.

With the U.S. Capitol in the background, Duckworth concluded, “Donald Trump doesn’t deserve to call himself commander-in-chief for another four minutes, let alone another four years,” 

“Our troops deserve better. Our country deserves better.”

DNC: Tammy Duckworth and Andrew Yang speaking in the final night of Democrats' virtual convention

 

U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth

Illinois U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth and former presidential candidate Andrew Yang will be among the speakers tonight (Aug. 20) preceding Joe Biden's acceptance speech, the finale at the virtual Democratic National Convention.

Sen. Duckworth, an Iraq War veteran, is expected to focus her remarks on the issues facing military families and on the life of Beau Biden, according to a source familiar with her speech.

The Thai-American senator introduced Beau Biden,  at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. Joe Biden's eldest son died in 2015 from a form of brain cancer. 

Like most of the other speakers, in keeping with the social distancing required to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, Duckworth will not be at the Wisconsin Center in Milwaukee. Instead, she’ll deliver her remarks from Washington, D.C., in view of the Capitol.

The first-term senator, who lost her legs when her helicopter was shot down in Iraq, was reportedly on the short-list for Joe Biden's vice president choice, before he settled on Sen. Kamala Harris.

Entrepreneur Yang's surprising campaign  catapulted him onto the national scene even though he had never held an elected office. 

His main proposal of a Universal Basic Income for every adult in the U.S. seemed far fetched during the campaign but has gained ground during the pandemic when several senators, including Harris, backed a similar measure to help get though the unprecedented health crisis.

Unlike other Democratic candidates for POTUS, Yang refused to blame Trump for all the ills facing the country. 

“You are missing the lesson of Donald Trump’s victory,” he said during a February presidential debate. “Trump is not the cause of all of our problems and we are making a mistake when we act like he is. He is a symptom of a disease that has been building up in our communities for years and decades. And it is our job to get to the harder work of actually curing the disease.”

Yang was not originally scheduled to speak but his tweet about expecting a speaker's slot drew support from other AAPI Congressmembers, causing the DNC to find a spot for him on the speakers' list.

The New York-born Yang says he wants to use his time to urge his youthful, but passionate, followers, many of whom had vowed not to vote for Biden, to cast their ballot for the Democratic nominee.

After Biden accepts the Democratic nomination for President, his running mate, Kamala Harris, who accepted her nomination Wednesday night, is expected to join him on the stage at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware to close out the unconventional convention.

Andrew Yang qualifies for the next presidential debate

ANDREW YANG

With the Iowa Caucuses just days away on Feb. 3, Andrew Yang is ramping up his campaign after learning he qualified for the next presidential debate prior to the New Hampshire primary.

The candidate, who has never run for office prior to his surprising campaign, qualified for the Democrats' presidential debate being held Feb. 7 after earning 5% in two polls: a CNN Poll conducted by the University of New Hampshire and a Washington Post/ABC News poll released this past weekend. He had already met the DNC bar for the number of donors.

Yang joins six other candidates who have qualified for the debate: former Vice President Joe Biden, Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, businessman Tom Steyer and Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana.

Yang's participation in the New Hampshire debate will mean the Democrats won't repeat the poor optics of the January debate when only white candidates appeared onstage.  Yang, Tulsi Gabbard, Deval Patrick and Cory Booker failed to meet the DNC's criteria. Julian Castro and Kamala Harris had ended their campaigns earlier.

To avoid the all-white candidates' debate, the DNC added one more way a candidate could qualify -- wining one delegate in Iowa, a feat that Yang and, perhaps, Gabbard might be able to meet.

Appearing on the conservative network Fox News last Sunday, Yang criticized the DNC for not allowing Fox sponsor one of the debates. Yang's appearance on the network, which has severely criticized the Democrats, followed his policy of reaching out to a wide spectrum of voters. 

"One thing I think Democrats should do, I think we should go on FOX News and talk to the American people," Yang said. "Because how can you win an election and bring the country together if you literally won't talk to 40% or 50% of the population?"

The qualification window for the Feb. 7 debate, which will be held at Saint Anselm College outside Manchester, N.H. closes at 11:59 p.m. on Feb. 6, reports Politico.

Two more debates are scheduled for February: Feb. 19 in Las Vegas (three days before the Nevada caucuses) and Feb. 25 in Charleston, S.C. (four days before the state’s primary). Qualification rules have not yet been announced for those debates.

Door open for Andrew Yang to take part in next debate

SCREEN CAPTURE /CNN

No candidates of color met the DNC criteria to qualify for Tuesday's debate.

"Well #YangGang it looks like we’ll be back on the debate stage Feb 7 in New Hampshire! Let’s get it," tweeted presidential candidate Andrew Yang.

Yang was reacting to the Democratic National Committee's decision to add a new method for contenders to qualify for the Feb. 7 debate in New Hampshire.

Besides the criteria for the number of polls in which the candidate must have at least 5% in four qualifying polls, or 7% in New Hampshire, Nevada or South Carolina, as well as 225,000 unique donors, the DNC added one more way a presidential hopeful can qualify. The candidate must get one delegate out of the 41 delegates in the Feb. 3 Iowa Caucus.

That opens the possibility for Yang to join the six other candidates on the debate stage. Judging by his tweet, Yang is confident he'll get at least one delegate.

The DNC has taken flak since no candidate of color qualified for Tuesday's debate in Des Moines, Iowa. Neither Yang or Tulsi Gabbard met the criteria for the January debate. Cory Booker, an African American, and Julian Castro, a Mexican American, dropped out prior to the debate.

“That’s the last debate I’ll miss,” Yang tweeted Wednesday, the morning after the most recent debate. “Missing a debate has destroyed other campaigns. It fuels ours.”

The optics of the all-white candidates onstage during the debate was not good for a party that touts the diversity in the Democratic Party and both Castro and Booker argued the debate criteria worked against candidates of color.

SCREEN CAPTURE / CBS

A day after the debate, as a guest on The Late Show, Yang explained to host Stephen Colbert why there were no candidates of color in the debate:

“What I said at the debate before this one [is that] fewer than 5% of Americans donate to political campaigns. You need disposable income to contribute to campaigns, and you need some form of security in order to run for office. So what happened on the stage last night reflects the inequities and realities in our economy,” Yang said. 

“We should be more concerned with changing those realities on the ground. And if we did that then the stage would look very different. If you have communities of color who are just making ends meet, they don’t have the resources to contribute to campaigns at very high levels, and so you wind up with a stage that does not reflect the population of the country.”

The Feb. 7 debate will take place at St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire — co-hosted by ABC, ABC affiliate WMUR-TV and Apple News.

Additionally, Democrats plan for two more debates in February: in Law Vegas on Feb. 19 and another in Charleston, S.C., on Feb. 25. Qualifying criteria for those debates have not yet been announced.

DNC targets AAPI voters in new campaign

GEARING UP for the 2018 midterm elections, Democrats kicked off a campaign to mobilize their voters, particularly Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. 


The Democratic National Committee announced Wednesday (Feb. 28) the launch of IWillVote - an unprecedented new campaign with four initiatives: Commit to Vote; Voter Registration; Voter Education and Protection; and Get-Out-The-Vote. Under the IWillVote program. The DNC aims to reach 50 million voters from now until November to engage, educate, and mobilize them to vote for Democrats up and down the ticket. 

The Asian/American and Pacific Islander community will be a crucial target in reaching these voters. The AAPI community is the fastest-growing ethnic group in the country and has been crucial to Democratic victories in numerous key elections over the years.

“In recent years, Asian Americans and Pacific Islander voters have been crucial to Democratic victories in swing states and districts across the country,” said AAPI Caucus Chair Bel Leong-Hong. 

“The IWillVote program is an innovative way to galvanize the extraordinary passion among AAPIs across the country. I know that this program will funnel this passion into results at the ballot box and I’m excited to be working with great leaders like DNC Chair Tom Perez and DNC Vice Chair Grace Meng to make it successful.”

“The American people have witnessed the relentless commitment of the Republican Party to discourage voting – from the creation of a sham fraud commission to systemic disenfranchisement of communities of color," said Perez.

In recent years, the U.S.Supreme Court dominated by Republican appointees rolled back elements of the landmark Voting Rights Act and in states where the GOP hold the majority, voter ID laws were enaacted, limited voting times and reduced the number of polling places. Through the Internet, parties apparently acting on behalf of GOP candidates, have sent out misinformation about voting eligibility and poll locations.

"The DNC has opposed those efforts at every step, and we are prepared to hit them where it hurts – the voting booth,” said Perez. 

Democrats have also not shown up in the voting booth in recent nonpresidential elections. In the most recent midterm elections, in 2014, 47 million fewer people voted than in 2012, when President Barack Obama was re-elected. That poor turnout allowed Republicans to win enough Congressional seats to retain control of the House and Senate.

AAPI voters lean heavily towards the Democrats in recent elections and the 2016 elections saw the AAPI vote overwhelmingly Democratic. 

Four out of five (79%) of Asian Americans polled voted for Hillary Clinton, 18% voted for Donald Trump, and 2% voted for another candidate. Of those surveyed, 59% were enrolled in the Democratic Party and 11% were enrolled in the Republican Party. More than a quarter of those polled (27%) were not enrolled in any political party, while 3% were enrolled in another party, according to a 2017 report by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund.

“Our first Commit to Vote program translates activism and marches into committing to vote for Democrats up and down the ballot this November and is designed to reach voters and communities across the country with new innovative tools and technologies, key partnerships, and online and on-the-ground organizing strategies. In partnership with our state parties and partners, the DNC will reach 50 million voters this year.”

In 2017, Democrat efforts to rally voters have made a difference in special elections. In Virginia, the mobilization drive saw a Democratic governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general elected and flipped 15 seats in the House of Delegates from red to blue. In Alabama, the state’s first Democratic senator in decades was elected. And since Trump's election, Democrats have flipped 39 state legislative seats, including some in districts that Trump won by double digits. 

The partners in the get-out-the-vote effort emphasizes younger voters and those independent groups that lean towards progressive issues and candidates. The following are some of the initial partners who will support the IWillVote efforts: ASPIRE PAC, Blue Future, BOLD PAC, CBC PAC, Collective PAC, College Democrats of America, Flippable, Future Forum, High School Democrats of America, Latino Victory Fund, Mobilize America, National Conference of Democratic Mayors and Democratic mayors from more than 30 cities, National Democratic Redistricting Committee, PODER PAC, Swing Left, Young Democrats of America.

“ASPIRE PAC is pleased to partner with the DNC’s IWillVote program in engaging AAPI voters and encouraging active participation in the Democratic Party,” said ASPIRE PAC Chair Meng, who represents New York City in Congress. “Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are the fastest-growing populations in the country, and this program will help ensure that AAPI voices are heard at the polls in the midterm elections.”
______________________________________________________________________________