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Post by Newsman on Mar 7, 2024 14:47:49 GMT -5
Tonight President Biden gives what may be his contention State of the Union address....(The Guardian) Alabama fertility services set to resume after governor signs IVF protection billAlabama fertility clinics that paused in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments following a controversial state supreme court ruling last month that equated frozen embryos to children are considering their next moves after Alabama’s governor, Kay Ivey, signed a bill into law aimed at protecting IVF providers from potential legal liability on Wednesday night. Meanwhile, Joe Biden is preparing to deliver the final State of the Union address of his presidential term, where Democrats plan to put reproductive freedom literally front and center this evening. Among the guests invited to the SoTU are guests involved in the reproductive rights movement in some way, including Kate Cox, who made headlines in December when she fled Texas to receive abortion care after she was denied access to the procedure in her home state. Elizabeth Carr, the first person born via in vitro fertilization in the US, is also expected to attend. The stakes for Biden tonight are astronomical, as the president will aim to tout his accomplishments and pitch his re-election campaign as he faces intensifying worries about his age and ability at a time when the US faces numerous challenges at home and abroad.
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Post by Webster on Mar 7, 2024 18:03:27 GMT -5
(The Guardian) State of the Union guest list puts reproductive rights in spotlightBecerra’s comments come ahead of Joe Biden addressing the nation in the State of the Union on Thursday night. Although the White House has not released the speech, a large number of Democratic guests suggest reproductive rights may feature heavily. Among the guests of high-ranking Democrats are Elizabeth Carr, the first person in the US to be born via IVF; Amanda Zurawski, a Texas woman who nearly died of septic shock when she was denied a medically necessary abortion; and Kate Cox, who had to flee Texas for an abortion after she learned her fetus had a fatal chromosomal condition. More guests include reproductive endocrinologists, an Indiana doctor who provided an abortion to a 10-year-old rape victim, and leaders of reproductive rights groups. Becerra’s comments emphasizing the importance of reproductive rights, Democrats’ guest list for the State of the Union and a recent administration officials’ trips to states with abortion restrictions are the most recent evidence of Democrat’s election bet: that when Republicans married the motivated minority of voters who support the anti-abortion movement, they also divorced themselves from the broader American public, broad margins of whom support IVF, contraception and legal abortion.
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Post by Webster on Mar 7, 2024 18:16:24 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Mike Johnson, the Republican House speaker, reportedly pleaded with his party to show “decorum” on Thursday, when Joe Biden comes to the chamber to deliver his State of the Union address. “Decorum is the order of the day,” Johnson said, according to an unnamed Republican who attended a closed-door event on Capitol Hill on Wednesday and was quoted by the Hill. The same site said another unnamed member of Congress said Johnson asked his party to “carry ourselves with good decorum”. A third Republican was quoted as saying: He said, ‘Let’s have the appropriate decorum. We don’t need to be shrill, you know, we got to avoid that. We need to base things upon policy, upon facts, upon reality of situations.Last year’s State of the Union saw outbursts from Republicans and responses from Biden that made headlines, most awarding the president the win. Kevin McCarthy, then speaker, also asked his Republican members not to breach decorum. But in a sign of his limited authority, months before he became the first speaker ejected by his own party, such pleas fell on deaf ears.
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Post by Webster on Mar 7, 2024 18:17:55 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Biden to use State of the Union address to urge protection of rightsJoe Biden will deliver the final State of the Union address of his presidential term this evening, giving him an opportunity to tout his accomplishments and pitch his re-election campaign as he prepares for a rematch against Donald Trump in November. Previewing Biden’s State of the Union speech, his press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said his remarks would focus on the president’s vision for the nation’s future and his legislative accomplishments. “You’re going to hear the president address how democracy is under attack, how freedoms are certainly under attack,” including women’s reproductive rights and voting rights, Jean-Pierre told MSNBC. Biden’s speech will also highlight his agenda for a potential second term, the White House chief of staff Jeff Zients told NPR. Those include “lowering costs, continuing to make people’s lives better by investing in childcare, eldercare, paid family and medical leave, continued progress on student debt”, he said, adding: The president is also going to call for restoring Roe v. Wade and giving women freedom over their healthcare. And he’ll talk about protecting, not taking away, freedoms in other areas, as well as voting rights.
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Post by Webster on Mar 7, 2024 18:23:53 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, said Joe Biden’s State of the Union address tonight will highlight Democratic successes and show the chaos in the House Republican party in stark relief. During his floor remarks reported by CNN, Schumer said Biden will make it clear that “after so much adversity, America’s economy is growing, inflation is slowing, and Democrats’ agenda is delivering.” He said: The difference between the parties will be as clear as night and day. Democrats are focused on lowering costs, creating jobs, putting money in people’s pockets. But the hard right, which too often runs the Republican party in the House and now increasingly in the Senate, is consumed by chaos, bullying, and attacking things like women’s freedom of choice.Meanwhile, the Republican front-runner for president, Donald Trump, has “made it abundantly clear that he’s not running to make people’s lives better, but rather on airing his personal political grievances,” Schumer added.
Joe Biden will announce in the State of the Union speech that US forces will build a temporary port on the Gaza shoreline in the next few weeks to allow delivery of humanitarian aid on a large scale. “We are not waiting on the Israelis. This is a moment for American leadership,” a senior US official said on Thursday, reflecting growing frustration of what is seen in Washington as Israeli obstruction of road deliveries on a substantial scale. The port will be built by US military engineers operating from ships off the Gaza coast, who will not need to step ashore, US officials said. The aid deliveries will be shipped from the port of Larnaca in Cyprus, which will become the main relief hub. The official said: Tonight, the president will announce in his State of the Union address that he has directed the US military to undertake an emergency mission to establish a port in Gaza, working in partnership with like minded countries and humanitarian partners. This port, the main feature of which is a temporary pier, will provide the capacity for hundreds of additional truckloads of assistance each day.Biden will also announce the opening of a new land crossing into the occupied and devastated coastal strip. Biden has been fiercely criticised within his own party for the failure to open up Gaza to humanitarian aid, with a famine looming and 30,000 Palestinians dead already since the start of war on 7 October.
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Post by Webster on Mar 7, 2024 18:36:10 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Republicans have chosen Katie Boyd Britt, a first-term senator from Alabama, to deliver the party’s official response to Joe Biden’s State of the Union address tonight – a move likely designed to highlight the big age gap between the two. Britt, 42, is one of nine women in the Senate Republican conference and the youngest female Republican elected to the Senate. In a statement announcing her speech, she said it was time for the next generation of American politicians “to step up”. She added: The Republican Party is the party of hardworking parents and families, and I’m looking forward to putting this critical perspective front and center.
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Post by Newsman on Mar 7, 2024 20:50:32 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Biden to put abortion rights at center of last State of the Union address before November electionsTonight at 9pm ET, Joe Biden will deliver what could be the most important speech of his presidency: the last State of the Union address before he faces Donald Trump in the November presidential elections. The annual speech is an important one for any president, but carries extra weight for Biden because it is a major opportunity to reengage with voters who have drifted away from him over the past three years but will be crucial in defeating Trump. Democrats are jittery over Biden’s persistently bad poll numbers, which for more than two and a half years have defied anything the president does to turn the situation around. His campaign believes the struggle for abortion rights is key to turning the situation around – among the promises the president will make tonight is a pledge to codify Roe v Wade if re-elected with Democratic majorities in Congress, the White House says.
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Post by Newsman on Mar 7, 2024 20:51:39 GMT -5
(The Guardian) 'I promise you: I will restore Roe v Wade as the law of the land': Biden to vow at State of the UnionDemocrats have tried and failed to protect abortion rights federally ever since it became clear the supreme court would overturn Roe v Wade, as it did in 2022. The party never had the votes, but at this evening’s State of the Union address, Biden will make clear it would be a priority, if re-elected: In its decision to overturn Roe v Wade the Supreme Court majority wrote ‘Women are not without electoral or political power.’ No kidding. Clearly those bragging about overturning Roe v Wade have no clue about the power of women in America. But they found out when reproductive freedom was on the ballot and won in 2022, 2023, and they will find out again in 2024. If Americans send me a Congress that supports the right to choose I promise you: I will restore Roe v Wade as the law of the land again.He will also attempt to persuade Americans that the economy is doing all right: I came to office determined to get us through one of the toughest periods in our nation’s history. And we have. It doesn’t make the news, but in thousands of cities and towns the American people are writing the greatest comeback story never told. So let’s tell that story here and now. America’s comeback is building a future of American possibilities, building an economy from the middle out and the bottom up – not the top down, investing in all of America – in all Americans – to make sure everyone has a fair shot and we leave no one behind.Biden may at some point choose to call out Trump by name, but from what the White House has released, he’s only referring to him obliquely – and pointing out that they are not far apart in age. Here’s the line: My lifetime has taught me to embrace freedom and democracy. A future based on the core values that have defined America: honesty, decency, dignity, equality. To respect everyone. To give everyone a fair shot. To give hate no safe harbor. Now some other people my age see a different story: an American story of resentment, revenge, and retribution. That’s not me.
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Post by Webster on Mar 7, 2024 20:59:26 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Mar 7, 2024 21:00:09 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Joe Biden will likely portray this election as he did in 2020: a contest between democracy and Donald Trump, whose authoritarian rhetoric has escalated since he lost the 2020 election to Biden. It is unclear how Biden will position himself on foreign policy. His administration faces mounting pressure from the right to abandon its support for Ukraine, which for more than two years has been fighting a Russian ground invasion. And he faces calls from a progressive anti-war movement to push for a ceasefire in Gaza, where more than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s military campaign. During his speech, Biden is expected to announce the creation of a port on the coast of Gaza to deliver more aid to the besieged enclave. A week ago, Biden and Trump made dueling visits to the US-Mexico border, underscoring the centrality of immigration policy to the 2024 race – and the shift to the right that Biden and other Democratic politicians have made on the issue. During his speech in Brownsville, Texas, Biden called on Trump to support the bipartisan bill to restrict immigration on the southern border, which is languishing in Congress. How, and if, Biden speaks about immigration will be a prelude to his approach during the months ahead on the campaign trail. This speech will also offer Biden an opportunity to address abortion rights, an issue that has mobilized Democratic voters since the supreme court decision protecting abortion access, Roe v Wade, was overturned. An Alabama supreme court decision in February ruling that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law – which has led to threats to access to in vitro fertilization there – brought concerns about reproductive healthcare access back to the fore. Biden has expressed his personal misgivings about abortion on religious grounds, but has defended Roe v Wade.
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Post by Webster on Mar 7, 2024 21:01:30 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Who is Katie Britt? Alabama senator to deliver Republican State of the Union rebuttalThe GOP has chosen first-term Alabama senator Katie Britt, the youngest Republican woman ever to serve in the Senate, to deliver the rebuttal to the State of the Union address tonight. At 42, Britt is also the third-youngest senator currently serving, presenting a counterpoint to the oldest sitting president. Her rebuttal will come on the heels of a high-stakes political showdown over women’s access to in vitro fertilization in her home state. Democratic women wear white to State of the Union in show of support for abortion rightsAs lawmakers and officials file into the chamber of the House of Representatives, a notable fashion trend has emerged. Many female lawmakers are wearing white, and it’s not an accident. The Democratic Women’s Caucus says its members have donned the color along with pins reading “Fighting for Reproductive Freedom”. “Our message is clear: women must be able to access the health care they need to control their own lives and futures. That means women, not politicians, should be in charge of whether, when, and how to start or grow their families. That includes access to birth control, access to abortion, and access to IVF,” the caucus chair Lois Frankel said.
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Post by Webster on Mar 7, 2024 21:03:34 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Joe Biden’s drive from the White House to the Capitol was complicated by demonstrators who blocked roads to protest his support for Israel’s invasion of Gaza.
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Post by Webster on Mar 7, 2024 21:10:27 GMT -5
(The Guardian) For some reason, expelled former Republican congressman George Santos has returned to watch the State of the Union from the House floor. Axios reports he wanted to hang out with the lawmakers who voted to remove him from office last year for being a big-time liar.
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Post by Webster on Mar 7, 2024 21:14:06 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Vice-president Kamala Harris and Republican House speaker Mike Johnson have been getting to know each other as they wait on the House dais for Joe Biden’s arrival. As CSPAN points out, Johnson is the third House speaker Harris has had the chance to socialize with since taking office. The first was her Democratic buddy Nancy Pelosi back in 2022, when Biden’s allies controlled the House. The following year, Republicans took the majority and it was Republican Kevin McCarthy – but we all know what happened to him.
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Post by Webster on Mar 7, 2024 21:26:25 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Biden enters House chamber to deliver State of the Union speechJoe Biden is now walking into the House of Representatives chamber ahead of his State of the Union address. This will be the third such speech he has given since taking office in 2021, and the last before the November elections, where voters will decide whether to give Biden another four years in the White House, or replace him with Donald Trump. The president is making his way down a line of guests and members of Congress, shaking hands and speaking to them. Democratic Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer is right behind him.
Joe Biden appeared to have a brief encounter with one of his biggest antagonists: Marjorie Taylor Greene. The Georgia Republican congresswoman was decked out in a red Maga hat, and appeared to tell Biden, “say her name, Mr President” in reference to the murder of Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student in the state. After she said that, Biden turned away. Republicans have seized on Riley’s death to attack the president’s handling of migrant arrivals on the southern border, because the suspect in her murder was in the country illegally.
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