Republicans: Supreme Court Won't Toss ObamaCare
Senate Republicans are downplaying the chances that the Supreme Court will strike down ObamaCare as Democrats seek to hammer the GOP on the issue ahead of the elections.
As Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett testifies this week before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Democrats are drilling in on a Republican-backed lawsuit seeking to strike down the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that the high court will hear one week after Election Day.
“No one believes the Supreme Court is going to strike down the Affordable Care Act,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Monday night during his reelection debate with Democrat Amy McGrath.
Ford O’Connell, a GOP strategist, said Democrats are hyping the lawsuit for political advantage.
“It’s clear that the Democrats are trying to use the [Barrett] hearings as a way to scare the bejeezus out of independent and minority voters,” he said.
Supreme Court Vacancy Reignites Debate Over Abortion in US
The death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg has reignited the abortion debate in the US, putting the issue front and centre with less than six weeks to go until November’s presidential election.
Donald Trump has vowed to replace Ginsburg, a liberal pro-choice icon, with a female jurist committed to overturning Roe vs. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision that enshrined that constitutional right to an abortion.
The president will announce his choice at the White House on Saturday. The nominee, Mr. Trump's third since taking office, stands to tip the balance of the nine-member bench 6-3 in favour of conservatives. The shift would also be a big victory for the so-called pro-life, or anti-abortion, lobby that helped carry Mr. Trump to victory in 2016.
Ford O'Connell, a Republican strategist who is close to the Trump campaign, said that votes in places like Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Charlotte, North Carolina, were more socially conservative than their counterparts in coastal cities like New York or San Francisco.
"The states that are going to decide this election tend to be much more pro-life than the nation as a whole," he said.
Mr. O'Connell added that if Democratic lawmakers were too aggressive in questioning Judge Barrett or others, they risked losing support among suburban women.
"If they attack a female nominee for her faith or stance on abortion, that could backfire," he said.
Trump Campaign Shifts Gears To Focus On Supreme Court Seat
The death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has jolted the Trump campaign, offering the president a new message to seize on in the final weeks of his reelection pursuit.
For months, the focus of the 2020 campaign has been on the president’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed 200,000 people in the U.S., and the resulting recession that has put millions out of work. But Trump allies see the new Supreme Court vacancy as a way to rally conservatives who may have been wavering and give Trump a new issue to hammer home in the closing weeks.
Trump basked in the opportunity to appoint a third Supreme Court justice with supporters at a rally over the weekend in the swing state of North Carolina, musing about printing T-shirts that read “Fill that seat” and polling the crowd on whether to pick a man or a woman.
Ford O’Connell, a Florida-based Republican strategist, argued that the nomination process could help win over Republicans who might not otherwise favor his reelection.
“Republicans may agree or disagree about candidates, the one thing they seem to walk in lock step about is the judiciary,” O’Connell said.
“With evangelical voters, particularly in the Upper Midwest, that is entirely important in terms of maximizing our turnout there,” O’Connell said.
Read more from Morgan Chalfant and Brett Samuels at The Hill
Ford O'Connell To Newsmax TV: SCOTUS Appointment Top Election Issue
The fight over filling the Supreme Court vacancy will become "the top issue of the 2020 election," according to GOP strategist and lawyer Ford O'Connell on Newsmax TV.
O'Connell said it is important to have nine justices on the bench because the "Democrats have already said they're going to challenge the election results if Donald Trump wins."
He said if there is a challenge on election results that winds up at the Supreme Court for a decision, "you need to have nine justices on there."
He ripped Democrats who are threatening to pack the courts and even impeach Trump for selecting a justice ahead of the election.
"They never accepted the 2016 election results," he said of the Democrats, adding they are "resorting to extortion" to change the rules.
How Will A Progressive Agenda Affect The US?
Republican strategist Ford O’Connell discusses why Sen. Bernie Sanders’ and Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s proposed wealth tax and healthcare initiatives will severely hurt the middle class.
Election-year Supreme Court Fight Would Be ‘Armageddon,’ Pundits Say
A potential Supreme Court vacancy in 2020 will turn into a “battle royal” if Senate Republicans flip the script and nominate a conservative judge during a presidential election year, pundits tell the Herald.
“Both sides would be fighting it out as if it’s Armageddon,” pollster John Zogby said Sunday. “Democrats would be saying, ‘This is the end of the world and the end of America as we know it.’ It would be a battle royal.”
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 86, who’s firmly seated on the left, appears to have survived another cancer scare. On Friday, it was announced doctors discovered a malignant tumor on her pancreas.
It was the second time Ginsburg, who had surgery to remove cancerous growths from her lung in December, has been treated for cancer in less than nine months.
Her health remains a constant concern for both liberals because the court is expected to shift right for decades if President Trump were to get the ability to nominate someone to replace her. The conservative court would have a 6-3 majority.
David Axelrod, who was senior adviser to President Barack Obama, tweeted: “If there is a SCOTUS vacancy next year and @senatemajldr carries through on his extraordinary promise to fill it — despite his own previous precedent in blocking Garland — it will tear this country apart.”
But Ford O’Connell, a GOP national pundit, said a Supreme Court nomination battle could actually boost Trump in 2020.
“Because Republicans control both the Senate and White House, it’s well-within their right to appoint a new judge,” O’Connell said. “I really think it would help Trump more with enthusiasm from voters.”
Read more from Rick Sobey and Sean Philip Cotter at the Boston Herald
Abortion To Be Major Election Issue In 2020 U.S. Presidential Race
Abortion has vaulted to the forefront of issues in the lead up to the 2020 U.S. presidential elections, and experts said the issue may well become the Gordian knot in the race, dragging out the imminent fight between Democrats and Republicans.
Earlier this month, Kay Ivey, governor of the U.S. state of Alabama, signed a new law that would ban all abortions, except in cases in which the mother's life is in danger, in the latest challenge to the 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade case that ruled that women have a right to have an abortion.
The Alabama law would make it a felony for a doctor to perform an abortion, with the possibility of 99 years of imprisonment. Even victims of rape and incest would not be permitted to terminate their pregnancies.
The ban is the latest in a trend toward more restrictive abortion policies, with the U.S. states of Kentucky, Ohio, Georgia and Mississippi recently creating similar bans. Experts say all this is part of a GOP concerted effort to push the issue up to the U.S. Supreme Court, where anti-abortion supporters hope the court will strike down Roe v. Wade.
For their part, conservatives say the trend toward restricting abortions is a reaction to recent moves in states such as New York and Virginia to relax restrictions on late-term abortions.
TV news personality and Republican strategist Ford O'Connell told Xinhua that the new law in Alabama, as well as similar laws in other states, are a test-case, signed into law so they'll get pushed up to the Supreme Court in hopes that Roe v. Wade will be overturned.
O'Connell added that the spate of anti-abortion laws being passed in several states is a reaction to what many conservatives view as radical and immoral laws being pushed in states such as New York and Virginia. Such legislation seeks to make abortion legal even in the third trimester. Social conservatives, particularly evangelicals, which represent a large chunk of Trump's base, have strong views against such laws.
Democratic Groups Gear Up To Use Abortion Rights As Attack On GOP In 2020
Democrats are gearing up to use abortion rights as an attack against Republicans in 2020, seeking to paint the party as too extreme after the passage of sweeping laws restricting the procedure by GOP legislatures across the country.
Presidential contenders, including Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), are already taking the issue head-on, most recently joining the Democrats’ condemnation of a comprehensive abortion ban signed into law in Alabama that bans the procedure in almost all circumstances, including rape and incest.
Democratic groups are mobilizing as well, hoping to put the abortion debate front and center in state and local races in 2020 as they look to put Republicans on the defensive at a time when the GOP lost the House last year, in large part by losing suburban female voters.
Republican strategist Ford O’Connell said Trump will likely to focus on the issue of restricting late-term abortions, which are generally unpopular with the public.
“Trump’s been talking about this since the last year-and-a-half. He’s been saying late-term abortion is a travesty,” O’Connell told The Hill. “He’s going to stick to the late-term abortion and the federal judges.”
The president is also likely to continue to campaign on his promise of appointing more conservative judges and justices after the appointments of Kavanaugh and Gorsuch gave conservatives a 5-4 majority in the Supreme Court.
The abortion issue has proved to ignite evangelicals, a voting bloc that has remained loyal to Trump throughout his political career.
O'Connell said that if presented properly by Trump, the abortion issue could help Trump win vital swing states such as Florida, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan — but also acknowledged the rise in enthusiasm from the left.
“If this is framed properly by the White House, it can be a very powerful issue,” he said. “When it comes to this issue, you’re watching both parties try to shake the bushes to make sure that they have full turn out on every possible issue that’s important to their coalition.”
Alabama Abortion Ban Underscores U.S. Shift Toward Right
A new near-total abortion ban in the U.S. state of Alabama signals a conservative tilt in many parts of the United States, at a time when people on the left and right are increasingly divided, experts said.
On Wednesday, Kay Ivey, the state's governor, signed a new law that would ban all abortions, except in cases in which the mother's life is in danger, in the latest challenge to the 1973 landmark Supreme Court case that ruled that women have a right to have an abortion.
The Alabama law would make it a felony for a doctor to perform an abortion, and even victims of rape and incest would not be permitted to terminate their pregnancies.
The ban is the latest in a trend toward more restrictive abortion policies, with the U.S. states of Kentucky, Ohio, Georgia and Mississippi recently creating similar bans, hoping the U.S. Supreme Court will strike down the current law of the land, which considers many abortions to be a woman's right.
Some believe this is a reaction toward recent moves in states such as New York and Virginia to relax restrictions on late-term abortions.
A May 2018 Gallup poll found that 60 percent of the U.S. people believe abortion should be legal during the first trimester, although merely 13 percent believed women should be allowed to terminate their pregnancy during the third trimester.
"What you are seeing is people wanting to have a test case on what are the limits of (the current abortion laws) in front of the Supreme Court," Republican strategist and TV news personality Ford O'Connell told Xinhua.
Surprise ObamaCare Move Puts GOP In Bind
The Trump administration’s surprise call for the courts to strike down ObamaCare upended Capitol Hill on Tuesday, putting Republicans in a bind while giving Democrats new talking points on one of their favorite issues for the 2020 elections.
GOP lawmakers for the most part were reluctant to even talk about the Justice Department’s decision to call for all of ObamaCare to be struck down in a court filing.
If the courts agree with the Justice Department, it would dramatically change the way health care is now delivered in the country. Insurance companies were among those criticizing the administration’s decision.
For the GOP, it shifted the political discussion from a more welcome storyline about the end of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe to health care — the issue Democrats believe helped them win back the House majority last fall.
Ford O’Connell, a GOP strategist, said that because most legal experts do not think the anti-ObamaCare lawsuit will ultimately succeed, the issue will eventually be moot. At the same time, he acknowledged the administration’s filing creates a positive story for Democrats.
“Internally in their mind they’re breathing a sigh of relief,” O’Connell said of Democrats who can now talk about health care instead of Mueller’s findings.
