Did The Damn Just Crack On The Biden Campaign? Will Democrats Nominate A Compulsive Liar AND An Anti-Choice Candidate?

Many in Congress are concerned about Trump's seriously deteriorating mental health. And, at the same time, according to polling released yesterday by Pew Research more Americans identify fake news as a bigger problem for America than terrorism, illegal immigration, racism and sexism. They reported that 68% of those polled said made-up news and information greatly impacts Americans’ confidence in government institutions, and over half (54%) said it is having a major impact on our confidence in each other. Yesterday, Paul Farhi reported for the Washington Post that "It’s (almost) official: The president of the United States is a liar." Mainstream news organizations are finally waking up and smelling the plastic roses. Until fairly recently the media has by and large shied away from branding Trump’s gaslighting and bullshit as outright lies. "Nowadays," wrote Farhi, "many in the news media are no longer bothering to grant Trump the benefit of the doubt. In routine news and feature stories, Trump’s dishonesty carries no fig leaf. It is described baldly."

At a time like this-- although in my mind, any time-- it would be a dangerous risk for the Democrats to nominate someone like Joe Biden to run against Trump. As we've mentioned before, although PolitiFact has found that Trump has lied in 84% of his public statements-- making him the world's biggest liar-- Biden's record of lying and deceiving people is completely unacceptable in any way other than not being as bad as Trump's. Overall, Biden has had a very long and repulsive political career and he's one of the worst liars in politics-- with a horrifying 61% of public statements being lied. Compared to Trump-- not so bad, compared to anyone else: unacceptable!

How much do politicians lie? According to PolitiFact:

• Rush Limbaugh- 94% (Half true- 12%)
• Trump- 84% (Half true- 14%)
• Kevin McCarthy- 80% (Half true- 36%)
• Ted Cruz- 77% (Half true- 14%)
• Pelosi- 76% (Half true- 29%)
• Pence- 68% (Half true- 30%)
• Mitt Romney- 68% (Half true- 28%)
• Lindsey Graham- 67% (Half True- 33%)
• Sean Hannity- 67% (Half true- 17%)
• Schumer- 63% (Half true- 21%)
• Biden- 61% (Half true- 29%)
• Dick Cheney- 61% (Half true- 12%)
• McTurtle- 60% (Half true- 18%)
• Beto- 53% (Half true- 32%)
• Obama- 51% (Half true-26%)
• Bernie- 51% (Half true- 24%)
• Rachel Maddow- 50% (Half True- 14%)
• Elizabeth Warren- 47% (Half true- 47%)
• Cory Booker- 42% (Half true- 14%)
• Kamala Harris- 37% (Half true- 14%)

And that brings us to the controversial Hyde Amendment-- a disgraceful piece of legislation targeted at poor women... but just another important piece of policy Biden is lying about. Yesterday. Jodi Jacobson, editor of Rewire News wrote that "Biden's campaign confirmed to NBC News that the candidate supports the Hyde Amendment, an anti-choice restriction banning federal funding for abortion care."

Less than a month ago, at a campaign event, an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) volunteer approached Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to ask whether he would commit to abolishing the Hyde Amendment, which denies public funding of abortions to women who can’t afford them.

“Will you commit to abolishing the Hyde Amendment, which hurts poor women and women of color?” she asked.

“Yes,” Biden said unequivocally. “Yes.”

To be honest, watching the clip at the time made me wonder if Biden really even knew what he was saying. He had what appeared to me to be a quizzical and unfocused expression on his face, suggesting he was not clear what the volunteer was asking. Biden’s first response was to tell the woman about his “near-perfect” voting record according to the ACLU.

But the volunteer did not let him get away with that, and she persisted, saying to him, “I heard you did [have a good record]. but I am so glad said you would commit to abolishing the Hyde Amendment.”

“No, no,” he replied. “It has to be … it can’t stay.”

Apparently, Biden either did not understand the question, did not remember what the Hyde Amendment is, or did not know his own campaign position.

Today, NBC’s Heidi Przybyla writes, Biden’s campaign “confirmed to NBC News that Biden still supports the Hyde Amendment, a four-decade-old ban on using federal funds for abortion services, except in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the woman”

“Biden’s continued support for Hyde not only sets him apart from the rest of his 2020 Democratic competitors,” Przybyla writes, “but it may surprise progressive groups like the American Civil Liberties Union, which promoted a recent tweet by one of its activists appearing to get Biden to commit to ending Hyde during a rope-line exchange in South Carolina. Biden’s campaign told NBC he would be open to repealing Hyde if abortion avenues currently protected under Roe were threatened.”

Biden’s position on Hyde puts him out of step with the national party, which officially committed to abolishing the anti-choice restriction in its platform for the first time in 2016.

So before the first debate, and after months of waiting for him to get into the presidential race, we now know that Biden’s campaign is, to be kind, not ready for primetime.

Meanwhile, most of the other Democratic candidates have already come out for repealing the Hyde Amendment, leaving Biden isolated on an issue he and his campaign team were hoping would never be raised:

• Bernie
• Elizabeth Warren
• Jay Inslee
• Beto
• Gillibrand
• Steve Bullock
• Eric Swalwell
• Tim Ryan
• Julian Castro
• Cory Booker
• Amy Klobuchar
• Marianne Williamson

Yesterday, The Hill confirmed that Biden was lying to the ACLU volunteer when he told her he backs repealing the Hyde Amendment and that he has never changed his position backing the amendment.

Truth is, Biden has not been a friend of Choice and women should think long and hard about voting for him in a primary with so many candidates who are so much better. The Hyde Amendment is an anti-Choice smokescreen that progressive have not backed and do not back this abomination. NARAL President Ilyse Hogue: "That position is unjust and discriminatory and endangers women and families." Kelly Robinson, the executive director of Planned Parenthood Action Fund: "The unfair Hyde Amendment makes it so that those who have the least end up having to pay the most to access abortion, and those who are service members or live on reservations are often left with no coverage for abortion care. We encourage any candidate who doesn't recognize Hyde's impact to speak to the women it hurts most-- particularly on women of color and women with low incomes-- to learn more about the harmful impacts of this discriminatory policy."

Biden himself is "a devout Roman Catholic who opposes abortion" on a personal level. He has grudgingly backed most pro-Choice positions but Hydge is the biggie and he's definitely on the wrong side of that one-- and knows enough to lie right in women's faces about it when he's confronted. In 1981 he voted to remove rape and incest exceptionsts in pending legislation and he voted several times to prohibit federal workers from using health insurance on abortion services, with the only exception being to save the life of the mother.

Yesterday the Trumpist regime announced that the federal government would sharply curtail federal spending on medical research that uses tissue from aborted fetuses-- fulfilling a top goal of anti-abortion groups that have lobbied hard for it. Meanwhile, scientists say the tissue is crucial for studies that benefit millions of patients. I know where most of the Democratic candidates stand on this, but where would Biden come down? Who knows? Given his long, putrid record, it's too dangerous to take any chances with this guy. The Blue America backed progressive candidate, Mike Seagel, running in a red-leaning, gerrymandered Texas district, is clear and to the point and no one has to try to guess about where he stands on women's Choice: "The Hyde Amendment is killing women," he told us yesterday, "predominantly women of color and working class Americans. Repealing the Hyde Amendment is essential to combatting the maternal mortality crisis in Texas and across this country."

Blue America's most recent endorsed candidate, Kathy Ellis, isn't shying away from calling a spade a spade because of anti-Choice sentiment in south east Missouri. "The Hyde Amendment," she told us, "prevents people from accessing the medical care they need. In my state of Missouri, we have seen first-hand how restrictive, anti-abortion laws put peoples' lives and health at risk. I fully support the repeal of the Hyde Amendment, and I fully oppose the restrictive anti-abortion laws we see popping up across the country."

Eva Putzova is running for seat held by a Republican, Tom O'Halleran, who now calls himself a Blue Dog Democrat. Unlike O'Halleran, she is a form supporter of Choice. "I support reproductive choice for all women," she told us yesterday, "including the right to abortion. The Hyde amendment punishes mostly poor women and women of color who are the primary recipients of Medicaid and other government programs. The Democratic Party national platform calls for the repeal of the Hyde amendment, and when I am elected to Congress I will work tirelessly with my colleagues to repeal it. We can't say that we support a woman's right to choose in theory, yet effectively prohibit it for women who can't afford it."

All of the candidates we've been talking to-- men/women, white/black, rural/urban, senior/junior... they all feel very strongly about ending repealing the Hyde Amendment. Michael Owens, attorney and Democratic Party activist, is running in the suburbs south and west of Atlanta in a deep blue district occupied by a conservative Blue Dog, David Scott. Michael told us that he continues "to believe unequivocally, like the majority of Americans, that every woman should have access to quality reproductive health care services. The Hyde Amendment directly impedes on a woman's access to abortion. Furthermore, it marginalizes women of color, and those without substantial financial means by making it more difficult to access reproductive health services for over 15.6 million women in the United States, including 1 in 5 women of reproductive age. This is no more important than here in Georgia where we women face the highest maternal mortality rate in the country and our our Governor just signed a 'forced-birth' bill that will make a women seeking abortion a crime."

Dary Rezvani is the progressive Democrat taking on Devin Nunes this time around. He's in his late 20s and never remembers a time when women didn't have the right to Choice over their own bodies. Last time around, Central Valley Democrats lost with a centrist Democrat who was fundamentally uncomfortable with progressive issues and causes. Dary is the opposite. "The government," he told me last night, "shouldn't be telling women what they can and can't do with their health choices, their bodies. Trust women! Trust women! Trust women! That means... trust women. The Hyde Amendment was a mistake in 1976 when Congress decided, arbitrarily, that Medicaid can't be used by women for a perfectly legal health decision. It was a way for a body made up almost entirely of men to get around Roe v Wade. It should have been thrown out long ago and I'll work with women's groups towards doing just that if voters in Fresno and Tulare counties decide to replace Devin Nunes with me."

Elizabeth Warren, during an MSNBC town hall in Indiana last night, said Biden was wrong to support the abortion funding restriction. "Women of means will still have access to abortions," Warren said. "Who won’t will be poor women, will be working women, will be women who can’t afford to take off three days from work." Meanwhile, Beto was on CBS news suggesting Biden is senile: "I hope that Joe Biden rethinks his position. Perhaps he doesn’t have all the facts. Perhaps he doesn’t understand who the Hyde Amendment hurts the most." But in his 2007 book, Promises to Keep, Biden wrote: "‘I’ve stuck to my middle-of-the-road position on abortion for more than 30 years. I still vote against partial birth abortion and federal funding, and I’d like to make it easier for scared young mothers to choose not to have an abortion, but I will also vote against a constitutional amendment that strips a woman of her right to make her own choice."