AOC doubles down on ‘ignoring’ abortion rule, Clarence Thomas impeachment: ‘abuse of judicial overreach’

Posted on April 10, 2023 by Latest Political News on Fox News

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., took to Twitter Sunday afternoon to double down on her belief that the Biden administration should "simply ignore" a federal court's injunction on a popular abortion pill. She also defended her push to impeach Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

In a series of tweets, Ocasio-Cortez said the ruling was "judicial overreach" as it forces the executive branch to limit the availability of the abortion pill mifepristone. She also said judges who "repeatedly break the law" should face impeachment, without specifically naming Thomas.

"If we do not impeach when lifetime appointees repeatedly break the law in stunning shows of corruption, if we do not reign in [the] systematic abuse of judicial overreach, and if all we rely on is for those abusing power to police themselves, we have no one else to blame," AOC said on Twitter. "It must stop."

The New York Democrat said the branches of government differ in function and that Biden’s executive authority allows him to dictate how the ruling should be enforced – or not.

AOC SAYS SHE MAY DRAFT CLARENCE THOMAS IMPEACHMENT ARTICLE IF NO ONE ELSE DOES

She also likened the current situation to the Trump administration’s inaction on restoring the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy after a court ordered him to do so.

"GOP are losing their mind over this, but there’s precedent - including their own. Courts ordered Trump to fully restore DACA. They ignored it w/ Republican support," she wrote.

The Democratic lawmaker added: "GOP operate in complete contempt for the law until they’re in a position to shred Constitutional & human rights."

In another tweet, she added: "It’s called agency non-acquiescence. The courts are now going rogue with rulings that no longer even pretend to respect precedent, jurisprudence, or limits to overreach. They are long overdue for a check & balance. Not doing so paves a dangerous road of worsening abuse of power."

AOC’s comments echoed those she shared during an interview Sunday with CNN’s Dana Bash, where she said there was an "extraordinary amount of precedent for this."

"It has happened before, the idea of consistency and governance until there is a higher court ruling," she told Bash, adding that it's "not an unprecedented thing to happen."

CNN PRESSES REP OCASIO-CORTEZ OVER CLAIMS BIDEN ADMIN SHOULD 'IGNORE' ABORTION RULING: 'STUNNING POSITION'

On Friday, U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Texas Matthew J. Kacsmaryk directed the Food and Drug Administration to halt the approval of mifepristone while a lawsuit challenging its safety and approval made its way through court.

The ruling and subsequent suspension will take effect in seven days if a higher court, such as the U.S. Supreme Court, does not issue a stay.

During the weekend interview, the New York lawmaker said she did not think Judge Kacsmaryk or any of the courts have the authority to dictate the actions of the FDA.

"I think one of the things that we need to examine is the grounds of that ruling. But I do not believe that the courts have the authority over the FDA that they just asserted, and I do believe that it creates a crisis," Ocasio-Cortez said.

Separately, Ocasio-Cortez is also pushing to impeach Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who she accused of "repeatedly breaking the law" after an investigation found he shared a yearslong friendship with Harlan Crow, a billionaire donor and real estate developer.

PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRATS CALL FOR CLARENCE THOMAS IMPEACHMENT AFTER REPORTED UNDISCLOSED GIFTS FROM GOP MEGADONOR

ProPublica found Thomas took several trips and received lavish gifts from Crow without disclosing them. Thomas subsequently admitted to receiving the "personal hospitality" but defended such behavior as "not reportable."

On Thursday, Ocasio-Cortez said Thomas' position on the court was an "emergency" and said he should be impeached.

The "Squad" member doubled down on her claim during Friday’s interview, after the host asked her to respond to Thomas’ statement defending his actions.

"He stated the reason and the rationale for this exemption was personal hospitality from an old friend. He said himself, in his statement, a friend of 25 years. Justice Thomas has been on the court for 30 years. What he is admitting in his statement, in an attempt to defend himself, is he began this relationship with a billionaire and received these sorts of gifts after he was appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States," Ocasio-Cortez said.

She added: "I think that in and of itself indicates a very serious problem."

The New Yorker also called for Chief Justice John Roberts to come forward and explain whether he was aware and if he allowed the "corruption" to continue.

Ocasio-Cortez said the house was not in session this week, so she would use the time to strategize, but said she may ultimately be the one to introduce impeachment articles against Thomas.

Fox News’ Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.

Kentucky Republicans leave abortion ban intact during Legislature’s annual session

Posted on April 3, 2023 by Latest Political News on Fox News

After years of setbacks, abortion-rights supporters in Republican-leaning Kentucky thought they achieved a breakthrough in November, when voters defeated a measure aimed at denying any constitutional protections for abortion.

But their hopes that the state's sweeping abortion ban might be relaxed vanished well before the GOP-dominated Legislature ended its annual session.

After years of making anti-abortion policies a cornerstone of their agenda, Republicans skipped over the issue this year, leaving intact a ban on abortion at all stages of pregnancy while it's hashed out in the courts. Instead, social conservatives focused on enacting legislation aimed at transgender youths during the session that ended Thursday.

A handful of abortion bills, including proposals to restore abortion rights or add rape and incest exemptions to the sweeping ban, either failed to get a committee hearing or never were assigned to a committee.

For most states, this was the first legislative session since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and lawmakers on both sides have dug in. Republicans are moving to make abortion restrictions tougher, while Democrats are seeking to protect access.

In Kentucky, beleaguered abortion-rights proponents had hoped momentum would swing in their direction, only to be left frustrated.

SPORTS BETTING IN KENTUCKY WILL LIKELY BECOME LEGAL SOON

Democratic state Rep. Lindsey Burke filed legislation to restore abortion access, saying she believed "Kentucky voters spoke loud and clear last November."

"If passing my bill was not possible, then I definitely think more should have been done to carve out at least some exemptions," Burke added.

Republicans pointed to legal uncertainties surrounding Kentucky's ban that allows abortions only to save a woman's life or prevent disabling injury. That has largely been in place since the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated the constitutional right to abortion in their ruling last June. In February, Kentucky's Supreme Court refused to halt the law while sending the case back to a lower court to consider larger constitutional questions about whether abortion should be legal in the state.

"I still think there’s a desire to wait for more clarity from the courts before we move forward," said Republican Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer, a staunch abortion opponent who even before the legislative session began had predicted it would be difficult to persuade anti-abortion senators to add more exceptions for when a pregnancy could be ended.

Abortion-rights supporters trumpeted the defeat of the anti-abortion ballot measure in November as a clear mandate from voters. But key Republican lawmakers didn't see it that way.

KENTUCKY SENATE CONVICTS FORMER PROSECUTOR IN IMPEACHMENT TRIAL

"I saw it more as the opposing campaign ran a better campaign that scared people into voting ‘no,’" Thayer said.

The abortion debate drew widespread attention during the campaign, when both sides mounted grassroots efforts, but it turned to silence during Kentucky's ensuing legislative session.

One bill briefly received attention when it was introduced in late February, nearly a week after the state Supreme Court opinion. That measure would have permitted abortions caused by rape or incest for up to 15 weeks of pregnancy. Another exemption would have allowed abortions if two doctors determined that a fetus has an "abnormality that is incompatible with life outside the womb."

The bill's lead sponsor was Republican state Rep. Jason Nemes, the House majority party whip, but the measure was never assigned to a committee.

"That’s something I believe in and I’ll fight for," Nemes said in recent days when discussing his bill. "But I don’t think there’s a mandate across Kentucky either way" on the abortion issue.

Democratic state Rep. Rachel Roberts, who unsuccessfully pushed for rape and incest exceptions last year, said she wasn’t surprised the exemptions bill went nowhere.

"The voters’ rejection of the anti-abortion constitutional amendment meant nothing to their party, which is as tragic as it is unsurprising," said Roberts, the House minority party whip.

Other failed abortion bills this year ran the gamut — from a Republican freshman's bill to allow illegal abortions to be prosecuted as homicides to the bill to restore abortion access.

Abortion came up in casual conversations during the session, but House Republicans didn’t formally discuss abortion measures in caucus meetings, said Nemes, a chief House GOP vote-counter who called it a "divisive issue."

Kentucky's GOP lawmakers instead focused on another issue that's energized the party's base across the U.S. — restricting the rights of LGBTQ+ people. Republicans overrode Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear's veto to enact a bill that bans access to gender-affirming health care for transgender youths and restricts the bathrooms they can use in schools.

"With access to abortion care currently unavailable in Kentucky, those individuals needed another political football," said Angela Cooper, communications director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky. "Sadly, they chose to sit on the wrong wide of history and attack trans youth."

Primary election polls closing in states where Trump, Pence, abortion are in the spotlight

Posted on August 2, 2022 by FOX News

Polls have begun to close in Michigan, Missouri and Kansas, where former President Donald Trump’s immense sway over the Republican Party is once again at play in the GOP primary elections.

On the ballot Tuesday in Arizona, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri and Washington are high-profile gubernatorial, Senate and House nomination showdowns. Arizona polls will close at 10 p.m. ET and Washington's elections will end at 11 p.m. ET.

Also in the spotlight: three House Republicans who voted to impeach the then-president over the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol are fighting for their political lives as they face Trump-backed challengers; a proxy war between Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence; and a member of the so-called "Squad" of diverse, progressive House Democrats faces a primary challenge.

Kansas voters will weigh in on abortion in the first ballot box test since the Supreme Court’s conservative majority in June overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling, sending the combustible issue of legalized abortion back to the states.

HEAD TO THE FOX NEWS ELECTION CENTER FOR THE LATEST PRIMARY RESULTS

Here is what to watch.

Missouri

Trump on Monday backed "ERIC" in Missouri's high-profile and combative GOP Senate nomination race, on the eve of the state's primary.

After teasing hours earlier that he would be making an endorsement in the race, Trump declined to choose between two of the three front-runners in the primary: Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt and former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens.

Instead, Trump gave his support to both of them.

FIRST ON FOX: SARAH SANDERS ENDORSES SCHMITT IN MISSOURI GOP FACE-OFF

Schmitt, who has won two statewide elections in Missouri — for treasurer and later for attorney general — has made headlines over the past year and a half, filing numerous lawsuits against President Biden's administration. He has topped the latest surveys in the race.

Greitens, a former U.S. Navy SEAL who left office in 2018 amid multiple controversies, was once the clear front-runner in the primary race, but for months has been fighting allegations from his ex-wife that he abused her and their child. Greitens denies the claims.

CLICK HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS REPORTING FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

There is a long list of Republicans who fear that Greitens' political baggage could put what should be a relatively safe GOP seat in jeopardy come November. An anti-Greitens super PAC has spent more than $6 million this summer to run ads targeting the former governor.

The two Erics, along with Rep. Vicky Hartzler, who represents Missouri’s 4th Congressional District in the predominantly rural west-central part of the state, top a field of over 20 Missouri Republicans vying for the party’s Senate nomination, in the race to succeed retiring GOP Sen. Roy Blunt.

Among the others in the Republican race are Rep. Billy Long in the state’s 7th Congressional District in southwest Missouri, and Mark McCloskey, the St. Louis attorney who, along with his wife, grabbed national headlines during the summer of 2020 for holding guns outside their home to ward off Black Lives Matter protesters.

The winner of Tuesday's GOP primary will likely face off in November against either Trudy Busch Valentine, a philanthropist and beer family heiress, or Lucas Kunce, a former U.S. Marine who is running an aggressive populist-style campaign and who landed the endorsement of progressive champion Sen. Bernie Sanders on Monday. The two candidates are the polling front-runners in a crowded field of 11 Democratic contenders.

Missouri was once a competitive state but has trended Republican in recent decades. The winner of the GOP Senate primary will be considered the favorite in November’s general election.

Arizona

Trump and Pence are at odds in the GOP gubernatorial primary in the race to succeed term-limited Republican Gov. Doug Ducey.

The former president is backing former TV news anchor Kari Lake, who is a strong supporter of Trump’s repeated and unproven claims that his 2020 election loss to President Biden was due to massive voter fraud.

Pence, along with Ducey, endorsed real estate developer and Arizona Board of Regents member Karrin Taylor Robson. Trump and Pence were both in Arizona on the same day a week and a half ago, headlining competing campaign events.

Lake and Taylor Robson are the two front-runners in the GOP primary, with the winner likely facing off in November with Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, who is the leading contender for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in the one-time red state that has become a top general election battleground between the two major parties.

CHECK OUT THE LATEST FOX NEWS 2022 ELECTIONS POWER RANKINGS

Trump, at his rally in Prescott Valley, Arizona — about 90 miles north of Phoenix — also showcased his support for venture capitalist Blake Masters in the state’s GOP Senate primary. Masters’ bid has also been backed and heavily supported by tech billionaire Peter Thiel, his former boss. The other top contenders in the race include businessman Jim Lamon, who's pumped millions of his own money behind his bid; Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich; and retired U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Mick McGuire, who until last year served as adjutant general of the Arizona National Guard.

The winner of the primary will face off in the general election with Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, whom the GOP views as one of the most vulnerable Democratic Senate incumbents running for re-election this year.

Michigan

Trump headlined a primary eve tele-rally for conservative commentator and former online news host Tudor Dixon, the gubernatorial candidate in Michigan he endorsed on Friday after new polls indicated her growing lead in the Republican nomination contest.

Among the other top competitors in the race to take on Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in November are businessman Kevin Rinke, a former owner of the Rinke Automotive Group, one of the nation’s oldest car dealership groups; chiropractor Garrett Soldano, who helped lead a ballot drive to repeal the law Whitmer used to issue COVID-19 restrictions; real estate broker Ryan Kelley, who was charged in connection to Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol; and retired Pastor Ralph Rebandt.

The GOP primary field shrank in early June after several candidates, including former Detroit police chief James Craig, were booted from the ballot for alleged fraudulent signatures. The shrinking of the field benefited Dixon, as did plenty of support from Michigan’s wealthy DeVos family, which includes former Trump Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

The Democratic Governors Association, as it has done in GOP gubernatorial primaries earlier this year in Maryland, Illinois, and Pennsylvania, is meddling.

Put Michigan First, a Democratic group that is affiliated with the DGA and supporting Whitmer, spent big bucks to run ads targeting her over police funding and claiming her plans would result in the state being "less safe" with "less cops on the street."

The DGA is not the only pro-Democratic group that’s jumping into a GOP primary in Michigan.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the House Democrats’ re-election arm, spent six-figures to try and weaken GOP Rep. Peter Meijer of Michigan — one of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach then-President Trump — by pumping up John Gibbs, the Trump-backed candidate challenging Meijer.

Meijer, an Iraq War veteran who was elected to Congress in 2020, has been targeted by Trump over his impeachment vote. The former president endorsed Gibbs, a former software developer who served in the Trump administration as an acting assistant secretary in the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Gibbs is also a supporter of Trump’s repeated unproven claims that the 2020 presidential election was "rigged" due to "massive voter fraud."

Meijer represents Michigan’s 3rd Congressional District, on the western side of the state’s lower peninsula, which the DCCC views as a competitive seat in November’s midterm elections. The latest Fox News Power Rankings rate the district as Lean Republican. House Democrats are hoping to hold onto their razor-thin majority in the chamber in the midterms, and they see Gibbs as a weaker general election candidate than Meijer.

Washington State

Meijer is not the only House Republican on the ballot on Tuesday who voted to impeach Trump.

Reps. Dan Newhouse and Jamie Herrera Beutler of Washington State are facing multiple primary challengers — including candidates backed by Trump.

The former president last year backed Army Special Forces veteran Joe Kent as he targeted Buetler in Washington’s third Congressional District, in the southwestern corner of the state. He endorsed former police chief Loren Culp to take Newhouse in the 4th Congressional District, which covers a large swath of the central part of the state.

Washington conducts what is known as a jungle primary, in which the top two vote-getters — regardless of party affiliation — advance to the general election.

Six of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump over the deadly attack on the Capitol by right wing extremists and other Trump supporters aiming to disrupt congressional certification of Biden’s Electoral College victory are running for re-election this year.

One of them — Rep. David Valadao of California — was not targeted by Trump. Valadao in June won a spot in November’s general election, as he was one of the top two finishers in California’s nonpartisan primaries. Another — Rep. Tom Rice of South Carolina — lost his bid for renomination in the GOP primary in June to a Trump-endorsed and heavily supported challenger.

The most well-known of the House Republicans to vote to impeach Trump — Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming — is facing multiple primary challengers, including a Trump-backed candidate, in Wyoming’s Aug. 16 primary.

Kansas

Voters in Kansas will be the first since the blockbuster Supreme Court ruling to weigh in on an abortion ballot measure, as they consider a state constitutional amendment on abortion access. The ballot measure aims to overturn a state Supreme Court decision from three years ago that ruled that the Kansas constitution protected abortion rights. If the measure passes, it would give the state legislature greater control over dictating abortion access.

Since Kansas is the first state to weigh in on the issue since the June high court decision, it is grabbing national attention as a bellwether in the state-level fights over legalized abortion.

What else we’re watching

Arizona’s GOP primary for secretary of state is in the national spotlight, as state Rep. Mark Finchem is one of the front-runners in the four-candidate field. Finchem, who is backed by the former president, is a strong supporter of Trump’s unsubstantiated 2020 election fraud claims. If he captures the Republican nomination and wins November’s general election, Finchem will become the top election official in a state where Biden narrowly edged Trump two years ago and a likely key battleground in the 2024 presidential contest.

It is member versus member in the Democratic primary in Michigan’s 11th Congressional District, in the northwestern suburbs of Detroit, where Reps. Andy Levin and Haley Stevens are facing off. Millions of out-of-state money have poured into the race, and two progressive champions — Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts — have endorsed Levin.

In Missouri’s St. Louis-centric 1st Congressional District, first-term Democratic Rep. Cori Bush, one of the newest members of the "Squad," is facing multiple primary challengers. The leading contender, state Sen. Steve Roberts, has repeatedly criticized Bush for her calls to defund the police.