Primarily Speaking

Welcome to another edition of Primarily Speaking, because presidential primaries now begin fully one million years before the election!

[Content Note: White supremacy] Yesterday, villainous turd Mitch McConnell actually said these actual words: "I find myself once again in the same position as President Obama. We both oppose reparations and we both are the descendants of slaveholders." This fucking guy and the shit that comes out of his mouth.

Last night, CNN's Don Lemon played the clip for Senator Cory Booker to get his response:

Lemon: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was asked today about an NBC report that said that his relatives were slaveholders and whether that would change his view against reparations. Listen to his response.

[video clip of McConnell smugly saying: "You know, I find myself once again in the same position as President Obama. We both oppose reparations and we both are the descendants of slaveholders."]

Lemon: How do you respond to that?

Booker: You know, I — I — I mean, Mitch McConnell doesn't seem to even in any way there express an understanding of, of these issues or, you know— The bill that I have in the Senate which would call people together to study this issue, the legacy of slavery—

Lemon: Let me just ask you there before you go, 'cause I know — and I'm going to let you talk about that — I rarely have seen you at a loss for words? Why are you at a loss for words over this, over that response?

Booker: I mean, first of all, I — I didn't hear this earlier today, so this is the first time I'm responding, and, and, dear god, there's— [stammers] This has been a couple of years of my life, for Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump where things come out of their mouth that I just sometimes have to — just sometimes have to, you know, ah, have to just take a step back for a second and gather myself.

Fucking hell. I hate Mitch McConnell so much. And I admire Cory Booker a great deal.

In other Booker news, he also denounced Trump's attempt "to get a citizenship question on the 2020 census, calling it "a 'cynical attempt' to undercount 'particular Americans' such as immigrants and minorities and an attempt to divide us against each other."

And after talking the talk, today Booker will walk the walk: "The Democratic presidential hopeful from New Jersey is introducing a Senate bill on Wednesday that would ban the U.S. Census Bureau from including citizenship information among the data the bureau is required to provide to redistricting officials after a national head count." Excellent.

Joe Biden's backers want him to get aggressive as he campaigns:

"There are people that are all over Joe to get more aggressive," according to a source who spoke with Biden in recent days. "People are very nervous."

The source added that the debate will be Biden's next big test. "If he doesn't come out strong and swinging, you're going to see a lot of people leaving him."

I have news for this source: If Biden gets more aggressive at the next debate, a lot of people will leave him for that reason, because many progressive voters — including folks who are tentatively supporting Biden as the best-known frontrunner at the moment but are using the debates to get to know the other candidates — have had enough of aggressive old white men for the rest of our damn lives.

Jill Biden, meanwhile, is still defending her husband's performance in the first debate: "Jill Biden said [Senator Kamala Harris' criticism of former Vice President Joe Biden during the debate was 'the biggest surprise' to her during the race so far but that voters 'didn't buy it.' 'I mean, the one thing you cannot say about Joe is that he's a racist,' Jill Biden said. 'I mean, he got into politics because of his commitment to civil rights. And then to be elected with Barack Obama, and then someone is saying, you know, you're a racist?'" Yikes.

Harris has no time for that garbage. She is too busy tweeting about the need to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act (which just happens to be one of Biden's signature issues): "It's July 9 and the Violence Against Women Act still has yet to be reauthorized. No more political games. Let's ensure survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence have access to the care they need."

[CN: Nativism; child abuse] She's also busy calling attention to the child abuse at the southern border:

Horrific. This is child abuse being committed by the Trump administration, full stop. https://t.co/YOxjM0lnu6

— Kamala Harris (@SenKamalaHarris) July 10, 2019

As is Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who tweeted: "This administration's family separation policy has caused trauma that will last these families a lifetime, but it's not enough just to end that policy. We need real immigration reform with a path to citizenship and a humane asylum process." Absolutely right.

Senator Elizabeth Warren has another plan for another thing!

I've got a new plan to accelerate the transition to clean energy and combat climate change. I'm proud it has the support of former Vice President @algore, and @EdMarkey and @AOC — the original authors of the Green New Deal.

Publicly traded companies have an obligation to share important information about their business. But right now they don't share much about how climate change might affect them, their customers, and their investors.

My Climate Risk Disclosure plan requires companies to publicly disclose both environmental & financial climate-related risks to their business. Investors are already divesting from fossil fuel companies, and this will push more investors to divest and transition to clean energy.

We need to take bold action to attack climate change. I'm proud to support the #GreenNewDeal. I've also got plans to invest in clean energy tech and to stop drilling and promote renewables on public lands. This plan is another tool we can use to attack climate change.

Right on.

In good news for the Castro-heads among us, Julián Castro "has boosted his chances to take his 2020 presidential campaign to the debate stage this fall by snaring contributions from 130,000 unique donors. Castro announced Monday that he had reached the milestone putting him closer to qualifying for the September and October Democratic debates, although he still has not yet polled well enough to seal his place." Huzzah!

John Hickenlooper is still definitely running for president.

Talk about these things! Or don't. Whatever makes you happy. Life is short.