American Bridge 21st Century Weekly Recap: June 30, 2023

Our top moments of the week

Last Saturday, Republicans gleefully celebrated the first anniversary of overturning Roe v. Wade. This Saturday, on the 57th anniversary of the beginning of Medicare, the GOP is pushing to gut the health care program millions rely on.

Here are our top moments of the week:

1. Donald Trump Repeatedly Attempted to Cut Medicare

Ahead of the 57th anniversary of the beginning of Medicare benefits, it is important to remember that as president, Donald Trump repeatedly attempted to undermine Medicare. Despite promising not to cut Medicare during his 2016 campaign and even as recently as this year, Trump’s federal budget proposals demonstrated multiple attempts to cut Medicare.

Trump repeatedly broke his promise not to cut Medicare and has actively undermined the program:

• As president, Trump issued an executive order to undermine traditional Medicare and pave the way for eventual privatization. The executive order failed to address problems with Medicare Advantage and increased the chance of seniors being subject to surprise billing. The order would drive up Medicare costs, pushing seniors to the more costly Medicare Advantage.
• Trump’s expansion of Medicare Advantage savings accounts provided a tax shelter for higher-income beneficiaries with few benefits to most seniors.
• The Trump administration botched the online Medicare Advantage enrollment.
• Trump’s appointee to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Seema Verma, was a staunch advocate of privatization and deregulation. Verma had a track record of attempting to dismantle Medicaid, which was a source of supplemental coverage for more than one in five seniors on Medicare.
• Trump backed away from his campaign pledge to negotiate drug prices for Medicare with pharmaceutical companies.

Read more about Donald Trump’s disastrous record at TrumpResearchBook.com.

2. GOP Presidential Hopefuls Celebrated The End of Roe v. Wade, Pushed Federal Abortion Ban

Saturday marked the one-year milestone of the Republican majority on the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. Since the decision, millions of people across the country have lost their right to bodily autonomy. Countless have feared for their lives after being denied necessary medical treatment.

In light of the loss of abortion access, here is a recap of the statements made by these Republican presidential hopefuls following the Dobbs decision and their ongoing efforts to curtail reproductive rights:

Donald Trump is taking full credit for eliminating abortion rights for millions of Americans. His administration appointed three far-right Supreme Court Justices and over 180 anti-abortion judges. He recently took to Truth Social to brag that he “was able to kill Roe v. Wade”:

Ron DeSantis praised the Dobbs decision and said it “returned the issue” to politicians who now have final say over a person’s bodily autonomy. Since the end of Roe, DeSantis has signed a near-total abortion ban in Florida, banning the medical procedure before most people even know they are pregnant. If elected to higher office, he has hinted that he’s “open to adding some type of constitutional” ban on abortion.

Mike Pence is a lifelong opponent of abortion rights. In January, Pence’s 501(c)4 organization Advancing American Freedom rolled out a dangerous anti-abortion legislative framework to coincide with the start of the new Congress. His framework outlaws abortion across the board. It also paves the way to ban contraception like Plan B and IUDs while defunding Planned Parenthood in favor of bogus crisis pregnancy centers — which are frequent peddlers of dangerous misinformation. In February, Pence called for a nationwide ban on medication abortion.

Tim Scott’s record in the U.S. Senate is characterized by anti-abortion extremism and he’s decided to center his campaign messaging around banning abortion. In an anti-abortion fundraising email, Scott wrote that Democrats would “grant abortions up to 52 weeks.” A full-term pregnancy is approximately 40 weeks.

Nikki Haley celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and as governor of South Carolina signed a radical abortion ban, which includes prison sentences for doctors who perform abortions.

3. Trump Real Estate Deal in Oman Underscores Ethics Concerns

Last week, The New York Times released a bombshell investigative piece detailing Trump’s shady foreign business entanglements in Oman with Saudi Arabian real estate developer Dar Al Arkan.

This Trump-branded golf course, hotel, and luxury villa project is raising eyebrows because of serious ethical and national security concerns. If Trump wins in 2024, foreign governments would be able to buy influence with Trump by spending money at this new resort in Oman — a major geopolitical player in the Middle East.

Trump’s deal remained in the spotlight this week. The sprawling New York Times story has been covered by Insider, New York Times (opinion), Salon, NBC News, the New Yorker, NBC News, Politico Playbook, The Hill, and Pod Save America. MSNBC’s Morning Joe, NBC’s Meet the Press, PBS News Hour, and Spectrum News ran full segments.

4. Mark Robinson to Speak With Group That Promoted Hitler

Mark Robinson is set to take the stage at this weekend’s Moms For Liberty event, the group that recently came under fire for quoting Hitler in their literature. According to Jewish Insider, Robinson has a troubled past spewing venomous antisemitic bile defending his past remarks, saying, “When I made those posts as a private citizen, I was speaking directly to issues that I’m passionate about.”

Here’s what Robinson is so “passionate” about:

• Robinson mocked and cast doubts that the Holocaust really happened: “There is a REASON the liberal media fills the airwaves with programs about the NAZI and the ‘6 million Jews’ they murdered.”
• Robinson mocked gun-free zones and Jewish people who were being oppressed in German ghettos: “Gosh, I wish the Jews in the German ghettoes had known about ‘gun-free zones.’ If they had they could have hung up a few signs and the Stormtroopers would have turned around went back to their barracks.”
• Robinson even had antisemitic words about the Black Panther Marvel movie: “It is absolutely AMAZING to me that people…can get so excited about a fictional ‘hero’ created by an agnostic Jew and put to film by satanic marxist. How can this trash, that was only created to pull the shekels out of your Schvartze pockets, invoke any pride?”
• Robinson said “that’s exactly right” when he heard the antisemitic conspiracy that the “‘Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse’ are the Rothschild family of ‘international bankers’…which is a longstanding antisemitic trope about the influence of wealthy Jewish bankers.”

5. Jim Marchant Backs the Execution of DNC and RNC Leaders

According to a new report from the American Independent, election conspiracy theorist and Republican Nevada Senate hopeful Jim Marchant “agreed in a radio interview last week that the leadership of both major national political parties should be executed.”

In March, Marchant claimed that he was “kind of hoping” the U.S. military would intervene in the 2024 election to rig elections for Republicans.