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Senator Tom Cotton Held a Town Hall Last Night. Thousands of His Constituents Showed Up. It Didn’t Go Well for Him.

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‘Without the Coverage for Pre-Existing Conditions I Will Die’

Republican freshman U.S. Senator Tom Cotton Wednesday night held a town hall. Thousands of his Arkansas constituents showed up at a theater in the Springdale High School. It did not go well for him. Cotton, a former Army Captain who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, defeated Democrat Mark Pryor in 2014 after running as a hard core conservative, and he is among the furthest right wing members of the Senate.

In a conservative state like Arkansas, some might think his town hall would have been easy. But Republicans in congress are waking up to the fact that, despite all their false claims about Obamacare, people actually like it. They need it. And they don’t want it repealed. 

Some, like this eloquent young woman who shared her story, truly need the protections the Affordable Care Act has given them. 

“Without the coverage for pre-existing conditions, I will die,” Kati McFarland, speaking from a wheelchair, told Sen. Cotton. “That’s not hyperbole.”

Arkansas Online adds, “McFarland will turn 26 on Sunday, she told the senator, losing her eligibility to be carried on her parents health insurance. She has incurable Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, or EDS, which weakens her heart and veins.”

“You want to cut funding to Planned Parenthood, which does my cancer screening,” McFarland said. “You and your party talk a lot about repeal of the ACA, but you don’t talk much about what you will replace it with,” she said. “What are you going to replace it with?”

RELATED: ‘Do Your Job!’: Angry Constituents at Town Hall Force Sen. Joni Ernst to Flee 45 Minutes Early (Video)

“I don’t see replacement having the commitment of members of your party as much as their commitment to repeal,” McFarland also told Cotton.

(UPDATE: There is an online fundraiser for Kati at YouCaring.)

Another woman wanted to know how Republicans are going to do better than a plan that costs $29 a month for her husband who she says is dying, and $39 for her. And why she contacted him many times asking to meet and all she’s gotten is a form letter from his office.

She wasn’t the only one who held Cotton’s feet to the fire.

This woman wanted to know why Cotton doesn’t care President Trump hasn’t released his tax returns. She didn’t care for Cotton’s answer, nor did the audience. “I mean, the former president showed his birth certificate,” she reminded him.

And still another woman unhappy with President Trump told Cotton she is not a paid protestor, and she’s concerned because “it appears that this administration is trampling our constitutional rights.”

And then there was this seven year-old named Toby who said “Donald Trump makes Mexicans not important to people who are in Arkansas,” and said his whole family likes Mexicans – the audience cheered. He then said Trump is taking away PBS kids “just to make a wall.”

“He shouldn’t do all that stuff for just the wall.”

Cotton went on to say America is a “melting pot and we are all one people.”

An audience member shouted out, “prove it!”

 

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Image by Greg Leding/Twitter

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YOU CAN'T DO THAT

Photos: Trump’s Postmaster General Removing Mailboxes in at Least 5 States Weeks Before Early Voting – Explanation Fails

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August 14, 2020

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President Donald Trump’s newly-installed Postmaster General is working to reduce capacity across the United States, just weeks before early voting in the 2020 presidential election begins in some states. Americans are furious, after seeing many reports on massive reductions in mail sorting machines, and Trump’s refusal to fund the USPS – along with his admission he is doing so to make it impossible for people to vote by mail.

A local Portland, Oregon news reporter says the USPS admits it’s already removed 27 mailboxes from Eugene, Oregon, with more removals to come there. She says the Post Office claims “they’re only removing them from locations that have multiple mailboxes next to each other.”

Which does not explain this:

Or this:

NBC Montana reports it has “confirmed with the Montana State Association of the National Association of Letter Carriers the orders to remove 13 boxes in Missoula, 9 in Bozeman, 3 in Lewistown and 30 in Billings.”

NPR’s Lulu Miller show that not only are mailboxes being removed, some are just being sealed, rendering them useless:

One Oregon reporter offers this disturbing development.

Related: ‘This Is a RICO Case’: Top Obama Advisor Urges Dems to ‘Go to War for Our Country’ Over Trump USPS Attack

Meanwhile, Americans are taking to social media and posting photos of USPS mail boxes being removed and carted away. Take a look at some:

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MISOGYNIST IN CHIEF

‘I Haven’t Been Blunt’: Trump Defends Attacks on ‘Nasty’ Kamala Harris, Invokes Racist Slur Against Warren

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17 hours ago

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August 14, 2020

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President Donald Trump refused to accept responsibility for calling sitting U.S. Senator Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic vice presidential nominee, a “Mad Woman,” “nasty,” “angry,” “radical,” and “condescending.”

Confronted with just a few of his attacks Friday afternoon in a press conference Trump pushed back against the reporter’s charges.

“I haven’t been blunt,” Trump insisted, falsely, as CNN’s fact checker noted:

Trump went on to claim, repeatedly, that Sen. Harris “treated Joe Biden worse than anybody else by far.”

“Nobody treated Biden so badly, as Kamala,” Trump claimed, stressing the pronunciation of her name as if to mock it.

He also attacked Senator Elizabeth Warren, invoking his racist slur for her, “Pocahontas.”

Watch:

 

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WHAM!

Obama Slams Trump Over USPS Attack in Rare Remarks: ‘More Concerned With Suppressing the Vote’

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18 hours ago

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August 14, 2020

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In rare remarks about his successor former President Barack Obama slammed President Donald Trump, accusing him of being “more concerned with suppressing the vote than suppressing a virus.”

President Donald Trump has admitted he is blocking desperately needed funding to help the postal service survive in a direct attempt to stop Americans from voting by mail. The Postmaster General he installed has been removing mail boxes from several cities and removing high-volume mail sorting machines across the country, with a plan to reduce the number of sorters by nearly 700 machines.

“Everyone depends on the USPS,” President Obama said via Twitter Friday. “Seniors for their Social Security, veterans for their prescriptions, small businesses trying to keep their doors open. They can’t be collateral damage for an administration more concerned with suppressing the vote than suppressing a virus.”

President Obama also accused President Trump of making “attempts to undermine the election.”

And he urged Americans to vote early: “do that now.”

Related –
‘This Is a RICO Case’: Top Obama Advisor Urges Dems to ‘Go to War for Our Country’ Over Trump USPS Attack

 

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