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OPINION

Florida in Play? Biden and Strategists Say Yes as Court Puts Abortion, Marijuana on Ballot

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Could Democrats win Florida in November?

The Florida state Supreme Court on Monday approved two measures to appear on the ballot in the November presidential election: the right to abortion, and recreational marijuana, both strong pulls for Democrats.

Putting abortion on the ballot comes after Florida Republican lawmakers have made abortion practically illegal in the Sunshine State.

“The Florida Supreme Court simultaneously upholds the state’s 15-week abortion ban (which lets the six-week ban take effect, too)—but also approves a ballot initiative that would amend the FL constitution to protect abortion,” reports Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern.

“DeSantis’ six-week abortion ban is about to become law in Florida, and the GOP will need to spend the next seventh months defending it against a ballot initiative that would enshrine reproductive rights in the state constitution,” Stern adds. “Florida’s 2024 election will be about abortion.”

The Washington Post concurs.

READ MORE: Thousands of Kids in Florida Lost Medicaid Coverage on Easter – Nearly Half a Million Last Year

“The ruling could give Democrats a boost in the polls in a state that used to be a toss-up in presidential elections. While many voters aren’t enthusiastic about a rematch between former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden, it could inspire more abortion rights advocates to cast a ballot. Trump won Florida four years ago.”

On the marijuana issue, the Post explains, “Voters will decide whether to allow companies that grow and sell medical marijuana to sell it to adults over 21 for any reason. The ballot measure also would make possession of marijuana for personal use legal.”

Each ballot measure requires 60 percent to pass.

Republican Governor Ron DeSantis won re-election in a landslide in 2022, with nearly 60 percent of the vote – but his failed 2024 presidential bid damaged his brand. DeSantis isn’t on the ballot this fall, but Donald Trump is. Florida certainly is Trump territory, but the ex-president’s four criminal indictments and his own behavior have also tarnished his brand. Two polls in March of Florida voters found Trump beating Biden, but both only by mid-single digits – and both with less than a majority of voters.

Also on the ballot, Florida U.S. Senator Rick Scott, who is barely beating his Democratic challenger in a March poll by just 3 points, according to FiveThirtyEight.

President Biden has been campaigning and fundraising in Florida. Last month the campaign launched Latinos con Biden-Harris in South Florida, and is launching TV ads aimed at the Hispanic community, Florida Politics reported.

Late Monday afternoon NBC News, citing the issue of abortion, reported: “Biden campaign says it sees Florida as ‘winnable’ in 2024.”

Some political commentators are reacting, suggesting Florida could be in play.

READ MORE: Trump Says Judge’s Daughter He Attacked Is Not Protected by Gag Order – DA Disagrees

“This is election-changing news. Florida should now be considered a toss-up, or better,” writes liberal commentator Bob Cesca.

Florida Politics publisher Peter Schorsch put it another way:

Former federal and state prosecutor, former Republican and former DeSantis administration official Ron Filipkowski says: “Florida Repubs are the dog who caught the car on the abortion issue. And the marijuana issue is going to turn out tons of people who have never voted before. These people won’t show up in polling either,” he observes.

Filipkowski, editor-in-chief of MeidasTouch.com adds, Florida Republicans “who aren’t in ultra safe districts all have their seats in play now.”

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, or “D triple C,” immediately put out a statement calling the abortion ballot initiative a “political nightmare” for Republican U.S. Reps. Anna Paulina Luna and María Elvira Salazar.

“The ballot initiative’s petition got nearly one million certified signatures, with more than 150,000 of them from registered Republicans,” the DCCC said.

“Floridians know that Luna and Salazar can’t be trusted to defend their rights,” added DCCC Spokesperson Lauryn Fanguen. “While voters were mourning the loss of Roe v. Wade, Luna and Salazar were celebrating the decision that has now led to chaos and heartbreaking stories across the country. However, Luna and Salazar certainly aren’t celebrating today – they know they’ll be held accountable for their anti-abortion records in November.”

The Atlantic’s David Frum, a former Bush White House speech writer, observed: “Florida’s Supreme Court just added another proof point to my prediction in April 2023 that 2024 will be a bad GOP year up and down the ticket.”

“Republicans in Florida are going to be defending a six week abortion ban this November. It polls in the low 20s,” added political strategist Simon Rosenberg.

The Lincoln Project’s Rick Wilson, an advertising expert, noted: “Florida just got a lot more expensive for the GOP.”

MSNBC and NBC News political analyst Susan Del Percio, a Republican, says Florida will be in play.

And Democratic strategist Greg Pinelo says Florida is now in play.

Read the social media posts above or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Anti-Woke Not Especially Lucrative’: Truth Social Lost Millions Last Year New Filing Reveals

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OPINION

‘Wack Pack’: Questions Swirl Over ‘Trump Uniforms’ and Who’s Funding ‘Weird’ Trial Surrogates

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Trump trial watchers are raising questions over the increasingly large number of elected Republicans and big-name allies showing up at the Manhattan Criminal Courts Building to show support for the indicted ex-president, often giving angry and factually inaccurate speeches before the cameras, or standing behind the defendant in the background as he delivers his rants to reporters.

They are usually all men, and usually all dressed just as Donald Trump does: blue suit, white shirt, red tie.

Public Notice founder Aaron Rupar on Monday, observed, “they’re all in Trump costumes again. how cute.”

Questions about their “uniforms,” and more importantly, who is funding and organizing their travel, are being raised.

Media critic Jennifer Schulze, a former Chicago Sun-Times executive producer, WGN news director, and adjunct college professor of journalism, commented: “The trump uniforms angle is flying way too low beneath the mainstream news radar. The same is true for how this weird courtroom guest star show is being organized & financed.”

READ MORE: Why Alito’s ‘Stop the Steal’ Flag Story Just Fell Apart

And they are being called “uniforms.”

Filmmaker and podcaster Andy Ostroy declared, “I’m sorry, but all these #Trump capos showing up each day at the trial dressed exactly the same as The Godfather in blue suit and red tie is not only creepy AF but is a chilling foreshadowing of the fascist uniform-wearing government they’re jonesin’ to be a part of…”

Talk radio host Joan Esposito also asked who’s paying for these appearances: “Is the trump campaign paying for these surrogates to fly to & from nyc? If not, who is?”

Political commentator Bob Cesca remarked, “Trump’s fanboys are like the Wack Pack from the Stern show circa 1990.”

Monday’s star surrogates included South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, an election denier who had supported overturning the 2020 presidential election and signed onto what has been called a “false and frivolous” lawsuit attempting to overturn the results.

Also, Republican U.S. Reps. Eric Burlison, Andrew Clyde, Mary Miller, and Keith Self. And John Coale from the Trump-aligned America First Policy Institute, attorney Alan Dershowitz, Trump attorney and GOP attorney general candidate Will Scharf, convicted felon and Trump pardon recipient Bernie Kerik, Trump loyalist and former Trump administration official Kash Patel, and others.

READ MORE: Law ‘Requires’ Alito and Thomas to Recuse Says Former Federal Prosecutor

Op-ed columnist Terry Cowgill last week called them “manservants…standing at attention like automatons.”

“Scary and very very strange” was actress and activist Mia Farrow’s observation last week.

Vanity Fair’s Molly Jong-Fast, an MSNBC political analyst, last week asked, “Why did they all wear the same outfit?”

The Biden campaign was only too happy to post this video last week:

See the social media posts and videos above or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Partisan Insurrectionist’: Calls Mount for Alito’s Ouster After ‘Stop the Steal’ Scandal

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OPINION

Why Alito’s ‘Stop the Steal’ Flag Story Just Fell Apart

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Justice Samuel Alito’s defense for why there was a “Stop the Steal” flag flying at his Alexandria, Virginia home three days before Joe Biden’s inauguration, ten days after the January 6, 2021 insurrection, just fell apart.

The entire justification for a sitting U.S. Supreme Court justice with lifetime tenure who refuses to recuse himself from cases including ones related to the 2020 election, which ethics experts and U.S. Senators say he is obligated to do so, is a dispute with a neighbor, according to The New York Times‘ original reporting, and a Fox News reporter.

Critics say his defense doesn’t justify flying a U.S. flag upside down, a symbol of the Stop the Steal movement used by insurrectionists.

In brief, Fox News’ Shannon Bream reports Justice Alito “told me a neighbor on their street had a ‘F— Trump’ sign that was within 50 feet of where children await the school bus in Jan 21. Mrs. Alito brought this up with the neighbor.”

“According to Justice Alito, things escalated and the neighbor put up a sign personally addressing Mrs. Alito and blaming her for the Jan 6th attacks,” Bream wrote. She added Alito “says he and his wife were walking in the neighborhood and there were words between Mrs. Alito and a male at the home with the sign. Alito says the man engaged in vulgar language, ‘including the c-word’,” which prompted Mrs. Alito to hang the American flag upside down as the insurrections did on January 6.

RELATED: ‘Partisan Insurrectionist’: Calls Mount for Alito’s Ouster After ‘Stop the Steal’ Scandal

Court watchers and critics have called into question Alito’s judgment. Senate Democratic Judiciary Chairman Dick Durban has called for the Justice to recuse himself from all cases related to the 2020 presidential election, NBC News is reporting.

Critics are asking if Justice and/or Mrs. Alito’s response to an alleged dispute with neighbors was appropriate, but now Justice Alito’s telling of events is being called into question entirely.

Aaron Fritschner, Deputy Chief of Staff for U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA), says no school children would have been waiting for school buses at the time the Alito’s flag was photographed upside down, because schools had moved to virtual learning during the COVID pandemic at that time in the area the Alitos reside.

Further calling into question Justice Alito’s claims, CNN’s Holmes Lybrand, a former fact-checker for The Weekly Standard, reports none of the Alitos’ neighbors remember the alleged dispute the justice recounted.

“I spoke with some of Justice Alito’s neighbors who said they remember the American flag being flown upside-down at his home but didn’t recall any neighborhood drama surrounding it,” Lyband reports. “Each neighbor I spoke with reiterated multiple times how kind and well-liked the Alitos are.”

In its report that broke the story, The New York Times noted, “The half-dozen neighbors who saw the flag, or knew of it, requested anonymity because they said they did not want to add to the contentiousness on the block and feared reprisal.”

READ MORE: Trump Appears to Violate Gag Order After Judge Threatened ‘Incarceration’

 

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OPINION

Alito Tells Fox News Story Behind His Home’s ‘Stop the Steal’ Flag but Critics Unconvinced

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Editor’s note: The spelling of Fox News host Shannon Bream’s last name has been corrected.

Justice Samuel Alito on Friday appeared to compound concerns over the bombshell New York Times report revealing a flag associated with the January 6 insurrection and the “Stop the Steal” movement was flying at his house just before Joe Biden was inaugurated and while the Supreme Court was reviewing a 2020 election case.

Alito, whose far-right positions including writing the majority opinion in the Supreme Court case overturning Roe v. Wade, have infuriated and frustrated the left, once again has found himself the subject of apprehension over his impartiality and grasp of ethical norms.

In a rare move, the embattled justice, who now faces strong calls for his ouster, spoke immediately to the news media to address those issues, and revealed the story behind the decision to fly the “Stop the Steal” flag at his home.

Confirming again it was his wife who put the flag up, Alito seemed neither remorseful nor cognizant of the great ethical and credibility violation that act represented.

RELATED: ‘Partisan Insurrectionist’: Calls Mount for Alito’s Ouster After ‘Stop the Steal’ Scandal

“I spoke directly with Justice #Alito about the flag story in the NYT,” Fox News host Shannon Bream reported late Friday morning via social media. “In addition to what’s in the story, he told me a neighbor on their street had a ‘F— Trump’ sign that was within 50 feet of where children await the school bus in Jan 21. Mrs. Alito brought this up with the neighbor.”

“According to Justice Alito, things escalated and the neighbor put up a sign personally addressing Mrs. Alito and blaming her for the Jan 6th attacks,” Bream continued.

“Justice Alito says he and his wife were walking in the neighborhood and there were words between Mrs. Alito and a male at the home with the sign. Alito says the man engaged in vulgar language, ‘including the c-word’,” she wrote. “Following that exchange, Mrs. Alito was distraught and hung the flag upside down ‘for a short time’. Justice Alito says some neighbors on his street are ‘very political’ and acknowledges it was a very heated time in January 2021.”

The Bulwark’s Bill Kristol chastised Bream, noting she got Alito’s side of the story without “trying to see how it compares with the accounts and recollections of others involved. If only the anchor had the resources of a ‘news’ channel to seek out the truth!”

Some critics responding to Bream’s report say Alito’s explanation doesn’t make their perception of his actions — or his wife’s – any more reasonable.

Former George W. Bush administration official Christian Vanderbrouk commented, “Sam Alito is unapologetic for desecrating an American symbol as part of a neighborhood feud.”

READ MORE: Why Are One in Five GOP Voters Still Voting for Nikki Haley Over Donald Trump?

“Interesting claims by Alito,” attorney Robert J. DeNault remarked. “Not sure it’s reasonable to think any person would react to a neighbor disagreeing — even crassly or rudely — over Trump by hanging an American flag upside down. Does not feel credible to contend Alito’s upside flag was divorced from MAGA symbolism.”

“Alito speaks to Fox about New York Times report, continues to attribute it to his wife, but does not explain why his wife’s reaction to a ‘fuck Trump’ sign and being insulted was to hang an American flag upside down in the days after Jan. 6.” observed CNN’s Edward-Isaac Dovere. “Suburban neighborhood disputes happen all the time – over lawn care, noisy children, Christmas lights… all sorts of things. Not many instances of an escalated response being a now very politicized symbol of military distress.”

“Friendly reminder the entire GOP and Fox News is screaming on practically a daily basis that Judge Merchan needs to recuse because of the work his adult daughter separately does,” national security attorney Brad Moss offered. “But yeah, this is no biggie.”

READ MORE: ‘Long History of Playing Games’: Biden Campaign Shuts Down Trump’s Tantrum

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