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2020 Election Live Updates: Ocasio-Cortez Condemns Yoho in Speech on the House Floor
The New York congresswoman recounted a colleague’s verbal assault as she called out a culture of misogyny. Michael Bloomberg’s gun control group is putting $15 million toward races in eight states.
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A judge ordered Michael Cohen released from prison, saying officials retaliated against him for writing a book about President Trump.
Here’s what you need to know:
- Ocasio-Cortez condemns Yoho for accosting her, reading misogynist slur into the Congressional Record.
- With release of Biden video, Obama takes another step into the campaign arena.
- Bloomberg’s gun control group is investing $15 million to help Democrats up and down the ballot.
- A judge orders Michael Cohen freed, saying he was sent back to prison over his plan to write a Trump book.
- Trump’s language about urban unrest mirrors the fears he stoked about migrant caravans in 2018.
- The president tries to defend his cognitive abilities by repeating five words, again and again.
- Bernie Sanders renews his call to supporters: Get behind Biden.
transcript
‘I Am Someone’s Daughter:’ Ocasio-Cortez Condemn’s Yoho’s Remarks
In a speech on the House floor, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, addressed the remarks made by Rep. Ted Yoho, Republican of Florida.
In front of reporters Representative Yoho called me, and I quote, a “[expletive expletive].” These are the words that Representative Yoho levied against a congresswoman. Representative Yoho decided to come to the floor of the House of Representatives and make excuses for his behavior, and that I could not let go. I could not allow my nieces, I could not allow the little girls that I go home to, I could not allow victims of verbal abuse and worse to see that, to see that excuse and to see our Congress accept it as legitimate. I am two years younger than Mr. Yoho’s youngest daughter. I am someone’s daughter too — my father, thankfully, is not alive to see how Mr. Yoho treated his daughter. My mother got to see Mr. Yoho’s disrespect on the floor of this House towards me on television. And I am here because I have to show my parents that I am their daughter, and that they did not raise me to accept abuse from men.
Ocasio-Cortez condemns Yoho for accosting her, reading misogynist slur into the Congressional Record.
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her allies took to the floor of the House Thursday to condemn Representative Ted Yoho, Republican of Florida, for accosting her and referring to her with a sexist vulgarity, calling it emblematic of a culture that demeans women and girls.
In a rare use of profanity on the House floor, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat who is one of the highest-profile members of Congress, recounted in detail the incident that unfolded on Monday on the steps of the Capitol.
“I was minding my own business, walking up the steps, and Representative Yoho put his finger in my face. He called me disgusting. He called me crazy. He called me out of my mind. He called me dangerous,” she said.
After entering the Capitol to vote, she said, she walked back outside, and, “in front of reporters, Representative Yoho called me, and I quote: ‘A fucking bitch.’ These are the words Representative Yoho levied against a congresswoman.”
It was the third straight day that the confrontation has consumed the Capitol. In an hourlong session she organized on the House floor, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez and a series of other Democratic women took turns criticizing Mr. Yoho for his actions and discussing the toxic masculinity they said that they reflected.
“That the whole Democratic Women’s Caucus has gone to the floor at a time when floor time is very precious tells you how important it is,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California told reporters afterward.
On Tuesday, The Hill published a story about the exchange, which quoted Mr. Yoho’s remarks verbatim.
Mr. Yoho offered some words of contrition for the episode on Wednesday, but he declined to apologize to Ms. Ocasio-Cortez for his language, denying that he had used the phrase and arguing that his passion stemmed from his concern about poverty. A spokesman for Mr. Yoho said he used a barnyard epithet to describe her policies, not insult her.
On the floor Thursday, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said she had been willing to let the incident fade until she heard the non-apology from Mr. Yoho.
“That I could not let go,” she said.
She said she felt compelled to stand up for all the women and girls who have been subjected to abuse and misogyny.
“Mr. Yoho mentioned that he has a wife and two daughters,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said. “I am two years younger than Mr. Yoho’s youngest daughter. I am someone’s daughter too. My father, thankfully, is not alive to see how Mr. Yoho treated his daughter. My mother got to see Mr. Yoho’s disrespect on the floor of the House toward me on television, and I am here because I have to show my parents that I am their daughter, and that they did not raise me to accept abuse from men.”
With release of Biden video, Obama takes another step into the campaign arena.
transcript
Obama and Biden Discuss Health Care Legacy in Campaign Video
Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. released a video conversation with former President Barack Obama, covering several topics including health care and the economy.
You can’t separate out the public health crisis from the economy. If you want the economy growing again people have to feel safe. What you did and what all great presidents do isn’t only lead they persuade. I think what you did with Obamacare, the A.C.A. and what you wanted to do to have a public option it’s quickest fastest way to get everyone covered. Remember when Beau was toward the end and And the only person I told the detail wall of time was you because you had a right to know exactly what. And he only had months left to go. And I used to sit there watch him in the bed and in pain and died of glioblastoma and I thought to myself, what would happen if his insurance company was able to come in, which they could have done before passed Obamacare and said you have out run your insurance you’ve outlived it. So for the last five months your life in peace you’re on your own. I couldn’t be prouder of what we got done. 20 million people have health insurance that didn’t have it because what we did. But you remember when we were talking about this. I always used to say the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare It’s like a starter house. It’s the first house you get it. It’s not the end of the process it’s the beginning of.
Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. leaned on his top surrogate Thursday morning, releasing a video conversation with President Barack Obama that cast the current occupant of the White House as unworthy in hopes of boosting Mr. Biden’s chances of replacing him.
Mr. Biden and Mr. Obama covered several topics in the wide-ranging, nearly 16-minute conversation, including President Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, health care, the economy and systemic racism.
“You can’t separate out the public health crisis from the economy,” Mr. Obama said. “If you want the economy growing, people have to feel safe.”
Mr. Biden responded: “What you did, and what all great presidents do, is persuade.”
The conversation was socially distanced, with the two men seated in leather armchairs some 10 feet apart, as Mr. Biden continues to contrast himself with Mr. Trump, who has only recently embraced certain coronavirus mitigation tactics such as occasionally touting face masks.
The video represents another careful step into the public arena by Mr. Obama, who is desperate to see Mr. Trump defeated but has sought to let the Democratic Party chart its own course. Mr. Biden’s campaign released several clips online as teasers to build anticipation, highlighting Mr. Obama’s still broad appeal.
One of those excerpts focused on health care, and featured Mr. Biden reflecting on a deeply personal subject: when his son Beau Biden was dying of brain cancer.
Latest Updates: 2020 Election
That experience, Mr. Biden said, underscored the importance of the Affordable Care Act.
“I used to sit there and watch him in the bed and in pain and dying of glioblastoma,” Mr. Biden said of his older son, who died in 2015. “And I thought to myself, what would happen if his insurance company was able to come in, which they could have done before we passed Obamacare, and said: ‘You’ve outrun your insurance. You’ve outlived it. Suffer the last five months of your life in peace. You’re on your own.’”
The conversation cast the much younger former president in the role of mentor conferring a kind of secular blessing on his 77-year-old former governing partner. Mr. Obama told Mr. Biden that his candidacy represented a chance to restore a government “that cares about people.”
“Because policy is important, laws are important, budgets are important,” Mr. Obama said. “But you know what’s important also, is what kind of values are you communicating.”
“Bingo,” Mr. Biden said.
A few hours after the video was posted, Mr. Trump weighed in with a tweet claiming his election was the result of a backlash against the Obama-Biden years.
“Obama, who wouldn’t even endorse Biden until everyone else was out of the primaries (and even then waited a long time!), is now making a commercial of support,’’ the president wrote. “Remember, I wouldn’t even be here if it weren’t for them.”
Bloomberg’s gun control group is investing $15 million to help Democrats up and down the ballot.
Michael R. Bloomberg’s gun control organization is making an initial $15 million investment in digital advertising in eight states, where it aims to help Democrats flip three Senate seats, wrest control of state legislatures and lift Mr. Biden to victory in Florida.
The group, Everytown for Gun Safety, has pledged to spend $60 million in all during the 2020 campaign.
The opening investment includes $5 million earmarked for Florida, the lone state where Everytown plans advertising in the presidential contest; $3.5 million in Texas, where the group is focusing on six House races; and $1 million to $1.5 million in Arizona, Iowa and North Carolina — three states where it will advertise in Senate races — as well as Minnesota and Pennsylvania.
The group is also planning an initial $500,000 investment in Georgia, where in addition to the state legislative contests the group will advertise on behalf of Representative Lucy McBath, a suburban Atlanta Democrat who used to work as an Everytown spokeswoman.
Though the coronavirus pandemic and protests over racial disparities in policing have dominated Americans’ attention this summer, John Feinblatt, Everytown’s president, said in an interview that he believed gun violence remained hugely important to voters.
“Post-Covid, our polling tells us it’s more critical to voters than ever,” Mr. Feinblatt said.
A judge orders Michael Cohen freed, saying he was sent back to prison over his plan to write a Trump book.
A federal judge on Thursday ordered that Michael D. Cohen be released into home confinement after finding that federal officials had returned him to prison in retaliation for his plans to write a tell-all memoir about Mr. Trump.
The judge, Alvin K. Hellerstein of Federal District Court, said prison officials had forced Mr. Cohen back to prison this month after he had been released on medical furlough because of his desire to publish a book before the election about his years as Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer and fixer.
“I make the finding that the purpose of transferring Mr. Cohen from furlough and home confinement to jail is retaliatory,” the judge said. “And it’s retaliation because of his desire to exercise his First Amendment rights to publish a book and to discuss anything about the book or anything else he wants on social media and with others.”
The judge ordered that Mr. Cohen be released from prison on Friday to serve the rest of his sentence in home confinement at his Manhattan apartment.
Mr. Cohen sued U.S. officials on Monday night, claiming federal officials sent him back into custody to prevent him from completing the book. In court papers, he said the book would paint Mr. Trump as a racist and offer revealing details about “the president’s behavior behind closed doors.”
Trump’s language about urban unrest mirrors the fears he stoked about migrant caravans in 2018.
Voters with long memories — well, two-year-old memories — will find many similarities between Mr. Trump’s stoking of fears of urban unrest in 2020 and the dark shadows he cast over the 2018 midterm elections with another issue: migrant caravans.
THEN Calling the midterms “the election of the caravan,” the president raised alarms about a threat to the country’s safety and security from Central American migrants headed for the U.S. border. It was an election strategy meant to rally his base. “We have Strong Borders and will never accept people coming into our Country illegally!” he tweeted.
NOW Mr. Trump has repeatedly raised the specter of American communities torn apart by lawless anarchy, either from protesters in Portland, Ore., or from a rise in violent crime in other cities led by Democrats. It is an election strategy to rally his base.
THEN Mr. Trump said the caravans — composed of many parents and children seeking asylum — included gang members and “very bad people.” He tweeted warnings of an “invasion” that would be met at the border by the U.S. military.
NOW Mr. Trump announced a “surge” of militarized federal agents on Wednesday to cities including Chicago and Albuquerque, building on earlier deployments to Portland and Kansas City. Mayors and governors have denounced the actions — which have included tactics like pulling people into unmarked vehicles — as an abuse of power.
THEN Mr. Trump’s dark rhetoric about nonwhite migrants was matched by hyperbolic coverage in conservative media. Stoking fears about immigration had helped Mr. Trump win the White House.
NOW Right-wing media stars like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity have seized on the Portland protests, misleadingly portraying the city as a war zone. Outside a small downtown area where there are nightly demonstrations, which the mayor says are rowdier because of the federal presence, daily life is relatively calm. The conservative media messaging dovetails with ominous Trump campaign ads warning “you won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America.”
THEN Mr. Trump’s scaremongering did little to save Republicans on Election Day. Democrats captured the House majority and governorships in battleground states. Democrats ran up their largest popular vote victory in House races since Watergate, besting Republicans by more than 8 million votes. Mr. Trump rarely mentioned migrant caravans again.
NOW There are 103 days until Election Day. Turnout by both parties is expected to shatter records for a presidential race.
The president tries to defend his cognitive abilities by repeating five words, again and again.
Long defensive about challenges to his mental sharpness, Mr. Trump again brought up a cognitive test on Wednesday night that he claims he aced. He offered extended details of how he performed on one of the questions designed to test short-term memory, by repeating several times a series of words: “Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV.”
In the interview, with a medical analyst for Fox News, Mr. Trump recalled taking a test known as the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, or MOCA, at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. The White House has not disclosed details about when the president underwent the testing or why.
As he had earlier on Sunday in an interview with Chris Wallace on Fox, Mr. Trump sought to defend his mental fitness for office while attacking the acuity of Mr. Biden.
The president said the MOCA questions got progressively harder, and he cited one of the final ones, in which he was asked to repeat a string of words, and then was quizzed later to see if he still recalled them.
“OK, now he’s asking you other questions, other questions, and then, 10 minutes, 15, 20 minutes later they say, ‘Remember that first question — not the first — but the 10th question? Give us that again. Can you do that again?’” Mr. Trump said. “And you go: ‘Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV.’ If you get it in order, you get extra points.”
“They said nobody gets it in order,” Mr. Trump continued. “It’s actually not that easy, but for me, it was easy. And that’s not an easy question. In other words, they ask it to you, they give you five names and you have to repeat ’em. And that’s OK. If you repeat ’em out of order, it’s OK, but, you know, it’s not as good. But when you go back about 20, 25 minutes later and they say go back to that — they don’t tell you this — ‘Go back to that question and repeat ’em, can you do it?’ And you go: ‘Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV.’
Marc K. Siegel, the professor of medicine at New York University who conducted the interview, did not ask any follow up questions.
Bernie Sanders renews his call to supporters: Get behind Biden.
Senator Bernie Sanders on Wednesday night again urged his most loyal supporters to unite behind Mr. Biden, saying the moment demanded they “engage in coalition politics” even as he encouraged them to continue fighting for a progressive agenda.
“I understand we do not agree with Joe Biden on all of the issues — believe me, I know that, I ran against Joe Biden,” he told hundreds of delegates on an evening Zoom call. “But at this moment, what we need to do is engage in coalition politics with the goal of defeating Trump.”
His remarks, just weeks before a pared-down Democratic National Convention is set to take place, served as both a call to action and an attempt to rally supporters who remain disappointed in his primary loss.
Since Mr. Sanders withdrew from the presidential race in April — and even when he was a candidate — he has been adamant about supporting the eventual Democratic nominee against Mr. Trump, urging his supporters to fall in line behind Mr. Biden.
He and many aides have been eager to avoid a repeat of 2016, when some of his supporters — fueled in part by his acrimonious race against Hillary Clinton — viewed the race as rigged and vowed never to support Mrs. Clinton.
On Wednesday, Mr. Sanders mobilized his supporters to back progressive candidates down the ballot and to continue their quest to push the party leftward. He specifically highlighted the work his supporters had done on six so-called unity task forces that he had formed with Mr. Biden, which released their recommendations two weeks ago.
“We have been making progress,” he said. “We’ve got to keep up the pressure.”
After days of Republican criticism of Liz Cheney, Trump joins in.
Mr. Trump joined conservative allies on Thursday in assailing Representative Liz Cheney, a leading House Republican who has come under fire this week amid accusations that she is not loyal enough to the president.
Ms. Cheney, a staunch conservative from Wyoming and the party’s third-ranking House leader, has largely supported Mr. Trump but diverged in recent weeks by backing Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, urging Americans to wear masks and calling on the administration to stand up to Russia amid reports of bounties on American troops.
A half-dozen fellow conservatives berated her on Tuesday at an extraordinary closed-door session, saying she was hurting the party by speaking out on issues at odds with Mr. Trump. At least one, Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida, one of the president’s most vocal allies, called on her to step down as chairwoman of the House Republican Conference.
Mr. Trump on Thursday reposted a Twitter message from Mr. Gaetz making that demand and added his own criticism, essentially painting Ms. Cheney as a warmonger.
“Liz Cheney is only upset because I have been actively getting our great and beautiful Country out of the ridiculous and costly Endless Wars,” he wrote on Twitter. “I am also making our so-called allies pay tens of billions of dollars in delinquent military costs. They must, at least, treat us fairly!!”
The president also retweeted a post by Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, a regular antagonist of Ms. Cheney. “We should all join @realDonaldTrump in advocating to stop our endless wars,” the tweet said. “Liz Cheney not only wants to stay forever, she’s leading the fight to try to stop him from leaving. Unacceptable.”
Ms. Cheney responded mildly to Mr. Trump’s tweets. “It’s no secret the president and I disagree on some foreign policy issues,” she told Politico. Noting that she belongs to the Armed Services Committee, she added that her biggest obligation is to “provide for the defense of the nation” and that she would continue to speak out.
Biden’s plan for caregiving reflects a growing acknowledgment that it’s not only a women’s issue.
The coronavirus made it undeniable that caregiving is not just a concern for women, and when Mr. Biden presented his new caregiving plan this week — speaking about his experience as a single father and describing caregiving policies as an economic necessity — he made it explicit, Claire Cain Miller writes.
“This is the so-called sandwich generation,” he said. “It includes everyone from an 18-year-old daughter caring for a mom who suddenly gets sick to a 40-year-old dad raising his child and caring for his own aging parents. The joy and love are always there. But it’s hard. I know it’s hard.”
Treating caregiving the way Mr. Biden proposed — as labor that is respected, worthy of a living wage and an economic necessity for everyone — would be a significant economic shift in the United States.
“The more we make it a broader issue, the better we are,” said Linda Smith, director of the early childhood development initiative at the Bipartisan Policy Center. “It’s long overdue for some of us who have been working on this for a very long time.”
Often, it’s female politicians who speak most publicly about caregiving needs. An older man framing the issue as one that affects everyone, and speaking from personal experience about caring for his young children, was a striking change.
Mr. Biden’s policy proposals focused not just on new mothers, as many do, but also on the full range of caregiving needs from birth to death. A big part of his plan was improving caregiving jobs — by raising wages, guaranteeing benefits, providing career training and allowing unionizing. Improving these jobs would help the women and people of color who disproportionately do them, research has shown — and also recruit more men into the field.
Biden’s tax plan would cut earnings for many large companies by 10 percent, an analysis finds.
Based on what Mr. Biden has proposed thus far, a win for the Democratic presidential candidate would mean major changes for companies that have gotten used to lower tax rates under Mr. Trump, the DealBook newsletter reports.
Earnings would fall by 10 percent, on average, for a large group of companies in the S&P 500 index, according to the Zion Research Group, which specializes in accounting analysis. The effective tax rate for those companies would rise to 26.7 percent, from 18.7 percent, based on last year’s financials, because of proposed increases in the headline tax rate and a special levy on foreign income.
Technology and health care companies, which are currently able to lower their taxes by shifting intellectual property and other assets abroad more easily than many other firms, would be among the hardest hit, according to the analysis.
Zion’s analysis excluded real estate companies, which have complained about a proposal by Mr. Biden this week to restrict so-called like-kind exchanges, in which investors defer taxes on property sales by putting the proceeds toward new purchases. Republican lawmakers considered a similar restriction as part of the 2017 tax cut, but didn’t include it in the final bill.
Reporting was contributed by Maggie Astor, Peter Baker, Luke Broadwater, Claire Cain Miller, Sydney Ember, Reid J. Epstein, Trip Gabriel, Michael M. Grynbaum, Astead W. Herndon, Thomas Kaplan, Jason Karaian, Adam Nagourney, Katie Rogers and Benjamin Weiser.
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Updated July 22, 2020
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