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Angela Bradbery, abradbery@citizen.org, (202) 588-7741
Don Owens, dowens@citizen.org, (202) 588-7767
As Election Day approaches, time is running out for the Obama administration and Congress to enact democracy reforms, a national coalition of organizations said today.
At a press conference in front of the White House, the groups urged all Americans to voice their support for the administration to take action to curb the influence of money in politics and to insist that Congress act now to ensure equal access to the ballot box for all eligible Americans.
Speakers called for the president to issue an executive order requiring federal contractors to disclose political spending. They also urged him to reaffirm his call for Congress to make the legislative changes necessary to repair and strengthen the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and restore the protections against voting discrimination that were struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in Shelby County v. Holder.
Also today, allies of more than 20 groups will flood the White House with calls urging quick action by the president to issue an executive order requiring disclosure of secret money in politics. The groups are listed at the end of this release.
"Our democracy is in crisis. Big Money is dominating our elections, and voters across the country are systematically being denied the franchise. Americans of all political stripes are united by their outrage and demand for action," said Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen. "With the clock ticking down on President Obama's tenure in the White House, it is vital that he issue a clarion call for far-reaching reform, including legislative action and a constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court's devastating Shelby County and Citizens United decisions. But he must do more than call for action; he must take the remedial action he can, most importantly by issuing an executive order requiring government contractors to disclose their political spending."
"Today, we continue to fight for change on many fronts, but an array of restrictive voting laws are keeping regular Americans shut out of the political process with the goal of suppressing the voting rights of people of color, seniors, students and low-income Americans," said Hilary Shelton, director, NAACP Washington bureau and senior vice president for policy and advocacy. "As we face the first presidential election in 50 years without the protections of the Voting Rights Act, Congress must act now and pass the Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Voter Empowerment Act. Together these would restore the protections against voting discrimination that were struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in its Shelby County v. Holder decision, make additional, critical updates to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, modernize voter registration, prevent deceptive practices that keep people from the ballot box and ensure equal access to voting for all."
"Wall Street's deregulated, anti-union, trickle-down, one percent economics are being propped up by out-of-control campaign donations to our elected officials," said Chris Shelton, president of Communications Workers of America. "We're calling on President Obama to sign an executive order that requires government contractors that benefit from taxpayer dollars to disclose their political spending. Americans deserve a democracy that works for all Americans, one in which everyone has an equal voice and elected officials are accountable to the people, not the wealthy."
"Business leaders should not be trying to game the system to give themselves unfair advantages, or as Ayn Rand called it, looting," said Bryan McGannon, director of policy at the American Sustainable Business Council. "Instead, business leaders should focus on competition and entrepreneurship. Small business owners understand this. In a national, scientific poll, the American Sustainable Business Council found that 66 percent of small business owners opposed unrestricted campaign spending. They want the system changed. They don't want their entrepreneurial spirit undercut by legacy industries that can't win in a fair fight. They know that for our economy to prosper, we must limit opportunities to purchase policy and corrupt the Congress. This can best be accomplished with spending restraints and radical transparency about who is trying to buy whom."
"President Obama has time and again voiced his commitment to a democracy where everyone can participate and every voice is heard, and now is the time to act on that commitment," said Marge Baker, executive vice president of People For the American Way. "With a stroke of his pen, the president can help shine a light on secret corporate political spending that distorts our democracy. And he can use his bully pulpit to reaffirm his call for the restoration of voting protections in the wake of the Shelby County decision. As the country prepares for an election that's expected to be the most expensive in history, where voters are already facing long lines and other barriers to participation, the time for President Obama to take action in support of a working democracy is now."
"The very corporations that are polluting our air, water and land are also polluting our democracy by spending outrageous sums of money to influence the outcome of elections and policy-making - and American families are often left in the dark," said Debbie Sease, senior lobbying and advocacy director for the Sierra Club. "With a swipe of his pen, President Obama can begin to lift the curtain on secretive corporate election spending and let in some light."
"Pope Francis tells us that a good Catholic meddles in politics and that we have a moral obligation to fight for justice," said Laura Peralta-Schulte, senior government relations advocate for NETWORK. "The way we answer our faithful call to participate is by voting. NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice calls on Congress to restore the Voting Rights Act so that all can exercise their fundamental right to vote. We also ask President Obama to act immediately and shine a light on the massive amount of money being poured into the political system, which distorts both our votes and our voices."
"Working with our allies, Common Cause has helped deliver more than 1 million signatures to the president, placed tens of thousands of phone calls to the White House, and seen thousands more Americans take to the streets to protest a democracy that is dangerously unbalanced," said Scott Swenson, vice president for communications at Common Cause. "With the stroke of his pen, President Obama can shift the entire national debate from billionaires and boardrooms to what each American needs to do to engage and fight back. Every opinion poll verifies that lopsided majorities of Americans of every race, creed, color and political persuasion want to limit money's influence and restore balance, ensuring we all have a voice and a vote on policies impacting our families' futures. It's time for the president to match his eloquent pleas for 'a better politics' with action to deliver it."
"Big Oil, the pesticide industry and other dirty companies pour millions into campaign contributions to make sure our elected officials protect their profits over people and the planet," said Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth. "If President Obama makes Big Polluters' political spending public, we'll be able to hold these corporations accountable for how they influence our politics." "We understand how the influence of big money in politics and voter suppression laws impact not just our work, our political system, and our lives--but the lives of our children, who will inherit our democracy. This is a moment where we make a choice as a country--we either move forward, or we stand still," said Michele Jawando, vice president of the Center for American Progress action fund. "We move forward with reforms to strengthen our democracy, eliminate the improperinfluence of money in politics, and ensure that every eligible American can cast a vote that will be counted, or we stand still as big money continues to dominate our elections and our public policy, and our democracy becomes unrecognizable. Today, we are urging the administration and Congress to move forward to restore our democracy--for our sakes, for the sake of our nation, and for the sake of children's future."
The groups organizing the call-in day are American Family Voices, Avaaz, Campaign for America's Future, Center for Biological Diversity, Change.org, Common Cause, Communications Workers of America, Corporate Accountability International, Courage Campaign, Daily Kos, Democracy For America, Every Voice, Food & Water Watch, Franciscan Action Network, Free Speech for People, Friends of the Earth, NETWORK, People For the American Way, Public Citizen, Sierra Club, StampStampede and U.S. PIRG.
Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization that champions the public interest in the halls of power. We defend democracy, resist corporate power and work to ensure that government works for the people - not for big corporations. Founded in 1971, we now have 500,000 members and supporters throughout the country.
(202) 588-1000"They are leveraging this platform to share untruths about vaccines to scare people," said one doctor Kennedy fired from the panel.
Health officials working under Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. may seek to restrict access to the Covid-19 vaccine for people under 75 years old.
The Washington Post reported Friday that the officials plan to justify the move by citing reports from an unverified database to make the claim that the shots caused the deaths of 25 children.
The reports come from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), a federal database that allows the public to submit reports of negative reactions to vaccines. As the Post explains, VAERS "contains unverified reports of side effects or bad experiences with vaccines submitted by anyone, including patients, doctors, pharmacists, or even someone who sees a report on social media."
As one publicly maintained database of "Batshit Crazy VAERS Adverse Events" found, users have reported deaths and injuries resulting from gunshot wounds, malaria, drug overdoses, and countless other unrelated causes as possible cases of vaccine injury.
As Beth Mole wrote for ARS Technica, "The reports are completely unverified upon submission, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention staff follow up on serious reports to try to substantiate claims and assess if they were actually caused by a vaccine. They rarely are."
Nevertheless, HHS officials plan to use these VAERS reports on pediatric deaths in a presentation to the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) next week as the panel considers revising federal vaccine guidelines.
One person familiar with the matter told the Post that HHS officials attempted to interview some of the families who claimed their child died from the vaccine, but it is unclear how many were consulted and what other information was used to verify their claims.
In June, Kennedy purged that panel of many top vaccine experts, replacing them with prominent anti-vaccine activists, after previously promising during his confirmation hearing to keep the panel intact.
The Food and Drug Administration under Kennedy has already limited access to the Covid-19 vaccine. Last month, it authorized the vaccines only for those 65 and over who are known to be at risk of serious illness from Covid-19 infections.
While the vaccine is technically available to others, the updated guidance has created significant barriers, such as the potential requirement of a doctor's prescription and out-of-pocket payment, making it much harder for many to receive the shot.
The Post reports that ACIP is considering restricting access to the vaccination further, by recommending it only for those older than 75. It is weighing multiple options for those 74 and younger—potentially requiring them to consult with their doctor first, or not recommending it at all unless they have a preexisting condition.
Prior to the wide availability of Covid-19 vaccinations beginning in 2021, the illness killed over 350,000 people in the US. And while the danger of death from Covid-19 does increase with age, CDC data shows that from 2020 to 2023, nearly 47% of the over 1.1 million deaths from the illness occurred in people under 75.
According to the World Health Organization, the US reported 822 deaths from Covid over a 28-day period in July and August this year, vastly more deaths than anywhere else in the world. CDC data reported to ACIP in June shows that Covid deaths were lower among all age groups—including children—who received the mRNA vaccine.
Nicole Brewer, one of the vaccine advisers eliminated by Kennedy, lamented that Kennedy and his new appointees are ignoring the dangers of Covid-19 while amplifying the comparatively much lower risk posed by vaccines.
"They are leveraging this platform to share untruths about vaccines to scare people," she told the Post. “The U.S. government is now in the business of vaccine misinformation.”
ACIP is also reportedly mulling the rollback of guidelines for other childhood vaccines for deadly diseases like measles, Hepatitis B, and Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV).
While ACIP's guidelines are not legally binding, the Post writes that its meeting next week "is critical because the recommendations determine whether insurers must pay for the immunizations, pharmacies can administer them, and doctors are willing to offer them."
"If you haven't gotten your updated Covid vaccine by now, book an appointment fast before next week's ACIP meeting," warned Dr. David Gorski, the editor of the blog Science-Based Medicine. "After that, you might not be able to get one."
“Marco Rubio has claimed the power to designate people terrorist supporters based solely on what they think and say,” said one free speech advocate.
Free speech advocates are sounding the alarm about a bill in the US House of Representatives that they fear could allow Secretary of State Marco Rubio to strip US citizens of their passports based purely on political speech.
The bill, introduced by Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.), will come up for a hearing on Wednesday. According to The Intercept:
Mast’s new bill claims to target a narrow set of people. One section grants the secretary of state the power to revoke or refuse to issue passports for people who have been convicted—or merely charged—of material support for terrorism...
The other section sidesteps the legal process entirely. Rather, the secretary of state would be able to deny passports to people whom they determine “has knowingly aided, assisted, abetted, or otherwise provided material support to an organization the Secretary has designated as a foreign terrorist organization.”
Rubio has previously boasted of stripping the visas and green cards from several immigrants based purely on their peaceful expression of pro-Palestine views, describing them as "Hamas supporters."
These include Columbia protest leader Mahmoud Khalil, who was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after Rubio voided his green card; and Rumeysa Ozturk, the Tufts student whose visa Rubio revoked after she co-wrote an op-ed calling for her school to divest from Israel.
Mast—a former soldier for the Israel Defense Forces who once stated that babies were "not innocent Palestinian civilians"—has previously called for "kicking terrorist sympathizers out of our country," speaking about the Trump administration's attempts to deport Khalil, who was never convicted or even charged with support for a terrorist group.
Critics have argued that the bill has little reason to exist other than to allow the Secretary of State to unilaterally strip passports from people without them actually having been convicted of a crime.
As Kia Hamadanchy, a senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, noted in The Intercept, there is little reason to restrict people convicted of terrorism or material support for terrorism, since—if they were guilty—they'd likely be serving a long prison sentence and incapable of traveling anyway.
“I can’t imagine that if somebody actually provided material support for terrorism, there would be an instance where it wouldn’t be prosecuted—it just doesn’t make sense,” he said.
Journalist Zaid Jilani noted on X that "judges can already remove a passport over material support for terrorism, but the difference is you get due process. This bill would essentially make Marco Rubio judge, jury, and executioner."
The bill does contain a clause allowing those stripped of their passports to appeal to Rubio. But, as Hamadanchy notes, the decision is up to the secretary alone, "who has already made this determination." He said that for determining who is liable to have their visa stripped, "There's no standard set. There’s nothing."
As Seth Stern, the director of advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, noted in The Intercept, the language in Mast's bill is strikingly similar to that found in the so-called "nonprofit killer" provision that Republicans attempted to pass in July's "One Big Beautiful Bill" Act. That provision, which was ultimately struck from the bill, would have allowed the Treasury Secretary to unilaterally strip nonprofit status from anything he deemed to be a "terrorist-supporting organization."
Stern said Mast's bill would allow for "thought policing at the hands of one individual."
“Marco Rubio has claimed the power to designate people terrorist supporters based solely on what they think and say,” he said, "even if what they say doesn’t include a word about a terrorist organization or terrorism."
"Trump explicitly threatened to use the state to target anyone he and MAGA scapegoat for Kirk's murder," said New Republic writer Greg Sargeant.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller vowed Friday that he and President Donald Trump would use this week's assassination of Charlie Kirk to "dismantle" the organized left using state power.
In a rant on Fox News, Miller—the architect of Trump's mass roundups and deportations of immigrants—shouted that the best way to honor Kirk's memory was to carry out a political purge against the left, which he called a "domestic terrorism movement in this country."
Miller provided few details on what specific left-wing figures or groups he believed were stoking this violence. He claimed the left was waging "doxxing campaigns" against right-wing figures, though he cited no specific examples.
He did, however, cite many examples of harsh, but nevertheless First Amendment-protected, speech that he considered an incitement to violence, including that "the left calls people enemies of the republic, calls them fascists, says they're Nazis, says they're evil," and claimed that many people online were "celebrating" Kirk's assassination.
"The last message that Charlie Kirk gave to me before he joined his creator in heaven," Miller said, was, "that we have to dismantle and take on the radical left organizations in this country that are fomenting violence, and we are going to do that."
"Under President Trump's leadership," Miller vowed to shut down these unspecified leftist groups.
"I don't care how," he said. "It could be a RICO charge, a conspiracy charge, conspiracy against the United States, insurrection. But we are going to do what it takes to dismantle the organizations and the entities that are fomenting riots, that are doxxing, that are trying to inspire terrorism, that are committing acts of wanton violence."
RICO refers to the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, which the government has traditionally used to prosecute organized crime groups. Trump later said one of his targets for these charges may be the billionaire liberal donor George Soros, the owner of the Open Society Foundations nonprofit, whom Trump accused of funding "riots," a charge Soros denied.
Miller did not limit his call to destroying those who commit crimes. He also spoke of those "spreading this evil hate," telling them, "You will live in exile. Because the power of law enforcement under President Trump's leadership will be used to find you, will be used to take away your money, to take away your power, and if you've broken the law, to take away your freedom."
An official White House account on X reposted a clip of Miller's comments calling for the "dismantling" of left-wing organizations:
"Trump signaled he intended to use Kirk's shooting as a pretext for a broad crackdown on the left," said Jordan Weissman, a journalist at The Argument. "Here's Stephen Miller being much more explicit. He's talking about RICO and terrorism charges, echoing right-wing influencers."
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, meanwhile, pointed out the irony of the threat coming from Miller, noting that he "routinely slanders his political opponents with vile language that treats disagreement as if it’s treason."
Little is still known about what, if any, political ideology precisely motivated Kirk's alleged shooter, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, who was apprehended in Utah on Friday. Robinson was not affiliated with any political party, and the scrawlings he left behind at the scene of the crime contain a mishmash of hyper-online but only vaguely political symbols and phrases.
But even before the suspect had been identified or apprehended, efforts had begun on the right to use Kirk's murder as an excuse to crack down on their left-wing enemies. In an ominous speech Thursday night, Trump blamed the shooting on the "radical left," saying it was “directly responsible for the terrorism that we're seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now."
On Fox News Friday, Trump indicated that he was extending this dragnet to anyone who has expressed harsh words for figures on the right. The president said:
For years those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country and must stop right now. My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it, as well as those who go after our judges and law enforcement officials.
(Graphic by The Economist, data from the Prosecution Project)
The portrayal of the left as a unique "national security threat" is not borne out by data. On Friday, The Economist published an analysis of data from the Prosecution Project, an open-source database that catalogues crimes that seek "a socio-political change or to communicate."
The findings reaffirm what has been found in previous studies: That "extremists on both left and right commit violence, although more incidents appear to come from right-leaning attackers."
During the same Fox interview, when a host noted the prevalence of right-wing extremism, Trump said: "I’ll tell you something that’s going to get me in trouble, but I couldn’t care less. The radicals on the right oftentimes are radical because they don’t want to see crime. They’re saying, ‘We don’t want these people coming in. We don’t want you burning our shopping centers. We don’t want you shooting our people in the middle of the street.’”
Trump concluded: “The radicals on the left are the problem.”
Meanwhile, virtually all prominent figures and groups on the left—from politicians like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), and New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani to writers for left-wing publications like Jacobin or The Nation to activist groups like Public Citizen, MoveOn, the ACLU, and Indivisible—have unequivocally condemned violence against Kirk, even while repudiating his views.
"Trump explicitly threatened to use the state to target anyone he and MAGA scapegoat for Kirk's murder," said New Republic writer Greg Sargeant. "We really could see Stephen Miller and Kash Patel use the FBI for 60s-style domestic persecution."