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For Immediate Release
July, 09 2016, 09:45am EDT
Contact:
Gloria Mattera | Campaign Co-Chair
[c] 1.917.886.4538
[e] gloria@jill2016.com
Additional resources for Media: jill2016.com/press
Statement Clarifying Sanders Offer
We have repeatedly asked to meet with Senator Sanders to discuss the possibilities for collaboration to continue to build a progressive revolution in the US.
We have said we were willing to discuss a variety of cooperative approaches, including the possibility of creating a united ticket. At no point however have we simply offered that we would just step aside and give the Presidential nomination of the Green Party to Senator Sanders without serious discussions of issues and strategies. And of course ultimately the nomination decision rest in the hands of the delegates to the Green Party convention, though most of them are pledged to Jill Stein.
However such a ticket was conditioned on discussing and agreeing on a joint program moving forward. We have always been clear that the path to a progressive revolution does not go through the Democratic Party, a position that Sen. Sanders had shared through most of his political career. And while we agree with Senator Sanders on many issues, including both analysis and solutions, there are also some significant differences that would have to be addressed. This starts with foreign policy and the role of the US military, but includes specific domestic issues as well the abolition of student debt and the need to transition to 100% clean renewable energy by 2030.
LATEST NEWS
Senate Urged to Reject Trump Plot to Unleash AI for Medicare Service Denials
"The bottom line is this: Seniors who choose traditional Medicare should not have their care blocked by AI," said one campaigner.
Jul 15, 2026
Advocates for seniors on Wednesday urged US senators to vote for a resolution that, if passed, would block a new Trump administration pilot program under which claims by patients seeking certain healthcare services through traditional Medicare would be reviewed by private companies using artificial intelligence to deny care.
Upper chamber lawmakers are set to vote Thursday on a resolution introduced by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and supported by 20 Democratic colleagues and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to stop the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' so-called Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction (WISeR) Model.
CMS claims WISeR "helps protect American taxpayers by leveraging enhanced technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, along with human clinical review, to ensure timely and appropriate Medicare payment for select items and services."
What CMS doesn't mention—and what alarms a growing number of physicians and advocates—about the voluntary model is that AI-assisted reviews could contribute to inappropriate care denials, despite the required human review. Private Medicare Advantage healthcare profiteers have been using AI to deny care for years.
Critics argue that, even if a human must sign off, AI will effectively drive many of the recommendations, making it easier and faster to deny or delay care. They also warn of inevitable financial incentives tied to reducing Medicare spending, raising concerns that AI would likely be used as a cost-cutting tool.
"WISeR is not wise at all. It is a dangerous, profit-motivated experiment that allows private third parties to use artificial intelligence to delay and deny seniors’ medical care," Social Security Works executive director Alex Lawson said Wednesday. "Under the WISeR pilot program, which went live in January 2026, reports already show Medicare beneficiaries are waiting 2 to 4 times longer to access certain care."
"This is just one more example of the harm that Republicans’ disastrous healthcare agenda has already waged on American patients," he continued. "Last year, Republicans slashed $1 trillion in Medicaid and Affordable Care Act spending to line their cronies’ pockets. Now, they are importing the worst parts of Medicare Advantage—automated care denials—into traditional Medicare."
"The bottom line is this: Seniors who choose traditional Medicare should not have their care blocked by AI," Lawson added.
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'Worse Than a Lackey': Advocates and Dems List the Many Reasons Blanche Is Unfit to Be Attorney General
If senators "ignore the evidence and advance Blanche’s nomination, they will share responsibility for the abuses that follow," said one critic.
Jul 15, 2026
As acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche faced questions on Wednesday regarding the defunct "slush fund" he helped create for President Donald Trump's allies, his role in the release of the Epstein files, and other details of his tenure at the Department of Justice, advocacy groups and Democrats demanded that senators reject the nomination of an official who "has made it clear he’ll put Donald Trump first."
Those were the words of Brett Edkins, managing director of policy and political affairs at Stand Up America, who was among those speaking out about Blanche's "damning" record of weaponizing the DOJ against Trump's perceived enemies with "politically motivated" investigations and indictments.
While serving as deputy to fired former Attorney General Pam Bondi and in his current acting role, said Stand Up America, Blanche has led inquiries into Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide whose testimony implicated the president in the violent riot by Trump supporters at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021; the Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue; the anti-hate group Southern Poverty Law Center; and former FBI Director James Comey, whom Blanche claimed "knowingly and willfully [made] a threat to take the life of, and to inflict bodily harm upon” Trump in an Instagram photo in 2025.
"Senate Judiciary Committee members have a duty to hold Blanche’s feet to the fire and demand answers about his record of weaponizing the DOJ to protect Donald Trump," said Edkins ahead of Wednesday's confirmation hearing for Blanche, who represented Trump during his legal cases regarding hush-money payments to an adult film star and his retention of classified documents.
"If they ignore the evidence and advance Blanche’s nomination, they will share responsibility for the abuses that follow," he added.
Along with using the power of the federal government against those who oppose the president, Blanche led the creation of a $1.77 billion settlement agreement to end Trump's lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) over the leak of his tax records—a deal that included both a "super pardon" to protect the president and his family from ever facing accountability for tax violations and an "Anti-Weaponization Fund" to dole out taxpayer funds to January 6 insurrectionists and other Trump allies.
A federal judge blocked the settlement this week and found Trump's lawsuit against the IRS to be illegal self-dealing, and Blanche has indicated the DOJ will no longer pursue the creation of the "slush fund," but advocates as well as senators at Wednesday's confirmation hearing said the effort put on display the acting attorney general's unfitness to lead the DOJ.
"The Senate must look at the facts and refuse to confirm Todd Blanche," said Virginia Kase Solomón, president and CEO of Common Cause, which referred Blanche for a disciplinary investigation after the federal ruling was handed down Monday. "He continues to prioritize the president’s interests over the American people. He orchestrated this sham lawsuit to fleece the American people out of almost $2 billion to pay the President’s allies, including people who violently assaulted law enforcement on January 6, and to provide the president, his family, and associates unprecedented immunity for their misdeeds."
"The American people deserve an Attorney General who is independent of the White House and has an unassailable ethics record," said Kase Solomón. "Senators can’t confirm someone who is willing to skirt the law as our nation’s top law enforcement officer."
At the hearing Wednesday, Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) noted that while Blanche has declared the slush fund "dead," the order to create the fund still exists on the DOJ website and the acting attorney general attacked the judge who blocked the settlement as orchestrating "a hit" on Blanche.
Sen. @DickDurbin: One of your first official actions as acting AG, Mr. Blanche, was to establish the $2 billion slush fund to benefit J6 cop beaters while immunizing Trump from IRS liability. You defended the slush fund by claiming "people who hurt police get money all the time." pic.twitter.com/06he9g8kLS
— Headquarters (@HQNewsNow) July 15, 2026
At Slate on Tuesday, Shirin Ali wrote that Blanche's conduct regarding the slush fund revealed that he is "worse than a lackey."
In the federal case against Trump's IRS lawsuit, wrote Ali, "the judge’s conclusion confirmed what we’ve all been thinking: The acting AG and the president’s interests in this case were 'one and the same.'"
"At the end of the day, the DOJ’s responsibility is to zealously represent the interests of the US, not the president, and Blanche has violated the agency’s commitment to remain insulated from political influence," Ali added.
Blanche also faced questioning on the settlement agreement from Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who lost a primary election earlier this year and has been identified as one of two Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee—the other being Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC)—who could vote no on Blanche's confirmation.
Blanche's involvement in the release of files regarding the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a former associate of the president's, was also a focus of outcry ahead of and during the confirmation hearing, which was attended by some survivors of Epstein's abuse.
US Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), who is leading an investigation into the DOJ's withholding of the Epstein files as ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, wrote to Durbin and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), noting that Bondi identified Blanche as having overseen the long-delayed, botched release of the documents earlier this year.
"Mr. Blanche is therefore responsible for a DOJ process that exposed the names, photographs, and other personally identifying information of Epstein survivors thousands of times, including information related to more than two dozen minors," said Garcia. "Survivors have described DOJ’s actions as retraumatizing, and some have reported harassment after their identities spread online."
Garcia also pointed to recent public reporting that FBI and DOJ personnel were instructed to "find, log, and redact President
Trump’s name from Epstein-related records," and to a "highly unusual interview" of Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, "shortly before her suspicious transfer to a minimum-security facility."
"Mr. Blanche still has not explained why he met with Maxwell, what she was offered, or what influenced her treatment by DOJ," wrote Garcia. "To this day, Maxwell continues to pursue a pardon from President Trump as she resides in a minimum-security facility with amenities that should not be afforded to prolific sex traffickers."
Garcia said in a statement that Blanche's "failed handling of the Epstein files... raises serious concerns about whether he is working for the American people or just protecting Donald Trump. The attorney general’s job is to uphold the rule of law, not serve as the president’s personal lawyer. Blanche is unfit for the role, which is why we’re calling on the Senate to reject his nomination."
Blanche did not commit to personally meeting with the Epstein survivors who attended the hearing when he was questioned on the matter by Durbin, telling him there could be ethical rules that would prevent such a meeting.
"You’re dancing on the head of a pin here," replied Durbin.
In another call from the lower chamber of Congress, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) provided a fact sheet including 15 ways in which Blanche "still behaves like Trump's defense attorney."
Along with his involvement in the slush fund, investigations of Trump's enemies, and the Epstein files, Raskin named Blanche's "aggressive DOJ investigations into reporters," his shutdown of a probe into an alleged bribe taken by border czar Tom Homan, and his blocking of investigations into the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal officers as more reasons for senators to reject Blanche as attorney general.
"The American people deserve a Senate that acts as a coequal branch," said Edkins, "not a rubber stamp on Trump’s handpicked henchman.”
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Contrary to Evidence, Trump Energy Secretary Says Data Centers Are Best Tool to 'Stop the Rise of Electricity Prices’
His comments came one day after the largest power grid in the US announced massive rate hikes and said the "primary driver of that growth is data centers."
Jul 15, 2026
After New York’s Democratic governor enacted a temporary ban on the construction of large data centers to curb their enormous power consumption, President Donald Trump’s energy secretary, Chris Wright, made the evidence-free claim that the facilities are actually the “greatest tool” for reducing the sharp increases in energy prices.
On Tuesday, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed an executive order barring for one year the construction of "hyperscale" data centers that can consume 50 megawatts of power or more, saying that unchecked expansion "threatens to hike up utility bills, deplete our natural resources, and create uncertainty for New Yorkers."
New York was the first state to place a moratorium on data center development, and more than a dozen other states have considered enacting moratoriums as evidence has mounted that data centers tend to spike power demand and drive up costs.
But as the rapid growth of data centers has sparked furious backlash in communities of all political stripes, the industry has maintained a steadfast ally in the Trump administration, which has continued to champion rapid data center buildout by fast-tracking permits, opening federal land to developers, promoting new energy infrastructure, and offering federal financing and tax incentives to new projects.
On Wednesday morning, Wright took to Fox News to blast Hochul's block on data center development.
"Gov. Hochul has it exactly backward," he said. "Data centers are the greatest tool we have right now to stop the rise of electricity prices and ultimately to bring them back down."
Wright, a former fracking executive, protested that “Democrat green energy policies” were responsible for driving up energy prices in New York, pointing to its ban on fracking, the blocking of a major natural gas pipeline, and an “insane climate law” requiring the state to transition away from fossil fuels by 2040.
"Energy is extremely expensive in New York and now sparse because of bad Democrat policies," he said. "Nothing to do with data centers."
Wright did not elaborate on how exactly data centers could be used as a "tool" to bring down energy prices. But if this is the case, nobody has informed the energy companies themselves.
His comments came just a day after PJM, which serves 67 million customers and is the nation's largest electric grid operator, released the results of an electricity auction that added $6.3 billion in costs to consumers' energy bills in 2028-29 due to growth in energy demand.
"The primary driver of that growth is data centers," the company said in a press release. "New data center facilities and expansions of existing sites can be developed quickly, up to two to three times faster than many of the electricity generation technologies that are necessary to serve them and allow PJM to maintain the reliability customers expect."
That increase is not confined to the future. It has already begun. According to Monitoring Analytics, PJM’s independent market monitor, since 2024, the auctions have added $29 billion in costs to the customers across the 13 states plus Washington, DC, where it operates. New York is not one of the states supplied by the PJM grid.
The Natural Resources Defense Council has found that recent PJM auction increases have added as much as $20-30 to monthly bills in some parts of the company's regions, and projects that continued data-center growth could eventually add roughly $70 per month for an average household.
The labor-focused media organization More Perfect Union, which has published many pieces documenting the effects of data centers on American communities, called Wright's claim "one of the most blatant lies we’ve ever heard."
"Data centers are pushing energy prices up," the outlet said. "That is not a matter of debate, it’s a fact."
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