March 31, 2019 at 11:12 am EDT By Taegan Goddard

A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds 72% of Americans say they know enough about Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) to form an opinion of her — a swift rise in name ID for a relatively new figure on the national scene.

Among all Americans, 23% have a positive opinion of her, while 34% have a negative one.

The intensity of feelings toward the New York congresswoman is stronger on the political right than on the left: 46% of Democrats have a positive opinion of her, while 64% of Republicans have a negative one.

###

https://politicalwire.com/2019/03/31/most-know-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/

March 31, 2019 at 8:47 am EDT By Taegan Goddard





###

https://politicalwire.com/2019/03/31/chyron-of-the-day/

https://twitter.com/MeetThePress/status/1112352273743691781


https://thehill.com/homenews/436625-hickenlooper-allegations-against-biden-very-disconcerting

https://twitter.com/CNNSotu/status/1112364752842436609


https://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/436622-biden-accuser-flores-i-want-him-to-acknowledge-this-was-wrong

BY CRISTINA MARCOS - 03/31/19 10:30 AM EDT

House Republicans are playing defense as Democrats hold votes on a series of measures that could make it more difficult for the GOP to recoup losses with female voters in 2018.

The House on Wednesday approved the Paycheck Fairness Act, which strengthens penalties against employers that discriminate against female workers with lower wages. And this week, the House is set to vote on a renewal of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) after it expired in late December.

Both measures have been top priorities for Democrats since they took over the House majority, which was fueled in large part by female voters. A Democratic aide said that leaders wanted to vote on the Paycheck Fairness Act ahead of Equal Pay Day on April 2 and to bring up the VAWA renewal soon after it advanced out of the House Judiciary Committee earlier this month. But the two bills also give Democrats an opportunity to cast the GOP as unfriendly to women on both issues.

"We were put into the majority by the women of this country. And so I think it is only fair as we forge ahead with our 'For the People' agenda that we try to deal with some of these obstacles," said Rep. Lois Frankel (D-Fla.), co-chairwoman of the Democratic Women's Caucus.

Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), the top Republican on the House Education and Labor Committee, accused Democrats of "just playing gotcha games."

Republicans argue the Paycheck Fairness Act offered by Democrats would simply spur on more lawsuits.

more

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/436529-gop-on-defensive-over-dem-votes-on-policies-geared-toward-women

BY MICHAEL BURKE - 03/31/19 11:04 AM EDT

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said Sunday that "thousands of people will literally die" if President Trump can successfully do away with the Affordable Care Act, also known as ObamaCare.

“If Trump gets his way, the cost of health insurance ... will be so high that many people literally will not be able to afford it. Thousands of people will literally die. That’s Trump’s health insurance plan," Sanders said during an interview on CBS's "Face the Nation."

“My plan is just a little bit different. I think we should join the result of the industrialized world, guarantee health care to all people as a right," Sanders added.

Sanders, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for president in 2020, was an early proponent of "Medicare for All." He said Sunday that he plans to introduce his newest Medicare for All plan "within the next couple of weeks."

"When we do that, what we understand is that it is just not acceptable that 30 million Americans have no health insurance and even more are underinsured with high deductibles and high co-payments," he added.

https://twitter.com/FaceTheNation/status/1112368511173701632

more
https://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/436626-sanders-thousands-of-people-will-literally-die-if-trump-gets-his

BY CHRIS MILLS RODRIGO - 03/31/19 10:36 AM EDT

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said Sunday that she has no reason not to believe Lucy Flores, the woman who has accused Joe Biden of kissing her head without consent in 2014.

“I have no reason not to believe her,” Klobuchar, who is running for president in 2020, said on ABC's "This Week."

“I think we know from campaigns and politics that people raise issues and they have to address them, and that’s what he will have to do with the voters if he gets into the race," she said of Biden, who is likely to soon put in his bid for the 2020 nomination.

https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC/status/1112348650305290240

more
https://thehill.com/homenews/436623-klobuchar-i-have-no-reason-not-to-believe-biden-accuser

BY MICHAEL BURKE - 03/31/19 10:52 AM EDT

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said Sunday that he's "not sure that one incident alone" disqualifies Joe Biden from running for president after former Nevada state assemblywoman Lucy Flores (D) accused the former vice president of inappropriately touching and kissing her without her consent in 2014.

“That’s a decision for the vice president to make," Sanders, a candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, said on CBS's "Face the Nation" when asked if the allegation disqualifies Biden. "I’m not sure that one incident alone disqualifies anybody."

Sanders added that he has "no reason not to believe" Flores, who said in an essay published Friday in New York Magazine's The Cut that Biden touched her shoulders and kissed the back of her head before a Nevada campaign rally.

“I have no reason not to believe Lucy," the Vermont senator said on Sunday. "And I think what this speaks to is the need to fundamentally change the culture of this country and to create environments feel comfortable and feel safe.”

https://twitter.com/FaceTheNation/status/1112366658792947713

more
https://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/436624-sanders-not-sure-that-one-incident-alone-disqualifies-biden

By Allegra Kirkland
March 30, 2019 10:24 am

A federal judge ruled Friday that Alex Jones and other online conspiracy peddlers cannot dismiss a defamation suit alleging that they invented damaging smears about a counter-protester at the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally.

“Victims of vile conspiracy theories should take comfort in Judge Moon’s ruling that Brennan Gilmore’s defamation suit against InfoWars must proceed,” Andrew Mendrala, an attorney with Georgetown Law’s Civil Rights Clinic, which helped bring the case, said in a statement. “Today’s decision shows that the law will protect victims of baseless lies by holding people like Alex Jones accountable for the harm they cause.”

Gilmore sued Jones, Gateway Pundit’s Jim Hoft and several other far-right publishers for falsely labeling him as a “deep state” operative. They claimed that a video he captures and posted online of white supremacist Alex James Fields ramming his car into Heather Heyer was part of an elaborate, staged plot to undermine the Trump administration.

The defendants requested that the lawsuit be thrown out, claiming they were simply exercising their First Amendment right to share theories and opinions about the incident. But in Friday’s ruling, Judge Norman Moon of Virginia’s Western District agreed with Gilmore that they knowingly published these false stories “with actual malice.”

Gilmore was a foreign service officer on leave at the time of the rally, and had previously donated to Democratic politicians. Far-right sites used these details as the basis to declare that he was a paid undercover operative helping to carry out an anti-Trump coup. Jones definitively stated that Gilmore was “high-level CIA,” had helped coordinate the chaos at Charlottesville, and that George Soros was paying him $320,000 a year.

more + copy of the Judge's decision:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/alex-jones-must-face-defamation-suit-charlottesville

https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC/status/1112345897688424448