The Republican National Committee is ardently defending President Trump against unified condemnation from Democrats over a Twitter thread the president posted Sunday attacking four freshman Congresswomen of color that was widely lambasted as racist, xenophobic, and nativist.
"I think it's really inappropriate," Liz Harrington, a spokesperson for the RNC, told Cheddar Tuesday regarding the calls that the President is a racist. "This is a debate that has nothing to do with race, it has nothing to do with gender, it has nothing to do with religion, it has everything to do with ideas."
President Trump also pushed back Tuesday morning, writing in a tweet "I don't have a Racist bone in my body!"
The GOP leadership is largely behind the president. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters, clearly, "the president is not a racist." At a separate press conference, when asked if he thought Trump was racist, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said "No."
"I believe this is about ideology," McCarthy told reporters. "It's about socialism versus freedom."
Harrington rebuked the anger coming from the Democrats, denouncing them as "socialists" who trash the country.
"I think it's very inappropriate to categorize the President's tweets as racist, it has nothing to do with that, it has everything to do with what we want our country to be, and we want to keep it America," she added.
Only a handful of Republican members of Congress have condemned Trump for his tweets, which came as the 2020 election approaches and the president appears to be increasingly willing to push boundaries in an effort to mobilize his loyal base.
The RNC spokesperson was quick to pounce on the ideological differences between Trump and the 2020 Democratic front-runners, saying this is a great time for "contrast."
"It's a perfect opportunity to show the contrast because we've seen over the past two and a half years, the president has delivered for this economy, we've restored freedom and prosperity." Harrington claimed.
"It is the entire democratic 2020 field calling for open borders, calling for socialized medicine, calling to get rid of the electoral college, pack the Supreme Court, very radical ideas that are antithetical to our founding," Harrington added. "So we're gonna keep showing that contrast."
David Levine, elections integrity fellow with Alliance for Securing Democracy, joins Cheddar News to discuss Politico's bombshell finding revealing the RNC's plan to contest the elections.
A survey by the BMO Real Financial Progress Index found that 25 percent of Americans are pulling back on retirement contributions to offset the cost of inflation. This comes as market volatility reduced retirement savings with the S&P 500 shedding more than 12 percent this year alone.
As abortion rights take center stage in courts around the country, so do discussions about reproductive health. Signs and social media posts say things like "protect women's rights" and "her body, her choice," leaving others who need and receive abortions completely out of the picture. The potential end to Roe v. Wade would impact far more people and facilities than you may think. Cheddar News' Baker Machado breaks it all down.
Arkansas is planning to reshape itself by putting a strong emphasis on technology through computer science in the classroom. Governor Asa Hutchinson joined Cheddar News Buffa to discuss the state's efforts to promote itself as a future tech hub. “It gives young people such a huge opportunity for success," he noted. The term-limited governor also touched on the issue of gun ownership, offering up the idea of possibly raising the age limit to obtain rifles like the AR-15 to 21 instead of 18 as it currently stands.
The dating app Bumble has sponsored bills and pushed lawmakers to criminalize the online practice of sending unsolicited nudes or “cyberflashing." Payton Iheme, Bumble's head of public policy for the Americas, joined Cheddar News to discuss why the app was going after the harassing behavior beyond its own platform. "Now, while we went to work internally in the company, and we created something called private detector to automatically blur those images so the user can decide if they want to see them, there's nothing for the rest of the internet," she said. "And so that's why we went to work with these laws."
Constituent service platform Indigov recently raised $25 million in a Series B funding round. Indigov bills itself as a constituent relationship management tool that helps elected officials improve the way they organize, respond to, and engage those they serve. The startup's services are being used by federal, state, and local governments across the country, including the U.S. House of Representatives. Alex Kouts, founder & CEO of Indigov, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
