Biden's team opens first Florida campaign office, and the Supreme Court prepares to consider Trump's immunity claims.
Biden campaign opens 1st campaign office in Florida as abortion looks to be key issue
President Joe Biden’s campaign announced that it was partnering with the Florida Democratic Party to open its first campaign office in the state Thursday.
The move comes after Biden visited Tampa last week to hit former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on the state’s upcoming six week abortion ban. In addition to that visit, Vice President Kamala Harris plans to go to Jacksonville on Wednesday.
The Biden team’s first office will be located in Hillsborough County and will serve as “a hub for grassroots organizing and voter mobilization, training sessions for volunteers, canvass kickoffs, and volunteer recruitment events,” according to a release from the campaign.
“Florida is ground zero in the fight for our rights and fundamental freedoms, and we’re not taking anything for granted,” Florida State Democratic Party Director Jasmine Burney-Clark said. “Hillsborough County voted blue in 2016 and 2020, and we expect to deliver Hillsborough again for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris again this November. We’ll continue to engage voters across our coalition to highlight the stark contrast between President Biden’s work to lower costs for our families and protect our freedoms and Donald Trump’s promise to gut Social Security and Medicare while banning abortion.”
The campaign underscored Florida’s status as a battleground state in its messaging and also referenced the fact that abortion will actually be on the ballot, a potential motivating factor to get voters to the polls in November.
Democrats have been hard-pressed to find hope in electoral chances in the state in recent years. Republicans hold a supermajority in both chambers of the state legislature, and the governor’s mansion. In 2022, Sen. Marco Rubio held off Democratic challenger Val Demings, earning 57.7% of the vote. DeSantis performed well, earning 59.4% against former Gov. Charlie Crist.
In 2020, former President Donald Trump earned 51.22% of the vote in the state, compared to Biden’s 47.86%.
Going back further, Democrats were much closer in electoral results in 2018. Sen. Rick Scott earned 50.06% of the vote, and former Sen. Bill Nelson earned 49.93%. That was the same year that DeSantis narrowly beat out Andrew Gillum for governor. DeSantis earned 49.59% of the vote, Gillum earned 49.19%.
It should be noted that Trump’s current residence is in Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach. Neither Biden nor the former president had much need to campaign in the state during the primary season, since both primaries were decided handily before Florida voters had the chance to weigh in.
Supreme Court to weigh Trump immunity claim
Conservative Supreme Court justices appeared skeptical Wednesday that state abortion bans taking effect after their sweeping ruling overturning Roe v. Wade violate federal health care law, though some also questioned the effects on emergency pregnancy care.
The case marks the first time the Supreme Court has considered the implications of a state ban since overturning the nationwide right to abortion. It comes from Idaho, which is among 14 states that now ban abortion at all stages of pregnancy with very limited exceptions.
The high court has already allowed the state ban to go into effect, even in medical emergencies, and it was unclear whether members of the conservative majority were swayed by the Biden administration's argument that federal law overrides the state in rare emergency cases where a pregnant patient's health is at serious risk.
The Justice Department says abortion care must be allowed in those cases under a law that requires hospitals accepting Medicare to provide emergency care regardless of patients' ability to pay.
Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the decision overturning Roe v. Wade, was doubtful.
“How can you impose restrictions on what Idaho can criminalize, simply because hospitals in Idaho have chosen to participate in Medicare?” he said.
Justices on the high court's liberal minority, meanwhile, aired arguments that Idaho's law was putting women's health at risk.
“Within these rare cases, there’s a significant number where the woman’s life is not in peril, but she’s going to lose her reproductive organs. She’s going to lose the ability to have children in the future unless an abortion takes place,” said Justice Elena Kagan.
The Biden administration argues that even in states where abortion is banned, federal health care law says hospitals must be allowed to terminate pregnancies in rare emergencies where a patient’s life or health is at serious risk.
Idaho contends its ban has exceptions for life-saving abortion, but allowing it in more medical emergencies would turn hospitals into “abortion enclaves.” The state argues the Biden administration is misusing a health care law that is meant to ensure patients aren't turned away based on their ability to pay.
The Supreme Court has allowed the Idaho law to go into effect, even during emergencies, as the case has played out. It makes performing an abortion a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.
Dueling protests were taking shape outside the court before the start of arguments on Wednesday. “Abortion saves lives,” read signs displayed by abortion rights supporters. Opponents displayed a sign that read, “Emergency rooms are not abortion clinics.”
Doctors have said Idaho’s abortion ban has already affected emergency care. More women whose conditions are typically treated with abortions must now be flown out of state for care, since doctors must wait until they are close to death to provide abortions within the bounds of state law.
Meanwhile, complaints of pregnant women being turned away from U.S. emergency rooms spiked after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, according to federal documents obtained by The Associated Press.
Anti-abortion groups blame doctors for mishandling maternal emergency cases. Idaho argues the Biden administration overstates health care woes to undermine state abortion laws.
The justices also heard another abortion case this term, which seeks to restrict access to abortion medication. It remains pending, though the justices overall seemed skeptical of the push.
The Justice Department originally brought the case against Idaho, arguing the state’s abortion law conflicts with the 1986 Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, known as EMTALA. It requires hospitals that accept Medicare to provide emergency care to any patient regardless of their ability to pay. Nearly all hospitals accept Medicare.
A federal judge initially sided with the administration and ruled that abortions were legal in medical emergencies. After the state appealed, the Supreme Court allowed the law to go fully into effect in January.
The Supreme Court is expected to rule by the end of June.
Some campuses call in police to break up pro-Palestinian demonstrations, while others wait it out
Some U.S. universities called in police to break up demonstrations against the Israel-Hamas war, resulting in ugly scuffles and dozens of arrests, while others appeared content to wait out student protests Thursday, as the final days of the semester ticked down and graduation ceremonies loomed.
As protests over the Israel-Hamas war continue at Columbia University, resulting in hundreds of arrests, Florida’s members of Congress from both major parties are calling on Columbia officials and others to condemn hate speech against Jewish people.
Republican Sen. Rick Scott sent a letter to the university’s board.
“It’s absolutely sickening that Jewish students on campus are terrified of simply leaving their homes to go to class or live their daily lives, knowing the risks they face. For the university to recommend remote learning instead of stopping these violent mobs is pathetic and unacceptable,” Scott said.
Earlier this week Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz went to Columbia University along with other Jewish House members also calling on the school’s president to protect Jewish students.
In December, a House committee summoned the presidents of Harvard, UPenn and MIT to testify about alleged antisemitism on their campuses.
“To the president of Columbia: if you want to know what the right thing to do is, I can tell you what the wrong thing to do is. Ask the presidents of UPenn and Harvard because we’ve seen this show before.,” Moskowitz said.
The protests at Columbia have spurred protests on other campuses, including at the University of Florida in Gainesville.
The issue has also spurred division among Democrats in Congress, with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez denouncing Columbia for bringing in law enforcement.
“Not only did Columbia make the horrific decision to mobilize NYPD on their own students, but the units called in have some of the most violent reputations on the force,” she said on social media.
On Monday President Joe Biden put out a statement for Passover condemning antisemitism in “schools, communities, and online.”
Schools that do not protect students from harassment can lose federal funding if the Department of Education finds they did not comply with civil rights law.