Month: September 2020

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Author and Democratic presidential candidate Marianne WilliamsonMarianne WilliamsonMarianne Williamson touts endorsements for progressive congressional candidates The Hill’s 12:30 Report: Warren becomes latest 2020 rival to back Biden The Hill’s Campaign Report: Biden looks to stretch lead in Tuesday contests MORE on Monday proposed the creation of a Cabinet-level Department of Peace as president.

The department would have to be created through an act of Congress and would “work actively and interactively with every branch of government on policy matters related to both international and domestic peace issues,” according to Williamson’s campaign.

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Explaining the value of “expertise in peacebuilding” to the Des Moines Register, Williamson told the newspaper the military was akin to a surgeon.

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“Obviously, the United States needs to have the best surgeons in the world, but everyone knows you only have surgery if you absolutely must,” she said.

The proposal would also establish a “Peace Academy” modeled after military academies that would require five years of service in public service programs geared toward nonviolent conflict resolution. The secretary of peace responsible for oversight would serve on the National Security Council, according to Williamson.

The department’s domestic duties would include educational programs for children as well as addressing the so-called school-to-prison pipeline and improving relations between police and local communities.

Internationally, it would collaborate with other governments to resolve international conflicts, emphasizing areas such as education, health care and food insecurity, according to Williamson.

“Our country’s priorities are clearly reflected in our budget. The Defense Department has a military budget of $718 billion – almost larger than that of all other nations combined – while our State Department budget – including all peace-creation agencies – is $40 billion,” the proposal states.

“The independent U.S. Institute of Peace has a budget of only $36.8 million. As president, I will make the relationship between the State Department and the Department of Defense a robust partnership. And I will build up the peace-building agencies within the State Department in a major way,” Williamson said.

Wade Barrett is officially set for his third straight week of NXT commentary.

On Twitter today, Barrett confirmed that he’ll again be part of the commentary team for next Tuesday’s episode of NXT: “There’s no way I’m missing this one. This is fast becoming a habit.. see you next week for another #NXTSuperTuesday! #WWENXT”

PWInsider reported earlier this week that Barrett was in negotiations with WWE to return to the promotion full-time as a commentator. He’s called the past two NXT episodes with Vic Joseph and Beth Phoenix.

It was announced this Monday that Mauro Ranallo and WWE have “mutually and amicably agreed to part ways.”

Barrett’s in-ring run with WWE ended when he departed the company in 2016. Using his real name (Stu Bennett), he joined the commentary team for the NWA this past December.

NXT is again airing on Tuesday next week due to the NHL playoffs. After this week’s four-way Iron Man match for the vacant NXT Championship ended in a two-way tie, Finn Balor and Adam Cole will face off in a singles match for the title next Tuesday. Rhea Ripley vs. Mercedes Martinez in a steel cage match is also set for the episode.

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Sen. Cory BookerCory Anthony BookerRand Paul introduces bill to end no-knock warrants Black lawmakers unveil bill to remove Confederate statues from Capitol Harris grapples with defund the police movement amid veep talk MORE (D-N.J.) jabbed former Vice President Joe BidenJoe BidenHillicon Valley: Biden calls on Facebook to change political speech rules | Dems demand hearings after Georgia election chaos | Microsoft stops selling facial recognition tech to police Trump finalizing executive order calling on police to use ‘force with compassion’ The Hill’s Campaign Report: Biden campaign goes on offensive against Facebook MORE for misinterpreting his criminal justice record as mayor of Newark during the Democratic primary debate Wednesday.

Booker turned to his rival and declared bluntly: “There’s a saying in my community: You’re dipping in the Kool-Aid, you don’t even know the flavor.”

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Booker then accused Biden in the mid-1990s of pushing a crime bill that “used that tough-on-crime phony rhetoric that got a lot of people elected but destroyed communities like mine.”

“It’s no secret that I inherited a police department with massive problems and decades-long challenges. But the head of the ACLU has already said, the head of the New Jersey ACLU, that I put forth national standard-setting accountability,” Booker said after Biden criticized him for using controversial stop-and-frisk tactics to fight crime and hiring a top adviser to former New York Mayor Rudy GiulianiRudy GiulianiSunday shows preview: Protests against George Floyd’s death, police brutality rock the nation for a second week Piers Morgan, Rudy Giuliani in furious debate over Trump: ‘You sound completely barking mad’ Rudy Giuliani calls on Cuomo to remove Bill de Blasio MORE. 

“If you want to compare records, and I’m shocked that you do, I’m happy to do that,” Booker said, as the crowd laughed.

Biden said Booker did nothing during his eight years as mayor of Newark to crack down on police abuse, which he said resulted in a disproportionate incarceration of young African American men.

“In 2007, you became mayor and you had a police department — you went out and you hired Rudy Giuliani’s guy, and engaged in stop-and-frisk, you had 75 percent of those stops reviewed as illegal,” Biden asserted. “The Justice Department came after you … saying you were engaging in behavior that was inappropriate.”

The heated exchange came as Booker and Biden clashed over criminal justice reform and Biden’s role in drafting the 1994 crime bill, which has been blamed for a massive rise in the incarceration of African Americans. 

Booker blamed Biden as a central figure in the tough-on-crime movement in the mid-1990s that tackled addiction and mental health problems by throwing millions of people into jail.

“This is a crisis in our country because we have treated issues of race and poverty, mental health and addiction with locking people up and not lifting them up,” he said. “Mr. Vice President has said that since the 1970s every major crime bill — every crime bill, major and minor — has had his name on it.”

Booker challenged Biden directly over his long record as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“This is one of those instances where the house was set on fire and you claimed responsibility for those laws,” he said. “You can’t just come out with a plan to put out that fire, we have got to have far more bold action on criminal justice reform, like having true marijuana justice, which means that we legalize it on a federal level and reinvest the profits in communities that have been disproportionately targeted.”

Biden meanwhile continued to press Booker on his crime-fighting record as mayor and contrasted it to his own efforts in 2007 to eliminate the sentencing disparity between crack and powder-cocaine offenses, which often led to harsher sentences for minority offenders.

“Why did you announce on the first day a zero-tolerance policy of stop-and-frisk and hire Rudy Giuliani’s guy in 2007 when I was trying to get rid of the crack cocaine disparity,” he said.

But Booker unleashed his Kool-Aid line and added, “you need to come to the city of Newark and see the reforms we put in place.” 

“Sir, you’re trying to shift the view from what you created. There are people right now in prison for life for drug offenses because you stood up and used that tough on crime phony rhetoric that got a lot of people elected but destroyed communities like mine,” Booker said.

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President TrumpDonald John TrumpSenate advances public lands bill in late-night vote Warren, Democrats urge Trump to back down from veto threat over changing Confederate-named bases Esper orders ‘After Action Review’ of National Guard’s role in protests MORE’s campaign has placed thousands of advertisements on Facebook since January warning of an “invasion” at the U.S. southern border, according to a review of Facebook’s ad archives by The Hill. 

The advertisements, more than 2,000 of which were posted between January and May, are now inactive. But they show how the president’s campaign has seized on language that critics say is racist and xenophobic to drum up political support. 

“The crisis at the Southern Border is even worse than most understand,” one ad, first posted in January, reads. “I have taken MULTIPLE trips to the border to show the true invasion happening but the Democrats and the Fake News Media just won’t listen.”

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That language — particularly the use of the word “invasion” — has come under renewed criticism in recent days after it turned up in a manifesto believed to have been written by the suspected gunman in last weekend’s mass shooting in El Paso, Texas. The accused shooter allegedly wrote the attack, which killed 22 people and wounded more, was a response to a “Hispanic invasion of Texas.”

The Trump campaign’s repeated use of the word “invasion” in Facebook advertisements was first reported by The New York Times on Monday. 

Another ad from the Trump campaign, first posted on Facebook in February, accuses Democrats of failing to negotiate in good faith on funding for the president’s proposed border wall, saying that “OBSTRUCTION is far more important to them than YOUR SAFETY.”

“We have an INVASION! So we are BUILDING THE WALL to STOP IT. Dems will sue us. But we want a SAFE COUNTRY!” the ad reads.

The Trump campaign has invested millions of dollars in digital advertising, particularly on Facebook, and data from the social media site shows that the ads using the word “invasion” account for only a small fraction of the total ads purchased by the campaign. Between Jan. 5 and July 27, the campaign spent $8.7 million on Facebook advertising, according to data from the Democratic digital firm Bully Pulpit Interactive.

Tim Murtaugh, the communications director for the Trump campaign, said that the ads were an “accurate description of the situation” at the southern border, citing statistics about unauthorized border crossings apparently compiled from U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.

“The Trump campaign has run hundreds of thousands of Facebook ads on many topics, including illegal immigration,” Murtaugh said in a statement to The Hill. “More than a million people from across the world have entered this country illegally already this year. At any given moment, there are 100,000 migrants making their way through Mexico to attempt to break our immigration laws. Most alarmingly, 138,000 illegal immigrants with criminal histories were arrested by ICE last year alone while 5,000 pounds of heroin and nearly 1,800 pounds of fentanyl were seized by Border Patrol agents – enough fentanyl to kill every man, woman, and child in this country.”

“By objecting to an accurate description of the situation, Democrats and the media are trying to make it impossible to oppose illegal immigration without being called racist.”

In addition to the Facebook advertisements, Trump has repeatedly made mention of a so-called invasion at the southern border during campaign rallies and on Twitter. The most recent tweet came in June, when he threatened to levy tariffs on Mexico if officials there failed to crack down on unauthorized crossings into the U.S. 

“Either they stop the invasion of our Country by Drug Dealers, Cartels, Human Traffickers, Coyotes and Illegal Immigrants, which they can do very easily, or our many companies and jobs that have been foolishly allowed to move South of the Border, will be brought back into the United States through taxation (Tariffs),” Trump wrote. “America has had enough!”

To be sure, Trump has sought to distance himself from the ideas espoused by the suspected gunman in El Paso. 

In his first in-depth remarks on the shooting on Monday, Trump condemned “bigotry, hatred and white supremacy” and vowed to provide law enforcement agencies with “whatever they need” to combat domestic terrorism. 

But Democrats have roundly criticized Trump’s rhetoric, which they say has emboldened white nationalists and spread anti-immigrant sentiment. They argue that regardless of his condemnation of racist ideologies on Monday, the president has built his political brand around stoking racial and cultural divisions.

Speaking at a forum hosted by the Latino advocacy group UnidosUS on Monday, several Democratic presidential candidates sounded off against what they said was Trump’s weaponization of hateful rhetoric to further his political agenda. 

“I say to Donald Trump, stop your anti-immigrant rhetoric,” Sen. Bernie SandersBernie SandersThe Hill’s 12:30 Report: Milley apologizes for church photo-op Harris grapples with defund the police movement amid veep talk Biden courts younger voters — who have been a weakness MORE (I-Vt.) said. “Stop the hatred, because that language, that hatred, that divisiveness creates a situation where certain people will do terrible things.”

“The attack two days ago was an attack on the Latino community, it was an attack on immigrants, it was an attack on Mexicans and Mexican Americans,” Julián Castro, the former Housing and Urban Development secretary, said. “And that is no accident. That is due in part to the climate this president has set of division, of otherness.”

David AxelrodDavid AxelrodMark Cuban says he’s decided not to run for president The Hill’s Campaign Report: Senate map shows signs of expanding The Hill’s Morning Report – Presented by Facebook – Trump touts reopening as virus fatality forecasts trigger alarm MORE, the veteran Democratic strategist, said that Trump’s references to an “invasion” in the Facebook ads were part of a broader strategy to provoke his supporters. But that strategy, he said, can have consequences.

“THOUSANDS of incendiary @realDonaldTrump campaign ads, THIS YEAR, invoked the menacing language of ‘invasion’ mimicked by El Paso gunman,” Axelrod tweeted. “Trump sees profit in provocation. But you light a fuse, you invite an explosion. Period. Full stop.”

–Updated at 6:16 p.m.

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White House hopeful Sen. Kamala HarrisKamala Devi HarrisRand Paul introduces bill to end no-knock warrants The Hill’s Campaign Report: Biden campaign goes on offensive against Facebook McEnany says Juneteenth is a very ‘meaningful’ day to Trump MORE (D-Calif.) on Monday slammed the Trump administration’s new “public charge” rule as part of an effort to “vilify” immigrants.

“It’s just an ongoing campaign of his to vilify a whole group of people,” the California senator told CNN.

“He is criminalizing innocent people, he is locking babies up in cages, he has a policy of separating children from their parents in the name of border security.”

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The administration’s new rule, which is set to go into effect in 62 days, would tie an immigrant’s ability to secure residency or a path to citizenship with their use of certain public programs.

Receiving benefits like food stamps, Medicaid or housing subsidies could hurt a noncitizen’s chance of getting a green card or visa. The “public charge” designation previously only singled out noncitizens who received cash subsidies.

The change has been criticized by immigration advocates who say it could discourage immigrants from seeking necessary assistance.

The administration has ramped up its efforts to curb legal and illegal immigration in recent months. The rule changes, including the public charge rule, are being challenged in court or likely to face a lawsuit.

“He wants everyone to be distracted from the fact that he has betrayed so many people and has actually done very little that has been productive in the best interest of American families,” Harris said on Monday. Click Here: cheap all stars rugby jersey

Harris campaign faces crossroads

September 3, 2020 | News | No Comments

Sen. Kamala HarrisKamala Devi HarrisRand Paul introduces bill to end no-knock warrants The Hill’s Campaign Report: Biden campaign goes on offensive against Facebook McEnany says Juneteenth is a very ‘meaningful’ day to Trump MORE (D-Calif.) energized Democratic fundraisers over the weekend with her enthusiasm and prescription for defeating President TrumpDonald John TrumpSenate advances public lands bill in late-night vote Warren, Democrats urge Trump to back down from veto threat over changing Confederate-named bases Esper orders ‘After Action Review’ of National Guard’s role in protests MORE, according to donors who attended her events. 

“I’m convinced she’s the next president of the United States,” one longtime Democratic fundraiser told The Hill after attending a sold-out gathering at director Spike Lee’s home on Martha’s Vineyard, the Massachusetts island where dozens of Democratic power brokers spend the summer. The fundraiser was one of three events held for the senator over the weekend.  

Other donors echoed the sentiment, praising Harris’s exuberance and ability to excite people in the room.

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The former California attorney general has long been seen as a candidate with crossover appeal who can win over moderates and liberals alike and who has the ability to catch fire in the race. 

But her campaign has lost steam nearly two months after an electric performance at the first Democratic debates, strategists and political observers say. 

Five polls taken after the second round of Democratic debates put her in the single digits, consistently behind former Vice President Joe BidenJoe BidenHillicon Valley: Biden calls on Facebook to change political speech rules | Dems demand hearings after Georgia election chaos | Microsoft stops selling facial recognition tech to police Trump finalizing executive order calling on police to use ‘force with compassion’ The Hill’s Campaign Report: Biden campaign goes on offensive against Facebook MORE and Sens. Elizabeth WarrenElizabeth WarrenWarren, Democrats urge Trump to back down from veto threat over changing Confederate-named bases OVERNIGHT DEFENSE: Joint Chiefs chairman says he regrets participating in Trump photo-op | GOP senators back Joint Chiefs chairman who voiced regret over Trump photo-op | Senate panel approves 0B defense policy bill Trump on collision course with Congress over bases with Confederate names MORE (Mass.) and Bernie SandersBernie SandersThe Hill’s 12:30 Report: Milley apologizes for church photo-op Harris grapples with defund the police movement amid veep talk Biden courts younger voters — who have been a weakness MORE (I-Vt.).  

As a result, Harris’s trip to an enclave of the Democratic base at the height of the summer vacation season comes with her campaign at something of a crossroads. 

The daughter of an Indian mother and Jamaican father, Harris has an inspiring background and life story that seems to speak to the times. 

She has strengths that compare favorably to all of her main rivals, from her age, her ethnic background and even her state: She’s a Californian to the core, growing up in a state that is now a bastion of Democratic power. She’s a relatively new face to the national political stage, but she also has experience as a former attorney general and now senator. 

Yet Harris also has some weakness, some of which strategists say have been exacerbated by her campaign to date. 

She’s positioned herself as both a progressive and a moderate, causing her to be viewed as “inauthentic,” said one Democratic strategist. 

“I still don’t think anyone really understands why she’s running,” the strategist said. “And if you’re running for president and you don’t know why you’re running, no one else will either.” 

Earlier this month, FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver said Harris “seems to be stuck in between Joe Biden, on the one hand, and Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders on her other more left-leaning hand.”

“And that’s starting to show up in the numbers,” Silver said. 

He pointed to a Quinnipiac Poll which showed that “there’s no single group of Democrats—say wealthy or young or black” among whom Harris is polling at higher than 10 percent.” 

The large field, which includes two dozen candidates, has also made it tough for Harris, political observers say.

“It’s so hard in a field of two dozen to capture attention on a relatively regular basis and if you don’t have that attention you tend to drift downward,” said Cal Jillson, a professor of political science at Southern Methodist University. “And really it’s happened to almost everyone.”

Jillson said while Harris had her breakout moment in the first debate, when she challenged Biden’s opposition to federal busing, the electorate’s “second sense of it was more mixed.” 

A Harris campaign spokesman did not respond to a request for comment. 

Another strategist, who is not attached to any of the campaigns, said Harris has suffered because she’s been “very cautious with her approach” drawing comparisons to Hillary ClintonHillary Diane Rodham ClintonWhite House accuses Biden of pushing ‘conspiracy theories’ with Trump election claim Biden courts younger voters — who have been a weakness Trayvon Martin’s mother Sybrina Fulton qualifies to run for county commissioner in Florida MORE’s cautious campaign in 2016. 

Basil Smikle, who served as the executive director of the New York State Democratic Party and is a former aide to Clinton, said Harris has been unable to overcome the initial perception of her candidacy.

“To her detriment, many voters initially viewed Harris as a good VP pick for someone like Biden and she didn’t have the built-in national constituency that Biden, Warren or Sanders possessed,” Smikle said. 

But Smikle said there’s time for Harris to recover. 

“She’s well-established in the top tier of candidates and benefits from any slippage in Biden’s black voters and redistribution of support when others drop out of the race,” he said, adding that as of now, “Harris has the money to stay competitive through the early states and perhaps until super Tuesday when her home state of California gets to vote.”  

Another factor that could work in Harris’s favor: Biden’s recent verbal gaffes. 

“His lead is a bit tenuous,” Jillson said.  “And once you get below him there are negatives with Sanders and Warren with some people who think they’re too far left. 

“What that means for Kamala Harris is be as solid as you can be to always be there for a second look,” he added. “Some people that look beyond Biden and see Bernie and Elizabeth Warren, will keep looking.”

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Tom Steyer receives first presidential endorsement

September 3, 2020 | News | No Comments

Billionaire philanthropist Tom SteyerTom SteyerBloomberg wages war on COVID-19, but will he abandon his war on coal? Overnight Energy: 600K clean energy jobs lost during pandemic, report finds | Democrats target diseases spread by wildlife | Energy Dept. to buy 1M barrels of oil Ocasio-Cortez, Schiff team up to boost youth voter turnout MORE announced his first presidential endorsement from an ex-lawmaker on Tuesday.

Former South Carolina state Rep. Harold Mitchell (D) endorsed Steyer, saying in a statement that he “is the best candidate that can address climate and environmental justice issues.”

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“He is the only authentic candidate left who has a track record of solutions that is ready for the climate and environmental justice battle,” Mitchell added. “That is why I am on his team one hundred percent.”

Mitchell served in the South Carolina House for 13 years before retiring in 2017 because of health issues. He previously founded a nonprofit called the ReGenesis Project, which focuses on fighting environmental racism.

Tuesday’s announcement marks Steyer’s first endorsement from a current or former lawmaker since launching his White House bid in July, according to his campaign.

South Carolina plays a key role in the Democratic presidential primary as an early voting state.

Steyer over the weekend became the 11th candidate to qualify for the October debate when he garnered at least 2 percent in a fourth Democratic National Committee-approved poll.

He has used his personal wealth to funnel more than $10 million into digital and television advertisements since joining the crowded field, propelling him past several candidates with more political experience.

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In her first appearance since her departure from WWE, the former Renee Young discussed her first week out of the company, her experience having COVID-19 this summer, and how the company’s reaction to her announcing the news didn’t go over well internally or with her personally.

Now going by Renee Paquette, she was a guest on the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast and was asked by host Jimmy Traina about the rumors WWE weren’t happy with her decision to go public. She said she likes to be transparent about things and there’s no shame in having the virus, but wanted to be responsible and ensure those who were around here were aware.

“But yeah, it was not well received,” she said.

She said that after her tweet announcing the news at night, she awoke the next day to several texts:

“They weren’t even even like ‘You shouldn’t have posted it.’ But it was like, ‘We really wish you gave us a heads up that you were going to post it.’ It was bad for PR and whatnot. But again, I wouldn’t have even thought to be like, “Hey guys, I’m gonna tweet that I have COVID, ha, ha. Like, that was just not what I was thinking about when I posted about it.”

Asked if WWE should have shut down early on in the pandemic, Paquette said she felt less concerned at SummerSlam given the testing they are doing now and that proper testing and protocols should have been implemented from the beginning. She also admitted she felt “a little slighted” as she “didn’t really feel like anyone was all that concerned that I got sick. That bothered me for sure.”

Paquette said she knew fairly quickly that she had the virus despite an initial negative test, feeling a gradual increase in symptoms and that her husband (Jon Moxley) didn’t think she had it. To this day, she still feels some aftereffects from time to time despite being COVID free.

She said there wasn’t a definitive moment when she decided to leave WWE but that when Backstage got canceled and she got her virus diagnosis on the same day, it forced her to take stock of her career and that she realized there wasn’t a lot for her to do in WWE that represented career progress. She added she will still be working for Fox in relation to WWE but that they are currently trying to figure that situation out.

When it was time to announce her decision, she talked to Michael Cole as both her boss and friend. No one tried to talk her out of her decision once they knew her mind was made up and that doing a show like Talking Smack again or random backstage interviews felt like taking steps back at this point in her career. 

She said she has not spoken to AEW about working there since leaving and joked about the assumption that everyone that leaves WWE is going there. Her goal is to be “Lady Rogan” and be in more control of her content. She said she has a non-compete for “quite a while” and intimated it’s much longer than 90 days. She said she would open to talking and that it was tough in having to pretend that Moxley didn’t exist as she wasn’t allowed to tweet about him.

The very interesting interview also touched on her cookbook, watching wrestling with Moxley, John Cena, and more.

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Rendell: Biden 'baked in' as Democratic nominee

September 2, 2020 | News | No Comments

Former Democratic National Committee chairman Ed Rendell said in a new interview that he believes former Vice President Joe BidenJoe BidenHillicon Valley: Biden calls on Facebook to change political speech rules | Dems demand hearings after Georgia election chaos | Microsoft stops selling facial recognition tech to police Trump finalizing executive order calling on police to use ‘force with compassion’ The Hill’s Campaign Report: Biden campaign goes on offensive against Facebook MORE has locked in the Democratic Party’s 2020 nomination for president.

In an interview airing Sunday on AM 970’s “The Answer,” Rendell told host John Catsimatidis that Biden was not weakened by recent gaffes on the campaign trail, predicting voters would not hold misstatements against the former VP.

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“I think Joe Biden is baked in. People say, oh well, he makes gaffes. Well, the American people have followed him for 40 years, and they know he makes gaffes. It’s part of his charm,” Rendell said.

“But it’s baked in. No one seems to hold it against him. They believe he’s a smart, decent guy. He’s got a good heart. And he’s effective at government,” the former DNC chair continued.

“I think in the end, Joe Biden will prevail. But you can’t be sure of that. [Sen.] Elizabeth WarrenElizabeth WarrenWarren, Democrats urge Trump to back down from veto threat over changing Confederate-named bases OVERNIGHT DEFENSE: Joint Chiefs chairman says he regrets participating in Trump photo-op | GOP senators back Joint Chiefs chairman who voiced regret over Trump photo-op | Senate panel approves 0B defense policy bill Trump on collision course with Congress over bases with Confederate names MORE is coming on very strong. She’s a good campaigner. [Sen.] Bernie [Sanders] has a resolute following…You just don’t know how this is going to shake out.”

Biden has held a comfortable lead nationally in polls over his fellow Democratic 2020 contenders, but some polls have shown Sanders and Warren closing on the former VP, including an Economist/YouGov poll last week that showed Biden leading the two senators by single digits.

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Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’RourkeBeto O’RourkeBiden will help close out Texas Democrats’ virtual convention: report O’Rourke on Texas reopening: ‘Dangerous, dumb and weak’ Parties gear up for battle over Texas state House MORE advocated for his comprehensive gun reform plan on Sunday in the wake of another mass shooting in West Texas that killed five people. 

“The rhetoric we’ve used the ‘thoughts and prayers’ … have done nothing to stop the epidemic of gun violence,” O’Rourke said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” 

“Yes, this is f—ed up,” O’Rourke added.ADVERTISEMENT

The former Texas congressman’s plan calls for universal background checks, red flag laws, assault rifle bans, as well as a mandatory gun buyback and licensing program.

O’Rourke said it will take the whole country to make a change. 

“The challenge is so grave, the threat is so grave, that we can’t meet it with half measures or only half the country,” he said. 

O’Rourke said Democrats and Republicans, as well as gun owners and non-gun owners, will have to come together to pass comprehensive gun reform. 

The Democrat said he recently went to a gun show and spoke with gun owners. He said some told him they disagree with his proposals, but are also concerned for their safety and their children and want to see change. 

“More than I worry about the politics or the polling, more than I care about what the NRA has to say on this, I care for my kids and this country and kids who live in terror every day,” O’Rourke said. 

“This is not right and we should not accept it,” he added. 

Lawmakers have to be “honest with ourselves” and realize that even if measures are established to limit new sales of assault rifles, millions of them remain on the street,” he said. 

“They will still be instruments of terror and I will not accept that,” O’Rourke said.  “This triangulation, calculation, poll testing every move — that’s what got us here in the first place.”

O’Rourke told CBS’s Margaret Brennan on “Face the Nation” that he had spoken with a woman in a conservative, rural part of the state who told him “I was born with a .22 in my hands but I also have more than 20 grandchildren and I want to know whether you’re going to represent them or the [National Rifle Association].”

“Though she’s a gun owner, though she’s conservative, she wants us to take common sense practical steps to protect her grandkids,” he added.

O’Rourke added that other gun owners he had spoken with were in agreement on proposals such as universal background checks.

“The courage of their convictions just needs to be reflected in our national leadership … when we do that we will save the lives of people,” he said.

–Zack Budryk contributed to this report, which was updated at 11:07 a.m.

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