This video has been circulating around the internet over the weekend. If you haven’t seen it, I strong recommend you watch it now:
When Republican Senator Jeff Flake held a town hall meeting in his Arizona district Thursday night, he was hounded about his stance on Planned Parenthood funding. In fact, a
16-year-old girl schooled Flake on women's health care, and it was just beautiful.
Flake (like all but two Republican senators) voted in favor of a law President Trump signed Thursday allowing
states to block health clinicsthat perform abortions from receiving federal Title X family-planning money. The law reverses a previous rule put in place by the Obama administration and could make it even
more difficult for low-income people in conservative states to access birth control, well-woman exams, cancer screenings, and other
services.
Deja Foxx was well aware of Flake's support for keeping money from specific health clinics, and she spoke up accordingly at his town hall. She began by laying out a few key differences between Flake and herself.
"I just want to state some facts," she said to the senator. "I'm a young woman; you're a middle-aged man. I'm a person of color, and you're white. I come from a background of poverty, and I didn't always have parents to guide me through life; you come from privilege."
She then asked, "I'm wondering, as a Planned Parenthood patient and someone who relies on Title X, who you are clearly not, why is it your right to take away my right...?" Cheers from the crowd were too loud to hear the rest of her question, but you get the gist.
Another thing you need to watch is how the crowd reacts to Flake’s defense of Trump’s visits to Mar-A-Lago:
Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) was asked about Trump’s travel during a town hall on Thursday night.
“As a fiscal conservative, what is your position on all the weekend trips that the president makes down to Mar-a-Lago?” an attendee asked.
The senator responded with a false equivalency.
“With regard to presidents and what they do on the weekend, I’m not going to criticize presidents,” Flake said, as boos erupted. “I refrained from criticizing President Obama, and I’ll refrain from criticizing President Trump.”
Flake reiterated the false equivalency when Trump’s Mar-a-Lago trips were brought up at another point, saying, “As I mentioned, I wasn’t critical of the last president or the president before that for what they do on their time off.”
But not only was Obama’s travel far less frequent and costly than Trump’s, he also didn’t enrich himself in the process. Trump’s frequent travels to Mar-a-Lago have coincided with membership dues doubling to $200,000. His trips to his golf courses have coincided with his sons marketing them. And because Trump still owns his business, he’s able to profit off his office in an unprecedented way.
Happy Easter!