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Kamala Harris to blame Trump for abortion bans during Arizona visit
Vice President Kamala Harris is traveling to Tucson Friday to cast former President Donald Trump as the architect of the restrictive abortion bans emerging nationwide in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision striking down the federal right to an abortion.
Harris is making her second trip to the battleground state of Arizona this year, days after the state Supreme Court upheld an 1864 law that bans nearly all abortions.
“Donald Trump is the architect of this health care crisis,” Harris is expected to say, according to an excerpt of her prepared remarks. “And that’s not a fact he hides. In fact, he brags about it.” And a second Trump term “would be even worse,” Harris will warn.
“If Donald Trump gets the chance, he will sign a national abortion ban,” she is to say. “How do we know? Look at his record.”
Trump has not endorsed a national ban and earlier this week said the question should be left to the states. “Whatever they decide must be the law of the land,” he said.
Friday’s event is a campaign rally, which allows Harris to openly attack Trump and Republicans more than she has during other battleground state visits where she has appeared as part of her official White House duties.
Since Tuesday’s ruling, Arizona has been at the forefront of national abortion politics, and Republicans and Democrats alike are keenly aware that the issue could be a determining factor in who wins Arizona this fall, and with it, the presidency.
Arizona is likely to have a constitutional amendment on abortion rights on the ballot in November. Every ballot measure on this issue since Roe was struck down has been successful, even in heavily Republican states.
After the Arizona ruling, Trump told reporters the state Supreme Court ruling went too far. “Yeah, they did, and I think it’ll be straightened out.”
Arizona also has a pivotal Senate race this fall to fill the seat that will be left open by independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s retirement. Republican hopeful Kari Lake now says she supports repealing the state’s 1864 abortion ban, though two years ago she supported it. On Thursday, she released a video saying the state high court’s ruling “is out of line with where people of this state are.”
Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego, who is also running for Sinema’s seat, has accused Lake of lying and taking a more moderate stance for the sake of the November elections.
In 2020, President Biden won Arizona by a very narrow margin, receiving just 10,457 more votes than Trump. The Biden team has since placed a heavy emphasis on abortion rights. In March, Harris also visited Phoenix as part of her “fight for Reproductive Freedoms” tour.
On Friday, Harris will be accompanied by Gallego and other state officials and abortion rights advocates.
Caitlin Huey-Burns contributed to this report.
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A Russian court on Monday convicted a theater director and a playwright of terrorism charges and sentenced them to six years each in prison, the latest in an unrelenting crackdown on dissent across the country that has reached new heights since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine.
Zhenya Berkovich, a prominent independent theater director, and playwright Svetlana Petriychuk have already been in jail for over a year awaiting trial.
Authorities claimed their play “Finist, the Brave Falcon” justifies terrorism, which is a criminal offense in Russia punishable by up to seven years in prison. Berkovich and Petriychuk have both repeatedly rejected the accusations against them.
In one hearing, Berkovich told the court that she staged the play in order to prevent terrorism, and Petriychuk echoed her sentiment, saying that she wrote it in order to prevent events like those depicted in the play.
The women’s lawyers pointed out at court hearings before the trial that the play was supported by the Russian Culture Ministry and won the Golden Mask award, Russia’s most prestigious national theater award. In 2019, the play was read to inmates of a women’s prison in Siberia, and Russia’s state penitentiary service praised it on its website, Petriychuk’s lawyer said.
Alexander Zemlianichenko / AP
The case against Berkovich and Petriychuk elicited outrage in Russia. An open letter in support of the two artists, started by the independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper, was signed by more than 16,000 people since their arrest.
The play, the letter argued, “carries an absolutely clear anti-terrorist sentiment.”
Dozens of Russian actors, directors and journalists also signed affidavits urging the court to release the two from custody pending investigation and trial.
Immediately after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin unleashed a sweeping campaign of repression, unparalleled since the Soviet era. It has effectively criminalized any criticism of the war, with the authorities targeting not only prominent opposition figures who eventually received draconian prison terms, but anyone who spoke out against it, publicly or otherwise.
Pressure mounted on critical artists in Russia, too. Actors and directors were fired from state-run theaters, and musicians were blacklisted from performing in the country. Some were slapped with the label “foreign agent,” which carries additional government scrutiny and strong negative connotations. Many have left Russia.
Berkovich, who is raising two adopted daughters, refused to leave Russia and continued working with her independent theater production in Moscow, called Soso’s Daughters. Shortly after the start of the war in Ukraine, she staged an anti-war picket and was jailed for 11 days.
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