53percenter's Blog

On Wednesday, President Trump signed the “right-to-try” bill, which now permits terminally ill patients to gain access to experimental medical treatments not yet approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The bill was staunchly supported by Trump and Vice President Pence, along with congressional Republicans. In March 2015, Pence, then governor of Indiana, signed a similar bill into law.

Indiana’s law permitted physicians in the state to prescribe a drug that had passed the first phase of the FDA’s three-phase clinical trial process. The three stages work like this: Phase 1 trials are implemented on between 20 to 80 healthy patients to determine their safety and what is a safe dose. Phase 2 trials involve between 100 and 300 people who could gain from the drug therapy; phase 3 trials involve the testing of hundreds and sometimes thousands of patients who would benefit.

As he signed the bill, accompanied by terminally ill patients and their families, Trump stated, “Thousands of terminally ill Americans will finally have hope, and the fighting chance, and I think it’s going to better than a chance, that they will be cured, they will be helped, and be able to be with their families for a long time, or maybe just for a longer time.”

Democrats and public health groups have opposed the bill, arguing that patients would be endangered.

Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said, “FDA oversight of access to experimental treatments exists for a reason — it protects patients from potential snake oil salesmen or from experimental treatments that might do more harm than good.”

But Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.) and health subcommittee chairman Michael Burgess (R-Texas) countered, “While a long time coming, today is a monumental win for patients desperately seeking the ‘right to try’ investigational treatments and therapies. With ‘right to try’ being the law of the land, we are confident that the Trump Administration, and FDA Commissioner [Scott] Gottlieb, will take both congressional intent and the safety of patients into consideration when implementing this important law.”

According to a new memoir from former Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications and consummate liar Ben Rhodes, after President Trump’s election in 2016, Barack Obama once again hoisted his narcissistic self to the heavens, thinking how visionary he was as he mused, “Sometimes I wonder whether I was 10 or 20 years too early.”

According to Rhodes, Obama’s comments were prompted by his aides telling him he would have defeated Trump if he had run for a third term and that the next generation would have preferred him to Trump.

As The New York Times reports, after Mr. Trump’s election, according to Rhodes, Obama vacillated from anger (calling Trump a “cartoon figure”) to taking the “long view.” Rhodes quoted Obama thinking of how Trump would undo what he had done, then alluding to “The Godfather,” saying, “I feel like Michael Corleone. I almost got out.”

Rhodes writes that aides wanted Obama to respond to criticism that he should be more vocal about Russian intruding on the U.S. election, but Obama demurred, allegedly saying, . “I talk about it every time I’m asked. What else are we going to do? We’ve warned folks.”

Rhodes adds that Obama thought Trump would claim the election was rigged if Obama spoke out, saying, “If I speak out more, he’ll just say it’s rigged.”

Rhodes writes that Obama said despairingly of Trump’s victory, “Maybe this is what people want. I’ve got the economy set up well for him. No facts. No consequences. They can just have a cartoon.”

Rhodes writes that when Obama and Trump met, Trump focused on the size of the crowds that he and Obama could draw that Hillary Clinton could not. Rhodes claims when Obama spoke with aides afterward, he said, “I’m trying to place him in American history,” prompting Rhodes to respond that Trump peddled bull, adding, “That character has always been part of the American story. You can see it right back to some of the characters in Huckleberry Finn.”

Obama allegedly answered, “Maybe that’s the best we can hope for.”

On Wednesday, movie producer Harvey Weinstein, 66, was indicted on charges of rape and a criminal sexual act, according to Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance.

Vance released this statement:

A Grand Jury has voted to indict Harvey Weinstein on charges of Rape in the First and Third Degrees, and Criminal Sexual Act in the First Degree. This indictment brings the defendant another step closer to accountability for the crimes of violence with which he is now charged. Our office will try this case not in the press, but in the courtroom where it belongs. The defendant’s recent assault on the integrity of the survivors and the legal process is predictable. We are confident that when the jury hears the evidence, it will reject these attacks out of hand. I thank the heroic survivors for their strength throughout this process. I also thank Commissioner James O’Neill and members of the New York City Police Department for their dedication to this case. This investigation remains active and ongoing. We continue to urge additional survivors and others with relevant information to call us at 212-335-9373.

Weinstein, the co-founder of the Miramax film studio and the Weinstein Company, had been arrested last Friday and was freed on $1 million cash bail ordered by a judge; roughly 70 women have accused Weinstein of one form or another of sexual misconduct.

Ben Brafman, head of Weinstein’s legal team, said Weinstein would plead not guilty; Weinstein could serve between five and 25 years in prison. Brafman stated, “Mr. Weinstein intends to enter a plea of not guilty and vigorously defend against these unsupported allegations that he strongly denies. We will soon formally move to dismiss the indictment and if this case actually proceeds to trial, we expect Mr. Weinstein to be acquitted.”

The indictment stems from accusations from two women; police said the alleged crimes occurred in 2004 and 2013.