“The Issue Is”: Abortion, COVID, and Ukraine
LOS ANGELES - It’s a big week for "The Issue Is"… our 4th Anniversary!
On May 4, 2018, "The Issue Is," hosted by FOX 11 anchor Elex Michaelson, premiered in Los Angeles. The guests on that first show? California’s then-Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom and Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA).
Four years later, "The Issue Is" now airs across the state of California, and has welcomed hundreds of guests, including Governors Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jerry Brown, California Senators Kamala Harris and Alex Padilla, Cabinet Secretaries Pete Buttigieg (DOT), Jennifer Granholm (DOE), and Ben Carson (HUD), Presidential candidates Andrew Yang, Elizabeth Warren, and Tulsi Gabbard, President Donald Trump, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and more.
This week, on the week a leaked SCOTUS draft opinion hinted the High Court may overturn Roe v. Wade, Michaelson is joined by the show’s most frequent guest, Gloria Allred.
Next, Schiff makes a return appearance as well. This, after returning from a secret trip to war-torn Ukraine to meet with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy.
Finally, as COVID cases see an uptick, an interview with CDC director Rochelle Walensky on the state of the pandemic, therapeutics, and future of Title 42.
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THE ISSUE IS: ABORTION RIGHTS IN LIGHT OF THE LEAKED SCOTUS DRAFT OPINION
ALLRED’S CENTRAL TAKE: "It was just shocking. It was really devastating. Horrific. And really not from myself, but for all of those who are going to be impacted in a negative way, and mainly it's going to have a negative impact, Elex, on young women, on poor women, on women in rural areas. Some of them will want to travel to haven states like California and New York and some other states where abortion will remain legal, but they won't have the money to travel, they won't have the bus fare, and so they may be forced into mandatory motherhood…"
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THE ISSUE IS: REP. SCHIFF’S MEETING WITH UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT ZELENSKYY
REP. SCHIFF’S CENTRAL TAKE: "Well, it was really inspiring. I knew a lot about him. I had studied him. Of course, he was a figure that featured prominently in the first impeachment trial. It was the same President Zelensky who President Trump was withholding military aid for to get that political favor. So I knew a lot about him, but it's one thing to know a lot about something, it's another to sit down with them and to see, you know, the kind of calm that he demonstrates in the midst of war, the really a comprehensive knowledge he has of the military strategy and the humanitarian needs. He's inspired not just Ukrainians, but people all around the world, including a great many here in the United States…"
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THE ISSUE IS: THE STATE OF THE PANDEMIC
DIRECTOR WALENSKY’S CENTRAL TAKE: "Well, I would say right now we are in a way better place than we were just a year ago. So we have vaccines with extraordinary efficacy against severe disease and that we have boosters that are available. In fact, we have second boosters that are available. We have tests that are available both as antigen and as PCR. And we have therapeutics that are working really well to, again, prevent severe disease and death…."
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The Issue Is: with Elex Michaelson is California's only statewide political show. For showtimes and more information, go to TheIssueIsShow.com.