Category: 2020 Election

Rep. Phillips introduces a bill to ban political use of White House grounds

WASHINGTON, DC— Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) has introduced a bill banning the use of White House grounds for political purposes – the Our Lawn Act.  

For nearly a century, the Hatch Act has existed to provide a clear distinction between public servants and electoral candidates. Both parties have observed and respected this law for decades and have condemned apparent Hatch Act violations.

Unfortunately, this administration has shown, through providing the White House and other federal property as a staging area for the Republican National Convention, that we must continue to work to ensure that officials are not misusing public property and the prestige of office for their own political gain.  These actions misappropriated public resources for the private benefit of the Republican Party and put federal employees in a position where their employers were ordering them to violate the law.

Continue reading “Rep. Phillips introduces a bill to ban political use of White House grounds”

DFL Party Statement on Trump’s Plan to Visit Minnesota Next Friday

SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA – Today, DFL Party Chairman Ken Martin released the following statement in response to reports that President Trump will visit Minnesota next Friday:

“Just hours after Joe Biden announced his plans to visit Minnesota next Friday, Trump followed Biden’s lead and decided to do the same. While Biden will talk with voters about his plans to build back better after the pandemic, Donald Trump will undoubtedly spew dangerous lies about the state of our country in hopes to distract Minnesotans from the reality of his failed administration. Minnesotans won’t be fooled. From his attacks on Social Security and Medicare to his trade policies that hurt our farmers — we know that Trump is not on the side of hardworking Minnesotans. And to make matters worse, Donald Trump admitted that he lied to the American people from the very start of the pandemic for his own political gain. As result, over 80,000 Minnesotans have been infected by the virus and thousands are still left without work. Minnesotans deserve better. Starting on September 18th, the very day Trump is in Minnesota, voters will flock to vote early for Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Tina Smith and DFLers up and down the ballot.”

Swept up in the federal response to Portland protests: ‘I didn’t know if I was going to be seen again’

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PORTLAND, Ore. — The protest outside Portland’s federal courthouse had died down by 3:40 a.m. on July 29, when a green laser shined down from a seventh-floor balcony used as a lookout by federal agents.

The laser landed on John Hacker, an activist and citizen-journalist standing in a park about 170 feet away. It skittered across Hacker’s feet, head and torso for more than 45 seconds. Suddenly, an unmarked van pulled in front of him. Doors slid open. Heavily armed men in camouflage tactical gear surrounded Hacker and took him into custody.

Hacker, 36, is among nearly two dozen people arrested but not charged during the Trump administration’s five-week response, from July through early August, to the demonstrations against police brutality in Portland. Before letting Hacker go, federal agents collected a DNA swab, photographed him and confiscated a phone that has not been returned, he said. Continue reading.

As NFL reopens amid altered landscape, Trump resumes attacks on players who demonstrate for racial justice

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President Trump’s attempt to show that the nation is recovering from the economic damage of the coronavirus pandemic will clash head-on Thursday with his denunciations of social justice demonstrations when the National Football League kicks off its season in prime time.

Trump has lobbied heavily for sports leagues to restart despite the threat of the virus, but his demands have been incongruous when it comes to the NFL, an $8.8 billion juggernaut whose television ratings dwarf all competitors’.

Ahead of the season opener between the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs and the Houston Texans, the president and his allies have resumed their long-standing bashing of NFL players for kneeling during the national anthem to call attention to police brutality affecting communities of color. Continue reading.

Joe Biden to make first campaign appearance in Minnesota

Visit follows those of surrogates and family members of both major candidates. 

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden will travel to Minnesota next week in a tour of Midwestern battleground states that could be critical in the 2020 election.

Biden’s campaign released no other details Thursday about the Sept. 18 visit to Minnesota, his first as a Democratic nominee for president.

The trip by the former vice president follows that of his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, who campaigned in Minnesota on Wednesday. Continue reading.

Trump’s overtures struggle to register with religious voters

New signs point to Trump losing a sizable chunk of his Christian voters, upending his path to reelection.

He recently renewed his promise to end federal funding for Planned Parenthood. He drew bipartisan praise for brokering an agreement that’s expected to boost Israel’s influence in the Middle East. And he released an updated list of Supreme Court nominees on Wednesday.

But so far, President Donald Trump’s overtures to religious voters appear to be falling flat.

Months after worries first exploded inside the Trump campaign over his eroding support among white evangelicals and Roman Catholics, some of the president’s top religious allies are now in a panic — concerned that Joe Biden’s attentiveness to Christian voters, whom Democrats largely ignored in 2016, is having an impact where the president can least afford it. Continue reading.

Exclusive: Russian state hackers suspected in targeting Biden campaign firm – sources

WASHINGTON – Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) recently alerted one of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s main election campaign advisory firms that it had been targeted by suspected Russian state-backed hackers, according to three people briefed on the matter.

The hacking attempts targeted staff at Washington-based SKDKnickerbocker, a campaign strategy and communications firm working with Biden and other prominent Democrats, over the past two months, the sources said. 

A person familiar with SKDK’s response to the attempts said the hackers failed to gain access to the firm’s networks. “They are well-defended, so there has been no breach,” the person said. Continue reading.

Trump says he didn’t want to spark panic. But he’s running on fear.

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“I don’t want people to be frightened. I don’t want to create panic.” 

— President Trump, explaining why he misled Americans about the coronavirus, Sept. 9, 2020

Bob Woodward’s first book on Trump was called “Fear.” But now the president is trying to rebut his own words in Woodward’s new book, “Rage,” by suggesting that he was trying to keep the nation calm by not revealing how much he knew about the dangerous nature of the novel coronavirus.

“You just breathe the air and that’s how it’s passed,” Trump said in a Feb. 7 call with Woodward. “And so that’s a very tricky one. That’s a very delicate one. It’s also more deadly than even your strenuous flus.”

Speaking to reporters for weeks afterward, however, Trump repeatedly played down the threat, suggesting that it was not much more dangerous than the seasonal flu. Continue reading.

Trump’s Troop Withdrawal Is a ‘Disingenuous’ Election Year Ploy, Officials Say

President Donald Trump’s Iraq drawdown is for domestic political consumption and likely will not accurately represent the number of troops coming home, two administration officials tell The Daily Beast.

On Wednesday morning, the general in charge of U.S. forces in the Mideast and Central Asia, Gen. Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie, announced that U.S. troop levels in Iraq will drop by October to 3,000 from 5,200. A long-telegraphed decline in Afghanistan force levels is likely to follow before the election. 

But a U.S. official with knowledge of Mideast operations told The Daily Beast that the figures were misleading, at best.  Continue reading.