Category: 2020 Election

Furor grows over Trump’s reported remarks on war dead

The Hill logo

Democratic nominee Joe Biden offered an emotional rebuke of President Trump on Friday following an anonymously-sourced report in The Atlantic accusing the president of disparaging dead military veterans as “losers” and “suckers.”

“If what is written in The Atlantic is true, it’s disgusting,” Biden said. “It affirms what most of us believe to be true, that Donald Trump is not fit to be the commander in chief.”

The Atlantic story dominated political discussions on Friday as Republicans expressed skepticism of the anonymous sources behind the story and Democrats expressed outrage over remarks that mirror the president’s past disparagement of military veterans, including the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). Continue reading.

Biden slams Trump: He has ‘forfeited any moral leadership in this country’

In a speech in Pittsburgh, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said that Donald Trump ‘can’t stop the violence — because for years he’s fomented it.’

Joe Biden lambasted Donald Trump in a speech on Monday, blaming him for fomenting violence and fueling tensions in American cities.

Biden’s comments, made in Pittsburgh, came after Trump refused tocondemn the man charged with murdering two anti-racism protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin, but cheered on right-wing counter-protesters who have been traveling to Portland, Oregon, to violently clash with anti-racism demonstrators.

At last week’s Republican National Convention, Trump and his supporters attempted to blame Biden and other Democrats for the rise in urban violence on Trump’s watch. They repeatedly cited recent problems to argue that people “won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America.” Continue reading.

Pandemic Kills More Police Officers Than All Other Causes Combined

On Aug. 31, Democratic nominee for president Joe Biden made a speech in Pittsburgh where he said: “More cops have died from COVID this year than have been killed on patrol.” Very quickly conservatives everywhere wondered whether or not that could be true. Weren’t police officers mostly being gunned down by unarmed Black men or as a result of antifa-related soup can bludgeonings? But it turns out that sadly, the complete failure of our current administration to properly protect the health of Americans from the pandemic has predictably extended towards the state’s law enforcement apparatus.

According to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF) and the Officer Down Memorial Page, at least 101 law enforcement deaths through September have been connected to COVID-19. Gunfire makes up around 35 of the deaths while 33 deaths were connected to vehicular-related accidents. But the false narrative that the Trump administration protects law enforcement first and that police are under fire from the civilian population, not the current administration’s greed and inaction, is further undermined by a dip into those numbers.

For one, the COVID-19 deaths recorded, according to NLEOMF, are based on only 20 states’ reporting. That means there are potentially considerably more coronavirus-related law enforcement deaths across the country. They also show a decrease of 14 percent in law enforcement deaths from 2019 to 2020—outside of COVID-19. Chief amongst those decreases is a reduction of law enforcement firearm-related deaths. In fact, since the 1970s, law enforcement fatalities have steadily decreased, with spikes correlating pretty directly with times of economic hardship. Continue reading.

Barr claims a man collected 1,700 ballots and filled them out as he pleased. Prosecutors say that’s not what happened.

Washington Post logo

In his latest warning about the dangers of mass mail-in voting, Attorney General William P. Barr pointed to a case in Texas that he said highlighted the risk of fraud.

“Elections that have been held with mail have found substantial fraud and coercion,” Barr told CNN on Wednesday. “For example, we indicted someone in Texas, 1,700 ballots collected, he — from people who could vote, he made them out and voted for the person he wanted to. Okay?”

Federal prosecutors brought no such indictment. And while a Justice Department spokeswoman said Barr was referring to a local prosecution involving suspected mail-in voting fraud in a city council election, the assistant district attorney on that case said Barr’s description doesn’t match the facts. Continue reading.

Unemployment Remains High As Republicans Block Relief Bill

Thursday’s unemployment data showed that 1.6 million Americans filed new unemployment or Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claims last week, even as Senate Republicans continue to block a House-passed bill that would provide trillions in emergency relief funds.

While the number of people filing traditional unemployment claims — about 881,000 — was down a bit from the previous week, layoffs remained high. When combined with Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claims, the number of total new unemployment claims was higher than the previous week.

Tens of millions of Americans remain out of work. Continue reading.

‘The last full measure of his disgrace’: Veterans scorn Trump over report that he calls fallen soldiers ‘losers’

Washington Post logo

In 2016, Army veteran David Weissman was an “unapologetic, red-hat wearing” Donald Trump supporter. The Palm Bay, Fla., resident would regularly join social media mobs attacking liberals, he later wrote, seeking to defend a candidate who he said rightfully prioritized the armed forces.

Four years later, Weissman — who served two tours in Afghanistan — has now sparked a Twitter campaign of former service members against President Trump, over reports that he derided fallen U.S. soldiers as “losers” and “suckers.”

“I recommend all veterans to use their Military pics as a profile pic,” Weissman wrote on Twitter on Thursday evening, “to let Trump know how many people he has offended.” Continue reading.

America’s real hoax: Record highs on Wall Street as millions of jobless people can’t pay rent

Washington Post logo

The shocking disconnect between a thriving U.S. investor economy and its millions of unemployed as a recipe for even worse social unrest.

Don’t blame Lisa Scott, a 43-year-old certified nursing assistant who lives in the Oxford Circle section of Philadelphia, for not celebrating this week as the Standard & Poor’s 500 index soared to yet another record high, as Wall Street’s unbelievable — in every sense of the word — summer stretches into a new month.

On Wednesday afternoon, as the Dow was rising yet another 454 points, Scott — who hasn’t worked since the coronavirus turned her world upside down in March — was far too busy worrying why Pennsylvania still hasn’t processed her unemployment claim, whether her landlord will keep allowing her to pay whatever rent she can and how she’d be able to seek new work with her 12-year-old at home for virtual schooling. Continue reading.

Standard metrics won’t suffice. Here’s how to measure Trump’s failures so they register with right-wingers.

Washington Post logo

After a recent column about President Trump’s lackluster economic record, my inbox flooded with furious, incredulous emails from Trump fans. They all knew, in their gut, that their charismatic leader’s achievements — on the economy, public health or any other arena — must be the greatest ever.

Because he’d said so, after all.

Sure, 29 million Americans are claiming unemployment; at least 183,000 have died from the coronavirus; and some 20 percent of small businesses that existed pre-pandemic are closed. But no matter the statistics, no matter the citations from government agencies or private analysts, Trump followers refuse to accept that this president’s legacy might be in any way lacking. Especially compared with his predecessor! Continue reading.

Will Trump Ride the Markets to Victory?

The Dow has performed well during Donald Trump’s tenure, but whether it outweighs voter perceptions of the damage from COVID-19 is unclear.

THROUGHOUT HIS presidency, Donald Trump has consistently relied on one measure to gauge his performance: the health of the economy and, more narrowly, the stock market.

And it has worked. Until COVID-19 struck earlier this year, the economy performed well with businesses sanctioning reduced regulations, employment near historic levels and low interest rates encouraging people to buy houses and cars. The economy fell into a deep downturn following the nationwide shutdowns that began in March in response to the pandemic but is recovering, and the stock market continues to soar.

Just how much Trump idolizes the market can be seen in a couple of tweets in February. On the 19th, he tweeted “Highest Stock Market in History, By Far” before doubling down five days later as the first inklings of the enormity of the global threat from COVID-19 became apparent. On Feb. 24, he tweeted that “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries. CDC & World Health have been working hard and very smart. Stock Market starting to look very good to me!” It proved to be a great market signal. But only if you were taking the other side of the trade, as stocks went on a volatile ride that ultimately took them into bear territory. Continue reading.

After Trump’s remarks, election officials warn that trying to vote twice is a crime and could undermine the system

Washington Post logo

A chorus of election officials, legal analysts and social media companies on Thursday rushed to condemn and counter President Trump’s suggestion this week that his supporters attempt to vote more than once, warning that doing so could constitute a crime and expressing fear that he was undermining the election system.

The pushback included pointed statements from an array of federal and local officials as well as direction action from Facebook and Twitter to attempt to limit the spread of the president’s misinformation.

Trump had urged supporters during an official White House event in North Carolina on Wednesday to send in a ballot through the mail and then attempt to cast another one at polling sites on Election Day in an effort to test the system. He has stated repeatedly that universal mail-in voting would lead to rampant fraud, despite evidence to the contrary. Continue reading.