Category: 2020 Election

Jim Gaffigan, Popular Comedian, Breaks Silence To Torch Trump On Twitter

Jim Gaffigan is an award-winning, well-regarded, popular comedian. Part of Gaffigan’s appeal is his family-friendly comedy, that he writes and works on with his wife and frequently centers around food and Gaffigan’s obsessions with food. Gaffigan has a large family, which includes five children, leading to my favorite Gaffigan joke: “If you want to know what it’s like to have a fourth, just imagine you’re drowning … and then someone hands you a baby.” Gaffigan is also devoutly Catholic, and was asked by the Roman Catholic Church to do warmup for the World Meeting of Families back in 2015, when he opened for the Pope—yes, that Pope.

If you’ve ever listened to Gaffigan interviewed or watched his act, he tends to stay away from talking politics. He’s not averse to saying that he is in general liberal, but he also doesn’t do much joking when it comes to the current political climate. However, on Thursday night, Gaffigan seems to have become fed up with the titanic levels of hypocrisy on display and the depressing level of pig-headedness shown by people pretending that what Trump is saying and doing is anything besides grotesque. So Gaffigan went online, and went off.

It began innocuously enough.

Continue reading.

Historian explains the huge mistake ‘increasingly desperate’ evangelicals make in backing Trump

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The latest Pew Research poll shows that 72% of white evangelical Protestants approved of Donald Trump’s work as president in June, and 59% strongly approved. That number was slightly lower than his approval earlier in the year. But about 82% of white evangelicals said they would vote for Trump, even higher than the proportion who voted for him in 2016. 35% say that Trump has been a “great President” and 34% say he has been “good”. No other religious subgrouprates Trump positively.

His pronounced support for the evangelical political agenda has been obvious since he became a candidate. In January 2016, he told Iowa evangelicals at Dordt University, a Christian college in Sioux Center, in his typically egotistical phrasing, “We don’t exert the power that we should have. Christianity will have power. If I’m there, you’re going to have plenty of power, you don’t need anybody else.”

Why didn’t an irreligious and publicly immoral candidate present moral difficulties to a religious group which has traditionally emphasized the close connection of faith and character? Many skilled researchers and analysts have tried to understand how people who profess such devotion to Jesus and the Bible could see Trump as their prophet. I have no better explanation than anyone else. Continue reading.

Trump Deprives Congress Of Intelligence On Russian Election Interference

The squatter in the Oval Office, and all of the people intent on keeping him there, are at this point not even bothering to conceal that they will do literally anything to make that happen. That includes going back to the well of foreign interference — and hog-tying Congress to keep the American public in the dark about it. 

This chapter of the story starts in February, a lifetime ago when coronavirus was lurking in our side vision. Trump purged everyone in intelligence services working to hold Russia at bay by keeping Congress and the public informed on election interference. Trump’s Office of the Director of National Intelligence has closed that circle now, CNN has learned, by announcing that it will not be holding in-person briefings with the House and Senate intelligence committees, but will instead provide information in writing.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff responded following the ODNI’s announcement: “This is a shocking abdication of its lawful responsibility to keep the Congress currently informed, and a betrayal of the public’s right to know how foreign powers are trying to subvert our democracy. This intelligence belongs to the American people, not the agencies which are its custodian. And the American people have both the right and the need to know that another nation, Russia, is trying to help decide who their president should be.” In-person briefing are critical to lawmakers’ ability to ask questions, investigate, challenge assumptions, and be fully apprised of what’s happening. Continue reading.

Senior intelligence officials will no longer brief Congress in person on foreign threats to the 2020 election

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Senior intelligence officials will no longer brief Congress in person on foreign interference in the 2020 election. Instead, they will inform lawmakers of threats in writing, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said Saturday.

The decision, made with Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe’s assent, arose out of concerns that briefings to lawmakers have resulted in leaks of classified information, an ODNI official said.

But the change threatens to undermine the community’s pledge to be transparent with Congress and the public at a time when three foreign adversaries, including Russia, are seeking to influence the American political process. Continue reading.

How the G.O.P. Stretched Hard to Defend Trump on Race and Gender

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Never before has a convention by a major party felt compelled to call such a diverse array of speakers to defend the character of a sitting president.

The Republican convention this week marked an extraordinary effort to recast President Trump’s image on issues of race and gender, with the party stretching to find African-Americans who would testify that Mr. Trump is not racist, and lining up women to describe him as sensitive and empathetic — qualities he rarely displays in public.

This vouching for Mr. Trump, as he was nominated for a second term, was without precedent. Never before has a convention by either major party felt compelled to call such a diverse array of speakers to defend the character of a sitting president.

And it was done with a crucial political goal in mind: making a divisive leader appear more palatable to white moderate voters, who have turned against the Trump-led G.O.P. in recent elections, while also trying to peel away some nonwhite voters from Joseph R. Biden Jr., the Democratic nominee. Continue reading.

‘The whole thing was a sham:’ RNC features Trump at naturalization ceremony

The Republican National Convention featured a naturalization ceremony that President Trump presided over. A ceremony that turned heads as hundreds of thousands of immigrants await their own ceremonies and are falling victim to backlogs. It was considered a stunt by some activists as the Trump administration continues to separate migrant families, turn away asylum seekers at the border and is still trying to dismantle DACA. MSNBC’s Alicia Menendez is joined by Alida Garcia of FWD.US and Lindsay Toczylowski, the Executive Director of the Immigrant Defenders Law Center. View the video here.

Trump’s Sister Bashes Callous Ivanka Over Separated Migrant Children In New Recordings

Maryanne Trump Barry also calls Eric Trump “the moron” in the latest audios released by the president’s niece Mary Trump.

New audio recordings reveal Donald Trump’s sister criticizing Ivanka Trump after the president ordered that migrant children be separated from their families at the border.

Maryanne Trump Barry also calls the president’s second son, Eric, “the moron” in the recording released to MSNBC by Mary L. Trump, the niece of Barry and President Trump.

Barry said she couldn’t fault comedian Samantha Bee for her stinging attack on the first daughter as “oblivious” — and worse — after Ivanka, who is also a White House adviser, posted a photo on Instagram in May 2018 of her hugging one of her kids while migrant families were suffering in detention facilities. Continue reading.

Kanye West campaign in Virginia is accused of deceptive signature gathering

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Kanye West’s campaign is facing allegations that voters were deceived by signature gatherers circulating paperwork to qualify the rapper-entrepreneur for the Virginia ballot, the latest setback for a stumbling presidential bid that also is facing problems in other states.

Two signed affidavits were submitted Friday to the State Board of Elections from registered voters who said they were duped into signing up to serve as electors for West in Virginia. In a separate account, an Alexandria woman said Saturday that a man tried to obtain her signature on one of West’s petitions under false pretenses.

West has qualified to appear on Virginia’s ballot this fall as an independent presidential candidate, a state elections official said — meeting the requirement for 5,000 petition signatures, at least 200 of them from each congressional district. Continue reading.

Biden to resume in-person campaigning as race with Trump kicks into gear

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Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden will resume in-person campaigning across the country in coming days amid the still-raging coronavirus pandemic, an answer to allies imploring him to meet voters where they are and a sign that his race with President Trump is tightening as the general election contest begins in earnest.

Coming out of back-to-back national conventions that both parties considered successful, Trump aides said the president is determined to exploit the racial unrest in Kenosha, Wis., and other places where Black Lives Matter protesters have been active to amplify his “law and order” message.

Trump aims to cast Biden and running mate Kamala D. Harris as agents of far-left radicals in a bid to scare suburban White women and other key voters back into the Republican fold. The president plans to press his case Tuesday by visiting Kenosha to meet with law enforcement and survey damage there. Continue reading.