Category: 2020 Election

Five takeaways on Bannon’s indictment

TheHill.com

Stephen Bannon, President Trump’s former top White House adviser and 2016 campaign chief, was arrested and charged on Thursday for his role in an alleged fundraising fraud.

Bannon is accused of helping to funnel money from a charity that was soliciting donations for a privately-built border wall. According to court filings, he allegedly used hundreds of thousands of dollars for personal expenses and to secretly pay the co-founder of the organization We Built The Wall.

The charges mark a stunning reversal of fortune for the man who once orchestrated Trump’s improbable election, making him the latest in a series of the president’s allies who have faced criminal charges over the past three years.

Here are five takeaways from today’s indictment:  Continue reading.

Ex-Republican says the ‘party has devolved into a cesspool of bigotry and mind-numbing conspiracies’

AlterNet logo

This month, President Donald Trump has not only congratulated some far-right extremists for their victories in GOP congressional primaries — QAnon supporter Marjorie Taylor Greene in Georgia and self-described “proud Islamophobe” Laura Loomer in Florida — but also, refused to criticize QAnon when NBC News reporter Shannon Pettypiece asked him about the conspiracy cult during a press conference. Conservative opinion writer Jennifer Rubin discusses these events in her Washington Post column, citing them as proof that extremism and “nuttiness” are welcome in the modern-day Republican Party.

“It is a favorite game in politics to take the most extreme member of the other party and then paint the entire party as extreme,” Rubin explains. “However, when many candidates and officials, plus the head of the party, evidence nuttiness, it is fair to label the party as such.”

There is a slang term that has been used to describe the practice of using the occasional extremist to tar and feather an entire group: “nutpicking.” Rubin doesn’t actually use the word “nutpicking” in her column, but she addresses the concept and writes, in essence, that it would be unfair to describe the GOP as a party of extremists simply because of what Greene or Loomer has to say. The problem, according to Rubin, is that the type of “nuttiness” exemplified by Greene and Loomer isn’t the rare exception within the GOP — it is widespread. Continue reading.

Redwood Falls Gazette Editor Responds to Jason Lewis Hawking Coronavirus Conspiracy Theory: “I Didn’t Think it was Funny”

Republican Candidate for U.S. Senate Says COVID-19 “Will All be Over on Nov. 4

SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA – Republican U.S. Senate candidate Jason Lewis, who repeatedly pushes conspiracy theories, is at it again, this time in Redwood Falls where he suggested that the coronavirus pandemic is a hoax that will be gone after Election Day.

It’s worth noting that former Trump campaign manager and White House chief strategist Steve Bannon–who was charged yesterday with defrauding hundreds of thousands of donors–once scolded Lewis for hawking another conspiracy theory. After Lewis suggested that the COVID-19 death toll was being artificially inflated in an interview with Bannon, Bannon asked Lewis “Are you gonna be one of these guys that argues the death count? Yes or No?” After a tense back and forth, Bannon bluntly told Lewis, “I guarantee the way you’re gonna lose in Minnesota in the fall is argue the death count. Just a word to the wise.”

And now, in Redwood Falls, the local paper is calling Lewis out for spreading more misinformation. Editor Deb Moldaschel described her encounter with Lewis in this editorial, writing:

Continue reading “Redwood Falls Gazette Editor Responds to Jason Lewis Hawking Coronavirus Conspiracy Theory: “I Didn’t Think it was Funny””

Over 70 former GOP national security officials endorse Biden

The Hill logo

More than 70 former national security officials who served under Republican administrations have endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, joining a wave of GOP voices throwing their support behind the former vice president. 

The officials have served under President Trump and former Republican Presidents George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan. 

The group includes former Department of Homeland Security chief of staff Miles Taylor, who has gained attention in recent days for going public with his accounts of his interactions with Trump, as well as former CIA Director Michael Hayden and former Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte. Continue reading.

Minnesota Delegates React to the Nomination of Joe Biden to be the Next President of the United States

SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA –  Below are reactions from Minnesota delegates to the Democratic National Convention to the nomination of Joe Biden to be the next President of the United States of America:

“Joe Biden will bring back decency, respect, and hope to our country.  We will build back better.”

– Wang-Yu Vu from Lino Lakes, Minnesota

“As a 19 year old Biden Delegate, I am incredibly happy to see him as the Democratic Party nominee for President of the United States! I am passionate about electing Vice President Joe Biden because he will restore decency, honesty, and integrity to the White House. Additionally, Joe Biden is empathic and he will work his hardest to make the lives of all Americans better.”

– Elizabeth Rose Hansel from Roseville, Minnesota

Continue reading “Minnesota Delegates React to the Nomination of Joe Biden to be the Next President of the United States”