Category: 2020 Election

Trump and his aides struggle for a message as political blows keep coming

The president — who is down in the polls and has failed to deliver on a big stimulus deal — is resorting to his incendiary attacks.

President Donald Trump is lagging badly in the polls. His promises of keeping America great have been shredded by the pandemic. And he’s now confronting a female political rival who’s uniquely hard to attack. 

Trump is in a slump, and his messaging shows it.

While the president has never been known for discipline when it comes to his communications strategy, he unleashed on Thursday especially sharp and sexist criticisms of several female political rivals — including newly minted Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is proving unrelenting in stimulus negotiations. Continue reading.

Trump Eliminates Major Methane Rule, Even as Leaks Are Worsening

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The weakening of Obama-era efforts to fight climate change amounts to a gift to many oil companies. Researchers warn that the decision ignores science.

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration formally weakened a major climate-change regulation on Thursday — effectively freeing oil and gas companies from the need to detect and repair methane leaks — even as new research shows that far more of the potent greenhouse gas is seeping into the atmosphere than previously known.

The rollback of the last major Obama-era climate rule is a gift tomany beleaguered oil and gas companies, which have seen profits collapse from the Covid-19 pandemic. But it comes as scientists say that the need to rein in methane leaks at fossil fuel wells nationwide has become far more urgent, and new studies indicate that the scale of methane pollution could be driving the planet toward a climate crisis faster than expected.

Andrew Wheeler, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, announced at an event in Pittsburgh on Thursday that he had completed the legal process of lifting the methane regulation. He was speaking in a city at the heart of the nation’s natural-gas boom, and in a state that will be critical to winning this fall’s presidential election. Continue reading.

Trump Encourages Racist Conspiracy Theory About Kamala Harris

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President Trump said he heard that Ms. Harris, the presumptive Democratic vice-presidential nominee born in California, was not eligible for the ticket, repeating a theory that is rampant among his followers. Constitutional scholars quickly called his words false and irresponsible.

WASHINGTON — President Trump on Thursday encouraged a racist conspiracy theory that is rampant among some of his followers: that Senator Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic vice-presidential nominee born in California, was not eligible for the vice presidency or presidency because her parents were immigrants.

That assertion is false. Ms. Harris is eligible to serve.

Mr. Trump, speaking to reporters on Thursday, nevertheless pushed forward with the attack, reminiscent of the lie he perpetrated for years that President Barack Obama was born in Kenya. Continue reading.

‘I know where the skeletons are buried’: Michael Cohen releases blistering excerpt from his tell-all book about Trump

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Michael Cohen thinks he may know Donald Trump, who he worked with for more than ten years, even better than the president’s own family does. In the forward released Thursday to his forthcoming tell-all book, “Disloyal,”  Cohen explained that he saw a side of the president that his close relatives never saw.

“Apart from his wife and children, I knew Trump better than anyone else did,” he wrote. “In some ways, I knew him better than even his family did because I bore witness to the real man, in strip clubs, shady business meetings, and in the unguarded moments when he revealed who he really was: a cheat, a liar, a fraud, a bully, a racist, a predator, a con man.”

He went on:

There are reasons why there has never been an intimate portrait of Donald Trump, the man. In part, it’s because he has a million acquaintances, pals and hangers on, but no real friends. He has no one he trusts to keep his secrets. For ten years, he certainly had me, and I was always there for him, and look what happened to me. I urge you to really consider that fact: Trump has no true friends. He has lived his entire life avoiding and evading taking responsibility for his actions. He crushed or cheated all who stood in his way, but I know where the skeletons are buried because I was the one who buried them.

Continue reading.

Trump plans Mankato visit next week during 4-state campaign tour

President Donald Trump plans to stop in Mankato on Monday as part of his re-election campaign, USA Today reported.

The report says Trump will hit the road next week, while Democrats rally around Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris during the Democratic National Convention. Trump plans to visit four states that could go a long way toward deciding the fall race between him and Biden: Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Arizona, the president said during a “tele-rally” with Wisconsin supporters on Wednesday.

Trump carried Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Arizona as part of his Electoral College victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016, but some current polls show him trailing Biden in those states this year. Trump narrowly lost Minnesota four years ago, but aides feel he can turn that state in his favor this time around. Continue reading.

Trump opposes election aid for states and Postal Service bailout, threatening Nov. 3 vote

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President Trump on Thursday said he opposes both election aid for states and an emergency bailout for the U.S. Postal Service because he wants to restrict how many Americans can vote by mail, putting at risk the nation’s ability to administer the Nov. 3 elections.

Trump has been attacking mail balloting and the integrity of the vote for months, but his latest broadside makes explicit his intent to stand in the way of urgently needed money to help state and local officials administer elections during the coronavirus pandemic. With nearly 180 million Americans eligible to vote by mail, the president’s actions could usher in widespread delays, long lines and voter disenfranchisement this fall, voting rights advocates said.

Trump said his purpose is to prevent Democrats from expanding mail-balloting, which he has repeatedly claimed, without evidence, would invite widespread fraud. The president has also previously admitted that he believes mail voting would allow more Democrats to cast ballots and hurt Republican candidates, including himself. Continue reading.

Trump opposes election aid for states and Postal Service bailout, threatening Nov. 3 vote

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President Trump on Thursday said he opposes both election aid for states and an emergency bailout for the U.S. Postal Service because he wants to restrict how many Americans can vote by mail, putting at risk the nation’s ability to administer the Nov. 3 elections.

Trump has been attacking mail balloting and the integrity of the vote for months, but his latest broadside makes explicit his intent to stand in the way of urgently needed money to help state and local officials administer elections during the coronavirus pandemic. With nearly 180 million Americans eligible to vote by mail, the president’s actions could usher in widespread delays, long lines and voter disenfranchisement this fall, voting rights advocates said.

Trump said his purpose is to prevent Democrats from expanding mail-balloting, which he has repeatedly claimed, without evidence, would invite widespread fraud. The president has also previously admitted that he believes mail voting would allow more Democrats to cast ballots and hurt Republican candidates, including himself. Continue reading.

Supreme Court denies GOP request, allows R.I. pandemic-related relief on mail-in ballots

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The Supreme Court on Thursday rebuffed the Republican Party and allowed a consent decree to go forward so that Rhode Island voters during the coronaviruspandemic could cast mail-in ballots without in-person witness verification.

It was the first time the justices had agreed to a pandemic-related voter relief effort. But they explained in a short, unsigned order that state officials had agreed to relax the rules and that the change already had been implemented during the June primary.

Unlike “similar cases where a state defends its own law, here the state election officials support the challenged decree, and no state official has expressed opposition,” the order said. “Under these circumstances, the applicants lack a cognizable interest in the state’s ability to enforce its duly enacted laws.” Continue reading.

ICYMI – Trump admits he’s blocking postal cash to stop mail-in votes

ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA – Yesterday, President Donald Trump said the quiet part loud when he admitted to sabotaging the United States Postal Service in order to stop more Americans from safely and securely casting their ballots by mail, like Trump himself just signed up to do. 

In Case You Missed It

Associated Press: Trump admits he’s blocking postal cash to stop mail-in votes

By Deb Riechmann and Anthony Izaguirre. 8/13/20

President Donald Trump frankly acknowledged Thursday that he’s starving the U.S. Postal Service of money in order to make it harder to process an expected surge of mail-in ballots, which he worries could cost him the election.

In an interview on Fox Business Network, Trump explicitly noted two funding provisions that Democrats are seeking in a relief package that has stalled on Capitol Hill. Without the additional money, he said, the Postal Service won’t have the resources to handle a flood of ballots from voters who are seeking to avoid polling places during the coronavirus pandemic.

Continue reading “ICYMI – Trump admits he’s blocking postal cash to stop mail-in votes”

Trump, House Republicans embrace candidate who has made racist statements, drawing attention to party’s tolerance of bigotry

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President Trump and Republican leaders’ embrace of a House candidate who has made racist statements and espoused the QAnon conspiracy theory is again highlighting the party’s willingness to tolerate extreme and bigoted positions.

Trump on Wednesday tweeted that Marjorie Taylor Greene, who won her Georgia primary Tuesday evening, was a “future Republican Star,” who was “strong on everything and never gives up — a real WINNER!” The office of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) — who ignored multiple pleas from his members to wade into the primary to stop Greene — has said that he will seat her on congressional committees.

The decision has left many House Republicans privately griping about irresponsible leadership, even as they do little publicly to challenge the party’s position or to state their opposition to Greene’s joining their conference if she is elected in November, as is expected, in a reliably Republican district. Continue reading.