Category: 2020 Election

Trump just suddenly changed his tune on mail-in voting — here’s why

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump and his allies have been waging a disinformation campaign about mail-in voting, aggressively trying to delegitimize the practice that has a history in the United States dating back to the Civil War. The plan, as I’ve argued, seems to be to lay the groundwork for challenging mail-in votes or stopping them from being counted if it looks like he’s ahead with in-person ballots on Election Day.

But on Tuesday afternoon, the president suddenly changed his tune on the matter in one key state: Florida. He sent the following tweet:

Continue reading.

Tucker Carlson: It’s ‘probably illegal’ for Biden to only consider women of color for vice president

AlterNet logoFox News host Tucker Carlson, who once dismissed white supremacy as a “hoax” and “not a real problem,” falsely claimed on Monday that it was “probably illegal” for presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden to only consider women of color for the vice presidency.

Carlson — who has long used his show to push white grievance politics and echo white nationalist and white supremacist talking points — singled out three Black women on Biden’s short-list for attack, even though the former vice president has also considered white women candidates. Among the names were three senators: Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.

Biden has since said he would pick a woman of color, but his list is not limited to Black women, with Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., who is of Asian descent, and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, D-N.M., who is Latinx, reportedly under consideration. Continue reading.

Trump, Democrats both hold fears about US Postal Service, mail-in ballots

The Hill logoThe U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is under intense partisan scrutiny from both President Trump and Democratic lawmakers, who are warning the agency is ill-equipped to handle the tens of millions of mailed-in ballots expected to be sent for the November election.

Many states have moved to expand access to mail balloting in an effort to reduce in-person voting amid the coronavirus pandemic, leading to growing concerns that Postal Service delays could draw the vote count out for days or weeks past Election Day.

There are fears that ballots that are late, missing or disqualified for small irregularities will lead to lawsuits and questions about the integrity of the elections. Continue reading.

Tensions flare as GOP’s Biden probe ramps up

The Hill logoTensions are ramping up over a GOP probe into the Obama administration that focuses, in part, on Hunter Biden, the son of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. 

Months into the controversial Senate Republican investigation, frustration appears to be boiling over as both sides step up their attacks in the growing shadow of the November elections.

Democrats, the Biden campaign and their outside group allies are increasingly going public with their concerns over the investigation, which they worry could spread Russian disinformation. They are targeting Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who has been spearheading the effort.  Continue reading.

Trump Maligns ‘Bad States And Bad Cities’ Governed By Democrats

Donald Trump on Monday described states with Democratic governors as “very bad states.”

During a meeting with tech workers at the White House, during which Trump signed an executive order on hiring “American,” Trump claimed that Democrats had run “some very bad states” and “very bad cities,” adding that he didn’t want to reward any of them with relief funding for supposedly “doing a bad job” on their coronavirus response.

Cases have spiked in a number of states, including those run by Republicans, in recent weeks. Continue reading.

Attacks On Postal Service Hurt Democracy — And That’s The Point

Donald Trump continues to both demonize the idea of vote by mail and dismantle the U.S. Postal Service, and it’s making a predictable mess. The House Oversight and Reform Committee is calling new Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to testify about changes to the Postal Service, but they’re letting that testimony wait until September 17, because apparently this isn’t super urgent, even though “While these changes in a normal year would be drastic, in a presidential election year when many states are relying heavily on absentee mail-in ballots, increases in mail delivery timing would impair the ability of ballots to be received and counted in a timely manner—an unacceptable outcome for a free and fair election,” as committee Chair Carolyn Maloney wrote to DeJoy.

But while the concrete damage Trump is doing to the on-time delivery of mail in this country is a disaster, the effects of his constant ranting against mail voting on his fellow Republicans are kind of hilarious. Because the thing is, more Republicans than Democrats traditionally mail in their ballots … or did, until Trump went to work.

Local Republican Party organizations and officials are desperately trying to reassure their voters that it’s okay to vote by mail. Continue reading.

Watch Trump’s ’jaw-dropping’ interview with Axios on HBO

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump was interviewed by Axios reporter Jonathan Swan and the clip aired Monday evening on HBO.

There were a number of eyebrow raising exchanges.

Continue reading.

D.A. Is Investigating Trump and His Company Over Fraud, Filing Suggests

New York Times logoThe office of the district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., made the disclosure in a new court filing arguing Mr. Trump’s accountants should turn over his tax returns.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office suggested on Monday that it had been investigating President Trump and his company for possible bank and insurance fraud, a significantly broader inquiry than the prosecutors have acknowledged in the past.

The suggestion by the office of the district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., came in a new federal court filing arguing that Mr. Trump’s accountants should have to comply with a grand jury subpoena seeking eight years of his personal and corporate tax returns. Mr. Trump has asked a judge to declare the subpoena invalid.

Until now, the district attorney’s inquiry had appeared largely focused on hush-money payments made in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election to two women who said they had affairs with Mr. Trump. Continue reading.

‘Irregularities’ found in the Trump administration’s contract for company used to collect coronavirus data: report

AlterNet logoTeleTracking Technologies, a Pittsburg-based company known for developing software that hospitals use to track the status of patients, was awarded a multi-million-dollar contract from President Donald Trump’s administration to collect COVID-19 data from hospitals in the U.S. — and National Public Radio is reporting that it found “irregularities” in the “process” that gave TeleTracking the contract.

According to NPR reporters Dina Temple-Raston and Tim Mak, NPR’s investigation found that “the Department of Health and Human Services initially characterized the contract with TeleTracking as a no-bid contract. When asked about that, HHS said there was a ‘coding error’ and that the contract was actually competitively bid. The process by which HHS awarded the contract is normally used for innovative scientific research, not the building of government databases.”

According to the NPR reporters, Carrie Kroll of the Texas Hospital Association “didn’t give it a second thought” when, in April, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced it would be using TeleTracking as an option for collecting data on COVID-19. But she “balked” after “the HHS suddenly announced, in July, that hospitals could no longer report COVID data through the (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), but would instead, be required to do so through the HHS-TeleTracking system or their state health departments,” Temple-Raston and Mak explain. Continue reading.

Manhattan DA filings indicate Trump is being investigated for possible fraud and ‘protracted criminal conduct’: report

AlterNet logoIn New York City, new court filings by the office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, according to the New York Times, indicate that President Donald Trump may be under investigation for possible fraud.

According to Times reporters William K. Rashbaum and Benjamin Weiser, the filings indicate a “significantly broader inquiry than the prosecutors have acknowledged in the past.” And in the filings, Vance’s office argues that Trump should have to comply with subpoenas that demanded eight years of the president’s financial and tax documents.

Rashbaum and Weiser explain, “The reports, including investigations into the president’s wealth and an article on the congressional testimony of his former lawyer and fixer, Michael D. Cohen, said that the president may have illegally inflated his net worth and the value of his properties to lenders and insurer.” Continue reading.