Category: 2020 Election

Biden says he hasn’t been tested for coronavirus

The Democratic candidate made the acknowledgment at an in-person campaign event in Delaware.

Joe Biden said on Tuesday that he hadn’t yet been tested for coronavirus.

Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, made the acknowledgment when a reporter asked whether he could meet potential running mates in person to vet them. He was speaking at an in-person campaign event in Wilmington, Del., where he also urged more testing and contact tracing to combat the spread of Covid-19.

Biden wouldn‘t elaborate on his vetting process for a potential running mate, but said that he would “have a choice in the first week in August.“ Continue reading.

Voters Are Starting To Doubt Trump’s Reelection Chances

For months now, President Trump has trailed Joe Biden in the polls. First, it was only a 5- or 6-percentage-point gap, but since the middle of June, that margin has widened to anywhere from 8 to 9 points, according to FiveThirtyEight’s national polling average.

But until very recently, voters didn’t seem all that convinced that Biden could win. In poll after poll, comparatively more voters said they thought Trump would win reelection in November. Now, though, that view may be shifting.

Over the past two and a half months, the share of voters who said they expect Trump to win has fallen from about 45 percent to around 40 percent in polling by The Economist/YouGov, as the chart below shows, while Biden’s share has slowly ticked up to where Trump’s numbers are. (Roughly a fifth of respondents still say they’re “not sure.”) Continue reading.

Trump’s sweeping claim that Biden wants to ‘abolish all charter schools’

Washington Post logo“One is incredible: Abolish all charter schools. Charter schools are doing great.”

— President Trump, remarks in the Rose Garden, July 14, 2020

“Abolish school choice, end school choice, abolish — they want to abolish all school choice, end it. They want to abolish charter schools. This is just never-ending.”

— Trump, remarks during an Arizona telerally, July 18, 2020

As president, Bill Clinton was considered a powerful advocate for promoting charter schools, even winning the first-ever lifetime achievement award from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Now, President Trump is charging that former vice president Joe Biden (and his fellow Democrats) has gone so far left that he wants to “abolish all charter schools.” These are publicly funded schools but operated under contract by independent groups, allowing for more flexibility in curriculum and hiring.

Is there much basis for Trump’s claim? Let’s examine what Biden stands for — as well as his position on “school choice,” which Trump also claims he wants to abolish.

The Facts

Trump claims he’s citing a portion of the Biden-Sanders Unity Task Force Recommendations, designed to bridge policy gaps between Biden, who has a record as a centrist, and his last rival for the Democratic nomination, the left-leaning Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). The section on charter schools was eventually added to the draft Democratic Party platform for 2020: Continue reading.

Political scientist explains why ‘Republicans are playing with fire’ by undercutting the right to vote

AlterNet logoAs the Republican Party moves more and more to the far right, it keeps trying to make it harder for non-whites to vote. Political science professor Thomas E. Patterson, who teaches at Harvard University in Massachusetts, discusses the GOP’s voter suppression efforts in an article for the Boston Globe — warning Republicans that their efforts to discourage non-white voting will backfire in the end.

“The idea of disenfranchising minority voters was hatched by the Republican-controlled legislatures of Indiana and Georgia,” Patterson explains. “Enacted in 2006, Indiana’s law required residents to have a government-issued photo ID, such as a driver’s license or passport, in order to register to vote. Republican legislators knew who they were targeting. Minority group members, young adults and people of low income — all of whom tend to vote Democratic — are less likely than other Americans to have a passport or driver’s license.”

Patterson adds, “Since then, roughly 30 Republican-controlled states have enacted voter ID laws.” And he points out that when Democrats enjoy decisive victories, Republicans find ways to keep them from governing. Continue reading.

Trump’s 8 potentially impeachable offenses in the last 6 months

AlterNet logoIt has been almost six months since Senate Republicans refused to hold Trump accountable for the two articles of impeachment referred to them by the House. Senator Susan Collins of Maine didn’t attempt to defend the president’s actions, but instead, claimed that he had learned his lesson.

One month ago, Fred Hiatt set out to determine if there was any evidence that Collins was right. What he found was that Trump had committed four additional offenses that were worthy of an impeachment inquiry. This week, he revisited that list and added three more offenses, with updates to some of the original four. Here’s a summary of all of them.

Article 1: Negligence, leading to the deaths of thousands of Americans, in the handling of the novel coronavirus. Continue reading.

Lawsuit alleges Trump campaign, fundraising committee shielded millions in payments

Washington Post logoA legal complaint filed Tuesday with the Federal Election Commission alleges that the Trump campaign and an affiliated fundraising committee have not properly reported nearly $170 million in campaign spending that was done through firms that paid subcontractors on behalf of the campaign.

The Campaign Legal Center, which advocates for greater regulation of money in politics, alleged in the complaint that payments made by two firms that were set up and run by former campaign manager Brad Parscale should have been reported to the public because the ultimate recipients of the payments effectively worked for the campaign.

Under campaign finance law, campaign committees must publicly disclose the names of firms and people they are paying. These firms are not required to disclose payments they make to others as long as they are not simply acting as a conduit for payments to avoid public disclosure. Continue reading.

Biden announces plans to boost black and Latino finances

Washington Post logoWILMINGTON, Del. — Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, announced a plan Tuesday to spend tens of billions of dollars to help people of color overcome inequities in the economy, a move that comes amid financial and racial upheaval nationwide.

The plan calls for dedicating $30 billion of previously proposed spending on a small-business opportunity fund for black, brown and Native American entrepreneurs. Biden also proposed tripling the goal for federal contracting with small disadvantaged businesses, from 5 percent to at least 15 percent of all spending on materials and services by 2025.

“We need to make bold, practical investments to recover from the economic mess we’re in and to rebuild for the economic future our country deserves,” Biden said, adding that his plan would “deal with systemic racism and advance racial equity in our economy.” Continue reading.

Journalists Obsessed With Trump’s Elusive ‘Changing Tone’

It’s been more than five years since Donald Trump rode down the golden escalator of his eponymous New York City tower to a crowd containing actors paid to cheer for him. There, he announced his campaign for president. As months passed, it became clear that Trump had a legitimate shot at winning the Republican nomination while running a campaign filled with racist invective and incoherent policy goals. He was not presidential in any sense of the word, and mainstream news outlets struggled to come to terms with that.

Perhaps as a coping mechanism, playing to their own normalcy biases, the press desperately tried to find any glimmer of hope that the Republican frontrunner might not actually be the Trump that was barnstorming the country. Perhaps there was a different Trump beneath the surface. Perhaps, as candidates of the past had, Trump would become more moderate as he moved to win over voters across the political spectrum during the general election.

Whatever subconscious reason for it, many in the media projected their own desire for normalcy onto a Trump avatar. Words like “pivot” were thrown around on such a regular basis that “here comes the pivot” became a joke by the campaign’s end. No pivot came. Then there was speculation that perhaps the presidency itself would inspire a more serious and sober Trump to emerge. That didn’t happen, either. Continue reading.

Trump Won’t Say Whether He Discussed Soldier Bounties With Putin

President Donald Trump refuses to tell the American people whether or not he has talked with President Vladimir Putin about Russia’s bounty program to pay the Taliban to kill U.S. soldiers.

Trump was finally asked about it, and if he discussed it last week during his call with the President of the Russian Federation.

“We don’t talk about what we discussed, but we had plenty of discussion,” Trump told reporters when finally asked. He added, “I think it was very productive.” Continue reading.

Here’s the truth about the supposed return of manufacturing under Trump

AlterNet logoThe headline from the Commerce Department’s new report on the economy is that new shipments and new orders of durable goods by U.S .manufacturers increased at healthy rates in June – by 15 percent and 7 percent respectively. Larry Kudlow almost certainly will herald the numbers as proof that American manufacturing is back, and good times are just around the corner.

Don’t believe it.  Only one industry, motor vehicles and parts, was responsible for almost all of the gains. June shipments of motor vehicles and parts jumped 80 percent from their abysmal levels in May, and new orders increased 87 percent.  Set aside that industry, however, and U.S. durable goods manufacturers treaded water or worse in June. Their shipments were up less than 4 percent, and their new orders fell more than 6 percent.

The story is the same for the capital goods that businesses order and buy to maintain or expand operations: In June, shipments by capital goods manufacturers increased 3.5 percent and their new orders fell 16.5 percent. Continue reading.