Category: 2020 Election

How the so-called champion of American business fought to protect profiteering — and endangered millions

AlterNet logoAs hospital intensive care units overflow again, and delays in COVID-19 testing reports reach record levels in many cities, a conversation I recently with Sen. Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, reminded me that I had forgotten something utterly critical: Donald Trump’s decision to unilaterally disarm America in the face of the coronavirus invasion was urged upon him by an ostensible defender of American business: the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

When the pandemic reached America, we weren’t ready — any more than we were ready when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. But Trump had the tools to do what the U.S. has often done: make up for lack of preparedness. The crucial gaps to fill in March were supplies for testing to limit the spread of the virus, and medical equipment to treat those who got sick — testing kits, swabs, reagents, masks, gowns and gloves — by the billions. Government health agencies estimated that if the pandemic took hold, the country would need, for example, 3.5 billion N95 medical masks. We had 12 million.

Presidents have available, and have routinely used, the Cold War-era Defense Production Act to overcome such critical supply shortages — not just in wartime, but also to ensure adequate relief supplies after natural disasters. DPA can be used to put emergency purchases at the head of a supply chain, but also to require factories to convert their output to provide needed equipment in adequate volumes. Members of Congress urged Trump to appoint a military official as DPA czar to coordinate production and distribution of essential pandemic-related medical supplies, as was done in the Korean War. Continue reading.

Trump caves to the coronavirus reality — yet again — in a particularly personal way

Washington Post logoWhen it comes to President Trump’s efforts to downplay the severity of the coronavirus, few compare to his decision to move large portions of the Republican National Convention to another state — because the previous state wouldn’t loosen its standards for bringing together large crowds.

Trump succumbed Thursday to the actual threat in an unmistakable way.

At a White House news conference, Trump announced that the portion of the convention that had been abruptly moved from Charlotte, to Jacksonville, Fla., just last month will be canceled. He acknowledged it was dangerous to ask people to gather in-person in such large numbers — just like North Carolina had indicated was its hang-up about giving him free rein. Continue reading.

The twists and turns in Trump’s executive order on immigrants and the census

Washington Post logo“Although the Constitution requires the ‘persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed,’ to be enumerated in the census, that requirement has never been understood to include in the apportionment base every individual physically present within a State’s boundaries at the time of the census. Instead, the term ‘persons in each State’ has been interpreted to mean that only the ‘inhabitants’ of each State should be included.”

— President Trump, in a memorandum for Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on congressional apportionment, July 21, 2020

This artfully crafted statement serves as the basis for Trump’s executive order to remove millions of undocumented immigrants from the population data Congress uses to apportion House seats among the states.

But it gives a warped view of history to justify an enormous shift in political power. If carried out, the president’s order is likely to reduce seats in Congress for mostly Democratic states.

The Facts

The Constitution requires a nationwide population count every 10 years. Originally, that meant counting “the whole Number of free Persons,” adding “three fifths” of a person for each slave and “excluding Indians not taxed.”

Sinking Trump seeks to squash GOP dissent

The Hill logoPresident Trump is seeking to squash lingering dissent within the GOP, lashing out at Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and former Bush administration official Tom Ridge after the two offered implicit and explicit criticism of the president.

The intraparty spats come as some cracks show in Trump’s typically overwhelming support among Republicans.

Polls show Trump trailing presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden by significant margins in some key battleground states, raising fears among some Republicans that the party will lose both the White House and Senate in November. A new poll on Thursday showed Trump 13 points behind Biden in Florida. Continue reading.

Amid blame game on coronavirus, Trump White House pursues broader campaign to punish China on other issues

Washington Post logoAs President Trump has heaped blame on China for a coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 141,000 Americans, his aides are moving to expand on his rhetorical blasts and marshal a broader campaign to punish Beijing on a host of unrelated issues.

The strategy escalated dramatically this week when the administration ordered Chinese officials to shut down China’s consulate in Houston within 72 hours over charges that it was being used for aggressive intelligence-gathering operations.

That decision — which prompted a pledge from Beijing to retaliate — came after other punitive measures in recent weeks, including economic sanctions on Chinese officials over human rights abuses against Uighur Muslims; the stripping of Hong Kong’s special economic status after the Communist Party tightened control of the island; and plans to expel some Chinese journalists and restrict exchange students in the United States. Continue reading.

Scare Tactics: Trump Focuses on Fear to Win

With 100 days to go before the election, Trump is focusing on “law and order” while Biden pitches stability.

TRAILING IN NATIONAL polls by 7-15 points. A persistent pandemic that not only presents a public health crisis, but prevents a crowd-loving candidate from holding big rallies. Double-digit unemployment, civil unrest and a revolt by some members of his own party who formed a SuperPAC to bring him down.

It’s not looking rosy for President Donald Trump as the campaign hits the 100 days-out from the election mark this weekend. And the president – who famously goes with his gut when making both policy and campaign decisions – appears poised to get socked in that very body part in the Nov. 3 election. Democrats waver between a giddily confident belief that they are in the final countdown to Trump’s demise and a worried memory of what happened the last time they underestimated Trump.

“I never say never in politics – (after) four years ago, I live by that rule,” says Stu Rothenberg, an independent political analyst and author of The Rothenberg Political Report. But Trump “has gotten himself into a deep hole, it seems to me. Continue reading.

Trump’s ‘Operation Legend’ was supposed to combat crime. It’s produced one arrest, and some see a political stunt.

Washington Post logoFederal agents began descending in earnest on Kansas City, Mo., this week as part of an operation that will have them working with local detectives to interview suspects and witnesses and sift through evidence in an effort to quell violent crime, U.S. officials said.

The operation, in any other administration, might have been largely seen as inoffensive for a city that has experienced a massive spike in homicides from the prior year. But the timing — just after federal officers in military garb violently cracked down on racial justice demonstrators in Portland, Ore., and President Trump threatened to dispatch U.S. law enforcement to other cities — could hardly be worse.

In no small part because of Trump’s politically charged rhetoric, local activists and officials have come to view with suspicion the more than 200 agents sent to Missouri from the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Marshals Service and other federal agencies. Some officials said they were not consulted and do not know the precise plans. After the Trump administration announced Wednesday it would increase the federal presence in Chicago and Albuquerque, local officials there greeted the news icily. Continue reading.

A Rare Look Inside Trump’s Immigration Crackdown Draws Legal Threats

New York Times logoA new documentary peers inside the secretive world of immigration enforcement. The filmmakers faced demands to delete scenes and delay broadcast until after the election.

In early 2017, as Immigration and Customs Enforcement prepared to carry out the hard-line agenda on which President Trump had campaigned, agency leaders jumped at the chance to let two filmmakers give a behind-the-scenes look at the process.

But as the documentary neared completion in recent months, the administration fought mightily to keep it from being released until after the 2020 election. After granting rare access to parts of the country’s powerful immigration enforcement machinery that are usually invisible to the public, administration officials threatened legal action and sought to block parts of it from seeing the light of day.

Some of the contentious scenes include ICE officers lying to immigrants to gain access to their homes and mocking them after taking them into custody. One shows an officer illegally picking the lock to an apartment building during a raid. Continue reading.