Category: 2020 Election

Trump says he won’t issue national mask mandate

The Hill logoPresident Trump says he will not issue a national mandate requiring Americans to wear masks in order to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.

“I want people to have a certain freedom and I don’t believe in that, no,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News’s Chris Wallace that will air in full on “Fox News Sunday.”

Trump also seemed to express skepticism about the efficacy of masks, noting that public health officials initially said that facial coverings were not necessary for healthy individuals, before later adding that he is a “believer in masks.” Continue reading.

CNN host cuts off a Trump spokesperson with a devastating fact-check about the president’s COVID-19 predictions

AlterNet logoDuring a very contentious interview with a spokesperson for Donald Trump’s re-election campaign, CNN host Poppy Harlow was forced to cut-off senior advisor Mercedes Schlapp and list off all the times the president predicted the COVID-19 crisis would subside on its own.

In the interview, which ran over 15 minutes, the CNN host and the Trump spokesperson repeatedly talked over each other, with Harlow at one time telling her guest that they had plenty of time to discuss the topics at hand and to please let her finish asking her questions.

As host Harlow attempted to press her on the growing caseload of COVID-19 infections, Schlapp attempted to bring former Vice President Joe Biden into the conversation which forced the CNN host to stop her. Continue reading.

GOP Senate candidate calls Confederate monuments ‘symbols of hope,’ says ‘we learn from our mistakes’

The Hill logoGOP New Hampshire Senate candidate retired Gen. Don Bolduc said during a campaign-style gathering earlier this month that he believed statues of Confederate soldiers are “symbols of hope” and “moving forward.”

“We forgave. We created this thing called Reconstruction. We moved forward. We honor those that fought against us as opposed to dishonoring them. We gave them life back, opportunity back in order for them to change, in order to unify our country. These decisions were made for a reason. Statues were put up for a reason,” Bolduc can be seen saying in video of the event.

The comments come amid a national debate over removing Confederate statues, spurred by recent protests over racial injustice. The House is slated to vote next week on legislation to remove from the Capitol statues of people who served in the Confederacy or who worked to uphold slavery, and lawmakers from both parties have expressed an openness to renaming Army bases that were named after Confederate officers. Continue reading.

Fox News host laughs at Trump’s botched attempt to fact-check claims about Joe Biden

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump was not prepared for an interview with Fox News host Chris Wallace, one of the few people on the network still willing to challenge his lies.

In a new clip released Friday from a forthcoming interview, Wallace contradicted Trump’s claim that his 2020 opponent Joe Biden wants to defund and abolish the police.

“They want to defund the police, and Biden wants to defund the police,” Trump said. Continue reading.

McEnany claims Trump has ‘great record’ on LGBTQ issues

AlterNet logoTrump has made 153 attacks against the LGBTQ community so far during his presidency.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said on Monday that Donald Trump has a “great record when it comes to the LGBTQ community.”

Chris Johnson, chief political and White House reporter for the Washington Blade, asked McEnany if Trump would reconsider the ban on transgender people in the military after 116 Democratic House lawmakers sent a letter last week to Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Attorney General William Barr calling for the Pentagon to end the policy.

McEnany responded, “I haven’t talked to him about that specific policy, but this president is proud that, in 2019, we launched a global initiative to end the criminalization of homosexuality throughout the world. He has a great record when it comes to the LGBT community. The Trump administration eased a ban on blood donations from gay and bisexual men and he launched a plan to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030. So we’re very proud of our achievements.” Continue reading.

Senate GOP set to ramp up Obama-era probes

The Hill logoSenate Republicans are preparing to ramp up their Obama-era probes, pushing the controversial investigations back into the spotlight as the 2020 elections heat up.

The efforts have sparked high-profile tensions with Senate Democrats and public rebukes from former Vice President Joe Biden’s orbit. They view the efforts as an attempt to meddle in the 2020 elections, where Biden is the presumptive Democratic nominee.

But with the Senate coming back to Washington on Monday, and the number of legislative days quickly dwindling, Republicans are preparing to step up their efforts. Continue reading.

Trump-era racist rhetoric makes Chinese students in the U.S. less supportive of democracy

Washington Post logoWhen President Trump uses the phrase “kung flu” to refer to the novel coronavirus, his campaign rally crowds roar with approval. But this xenophobic talk doesn’t just appeal to Trump’s base — it may also be a boon to Chinese President Xi Jinping.

In a new paper, we show that racist, anti-Chinese taunts boost support for the Chinese regime from an unexpected group: a new generation of Chinese students in the United States, a cohort many would think likely to embrace democratic values.

Senior figures in the Trump administration like deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger have encouraged the Chinese people to bring democracy to China. But anti-Chinese rhetoric spouted by the president and repeated by his supporters makes this goal far less likely. Continue reading.

Oregon Governor: Trump Seeking To Provoke Violence With Portland Arrests

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown is up in arms after camouflaged federal agents were discovered to be patrolling the streets of Portland, inciting violence and abducting protesters in what she described as a naked attempt by the Trump administration to provoke violence for political gain.

“Trump is looking for a confrontation in Oregon in the hopes of winning political points in Ohio or Iowa,” Brown, a Democrat, tweeted Thursday night. She accused Donald Trump and his administration of seeking to portray racial justice protests as dangerous uprisings to help get his base out to the polls.

Brown added that acting-Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf is “on a mission to provoke confrontation for political purposes,” and in the process is “putting both Oregonians and local law enforcement officers in harm’s way.” Continue reading.

Kayleigh McEnany tries to clean up Trump’s comment about police killing ‘more white people’

Washington Post logoEarlier this week, President Trump shrugged off questions about police killing black people by saying they killed more white people. This is very technically true, but it’s also wholly misleading given the fact that we have many more white people in this country. Per capita, there is no comparison. Data have shown black people are about 2.5 times as likely to die at the hands of police.

So White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany took another shot at it Thursday. It wasn’t much better.

At a White House briefing, McEnany explained Trump’s comments thusly: Continue reading.

Trump faces rising disapproval and widespread distrust on coronavirus, Post-ABC poll finds

Washington Post logoAmericans’ views of President Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic have deteriorated significantly as cases rise across the country and personal fears of becoming infected persist, a Washington Post-ABC News poll finds.

The Post-ABC poll shows 38 percent of Americans approve of his handling of the outbreak, down from 46 percent in May and 51 percent in March. Sixty percent disapprove, up from 53 percent in May and 45 percent in March.

More than half of the public — 52 percent — now disapproves “strongly” of Trump’s handling of the outbreak, roughly double the percentage who say they strongly approve of his efforts and an increase from 36 percent in strong disapproval since March. Continue reading.