Category: 2020 Election

Trump’s ‘I alone can fix it’ campaign collides with a changed public moodTrump’s ‘I alone can fix it’ campaign collides with a changed public mood

Washington Post logoPresident Trump will celebrate American independence Friday in his signature self-aggrandizing style, staging a fireworks show that frames him before a granite mountain carved with four of the nation’s most celebrated presidents.

But Democrats are hoping that the latest display of self-flattery by Trump at Mount Rushmore will have a different effect than similar efforts in the past, following a shift in public sentiment that suggests the 2020 presidential race is being fought on different terrain than Trump’s first campaign for the White House.

“In 2016, Trump’s buffoonery was held up by some as a refreshing rejection of an ineffectual status quo. He would step up to the plate eventually, they thought,” said former Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook, explaining the thinking that now dominates his party’s strategists. “Today, it’s the same buffoonery, except it is killing people.” Continue reading.

9 things Republicans trashed Obama for but are fine with under Trump

Republicans slammed Obama for golfing, signing executive orders, and going on vacation, but are mostly silent when Trump does the exact same things.

The United States passed a grim milestone over the weekend as the nation’s coronavirus death toll climbed past 125,000.

Yet, even as the number of virus cases continued to skyrocket, thanks to outbreaks in Sunbelt states like Arizona, Florida, and Texas, Donald Trump spent his weekend on the golf course.

Golfing, of course, is one of a number of things for which Republicans — including Trump himself — used to criticize former President Barack Obama when the latter inhabited the White House. Continue reading.

Trump is overseeing a historic transfer of wealth to the super-rich as COVID-19 deaths hit record numbers

AlterNet logoWhere you or would see misery, the super-rich see opportunity. (That includes the billionaire president.)

Indeed, amid a pandemic with a six-figure death toll, America’s wealthiest capitalists are consolidating their unprecedented gains realized thanks to the spread of a deadly virus their chief protector Donald J. Trump is working overtime to spread. The coronavirus news cycle was a perfect cover to mask what has really been happening.

Thus, as Trump’s so-called policies kill tens of thousands of Americans, he’s making the richest even richer. Continue reading.

No Mr. Trump, the virus is not under control. It is in control.

Washington Post logoIN A week in which the United States exceeded 50,000 new coronavirus cases on multiple days, more than double the rate of just a few weeks ago, there are important messages that President Trump could have sent from the White House podium on Thursday. He could have insisted that all Americans wear face masks in public, or urged them to steer clear of crowded July 4 celebrations. He could have pledged a renewed federal effort to expand the still-troubled program of diagnostic testing, a prerequisite for a return to normalcy. He could have given governors support for the need to impose new restrictions to contain the virus.

He did none of these things.

Instead, Mr. Trump remains in blissful denial as crisis ripples through the Sun Belt, threatening to create chaos and distress nationwide for months to come. On Wednesday, he said of the pandemic, “I think at some point that’s going to sort of just disappear, I hope.” On Thursday, in a brief appearance before reporters, without wearing a face mask and refusing to take questions, he said, “We have some areas where we are putting out the flames, or the fires, and that’s working out well.” He went on to assert that the United States, like Europe and China, is “getting it under control.” Some areas are suffering a “flare up,” he acknowledged, “and we are putting out the fires” with a strategy to “vanquish and kill the virus.” Continue reading.

Jason Lewis has called the death of George Floyd ‘tragic.’ He had very different words after the death of Trayvon Martin

Jason Lewis, the endorsed Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, said in previously unreported comments that Trayvon Martin, the 17-year-old Black high school student shot and killed by George Zimmerman in 2012, was a “thug” and “not a good kid.”

In 2013, Zimmerman was acquitted at trial after claiming he killed Martin in self-defense.

According to audio reviewed by MinnPost, Lewis said on his radio show in 2013: “Trayvon Martin was a thug. Trayvon Martin was a kid in trouble already. He was not a saint. He was not a role model. Let me clear about this: He was not a good kid.” Continue reading.

Republicans fear backlash over Trump’s threatened veto on Confederate names

The Hill logoSenate Republicans fear President Trump is putting them into a political no-win situation by threatening to veto a popular defense policy bill over bipartisan language to rename military bases named after Confederate generals.

GOP lawmakers are trying to wave the president off his veto threat and may end up delaying the bill to avoid a political disaster before Election Day.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Wednesday urged Trump not to veto the $740.5 billion bill over a provision sponsored by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) mandating the secretary of Defense rename military installations named after Confederate generals. Continue reading.

Trump said ‘experience’ was his edge over Biden. A poll shows voters disagree by a remarkable margin.

Washington Post logoThough he’s been president for 3½ years, just 37 percent say Trump has the right experience for the job; 67 percent say Biden does.

In an interview with Sean Hannity last week, President Trump was asked how he would contrast himself with Joe Biden in the 2020 election and what his second-term agenda would be. Trump offered nothing in the way of an agenda, but he did key on one thing: his “experience.”

“Well, one of the things that will be really great,” Trump replied, “you know, the word ‘experience’ is still good. I always say talent is more important than experience. I’ve always said that. But the word ‘experience’ is a very important word. It’s an — a very important meaning.”

If this is Trump’s argument for a second term, he might want to go back to the drawing board. A striking new poll finds, even after 3½ years of the president serving in the role, Americans still overwhelmingly say he isn’t experienced enough for the job. Continue reading.

Trump Attacks a Suburban Housing Program. Critics See a Play for White Votes.

New York Times logoProponents of the policy saw the move as an attempt to shore up the president’s sagging support among white suburban voters by stoking racial division.

WASHINGTON — President Trump has taken aim at an Obama-era program intended to eliminate racial housing disparities in the suburbs, a move proponents of the policy see as an attempt to shore up his sagging support among white suburban voters by stoking racial division.

In a Twitter post late Tuesday, Mr. Trump announced that he was considering the elimination of a 2015 initiative known as Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing, which requires localities to identify and address patterns of racial segregation outlawed under the Fair Housing Act of 1968 by creating detailed corrective plans.

“At the request of many great Americans who live in the Suburbs, and others, I am studying the AFFH housing regulation that is having a devastating impact on these once thriving Suburban areas,” he wrote, adding, “Not fair to homeowners, I may END!” Continue reading.

Trump set to headline high-dollar fundraising dinner at a private Florida home next week

Washington Post logoPresident Trump is set to hold a high-dollar dinner at a private residence in Hillsboro Beach, Fla., next week to raise money for his campaign and the Republican National Committee, according to an invitation sent to top GOP donors, his first in-person fundraiser since mid-June.

The invitation does not name the owner of the home hosting the $580,600-per-couple event. Campaign manager Brad Parscale, RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and other senior RNC fundraisers are listed as hosts of the event.

The Trump campaign and the RNC declined to comment. Continue reading.

The RNC Is Paying a Former Apprentice Hand Accused of Having Trump Dirt

Chuck Labella worked on Trump’s show for years. Now, despite having no ostensible political work on his resume, he’s helping with the 2020 convention.

Last year, the Republican National Convention began cutting checks to a former producer of NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice who was accused of having, as one contestant put it, “all the dirt” on Donald Trump.

From August 2019 through May 2020, the Committee on Arrangements for the 2020 Republican National Convention made a dozen payments totaling more than $66,000 to Labella Worldwide, Inc. for “production consulting services.” The firm is run by Chuck Labella, a former NBC executive and the talent producer who worked on Donald Trump’s famous reality show.

Labella is not just a former Apprentice bigwig. According to actor Tom Arnold, who was a contestant on the show and has since become a vociferous Trump critic, Labella was in possession of Trump’s ostensibly salacious—and, in political and media circles, long-sought—behind-the-scenes Apprentice outtakes. “Chuck LaBella was there and knows all,” Arnold said. Continue reading.