Category: 2020 Election

Mark Cuban Enlightens Fox News Viewers With Key Difference Between Biden, Trump

The “Shark Tank” star compared Trump and Biden’s thoughts on running the country.

Billionaire investor Mark Cuban appeared on Fox News this week to declare his support for presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, who has been the subject of countless attacks on the conservative network.

The “Shark Tank” star used the Tuesday interview on Sean Hannity’s widely watched primetime show to highlight one key difference between the former vice president and President Donald Trump.

“Donald Trump doesn’t want to run a country. He wants to run a campaign. Joe Biden actually wants to run a country,” the owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks said. Continue reading.

The top Republicans who aren’t voting for Trump in 2020

Axios logoFormer Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina told The Atlantic Thursday that she will vote for Joe Biden over President Trump in the 2020 presidential election, saying that she believes the U.S. needs “real leadership that can unify the country.”

Why it matters: Fiorina joins other prominent Republicans who have publicly said they will either not vote for Trump’s re-election this November or will back Biden.

Not voting for Trump: Continue reading.

Sinking in the Polls, Trump Tweets About Lobsters

Yesterday began with a New York Times poll that was pretty awful for President Donald Trump, and I was contemplating writing a complicated item about whether we should pay attention to such surveys at this point in the election cycle. But then the lobsters.

The president on Wednesday night announced some new initiatives to help the Maine lobster industry, and accompanied the plan with a false tweet claiming that “Pres. Obama destroyed the lobster and fishing industry in Maine. Now it’s back, bigger and better than anyone ever thought possible.”

In fact, people who know the industry noted that it was doing just fine until Trump’s trade war. But CNN’s Jake Tapper made a different point. He noted that presidential actions and communications are often carefully targeted — in this case, to Maine’s second congressional district, which has its own electoral vote. He concluded that “whatever you think of President Trump, and despite current crappy polls for him, he has the power of incumbency & many smart GOP operatives working hard to get him re-elected using all the levers of the most powerful government in the world.” Continue reading.

The Memo: Trump hopes narrow as polls worsen

The Hill logoThe bad news is piling higher for President Trump, who is having a dismal time in opinion polls.

Trump would almost certainly lose his reelection battle if voters went to the polls today. But Republicans still have reasons for hope — and Democrats to fear — more than four months before Election Day.

For both sides, the prospect of a Trump comeback rests on two possibilities: signs of resurgence in the economy, and the potential for Trump’s presumptive Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, to be weakened by months of attacks. Continue reading.

Pence tries to assure GOP senators as coronavirus cases spike

Washington Post logoThe vice president’s appearance on Capitol Hill comes as many states scramble to contain a surge in infections, while Washington sits back.

Vice President Pence urged GOP senators on Wednesday to focus on “encouraging signs” despite a recent spike in coronavirus cases in numerous states as various localities move swiftly to reopen their economies, according to several people present.

Pence made the remarks in a closed-door lunch with Republican senators on Capitol Hill as lawmakers have begun to express alarm because of rising infection rates in Florida, Arizona, Texas and several other states, some of which are likely to be critical to the outcome of the presidential race in the fall and control of the Senate. On Wednesday, five states hit new highs in coronavirus hospitalizations.

Multiple senators said Pence pointed to positive indicators, including the fact that while infections are rising, the mortality rate is not. That is partly because there is more testing, and younger and healthier people now account for larger shares of those getting tested, Pence said. Continue reading.

Trump Campaign Promotes Conspiracy Theories On Junior’s Podcast

Donald Trump is famous — and infamous — for his use of Twitter and Facebook. But particularly since the pandemic forced him to largely swear off his favorite mass, in-person rallies, his campaign has been amping up the use of another form of alternative media: YouTube and podcasts.

The president’s most recent sit-down interview? As it happens, it occurred last week on “Triggered,” a YouTube program hosted by his namesake son. In a conversation in the White House’s map room, Trump Jr. quizzed his dad about everything from who his favorite child is to whether aliens exist — to a Fox News report that Osama bin Laden wanted to assassinate President Barack Obama so that Joe Biden would ascend to the presidency.

This was no ordinary campaign video, nor was it a random question, this week’s episode of “Trump, Inc.” makes clear. “Triggered” followed the exchange about bin Laden with a campaign ad that repeated the same point, showing how closely the program’s conversations are tied in with campaign talking points. “Trump, Inc.” explores the Trump campaign’s universe of podcasts and YouTube shows, which has expanded since the coronavirus began locking down huge swaths of the country. (The campaign did not respond to requests for comment.) Continue reading.

Democrats urge delegates to stay away from convention

The Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee will host presumptive nominee Joe Biden, but delegates are encouraged not to attend in person as the party tries to manage holding its marquee event during the coronavirus pandemic.

Democrats announced on Wednesday that the convention would move from the expansive Fiserv Forum — a state-of-the-art arena where the Milwaukee Bucks basketball team plays — to the much smaller Wisconsin Center, the city’s convention center. Attendees will be capped at 1,000 people, according to three people with knowledge of the discussions.

Biden is expected to speak from the Milwaukee location, and satellite sites are to be set up for broadcasting in other cities. Continue reading.

MIT report exposes Trump campaign app as a deceptive ‘surveillance tool’

AlterNet logoAbout 800,000 people have downloaded the Trump 2020 campaign’s app. According to a study by the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology, better known as MIT, users are handing over a massive amount of personal information – and an astonishing amount of access – to the Trump campaign.

MIT, which investigated both the Trump campaign app and the Biden campaign app says the Trump campaign app is a “voter surveillance tool” with “extraordinary power.”

The Biden campaign app also collects data but far less than the Trump campaign app. Continue reading.

Trump’s False Attacks on Voting by Mail Stir Broad Concern

New York Times logoThe president’s assertions about widespread fraud have little or no basis in fact but are resonating with his supporters and give him the option of raising doubts about the legitimacy of the outcome.

President Trump is stepping up his attacks on the integrity of the election system, sowing doubts about the November vote at a time when the pandemic has upended normal balloting and as polls show former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. ahead by large margins.

Having yet to find an effective formula for undercutting Mr. Biden or to lure him into the kinds of culture war fights that the president prefers, Mr. Trump is training more of his fire on the political process in a way that appears intended to give him the option of raising doubts about the legitimacy of the outcome.

Promoting baseless questions about election fraud is nothing new for Mr. Trump. He has hopscotched from saying that President Barack Obama was elected with the help of dead voters to suggesting that undocumented immigrants were voting en masse to claiming that out-of-state voters were bused into New Hampshire in 2016. Continue reading.