Category: 2020 Election

How Trump’s attacks on Joe Biden have ‘boomeranged back on him’

AlterNet logoAlthough President Donald Trump has been widely criticized for his inadequate response to the coronavirus crisis, he has a reputation for being a major germaphobe and obsessing over his health. Trump, now 73, has often boasted about how fit and healthy he believes he is. And journalists Ashley Parker and Josh Dawsey, in the Washington Post, report that recently, Trump has become even more obsessed with his physical and mental health.

Trump, according to the Post reporters, has shown a “growing preoccupation in recent weeks over perceptions of his mental and physical health at a time when critics have mocked him for episodes in which they say he has appeared frail or confused.”

Trump has repeatedly described former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, as “Sleepy Joe” — which is Trump’s way of saying that Biden is over the hill and doesn’t have what it takes to run the United States. But the “Sleepy Joe” insults, according to Parker and Dawsey, “have boomeranged back on him, as opponents have seized on Trump’s own missteps to raise concerns.” Continue reading.

Appeals court allows Trump’s expansion of fast-track deportation

Ruling lifts a lower court’s preliminary injunction that sided with a trio of immigrant rights groups

A federal appeals court in Washington sided with the way the Trump administration expanded its fast-track deportation process last year to a broader swath of immigrants who enter the country illegally, including those found anywhere in the U.S. within two years of crossing the border.

The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that the Department of Homeland Security did not have to go through federal rule-making procedures before making the change in July 2019.

The ruling would lift a lower court’s preliminary injunction that sided with a trio of immigrant rights groups and stopped the expansion nationwide in September. The lower court found in part that Congress had not intended to give so much discretion to DHS. Continue reading.

Former Roger Stone prosecutor to testify DOJ intervened in case for political purposes

Axios logoCareer prosecutor Aaron Zelinsky will tell the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that Justice Department leadership intervened in the sentencing of former Trump adviser Roger Stone for political purposes, according to his opening statement.

Why it matters: Zelinsky is one of two Justice Department whistleblowers who plan to testify before the committee about the alleged politicization of the Justice Department under Attorney General Bill Barr.

The big picture: Zelinsky, a former member of special counsel Robert Mueller’s team, resigned from the case in February after the Justice Department submitted a new sentencing recommendation for Stone, overruling career prosecutors who had requested the former Trump adviser serve seven to nine years in prison for obstruction of justice, lying to Congress and witness tampering. Continue reading.

Trump’s Arizona trip: A tale of 3 failures

AlterNet logoAfter his debacle in Tulsa, a huge failure with an abysmal turnout and what may still have been a super-spreader event for a deadly virus, Donald Trump needs to set low expectations. Instead, he is back out on the campaign trail Tuesday, making his third trip in five months to Arizona — a state that on Monday reported another record day for COVID-19 hospitalizations — to tout what he calls a major milestone on the long road to achieve his No. 1 campaign promise, building a “big, beautiful wall” on the U.S.-Mexico border. Despite what Trump celebrated as the “212th plus mile of completion” in a Monday tweet complaining about Fox News’ coverage of his failed border wall, what the president won’t admit on his premature victory lap is that there has still only been three miles of new border construction since he took office.

Trump’s latest trip to Arizona succinctly illustrates the current state of his failed presidency. His biggest campaign promise is a bust and the coronavirus keeps spreading in a state that seems to have bungled the pandemic nearly as badly as the federal government.

The president is set to first visit a portion of the border in Yuma County, where new coronavirus cases climbed by more 100 once again on Monday, before heading to a Phoenix megachurch for an indoor rally with youthful supporters. He’ll be joined at both stops by Arizona’s Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, who polled as the lowest-ranked executive for his response to the pandemic after he issued an executive order preventing municipalities in the state from imposing stay-at-home orders back in April. Ducey’s own statewide restrictions expired in mid-May and Arizona now appears to be among the worst places nationwide for COVID-19 spread. On Sunday, the state surpassed 50,000 coronavirus cases. Continue reading.

Congressman schools megachurch pastors who claimed their new technology kills ‘99.9% of COVID’ virus

AlterNet logoA Democratic Congressman tried to educate the heads of a Phoenix megachurch where President Donald Trump will be appearing Tuesday after they announced they installed new technology created by some of their congregants that supposedly kills “99.9%” of the novel coronavirus within 10 minutes by ionizing the air.

“We’ve installed Clean Air EXP,” Dream City Church’s Chief Operations Officer Brendon Zastrow says in the video below. “We have a local Arizona company. It was a technology developed by some members of our church. And we’ve installed these units. And it kills 99.9% of COVID within 10 minutes.”

“So when you come into our auditorium, 99% of COVID is gone,” Senior Pastor Luke Barnett adds. “So you can know when you come down here, you’ll be safe and protected. Thank God for great technology.” Continue reading.

The president who cries ‘treason’

Washington Post logoAs president, Trump has accused 11 people and entities of the capital crime. Fewer than 30 have been charged in U.S. history.

On Monday, President Trump became the first president in modern U.S. history to accuse his predecessor of treason.

“It’s treason,” Trump said during a Monday interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network. “They were spying on my campaign, I told you that a long time ago. It turns out I was right.

The Department of Justice inspector general found no evidence of what Trump has repeatedly claimed, that former president Barack Obama spied on his campaign via wiretaps in part of what Trump calls “Obamagate.” Continue reading.

Trump tweets videos of black men attacking white people, asks ‘Where are the protesters?’

Washington Post logoAs protesters demanding an end to police brutality and systemic racism again clashed with authorities outside the White House on Monday night, the president took to Twitter to ask why he didn’t see a different kind of demonstration instead.

Above a retweeted video of a black man repeatedly punching a white department store employee, Trump wrote: “Looks what’s going on here. Where are the protesters?”

He also retweeted another account that asked “Where are the protests for this?” with a clip of a black man pushing a white woman into the side of a subway car. Continue reading.

Trump increasingly preoccupied with defending his physical and mental health

Washington Post logoThe early June meeting in the Cabinet Room was intended as a general update on President Trump’s reelection campaign, but the president had other topics on his mind.

Trump had taken a cognitive screening test as part of his 2018 physical, and now, more than two years later, he brought up the 10-minute exam. He waxed on about how he’d dazzled the proctors with his stellar performance, according to two people familiar with his comments. He walked the room of about two dozen White House and reelection officials through some of the questions he said he’d aced, such as being able to repeat five words in order.

At the time, the Montreal Cognitive Assessment — which includes animal pictures and other simple queries aimed at detecting mild cognitive impairment such as dementia — was intended to quell questions about Trump’s mental fitness. But in recalling it, Trump said he thought presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden would never be able to pass it and suggested challenging him to take the test, said the people familiar with Trump’s comments, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share private details. Continue reading.

There’s a Reason Trump Is Fighting Hard for Arizona

New York Times logoJoe Biden’s path to the White House could be through fed-up suburbanites and young Latinos.

PHOENIX — At the start of 2020, optimistic Democrats already thought this might be the year when a presidential election turned Arizona blue again.

Many suburban moderates were fed up with President Trump; in 2018, they sent a Democrat to the Senate from their state for the first time in more than three decades. Young Latino voters — who now make up 24 percent of eligible voters in Arizona — were casting ballots at record rates, angered by the president’s anti-immigrant rhetoric. And the party was fielding a strong candidate for November’s Senate race.

Now, four months until Election Day, that optimism is hardening into sustained confidence. Continue reading.