Category: 2020 Election

Trump sides with deranged conspiracy theories over Black Lives Matter protesters

Washington Post logoThe White House communications team has gone to great lengths to present President Trump’s position on the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests as evenhanded and sympathetic. He has twice offered scripted responses to the protests that approximate the expected tone of a president faced with roiling unrest, including his comments from the White House Rose Garden on June 1 when he declared that he was “an ally of all peaceful protesters.”

That federal officials were simultaneously using tear gas, batons and explosive devices to clear a nearby park of peaceful protesters was simply a coincidence.

Efforts to present Trump as understanding of the protests, though, conflict with the president’s obvious and visceral dislike of what is happening and his determined effort to cast the protests as an extension of violent far-left opposition to American ideals. Trump keeps insisting that the worst effects of the early demonstrations were a function of “antifa,” a loosely knit movement that opposes fascism and racism. Antifa is a useful enemy for Trump in the moment, allowing him to avoid criticizing black protesters and to identify the opposing wing of American politics as dangerous. That the role of antifa has been limited has not prevented Trump from blaming it broadly. Continue reading.

Trump’s latest attempt to tag Biden as a radical flops

Progressives did not revolt after the Democratic nominee rejected the “defund the police” movement.

Joe Biden declared he opposed a growing movement on the left to defund police departments.

President Donald Trump and Republicans are determined to make him own it anyway.

Trump lit into Biden on Twitter, painting him as the leader of the “radical left” and responsible for a movement that celebrates anarchy, coddles “antifa” and demonizes law enforcement.

But the swiftness and clarity of Biden’s dismissal, which came as CBS, ABC’s “The View” and other media outlets were peppering Democratic politicians with questions about defunding the police, suggests Biden’s team wanted to head off an issue it saw as politically poisonous. Continue reading.

Trump to restart MAGA rallies this month despite coronavirus

The president and his team believe the massive protests in recent weeks will make it harder for critics to single him out.

Donald Trump is planning to restart rallies in the next two weeks in a major turning point for the president since the coronavirus shut down traditional campaigning.

Trump’s advisers are still determining where the rallies will take place and what safety measures will be implemented, depending on the type of venue chosen. Campaign manager Brad Parscale is expected to present Trump with possibilities within the next few days.

The president has been itching to resume his boisterous rallies, his favorite way to connect with supporters and let off steam. He’s planning to use the events to drive home what is expected to be a major theme of his campaign: that he is the leader of the country’s reopening and economic rebound. Trump held a hastily-called press conference Friday to celebrate an unexpectedly strong jobs report, and his campaign immediately began running a massive ad campaign seizing on the news. Continue reading.

Trump inspires swift mockery after he fumes over a bruising CNN poll

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump appears to be fuming over a series of polls that show him losing by a wide margin to the presumptive Democratic nominee, Joe Biden. One poll in particular, CNN’s shows Biden beating Trump by 14 points.

Monday morning he tried to trash the CNN poll as “Fake,” and Monday afternoon he claimed he had hired a “highly respected pollster” to analyze CNN’s work.

“They are called SUPPRESSION POLLS, and are put out to dampen enthusiasm,” Trump claimed of the CNN poll. “Despite 3 ½ years of phony Witch Hunts, we are winning, and will close it out on November 3rd!” Continue reading.

White voters are turning on Trump, new data shows. Why now?

Washington Post logoIn the mythology that holds sway over President Trump’s political imagination, the massive crises rocking the country — pandemic, depression, the worst civil unrest in 50 years — are all being alchemized by Trump’s magical reality-bending powers into political gold.

Trump has hoped to use these events to solidify his grip on his base, by vowing to protect Trump country from a disease ravaging urban America, by harnessing the supposed populist rage of Real American workers against Democratic elites locking down economies, and by repurposing “law and order” race-baiting to transform Joe Biden into an ally of crime and urban mayhem.

We know from Trump’s sliding approval and Biden’s growing lead that these efforts are failing. For now, anyway. Continue reading.

Trump Says His Crashing Poll Ratings Are ‘Very Unfair’

A bevy of new polling over the weekend suggests Donald Trump’s reelection bid in serious peril, with Joe Biden leading by an average of 7.2 percent, according to RealClearPolitics.

A CNN poll released Monday morning showed Trump at his lowest point yet, trailing Biden by a whopping 14 points. The survey — which found Trump’s approval rating falling seven points — showed Biden leading Trump 55 percent to 41 percent.

The polling comes as Trump faces criticism for his response to protests against police brutality and systemic racism in the United States, which were sparked by the death of George Floyd in late May. Continue reading.

Bonfire of Trump’s Vanity

New York Times logoGeorge Floyd. Say his name.

WASHINGTON — My mom always spelled out I Street as Eye Street when she addressed mail there, so it wouldn’t be confusing.

Last Saturday night, the eyes of the world were on Eye Street, where The Times’s office is located, as the street became a hellscape of American pain, going up in flames during protests fanning out from the White House.

I kept thinking about the small yellow church around the corner, known as the “Church of Presidents,” where Madison paid the rent and Lincoln sat in a pew in the back. It was just a few years ago that Barack Obama and his family sometimes attended church there. A week ago, there was a towering bonfire in front of the church and then a fire in the basement. Continue reading.

Oregon GOP Senate Nominee Pushes QAnon Hoax, Demands Martial Law

The Oregon GOP nominee for the U.S. Senate, Jo Rae Perkins, decided to let her “Q light” shine on a Facebook livestream earlier this week—and it was a doozy.

Perkins, an unrepentant “QAnon” conspiracy cultist, told her audience that the state needs to be placed under martial law, with the National Guard being sent not just to Portland—where there have been violent protests over police brutality—but to rural places like Klamath Falls and Bend. Her reasoning: Busloads of nefarious antifa activists, financed by the evil George Soros, are fanning out to these towns to wreak destruction.

The only problem with Perkins’ scenario: They’re not. The only places “antifa” activists (as well as many others) have clashed with police—and the only protests in which damage has occurred—have been in Portland. Continue reading.

Colin Powell: Trump ‘lies all the time’

He also says Trump is not following the Constitution.

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell called on voters not to reelect President Donald Trump this fall — saying it’s time to make America better for all people, not just a few.

“I think he has not been an effective president,” Powell told CNN’s Jake Tapper in an interview Sunday morning. “He lies all the time. He began lying the day of inauguration, when we got into an argument about the size of the crowd that was there. People are writing books about this favorite thing of lying. And I don’t think that’s in our interest.”

“Every American citizen has to sit down, think it through and make a decision on their own,” he added on “State of the Union.“ “Don’t listen to everybody out there. Don’t read every newspaper. Think it through. Use your common sense and say, ‘Is this good for my country?’ before you say, ‘This is good for me.'” Continue reading.

Vote for Trump? These Republican Leaders Aren’t on the Bandwagon

New York Times logoFormer President George W. Bush and Senator Mitt Romney won’t support Mr. Trump’s re-election. Colin Powell will vote for Joe Biden, and other G.O.P. officials may do the same.

WASHINGTON — It was one thing in 2016 for top Republicans to take a stand against Donald J. Trump for president: He wasn’t likely to win anyway, the thinking went, and there was no ongoing conservative governing agenda that would be endangered.

The 2020 campaign is different: Opposing the sitting president of your own party means putting policy priorities at risk, in this case appointing conservative judges, sustaining business-friendly regulations and cutting taxes — as well as incurring the volcanic wrath of Mr. Trump.

But, far sooner than they expected, growing numbers of prominent Republicans are debating how far to go in revealing that they won’t back his re-election — or might even vote for Joseph R. Biden Jr., the presumptive Democratic nominee. They’re feeling a fresh urgency because of Mr. Trump’s incendiary response to the protests of police brutality, atop his mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic, according to people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose private discussions. Continue reading.