Category: 2020 Election

89 former Defense officials: The military must never be used to violate constitutional rights

Washington Post logoPresident Trump continues to use inflammatory language as many Americans protest the unlawful death of George Floyd and the unjust treatment of black Americans by our justice system. As the protests have grown, so has the intensity of the president’s rhetoric. He has gone so far as to make a shocking promise: to send active-duty members of the U.S. military to “dominate” protesters in cities throughout the country — with or without the consent of local mayors or state governors.

On Monday, the president previewed his approach on the streets of Washington. He had 1,600 troops from around the country transported to the D.C. area, and placed them on alert, as an unnamed Pentagon official put it, “to ensure faster employment if necessary.” As part of the show of force that Trump demanded, military helicopters made low-level passes over peaceful protesters — a military tactic sometimes used to disperse enemy combatants — scattering debris and broken glass among the crowd. He also had a force, including members of the National Guard and federal officers, that used flash-bang grenades, pepper spray and, according to eyewitness accounts, rubber bullets to drive lawful protesters, as well as members of the media and clergy, away from the historic St. John’s Episcopal Church. All so he could hold a politically motivated photo op there with members of his team, including, inappropriately, Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper and Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Continue reading “89 former Defense officials: The military must never be used to violate constitutional rights”

The central feature of Trump’s presidency: False claims and disinformation

Washington Post logoWill future presidents return to trying to tell the truth?

For weeks, as the coronavirus silently spread through the United States, President Trump belittled the threat and repeatedly praised China for “transparency” and the World Health Organization for its handling of the outbreak. But when the death toll mounted and the scope of the public health crisis became too difficult to ignore, Trump reversed course.

“I always felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic,” he declared — then angrily blamed China for failing to contain the new virus and accused the WHO of helping a coverup. He later withdrew the United States from the WHO.

Likewise, when a distraught widower asked Twitter to remove Trump’s tweets insinuating that the man’s wife had been killed by MSNBC morning host Joe Scarborough, Trump ignored the plea and repeated the slander. Continue reading.

George W. Bush won’t support Donald Trump’s reelection, report says

Former President George W. Bush — and some other prominent Republicans — won’t be voting to reelect Donald Trump, The New York Times reports.

George W. Bush will not support the re-election of Donald Trump, according to people familiar with his thinking, The New York Times reported Saturday.

The paper said the former president and Texas governor won’t vote for Trump’s reelection and that his brother, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, “isn’t sure how he’ll vote.” The paper spotlights several members of the Republican Party who are dissenting from party lines, though Bush was the only prominent Texas politician mentioned. Freddy Ford, a spokesman for Bush, told The Texas Tribune that Bush would steer clear of speaking publicly on his presidential vote and called The New York Times assertion false.

“This is completely made up,” Ford said in an email. “He is retired from presidential politics and has not indicated how he will vote.” Continue reading.

A Maine factory says it will have to discard all coronavirus swabs made during Trump’s factory tour

Puritan Medical Products, a medical swab manufacturer, says it will have to discard all of the swabs made in the background of President Donald Trump’s visit to the factory on Friday.

While workers on the factory floor wore lab coats and personal protective equipment, Trump did not wear a mask while touring the facility or visiting with employees.

In a statement to USA TODAY, Puritan did not disclose either its reasoning for dumping the coronavirus swabs or the number of coronavirus tests that would be lost.  Continue reading.

Ohio is suddenly a 2020 battleground

The Hill logoPresident Trump’s campaign is spending money to defend Ohio, an unexpected development that underscores the president’s polling weakness amid the coronavirus pandemic and civil unrest wracking the country.

Trump won Ohio by 8 points in 2016, and Democrats failed to flip any House seats there in 2018, which was an otherwise big year for Democrats nationwide.

Democrats had all but written off the state heading into the 2020 cycle, believing the rightward drift had taken the former presidential bellwether off the board as a battleground state. Continue reading.

Biden clinches Democratic presidential nomination

According to The Associated Press, Joe Biden has won a majority of pledged delegates to the August national party convention.

Former Vice President Joe Biden has clinched a majority of delegates to the Democratic convention, locking up the party’s presidential nomination, according to The Associated Press.

The AP now projects that Biden has won 1,993 delegates to the national convention, just over the magic number of 1,991 required to secure the nomination on the first ballot.

For Biden, it was a matter of when, not if, he would hit that number after Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) ended his campaign in early April, following a string of dominating victories for the former vice president in primaries throughout March. Continue reading.

Trump’s Approval Slips Where He Can’t Afford to Lose It: Among Evangelicals

New York Times logoPolls and private concerns from top social conservatives show the president’s standing with the cornerstone of his base isn’t what it used to be. A photo op with the Bible was supposed to help fix that.

President Trump needs every vote he got from white evangelicals in 2016 — and then some. Hoisting a Bible in the air may not be enough.

Unnerved by his slipping poll numbers and his failure to take command of the moral and public health crises straining the country, religious conservatives have expressed concern in recent weeks to the White House and the Trump campaign about the president’s political standing.

Their rising discomfort spilled out into the open this week when the founder of the Christian Coalition, Pat Robertson, scolded the president for taking such a belligerent tone as the country erupted in sorrow and anger over the police killing of an unarmed black man, George Floyd, in Minneapolis. Continue reading.

Twitter disables Trump campaign’s George Floyd video tribute

The social media company last month slapped fact-check warnings on two tweets from the president’s own account.

Twitter has blocked a Trump campaign video tribute to George Floyd over a copyright claim, in a move that adds to tensions between the social media platform and the president, one of its most widely followed users.

The company put a label on a video posted by the @TeamTrump account that said, “This media has been disabled in response to a claim by the copyright owner.” The video was still up on President Donald Trump’s YouTube channel and includes pictures of Floyd, whose death sparked widespread protests, at the start.

“Per our copyright policy, we respond to valid copyright complaints sent to us by a copyright owner or their authorized representatives,” Twitter said in a statement. It did not say who made the complaint. Continue reading.

China, Iran targeting presidential campaigns with hacking attempts, Google announces

Washington Post logoChinese and Iranian government hackers have targeted the Gmail accounts of staffers working on the presidential campaigns of Joe Biden and President Trump, respectively, Google announced Thursday.

There were no signs the accounts were compromised, a Google threat analyst said in a tweet Thursday, and law enforcement was notified.

The disclosure is a fresh reminder that nation states are actively seeking to gain access to presidential campaigns — a practice that has taken place in every presidential election dating back more than a decade. Continue reading.

GOP chairmen stake out turf in Obama-era probes

The Hill logoGOP chairmen are carving out their turf in controversial probes stemming from the Obama administration.

Senate Republicans are set to escalate their investigations on Thursday, when two panels will vote on dueling subpoenas that have significant areas of overlap.

But Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.)—who chair the Judiciary and Homeland Security committees, respectively — say they are trying to avoid a jurisdictional fight as they prepare to do a deep dive into decisions stemming from the Obama era.  Continue reading.