Category: 2020 Election

Trump won’t stop encouraging radical mobs — because they like him

‘People can’t get enough of this. Great people!’

Donald Trump praised angry mobs protesting against pandemic safety measures and harassing a local journalist in a Saturday tweet, calling them “Great people!”

Kevin Vesey, a local TV reporter in Long Island, New York, was coveringa protest by a group of Trump supporters who oppose social distancing on Thursday. Attendees held signs containing messages including “Hang Fauci, Hang Gates, Open up all our states” and “Fake news destroys lives.”

“I’ll probably never forget what happened today. I was insulted. I was berated. I was practically chased by people who refused to wear masks in the middle of a pandemic,” he tweeted, as shared his report on their event. Continue reading.

Minnesota DFL Party Announces Congressional Endorsements

SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA — On Saturday, the Minnesota DFL Party announced its endorsements for the United States House of Representatives.

The following candidates earned the DFL Party’s endorsement by winning the support of at least 60% of delegates to the DFL Party’s virtual congressional district conventions. Online balloting took place from May 16 to May 23.

DFL Party Endorsed Candidates for the United States House of Representatives

The DFL Party-endorsed candidates for Congress will be addressing the public during the 2020 DFL Party State Convention on Sunday, May 31st, beginning at 3:00 PM. Those interested in attending can tune in at Facebook.com/MinnesotaDFL and Youtube.com/MinnesotaDFL.

DFL Party Chairman Ken Martin released the following statement:

“The Minnesota DFL Party has endorsed a talented and diverse array of candidates for the United States House of Representatives. By fielding a slate of candidates with experience, name-recognition, and records of standing up and advocating for the people of Minnesota, the DFL Party is well-positioned to build on the gains we made in 2018.

“The DFL Party is a big tent party and Minnesotans running for Congress under our party banner reflect that. From business owners to veterans, teachers to health care advocates, our candidates come from many different walks of life but share a common goal: to improve the lives of Minnesotans everywhere.”

 

Dean Phillips Endorsed for Second Term

Third District DFL Party votes by electronic ballot

EXCELSIOR, MINNESOTA – Today, Congressman Dean Phillips accepted the endorsement of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party in Minnesota’s Third Congressional District after delegates voted remotely by electronic ballot due to the Covid-19 crisis.

“I am honored and humbled to accept the nomination of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party to serve a second term in Congress,” said Phillips. “I take on the responsibility of serving the people during this pandemic with a sense of duty, urgency, and a commitment bringing an optimistic outlook to the challenging recovery ahead.”

“Our campaign in 2020 will look different from our previous effort – without the face-to-face conversations, hand shakes, hugs, and high-fives that I love so much. What will remain is the spirit of inclusion, and my commitment to extend an invitation to every person, regardless of ideology, to join together, repair our divisions, and help our country recover from the human and economic toll of the pandemic.” 

“Our campaign will be a robust and innovative effort of engagement and invitation through phone calls, text messages, digital strategies, and bold creative content to reinforce our key message: Everyone’s Invited.” 

What’s really behind Republicans wanting a swift reopening? Evangelicals.

Washington Post logoHILLSBORO, OHIO — Polls conducted since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus pandemic find that Democrats take the virus more seriously than Republicans, and are more willing to support restrictive government edicts in response to the outbreak. Most of those pontificating from the left conclude that Republicans get bad information from President Trump, Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh, to name a few, and therefore aren’t as worried as they should be.

Blaming so-called right-wing media for the strikingly different attitudes between the GOP and Democrats is in this case too simplistic. The Republican Party has long been home to conservatives and libertarians, who have a natural resistance to any governmental expansion of reach and authority over citizens. For many, if not most, Republicans, “give me liberty or give me death” is not outdated rhetoric.

Most Republicans are appalled at how casually governors — in their view — trampled the Constitution at the behest of state and federal health departments. As one small business owner in Tennessee said of the lockdowns, “If constitutional rights can be taken away whenever there is a crisis, then they are not rights at all — they are permissions.” Continue reading..

FBI director stuck in the middle with ‘Obamagate’

The Hill logoFBI Director Christopher Wray is sitting in an increasingly hot seat as Republicans and the White House press forward with investigations into what President Trump is calling “Obamagate.”

Congressional Republicans are pressing Wray to provide more information after recently released FBI field notes showed officials debating how to handle the case against former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

The controversy over the notes contributed to Attorney General William Barr’s contentious decision to drop charges against Flynn, despite his guilty plea. Continue reading.

Sen. Graham Using Judiciary Committee To Enact Partisan Vengeance

Journalists should treat Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-SC) pending Judiciary Committee hearings into the origins of the FBI’s Russia probe as an abuse of power intended as political payback. After all, Graham has explicitly said that would be why he would conduct such an inquiry.

Graham issued a startling threat during an appearance on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show on November 14, 2018. House Democrats had just won a majority in the midterm elections, and their incoming committee chairs were proposing rigorous investigations of the Trump administration. But Republicans held the Senate, putting Graham in line to become chairperson of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Graham warned congressional Democrats that if he became Senate Judiciary chairperson and House Democrats investigated Russian interference in the 2016 election, he would retaliate by probing whether there was “political bias” involved in the FBI’s handling of the Russia probe and its decision not to indict former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in relation to her use of a private email server. Those allegations are at the heart of numerous conspiracy theories that had been championed by Hannity, his Fox colleagues, and President Donald Trump. Continue reading.

GOP ‘Unmasking Scandal’ Implodes — Because Flynn Was Never Masked

Another right wing conspiracy theory down the drain.

For days if not weeks the right has insisted various Obama administration officials had targeted former Lt. General Mike Flynn, trying to “unmask” his name from transcripts on intercepted calls with Russian officials.

That was a ludicrous assertion, since “masked” names are masked and no one knows who they are until they are unmasked. Continue reading.

A guide to the players Senate Republicans want to subpoena as they re-litigate the Russia probe into Trump

Washington Post logoSenate Republicans are suddenly ramping up their efforts to dig into the origins of the probe of President Trump’s 2016 campaign. Two committees are launching investigations that essentially ask whether there was an effort at the highest levels of the Obama administration or the FBI to undermine Trump.

This week, the Senate Judiciary Committee took a step toward this by issuing a list of dozens of names of Obama officials they would like to subpoena, either for documents or testimony. And Tuesday, the Senate’s homeland security committee issued a subpoena related to an investigation of Hunter Biden.

Why are they doing this now? The committees say that if there was wrongdoing by the intelligence community as Trump got his presidency started, the American public deserves to know about it. Continue reading.

Trump uses official travel to gain campaign edge in swing states as he seeks to move past pandemic

Washington Post logoSince resuming their travel schedules, President Trump and Vice President Pence have focused on battleground states crucial to their reelection chances, staging official government events at a time when likely Democratic nominee Joseph Biden and his top surrogates are unable to safely return to the campaign trail.

Trump and Pence have used recent trips to thank factory and health-care workers and set the stage for reopening the economy amid the coronavirus pandemic, but their itineraries have highlighted the political imperatives that have informed their response to the crisis.

Trump is scheduled on Thursday to tour a Ford Motor Co. factory in Ypsilanti, Mich., that has been temporarily converted into a ventilator production facility. The visit comes after he traveled to manufacturing plants in Phoenix and Allentown, Pa., over the past two weeks. On Wednesday, Pence visited a nursing home in Orlando and had lunch with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) at a local restaurant, and he also has traveled to Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin in recent weeks. Pence said he will return to Florida next week to attend a space launch, and DeSantis suggested Trump may make the trip, as well. Continue reading.

Trump Steps Up Attacks on Mail Vote, Making False Claims About Fraud

New York Times logoPresident Trump initially said he might withhold federal funding for Michigan and Nevada if the states moved forward in expanding vote by mail, though he later backed off that threat.

WASHINGTON — President Trump on Wednesday escalated his assault against mail voting, falsely claiming that Michigan and Nevada were engaged in voter fraud and had acted illegally, and threatening to withhold federal funds to those states if they proceed in expanding vote-by-mail efforts.

The president inaccurately accused Michigan of sending mail ballots to its residents, as his aides later acknowledged, and he offered no basis for his claims of illegal actions by either Michigan or Nevada. The Michigan secretary of state has sent ballot applications — not the ballots themselves — to registered voters, a growing practice among election officials, including in states led by Republicans. In Nevada, where the Republican secretary of state declared the primary a nearly all-mail election, ballots are being sent to registered voters.

As most states largely abandon in-person voting because of health concerns over the coronavirus, Mr. Trump and many of his Republican allies have launched a series of false attacks to demonize mail voting as fraught with fraud and delivering an inherent advantage to Democratic candidates — despite there being scant evidence for either claim. Continue reading.