Category: 2020 Election

What is ‘Obamagate,’ anyway? And how does it involve Michael Flynn?

The unmasking battle over Flynn may help explain the nebulous alleged scandal, for which Trump was unable to name any specific crimes this week.

This past week, President Trump threw out a major, unfounded allegation out there about former president Barack Obama without much explanation of what he’s actually alleging. The gist of the allegation is that before he left office, Obama’s administration committed some sort of crime to undermine Trump’s presidency. #Obamagate, he called it, in a tweet on Mother’s Day and several since.

Donald J. Trump

✔@realDonaldTrump

He got caught, OBAMAGATE! https://twitter.com/mikandynothem/status/1259556010408075264 …

Michael Nöthem@mikandynothem

Barack Hussain Obama is the first Ex-President to ever speak against his successor, which was long tradition of decorum and decency.
Should anyone really be surprised?#TrumpsJealousOfObama? I SERIOUSLY doubt it…#ObamaGate #MAGA#KAG #FoxNews

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It seems Trump is keeping his allegation intentionally vague. “You know what the crime is,” he said Monday when asked by reporters what he meant and what specific crimes he was alleging. Pressed, Trump was unable to name any.

But we got some clues on Wednesday that it may be connected to two things close to Trump’s heart:

  1. Trump’s full-scale effort to undermine the Russia investigation that dominated nearly the first two years of his presidency and swept up many of his top aides, including former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
  2. Trump’s reelection efforts

6 times Trump has falsely accused his political opponents of crimes

Donald Trump’s allegations against his perceived political enemies are lobbed without any evidence.

Donald Trump on Tuesday baselessly accused a cable news host of murder.

Trump’s unsubstantiated allegation came as the coronavirus death tollin the United States climbed over the 80,000 mark, a grim milestone Trump let pass by without comment as he lobbed a murder accusation against MSNBC host Joe Scarborough.

This is far from the only time Trump has accused his perceived enemies of crimes without any shred of proof. Continue reading.

Trump’s playbook on ‘Obamagate’ is extremely — and dubiously — familiar

Washington Post logoToward the end of the 2016 election, then-candidate Donald Trump infamously told Hillary Clinton that if he became president, “you’d be in jail.” When at the 11th hour of the election the FBI announced it was further probing Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state, Trump responded, “This is the biggest political scandal since Watergate, and it’s everybody’s deepest hope that justice at last will be beautifully delivered.”

But shortly after Trump was elected, it seemed, delivering justice was no longer needed. He suddenly didn’t want to put Clinton in jail anymore. “It’s just not something that I feel very strongly about,” he said, adding that, “I’m not looking to go back and go through this.”

You could have been forgiven for thinking Trump was using the situation for political gain, rather than out of a sincere desire to deliver justice. Continue reading.

What Women Want

Female voters are showing their power – and it’s not helping President Donald Trump.

AFTER MASSIVE WOMEN’S Marches, a powerful movement to expose sexual harassment and an explosion of women considering a run for elected office, America is almost certain to elect a man to the presidency in November.
However, women will have an enormous – perhaps pivotal – role in deciding which man it will be.

Female voters this year are more involved in the political process and are throwing lopsided support to presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden – in many battleground states, by heavier margins than they backed Hillary Clinton, the first female major party nominee for president, in 2016, according to polling data. Continue reading.

Concerned About Voting in Person? Register to Vote Early by Mail Now

In Minnesota, it’s possible to register to vote early by mail for both the August primary and the November general election.  Ballots will be mailed to you.  You complete your ballot, follow the rest of the instructions to validate your ballot (you will need to have another registered voter witness your voting and sign your ballot).

You can find more information and sign up to receive a ballot by mail on the Minnesota Secretary of State’s website here.

Trump attacks point to Pennsylvania’s critical role in reelection bid

The Hill logoPresident Trump will travel to the prominent presidential battleground of Pennsylvania on Thursday, further submerging himself in a politically charged debate over whether states are opening too quickly or slowly amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Scores of protesters descended on the state Capitol last month to protest Gov. Tom Wolf’s (D) stay-at-home directive, and Trump cheered them on, tweeting Monday that Pennsylvanians “want their freedom now.”

It’s just the latest example of Trump urging demonstrators to rally against state stay-at-home orders; he previously suggested that citizens “liberate” the states of Michigan and Minnesota — two other swing states on his 2020 target list. Continue reading.

CD3 Convention Ballot – Candidate Information

CD3 DFL Convention Delegates:

The CD3 Virtual Convention ballots have been delivered to your email inboxes. Below you will find links to the candidate information for those running for Presidential Elector & National Delegate.

Candidates for Presidential Elector: http://dfl.org/cd3elector/

Candidates for National Delegate (Sanders): http://dfl.org/cd3sanders/

Candidates for National Delegate (Biden): http://dfl.org/cd3biden/

The Memo: Trump fights for second term amid the new abnormal

The Hill logoThe United States is not getting back to normal anytime soon — and the impact on the 2020 presidential election will be profound.

In the early days of the coronavirus crisis, a disoriented nation took some solace in the idea that the massive disruption might at least be short-lived.

This looks implausible now, even as many states move toward reopening their economies. Continue reading.

Trump is getting a failing grade on Ronald Reagan’s key test for re-election

AlterNet logoWhen Ronald Reagan ran against President Jimmy Carter in the 1980 election, the country was in turmoil. The unemployment rate was high, and so was inflation. The Iran hostage crisis had dominated the news, and Carter couldn’t crack it. So when Reagan took to the debate stage a week ahead of the vote, he delivered a devastating argument for his candidacy that may well have propelled him to victory:

Next Tuesday is Election Day. Next Tuesday all of you will go to the polls, will stand there in the polling place and make a decision. I think when you make that decision, it might be well if you would ask yourself, are you better off than you were four years ago? Is it easier for you to go and buy things in the stores than it was four years ago? Is there more or less unemployment in the country than there was four years ago? Is America as respected throughout the world as it was? Do you feel that our security is as safe, that we’re as strong as we were four years ago? And if you answer all of those questions yes, why then, I think your choice is very obvious as to whom you will vote for. If you don’t agree, if you don’t think that this course that we’ve been on for the last four years is what you would like to see us follow for the next four, then I could suggest another choice that you have.

The incisive attack wasn’t necessarily fair. Countries can experience any range of shocks and tragedies that are no fault of the president at the time. And Reagan’s economic policies were not the panacea he claimed them to be. But it was an impeccable volley in a political debate, and politicians have to play the hands they are dealt. Reagan took the opportunity to aggressively skewer his opponent, and the phrase “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” has become a perennial cliche of re-election politics. Continue reading.

Will 2020 be the year the RNC’s ‘autopsy’ was right?

Seven years later, the GOP’s analysis of the electorate is still a must-read

ANALYSIS — At least once a year, I look back at the March 2013 Republican National Committee’s “Growth & Opportunity Project,” the party’s post-2012 “autopsy” examining why Republicans were falling behind in their battle against the Democrats.

“Falling behind?” you might ask, after seeing the GOP sweeps of 2014 and 2016 and Donald Trump’s victory. Yes. Barack Obama turned out to be a useful foil for Republicans, but the party continues to have fundamental flaws.

“Republicans have lost the popular vote in five of the last six presidential elections,” noted the report, which cited the success of GOP governors and concluded that the party’s “federal wing … is increasingly marginalizing itself.” In 2016, the number of popular-vote losses rose to six of the last seven presidential elections when Trump won the White House. Continue reading.