Category: Joe Biden

Elect Joe Biden. Reject Donald Trump.

Our View: In 2016, we broke tradition in urging you not to vote for Trump. Now we’re making our first presidential endorsement. We hope it’s our last.

Four years ago, the Editorial Board — an ideologically and demographically diverse group of journalists that is separate from the news staff and operates by consensus — broke with tradition and took sides in the presidential race for the first time since USA TODAY was founded in 1982. We urged readers not to vote for Donald Trump, calling the Republican nominee unfit for office because he lacked the “temperament, knowledge, steadiness and honesty that America needs from its presidents.” We stopped short, however, of an outright endorsement of Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee. This year, the Editorial Board unanimously supports the election of Joe Biden, who offers a shaken nation a harbor of calm and competence.

Recent polls show that more than 90% of voters have decided between Biden and Trump, and nothing at this point will change their minds. This editorial is for those of you who are still uncertain about which candidate to vote for, or whether to vote at all. It’s also for those who settled on Trump but might be having last-minute doubts.

Maybe you backed Trump the last time around because you hoped he’d shake things up in Washington or bring back blue-collar jobs. Maybe you liked his populist, anti-elitist message. Maybe you couldn’t stomach the idea of supporting a Democrat as polarizing as Clinton. Maybe you cast a ballot for a minor party candidate, or just stayed home. Continue reading.

Former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele endorses Joe Biden

Michael Steele, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee, has endorsed Joe Biden, the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee. Steele announced he was votingagainst the Republican Party in an ad by the Lincoln Project, a group of Republican strategists dedicated to seeing President Trump’s defeat.

“For four years, many have said there will come a moment. Well, this is the moment. Because this ballot is like none ever cast,” Steele said in the ad released Tuesday. “Now, I’m a lifelong Republican – and I’m still a Republican. But this ballot is how we restore the soul of our nation: Electing a good man, Joe Biden, and a trailblazer, Kamala Harris, and ensure an orderly transfer of power, or plunge our country into chaos.”

“America or Trump? I choose America,” Steele said. Continue reading.

Debate commission to mute Trump, Biden microphones during parts of Thursday debate

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NOTE: This article is being provided free of charge to alll readers by The Washington Post.

The Commission on Presidential Debates said Monday night that it will mute Trump’s and Biden’s microphones during parts of Thursday’s presidential debate at Belmont University in Nashville.

The 90-minute debate will be broken up into six 15-minute segments, each with a different topic. The commission said it will give Trump and Biden two minutes apiece to speak uninterrupted at the start of each segment. A period of “open discussion” will follow until the next segment begins.

Trump’s campaign has repeatedly opposed the idea of granting the moderator the power to shut off a candidate’s microphone — an idea that has been floated in the aftermath of the first debate, during which Trump repeatedly interrupted and jeered at Biden. Continue reading.

Biden takes cautious approach ahead of second Trump debate

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Former Vice President Joe Biden is taking a cautious approach ahead of the final presidential debate against President Trump in what is expected to be one of the final turning points in the campaign.

Public polls show the Democratic nominee leading in the core battleground states and running away from the president in national surveys, although the Biden campaign has warned that the race is far closer than how it’s being characterized by the national media.

Under pressure to alter the course of the race, Trump will make two stops in Arizona on Monday, followed by trips to Pennsylvania and North Carolina ahead of Thursday’s debate.

Why 1500 Faith Leaders Have Endorsed Joe Biden and Kamala Harris

Trump’s antics distract the nation from the existence of progressive Christians. 

The reality is that Biden is a lifelong, committed Catholic who speaks frequently about the role of his faith in his personal and political life. “My idea of self, of family, of community, of the wider world comes straight from my religion,” Biden wrote in his book “Promises to Keep: On Life in Politics.”

“Joe knows the power of prayer, and I’ve seen him in moments of joy and triumph, of loss and despair, turn to God for strength,” Sen. Chris Coons said during the Democratic National Convention. A New York Times review of nearly 60 eulogies the former vice president has delivered labeled him an “emissary of grief.” Continue reading.

Why These Voters Rejected Hillary Clinton but Are Backing Joe Biden

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For many Democrats and independents who sat out 2016, voted for third-party candidates or backed Donald Trump, Mr. Biden is more acceptable to them in ways large and small than Mrs. Clinton was.

Samantha Kacmarik, a Latina college student in Las Vegas, said that four years ago, she had viewed Hillary Clinton as part of a corrupt political establishment.

Flowers Forever, a Black transgender music producer in Milwaukee, said she had thought Mrs. Clinton wouldn’t change anything for the better.

And Thomas Moline, a white retired garbageman in Minneapolis, said he simply hadn’t trusted her.

None of them voted for Mrs. Clinton. All of them plan to vote for Joseph R. Biden Jr. Continue reading.

Trump’s 2016 campaign pledges on infrastructure have fallen short, creating opening for Biden

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The president made changes to taxes and trade, but the White House’s plans on roads, bridges and airports fizzled

MILWAUKEE — Gerry Winkleman points across the Milwaukee River at the former tannery where he worked for almost two decades as a union welder, repairing blow pipes and net machines that produced thousands of leather shoes and handbags every year.

Winkleman, 74, drives through a stretch of downtown Milwaukee that once served as a hub of U.S. manufacturing, pausing occasionally to note the factories that have either shuttered or moved their production to China over the past three decades: the Pabst and Schlitz breweries; the Allis-Chalmers manufacturing giant; several different tanneries; the Briggs & Stratton foundry; and Kearney & Trecker, which produced milling machines.

Winkleman voted for a Republican presidential candidate for the first time in his life in 2016, largely due to Donald Trump’s promise to bring back manufacturing jobs and invest $1 trillion to rebuild U.S. infrastructure in Rust Belt states like Wisconsin. This year, Winkleman will vote for former vice president Joe Biden, a decision sealed in part by Trump’s decision to pursue tax cuts — which Winkleman says primarily benefited the rich— over infrastructure investments. Winkleman said he and other members of the building trades were “snookered” by Trump’s 2016 promises to rebuild the country. Continue reading.

Kamala Harris team strikes back after David Perdue’s ‘incredibly racist’ attack on her name

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Republican Sen. David Perdue of Georgia was denounced for being “incredibly racist” Friday night after he willfully mispronounced the name of his Senate colleague Kamala Harris, the Democrat from California and her party’s vice presidential nominee, at a campaign rally for President Donald Trump.

Perdue—currently in a heated reelection campaign of his own against Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff—was just completing his introduction for Trump at the rally in Macon, Georgia when he referred to Harris as “Kah-mah-lah? Kah-MAH-lah? Kamala-mala-mala” and then said: “I don’t know. Whatever.”

While the Perdue campaign said the GOP senator “didn’t mean anything by it,” it was clear from the laughter by the predominantly white Republican crowd that the overt dogwhistle had its intended effect. Continue reading.

Sen. David Perdue Intentionally Butchers Sen. Kamala Harris’ Name at Trump Bash

Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) mispronounced Sen. Kamala Harris’ name while speaking before President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Macon, Georgia on Friday night. Emphasizing different syllables, Perdue said, “Kamala, Kamala, kamala-mala-mala—I don’t know—whatever.” The two have worked together in the Senate for nearly four years, presumably allowing him ample time to learn her name. The attack echoes Trump’s continued refusal to pronounce Harris’ name correctly. A spokesman for Perdue tweeted, “Senator Perdue simply mispronounced Senator Harris’ name, and he didn’t mean anything by it.” The Georgia Republican faces a tight re-election race in November, and his Democratic opponent Jon Ossoff pounced on the gaffe: “My opponent, GOP Sen. David Perdue of anti-Semitic attack ad infamy, just mocked Sen. Harris’ name as ‘Kamala-mala-mala-whatever’ at a Trump rally.” In July, Perdue’s campaign published a Facebook ad attacking Ossoff using an image of him with an enlarged nose. Ossoff is Jewish. The Republican’s campaign pulled the ad. View the post and tweet here.

Rudy’s Latest Variation On The Same Dirty Trick That Got Trump Impeached

What a stroke of luck for Donald Trump, just when the president’s election prospects look irretrievably bleak: A trove of incriminating emails has turned up that supposedly connect Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden to a dubious businessman in Ukraine. Uncovered by the president’s own intrepid lawyer Rudy Giuliani and his former adviser Steve Bannon, the newly discovered emails suggest that Biden is as corrupt as they’ve been saying for months.

Supposedly sent by Vadym Pozharskyi, a consultant for Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company that paid the younger Biden to join its board of directors, the emails thank him for making an introduction to his father, then the vice president of the United States. If that actually happened, then the Democratic presidential nominee lied about distancing himself from his son’s business activities. Trump himself bellowed about the “smoking gun” emails at his Iowa rally on Wednesday evening, saying, “Joe Biden has been blatantly lying about his involvement in his son’s corrupt business dealings!”

From Trump’s point of view, this is too good to be true. But then it certainly isn’t true. Continue reading.