Category: Joe Biden

World War II vet and NRA member: ‘Trump has been the worst president we’ve ever had’

A World War II veteran, lifetime Republican, and NRA member explains why he’s voting for Joe Biden

Donald Trump speaks often of how he loves veterans and supports them, despite raiding the pensions of veterans to fund his wall and misusingcharitable funds earmarked for them.

On Thursday night at the Democratic National Convention, 95-year-old Edward Good — a World War II veteran, lifetime Republican, NRA member, and a 2016 Trump voter — spoke about how he’ll be voting for Joe Biden for president.

I am Edward Good. I’m a veteran of World War II and of Korea. When I wear a uniform, I wear only two badges, my parachute wings, and the combat infantry badge. I did make combat jump over the Rhine in Germany and I’m proud of that. I have been a republican since the 1960s.

I’m a member of the NRA and voted for Trump. I think Trump has been the worst president we’ve ever had so I’ll be glad to see him go. I think Joe Biden will be a great leader for the United States.

Continue reading.

15 high-profile Republicans who want Joe Biden to win the White House

A significant number of Republicans say they plan to vote for the Democratic nominee this November.

At least 15 high-profile Republicans will back Democrat Joe Biden over Donald Trump in the presidential election in November.

On Monday, four former GOP officials are set to address the Democratic National Convention in support of Biden: former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, former Rep. Susan Molinari of New York, and former California Republican gubernatorial nominee Meg Whitman.

Also on Monday, former Trump administration Homeland Security chief of staff Miles Taylor released a testimonial video for Republican Voters Against Trump backing Biden. Continue reading.

‘Are you really going to impeach me?’: How the Ukraine bombshell unfolded over 48 hours and laid bare Trump’s fixation with Biden

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Just after 8 a.m. on Tuesday, September 24, 2019, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was in her Georgetown apartment, getting ready for the day that was going to be like no other in her long career. This was the day she would formally, officially, finally announce that the House was opening the impeachment inquiry against President Trump.

The California Democrat had resisted calls for impeachment from the left flank of her party for months. As the speaker, the one making the decision, Pelosi had to keep calibrating the risks. There was a risk to doing something, and a risk to doing nothing. She didn’t want to tolerate presidential misconduct. But she also didn’t want the House, or her party, to be seen as taking away the voters’ power to decide Trump’s fate. An impeachment couldn’t be personal, she kept telling her leadership team, or about policy differences. It had to be careful, fair, and easy for the American people to understand to avoid a severe backlash in an already deeply divided nation. As much as many of Trump’s actions appalled her, she had not seen an ironclad, public-unifying offense among them.

But now she had come to believe that Trump had abused his power on a July 25 phone call with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, in which he had suggested Ukraine open investigations that would benefit Trump personally — including one into his chief political rival, former vice president Joe Biden. Continue reading.

Biden speaks from a place Trump doesn’t know — the heart

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President Trump has tried every dirty trick in the book — and a few new ones — to cast doubts about the workings of Joe Biden’s brain. But Trump has been focusing on entirely the wrong organ. Biden’s appeal is from the heart.

The Democratic presidential nominee, in the most crucial speech of his long career in public service, had no problem clearing the low bar Trump had set. The evening began with a clip of Biden quoting Kierkegaard and ended with him quoting the Irish poet Seamus Heaney.

But the power of Biden’s acceptance speech — and the power of his candidacy — was in its basic, honest simplicity. The rhetoric wasn’t soaring. The delivery was workmanlike (he botched an Ella Baker quote in his opening line). But it was warm and decent, a soothing, fireside chat for this pandemic era, as we battle twin crises of disease and economic collapse and we only see each other disembodied in boxes on a screen. Biden spoke not to his political base but to those who have lost loved ones to the virus. Continue reading.

Biden vows to lead America out of ‘season of darkness’

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Former Vice President Joe Biden said he’d lead the country out of what he called a “season of darkness” and vowed to “draw on the best” of what America has to offer as he accepted the Democratic presidential nomination on Thursday night, setting up a general election battle with President Trump in November.

In his speech, Biden blasted Trump as a president who has sowed chaos and division. He cast himself as the candidate who would unite Republicans and Democrats, while leading the country out of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic downturn and racial turmoil.

“The current president has cloaked American anger for far too long. Too much anger, too much division. Here and now, I give you my word – if you entrust me with the presidency, I’ll draw on the best of us, not the worst,” Biden said. “I’ll draw on the light, not the darkness. It’s time for us, for we the people to come together. And make no mistake, we can and will overcome this season of darkness in America. We’ll choose hope over fear, facts over fiction, fairness over privilege.” Continue reading.

Over 70 former GOP national security officials endorse Biden

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More than 70 former national security officials who served under Republican administrations have endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, joining a wave of GOP voices throwing their support behind the former vice president. 

The officials have served under President Trump and former Republican Presidents George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan. 

The group includes former Department of Homeland Security chief of staff Miles Taylor, who has gained attention in recent days for going public with his accounts of his interactions with Trump, as well as former CIA Director Michael Hayden and former Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte. Continue reading.

Kellyanne Says Biden Has No Pandemic Plan — Then Claims She Read It

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway falsely claimed on Wednesday that Joe Biden had no plan to address the COVID-19 pandemic. Less than a minute later, she claimed to have read Biden’s entire COVID-19 plan.

On Fox News, Conway complained that Democrats had not explained how Biden would address the coronavirus.

“If they’ve got a good idea,” she demanded, “they shouldn’t be sitting ’til November 4th.”

Host Sandra Smith corrected Conway, noting that Biden indeed has a plan.

The warning from Kamala Harris and the convention’s third night: Our house is on fire

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The star of the third night of the Democratic convention peeked out from backstage at the beginning of the evening to plead with viewers to vote. “Each of us needs a plan, a voting plan,” said Sen. Kamala D. Harris, the vice-presidential nominee. It has come to this. She was urging Americans to plot their strategy for accessing the polls because the pathway may be blocked.

Her words were reminiscent of the sort of warning an emergency worker might give to a complacent family: Have an escape plan in case your home should suddenly go up in flames.

How will you all get out? Do you have a fire extinguisher? What will you save? Where will you meet to make sure everyone is safe and accounted for? Will you be able to repair the damage? Continue reading.

Obama casts Trump as threat to democracy

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Former President Obama on Wednesday warned Americans that democracy is at stake in November’s election, admonishing President Trump as categorically unfit for the job and pleading with voters to back his onetime vice president. 

“I am also asking you to believe in your own ability — to embrace your own responsibility as citizens — to make sure that the basic tenets of our democracy endure,” Obama said from the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, where he was flanked by the text of the U.S. Constitution. “Because that’s what’s at stake right now. Our democracy.” 

Obama used Wednesday’s speech and its symbolic backdrop to frame the upcoming election in stark terms. He warned against complacency, arguing that cynicism and apathy in the face of Trump’s attacks on democratic norms would cause the entire system to wither away “until there’s no democracy at all.” Continue reading.