Category: Joe Biden

Trump, Biden tactical battle intensifies

The Hill logoThe Trump and Biden campaigns are battling for every advantage over the air waves and on the ground with less than 90 days to go before the presidential election.

The pandemic has forced the campaigns to get creative in finding new ways to reach voters.

President Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee (RNC) are undertaking an aggressive ground strategy by sending mask-wearing field staffers to knock on doors to counter Democrat Joe Biden’s onslaught of over-the-air advertisements. Continue reading.

US intelligence says Russia seeking to ‘denigrate’ Biden

The Hill logoThe top U.S. counterintelligence official announced Friday a series of foreign threats facing the 2020 presidential election, warning in particular that Russia is using a range of measures to “primarily denigrate” former Vice President Joe Biden while China prefers that President Trump not win reelection.

William Evanina, the director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, pointed to China, Russia and Iran as the three primary foreign threats to the U.S. presidential race, cautioning that they are seeking to “sway voters’ preferences and perspectives,” sow discord and “undermine the American people’s confidence in our democratic process.”

“Many foreign actors have a preference for who wins the election, which they express through a range of overt and private statements; covert influence efforts are rarer. We are primarily concerned about the ongoing and potential activity by China, Russia, and Iran,” Evanina said in a statement. Continue reading.

Russia is trying to ‘denigrate’ Biden while China prefers ‘unpredictable’ Trump not be reelected, senior U.S. intelligence official says

Washington Post logoRussia is “using a range of measures” to interfere in the 2020 election and has enlisted a pro-Russian lawmaker from Ukraine — who has met with President Trump’s personal lawyer — “to undermine former vice president [Joe] Biden’s candidacy and the Democratic Party,” a top U.S. intelligence official said in a statement Friday.

The remarks by William Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, were some of the most detailed to date about foreign interference in the presidential race and come after earlier criticism from Democratic lawmakers that Evanina had not shared with the public some of the alarming intelligence he gave them in classified briefings.

Evanina also said that the government of China does not want Trump to win reelection in November, seeing the incumbent as “unpredictable.” Evanina described China’s efforts to date as largely rhetorical and aimed at shaping policy and criticizing the Trump administration for actions Beijing sees as harmful to its long-term strategic interests. Continue reading.

Morning Joe busts Trump’s long history of racism in damning supercut video

AlterNet logoMSNBC’s Joe Scarborough blew up President Donald Trump’s attempts to portray Joe Biden as racist.

The president pounced on Biden’s suggestion that the Latino community was diverse, “unlike the African American community with notable exceptions,” and the former vice president was forced to clarify his remarks in a series of tweets.

Trump claimed Biden “totally disparaged and insulted” Black Americans, but the “Morning Joe” host laughed off those allegations as ridiculous given the president’s history. Continue reading.

Trump launches delusional and bewildering rant against Biden: ‘He’s against God!’

AlterNet logoFew ever accuse President Donald Trump of subtlety. But in a new speech in Cleveland on Thursday, he let loose with a particularly wild rant against his Democratic opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, that was over-the-top, even for him.

It’s worth just quoting in full:

He’s following the radical left agenda. Take away your guns. Destroy your Second Amendment. No religion! No anything! Hurt the Bible! Hurt God! He’s against God! He’s against guns! He’s against energy, our kind of energy. Uh, I don’t think he’s going to do too well in Ohio.

Many people pointed out that there’s much more evidence that Biden is a committed Christian than there is for Trump. But almost that seems to miss several key points about how wild this is:  Continue reading.

Club for Growth launches anti-Biden ad blitz

The conservative group will spend $5 million on ads across three battleground states next week.

The anti-tax Club for Growth is launching a multimillion dollar ad campaign going after Joe Biden, as Republicans find themselves overwhelmed by liberal outside groups in the presidential race.

The conservative organization is preparing a $5 million advertising campaign attacking the former vice president for opposing school choice. Officials with the group say the investment could grow in the weeks to come. The commercials will start on Monday and air for a week in three key swing states: Arizona, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

President Donald Trump has been swamped by liberal outside groups in recent weeks. According to outside spending data tallied by the Center for Responsive Politics, pro-Biden groups have outspent their conservative counterparts more than two to one, $91.2 million to $44.7 million. The White House-sanctioned pro-Trump super PAC, America First Action, has also been outraised and outspent by its main Democratic counterpart, Priorities USA Action. Continue reading.

Tucker Carlson: It’s ‘probably illegal’ for Biden to only consider women of color for vice president

AlterNet logoFox News host Tucker Carlson, who once dismissed white supremacy as a “hoax” and “not a real problem,” falsely claimed on Monday that it was “probably illegal” for presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden to only consider women of color for the vice presidency.

Carlson — who has long used his show to push white grievance politics and echo white nationalist and white supremacist talking points — singled out three Black women on Biden’s short-list for attack, even though the former vice president has also considered white women candidates. Among the names were three senators: Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.

Biden has since said he would pick a woman of color, but his list is not limited to Black women, with Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., who is of Asian descent, and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, D-N.M., who is Latinx, reportedly under consideration. Continue reading.

Foreign threats loom ahead of US presidential election

NEW YORK (AP) — As the Nov. 3 presidential vote nears, there are fresh signs that the nation’s electoral system is again under attack from foreign adversaries.

Intelligence officials confirmed in recent days that foreign actors are actively seeking to compromise the private communications of “U.S. political campaigns, candidates and other political targets” while working to compromise the nation’s election infrastructure. Foreign entities are also aggressively spreading disinformation intended to sow voter confusion heading into the fall.

There is no evidence that America’s enemies have yet succeeded in penetrating campaigns or state election systems, but Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential campaign confirmed this week that it has faced multiple related threats. Continue reading.

Biden’s Real Health Care Reform Is Far Better Than Trump’s Imaginary Plan

Health care policy has been a major issue for a long time. It played a big role in Barack Obama’s 2008 election victory, his entire presidency and the 2010 GOP takeover of the House of Representatives. Repealing Obamacare was a Republican priority before and after Donald Trump became president. The debate on “Medicare for All” dominated the 2020 Democratic primaries.

Now, in the middle of the nation’s worst pandemic in 100 years, you would think health care policy would be the object of obsession among politicians and voters. Instead, the issue has gone missing.

Congress is absorbed with economic stimulus and help for the unemployed. The Trump administration’s favorite topic is law and order. Racial justice is paramount among Democrats right now. Continue reading.

The Lincoln Project’s plan for preserving the union: Drive Trump out of office by driving him nuts

Washington Post logoYour house is on fire. Do you care who the firemen are?

That is a central question of the 2020 election. Donald Trump has managed to do one thing no other president has done: Bring Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and progressives, boomers and millennials together in unprecedented numbers to try to defeat him in November. For Americans who believe the president is a raging threat to democracy, purity tests are out. Results are in.

Which explains the spectacular rise of the Lincoln Project, a group of Republican Never Trumpers who have moved rent free into the president’s head. Their viral videos and tweets mocking his leadership, his intelligence and his patriotism — aimed both at Republican voters who are wavering and Trump himself — have attracted millions of dollars, via donors from both parties. More than 10,000 people showed up for a virtual town hall last month. Lifelong Democrats are organizing fundraisers for the project. Continue reading.