Cindy McCain endorses Biden: He’s only candidate ‘who stands up for our values’

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Cindy McCain, the wife of the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), officially endorsed Joe Biden for president on Tuesday evening, saying the former vice president “stands up for our values.”

“My husband John lived by a code: country first. We are Republicans, yes, but Americans foremost. There’s only one candidate in this race who stands up for our values as a nation, and that is @JoeBiden,” Cindy McCain tweeted.

Biden thanked her for her support in a later tweet, adding, “This election is bigger than any one political party. It requires all of us to come together as one America to restore the soul of the nation.” Continue reading.

Threats and invective hurled at health director who sought to postpone Trump’s Tulsa rally, emails show

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Three days before President Trump’s first indoor campaign rally during the coronaviruspandemic — at an arena in Tulsa in June — the director of the Tulsa Health Department marveled at the wave of abuse that was cresting in his direction.

“It’s been crazy since the announcement of the presidential rally,” Bruce Dart wrote to Lori Freeman, a colleague who led an association of local public health officials. “It’s amazing how people strike out against anyone who they assume is not supportive of the president instead of listening to our messaging around staying safe in this pandemic.”

“You’re doing a fabulous job,” Freeman wrote back. “Be strong (as will I).” Continue reading.

Minnesota House Select Committee on Racial Justice holds first hearing

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SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA — Members of the Minnesota House of Representatives’ new Select Committee on Racial Justice met for the first time today. Video of the entire hearing will be available here later this afternoon. The committee’s next hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, September 29. 

“The events we’ve seen in 2020 shined a bright light on racial inequities in our communities and in our systems, but we know these inequities existed long before the COVID-19 pandemic or the tragic death of George Floyd,” said committee co-chair Rep. Ruth Richardson. “By establishing this new select committee, the Minnesota House is acknowledging that racism exists, that it is systemic, and that racism is harmful.”

The select committee’s first hearing focused on health equity and featured presentations from nationally-renowned and Minnesota-based experts, including past president of the American Public Health Association Camara Phyllis Jones, M.D., M.P.H., Ph.D. and University of Minnesota School of Public Health researcher Rachel Hardeman, Ph.D., M.P.H.   

Continue reading “Minnesota House Select Committee on Racial Justice holds first hearing”

Justice Dept. Threatens to Withhold Federal Funds From N.Y., Seattle and Portland

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Attorney General William P. Barr criticized the cities for their responses to protests against police brutality. Democrats called it an effort to help President Trump’s re-election campaign.

WASHINGTON — Attorney General William P. Barr on Monday escalated the Trump administration’s attacks on Democratic-led cities by threatening to withhold federal funding from New York, Seattle and Portland, Ore., over their responses to protests against police brutality, portraying them as inadequate as President Trump seeks to make the unrest a cornerstone of his re-election campaign.

The cities “permitted violence and destruction of property to persist and have refused to undertake reasonable measures to counteract criminal activities,” the Justice Department said in a statement announcing its response to a directive by the presidentthis month to find ways to cut funding from such cities.

“We cannot allow federal tax dollars to be wasted when the safety of the citizenry hangs in the balance,” Mr. Barr said in a statement. “It is my hope that the cities identified by the Department of Justice today will reverse course and become serious about performing the basic function of government and start protecting their own citizens.” Continue reading.

No matter what the CDC says, here’s why many scientists think the coronavirus is airborne.

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“To the general public, ‘airborne’ can evoke fear and panic. People think of the movie ‘Contagion,’ which is like ‘Jaws’ but for infectious diseases.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday removed language from its website that said the novel coronavirus spreads via airborne transmission, the latest example of the agency backtracking from its own guidance.

The agency said the guidance, which went up on Friday and largely went without notice until late Sunday, should not have been posted because it was an early draft.

“Unfortunately an early draft of a revision went up without any technical review,” said Jay Butler, the CDC’s deputy director for infectious diseases. “We are returning to the earlier version and revisiting that process. It was a failure of process at CDC.” Continue reading.

Trump Blew A Big Cash Advantage But Still Puts Campaign Dollars In His Own Pocket

Even as the firms of his current and former campaign managers took pay cuts, Trump funneled another $251,409 into his own cash registers last month.

WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump forced both his current and former campaign managers to take pay cuts in the last two months, but nevertheless funneled another quarter-million dollars into his own cash registers.

Even as his reelection operation lost a once-dominating fundraising advantage to Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, new filings with the Federal Election Commission show that Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee spent another $203,000 at his hotel a few blocks from the White House and another $37,542 to rent space at his Trump Tower in Manhattan ― although the campaign is based at a high-rise in Arlington, Virginia. Total reported payments in August from the campaign and the RNC to the president’s own businesses amounted to $251,409.

Since he took office in January 2017, the political committees under Trump’s control have spent a total of $7,231,392 at Trump’s various businesses, according to a HuffPost analysis of FEC records. Continue reading.

DeVos under investigation for potentially violating Hatch Act because of Fox News interview

The Education Department’s YouTube channel includes the interview, which was also touted in an official message from the agency.

The Office of the Special Counsel has started investigatingEducation Secretary Betsy DeVos for potentially violating the Hatch Act, after she slammed Joe Biden in a Fox News interview and her agency promoted it through official channels.

The head of investigative watchdog blog Checks and Balances Project Scott Peterson said in an interview that OSC Hatch Act attorney Eric Johnson told him he had been assigned to investigate the matter.

“We’ll investigate matters in your complaint,” Johnson told Peterson, recounting the conversation. “The incident seems very well documented.” Johnson also told him that because of remote work prompted by the coronavirus pandemic, the timeline for the investigation is uncertain. Continue reading.

Report: Order to shorten count wasn’t made by Census Bureau

ORLANDO, Fla. — The decision to shorten by a month the 2020 head count of every U.S. resident was not made by the U.S. Census Bureau, and some agency officials suspect it was made by the White House or the Department of Commerce, according to a report from the bureau’s watchdog agency.

The report by the Office of Inspector General did not identify who made the decision to shorten the 2020 census from the end of October to the end of September, but it said bureau officials confirm it was not made by them.

The accelerated schedule “increases the risks to the accuracy of the 2020 Census,” the Inspector General report said. “This was the consensus view of the senior Bureau officials we interviewed.” Continue reading.

We now know the reason for Mueller’s biggest mistake

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After Special Counsel Robert Mueller concluded his investigation into ties between the Russian government and the Trump campaign, the big question still loomed: Was the president guilty of a serious crime?

Attorney General Bill Barr quickly took it upon himself to answer the question, explaining that the special counsel’s work had failed to accuse Donald Trump of criminal acts, and he personally concluded that insufficient evidence existed for any charge. This announcement stunned and perplexed many observers while cheering the president’s allies. The truth only became clear weeks later when the Mueller report was finally released: It laid out substantial evidence that Trump was guilty of many instances of obstruction of justice, but the report was written so as to avoid making this conclusion explicit. (Mueller also sent a letter to Barr arguing that his initial statements about the resolution of the case had been misleading.)

Now, new revelations from one of Mueller’s top deputies, Andrew Weissmann, reveal the context of Mueller’s peculiar choice — one that I’ve argued was a colossal mistake. Continue reading.

QAnon on the ballot: Six GOP-endorsed Minnesota candidates back conspiracy theory

The theory includes false claims that Satanists and pedophiles run the government and that COVID-19 is part of a plot to steal the election. 

At least a half-dozen Minnesota Republicans running for state legislative seats in November have promoted the sprawling, false QAnon conspiracy that claims Satanists and pedophiles run the government and that COVID-19 is part of a plot to steal the election.

Once a fringe fiction, QAnon is quickly seeping into mainstream Republican politics as scores of GOP candidates across the country express support for it. Among them are six candidates endorsed by the Minnesota Republican Party for state House and Senate seats from the Iron Range to the metro suburbs.

In some cases, Minnesota candidates have used official social media pages for their campaigns to post slogans in support of QAnon, which the FBI has warned is a conspiracy theory that could inspire domestic terrorism or violence. Some posts include references to a “Great Awakening” or “The Storm,” a prophesied reckoning in which elected officials, journalists and other members of “the Deep State” are rounded up for imprisonment or execution. Continue reading.