Top Democrats call for DOJ watchdog to probe Barr over possible 2020 election influence

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Four House committee chairs are calling on the Justice Department watchdog to open an emergency investigation into whether Attorney General William Barr and other political appointees have improperly influenced the upcoming 2020 presidential election. 

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) and House Administration Committee Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) on Friday called on Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General Michael Horowitz to probe whether Barr’s public comments on ongoing investigations and other actions are a violation of the agency’s longstanding policy and federal law.

“Attorney General Barr has signaled repeatedly that he is likely to allow DOJ to take prosecutorial actions, make public disclosures, and even issue reports before the presidential election in November. Such actions clearly appear intended to benefit President Trump politically,” the top Democrats wrote to Horowitz. Continue reading.

No President Before Trump Provoked So Many Former Appointees To Openly Revolt

Waves of former officials working for President Donald Trump have consistently turned on him and denounced his conduct throughout his first term in the Oval Office, a trend that only seems to be accelerating as the November election approaches.

Olivia Troye, a former aide to Vice President Mike Pence who worked on the coronavirus task force, was the latest to condemn the president in searing terms on Thursday. In an ad for Republican Voters Against Trump, she described the president as callous to the deaths of Americans and only interested in his re-election.

She likely isn’t the last Trump officials to come out against him, and she certainly wasn’t the first. Continue reading.

Donald Trump mocked for 95-minute ‘slurring’ campaign speech — before crowd ‘packed in like sardines’ in Wisconsin

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President Donald Trump gave a fear-filled and factually inaccurate campaign rally in Mosinee, Wisconsin on Thursday.

The rally, held in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic, featured a large crowd closely packed together.

Here’s some of what people were saying about Trump’s speech, which lasted approximately 95 minutes: Continue reading.

Former model accuses Trump of assault during 1990s tennis tournament

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A former model on Thursday became the latest woman to accuse President Trump of assault, telling the Guardian that Trump groped and kissed her against her will outside a bathroom at the U.S. Open tennis tournament in 1997.

Amy Dorris, who was 24 at the time of the alleged incident, told the Guardian that her encounter with Trump left her feeling “sick” and “violated,” and that she had struggled for years with whether she should speak publicly, including before the 2016 election.

Dorris did not return calls from The Washington Post, but her account was corroborated by her mother, Katherine Dorris, who said Dorris confided in her about the incident at the time it happened. Separately, a friend of Amy Dorris, Caron Bernstein, told The Post that Dorris had authorized her to speak on her behalf and to confirm that the details in the Guardian piece were accurate. Continue reading.

FBI director describes domestic extremists in homeland threats hearing

Antifa is more of an ideology than an organization, and QAnon is ‘more of a complex set of conspiracy theories,’ Wray says

The House Homeland Security Committee’s annual hearing on “Worldwide Threats to the Homeland” had a domestic focus Thursday, with member questions to FBI Director Christopher Wray directed at the security of the November election and the U.S.-based groups associated with riots and other violence that began this year.

Lawmakers anchored much of the three-hour discussion on topics such as Antifa, QAnon and Boogaloos, which have become major social issues in the presidential race. Protests and counter-protests over the last several months have been blamed for clashes in the streets that have led to multiple deaths, destroyed buildings and instances of violence against law enforcement.

Wray repeatedly said that there is no mechanism under U.S. law for the FBI to label domestic organizations as terrorist groups, and he said the FBI is focused on the violence any group might do, not their ideology. Continue reading.

DeVos’ former top aide joins anti-Trump group

Josh Venable is lending his name as an adviser to the Republican Political Alliance for Integrity and Reform.

Josh Venable, the former chief of staff to Education Secretary Betsy Devos, has joined another former Trump administration official’s group opposing the president.

Venable is lending his name as an adviser to the Republican Political Alliance for Integrity and Reform, a group former Department of Homeland Security official Miles Taylor launched on Thursday of current and former Trump administration officials and other Republican leaders who want to see President Donald Trump defeated in November.

Taylor, who was chief of staff at DHS, and Elizabeth Neumann, another former senior Trump DHS official, started the group, which includes 26 Republicans, including Anthony Scaramucci, who served briefly as White House communications director. A current senior administration official is also part of the group, but Taylor declined to share that person’s name. Continue reading.

Trump alleges ‘left-wing indoctrination’ in schools, says he will create national commission to push more ‘pro-American’ history

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President Trump pressed his case Thursday that U.S. schools are indoctrinating children with a left-wing agenda hostile to the nation’s Founding Fathers, describing efforts to educate students about racism and slavery as an insult to the country’s lofty founding principles.

Trump, speaking before original copies of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence at the National Archives, characterized demonstrations against racial injustice as “left-wing rioting and mayhem” that “are the direct result of decades of left-wing indoctrination in our schools. It’s gone on far too long.”

The federal government has no power over the curriculum taught in local schools. Nonetheless, Trump said he would create a national commission to promote a “pro-American curriculum that celebrates the truth about our nation’s great history,” which he said would encourage educators to teach students about the “miracle of American history.” Continue reading.

USPS had plan to send 5 face masks to every home as coronavirus exploded. The White House killed it

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Back in April as coronavirus was exploding across the country, the U.S. Postal Service had a plan to send five reusable facemasks to every home across the country.

The White House killed the plan.

“USPS leaders drafted a news release announcing plans to distribute 650 million masks nationwide, enough to offer five face coverings to every American household,” The Washington Post reports. Continue reading.

Federal judge temporarily blocks USPS operational changes amid concerns about mail slowdowns, election

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A federal judge in Washington state on Thursday granted a request from 14 states to temporarily block operational changes within the U.S. Postal Service that have been blamed for a slowdown in mail delivery, saying President Trump and Postmaster General Louis DeJoy are “involved in a politically motivated attack” on the agency that could disrupt the 2020 election.

Stanley A. Bastian, chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington, said policies put in place under DeJoy “likely will slow down delivery of ballots” this fall, creating a “substantial possibility that many voters will be disenfranchised and the states may not be able to effectively, timely, accurately determine election outcomes.”

“The states have demonstrated that the defendants are involved in a politically motivated attack on the efficiency of the Postal Service,” Bastian said in brief remarks after a 2½-hour hearing in Yakima. “They have also demonstrated that this attack on the Postal Service is likely to irreparably harm the states’ ability to administer the 2020 general election.” Continue reading.