Tag: 2020 election

Nightmare scenario: What do we do if Trump actually loses in 2020 — and refuses to quit?

AlterNet logoIt is somewhere on the outer edges of conceivable that a sitting president will refuse to step down if he loses his re-election campaign. Nothing close to that has ever happened before. If that scenario plays out, America could still be saved from tyranny — but our democratic institutions would need to rise to the challenge.

Salon’s Amanda Marcotte recently published a an article arguing that it’s possible — perhaps even likely — that President Trump will try to stay in office if he loses in next year’s election, most likely by casting doubt on the legitimacy of the results and hoping that Republicans, once again, will close their eyes tight and back him up. We should also remember that Trump ominously said during the 2016 campaignthat he would only accept the results of the election “if I win,” essentially making a veiled threat that he was likely to question the validity of any victory by Hillary Clinton, regardless of the circumstances.

Trump’s reasoning was perfectly circular: The only explanation he would require to “prove” that he had been cheated was that he didn’t win. Something vaguely resembling an actual case that he had been robbed could be constructed after the fact — which Trump did anyway with his repeated false claims that he had only lost the popular vote in 2016 because of millions of illegal votes by undocumented immigrants.

View the complete June 23 article by Matthew Rozsa from Salon on the AlterNet website here.

GOP hopes dim on reclaiming House

The Hill logoThe 2020 election is more than a year away, but some Republican lawmakers are pessimistic about their chances of winning back the House.

President Trump’s approval ratings in key swing states are under water. Infighting on the GOP leadership team and a notable retirement have raised questions about the party’s campaign strategy.

And Republicans acknowledge that many of the at-risk Democratic freshmen in Trump districts are going to be difficult to beat as they resist calls for impeachment and stay focused on kitchen-table issues such as health care and infrastructure.

View the complete June 19 article by Scott Wong and Juliegrace Brufke on The Hill website here.

Trump’s internal poll numbers are out. And both they and his team’s response paint a bleak picture.

For days, President Trump has denied a New York Times report that his internal polling data showed him in deep trouble in key states in 2020, claiming the Times simply made up the numbers.

It didn’t. He made up the denial. And it appears he is in as bad a shape as the Times said he was.

ABC News has obtained the polling data, which show as bleak a picture for Trump as the Times has indicated. Trump trails Joe Biden by 16 points in Pennsylvania, 10 points in Wisconsin and seven points in Florida, and the president leads by just two points in red Texas. These numbers largely echo the limited public polling we have been seeing on the 2020 general election, which is also brutal for Trump and which he also claims is bogus.

The numbers are remarkable. But just as remarkable is what the Trump campaign is saying about them.

View the complete June 14 article by Aaron Blake on The Washington Post website here.

Fact-checking President Trump’s swing-state spin

“Pennsylvania has never done this well. We’ve got steel back, we brought coal back, we brought so many things back, and the state now is doing better than it’s ever done. … Miners are going back to work that never thought they’d see that job again.”

— President Trump, in an interview following a campaign rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., May 20, 2019

“Toyota’s coming in with $14 billion, many, many companies are coming in. And they’re coming in, frankly, to Michigan, they’re coming back, they want to be back to Ohio, to Pennsylvania, to North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida and what’s the name of this special place? It’s called Wisconsin. So they’ll be investing very shortly.”

— Trump, at a campaign rally in Green Bay, Wis., April 27, 2019

Notice a theme here? In Trump’s telling, several swing states that could decide the 2020 presidential election are seeing a resurgence of blue-collar jobs in the coal-mining, steel and automotive industries.

We’ve fact-checked many of these lines in our database of Trump’s false or misleading claims. But the blue-collar renaissance now appears to be a campaign mainstay, especially when the president touches down in swing states, so we’re taking a closer look at the numbers.

“Miners are going back to work that never thought they’d see that job again. … They’re digging coal again, so I’m really honored by that, and Pennsylvania is one of the big beneficiaries.” (Wilkes-Barre, Pa., May 20)

View the complete June 13 article by Salvador Rizzo on The Washington Post website here.

Report: Trump Orders Aides To Lie About His Bad Poll Numbers

Confronted with abysmal poll numbers in key 2020 states, Trump demanded his aides follow his example: Deny and lie.

According to a New York Times report, after internal polling conducted in May showed him trailing some Democratic contenders in states like Texas, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, Trump ordered his aides to deny any such data existed.

But when the polling inevitably leaked, Trump “instructed aides to say publicly that other data showed him doing well,” reports the Times.

View the complete June 11 article by Dan Desai Martin on the National Memo website here.

Democrats push to make national security a 2020 wedge issue

Foreign policy is getting placed on the back burner as 2020 Democratic presidential candidates look for a breakout moment in the party’s crowded field.

But Democratic senators and strategists are clamoring for White House hopefuls to talk up the issue, arguing President Trump is vulnerable on national security after sparking a series of international dust-ups during his presidency.

“It’s an enormous point of political exposure for this president. He continues to screw up everything in every corner of the world,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a leading voice within the Senate Democratic caucus on foreign policy. “We have the opportunity to close the national security gap with Republicans in 2020, so I would hope that Democrats see this as an opportunity.”

 View the complete June 9 article by Jordain Carney on The Hill website here.

Trump’s giant gender gap: 62 percent of women say they are unlikely to vote for him

In a new poll, a significant majority of American women who are registered to vote say they are not likely to support President Trump’s re-election effort in 2020, setting him up with a gender gap that may prove difficult to overcome.

In a June 1-2 Hill-HarrisX survey, 62 percent of female registered voters said they were unlikely to support Trump’s bid to obtain a second term. Fifty-three percent said they were very unlikely to back Trump while 9 percent said they were somewhat unlikely. Thirty-eight percent of women who participated said they were likely to back Trump.

In the 2016 election, exit polls indicated that 41 percent of women who voted chose Trump meaning that he has likely lost some support from women during his presidency.

View the complete June 6 post on The Hill website here.

The Hill’s Morning Report – Trump struggles to replicate 2016 coalition

If polling is any indication, President Trump has his work cut out for him if he hopes to replicate his 2016 performance in 2020.

Nearly 17 months before he stands for reelection, the president is struggling mightily in a cadre of key states that propelled him to the White House, as well as a few others that he won, but could turn out to be a challenge next year. Along with Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, the president’s standing is falling in North Carolina and Texas, two states he won in 2016, but where warning signs are cropping up as he readies his official campaign announcement in less than two weeks, according to Jonathan Easley.

In particular, the polls show Trump faring poorly against former Vice President Joe Biden. According to recent surveys, Biden leads Trump in Pennsylvania, Michigan and North Carolina by double digits, giving Biden an electability argument no one else on the Democratic side can make.

View the complete June 6 article by Alexis Simendinger and Al Weaver on The Hill website here.

Polls flash 2020 warning for Trump

Early swing state polls suggest President Trump will have his work cut out for him to win reelection to a second term.

Trump’s upset victories in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin propelled him to the White House in 2016. He was the first Republican presidential candidate to win any of those states since 1988.

Today, most polls show Trump behind former Vice President Joe Biden — the current front-runner in the Democratic race — in all of those swing states.

View the complete June 5 article by Jonathan Easley on The Hill website here.

Trump administration tightens restrictions on fetal tissue research

After Trump recently called his economy “the best ever,” MSNBC’s Morgan Radford spoke with a group of truckers who disagreed.

MSNBC spoke to a group of trucker drivers this week who say that President Donald Trump hasn’t kept his campaign promises.

>After Trump recently called his economy “the best ever,” MSNBC’s Morgan Radford spoke with a group of truckers who disagreed. Several of the truckers were Trump voters who don’t expect to vote for the president again.

“Do you feel like this administration is listening to you as truckers?” Radford asked.

“No, ma’am,” one trucker replied.

View the complete June 5 article by David Edwards of Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.