‘He’s only concerned about himself’: Governor slams Trump after his revealing comments about coronavirus risk

AlterNet logo

When thousands of Trump supporters attended an indoor MAGA rally in Las Vegas over the weekend, social distancing was not encouraged — and protective face masks were few and far between in the crowd. Critics of President Donald Trump have slammed the rally as blatantly irresponsible, including Democratic Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak — who didn’t hold back during an appearance on MSNBC on Monday.

In an interview, Trump had dismissed concerns about contracting the virus at the rally, saying: “I’m on a stage and it’s very far away.” He added: “And so I’m not at all concerned.”

Of course, his supporters in the audience were packed in tightly against each other, many of them not wearing masks. Continue reading.

Trump busted for claiming he received non-existent ‘Bay of Pigs Award’ in baffling Twitter rant

AlterNet logo

Following news that billionaire Michael Bloomberg is sinking $100 million into Florida to boost Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and defeat Donald Trump in November, the president first attacked Bloomberg on Twitter and then laid claim to an award that he stated was bestowed upon him by some of Florida’s Cuban-Americans.

As CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale explains, there is no such thing as the awkwardly named “Bay of Pigs Award.”

According to Trump, “Sleepy Joe Biden has spent 47 years in politics being terrible to Hispanics. Now he is relying on Castro lover Bernie Sanders to help him out. That won’t work! Remember, Miami Cubans gave me the highly honored Bay of Pigs Award for all I have done for our great Cuban Population!” Continue reading.

Trump makes it clear: He revels in the killing of his political opponents

AlterNet logo

For all the demands that former Vice President Joe Biden condemn rioting and looting, no serious observer actually thinks he supports violence in the streets. The most plausible criticism of Biden is that he’s a creature of the existing political system — a product of and adherent to the established institutional order. He doesn’t want violence and chaos to shake the foundations of society.

President Donald Trump, on the other hand, really does relish chaos, and he cares little for any institutions that he doesn’t see as directly benefiting him. And in a new Fox News interview this weekend, he made clear that he’s not just a fan of violence — a view he has expressed repeatedly, even if he occasionally reads from scripts that say the opposite — but he is actively pleased by the deaths of his political enemies.

While discussing with host Jeanine Pirro the fact that U.S. Marshals — a part of the Justice Department, a part of Trump’s administration — killed the avowed antifa activist Michael Forest Reinoehl, the president expressed no regret at his death. In fact, he was triumphant about the killing.

Here’s the section of the transcript, per Factba.se: Continue reading.

Trump fact-checked as ‘quite delusional’ at rally that Fox News did not even air

AlterNet logo

President Donald Trump was visibly agitated during a Saturday evening campaign rally outside Reno, Nevada.

Trump bragged about having a huge crowd in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic. Neither MSNBC, CNN nor Fox News aired the rally live. In fact, C-SPAN didn’t even air it live.

Trump began by lashing out at Gov. Steve Sisolak (D-NV), but veteran Nevada political reporter Jon Ralson said was “pure fiction” and “delusional.”

Continue reading.

Woodward Book Says Mattis Feared Trump Would Start Nuclear War With North Korea

The coronavirus bombshells in Bob Woodward’s new book, Rage, due out September 15, are so explosive that they have somewhat overshadowed other important parts of the book — for example, the veteran journalist/author’s reporting on President Donald Trump’s foreign policy decisions. And Woodward, according to the Guardian‘s Julian Borger, describes some of the ways in which Sen. Lindsey Graham, former Defense Secretary James Mattis, and others tried to rein Trump in on foreign policy.

Rage is based in part on a series of interviews that Woodward conducted with Trump from December 2019-July 2020. Woodward reports that on February 7, Trump told him that COVID-19 was five times “more deadly” than the flu — although he was publicly claiming, in February, that the novel coronavirus didn’t pose a major threat to the United States. Not surprisingly, Woodward’s damning coronavirus revelations have dominated cable news discussions of Rage. But other parts of Rage are important as well, and Borger notes some of Woodward’s reporting on Trump’s foreign policy decisions.

Four days before the January 3, 2020 drone strike that killed Iranian military Qasem Soleimani, Graham and Trump discussed Iran. Graham, according to Woodward, warned Trump that killing Soleimani would be a “giant step” and told the president, “How about hitting someone a level below Soleimani, which would be much easier for everyone to absorb?” Continue reading.

Twitter Tags Another Trump Post, This Time Over Potentially Encouraging Voter Fraud

The president previously had a post tagged for seemingly attempting to interfere with the election process.

Donald Trump on Saturday had another post tagged by Twitter, this time for potentially encouraging voter fraud.

“We placed a public interest notice on this Tweet for violating our Civic Integrity Policy, specifically for encouraging people to potentially vote twice,” Twitter explained after the president posted: “NORTH CAROLINA: To make sure your Ballot COUNTS, sign & send it in EARLY. When Polls open, go to your Polling Place to see if it was COUNTED. IF NOT, VOTE! Your signed Ballot will not count because your vote has been posted. Don’t let them illegally take your vote away from you!”

Twitter further explained, “To protect people on Twitter, we err on the side of limiting the circulation of Tweets which advise people to take actions which could be illegal in the context of voting or result in the invalidation of their votes.” Continue reading.

Trump says he watches 7 hours of TV a day — after saying he doesn’t ‘watch very much’

Donald Trump once said he didn’t have enough time to watch television.

Donald Trump on Thursday said he had watched more than seven hours of Fox News programming since Wednesday night, listing off the prime-time shows he tuned in to on the right-wing propaganda network.

“I watched Liz MacDonald — she’s fantastic. I watched Fox Business. I watched Lou Dobbs last night, Sean Hannity last night, Tucker last night, Laura. I watched ‘Fox & Friends’ in the morning,” Trump said at a news conference from the White House, referencing Fox’s prime-time line-up as well as its three-hour-long morning show.

Trump’s constant watching of Fox News — and repeating of its talking points — is well known. Continue reading.

Trump makes wild claims about revitalizing auto industry at Michigan rally

FREELAND, Mich. — President Donald Trump made wildly inaccurate claims at a rally outside Saginaw on Thursday night, suggesting he has revitalized auto manufacturing in the state when it actually lost jobs even before coronavirus hit in March.

“We brought you a lot of car plants, we brought you a lot … and we’re going to bring you a lot more,” Trump began his speech at MBS International Airport in Freeland.

But only one new major assembly facility, a Jeep plant on Detroit’s east side, has been announced during Trump’s term, while General Motors underwent a divisive 40-day strike last year and announced the idling of four U.S. plants, including two in Michigan. One of those, Detroit-Hamtramck, has since been revived and is being retooled to build electric cars and SUVs. Warren transmission was revived most recently to make face masks, though its future is uncertain. Continue reading.

#EndorseThis: How Trump Encourages White Nationalist Violence And Terror

Now a Department of Homeland Security whistleblower has pointed America’s attention to what has been obvious for years: White nationalist terrorism is a major threat to our lives and liberty — and the Trump administration has done far too little to address this burgeoning menace. In fact, as this MeidasTouch video shows, Donald Trump has provoked and encouraged racist violence from the beginning of his presidency. 

Trump deserves plenty of blame for this toxic excrescence, but too many of his fellow Republicans have gone along. The Republican leadership even allows QAnon, the anti-Semitic and racist conspiracy movement, to co-opt the party’s Congressional candidates. Continue reading.

Trump employs images of violence as political fuel for reelection fight

Washington Post logo

President Trump has reverted to using graphic depictions of violence as a centerpiece of his reelection campaign strategy, using his Twitter account, his stump speech and even the White House podium as platforms for amplifying domestic conflict.

His 2016 focus on radical Islamist terrorism and undocumented-immigrant crime, which he credited with helping him win the Republican nomination, has been replaced by warnings of new threats as he elevates gruesome images of Black-on-White crime, street fights involving his supporters and police-misconduct unrest nationwide.

The pattern continued over the holiday weekend, when he tweeted video of a melee in Texas between protesters and security officers during an event for a Trump-affiliated group and two celebratory videos of a protester in Portland, Ore., with his feet on fire. One of the videos was scored to the Kenny Loggins song “Footloose,” and the second featured mocking play-by-play commentary by a mixed-martial-arts announcer. Continue reading.