Розділ: Політика
Trailing in Polls, Trump Resurrects ‘The Lone Warrior’
Amid plummeting poll numbers and mounting pressure over his handling of the pandemic, Black Lives Matter protests and reports of Russia offering bounties to Taliban fighters to kill American troops in Afghanistan, U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday tweeted “THE LONE WARRIOR!”THE LONE WARRIOR!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 30, 2020It’s not the first time Trump has portrayed himself as alone, aggrieved and fighting against all odds, but it remains to be seen how well this narrative is able to gain traction this time around.With the election less than five months away, Trump is trailing Democratic rival Joe Biden nationally, in key battleground states and even in traditionally conservative strongholds like Missouri and Texas.Trump is 10 points behind Biden in a national Pew Research poll. Fifty-four percent of registered voters say if the election were held today, they would support Biden or lean toward voting for him, while 44 percent support Trump or lean toward supporting him.The president’s supporters point out that Trump has been the underdog before. In June 2016, Trump lagged behind Hillary Clinton by as much as 10 points in national polls but defeated her on Election Day.“Pollsters look at a few grains of sand instead of the entire beach. The only poll that matters is the one on November 3, 2020 – the entire beach if you will,” said Linda Trocine, chairwoman of the Republican Party in Seminole County, Florida to VOA.Rodney Anderson, chairman of the Republican Party in Dallas County, Texas, also dismissed polling numbers. “As Election Day gets closer, the formidable accomplishments of this administration will be brought to the forefront and will be contrasted with the very real challenge of Biden formulating any coherent message whatsoever,” he said to VOA.Trump himself is projecting confidence on his reelection chance, signaling that he is counting the support of the “silent majority” despite Biden beating him in most polls.Now the question is, as an incumbent, will Trump’s reprise of his role as an insurgent candidate work?Anti-Trump demonstrators protest prior to U.S. President Donald Trump’s speech to Republican members of Congress in Baltimore, Maryland.From bad to worseWhile Trump has been running behind former Vice President Joe Biden in several polls since January, his numbers have eroded further in recent weeks, according to Robert Griffin, Research Director of the Democracy Fund Voter Study Group.With multiple ongoing crises, it’s not clear what is driving the decline, Griffin told VOA, adding that the race looks “like an uphill climb” for Trump.Under normal circumstances, presidents seeking a second term typically tout their accomplishments of the past four years and push for four more. Heading into 2020, Trump regularly highlighted America’s continuing economic expansion and record-low unemployment.But the pandemic and social unrest have eroded some of Trump’s strongest talking points about his record, turning the election into a referendum on his presidency. Analysts say he appears to have little strategy beyond highlighting his own misfortunes and lamenting the obstacles thrown at him by Democrats and the “fake” news media.“When you are already president, I think there’s a really solid question as to how effective messaging like that can be, given some of the inherent contradictions that come with it,” said Griffin.The Trump campaign did not respond to VOA’s request to comment.THE VAST SILENT MAJORITY IS ALIVE AND WELL!!! We will win this Election big. Nobody wants a Low IQ person in charge of our Country, and Sleepy Joe is definitely a Low IQ person!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) Democratic presidential candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden puts on a face mask as he departs after speaking at Alexis Dupont High School in Wilmington, Del., June 30, 2020.On Tuesday, Joe Biden laid out an updated plan to address the pandemic and delivered a scathing rebuke of Trump.”Remember when he exhorted the nation to sacrifice together in the face of this … ‘invisible enemy’? What happened? Now it’s almost July, and it seems like our wartime president has surrendered,” Biden said in his remarks.While many have called on Trump to meet the moment by focusing on pandemic response and racial justice, he has instead doubled down on racially charged rhetoric and a message of being tough on crime.Law and orderIn early June at the Rose Garden, Trump declared himself “president of law and order.” As he spoke, police used tear gas and flash bangs to disperse peaceful protesters outside the White House.Three weeks later, pushing back against protesters who want to remove statues of Confederate leaders and figures who supported slavery and white supremacy, the president signed an executive order directing federal law enforcement agencies to prosecute people who damage federal monuments, and withhold some federal funding to cities that don’t protect them.Trump has continued to link himself to inflammatory speech, including retweeting a video over the weekend in which his supporters can be heard chanting “white power.” On Monday, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany defended the president, who deleted the retweet, and said “he did not hear that particular phrase when he tweeted out the video.”“The most basic rule in political communication is that you keep doing the same thing until it doesn’t work anymore,” said Vanessa Beasley, a professor of political communication at Vanderbilt University to VOA. “As I see President Trump doubling down on his race-inflected rhetoric, I think that he is assuming that what has worked in the past will work again.”With the latest Pew poll showing The ‘deep-state’The president and his allies have long promoted their “deep-state” conspiracy theory, accusing his political rivals of leading a “coup” to sabotage the Trump presidency. The messaging has evolved from Trump running as an outsider promising to “drain the swamp” in 2016, to Trump the “lone warrior” who in 2020 continues to battle operatives deep within the federal government.On Monday, as controversy mounted over leaked intelligence on an alleged Russian bounty offer to kill American troops in Afghanistan, Trump tweeted a black-and-white photo of himself pointing toward the camera with the words, “In reality they’re not after me they’re after you I’m just in the way.” It was the same image that he first tweeted shortly after the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives announced his impeachment in December 2019.
On Tuesday Twitter removed Trump’s tweet saying it violated the company’s copyright policy.White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany speaks during the media briefing at the White House in Washington, June 29, 2020.The White House denies the president had been briefed on the intelligence regarding Russian bounties, claiming the assessment “wasn’t verified.” During a media briefing on Tuesday, McEnany blamed the leak on “rogue intelligence officers.”McEnany was asked whether she believes members of the intelligence community are going after Trump.“It very possibly could be,” she said. “And if that’s the case, it is absolutely despicable.”
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By Polityk | 07/02/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trailing in Polls, Trump Reprises ‘The Lone Warrior’
Amid plummeting poll numbers and mounting pressure over his handling of the pandemic, Black Lives Matter protests and reports of Russia offering bounties to Taliban fighters to kill American troops in Afghanistan, U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday tweeted the words “THE LONE WARRIOR”.THE LONE WARRIOR!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 30, 2020
It’s not the first time Trump has portrayed himself as alone, aggrieved and fighting against all odds, but it remains to be seen how well this narrative is able to gain traction this time around.
With the election fewer than five months away, Trump is trailing Democratic rival Joe Biden nationally, in key battleground states and even in traditionally conservative strongholds like Missouri and Texas.
Trump is 10 points behind Biden in a national Pew Research poll. 54 percent registered voters say if the election were held today, they would support Biden or lean toward voting for him, while 44 percent support Trump or lean toward supporting him.The president’s supporters point out that Trump has been the underdog before. In June 2016, Trump lagged behind Hillary Clinton by as much as 10 points in national polls but defeated her on Election Day.“Pollsters look at a few grains of sand instead of the entire beach. The only poll that matters is the one on November 3, 2020 – the entire beach if you will,” said Linda Trocine, chairwoman of the Republican Party in Seminole County, Florida to VOA. Rodney Anderson, chairman of the Republican Party in Dallas County, Texas, also dismissed polling numbers. “As election day gets closer, the formidable accomplishments of this administration will be brought to the forefront and will be contrasted with the very real challenge of Biden formulating any coherent message whatsoever,” he said to VOA.Trump himself is projecting confidence on his re-election chance, signaling that he is counting the support of the “silent majority” despite Biden beating him in most polls.Now the question is, as an incumbent, will Trump’s reprise of his role as an insurgent candidate work?
Anti-Trump demonstrators protest prior to U.S. President Donald Trump’s speech to Republican members of Congress in Baltimore, Maryland.From bad to worseWhile Trump has been running behind former Vice President Joe Biden in several polls since January, his numbers have eroded further in recent weeks, according to Robert Griffin, Research Director of the Democracy Fund Voter Study Group.
With multiple ongoing crises, it’s not clear what is driving the decline, Griffin told VOA, adding that the race looks “like an uphill climb” for Trump.
Under normal circumstances, presidents seeking a second term typically tout their accomplishments of the past four years and push for four more. Heading into 2020, Trump regularly highlighted America’s continuing economic expansion and record-low unemployment.
But the pandemic and social unrest have eroded some of Trump’s strongest talking points about his record, turning the election into a referendum on his presidency. Analysts say he appears to have little strategy beyond highlighting his own misfortunes and lamenting the obstacles thrown at him by Democrats and the “fake” news media.
“When you are already president, I think there’s a really solid question as to how effective messaging like that can be, given some of the inherent contradictions that come with it,” said Griffin.The Trump campaign did not respond to VOA’s request to comment.Trump himself is projecting confidence on his re-election chance, signaling that he is counting the support of the “silent majority” despite Biden beating him in most polls. THE VAST SILENT MAJORITY IS ALIVE AND WELL!!! We will win this Election big. Nobody wants a Low IQ person in charge of our Country, and Sleepy Joe is definitely a Low IQ person!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) U.S. President Donald Trump points at the crowd as he enters his first re-election campaign rally in several months in the midst of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, June 20, 2020.Americans deeply unhappyAccording to the latest Pew Research, the share of the public saying they are satisfied with the way things are going in the country has plunged from 31 percent in April, during the early weeks of the outbreak, to just 12 percent today. Significantly, only 19 percent of Republican and Republican-leaning respondents now say they are satisfied. Previously, GOP satisfaction had been above 50 percent for nearly all of Trump’s presidency.
Even so, and despite the economic pummeling America has suffered during the pandemic, voters continue to favor Trump over Biden on handling the economy. Analysts say it’s no surprise that the president has been focused on reopening the country. “The president was going to run on good economic times and now he’s in a tough place,” John Fortier, Director of Governmental Studies at the Bipartisan Policy Center, told VOA. “If we have some significant shifts leading up to the election, the president might get credit for bringing things back, even if it isn’t as good as it was before”.
More ominous for Trump, voters express less confidence in him than Biden on other major issues, including race relations and handling the pandemic. As the country has seen an 80 percent increase of new COVID-19 cases in the past two weeks, the president’s defense has consisted mainly of blaming the spike on increased testing. And with Republican-led states like Florida, Texas and Arizona hit particularly hard, it’s difficult for him to cast blame on Democratic governors as he has in the past.
Democratic presidential candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden puts on a face mask as he departs after speaking at Alexis Dupont High School in Wilmington, Del., June 30, 2020.On Tuesday Joe Biden laid out an updated plan to address the pandemic and delivered a scathing rebuke of Trump.
“Remember when he exhorted the nation to sacrifice together in the face of this … ‘invisible enemy’? What happened? Now it’s almost July, and it seems like our wartime president has surrendered,” Biden said in his remarks
While many have called on Trump to meet the moment by focusing on pandemic response and racial justice, he has instead doubled down on racially-charged rhetoric and a message of being tough on crime.Law and order In early June at the Rose Garden Trump declared himself “president of law and order.” As he spoke, police used tear gas and flash bangs to disperse peaceful protesters outside the White House.
Three weeks later, pushing back against protesters who want to remove statues of Confederate leaders and figures who supported slavery and white supremacy, the president signed an executive order directing federal law enforcement agencies to prosecute people who damage federal monuments, and withhold some federal funding to cities that don’t protect them.
Trump has continued to link himself to inflammatory speech, including retweeting a video over the weekend in which his supporters can be heard chanting “white power”. On Monday White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany defended the president who has deleted the retweet, and said “he did not hear that particular phrase when he tweeted out the video.”
“The most basic rule in political communication is that you keep doing the same thing until it doesn’t work anymore,” said Vanessa Beasley, a professor of political communication at Vanderbilt University to VOA. “As I see President Trump doubling down on his race-inflected rhetoric, I think that he is assuming that what has worked in the past will work again.”
With the latest Pew poll showing two-thirds of U.S. adults supporting the Black Lives Matter movement, it remains to be seen whether Trump’s rhetoric will boost his poll numbers.
The ‘Deep-State’The president and his allies have long promoted their “deep-state” conspiracy theory, accusing his political rivals of leading a “coup” to sabotage the Trump presidency. The messaging has evolved from Trump running as an outsider promising to “drain the swamp” in 2016, to Trump the “lone warrior” who in 2020 continues to battle operatives deep within the federal government.
On Monday, as controversy mounted over leaked intelligence on the alleged Russian bounty offer to kill American troops in Afghanistan, Trump tweeted a black-and-white photo of himself pointing toward the camera with the words, “In reality they’re not after me they’re after you I’m just in the way.” It was the same image that he first tweeted shortly after the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives announced his impeachment in December 2019.pic.twitter.com/bnQMEO2i9u
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany speaks during the press briefing at the White House in Washington, June 29, 2020.The White House denies the president had been briefed on the intelligence regarding Russian bounties, claiming the assessment “wasn’t verified”. During a press briefing on Tuesday, McEnany blamed the leak on “rogue intelligence officers”.
McEnany was asked whether she believes members of the intelligence community are going after Trump.
“It very possibly could be,” she said. “And if that’s the case, it is absolutely despicable.”
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By Polityk | 07/02/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Richmond Orders Removal of Confederate Statues on City Land
Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney on Wednesday ordered the immediate removal of all Confederate statues on city land, saying he was using his emergency powers to speed up the healing process for the former capital of the Confederacy amid weeks of protests over police brutality and racial injustice.Work crews began removing a statue of Gen. Stonewall Jackson early Wednesday afternoon. Flatbed trucks and other equipment were also spotted at several other Confederate monuments along Richmond’s famed Monument Avenue.
Another famous statue on city land is that of Gen. J.E.B. Stuart. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam had previously ordered the most prominent statue along the avenue, that of Gen. Robert E. Lee, which sits on state land. The removal has been stalled pending the resolution of a lawsuit from at least two people who oppose its removal.The statue of Confederate Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson stands at the Manassas Battlefield Park in Virginia. (Photo: Diaa Bekheet). Jackson was a commander in the Battle of Manassas, which marked the first major land battle of the Civil War.Stoney said he was also moving quickly because protesters have already toppled several Confederate monuments and is concerned that people could be hurt trying to take down the gigantic statues.
“We have an urgent need to protect the public,” Stoney said in a statement.
Stoney’s move came on the day a new state law took effect granting control of the monuments to the city. The law outlines a removal process that would take at 60 days to unfold.
But during a City Council meeting Wednesday morning, Stoney balked as the council scheduled a special meeting for Thursday to formally vote on a resolution calling for the immediate removal of the statues.
“Today, I have the ability to do this through my emergency powers,” Stoney said. “I think we need to act today.”
About an hour later, work crews were spotted near the Jackson statue.
Videos posted on Twitter showed workers being lifted in a crane to the top of the statue and attempting to attach something to it.
During Wednesday’s meeting, city councilors expressed support for removing the statues, but several councilors said the council needed to follow the proper legal process.
Interim city attorney Haskell Brown said any claim that Stoney has the authority to remove the statues without following the state process would contradict legal advice he has previously given the council and administration.
Stoney and several city councilors said they were concerned that the statues have become a public safety hazard during weeks of protests over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
In Portsmouth, one man was seriously injured as protesters tried to pull down a Confederate statue.
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By Polityk | 07/02/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Ex-Bush Officials Launch Super PAC Backing Biden Over Trump
A group of former George W. Bush administration and campaign officials have launched a new super PAC supporting Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, the latest in a growing number of Republican groups to come out in support of Biden over President Donald Trump.The group, 43 Alumni for Biden, has recruited at least 200 former White House officials, campaign aides and Cabinet secretaries who worked under Bush to join the push against the Republican incumbent. They’re planning to roll out supportive testimonial videos featuring high-profile Republicans and launch a voter turnout effort in key states, aimed at turning out disaffected Republican voters. News of the group was first reported by Reuters.Kristopher Purcell, who worked in the Office of Communications in the White House and in the State Department during the Bush administration, said many of the members of the group still consider themselves Republicans but see the need to defeat Trump as beyond their personal politics.”You don’t have to agree with a president on all of his policy decisions or agenda. We ask them to go to the White House and do what they think is in the best interest of the country. That’s what we as alumni of George W. Bush did, and we think Joe Biden will deliver that as well,” he said.The group has been in touch with the Biden campaign and other Republican groups opposed to Trump to coordinate some of its activities going forward, and it’s alerted Bush’s office of their activities, though it remains unaffiliated with the former president directly.In a statement, Erin Perrine, the Trump campaign’s director of press communications, said “this is the swamp — yet again — trying to take down the duly elected president.””President Trump is the leader of a united Republican Party where he has earned 94% of Republican votes during the primaries – something any former president of any party could only dream of,” she said.Still, this is just the latest group of Republicans supporting Biden to come out publicly amid criticism of Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic and race relations in the country.Two groups, Republican Voters Against Trump and the Lincoln Project, have already been airing ads in key states boosting Biden and attacking Trump. And last month, a group of Republican operatives opposed to Trump launched Right Side PAC, which is aimed at turning out disenchanted Republican voters.
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By Polityk | 07/01/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
AP-NORC Poll: White Democrats Grow More Critical of Police
As a national reckoning over racism and policing grips the nation, white Democrats are far more likely now than they were a few years ago to think police brutality is a serious issue — a dramatic shift in public opinion that some say could shape the November presidential election.
A majority of white Democrats today say police officers are more likely to use deadly force against a Black person than against a white person, according to a recent poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, not unlike five years ago.
But for the first time, the poll shows significant changes in how white Democrats view police brutality and the consequences: 64% now describe police violence against the public as very or extremely serious, compared with 29% in July 2015.
Race and policing in America have been thrust into an international spotlight amid an already tumultuous presidential campaign after a series of high-profile police killings of Black Americans that has sparked global protests and demands for structural change. The campaign had already been fraught with racial tension fueled by the coronavirus pandemic and its ensuing economic fallout, which both have disproportionately impacted people of color.While racial inequity has long been a focal point of African Americans, experts say many white Americans, particularly white Democrats, are now grappling with the longstanding impacts of systemic racism in ways they never have before.
San Diego resident Chris Chapman, a white woman and a Democrat, said witnessing George Floyd’s death was particularly jarring for her.
“I think the brutality of that event, it really raised the consciousness, at least for me,” Chapman, 68, said. “It shocked people who really hadn’t yet gotten to the place where they thought that could happen.”
Most white Democrats say that they disapprove of President Donald Trump’s handling of racial issues and that he has only sowed further division at a time of immense unrest. Trump on Sunday tweeted and later deleted a video showing one of his supporters chanting “white power,” a racist slogan associated with white supremacists.
But the big question is whether this racial awakening among white Democrats translates into increased turnout at the polls favoring presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, said Ashley Jardina, assistant professor of political science at Duke University and author of the book “White Identity Politics.”
“This kind of shift in public opinion is pretty unprecedented especially when it comes to matters of race,” Jardina said. “If you just ask people who’ve become more racially progressive who they are they going to vote for, they’re going to be more supportive of Joe Biden, but are they going to take the time to actually show up and vote? That’s what we don’t know,and that’s what’s really important.”
The poll also found that Democrats are far more likely than they were in 2015 to say the justice system treats officers too leniently when they cause injury or death in their job, as compared with fairly or too harshly. The increase is especially sharp — 40 percentage points — among white Democrats. Now, 86% say the justice system is too lenient with officers, up from 46%. Black Democrats are even more likely than they were in 2015 to say that, 87% vs. 71%.
Massachusetts resident Krystyna Colborn said she’s observed several police violence protests in her community, which she sees as a sign of an increased willingness to take action to usher in a new president following Americans witnessing “death upon death” of Black Americans at the hands of police.
“I don’t think it will benefit Donald Trump,” Colborn, a 74-year-old white Democrat, said. “I think he has people who are behind him solidly and they will not change, but I think there are white people who are going to vote against Donald Trump. I will vote for (Biden) because he’s a Trump alternative, and I think there may be other people who are in that same position. It’s the people who are beginning to realize this, who I think will have the most influence.”
And tapping into those potential voters will be key looking toward November, Progressive Turnout Project Executive Director Alex Morgan said. The political action committee announced in late June a $52.5 million effort to canvass key battleground states, including Wisconsin and Georgia, to reach voters who didn’t turn out in 2016.
“Voters are recognizing that this is the most consequential election of our lifetimes,” Morgan said. “We’re standing with protesters and activists who are speaking out against police brutality and structural racism, and I think we’re going to see folks turn this pain and outrage of this moment into lasting change at the ballot box.”
Democrats continue to say overwhelmingly that police more commonly use deadly force against a Black person. White Democrats are now more likely than they were in 2015 to say police more commonly use force with Black people, 87% vs. 62%.
Jeffrey Boord-Dill, a 62-year-old white man and professor who lives in Kentucky, said his eyes have been opened in new ways in recent weeks to racism and it’s pushing him toward action to make sure his voice is heard in November.
“I have been in a state of dissatisfaction and pretty much anger for almost four years because of what the Trump administration and Republican Party backing him up has done to this country in terms of race baiting and putting people against one another,” Boord-Dill, a Democrat, said. “My students are the ones who I am so proud of who are going out and marching, and they’re not pulling any punches at all. That’s the change that I’m seeing and that makes me the most hopeful that maybe we’ll be able to start to solve this problem.”
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By Polityk | 07/01/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
‘Fully Briefed’ Trump Calls Russia Bounty Report ‘Fake News Media Hoax’
U.S. President Donald Trump is dismissing reports suggesting Russia may have offered a bounty to Taliban-linked militants for attacks on U.S. forces after top aides said he was fully briefed on the intelligence. In a series of early morning tweets Wednesday, the president called the reports “just another HOAX!” and said the source for the original report in The New York Times “probably does not even exist.” Trump also cited a statement from the Pentagon that military officials have “no corroborating evidence.” UPDATE: @ChiefPentSpox statement from 11:26pm Monday on alleged #Russia|n bounties for US,coalition forces in #Afghanistan@DeptofDefense “continues to evaluate intelligence that Russian GRU operatives were engaged in malign activity …To date DoD has no corroborating evidence” pic.twitter.com/tbSSUOXLLY
— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) June 30, 2020″Do people still not understand that this is all a made up Fake News Media Hoax started to slander me & the Republican Party” the president wrote on Twitter. “I was never briefed because any info that they may have had did not rise to that level.” “No corroborating evidence to back reports.” Department of Defense. Do people still not understand that this is all a made up Fake News Media Hoax started to slander me & the Republican Party. I was never briefed because any info that they may have had did not rise to that level
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) FILE – Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., speaks during a hearing on Capitol Hill, Feb. 12, 2020.”If this does not count as treason, I don’t know what does,” Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton said during a call with reporters Wednesday. “If the most junior officer in the United States military ignores an intelligence report delivered to him or her, as we know this intelligence report was delivered to the commander-in-chief, then that junior officer would absolutely be in prison.” “This is undebatable dereliction of duty,” he added. Trump’s likely opponent in November’s presidential election, former Vice President Joe Biden, expressed similar sentiments while talking to reporters Tuesday. “The idea that somehow he didn’t know or isn’t being briefed, it is a dereliction of duty if that is the case,” Biden said after a speech in Wilmington, Delaware. Americans should “conclude that this man isn’t fit to be president of the United States of America,” he added. ‘Confusion’ over intelligence reportBut key Republican lawmakers have defended the president and the White House, saying the unverified intelligence was handled properly. FILE – Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman James Inhofe, R-Okla., speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill, June 30, 2020.”There’s some confusion as far as our own intelligence, and it just didn’t rise to the level of the president at that time,” Sen. Jim Inhofe, the Republican chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in comments on the senate floor Tuesday. “Our intelligence agencies aren’t in complete agreement on this, even now.” Despite the lack of agreement on the intelligence about the alleged Russian plot to pay Taliban-linked fighters to attack and kill U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan, U.S. officials insist the threat was not taken lightly, and that precautions were put in place. Officials have also said the intelligence was shared across the U.S. intelligence community and with allies whose troops were potentially at risk. MORE: @CIA “will continue to pursue every lead; analyze the information we collect with critical, objective eyes; and brief reliable intelligence to protect US forces deployed around the world” per Haspel
— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) June 30, 2020On Tuesday, the White House blamed intelligence officials who leaked information about the alleged bounty program in Afghanistan for potentially blowing almost any chance of coming to a consensus on whether the threat was real. Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany criticized “rogue intelligence officers” for putting the lives of U.S. troops in danger, saying the leaks, and the attention being given to the unproven allegations, is weakening the country. “There is no good scenario as a result of this,” she told reporters. “Who’s going to want to cooperate with the United States intelligence community? Who’s going to want to be a source or an asset if they know that their identity could be disclosed?” “This level of controversy and discord plays directly into the hands of Russia, and unfortunately, serves their interests,” she added. Congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson and White House Bureau Chief Steve Herman contributed to this report.
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By Polityk | 07/01/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Hickenlooper Wins Primary to Set Up Key US Senate Race Against Gardner
Former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper won the Democratic primary for Senate on Tuesday, setting up a November matchup with incumbent Republican Senator Cory Gardner. Hickenlooper, who ran an unsuccessful campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, captured 60% of the vote to defeat Andrew Romanoff. The contest between Hickenlooper and Gardner will be one of the most closely watched as Democrats try to take control of the Senate from Republicans. In another Colorado race, Lauren Boebert, a businesswoman who advocates strong gun rights and who opened her restaurant in defiance of state coronavirus restrictions, defeated five-term incumbent Congressman Scott Tipton in the Republican primary for the 3rd congressional district. Tipton had the endorsement of President Donald Trump, but after the race was called Tuesday night the president tweeted congratulations to Boebert on a “really great win!” Former state lawmaker Diane Mitsch Bush will be Boebert’s opponent in November, after defeating James Iacino in the Democratic primary Tuesday. In Oklahoma, Republican Senator Jim Inhofe easily won his primary Tuesday. His November opponent will be Democrat Abby Broyles, an attorney and former television reporter, who defeated three primary challengers.Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman James Inhofe, R-Okla., speaks to reporters following a GOP policy meeting on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, June 30, 2020, in Washington.In House races, Democrat Kojo Asamoa-Caesar won his primary and will face incumbent Republican Congressman Kevin Hern. Republican Congressman Markwayne Mullin easily defeated two challengers to set up a November race with Democratic challenger Danyell Lanier. Republican Congressman Tom Cole handily won a four-way race and will next go up against Democrat Mary Brannon. Democratic Congresswoman Kendra Horn won her primary Tuesday, but will have to wait until a late August runoff election to find out her opponent. There were nine Republicans competing in that party’s primary, and with no candidate earning the necessary 50% of the vote, candidates Terry Neese and Stephanie Bice advanced to the runoff. Voters in Oklahoma also narrowly approved an expansion of the Medicaid health insurance program for low-income residents over the opposition of state leaders who expressed concerns about future costs for the state. The expansion will bring coverage to tens of thousand of people who meet the eligibility requirements of single incomes up to $17,200 or $35,500 for a family of four. In Utah, former Governor and U.S. ambassador to China and Russia Jon Huntsman Jr. was locked in a tight battle with Lieutenant Governor Spencer Cox and two other candidates for the Republican nomination to be the state’s next governor. The winner will face Democrat Chris Peterson in November. With 75% of precincts reporting, Cox had a lead of 37% to Huntsman’s 34%. There were close battles Tuesday in both the Democratic and Republican primaries for the 1st congressional district, with candidates vying to fill the seat of retiring Republican Congressman Rob Bishop. Darren Parry led Jamie Cheek 53% to 48% with 60% of precincts reporting in the Democratic race. Republicans Blake Moore and Bob Stevenson were both at 30% of the vote with 80% of precincts reporting. In the 4th congressional district, Republican Burgess Owens defeated three challengers in a primary battle for the right to go up against incumbent Democratic Congressman Ben McAdams. Earlier Tuesday, election officials in Kentucky announced results from last week’s elections after counting a huge number of mail-in ballots. Former Marine fighter pilot Amy McGrath won the Senate Democratic nomination, setting up a November contest against one of the most powerful political figures in the country, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell. McGrath, who lost a bid for a House of Representatives seat in 2018, faces an uphill fight against McConnell, a long-standing political fixture in the mid-South state and staunch supporter of President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda in Washington. But numerous national Democratic leaders, including Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, are supporting her. In many U.S. elections, voters have come to expect results on the night of the election, but with concerns about in-person voting because of the coronavirus pandemic, states have seen an increase in mail-in votes. Election experts have cautioned that could very much be the cast come November 3, when the nation votes for president, all 435 House seats and 35 of the Senate’s 100 seats. New York voters are still waiting on some results from last week’s primaries as well, but election officials said mail-in ballots will not be counted until next week. Prominent outstanding races include the 16th congressional district in which former middle school principal Jamaal Bowman led Congressman Eliot Engel, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, 61% to 36% before the mail-in votes. In the 12th district, congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, who chairs the House Oversight Committee, held a slight lead over lawyer and activist Suraj Patel before the mail-in ballots were counted in their race.
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By Polityk | 07/01/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
White House Focuses Ire on Intelligence Leaks
The White House is blaming intelligence officials who leaked information about an alleged Russian bounty program in Afghanistan for potentially blowing almost any chance of coming to a consensus on whether the threat was real. Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Tuesday criticized “rogue intelligence officers” for putting the lives of U.S. troops in danger, while defending the decision not to brief President Donald Trump on what she described as unverified intelligence. White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany speaks to the press on June 30, 2020, in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington.McEnany also used her opening comments to berate The New York Times, which first broke the story about allegations Russia offered bounties to Taliban fighters to kill U.S. and coalition troops in Afghanistan. “There is no good scenario as a result of this,” she told reporters. “Who’s going to want to cooperate with the United States intelligence community? Who’s going to want to be a source or an asset if they know that their identity could be disclosed?” McEnany further warned that the leaks, and the attention being given to the unproven allegations, is also weakening the country as a whole. “This level of controversy and discord plays directly into the hands of Russia, and unfortunately, serves their interests,” she said. The comments came as lawmakers and Trump’s likely opponent in November’s presidential election, former Vice President Joe Biden, spent the day sounding off on new White House briefings as new details on the intelligence continued to emerge. Media outlets, including The New York Times and CNN, reported some of the information on the alleged Russian plot had been included in the Presidential Daily Brief, a daily summary of the top intelligence issues, in late February. Other reports suggest Trump was given written information about the matter earlier this year. Reporters sit socially-distanced as Democratic presidential candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at Alexis Dupont High School in Wilmington, Del., June 30, 2020.“The idea that somehow he didn’t know or isn’t being briefed, it is a dereliction of duty if that is the case,” Biden said, while taking questions from reporters after a speech in Wilmington, Delaware. Americans should “conclude that this man isn’t fit to be president of the United States of America,” he added. Other top Democrats also voiced frustration following briefings at the White House with Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. “Very concerning to me was that their initial response was that they just wanted to make sure we knew that the president didn’t know anything,” House Armed Services Committee Chairman, Rep. Adam Smith, told reporters. “That’s actually not normal.” “Based on what we heard today, it was information that (a), the president should have known about and (b), based on what we were told today, he did,” Smith added. Other senior Democratic lawmakers also expressed concerns about the administration’s handling of the intelligence and specifically, its inclination to downplay the possible consequences. “Nothing in the briefing that we have just received led me to believe it is a hoax,” said House Democratic leader Steny Hoyer. Other Democrats said they were more concerned about what happens next. Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) talks to reporters on April 21, 2020 in Washington.”Instead of dithering about what he knew, what he didn’t know, he should have a plan,” said Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer. “And above all, go after (Russian President Vladimir) Putin.” Despite the criticism, the White House and some Republican lawmakers insisted the handling of intelligence suggesting Russian agents were offering to pay for the deaths of U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan was handled properly. “What is briefed to the president is when there’s a strategic decision to be made,” McEnany said. “In this case, it was not briefed to the president. … It was not credible.” Sen. Jim Inhofe, the Republican chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, agreed. “There’s some confusion as far as our own intelligence, and it just didn’t rise to the level of the president at that time,” he said. “Our intelligence agencies aren’t in complete agreement on this, even now.” Earlier today I received a briefing from the White House’s National Security Advisor, Chief of Staff, and the DNI regarding the New York Times article claiming Russia offered bounties to the Taliban to kill American troops and that President Trump was briefed on these matters.
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) June 30, 2020In a statement late Monday, the top Defense Department spokesman said that while officials there were aware of the intelligence, the Pentagon “has no corroborating evidence” to back up the initial intelligence reports. UPDATE: @ChiefPentSpox statement from 11:26pm Monday on alleged #Russia|n bounties for US,coalition forces in #Afghanistan@DeptofDefense “continues to evaluate intelligence that Russian GRU operatives were engaged in malign activity …To date DoD has no corroborating evidence” pic.twitter.com/tbSSUOXLLY
— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) June 30, 2020Still, the Pentagon said it took additional precautions to protect troops. Other top intelligence officials also suggested the unverified intelligence was shared across the U.S. intelligence community and with allies whose troops were potentially at risk. MORE: @CIA “will continue to pursue every lead; analyze the information we collect with critical, objective eyes; and brief reliable intelligence to protect US forces deployed around the world” per Haspel
— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) June 30, 2020Additional media reports say intelligence about the alleged plot had been sent to the White House last year and focused on an April 2019 car bombing that killed three Marines. Some officials say Trump often does not read his daily briefing and instead prefers oral briefings several times a week. McEnany said Trump has now been briefed on “what’s unfortunately in the public domain.” “The president does read, and he also consumes intelligence verbally,” she added. “This president, I will tell you, is the most informed person on planet Earth when it comes to the threats that we face.” Katherine Gypson and Steve Herman contributed to this report.
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By Polityk | 07/01/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Judge Suspends Publication of Tell-All Trump Book
A New York judge is temporarily blocking publication of a tell-all book that could be tremendously embarrassing to President Donald Trump. State Supreme Court Judge Hal Greenwald put on hold Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man, written by Trump’s niece, Mary Trump. Its publication date is July 28. Greenwald said he will make a final decision about publication after hearing the validity of a claim by the president’s brother, Robert, who demands that Mary Trump abide by a family agreement not to write any books about the Trump family without permission of other family members. Mary Trump’s lawyer, Theodore J. Boutrous Jr., called the restraint on the publication a clear violation of the First Amendment. “This book, which addresses matters of great public concern and importance about a sitting president in an election year, should not be suppressed even for one day,” Boutrous said. Robert Trump’s attorney, Charles Harder, called the actions of Mary Trump and her publisher, Simon and Schuster, “truly reprehensible.” “We look forward to vigorously litigating this case and will seek the maximum remedies available by law for the enormous damages,” he said. Mary Trump is the daughter of the president’s elder brother, Fred Trump Jr., who died of a heart attack in 1981 after a struggle with alcoholism. Information about the book has already been taken down from Simon and Schuster’s website. The publisher called the book a “revelatory authoritative portrait of Donald J. Trump and the toxic family that made him.”
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By Polityk | 07/01/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Supreme Court Rules in Favor of State Funding for Religious Education
The Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that the state of Montana’s exclusion of religious schools from a tax credit program for scholarships is unconstitutional, delivering an important victory to advocates of school choice and public funding for religious education. The 5-4 ruling along ideological lines marks a big win for the Trump administration, which has elevated the cause of religious freedom and sided with three mothers who challenged Montana’s ban on using publicly funded scholarships for religious education. Writing for the conservative majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said the ban “discriminated against religious schools and the families whose children attend or hope to attend them in violation” of the U.S. Constitution’s free exercise of religion clause.FILE – In this image from video, presiding officer Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts speaks during the impeachment trial against President Donald Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, January 28, 2020.“The Free Exercise Clause ‘protects religious observers against unequal treatment’ and against ‘laws that impose special disabilities on the basis of religious status,’ Roberts wrote, citing a previous court decision on religious liberty. The court’s four liberal justices dissented from the majority opinion. “Because the state court’s decision does not so discriminate, I would reject petitioners’ free exercise claim” under the U.S. Constitution, liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote. FILE – Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg attends Georgetown Law’s second annual Ruth Bader Ginsburg Lecture, October 30, 2019, in Washington.The U.S. Constitution’s first amendment protects the “free exercise” of religion and prohibits the government from “establishing” a religion. State constitutions have similar provisions. The question before the justices was whether the so-called Free Exercise Clause barred Montana, a state in the western United States, from denying public benefits such as scholarships to students at religious schools. In 2015, the state legislature in Montana established a program that provides tax credits to people who give money to organizations that award scholarships to students at private schools. Most private schools in Montana have religious affiliations. The Montana constitution prohibits government funding for religious institutions. In keeping with this separation of church and state provision, the Montana department of revenue ruled that the scholarships could not be used at religious schools. Three mothers with daughters at a Christian school challenged the rule. They argued that the state discriminated against them “on the basis of their religious views and the religious nature of the school they had chosen.” FILE – Kendra Espinoza of Kalispell, Montana stands with her daughters Naomi and Sarah outside the U.S. Supreme Court, January 22, 2020, in Washington. Espinoza is the lead plaintiff in the caseThe Montana Supreme Court ruled against them, striking down the program as a violation of the state constitution. That led the mothers to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Trump administration sided with them as did a host of religious rights advocates. In the majority opinion, Roberts wrote that the U.S. Constitution’s Free Exercise Clause barred Montana from applying its “no-aid provision” to religious schools. In addition, he wrote, “the Montana Supreme Court had no authority to invalidate the [tax credit] program on the basis of that provision.” The U.S. Supreme Court is the court of last resort in the United States and its rulings become the law of the land. That means that states may no longer exclude religious schools from their private education assistance programs. The White House hailed the ruling as a victory for school choice and religious freedom. “The Trump Administration believes that school choice is a civil rights issue, and that no parent should be forced to send their child to a failing school,” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a statement. “President Donald J. Trump will fight for school choice, and he will always defend our first freedom: the free exercise of religion.” School choice – or the ability to attend a school other than a public school in your neighborhood – is a long-running controversy in the United States. While conservatives say parents and students should be given a choice, liberals say this would undercut public education.FILE – Attorney General William Barr speaks in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, April 1, 2020.Attorney General William Barr called the decision “an important victory for religious liberty and religious equality in the United States.” “As the Court explained, religious people are ‘members of the community too,’ and their exclusion from public programs because of their religion is “odious to our Constitution” and “cannot stand,'” Barr said in a statement. The Justice Department had filed a brief in support of the three mothers. School teachers and other advocates who campaigned for a ruling in their favor denounced the decision as an assault on public education. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said the opinion represented “a seismic shock that threatens both public education and religious liberty.” “It is a radical departure from our Constitution, American history and our values,” Weingarten said. “As Justice Sonia Sotomayor said in her dissent, this ruling is ‘perverse.’”
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By Polityk | 07/01/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Former US Fighter Pilot Wins Kentucky Democratic Senate Primary
Former Marine fighter pilot Amy McGrath won the Senate Democratic nomination in the U.S. state of Kentucky Tuesday, setting up a November contest against one of the most powerful political figures in the country, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell.
A week after voting ended and with the extended vote count nearly completed, McGrath defeated state lawmaker Charles Booker by a margin of about 45% to 43%, with other minor candidates splitting the remainder of the ballots.
McGrath, who lost a bid for a House of Representatives seat in 2018, faces an uphill fight against McConnell, a long-standing political fixture in the mid-South state and staunch supporter of President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda in Washington. But numerous national Democratic leaders, including Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, are supporting her.
McGrath raised millions of dollars more than Booker, an African American, in campaign funds. But he drew close in the final weeks before the June 23 vote after national progressive Democratic politicians endorsed him in the wake of national protests against police abuse of minorities.
McGrath and Booker had traded small leads since election day as local jurisdictions turned in their results from mail-in voting.
Kentucky received requests for nearly 900,000 such ballots, an unusually high number that came in response to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, with voters opting to not risk their health by going to polling places.
Some election experts are already saying that the extended vote counts in party primaries that have turned Election Nights into Election Weeks in the U.S. are a harbinger of what could happen in the Nov. 3 national election, when Trump is seeking reelection against his presumptive Democratic opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden.
Other slow vote counts because of mail-in ballots in the June 23 Democratic congressional primaries in New York have left the political fate of two longtime House members in doubt.
Before counting the mail-in votes, former middle school principal Jamaal Bowman, who had never run for office before, held a lead of 61% to 36% over Congressman Eliot Engel, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, who chairs the House Oversight Committee, held a slight lead over lawyer and activist Suraj Patel before the mail-in ballots were counted in their race.
Results in both of the New York races could be announced later Tuesday.
Voters are headed to the polls in three other states Tuesday, with party primary elections in Colorado, Utah and Oklahoma.
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By Polityk | 07/01/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Presidential Campaigns Embrace Tech to Reach Voters During Pandemic
With social distancing as the new pandemic normal, U.S. presidential campaigns were faced with an unprecedented situation. They no longer were able to send out organizers and volunteers to connect with potential voters face-to-face. Intimate, high-dollar fundraising events were also out of the question. “The coronavirus pandemic shifted things overnight. It was a sudden and instant transformation to 100% virtual campaigning, just like the pandemic disrupted everyone else’s daily life. The same is true of our campaigns,” said Eric Wilson, a Republican digital strategist and director of the Center for Campaign Innovation. “You’re just seeing a lot more creativity in terms of how and where the campaigns are finding the voters they need to get their message across to,” said Tara McGowan, CEO and founder of Acronym, a progressive nonprofit organization and head of the political action committee Pacronym. Lally Doerrer, right, and Katharine Hildebrand watch Joe Biden during his Illinois virtual town hall, in Doerrer’s living room March 13, 2020, in Chicago.Politics as entertainment Most voters are consuming politics as entertainment, Wilson said. Since the start of social distancing orders in March, the Trump campaign launched, on social media such as Facebook and YouTube, a daily talk show-style broadcast with a host and guests. “That’s one of the biggest kind of innovations we’ve done, are these original seven-nights-a-week online broadcast. We really touch on loads of different dynamics and different messaging opportunities,” Erin Perrine, director of press communications for the Trump campaign, said. Prominent Republicans and President Donald Trump’s children have been either guests or hosts on these shows. In one program, hosted by Donald Trump Jr., the guest being interviewed was his father, who is running for a second term against the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden. The Biden campaign is also tapping into social media. Biden is using Instagram for live conversations with social media influencers, celebrities and past Democratic presidential candidates such as entrepreneur Andrew Yang. Last week, Biden raised more than $11 million during a joint virtual fundraising event with former President Barack Obama.President Donald Trump speaks during a Fox News virtual town hall from the Lincoln Memorial, May 3, 2020, in Washington, co-moderated by FOX News anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum.Digital advertising, apps and engagement Digital ads have become another way for campaigns to reach potential voters and build a database of information. “What the campaign is trying to do is if somebody engages the ad, clicks on the link, goes then to the website, then the first thing the campaign says is, ‘Hey, give me your email address,’ and if you do give your email address, they also then typically ask you for your name and maybe your address or your zip code,” Stromer-Galley said. “Now they can start to get a profile of who you actually are and then maybe potentially marry that to other data that they have about that email address, whether they’ve purchased that list or are building it organically.” With a potential supporter’s profile, campaigns can create ads on Facebook that target a specific demographic of users. “We run a lot of ads on Facebook continuously,” Perrine, of the Trump campaign, said. “Our digital team says it’s like high, high-volume trading on the stock market. We do a bunch of them and those that are doing well, we’ll put more money behind and continue to push those, then others that aren’t, you can pull them off the platform.” Stromer-Galley said Facebook is a useful tool for campaigns because “Facebook has built an algorithm that predicts if you’re politically interested. They have an algorithm that predicts if you’re likely a Democratic supporter or a Republican supporter.” Both campaigns also have apps as ways of engaging supporters, fundraising and encouraging users to conduct peer-to-peer organizing. “If you’re one of my friends, and I know that you’ve not decided on who you’re going to vote for, I can reach out directly to you and say, ‘Hey, here’s who I’m supporting, here’s what I think matters to you, and I would send you a text message or a Facebook message, however we normally communicate,” said Wilson, the Republican strategist. To encourage supporters, Trump’s app is gamified, where users can earn points by sharing a post or liking something on social media and making phone calls for the campaign. The points get aggregated, and they can be used to gain early entry into rallies, a discount code for buying campaign merchandise, and with enough points, a supporter can meet Trump. The reason why campaigns want people to engage digitally is to “glean data, is to get more information on voters, how we can stay in contact with them, because you want these people to become volunteers, you want them to stay engaged and become part of the movement. But, ultimately, we want them to show up on election day,” Perrine said. “When I downloaded them to my phone, the first thing it asks — after some personal information about me, like my address, some demographic information, my name, my email address — it then asks if the app, the mobile app can access my contacts, my photographs,” said Stromer-Galley, who downloaded the Trump and Biden apps for her research. McGowan, of Pacronym, and her staff are separate from the Biden campaign. They have been running their own digital advertising to support Biden on nontraditional platforms, such as streaming apps like Hulu and Roku, on gaming devices such as Xbox, and on streaming radio, including Pandora and Spotify. McGowan said ads are no longer one-size-fits-all and have to be tailored for the various unique platforms available to consumers today. “It’s become such, just a diverse media landscape today. So you really have to sort of stay ahead of the curve. You really can’t rest on your laurels, and it’s a real challenge for campaigns,” she said. Digital campaign contest With a bigger war chest, analysts of digital campaigns say Trump started the 2020 digital campaign with a huge advantage, both as the incumbent and with a database of supporters from his last presidential race. “Trump has been very effective at blurring his presidential messaging and his campaign messaging on Twitter, and so as a journalist or as a member of the public, you can’t help but sort of get both at the same time when you’re watching him,” Stromer-Galley said. “Biden doesn’t have that advantage because he’s not the incumbent. He doesn’t have the presidency. He’s issuing formal statements. He’s doing YouTube videos. He is holding online events, but they don’t get the same traction,” she added. By numbers alone, Trump has more than 82 million followers on Twitter and Biden has just over 6 million. There are close to 30 million followers on Trump’s campaign Facebook page compared to just over 2 million followers on Biden’s Facebook page. Trump’s campaign has outspent Biden on Facebook ads. “With online marketing, it’s a lot like compound interest. It pays more dividends the sooner you get it into the bank, and so the fact that the Trump campaign was able to get started building their digital infrastructure so early, it gives them a huge head start,” Wilson said. As an example, he pointed to Trump’s decision to name Brad Pascale, his 2016 digital strategist, as his 2020 campaign manager as a sign that Trump understands the importance of having a strong digital presence in a campaign. Although Biden has been in politics much longer, “all of the campaign experiences can be a curse because you think you know how things should be done,” Wilson said. He further described the Biden campaign as “a traditional legacy style of campaign first, with digital operations as an add-on, and that’s not the way campaigns should be run in 2020.” The Biden campaign did not respond to repeated requests for an interview. However, McGowan countered, saying Biden has experience with digital campaigning while running as Obama’s running mate. “The Obama campaigns really drove a lot of the innovation in campaigning and bringing campaigning online. Online fundraising, advertising, and so Vice President Biden is no stranger to digital campaigning or strategy,” McGowan said. Earlier in June, the Biden campaign spent $15 million on advertising across media platforms. “The Biden campaign has very quickly adapted to this moment. They’re continuing to grow and pivot, and I really believe that they are closing the gap,” McGowan said. Since the pandemic, the Democratic National Committee has sent more than 4 million text messages to get people to sign up to vote by mail and held 82 training sessions on digital organizing since March, compared to 14 training sessions in 2019. “The way that people have shown up in droves for them has been a really important thing,” Meg DiMartino, Democratic National Committee digital organizing director, said with more than 11,500 people signing up across all of the trainings. The key to a successful digital campaign is to reach “the right voters with the right message at the right moment on the right platform from the right messenger,” strategist Wilson said. That largely means meeting potential voters in the digital world during the 2020 pandemic.
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By Polityk | 06/30/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
GOP Lawmakers Urge Action After Russia-Afghanistan Briefing
Eight Republican lawmakers attended a White House briefing about explosive allegations that Russia secretly offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing American troops in Afghanistan — intelligence the White House insisted the president himself had not been fully read in on.
Members of Congress in both parties called for additional information and consequences for Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, and eight Democrats were to be briefed on the matter Tuesday morning, a day after the Republicans’ briefing. Still, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany insisted Trump had not been briefed on the findings because they hadn’t been verified.
The White House seemed to be setting an unusually high bar for bringing the information to Trump, since it is rare for intelligence to be confirmed without a shadow of doubt before it is presented to senior government decision-makers. McEnany declined to say why a different standard of confidence in the intelligence applied to briefing lawmakers than bringing the information to the president.
Republicans who were in the briefing Monday expressed alarm about Russia’s activities in Afghanistan.
Rep. Michael McCaul, the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Rep. Adam Kinzinger were in the briefing led by Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and national security adviser Robert O’Brien. McCaul and Kinzinger said in a statement that lawmakers were told “there is an ongoing review to determine the accuracy of these reports.”
“If the intelligence review process verifies the reports, we strongly encourage the Administration to take swift and serious action to hold the Putin regime accountable,” they said.
Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., and Texas Rep. Mac Thornberry, the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, said, “After today’s briefing with senior White House officials, we remain concerned about Russian activity in Afghanistan, including reports that they have targeted U.S. forces.”
Senators reviewed classified documents related to the allegations Monday evening. The information they received was not previously known, according to one aide who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
On CNN, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi confirmed the timing of the Democratic briefing but said “it’s no substitute for what they owe the Congress of the United States.” She said that “this is as serious as it gets.”
She speculated that Trump wasn’t briefed “because they know it makes him very unhappy, and all roads for him, as you know, lead to Putin. And would he tell Putin what they knew?”
The intelligence assessments came amid Trump’s push to withdraw the U.S. from Afghanistan. They suggested Russia was making overtures to militants as the U.S. and the Taliban held talks to end the long-running war. The assessment was first reported by The New York Times, then confirmed to The Associated Press by American intelligence officials and two others with knowledge of the matter.
Republican Sen. John Cornyn told reporters Monday, “I don’t think it’s should be a surprise to anybody that the Taliban’s been trying to kill Americans and that the Russians have been encouraging that, if not providing means to make that happen.”
He added: “Intelligence committees have been briefed on that for months. so has Nancy Pelosi, so has (Democratic Senate leader) Chuck Schumer. So, this is, this is a more leaks and partisanship.”
While Russian meddling in Afghanistan isn’t new, officials said Russian operatives became more aggressive in their desire to contract with the Taliban and members of the Haqqani Network, a militant group aligned with the Taliban in Afghanistan and designated a foreign terrorist organization in 2012.
The intelligence community has been investigating an April 2019 attack on an American convoy that killed three U.S. Marines after a car rigged with explosives detonated near their armored vehicles as they traveled back to Bagram Airfield, the largest U.S. military installation in Afghanistan, officials told the AP.
Three other U.S. service members were wounded in the attack, along with an Afghan contractor. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack on Twitter. The officials the AP spoke to also said they were looking closely at insider attacks — sometimes called “green-on-blue” attacks — from 2019 to determine if they are also linked to Russian bounties.
One official said the administration discussed several potential responses, but the White House has yet to authorize any step.
Intelligence officials told the AP that the White House first became aware of alleged Russian bounties in early 2019 — a year earlier than had been previously reported. The assessments were included in one of Trump’s written daily briefings at the time, and then-national security adviser John Bolton told colleagues he had briefed Trump on the matter. Bolton declined to comment, and the White House did not respond to questions on the matter.
The intelligence officials and others with knowledge of the matter insisted on anonymity to discuss the highly sensitive matter.
The White House National Security Council wouldn’t confirm the assessments but said the U.S. receives thousands of intelligence reports daily that are subject to strict scrutiny.
Trump’s Democratic general election rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, used an online fundraiser Monday to hammer the president for a “betrayal” of American troops in favor of “an embarrassing campaign of deferring and debasing himself before Putin.”
“I’m disgusted,” Biden told donors, as he recalled his late son Beau’s military service. Families of service members, Biden said, “should never, ever have to worry they’ll face a threat like this: the commander in chief turning a blind eye.”
Asked about the reports on the alleged bounties, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday, “These claims are lies.”
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By Polityk | 06/30/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Abortion Foes Vent Disappointment After Supreme Court Ruling
Abortion opponents vented their disappointment and fury on Monday after the Supreme Court issued a 5-4 decision to strike down a Louisiana law that would have curbed abortion access. The ruling delivered a defeat to anti-abortion activists but could intensify interest in the November election among religious conservatives who are a key part of Trump’s base. Some top religious conservative backers of President Donald Trump noted pointedly that both justices he named to the high court dissented from Monday’s decision, portraying it as an argument to ensure Trump has another term in office to potentially tap more conservative nominees. The Rev. Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life and a member of Trump’s Catholic voter outreach effort, said the president’s “two appointees voted the right way” in supporting Louisiana’s ability to require doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. “Once again this ruling underscores the importance of elections,” Pavone said in a statement. “We need a solid pro-life majority on the Supreme Court to uphold the rights of women and the unborn.” Johnnie Moore, an evangelical adviser to the Trump administration, said the decision could help motivate anti-abortion activists to vote to reelect the president to give him a third chance to put a nominee on the Supreme Court. “Conservatives know they are on the 1-yard line,” Moore tweeted. “Enthusiasm is already unprecedented, evangelical turnout will be too.” FILE – U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts listens as President Donald Trump delivers his State of the Union address, January 30, 2018. Roberts sided with the majority in Monday’s Supreme Court ruling on abortion but did not sign onto their opinion.The Trump campaign also invoked the decision to appeal to voters in a statement from deputy communications director Ali Pardo. “This case underscores the importance of re-electing President Trump, who has a record of appointing conservative judges, rather than Joe Biden, who will appoint radical, activist judges who will legislate from the courts,” Pardo said. Some right-leaning abortion foes — including at least three congressional Republicans — responded to the decision by criticizing Chief Justice John Roberts, appointed by President George W. Bush. Roberts concurred with the court’s four more liberal justices while not signing onto their opinion in the case. “Chief Justice Roberts is at it again with his political gamesmanship,” Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, tweeted. “This time he has sided with abortion extremists who care more about providing abortion on demand than protecting women’s health.” “Americans hoping for justice for women and unborn babies were let down again today by John Roberts,” Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said in a statement. “What’s next, Chief Justice Roberts? Our Second Amendment rights?” Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, tweeted. But Roberts’ move to stand apart from his more liberal colleagues, contextualizing his vote as one to protect the court’s past precedent, left other religious conservatives vowing to rededicate themselves to their fight to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that established abortion rights. Anti-abortion protesters wait outside the Supreme Court for a decision, June 29, 2020. in Washington.”This case was about whether the state has the right to ensure that abortionists who take women’s money also provide for their safety,” Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, a prominent pro-Trump evangelical ally, said in a statement, adding that “I do look forward to the day when the Supreme Court will correct the gross injustice of the Roe v. Wade decision that has led to the killing of tens of millions of unborn babies.” Russell Moore, president of the public policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, defended Louisiana’s abortion law as “placing the most minimal restrictions possible on an abortion industry that insists on laissez-faire for itself and its profits.” “Nonetheless, we will continue to seek an America where vulnerable persons, including unborn children and their mothers, are seen as precious, not disposable,” said Moore, who leads the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. The chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee for Pro-Life Activities, Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City in Kansas, said in a statement that Catholics would “grieve this decision” but would “continue to pray and fight for justice for mothers and children.” O. Carter Snead, a professor of law at the University of Notre Dame, said in a statement that Roberts’ positioning in the decision was “cold comfort” on an otherwise “sad day.” Support for rescinding Roe remains strong among evangelical Protestants. Sixty-one percent of them said they wanted to see the court fully overturn the decision in a survey conducted last year by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center. That survey found support for overturning Roe at 28% among Catholics and 42% among Protestants generally. The court’s abortion ruling on Monday follows its 6-3 decision earlier this month that found a central provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 shields LGBT people from employment discrimination. Religious conservatives also openly lamented that decision, while noting that potential faith-based exemptions could be carved out.
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By Polityk | 06/30/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Congress Calls for Probe Into Reported Russian Bounties on US Troops
As members of Congress called for an investigation, President Donald Trump said Sunday he was not briefed on reports that a Russian military intelligence unit offered bounties to Taliban militants in Afghanistan to kill U.S. soldiers because U.S. intelligence officials did not deem them credible.“Intel just reported to me that they did not find this info credible, and therefore did not report it to me or @VP,” Trump said, referencing Vice President Mike Pence.Intel just reported to me that they did not find this info credible, and therefore did not report it to me or @VP. Possibly another fabricated Russia Hoax, maybe by the Fake News @nytimesbooks, wanting to make Republicans look bad!!! https://t.co/cowOmP7T1S
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) FILE – Chair of the Republican-led Senate Judiciary Committee Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said he expects the Trump administration to “take such allegations seriously.”“Imperative Congress get to the bottom of recent media reports that Russian GRU units in Afghanistan have offered to pay the Taliban to kill American soldiers with the goal of pushing America out of the region,” Graham tweeted late Sunday.Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand demanded a congressional investigation into the scope of the bounty program, including who was paid, how much money was involved, and identifying any Americans who were killed as a result. She also wants to know when Trump and other administration officials learned about it, as well as if any members of Congress were aware of the program.“I believe that when we ask our service members and their families to take risks and make sacrifices for the United States, it is with the understanding that we will do anything we can to mitigate those risks and honor those sacrifices,” Gillibrand said. “President Trump appears to have utterly failed to uphold his end of the bargain. Through thorough investigation, oversight, and accountability measures, we can still keep ours.”The New York TimesFILE – White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany speaks during a press briefing at the White House in Washington.White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Sunday the New York Times inaccurately suggested Trump was briefed on the intelligence in the paper’s report.”The United States receives thousands of intelligence reports a day and they are subject to strict scrutiny,” she said. “While the White House does not routinely comment on alleged intelligence or internal deliberations, the CIA director, national security adviser, and the chief of staff can all confirm that neither the president nor the vice president were briefed on the alleged Russian bounty intelligence.”Both Russia and the Taliban denied the report of the bounties, with Moscow calling them “baseless and anonymous accusations.” The Russian embassy in Washington said the New York Times report had “already led to direct threats” on the lives of employees at Russian embassies in Washington and London. A spokesman for the Taliban, Zabihullah Mujahid, rejected the report that the insurgents have “any such relations with any intelligence agency” and called the newspaper report an attempt to defame them. “These kinds of deals with the Russian intelligence agency are baseless — our target killings and assassinations were ongoing in years before, and we did it on our own resources,” he said. “That changed after our deal with the Americans, and their lives are secure, and we don’t attack them.” Earlier this year, the U.S. and the Taliban signed an “agreement for bringing peace” to Afghanistan after more than 18 years of conflict. The U.S. and NATO allies agreed to withdraw all troops by next year if the militants uphold the deal.
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By Polityk | 06/29/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump Tweets Video With ‘White Power’ Chant, Then Deletes it
President Donald Trump on Sunday tweeted approvingly of a video showing one of his supporters chanting “white power,” a racist slogan associated with white supremacists. He later deleted the tweet and the White House said the president had not heard “the one statement” on the video. The video appeared to have been taken at The Villages, a Florida retirement community, and showed dueling demonstrations between Trump supporters and opponents. “Thank you to the great people of The Villages,” Trump tweeted. Moments into the video clip he shared, a man driving a golf cart displaying pro-Trump signs and flags shouts ‘white power.” The video also shows anti-Trump protesters shouting “Nazi,” “racist,” and profanities at the Trump backers. “There’s no question” that Trump should not have retweeted the video and “he should just take it down,” Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., told CNN’s “State of the Union.” Scott is the only Black Republican in the Senate. Shortly afterward, Trump deleted the tweet that shared the video. White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement that “President Trump is a big fan of The Villages. He did not hear the one statement made on the video. What he did see was tremendous enthusiasm from his many supporters.” The president’s decision to highlight a video featuring a racist slogan comes amid a national reckoning over race following the deaths of George Floyd and other Black Americans. Floyd, a Black Minneapolis man, died after a white police officer pressed his knee into his neck for several minutes. Protests against police brutality and bias in law enforcement have occurred across the country following Floyd’s death and there has also been a push to remove Confederate monuments, an effort Trump has opposed. Trump’s tenure in office has appeared to have emboldened white supremacist and nationalist groups, some of whom have embraced his presidency. In 2017, Trump responded to clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia, between white nationalists and counter-protesters by saying there were “very fine people on both sides.”
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By Polityk | 06/28/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
DC Mayor Caught Between Activists, Police in Funding Battle
Muriel Bowser’s national profile had never been higher, thanks to a Twitter beef with President Donald Trump and a renewed push to turn the nation’s capital into the 51st state. Now Washington’s mayor must pull off a public juggling act as the city budget becomes a battleground for the country’s debate on overhauling law enforcement. An activist collective led by Black Lives Matter is trying to capitalize on shifting public opinion, and the demands include major cuts in funding for the Metropolitan Police Department. The District of Columbia Council had indicated it would push for up to $15 million in cuts, but Bowser is defending her 2021 budget proposal, which includes a 3.3% increase in police money. With conservatives painting her as a radical riot-supporter, Bowser must thread this needle with both Black Lives Matter and the White House watching her every move. It’s a similar dilemma to that faced by other urban mayors of protest hot spots who must balance competing pressures without alienating either the activists or the police. In Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti has faced criticism for not going far enough on law enforcement changes while the police union has called him “unstable.” In Atlanta, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms is dealing with mass police no-shows over her handling of police violence cases. Bowser is also finding herself one of the public faces of Washington’s quest to be a state. The House of Representatives on Friday, voting largely along party lines, approved a bill to grant statehood. It was the first time a chamber of Congress had approved such a measure. But there is insurmountable opposition in the GOP-controlled Senate, where Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., singled out Bowser out on Thursday as a reason that Washington cannot be trusted with statehood. He called her “a left wing politician… who frequently takes the side of rioters against law enforcement.” Cotton lumped Bowser in with the late Marion Barry, a former mayor who was caught on video smoking crack cocaine in a 1990 FBI sting. Barry, who died in 2014, remains a beloved figure in many parts of the district and he emerged from federal prison to serve additional terms as both a mayor and a councilman. A statue of him was erected in front of the D.C. government administration building in 2018. “Would you trust Mayor Bowser to keep Washington safe if she were given the powers of a governor? Would you trust Marion Barry,” Cotton asked. Granting the predominantly Democratic city statehood would likely increase the party’s numbers in Congress. And that’s what led Trump to tell The New York Post last month that “DC will never be a state.” “That’ll never happen unless we have some very, very stupid Republicans around that I don’t think you do,” he said. In the early days of the protests, Bowser publicly sided with the demonstrators as Trump usurped local authority and called in a massive federal security response. Bowser responded by renaming the protest epicenter, within sight of the White House, as Black Lives Matter Plaza. She also commissioned a mural with Black Lives Matter painted on 16th Street across from the White House in yellow letters large enough to be seen from space. For Trump and his supporters, Bowser may as well have declared herself a dues-paying member of the movement’s local chapter. But that chapter didn’t feel the same, immediately dismissing it as “a performative distraction” from true policy changes. “It’s a stunt. It was always a stunt,” said activist Joella Roberts. “We don’t need a street sign to tell us we matter. We’re here in the streets because we already know we matter.” April Goggans, a core organizer with Black Lives Matter DC, rejected Bowser’s moves as “taking advantage of national attention,” and added, “She would never even say the words ‘Black Lives Matter’ until recently.” Bowser acknowledged that mistrust even as she ordered the changes. “Black Lives Matter is very critical of police. They’re critical of me,” Bowser said, not long after hanging the new street sign. “That doesn’t mean that I don’t see them and support the things that will make our community safe.” The street mural in particular became the subject of a cat-and-mouse game that underscores the complexities of Bowser’s position. The original mural also bore a yellow outline of the D.C. flag — two horizontal lines topped by three stars. Within days, activists had erased the stars to create the appearance of an equal sign and added their own message, turning the mural into “Black Lives Matter=Defund The Police.” Clearly not wanting to antagonize the street activists, Bowser’s government has allowed the “Defund the Police” addition to remain. But city crews did repaint the stars on the D.C. flag image. Now that struggle moves into the district’s decision-making corridors as Bowser finds herself caught between the D.C. Council, street pressure from a resurgent activist community and her own police department. Relations between the City Council and the police are already fragile thanks to legislation that was quickly and unanimously passed on June 9. It prohibits police from using tear gas or riot gear to break up protests, bans the use of choke-holds, strengthens disciplinary procedures and speeds up the release of body camera footage and names of officers involved in fatal shootings. Both Bowser and the police chief, Peter Newsham, were critical of the move, saying lawmakers reacted rashly to public pressure and did not consider enough input before passing the measure. A local TV station obtained a recording of Newsham telling fellow officers that the department felt “completely abandoned” by the D.C. Council. A new showdown is looming over the 2021 budget. Council member Charles Allen, head of the Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety, said the committee received 15,000 calls, messages and video testimonials before a budget hearing this month — an exponential increase in interest from previous years. A draft report from the committee reportedly includes up to $15 million in proposed cuts to the police budget. Bowser on Thursday said that she hadn’t read the police funding proposal yet and would wait until the Council formally submitted its proposed changes to her. She insisted that her 3.3% increase — bringing the total police budget up to $533 million — was the correct assessment of what was needed to keep the city safe. “We sent them the budget that we need,” she said. Goggans, the local Black Lives Matter organizer, dismissed the budget dispute as a facade, saying that the proposed cuts amount to far less than they seem. “There’s not a compromise to made on our side. That just can’t happen,” Goggans said. “We’re going to keep putting up a massive amount of pressure and escalating our tactics and intensity.”
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By Polityk | 06/28/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Biden Slams Trump Over Reported Bounties Placed on US Troops
Joe Biden attacked President Donald Trump on Saturday over a report that he said, if true, contains a “truly shocking revelation” about the commander in chief and his failure to protect U.S. troops in Afghanistan and stand up to Russia.The New York Times reported Friday that American intelligence officials concluded months ago that a Russian military intelligence unit secretly offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing U.S. troops in Afghanistan. The report said the Russians offered rewards for successful attacks last year, when the U.S. and the Taliban were holding talks to end the long-running war.“The truly shocking revelation that if the Times report is true, and I emphasize that again, is that President Trump, the commander in chief of American troops serving in a dangerous theater of war, has known about this for months, according to the Times, and done worse than nothing,” Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, said during a virtual town hall.The White House said neither Trump nor Vice President Mike Pence was briefed on such intelligence. “This does not speak to the merit of the alleged intelligence but to the inaccuracy of the New York Times story erroneously suggesting that President Trump was briefed on this matter,” press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a statement.’Propagandists’ slammedRussia called the report “nonsense.”“This unsophisticated plant clearly illustrates the low intellectual abilities of the propagandists of American intelligence, who instead of inventing something more plausible have to make up this nonsense,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.The Times quoted a Taliban spokesman denying that its militants have such a deal with the Russian intelligence agency.The newspaper, citing unnamed officials familiar with the intelligence, said the findings were presented to Trump and discussed by his National Security Council in late March. Officials developed potential responses, starting with a diplomatic complaint to Russia, but the White House has yet to authorize any step, the report said.Biden slammed Trump over his reported failure to act.“Not only has he failed to sanction and impose any kind of consequences on Russia for this egregious violation of international law, Donald Trump has continued his embarrassing campaign of deference and debasing himself before Vladimir Putin,” the former vice president said.’Betrayal’Biden called it a “betrayal of the most sacred duty we bear as a nation — to protect and equip our troops when we send them into harm’s way.”He said Americans who serve in the military put their lives on the line. “But they should never, never, never ever face a threat like this with their commander in chief turning a blind eye to a foreign power putting a bounty on their heads,” he said.“I’m quite frankly outraged by the report,” Biden said. He promised that if he is elected, “Putin will be confronted and we’ll impose serious costs on Russia.”
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By Polityk | 06/28/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
US Watchdog Tracks Over 2,100 Anti-Asian Incidents
Since mid-March, a U.S.-based coalition has tracked more than 2,100 anti-Asian hate incidents, a troubling figure that Asian American advocates say is being fueled in part by political rhetoric against China during the coronavirus pandemic.While racial slurs and other forms of verbal harassment constituted the vast majority of the incidents, nearly eight percent involved physical assaults, businesses barring Asian Americans from entering their establishments due to misplaced coronavirus fears, and attackers coughing and spitting on victims, according to STOP AAPI Hate, an anti-Asian hate tracker.
In one incident in March, a group of African American teenagers on a commuter rail in San Francisco used their backpacks to attack a mask-wearing Asian American, saying he had COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
Chinese Americans Confront Racism While Helping Battle COVID-19 Chinese Americans raise funds for medical supplies despite rising racial threats In another occurrence in April, a stranger threw a large rock through the atrium window of a Chinese American family’s house in Santa Rosa, California. The house had Chinese writing along the front door as a blessing for good health and harmony.
“These are first-hand accounts where individuals are describing harrowing and traumatizing experiences, including what is being said to them when they’re being attacked,” said Cynthia Choi, co-executive director of Chinese for Affirmative Action, one of the coalition partners.Asian Americans have been targeted before during public health crises, as was the case during the 2003 SARS epidemic. The latest wave of anti-Asian hate comes at a time of heightened tensions over the pandemic fueled by the anti-China rhetoric of President Donald Trump and other politicians. Trump, who initially praised China for its handling of the crisis, subsequently blamed China’s leader Xi Jinping for waiting weeks to report the outbreak in Wuhan to the World Health Organization and covering up the severity of the problem.
Trump has repeatedly referred to the coronavirus as the “Chinese virus” and “kung-flu,” terms that Asian American advocates say are derogatory and have exacerbated the scapegoating of Americans of Asian descent.
Trump disputes that those and other terms are racist. White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, who several weeks ago criticized the phrase kung-flu as “highly offensive,” and press secretary Kayleigh McEnany both said this week that the president used the term merely to highlight that the virus originated in China.
But Asian American leaders say the meaning is not lost on their fast-growing community.
“Those are terms meant to be humiliating,” said Gene Wu, a Chinese American Democratic member of the Texas House of Representatives.
Bill Tung, a Democratic state assemblyman in California, said the rhetoric has had a direct impact on the surge in anti-Asian harassment and hate crimes.
“You see leaders express words that really give license to other people to express those same sentiments and also to act on them,” Tung said.
In a recent report examining the link between political rhetoric and anti-Asian bias, STOP AAPI Hate, the Asian American coalition, found that reports of anti-Asian discrimination spiked after Trump repeatedly used the term “Chinese virus.”
While the vast majority of the 2,100-plus incidents recorded by STOP AAPI Hate do not rise to the level of a hate crime as defined by statute, more than 100 do, according to legal experts.
Asian Celebs Work to Combat Racist Attacks Amid Pandemic The FBI reports there has been an uptick in hate crimes and harassment against Asian Americans since the outbreak of COVID-19, which first appeared in Wuhan, China, late last yearThis surge in anti-Asian hate crime comes at a time when most American cities are reporting an overall decline in other categories of bias attacks, according to Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at the California State University.The FBI defines a hate crime as a criminal offense motivated by bias against the victim’s race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity
California, home to the nation’s largest Asian American population, has been particularly hard hit. In Los Angeles, police recorded 30 anti-Asian hate crimes through April 30, compared to a total of four for all of 2019, according to police data compiled by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism.
In San Francisco, there were five anti-Asian hate crimes through March 31, compared to six for all of last year, according to police data.
Other major cities have reported far fewer cases of anti-Asian hate crimes. In New York City, police recorded just two incidents through May 17, compared with three for last year. In April, an Asian American woman in Brooklyn, New York, suffered second degree burns after a man poured acid on her.
Hate Crimes Soar in Major US CitiesJewish community has been most frequent target of hate crimes amid resurgence in anti-Semitism, according the report by Center for the Study of Hate and ExtremismOne of the most horrific anti-Asian hate crimes came in March when a teenager stabbed an Asian American man and his two young children at a supermarket in Midland, Texas. The suspect reportedly carried out the attack “because he thought the family was Chinese and infecting people with the coronavirus.”“In the cities where anti-Asian hate crimes increased, they increased significantly to the extent that there were almost as much anti-Asian hate crime as we had for all of last year or significantly more,” Levin said.
The surge in the crimes has not been limited to the U.S. From Melbourne, Australia, to Vancouver, Canada, Asian American communities have reported a surge in discrimination, harassment and assault.
In Vancouver, billed as the “most Asian city outside Asia,” there were 20 anti-Asian hate crimes through April 29, up from 12 for all of last year. London, another major city with a large Asian population, had 267 anti-Asian attacks, compared with 375 for all of last year.
“This is a global pandemic of hate,” said Helen Zia, a prominent Chinese American civil rights activist and author.
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By Polityk | 06/27/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Congress Stalls on Police Reform Despite Bipartisan Calls for Change
A Congressional effort to pass police reform legislation in the wake of the death of George Floyd and other African Americans while in police custody has stalled, despite overwhelming bipartisan demand for change.With the support of three Republicans, the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives passed a controversial police reform measure on Thursday. The bill failed, however, to gain traction in the Republican-led Senate, where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell rejected Democratic Party demands to toughen a corresponding Senate measure before it is formally introduced for debate.The stalled efforts reflect a deep partisan divide in Washington which has left the nation’s lawmakers unable to act on Americans’ demands for police reform and change on other issues such as immigration and gun control. The U.S. public overwhelmingly supports some measure of police reform after the death of Floyd, who died after a white police officer pressed a knee on his neck for nearly nine minutes as he pleaded he could not breathe.Trump Signs Executive Order on Police Reform Senior administration official says officers will be trained on de-escalation techniques, use-of-force standards An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found 29% of U.S. citizens believe a complete overhaul of the national criminal justice system is necessary. The poll said 40% of respondents feel the system must undergo significant change, while 25% say it needs only minor changes.In the midwestern city of Minneapolis, Minnesota, where Floyd was died on March 25 and where unrest continues, efforts to achieve police reform have been more successful. The city council voted unanimously Friday to change the city charter, a step toward the potential dismantling of the police department.Major bureaucratic obstacles would have to be overcome, though, before the city’s voters have the chance to decide the matter during November elections.Since Floyd’s death, calls to defund police have spread across the U.S., with many activists advocating that some police funding be re-allocated to community-based social services programs.Police departments in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit and Boston are among the local law enforcement agencies facing defunding calls from grassroots activists.The American Civil Liberties Union accuses many of the agencies facing defunding calls of systemic racism, a charge that most of those agencies reject.The issue has deep roots in the United States. The Kerner Commission report, ordered by then-President Lyndon Johnson after 150 U.S. cities erupted in violence in 1967 over racial injustice, concluded police brutality was a primary cause of the unrest.Although police reform legislation in Congress has stalled, there are common elements in the House Democratic and Senate Republican bills that lawmakers could build upon if they address the issue again.Both measures call for a national database of use-of-force incidents by law enforcement officers and limits on police chokeholds.
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By Polityk | 06/27/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Native Americans Protesting Trump Trip to Mount Rushmore
President Donald Trump’s plans to kick off Independence Day with a showy display at Mount Rushmore have angered Native Americans, who view the monument as a desecration of land violently stolen from them and used to pay homage to leaders hostile to Indigenous people.Several groups led by Native American activists are planning protests for Trump’s July 3 visit, part of Trump’s “comeback” campaign for a nation reeling from sickness, unemployment and, recently, social unrest. The event is slated to include fighter jets thundering over the 79-year-old stone monument in South Dakota’s Black Hills and the first fireworks display at the site since 2009.But it comes amid a national reckoning over racism and a reconsideration of the symbolism of monuments around the globe. Many Native American activists say the Rushmore memorial is as reprehensible as the many Confederate monuments being toppled around the nation.”Mount Rushmore is a symbol of white supremacy, of structural racism that’s still alive and well in society today,” said Nick Tilsen, a member of the Oglala Lakota tribe and the president of a local activist organization called NDN Collective. “It’s an injustice to actively steal Indigenous people’s land, then carve the white faces of the colonizers who committed genocide.”While some activists, like Tilsen, want to see the monument removed and the Black Hills returned to the Lakota, others have called for a share in the economic benefits from the region.Trump has long shown a fascination with Mount Rushmore. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem said in 2018 that he once told her straight-faced that it was his dream to have his face carved into the monument. He later joked at a campaign rally about getting enshrined alongside George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. And while it was Noem, a Republican, who pushed for a return of fireworks on the eve of Independence Day, Trump committed to visiting South Dakota for the celebration.Some wildfire experts have raised concerns the pyrotechnics could spark fires, especially because the region has seen dry weather this year. Firefighters called in crews from two other states to help Thursday as a blaze consumed approximately 150 acres (61 hectares) about 6 miles (10 kilometers) south of the monument.The four faces, carved into the mountain with dynamite and drills, are known as the “shrine to democracy.” The presidents were chosen by sculptor Gutzon Borglum for their leadership during four phases of American development: Washington led the birth of the nation; Jefferson sparked its westward expansion; Lincoln preserved the union and emancipated slaves; Roosevelt championed industrial innovation.And yet, for many Native American people, including the Lakota, Cheyenne, Omaha, Arapaho, Kiowa and Kiowa-Apache, the monument is a desecration to the Black Hills, which they consider sacred. Lakota people know the area as Paha Sapa — “the heart of everything that is.”As monuments to Confederate and Colonial leaders have been removed nationwide, some conservatives have expressed fear that Mount Rushmore could be next. Commentator Ben Shapiro this week suggested that the “woke historical revisionist priesthood” wanted to blow up the monument. Noem responded by tweeting, “Not on my watch.”The governor told Fox News on Wednesday, “These men have flaws, obviously every leader has flaws, but we’re missing the opportunity we have in this discussion to talk about the virtues and what they brought to this country, and the fact that this is the foundation that we’re built on and the heritage we should be carrying forward.”Tim Giago, a journalist who is a member of the Oglala Lakota tribe, said he doesn’t see four great American leaders when he looks at the monument; he sees four white men who either made racist remarks or initiated actions that removed Native Americans from their land. Washington and Jefferson held slaves. Lincoln, though he led the abolition of slavery, approved the hanging of 38 Dakota men in Minnesota after a violent conflict with white settlers there. Roosevelt is reported to have said, “I don’t go so far as to think that the only good Indians are dead Indians, but I believe nine out of every 10 are …”The monument has long been a “Rorschach test,” said John Taliaferro, author of “Great White Fathers,” a history of the monument. “All sorts of people can go there and see it in different ways.”The monument often starts conversations on the paradox of American democracy — that a republic that promoted the ideals of freedom, determination and innovation also enslaved people and drove others from their land, he said. “If we’re having this discussion today about what American democracy is, Mount Rushmore is really serving its purpose because that conversation goes on there,” he said. “Is it fragile? Is it permanent? Is it cracking somewhat?”The monument was conceived in the 1920s as a tourist draw for the new fad in vacationing called the road trip. South Dakota historian Doane Robinson recruited Borglum to abandon his work creating the Stone Mountain Confederate Memorial in Georgia, which was to feature Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis and Stonewall Jackson.Borglum was a member of the Ku Klux Klan, according to Mount Rushmore historian and writer Tom Griffith. Borglum joined the Klan to raise money for the Confederate memorial, and Griffith argues his allegiance was more practical than ideological.Native American activists have long staged protests at the site to raise awareness of the history of the Black Hills, which were seized despite treaties with the United States protecting the land. Fifty years ago, a group of activists associated with an organization called United Native Americans climbed to the top of the monument and occupied it. Quanah Brightman, who now runs United Native Americans, said the activism in the 1970s grew out of the civil rights movement of the 1960s. He hopes a similar movement for Native Americans comes from the Black Lives Matter movement.”What people find here is the story of America — it’s multidimensional, it’s complex,” Griffith said. “It’s important to understand it was people just trying to do right as best they knew it then.”The White House declined to comment.
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By Polityk | 06/27/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump Signs ‘Strong’ Executive Order to Protect Monuments
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday to protect monuments, memorials and statues facing new scrutiny amid fresh debate over the nation’s racist beginnings.Trump had promised to take action earlier this week after police thwarted an attempt by protesters to pull down a statue of Andrew Jackson in a park across from the White House.The order calls on the attorney general to prosecute to the fullest extent of the law any person or group that destroys or vandalizes a monument, memorial or statue. Federal law authorizes a penalty of up to 10 years in prison for the “willful injury” of federal property.The order also calls for maximum prosecution for anyone who incites violence and illegal activity, and it threatens state and local law enforcement agencies that fail to protect monuments with the loss of federal funding.Trump announced earlier Friday on Twitter that he had signed the order and called it “strong.”Earlier in the day, the president used Twitter to call for the arrest of protesters involved with the attempt to bring down the Jackson statue from Lafayette Park.He retweeted an FBI wanted poster showing pictures of 15 protesters who are wanted for “vandalization of federal property.”Trump wrote, “MANY people in custody, with many others being sought for Vandalization of Federal Property in Lafayette Park. 10 year prison sentences!”He also said on Twitter that he had scrapped plans to spend the weekend at his central New Jersey home to stay in Washington “to make sure LAW & ORDER is enforced.”“These arsonists, anarchists, looters, and agitators have been largely stopped,” Trump tweeted. “I am doing what is necessary to keep our communities safe — and these people will be brought to Justice!”Protesters on Monday night attempted to drag the Jackson statue down with ropes and chains. Police repelled the protesters and sealed off Lafayette Park, which had been reopened to the public for more than a week after protests against the death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minnesota. On Tuesday, police cleared out the entire area around the corner of 16th and H streets — and pushed demonstrators away from the intersection, which had recently been renamed Black Lives Matter Plaza by the city.Statistics released by the Metropolitan Police Department show that nine people were arrested Tuesday night and a total of 12 arrested between Monday and Wednesday.There were no protest-related arrests Thursday, according to the MPD data.Demonstrators have grown increasingly emboldened about targeting statues deemed offensive or inappropriate. On June 19, or Juneteenth, the day marking the end of slavery in the United States, cheering crowds pulled down a statue of Confederate Gen. Albert Pike. The statue stood on federal land and had withstood previous attempts by the Washington, D.C., government to remove it. According to participants, police officers were on the scene but did not attempt to interfere.The targeting of the statues has become a rallying cry for Trump and other conservatives. Immediately after the Pike statute was toppled and set ablaze, Trump called the incident a “disgrace to our Country!” on Twitter.On Tuesday he tweeted, “I have authorized the Federal Government to arrest anyone who vandalizes or destroys any monument, statue or other such Federal property in the U.S. with up to 10 years in prison, per the Veteran’s Memorial Preservation Act, or such other laws that may be pertinent.”
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By Polityk | 06/27/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Biden Leads in Polls with Seniors
Polls show that U.S. President Donald Trump is losing support among older Americans, who helped the Republican win election four years ago. Mike O’Sullivan reports on recent polling that is viewed as good news for his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden.
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By Polityk | 06/27/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Facebook to Label All Rule-breaking Posts — Even Trump’s
Facebook says it will flag all “newsworthy” posts from politicians that break its rules, including those from President Donald Trump. CEO Mark Zuckerberg had previously refused to take action against Trump posts that suggested mail-in ballots will lead to voter fraud. Twitter, by contrast, slapped a “get the facts” label on them.Facebook is also banning false claims intended to discourage voting, such as stories about federal agents checking legal status at polling places. The company also said it is increasing its enforcement capacity to remove false claims about local polling conditions in the 72 hours before the U.S. election.Earlier Friday, shares of Facebook and Twitter dropped sharply after the giant company behind brands such as Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and Dove soap said it will halt U.S. advertising on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram through at least the end of the year.That European consumer-product maker, Unilever, said it took the move to protest the amount of hate speech online. Unilever said the polarized atmosphere in the United States ahead of November’s presidential election placed responsibility on brands to act.Shares of both Facebook and Twitter fell roughly 7% following Unilever’s announcement.FILE – The Unilever headquarters is seen in Rotterdam, Netherlands, Aug. 21, 2018.The company, which is based in the Netherlands and Britain, joins a raft of other advertisers pulling back from online platforms. Facebook in particular has been the target of an escalating movement to withhold advertising dollars to pressure it to do more to prevent racist and violent content from being shared on its platform.”We have decided that starting now through at least the end of the year, we will not run brand advertising in social media newsfeed platforms Facebook, Instagram and Twitter in the U.S.,” Unilever said. “Continuing to advertise on these platforms at this time would not add value to people and society.”On Thursday, Verizon joined others in the Facebook boycott.Sarah Personette, vice president of global client solutions at Twitter, said the company’s “mission is to serve the public conversation and ensure Twitter is a place where people can make human connections, seek and receive authentic and credible information, and express themselves freely and safely.”She added that Twitter is “respectful of our partners’ decisions and will continue to work and communicate closely with them during this time.”
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By Polityk | 06/27/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Poll: Democrats, Republicans Living in Alternate Economic Realities
A new survey suggests Democrats and Republicans have very different views on whether the economy has improved since being shut down this spring. This comes as the number of coronavirus cases is rising again in several states. VOA Correspondent Mariama Diallo reports.
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By Polityk | 06/27/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Mueller Report Witness Gets 10 Years on Child Sex Charges
A Lebanese American businessman who was a key witness in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report and who helped broker the release of American hostages was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison sentence on child sex charges.
George Nader pleaded guilty in January to bringing a 14-year-old boy from the Czech Republic to the U.S. 20 years ago to engage in sexual activity. He also acknowledged possessing child pornography.
Nader’s name appears more than 100 times in the Mueller report. It details Nader’s efforts to serve as liaison between Russians and members of President Donald Trump’s transition team.
In the 1990s, Nader served as a broker to facilitate the release of American hostages held in the Middle East.
The convictions carried a 10-year mandatory minimum. The judge could have imposed a longer term, though prosecutors also recommended a 10-year sentence.
Nader also agreed to pay $150,000 in restitution to the Czech boy he abused, who is now an adult and testified at Friday’s sentencing hearing in U.S. District Court in Alexandria by phone.
“George destroyed practically my entire life, and I am trying to put it back together piece by piece,” he said through a translator.
Nader’s interest in children and his status as a behind-the-scenes power player both extend back decades. And there’s at least some indication that the latter shielded him from the consequences of the former.
Almost 30 years ago, Nader was caught by customs officials transporting two films, hidden in candy tins, of minor boys into the U.S. He received a six-month sentence, a term that prosecutors in the current case acknowledge is “far below what would be expected of such a crime today.”
In 1991, as he awaited sentencing, his case was twice delayed so he could continue his work on hostage negotiations. Court records cited by his current defense lawyers indicate that British hostage Jon McCarthy and American hostage Edward Tracy were released in July of that year and that Nader played an outsized role in securing the release. Participants in the negotiations wrote letters to the judge on Nader’s behalf.
Later, in 2003, Nader sentenced to a 1-year prison term in the Czech Republic after being convicted there on 10 counts of sexually abusing minors and sentenced to a one-year prison term in 2003.
Prosecutors say the abused boys were largely child prostitutes. The 14-year-old boy brought to the U.S. also alleged he was victimized by Nader int he Czech case, though Nader’s lawyers say he wasn’t convicted there. The two sides dispute the extent of abuse inflicted on the boy in the U.S. but Nader has admitted to one sex act.
Nader “used his contacts and his wealth to accomplish” bringing the Czech boy into the U.S., prosecutor Jay Prabhu wrote.
The current case against Nader began in 2018 when images were found on his phone after it was confiscated under a search warrant connected to the Mueller probe.
The images found in Nader’s phones at Dulles International Airport ended up not being the basis for the child-pornography conviction. Instead, prosecutors relied on images and videos he received via email in 2012 that in some cases involved sadistic depictions of infants or toddlers.
Even though it had no bearing on the sentence Nader received, defense lawyers and prosecutors continued to argue at Friday’s sentencing hearing as to whether the images found on the phone were child pornography. Nader’s attorney, Jonathan Jeffress, acknowledged that the photos showed naked children and were obscene, but said they amounted to “dirty jokes” and that Nader had put his struggles with child pornography behind him in 2012.
Prosecutors say the images included clear depictions of child pornography and bestiality and show that Nader is a lifelong recidivist.
Parts of the sentencing papers detailing Nader’s testimony to the special counsel remain blacked out.
Nader, for his part, apologized for his actions at Friday’s hearing.
“I have listened to what’s been said about me,” he said. “I can say I am sincerely, deeply sorry for the suffering I have caused.”
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By Polityk | 06/27/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
