Eliana Willis

Five weeks from from polling day, two days from the first presidential candidates’ debate, and moments after the New York Times published bombshell revelations about Donald Trump’s taxes, the US president took aim at his Democratic opponent Joe Biden with a series of wild and unproven accusations.In an unfocussed White House briefing, the president retailed baseless allegations, including that his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden had used “performance-enhancing drug” during appearances.Trump compared Biden’s performance across primary debates, including, according to the president, that he was stronger in some debates than others: “People say he was on performance-enhancing drugs. A lot of people have said that,” Trump claimed, without evidence. When challenged Trump told reporters to “look on the internet” to see who was saying it. .“I will be strongly demanding a drug test of Sleepy Joe Biden prior to, or after, the debate on Tuesday night,” Trump later wrote on Twitter.I will be strongly demanding a Drug Test of Sleepy Joe Biden prior to, or after, the Debate on Tuesday night. Naturally, I will agree to take one also. His Debate performances have been record setting UNEVEN, to put it mildly. Only drugs could have caused this discrepancy???— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 27, 2020
The president also accused Biden’s son Hunter of corruption and speculated about non-existent Democrat policies of unattended, open borders. In a familiar refrain, he painted a dystopian vision of life under a Democratic administration.“They will destroy the American dream. They will destroy America … your private right to own a firearm will be totally eliminated, your guns will be confiscated, your ability to live by your religious faith will be devastated, they’ll abolish America’s borders and give healthcare to illegal aliens which will destroy our healthcare system.”Trump condemned criticism of his pick for the Supreme Court – the Catholic judge Amy Coney Barrett – as “fighting Catholicism”, and argued he was upholding his “presidential obligation” by nominating her to fill the seat left vacant by the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. He forecast Barrett’s nomination “is going to go quickly”.Trump revisited, too, his favoured tropes: the “lamestream media”; the failures of Obamacare; and allegations of widespread voter fraud.There were few facts to back up his assertions..The latest revelationfrom The New York Times that Trump paid just $750 in tax the year he won the presidency, and no tax in 10 of the last 15 years, because he lost more money than he made, was dismissed:“It’s fake news. Totally fake news. Made up,” Trump said.Trump has reportedly done little in the way of formal preparation for this week’s debate against Biden, though he said on Sunday that the former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and his former 2016 primary rival, Chris Christie, had been drafted in to help him.“We had a little debate prep before we came here,” Trump said, while Christie and Giuliani watched from the press briefing room. “What I do is debate prep, every day.”Biden, by contrast, has spent months honing his debate lines of attack, and preparing to aggressively rebut Trump’s attacks on him.Biden’s campaign has been holding mock debate sessions featuring Bob Bauer, a senior Biden adviser and former White House general counsel, playing the role of Trump, a source with direct knowledge of the preparations told AP on condition of anonymity.First debates, historically, are by far the most impactful and Tuesday night in the swing state of Ohio could be critical in determining Trump’s chances of clawing back Biden’s stubbornly consistent lead in the polls.The 90-minute event, moderated by Fox News host Chris Wallace, is the first of three scheduled presidential debates.Vice President Mike Pence and California Senator Kamala Harris, Biden’s running mate, will debate in October. More

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It’s clear Donald Trump will do almost anything to cling to office. Lie about Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s dying wish? Go for it. Label Joe Biden a radical socialist? Silly, but worth a punt. Start a war with China or Iran? Pause right there. This is not beyond the realms of possibility, given his pathological need to win.As November’s poll nears, Trump is weaponising foreign policy – not to defend US security and national interests, but to help him grab a second term. It’s not about putting “America First”. It’s all about putting “Trump First” – by any dangerous means, and at any cost.Trump has no big international successes to his name. On the contrary, he has trashed America’s global reputation and alienated its friends. His North Korea jamboree was all hot air. His Afghan policy is retreat without honour. Israel’s shabby deals with Gulf dictatorships, stitched up by the White House, undermine the quest for Middle East peace.Scornful of traditional diplomacy and lacking significant achievements, Trump chooses confrontation. He exploits visceral fears, just like he does when campaigning at home: fear of nefarious foreign foes, fear of the other, fear of difference.His China-baiting at the UN last week was typical scaremongering. He characterised the pandemic as a global war triggered by Beijing. Covid-19 was the “invisible enemy”, a “plague” and the “China virus” – terms intended to frighten and divide. Just in case Xi Jinping and the other watching Johnny Foreigners did not get the message, the US, he said, had spent $2.5tn on defence since 2016. “We have the most powerful military anywhere in the world.”Was this a threat? Maybe the entire planet should put its hands up and surrender. More

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Donald Trump made light of fears he will not accept the result of the election if he loses to Joe Biden in November. ‘Will we be president in 10 years?’ he asked, before claiming he was joking.
‘You know, you can’t joke,’ he told supporters in Atlanta. ‘[The media] always cut it before the laugh so they think he’s serious.’
The crowd then chanted ’12 more years!’ to laughter from the president.
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Donald Trump escalated his efforts to undermine the 2020 election this week.Republicans are reportedly considering the possibility of asking state legislatures to ignore the will of the popular vote and appoint electors favorable to the president. Trump also declined to say whether he would accept a peaceful transfer of power this week, comments that many Republicans distanced themselves from. Trump said he needs to place a new supreme court justice in place to resolve election disputes.The US constitution gives state legislatures the authority to appoint the 538 electors to the electoral college who ultimately elect the president. States have long used the winner of the popular vote to determine who gets the electoral votes in their states, but Republicans anonymously told the Atlantic the campaign has discussed the possibility of using delays in the vote count as a basis to ask Republican-controlled legislatures to appoint their own electors, regardless of the final vote tally.“The state legislatures will say, ‘All right, we’ve been given this constitutional power. We don’t think the results of our own state are accurate, so here’s our slate of electors that we think properly reflect the results of our state,’ ” a Trump campaign legal adviser told the Atlantic.A Trump campaign spokesperson said the report in the Atlantic was not true.“The Atlantic story is false and ridiculous. The types of contingency plans included in the story are impossible,” the spokesperson said. “States have laws that determine how electors are selected. Especially if we’re looking at states that could have mail ballot problems (eg Pennsylvania, Michigan), no Democrat governor is going to sign a bill repealing those laws.”Experts cast doubt on the feasibility of such an effort.“It’s the ultimate nightmare scenario for the country. There’s no reason to think there would be any appropriate basis for doing this. It’s not at all clear that the legal power to do it even exists,” said Richard Pildes, a law professor at New York University. “There’s a delicate line in talking about and educating people about all sorts of potential scenarios that could emerge and creating unwarranted anxiety about what is likely to be a relatively well-functioning election process.”Such a scenario is unlikely, Richard Hasen, a law professor and election expert at the University of California, Irvine tweeted Thursday. He noted he did not see a way in which lawmakers could legally change the manner in which they chose electors after people started voting. Several battleground states, including Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, also have Democratic governors who could serve as a check on the legislature.It’s also not clear how widespread or serious the Republican effort is. Joseph Kyzer, a spokesman for North Carolina speaker Tim Moore, said it wasn’t something being discussed among lawmakers. Andrew Hitt, the chairman of the Wisconsin Republican party, also told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel Wednesday it wasn’t something that was being discussed.Because of a surge in mail-in balloting, election officials are likely to continue counting votes after the polls close on 3 November. There’s nothing unusual about that kind of delay, but experts are increasingly worried Trump could use it to claim victory if vote tallies show him ahead on election night. There is a push to prepare the public to understand such a wait is normal to gird against claims of fraud.“Unnecessarily sowing doubt and confusion in voters mind can alienate some voters from even participating at all and can fuel anxieties that put people on a razor’s edge,” Pildes said. More

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President Donald Trump says he will reveal his nominee to fill the vacant US supreme court seat this Saturday and promises it will be a woman, following the death of Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Speaking at an election rally in Jacksonville, Florida, Trump told the crowd he aimed to fill the seat before the November election. Despite promising his nominee would be female, the president played to the crowd, asking the assembled audience: ‘Who would rather see a man?’
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