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      Donald Trump flounders in interview over US Covid-19 death toll

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      Donald Trump

      President again says he is doing ‘incredible job’ fighting pandemic and casts doubt on Jeffrey Epstein’s cause of death
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      ‘You can’t do that’: Trump argues with reporter over Covid-19 death figures – video

      Donald Trump visibly floundered in an interview when pressed on a range of issues, including the number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the US, his claims that mail-in voting is fraudulent, and his inaction over the “Russian bounty” scandal.
      The US president also repeatedly cast doubt on the cause of death of Jeffrey Epstein, and said of Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite who has pleaded not guilty to participating in the sex-trafficking of girls by Epstein, that he wished her well.
      In the interview, broadcast on HBO on Monday and conducted by Axios’s national political correspondent, Jonathan Swan, Trump again asserted that his administration was doing an “incredible job” responding to the coronavirus.
      Claiming that the pandemic was unique, Trump said: “This has never happened before. Nineteen seventeen, but it was totally different, it was a flu in that case. If you watch the fake news on television, they don’t even talk about it, but there are 188 other countries right now that are suffering. Some, proportionately, far greater than we are.”
      Trump has repeatedly referred to the 1917 flu pandemic, whereas the outbreak happened in 1918 and into 1919.
      And when asked about the death toll from coronavirus so far in the US, of almost 155,000 killed, Trump appeared irritated and said: “It is what it is”
      His opponent in the upcoming presidential election, Democrat Joe Biden, tweeted on Tuesday morning: “Mr President, step up and do your job before even more American families feel the pain of losing a loved one.”
      Biden also wrote: “On July 1st, Donald Trump predicted the coronavirus was going to ‘just disappear.’ He was wrong – and more than 25,000 Americans died due to the virus last month.”
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      Swan pressed the president on which countries were doing worse. Trump brandished several pieces of paper with graphs and charts on them that he referred to as he attempted to suggest the US figures compared well internationally.
      “Right here, United States is lowest in numerous categories. We’re lower than the world. Lower than Europe.”
      “In what?” asks Swan. As it becomes apparent that Trump is talking about the number of deaths as a proportion of cases, Swan says said: “Oh, you’re doing death as a proportion of cases. I’m talking about death as a proportion of population. That’s where the US is really bad. Much worse than Germany, South Korea.”
      Trump then says: “You can’t do that.”
      According to figures from Johns Hopkins University, the US has had over 4.7m confirmed Covid-19 cases, with 155,471 deaths. The US accounts for more than a quarter of all global confirmed infections.
      In another section of the interview, Trump repeats his false assertion that the reason the US has a significantly higher number of cases is because it tests more than anyone else, saying: “You know, there are those that say you can test too much. You do know that.”
      Asked who says that, Trump replies: “Oh, just read the manuals. Read the books.”
      Trump also appears, without evidence, to assert that children are receiving positive Covid-19 test results for having a runny nose – which is not generally listed among the symptoms of coronavirus, which include a high temperature and a new continuous cough.
      “You test, some kid has even just a little runny nose, it’s a case. And then you report many cases,” Trump says.
      The president attempts to shift blame for the outbreaks of coronavirus on to state governors, saying: “We have done a great job. We’ve got the governors everything they needed. They didn’t do their job – many of them didn’t, some of them did.”
      The actor and activist Mia Farrow tweeted that: “Every American should watch this, the full, flabbergasting interview.”
      Trump was also asked about his previous baseless assertion that due to mail-in voting, the forthcoming US election would be “the most inaccurate and fraudulent election in history”.
      In the interview, Trump says: “So we have a new phenomena [sic], it’s called mail-in voting.” Swan then clarifies that mail-in voting has existed since the US civil war.
      Further attempting to cast doubt on the process, Trump says: “So they’re going to send tens of millions of ballots to California, all over the place. Who’s going to get them? Somebody got a ballot for a dog. Somebody got a ballot for something else. You got millions of ballots going. Nobody even knows where they’re going.”
      The interview took place last Tuesday, before the president’s tweet that falsely floated the idea that November’s election could be delayed.
      On Maxwell and Epstein, the president appeared to cast doubt on the official account of the cause of Epstein’s death, which has been a repeated source of conspiracy theories.
      Of Maxwell, Trump says “Her friend or boyfriend Epstein was either killed or committed suicide in jail. She’s now in jail. Yeah, I wish her well.” Trump goes on twice more to say of Epstein: “Was it suicide or was he killed?”

      Parker Molloy
      (@ParkerMolloy)
      Trump again wishes Ghislaine Maxwell well pic.twitter.com/whWhZoO4mC

      August 4, 2020

      In another part of the interview, he dismissed again as “fake news” intelligence reports that Russia had been offering bounties to the Taliban for attacks on US forces in Afghanistan. Asked specifically by Swan whether he had ever discussed the issue with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, Trump confirms he has never mentioned it to him.
      When Swan asks Trump about Russia supplying weapons to the Taliban, the president asserts: “I have heard that, but it has never reached my desk.”
      Lily Adams, a spokeswoman and adviser for the so-called war room of the Democratic party’s national committee slammed the president as incoherent and rambling through misinformation.
      “Trump’s disastrous interview would be laughable if the stakes weren’t so high. More than 155,000 Americans have died, over 4.7 million have been infected, and we are in the sharpest economic downturn on record … coronavirus cases are skyrocketing and the economy is spiraling because of his failed response,” Adams said.

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      Donald Trump

      US politics

      Coronavirus outbreak

      Infectious diseases

      Ghislaine Maxwell

      Russia

      US elections 2020

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      Russia used English-language sites to spread Covid-19 disinformation, US officials say

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      US officials say Russian intelligence services are using a trio of English-language websites to spread disinformation about the coronavirus pandemic, seeking to exploit a crisis that America is struggling to contain ahead of the presidential election in November.Two Russians who have held senior roles in Moscow’s military intelligence service known as the GRU have been identified as responsible for a disinformation effort reaching American and western audiences, US government officials said on Tuesday. They spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.The information had previously been classified, but officials said it had been downgraded so they could more freely discuss it. Officials said they were doing so now to sound the alarm about the particular websites and to expose what they say is a clear link between the sites and Russian intelligence.Between late May and early July, one of the officials said, the websites published about 150 articles about the pandemic response, including coverage aimed either at propping up Russia or denigrating the US.Among the headlines that caught the attention of US officials was one that said “Russia’s Counter Covid-19 Aid to America Advances Case for Détente”, which suggested that Russia had given urgent and substantial aid to the US to fight the pandemic. “Beijing Believes Covid-19 is a Biological Weapon”, which amplified statements by the Chinese, was another one.The disclosure comes as the spread of disinformation, including by Russia, is an urgent concern heading into November’s presidential election. US officials look to avoid a repeat of the 2016 race, when Russia launched a covert social media campaign to divide American public opinion and to favor then-candidate Donald Trump over his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton. The US government’s chief counterintelligence executive warned in a rare public statement Friday about Russia’s continued use of internet trolls to advance their goals.Even apart from politics, the twin crises buffeting the country and much of the world – the pandemic and race relations and protests – have offered fertile territory for misinformation or outfight falsehoods. Trump himself has come under scrutiny for sharing misinformation about a disproven drug for treating the coronavirus in videos that were taken down by Twitter and Facebook.Officials described the Russian disinformation as part of an ongoing and persistent effort to advance false narratives and cause confusion. They did not say whether the effort behind these particular websites was directly related to the November election, though some of the coverage appeared to denigrate Joe Biden, and does call to mind Russian efforts from 2016 to exacerbate race relations in America and drive corruption allegations against US political figures.Though US officials have warned before about the spread of disinformation tied to the pandemic, they went further on Tuesday by singling out a particular information agency that is registered in Russia, InfoRos and that operates a series of websites – InfoRos.ru, Infobrics.org and OneWorld.press – that have leveraged the pandemic to promote anti-western objectives and to spread disinformation.An email to InfoRos was not immediately returned on Tuesday.The sites promote their narratives in a sophisticated but insidious effort that US officials liken to money laundering, where stories in well-written English – and often with pro-Russian sentiment and anti-US sentiment – are cycled through other news sources to conceal their origin and enhance the legitimacy of the information.The sites also amplify stories that originate elsewhere, the government officials said.Beyond the coronavirus, there’s also a focus on America, global politics and topical stories of the moment.A headline Tuesday on InfoRos.ru about the unrest roiling major American cities read “Chaos in the Blue Cities”, accompanying a story that lamented how New Yorkers who grew up in the tough-on-crime approach of mayors Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg “must adapt to life in high-crime urban areas”.Another story carried the headline of “Ukrainian Trap for Biden”, and claimed that “Ukrainegate” – a reference to stories surrounding Biden’s son Hunter’s former ties to a Ukraine gas company – “keeps unfolding with renewed vigors”.Two individuals who have also held leadership roles at InfoRos, identified Tuesday as Denis Valeryevich Tyurin and Aleksandr Gennadyevich Starunskiy, have previously served in a GRU unit specializing in military psychological intelligence and maintain deep contacts there, the officials said.InfoRos and One World’s ties to the Russian state have attracted scrutiny in the past from European disinformation analysts.In 2019, a European Union task force that studies disinformation campaigns identified One World as “a new addition to the pantheon of Moscow-based disinformation outlets”. The task force noted that One World’s content often parrots the Russian state agenda on issues including the war in Syria.A report published last month by a second, nongovernmental organization, Brussels-based EU DisinfoLab, examined links between InfoRos and One World to Russian military intelligence. The researchers identified technical clues tying their websites to Russia and identified some financial connections between InfoRos and the government.“InfoRos is evolving in a shady grey zone, where regular information activities are mixed with more controversial actions that could be quite possibly linked to the Russian state’s information operations,” the report’s authors concluded.On its English-language Facebook page, InfoRos describes itself as an “Information agency: world through the eyes of Russia”. More

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      Donald Trump: 'I'm getting rave reviews' for commuting Roger Stone's sentence – video

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      Trump has claimed he received ‘rave reviews’ for commuting the prison sentence of Roger Stone, his long-time ally. Stone, 67, was convicted in November 2019 of obstructing a congressional investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election. Both Democrats and Republicans have criticised the move as a miscarriage of justice
      Trump’s commutation of ally Roger Stone’s sentence sparks outrage
      ‘Historic corruption’: Republicans and Democrats react to Trump’s Stone ruling

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      in US Politics

      Bolton: Trump claim he wasn’t told of Russia bounty report is 'not how system works’

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      Donald Trump’s claim not to have been briefed about intelligence suggesting Russia paid Taliban-linked militants to kill US soldiers is “just not the way the system works”, former national security adviser John Bolton said on Sunday. Bolton was appearing on Face the Nation, the Sunday talk show from ViacomCBS, the communications giant which owns Simon […] More

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      Coronavirus US: Texas governor orders all residents to wear masks – live

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      Greg Abbott issues executive order, marking reversal Herman Cain tests positive for virus after attending Trump rally Mnuchin: Trump administration has no regrets about reopening push Trump has ‘gone awol’ as president amid pandemic, says ex-CIA director Ghislaine Maxwell ‘assisted in abuse of minor girls’ says FBI co-head Sign up to our First Thing newsletter […] More

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      Donald Trump calls allegations of Russian bounty on US soldiers 'a hoax' – video

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      Play Video 0:41 US president Donald Trump has played down allegations Russia paid bounties to the Taliban to kill coalition forces in Afghanistan, claiming it’s a hoax by ‘the newspapers and the Democrats’. Trump initially said he had not been told of the allegations, while the White House later claimed there was no consensus in […] More