US elections 2020

Subterms

    More stories

    • 125 Shares179 Views

      in US Politics

      How Donald Trump canceled the Republican party | Sidney Blumenthal

      by

      The Republican convention that nominates Donald Trump for a second term will be the greatest event in the political history of cancel culture. What Trump is cancelling is nothing less than the Republican party as it has existed before him. He ran in 2016 in the primaries on cancelling the GOP and in 2020 he ratifies his triumph. After the election, political scientists and historians will study his obliteration of the Republican party as his greatest and most enduring political achievement.The Republican party has been on a long journey away from being the party of Abraham Lincoln, accelerating since Barry Goldwater and rightwing cadres captured it in 1964 in reaction to the civil rights movement. After Richard Nixon embraced the southern strategy and won the nomination in 1968 with the help of Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, the Dixiecrat segregationist presidential candidate in 1948, the party increasingly radicalized in every election cycle and became gradually unmoored. In 1980, Ronald Reagan opened his general election campaign at the Neshoba County Fair, the place where three civil rights workers had been murdered in 1964. Surrounded by Confederate flags, he hailed “states’ rights”. As brazen an appeal as it was, Reagan felt he had to resort to the old code words.Central to Trump’s unique selling proposition is that he dispenses with the dog whistles. His vulgarity gives a vicarious thrill to those who revel in his taunting of perceived enemies or scapegoats. He made them feel dominant at no social price, until his catastrophic mismanagement of the coronavirus pandemic and economic crisis. Flouting a mask is the magical act of defiance to signal that nothing has really changed and that in any case, Trump bears no responsibility.But there has also been a political cost to Trump’s louche comic lounge act that still transfixes a diehard audience lingering like late-night gamblers for the last show. Trump is the only president since the advent of modern polling never to reach 50% approval. Despite decisively losing the popular vote in 2016, he said he “won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally”. This time, fearing an even more overwhelming popular rejection, he says the outcome will be “rigged” and he has pre-emptively tried to cancel the US Postal Service, to undermine voting by mail.From Reagan onward, even as the fringe moved to the center and took it over, the party did not anticipate that it was slouching toward Trump. Conservatives have consistently failed to grasp the unintended consequences of conservatism. Even when Reagan fostered the evangelical right, George HW Bush appointed Clarence Thomas to the supreme court, George W Bush invaded Iraq and neglected oversight of financial markets that collapsed, and John McCain named Sarah Palin as his running mate, Republicans believed they were expanding the attraction of the conservative project. When Newt Gingrich, Roger Ailes and Rush Limbaugh methodically degraded language, it seemed a propaganda technique to herd supporters. When the dark money of the Koch family and the wealthy reactionaries of the cloaked Donors Trust bankrolled the lumpen dress-up Tea Party to do their bidding on deregulation of finance and industry, the munificently funded conservative candidates did their bidding as retainers of privilege.In the wasteland, only cockroaches and Mitch McConnell may surviveAt the presidential level there still remained residual elements contrary to what metastasized into Trumpism. Reagan represented free trade and western firmness against Russia. George HW Bush was a paragon of public service. George W Bush was an advocate for immigrants. John McCain was the embodiment of patriotic sacrifice.After Trump, all that has been cancelled. Since he first rode down the escalator at Trump Tower in 2015, to declare his candidacy against Mexican “rapists”, there has always been a new escalator downward. After overcoming his initial hesitation, the House Republican leader, Kevin McCarthy, welcomed the election of a QAnon conspiracy-spouting candidate from Georgia, Marjorie Taylor Greene. Then McCarthy condemned QAnon and stated that Greene wasn’t part of a movement she continued to defend.Trump hailed her as a “future Republican star”. For months, he has been tweeting messages to encourage the racist, antisemitic cult. “There’s a once-in-a lifetime opportunity to take this global cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles out, and I think we have the president to do it,” Greene proclaimed. “I’ve heard these are people that love our country,” Trump said. In the wasteland, only cockroaches and Mitch McConnell may survive.Stuart Stevens, a prominent Republican political consultant, eyes startled wide open, has entitled his exposé of the party It Was All A Lie. He describes the conservative Trump apologists, the adults in the room, as latter-day versions of Franz von Papen, the German chancellor who enabled the rise of Hitler in the complacent belief that he could be controlled and the conservatives would maintain power.On 4 July, at the mammoth stage set of Mount Rushmore, Trump mugged for his photo op by posing his face next in line to the carving of Abraham Lincoln. He had earlier told the South Dakota governor, Kristi Noem, “‘Did you know it’s my dream to have my face on Mount Rushmore?’” “And I started laughing,” she recounted. “And he wasn’t laughing, so he was totally serious.” (Trump tweeted that it was “fake news” that he had ordered an aide to inquire about immortalizing his face on the mountain.)Ostensibly, Trump came to deliver his ideological message. He denounced “cancel culture”, which he said was “the very definition of totalitarianism, and it is completely alien to our culture and to our values, and it has absolutely no place in the United States of America”. He attributed it to “a new far-left fascism”. And he spelled out its punitive nature: “If you do not speak its language, perform its rituals, recite its mantras and follow its commandments, then you will be censored, banished, blacklisted, persecuted and punished.” Thus, he offered a concise description of his own cancel culture’s methods.Trump’s cancel culture deals in aggressions, not micro-aggressions. The only safe space is where Trump is worshipped. Before, during and after the death of McCain, Trump unleashed tirades of insult. He finally complained that the McCain family never thanked him for approving the senator’s funeral arrangements, even though it was Congress that gave approval. For years, Trump has disparaged the Bush family. At the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, when George W Bush called for setting aside partisanship and embracing national unity, Trump tweeted, “but where was he during Impeachment calling for putting partisanship aside”.Trump’s cancel culture deals in aggressions, not micro-aggressions. The only safe space is where Trump is worshippedTrump has invoked Reagan only as a stepping stone of his own monumental pedestal. At a rally in 2019, Trump mused: “I was watching the other night the great Lou Dobbs [of Fox News], and he said, ‘When Trump took over, President Trump,’ he used to say, ‘Trump is a great president.’ Then he said, ‘Trump is the greatest president since Ronald Reagan.’ Then he said, ‘No, no, Trump is an even better president than Ronald Reagan.’ And now he’s got me down as the greatest president in the history of our country, including George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Thank you. We love you too.”When Trump sought to profit for his 2020 campaign by selling a gold-colored Trump-Reagan commemorative coin set, the Reagan Foundation sent him a curt letter, telling him to cease and desist. Trump has constantly retailed a false story about Reagan supposedly remarking after meeting him, “For the life of me, and I’ll never know how to explain it, when I met that young man, I felt like I was the one shaking hands with the president.” The chief administrative officer of the Reagan Foundation felt compelled to note that Reagan “did not ever say that about Donald Trump”. More

    • 225 Shares189 Views

      in US Politics

      One thing all sides agree on: the 2020 election is about the soul of America | Cas Mudde

      by

      The 2020 Democratic convention is over and the Democratic party has just let out a sigh of relief. The Democrats and their “new” leader were center-stage for several days and nothing went wrong. In fact, not only did their presidential candidate, Joe Biden, not have any gaffes, his acceptance speech was praised by Republicans, and by Fox News, which seems to be the highest compliment for the Biden campaign team.If anyone was still wondering, the Democratic national convention made it crystal clear: Biden is going for the “moderate” Democrats and Republicans. Whereas Hillary Clinton still devoted one day to the Sanders base at the 2016 convention, the Biden camp gave Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez just one minute, roughly one-quarter of the time they allotted to Republican ex-governor John Kasich.Biden’s campaign is going to be Ronald Reagan’s “Morning in America” but with pictures of Black Lives Matter, as was captured perfectly in the “Rise Up” video that was debuted, to great enthusiasm from Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans, at the convention. Biden is going to be the feelgood president, the empathy president, the man who suffered and feels your pain. Most importantly, he is going to be the “not-Trump” president.Sure, there is going to be a lot of hinting at progressive change, but Biden will mostly assure so-called moderates – and Wall Street – that they have nothing to worry about. And why should they? As President Trump wryly pointed out: “In 47 years, Joe did none of the things of which he now speaks. He will never change, just words!”The Biden campaign has read the polls and the polls say that the November elections are going to be a referendum on Trump. Almost anyone who still self-identifies as Republican is now completely behind Trump – who still has an approval rating of 90% among Republicans – while 60% of Biden “supporters” say they mainly are backing him as a vote against Trump.But Trump is really just a placeholder, who fuels a much longer-standing polarization. At least since the 2000 Bush-Gore election, sections of the two camps have argued that the next election is about the fate of US democracy. Each election, these sections have become bigger. Trump has embraced this division, and amplified it, raising it to new levels. In today’s “conservative” narrative, Marco Rubio and Fox News are (potential) enemies. Similarly, on the left, a new radical social media infrastructure has emerged that sees Nancy Pelosi and the New York Times as “Trump enablers”.To be absolutely clear, the radicalization in both camps is not the same. Trump is a threat to US democracy. He has repeatedly shown his authoritarian instincts, openly fantasizes about an unconstitutional third term, and repeatedly praised domestic extremists and foreign dictators. And his party is now openly embracing QAnon conspiracy theorists like Marjorie Taylor Green and other white supremacists like Laura Loomer. Not to speak of the most influential gravedigger of US liberal democracy, the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell.You either see Trump as a danger to US democracy or you think Biden is. Nothing is going to change thatJoe Biden might be many things, but he is no radical. Nor is he a “dangerous pawn of the far left”, as the far-right outrage machine tries to portray him. In fact, despite Sanders’ remarkable runs in 2016 and 2020, the Democratic party is still well in the hands of centrists. And while the Democrats have been involved in several illiberal and undemocratic policies – from gerrymandering to the illegal surveillance of millions of Americans – their support for the liberal democratic system, in word and deed, is impeccable compared with that of the Republican party.What does this all mean for the coming months? The main consequence of this polarization is that the mind of the vast majority of potential voters is already fixed, at least on the question of which candidate to potentially vote for. For most Americans, this 2020 election is about “the soul of America”, whatever that “soul” exactly might be. You either see Trump as a danger to US democracy or you think Biden is. Nothing is going to change that.Consequently, the election is going to be won by whoever can make the most voters so afraid that they will come out to vote. Trump still has an easier task ahead, playing on longstanding racist fears, and profiting from most of the many deficiencies of the electoral system that work in his favor – such as the electoral college, the disproportionate weight for rural America and voter suppression. He is playing to a much smaller electorate, but one that votes more often.Biden has a larger potential electorate, but weaker support among them. Moreover, he does not want to rely on the non-white vote, which overwhelmingly prefers him over Trump, but is notoriously low (in part because of voter suppression!). Hence, Biden has decided to prioritize the “moderate” white vote (again). But whether his campaign will be able to frighten enough white centrists more about the state of US democracy than over the economic meltdown or “demographic change”, remains to be seen.Cas Mudde is the Stanley Wade Shelton UGAF professor of international affairs at the University of Georgia, the author of The Far Right Today (2019), and host of the new podcast Radikaal More

    • 125 Shares129 Views

      in US Politics

      After a repentant Trump voter's one-man protest, what happened next?

      by

      Regrets, he’s had a few, but then again, there’s one he’d like to mention.James Walker voted for Donald Trump in 2016. That fateful decision, and a subsequent act of public of repentance, rippled through his family and friendships, his dating life, his career, where he makes his home and countless thousands of posts on social media.Walker’s story is a parable of the times, a glimpse of how the Trump era has awakened ordinary citizens, who might otherwise sit on the sidelines as presidents come and go, and how the internet has become a turbocharged amplifier of division and hatred, healing and redemption.It was March 2017 when Trump, still in the foothills of his presidency, held a rally in Nashville, Tennessee. As usual, there was a small group of protesters outside the venue, the Nashville Municipal Auditorium. Unmissable among them stood Walker wearing beard, sunglasses, black North Face jacket, khaki trousers. Most strikingly, he wore a red “Make America great again” (Maga) cap on his head and a sign in his hands that announced to the world: “I’ve made a huge mistake.”As a picture it was worth a thousand tweets. It soon went viral on social media, featured on the Guardian and Reddit websites and was cited by the comedian Bill Maher on his HBO show Real Time. A Twitter post from this Guardian reporter that day has now accumulated 42,000 retweets and 82,000 likes. Among the earliest comments: “no worries man. Join the #resistance”; “Wow – James Walker – takes guts to do that – no matter who you voted for. Most people wouldn’t do that.”I felt frustrated and didn’t know which way to go and then immediately felt like I had made the wrong callMany wanted to know: why did he vote for Trump? And why did he change his mind? Walker grew up in a conservative family in northern California and spent two years in the military but, by 2016, had begun to question the direction of the Republican party; nevertheless, he plumped for Trump over Hillary Clinton.“I was mid-transition when that election came up and I felt frustrated with both candidates that were put up and didn’t know which way to go and then immediately felt like I had made the wrong call,” he explained by phone from Los Angeles, where he now lives. “Within a few months I had become so frustrated that I felt it was necessary to stand up and do something.”Walker, 35, did not own a Maga hat but ordered one when “a random, crazy” idea took hold in his mind. When the president came to town, he put the red cap on and took along his sign expressing repentance. He was “scared” what reaction he might get as thousands of Trump supporters poured into Nashville, he admits, and had two friends standing nearby as “bodyguards”.“I intended to stand there for like five minutes and get a photo that I could post as my own private protest, but within two minutes you [Guardian reporter] walked up to me and I didn’t even entirely know how to react to that. I thought if someone came up to me, I would probably need to start running for the exit.“Immediately after that, more people started coming up to me and I ended up staying for hours. I marched all around with the protesters and so many of them came up to me and gave me hugs and thanked me and said me taking a stand like that was inspiring. It really moved people.“People were crying and it just felt like a really healing moment which was not what I expected. It reinforced my hope that I could find a way to be an activist, even in my own kind of quirky way of standing there in a red hat and holding up a sign as a regretful Trump voter.”But when Walker approached people attending the Trump rally, the reception was rather less warm. “It felt like there was a lot of toxicity and I didn’t even feel safe over there.”He went home and assumed that would be the end of it.But that evening he started getting text messages from friends and family members saying he was going viral on Twitter. “That kind of freaked me out,” he admits. “Most of the responses from people who were sending me screenshots were positive, but my family was not happy and were rather upset with me doing that.That was the point at which I almost felt like I might have made a mistake because the comments turned very nasty“They said, ‘Why would you do something to hurt Trump?’ I was surprised by that because I thought, ‘Wow, I can’t believe that I could do something that hurt Trump’, so that was rather exciting but, at the same time, it started a longstanding rift down party lines in the family, which is kind of the thing that the whole protest was about, hoping to break down those walls.”The morning after his protest, Walker received more text messages telling him he had made it to the front page of Reddit.“That was the point at which I almost felt like I might have made a mistake because the comments turned very nasty and started to attack every aspect of my character and all these unknowable things. I became a target for a lot of people’s frustration, and that’s when I felt like I need to shut down and just regroup and think through whether or not I would take another interview.“I only read the comments for a couple hours and I never went back but I remember that they targeted my physical appearance. Of course they attacked me as someone who would admit to voting for Trump and therefore a fool, and then they homed in on other details from the picture like me wearing my military-issue pants, and so they attacked by military service record.”The reaction among friends in the liberal bastion of East Nashville was mixed. “I had a surprising amount of friends on my side but then there were those who just didn’t understand why I would do something like that. To an extent, I didn’t either. I just felt compelled because it seemed like such a critical moment that, in any way I could, I needed to do something and it seemed to work.”He recalls: “I started dating someone and she had to tell all of her friends that she was dating the guy who went viral in the Maga hat in Nashville a week or two ago.” More

    • 188 Shares189 Views

      in US Politics

      USPS chief Louis DeJoy says he won't restore mail-sorting machines ahead of election – live

      by

      Postmaster general concedes changes causing mail delays
      Bannon dismisses fraud charges as ‘political hit job’
      Firefighters stretched thin as California blazes grow rapidly
      1,042 new Covid-19 deaths and 46,029 new cases in US yesterday
      Sign up to our First Thing newsletter

      LIVE
      Updated

      Play Video

      1:03

      USPS chief says he won’t restore mail-sorting machines ahead of election – video

      Key events

      Show

      5.01pm EDT17:01
      Today so far

      2.31pm EDT14:31
      Bannon dismisses fraud charges as a ‘political hit job’

      2.12pm EDT14:12
      Golden State Killer sentenced to life in prison

      1.38pm EDT13:38
      Republican governor of Vermont says he will not vote for Trump

      1.20pm EDT13:20
      Today so far

      1.05pm EDT13:05
      Trump predicts election winner won’t be known for ‘months’

      12.37pm EDT12:37
      Barr is ‘vehemently opposed’ to Snowden pardon

      Live feed

      Show

      5.16pm EDT17:16

      Why didn’t Democrats talk more about the Supreme Court at the DNC?
      This is Lois Beckett, picking up our live politics coverage from our California office.
      “None of the proposals discussed [at the Democratic National Convention] this week, even if signed into law by a President Biden, will stay on the books for very long given our current Supreme Court. And yet we heard so little on the issue.”
      That’s Brian Fallon, the executive director of Demand Justice, a progressive advocacy group focused on the court system, talking to NBC News about the Democratic Party’s striking lack of rhetoric this past week about what they might do about Trump’s victory in securing what could likely be a long-term conservative majority on the Supreme Court.
      More from other progressive advocates about this issue in the piece.

      Sahil Kapur
      (@sahilkapur)
      NEW: Progressives seethe as Democrats largely ignore Supreme Court at conventionThe party adopted a plank calling for “structural court reforms.” But almost none of the speakers mentioned the enormous stakes for SCOTUS at the 4-day event.https://t.co/9UP4nh82sA

      August 21, 2020

      5.01pm EDT17:01

      Today so far

      That’s it from me this week. My west coast colleague, Lois Beckett, will take over the blog for the next few hours.
      Here’s where the day stands so far:
      Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said he does not intend to restore mail sorting machines that have been removed from some USPS locations. Testifying before the Senate homeland security and governmental affairs committee, DeJoy argued the machines that had been removed were “not needed.” However, DeJoy acknowledged that some of the operational changes he has implemented have caused delays in mail delivery.
      A federal judge denied Trump’s request for a stay of the subpoena for his tax returns. The president’s lawyers now reportedly intend to go to the 2nd circuit court of appeals to try to get a stay of the subpoena issued by Manhattan district attorney Cy Vance. The federal judge’s decision comes a month after the supreme court ruled that the president was not exempt from grand jury requests.
      Steve Bannon dismissed the federal charges against him as a “political hit job.” The former Trump adviser, who was arrested yesterday for allegedly using money from his anti-immigrant group We Build the Wall for personal expenses, said on his podcast today, “I’m not going to back down. This is a political hit job. … I’m going to continue to fight.”
      Attorney general William Barr said he was “vehemently opposed” to a pardon of whistleblower Edward Snowden. Trump floated the idea of a pardon for Snowden last week, saying, “It seems to be a split decision that many people think that he should be somehow treated differently … and I’m going to take a very good look at it.”
      The Golden State Killer was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Judge Michael Bowman said Joseph James DeAngelo “deserves no mercy” after pleading guilty to 13 murder charges and 13 kidnapping-related charges.
      Lois will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

      4.38pm EDT16:38

      A couple dozen House members are demanding an investigation into the deaths of thousands of mail-order chicks, as cost-cutting measures cause delays in mail deliveries.

      Chellie Pingree
      (@chelliepingree)
      For 100+ years, agriculture businesses have relied on @USPS, but recent mail disruptions have taken a huge toll on them. In Maine, thousands of mail-order chicks have died in transit—a tragic & unprecedented occurrence. I’m urging @USPS & @USDA to investigate now. My ✉️ ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/9Brlf1xhDB

      August 21, 2020

      Democratic Congresswoman Chellie Pingree of Maine sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and Postmaster General Louis DeJoy demanding an investigation into reports of the issue.
      “USPS is the only carrier that will deliver chicks from hatcheries to local, independent poultry producers and has been an essential and reliable partner for rural America since it first began providing this service over 100 years ago,” Pingree said in the letter.
      “We are deeply concerned that the recent issues with live chick deliveries may have been significantly exacerbated by recent changes to USPS service that have led to mail delays and staffing challenges.”
      During a Senate hearing today, DeJoy acknowledged that the operational changes he has recently implemented have caused delays in mail delivery.

      4.14pm EDT16:14

      The justice department announced the arrest of a former Army Green Beret for allegedly conspiring with Russian operatives to provide US defense information.
      The US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia said in a statement that Peter Rafael Dzibinski Debbins, 45, repeatedly visited Russia and met with Russian intelligence officials between December 1996 and January 2011. Debbins even allegedly received a code name from Russian intelligence agents.

      U.S. Attorney EDVA
      (@EDVAnews)
      Former Army Green Beret charged in Russian espionage conspiracy. @TheJusticeDept @FBIWFO https://t.co/VW6YzS29bW

      August 21, 2020

      “Our military is tasked with the awesome responsibility of protecting our nation from its adversaries, and its service members make incredible sacrifices in service of that duty,” said US attorney G Zachary Terwilliger.
      “When service members collude to provide classified information to our foreign adversaries, they betray the oaths they swore to their country and their fellow service members. As this indictment reflects, we will be steadfast and dogged in holding such individuals accountable.”

      3.52pm EDT15:52

      Fact-check: was Trump actually as unaware as he claims about the anti-immigrant group We Build the Wall?
      The president’s former senior adviser, Steve Bannon, was arrested yesterday on fraud charges stemming from allegations he used some of the group’s money on personal expenses.
      When asked about Bannon’s arrest, Trump said, “I know nothing about the project other than I didn’t like when I read about it. I didn’t like it.”
      But one Republican involved in the project previously said he had spoken to Trump about the group multiple times.
      CNN has the details:

      Trump ally Kris Kobach said in an interview last year that he had spoken with the President three times about the private border wall project that is currently at the center of a federal fraud investigation, and that Trump was ‘enthusiastic’ about the project and it carried his blessing.
      Speaking on an episode of the ‘We Build The Wall’ show in May 2019, Kobach, both the general counsel and a board member for the project, said he periodically spoke to the President to give him updates on progress of the project. …
      ‘I’ve spoken to the President about this project on three occasions now,’ Kobach said. ‘And he said — the first time I told him about it — he said, ‘well, you tell the guys at We Build The Wall, that they have my blessing.’ And he used those exact words.’

      3.35pm EDT15:35

      Documents obtained by NBC News contradict Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s comments this morning about restricting postal workers’ overtime.
      Many postal workers have told news outlets that their overtime hours have recently been cut, contributing to delays in mail delivery.
      But DeJoy told the Senate homeland security and governmental affairs committee this morning, “We’ve never eliminated overtime … It has not been curtailed by me or the leadership team.”
      But the documents obtained by NBC indicate DeJoy’s cost-cutting measures included prohibiting extra or late mail trips to ensure that carriers “return on time.”

      Geoff Bennett
      (@GeoffRBennett)
      Louis DeJoy told Sen. @GaryPeters today that he has not cut postal workers’ overtime. But this internal #USPS talking points document I obtained show how his policy changes have the same effect: prohibiting “extra”or “late” trips and mandating that carriers “return on time.” pic.twitter.com/fVreXlqZSZ

      August 21, 2020

      3.19pm EDT15:19

      George W Bush endorsed Republican Senator Susan Collins’ reelection bid, marking the former Republican president’s first endorsement of the 2020 election season.
      “She’s honest period. She’s forthright period. She brings dignity into a world that has gotten really ugly,” Bush said after meeting with Collins in her home state of Maine, according to the AP.
      Democrats have targeted Collins’ seat, attacking the senator over her support for Brett Kavanaugh’s supreme court nomination and Trump’s tax cuts.
      Collins is currently locked in a heated race with Sara Gideon, the Democratic speaker of the Maine House.

      2.52pm EDT14:52

      Trump’s legal team intends to once again fight a subpoena of his financial records at the 2nd circuit appeals court, according to an NPR reporter.

      Carrie Johnson
      (@johnson_carrie)
      Source tells me Trump’s lawyers once again are seeking relief at the 2nd circuit appeals court. If they lose there, imagine this: Trump asking the Supreme Court to intervene next week, in the middle of the Republican National Convention. https://t.co/fPlRgh8zE7

      August 21, 2020

      If the appeals court rejects the president’s request for a stay of the Manhattan district attorney’s subpoena, Trump’s lawyers may then take their case to the supreme court, which could overlap with next week’s Republican National Convention.
      However, the supreme court sent the case back to the lower courts last month, when the justices ruled 7-2 that the president was not exempt from grand jury requests, so it seems somewhat unlikely the high court would intervene at this stage.

      2.31pm EDT14:31

      Bannon dismisses fraud charges as a ‘political hit job’

      Steve Bannon dismissed the federal charges against him as a “political hit job,” a day after he was arrested on a yacht off the coast of Connecticut.
      The former Trump adviser was released on bail yesterday after pleading not guilty to fraud charges, stemming from allegations that he used money from his anti-immigrant group We Build the Wall on personal expenses.

      [embedded content]

      “I’m not going to back down. This is a political hit job,” Bannon said today on his podcast War Room.
      “I’m in this for the long haul,” Bannon added. “I’m in this for the fight. I’m going to continue to fight.”
      After the charges were announced yesterday, Trump attempted to distance himself from his former adviser, saying he knew “nothing about the project.”
      “I haven’t been dealing with him for a long period of time,” the president said.

      Updated
      at 4.53pm EDT

      2.12pm EDT14:12

      Golden State Killer sentenced to life in prison

      Joseph James DeAngelo, better known as the Golden State Killer, has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, four decades after he terrorized the suburbs of Sacramento and stalked neighborhoods in southern California, breaking into homes to rape and torture women and girls, and killing couples and young women in their beds.
      His crimes left a trail of destruction that has haunted survivors and their families. The sentencing – which took place in Sacramento on Friday, on the 40th anniversary of two of the murders – follows three days of testimony from dozens of women and men who survived DeAngelo’s crimes, as well as family members of those who did not.
      Judge Michael Bowman said he was “moved by all their courage, their grace, their strength.”
      “All qualities you lack,” he said, addressing DeAngelo. “Are you capable of comprehending the pain and anguish you’ve caused?”
      The defendant “deserves no mercy”, Bowman said before the sentencing, which was met with applause.

      1.56pm EDT13:56

      Trump will travel to the swing state of North Carolina on Monday, the president’s daughter and senior adviser, Ivanka Trump, confirmed in a tweet.

      Ivanka Trump
      (@IvankaTrump)
      Look forward to joining @realDonaldTrump and @SecretarySonny in North Carolina on Monday for a Farmers to Families Food Box Program event.+70 million boxes delivered and going strong! 👩‍🌾👨‍🌾 https://t.co/uRXrJfEeKS

      August 21, 2020

      The North State Journal reports:

      According to a White House official, President Trump will visit Mills River, located in Henderson County, to visit a Farmers to Families Food Box program site and deliver remarks on the administration’s support for American farmers and families through the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program.

      The Republican National Convention was originally supposed to take place in Charlotte, North Carolina, next week, but the convention will now be mostly virtual due to the pandemic.
      According to Politico, the president will also visit the site of the convention, where a few hundred delegates are still convening to formally nominate Trump, on Monday.

      1.38pm EDT13:38

      Republican governor of Vermont says he will not vote for Trump

      Phil Scott, the Republican governor of Vermont, said he would not be voting for Trump in November’s presidential election.
      “I have not decided, at this point, whether to cast a vote for former Vice President Biden, but it’s something that I would consider,” Scott said.

      Ryan Struyk
      (@ryanstruyk)
      “I won’t be voting for President Trump,” says Republican Gov. Phil Scott of Vermont. “I have not decided, at this point, whether to cast a vote for former Vice President Biden, but it’s something that I would consider.”

      August 21, 2020

      Scott has previously said he did not vote for Trump in 2016, and amid the Senate impeachment trial earlier this year, the Republican governor said Trump “should not be in office.”
      Scott’s announcement may have something to do with the fact that he is facing reelection this year in his liberal-leaning state.

      1.20pm EDT13:20

      Today so far

      Here’s where the day stands so far:
      Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said he does not intend to restore mail sorting machines that have been removed from some USPS locations. Testifying before the Senate homeland security and governmental affairs committee, DeJoy argued the machines that had been removed were “not needed.” However, DeJoy acknowledged that some of the operational changes he has implemented have caused delays in mail delivery.
      A federal judge denied Trump’s request for a stay of the subpoena for his tax returns. The president now has six days to convince an appeals court to grant a stay of the subpoena issued by Manhattan district attorney Cy Vance. The judge’s decision comes a month after the supreme court ruled that the president was not exempt from such grand jury requests.
      Attorney general William Barr said he was “vehemently opposed” to a pardon of whistleblower Edward Snowden. Trump floated the idea of a pardon for Snowden last week, saying, “It seems to be a split decision that many people think that he should be somehow treated differently … and I’m going to take a very good look at it.”
      The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

      1.05pm EDT13:05

      Trump predicts election winner won’t be known for ‘months’

      Addressing the 2020 Council for National Policy Meeting, Trump predicted that the nation will not know the winner of the presidential election for weeks or even months after Nov. 3.
      “You’ll never have an election count on Nov. 3,” the president said. “In my opinion, you wouldn’t be able to know the results of this election maybe weeks, months. Maybe never. I don’t think you’ll know two weeks later. I don’t think you’ll know four weeks later.”
      A number of election officials have warned that the much higher number of mail-in ballots this year, due to the coronavirus pandemic, could cause a delay in the reporting of results.
      The president also once again attacked mail-in voting, accusing states that are automatically sending ballots to registered voters of causing a “very serious problem for our great democracy.”
      Just to reiterate: despite the president’s allegations, voter fraud is very rare, and mail-in voting has been a staple of US election systems for decades.

      12.49pm EDT12:49

      Trump is currently speaking at the 2020 Council for National Policy Meeting, and he offered some thoughts on his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden.
      The president opened his remarks by claiming Biden never mentioned China “in any way, shape or form” during his nomination acceptance speech last night.
      In reality, the Democratic nominee did mention China, saying, “We’ll make the medical supplies and protective equipment our country needs. And we’ll make them here in America. So we will never again be at the mercy of China and other foreign countries in order to protect our own people.”
      Trump also compared Biden to the 2016 Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton. “Clinton’s much smarter, but not a likable person. Joe is not nearly as smart, but he’s more likable,” Trump said.
      “Maybe I’d rather have the smarter person. Who cares about personality, right?”

      12.37pm EDT12:37

      Barr is ‘vehemently opposed’ to Snowden pardon

      Attorney general William Barr said he is “vehemently opposed” to a pardon of whistleblower Edward Snowden, even though Trump floated the idea last week.
      “He was a traitor and the information he provided our adversaries greatly hurt the safety of the American people,” Barr told the AP.
      Snowden was charged under the Espionage Act in 2013 for disclosing classified information about US surveillance programs.
      “He was peddling it around like a commercial merchant,” Barr said. “We can’t tolerate that.”
      But on Saturday, Trump said he would “look at” the issue. “There are many, many people — it seems to be a split decision that many people think that he should be somehow treated differently, and other people think he did very bad things,” Trump said. “And I’m going to take a very good look at it.”
      Snowden has been living in Russia since he leaked the information in order to avoid US prosecution.

      Updated
      at 12.37pm EDT

      12.13pm EDT12:13

      Judge denies Trump request for a stay of subpoena for tax returns

      A federal judge has denied Trump’s request for a stay of the Manhattan district attorney’s subpoena for his financial records, including his tax returns.
      The president now has six days to convince an appeals court to grant the stay, but he is quickly running out of options to avoid giving Manhattan DA Cy Vance the requested records.

      Andrea Bernstein
      (@AndreaWNYC)
      BREAKING: Federal judge denies Trump’s request for a stay of Manhattan D.A.’s subpoena for Trump taxes. pic.twitter.com/vp7HS5VaCW

      August 21, 2020

      US district judge Victor Marrero rejected Trump’s challenge to the subpoena yesterday, after the supreme court ruled last month that the president was not exempt from such grand jury requests.
      The president’s legal team has argued the subpoena should be dismissed because they say it is political motivated, but Vance has insisted he needs the records for a “complex financial investigation” of the Trump Organization.

      Updated
      at 12.16pm EDT More