The 2020 Presidential race

Who needs Russia? Who needs China? The President of the United States is doing his own election meddling, as CNN's Chris Cillizza points out. Trump continues to insist – without evidence – that mail-in voting leads to fraud and benefits Democrats. He predicts the 2020 election "will be the greatest fraud in history." He's trying to undermine the ability of voters to vote by mail and he's trying to make it harder for mail-in votes to be counted. In 82 days, we will have the chance to replace self-serving Emperor Trump with a President who believes in the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the rule of law.

Analysis: Donald Trump just straight-up admitted he is working to meddle in the election

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/13/polit...020/index.html

In 2011, Donald Trump began insisting Barack Obama was not born in the United States. He told Fox News, "He doesn’t have a birth certificate. He may have one, but there is something on that birth certificate – maybe religion, maybe it says he's a Muslim. I don’t know." After the White House released Obama's birth certificate showing he was born in Honolulu, Trump called the birth certificate a fake. Trump is now starting to spread the same lie about Kamala Harris, saying he heard on "social media" that she "doesn't meet the requirements" to serve as Vice President or President. Harris was born in Oakland, California. CNN's Don Lemon said tonight that they reached out to all 53 Republican Senators regarding Trump's latest "birther" accusation. These are colleagues of Senator Harris. How many came to her defense? None. John Kennedy of Louisiana was the only one to even respond to CNN and he said he was unaware of Trump's accusation until CNN phoned him. Republican Congressmen have sold their souls to Donald Trump. How sad. And how scary.

Fact check: Trump promotes another birther lie, this time about Kamala Harris

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/13/polit...eck/index.html

According to Ballotpedia.org, the most recent campaign finance reports filed by Joe Biden and Donald Trump show Biden raised $278 million and Trump raised $342 million between January 1, 2017 and June 30, 2020. Biden's August 11 announcement of Kamala Harris as his running mate has given him a huge boost in fundraising. Eighty-two days till election day.

Biden campaign raises $48 million in 48 hours after naming Kamala Harris as VP choice

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-u...-idUSKCN25A0CU

Today the executive council of the 300,000-member National Association of Letter Carriers endorsed Joe Biden for President, warning "the very survival" of the Postal Service is at stake. Indeed it is. Donald Trump is trying to weaponize and weaken the Postal Service in an effort to avoid losing his bid for re-election.

Postal service warning states it may not be able to deliver ballots in time based on current election rules

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/14/polit...ery/index.html

Obama: Trump is trying to 'actively kneecap' and 'starve' the postal service

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/14/polit...ice/index.html

Date asked the question – and the Liar-In-Chief, very predictably, refused to answer it. Trump has no honesty, no integrity, no shame, no ethics, no morals and no sense of decency. The Washington Post has been keeping track of the lies Trump has told since being in office. The number is now well above 20,000.

Reporter's blunt question to Trump receives polarizing response
The Huffington Post's Senior White House Correspondent S.V. Date tells CNN's Brianna Keilar why he bluntly asked President Donald Trump if he regretted "all of the lying" he had done over the past three and a half years.

https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/...k-in-politics/

"Trump's calculated dismantling of USPS proves one thing clearly: He is WELL AWARE that we do not want him as our President. He's chosen to blatantly cheat and put millions of Americans' lives at risk in an effort to hold on to power. Donald Trump's ineffective leadership gravely worsened the crisis that we are in and he is now taking advantage of it to subvert and destroy our right to vote and vote safely. Request a ballot early. Vote early." So says Taylor Swift. I hope all her fans heed her advice.

Taylor Swift warns fans to vote early because Trump opposes mail-in voting

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/15/polit...rnd/index.html

Donald Trump will do anything to win re-election, including seeking help from Russia and China, opposing vote-by-mail, lying about his accomplishments, spreading false accusations against Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and even destroying the Postal Service. What is sad and scary is that the blindly loyal members of his own party let him do all these things and refuse to hold him accountable for his actions.

Top Democrats in Congress call for hearings on mail delays ahead of election
Reuters, Aug 16 2020 8:30 AM

Top Democrats in Congress today called on President Donald Trump's appointed postmaster general to testify this month on changes that have stoked fears they are aimed at holding up mail-in ballots ahead of the November election. The Postal Service's internal watchdog has begun investigating a wave of cost-cutting kicked off by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy that has slowed mail delivery around the country, alarming lawmakers ahead of the November 3 election when up to half of US voters could cast ballots by mail.

Congressional Democrats called on DeJoy, a Trump donor, and US Postal Service Chairman Robert Duncan to testify in an August 24 hearing of the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Reform. "The President has explicitly stated his intention to manipulate the Postal Service to deny eligible voters access to the ballot in pursuit of his own re-election," Democrats including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Oversight Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney said in a joint statement. "The Postmaster General and top Postal Service leadership must answer to the Congress and the American people as to why they are pushing these dangerous new policies that threaten to silence the voices of millions, just months before the election."

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-u...-idUSKCN25C0MA

The Presidency of the United States is decided by the 18th-century relic known as the Electoral College. In five elections, most recently in 2016, the will of the majority has been disregarded and the Presidency has been awarded to a candidate who lost the popular vote. In a video accompanying this story, CNN senior political analyst Harry Enten explains how Trump can lose the 2020 popular vote by 5,000,000 and still win in the Electoral College. Let's hope he's wrong.

CNN Poll of Polls: Biden holds a nine-point lead over Trump ahead of the party conventions

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/17/polit...ion/index.html

Donald Trump does not care about the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the rule of law or our nation's system of checks and balances. He is above the law. He knows he can do whatever he wants with impunity and Congressional Republicans will never hold him accountable. Donald Trump is totally self-serving, working not for the good of our nation but for the good of Donald Trump. Many of his former officials have turned against him.

Former senior Trump administration official endorses Joe Biden
CNN, Aug 17 2020 3:38 PM ET

Miles Taylor, a former senior Trump administration official, endorsed Joe Biden's presidential campaign today, becoming one of the highest-ranking former Trump administration officials to do so. Taylor, who served as a political appointee at the Department of Homeland Security from 2017 to 2019 and as chief of staff to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, endorsed the former vice president in a video produced by the group Republican Voters Against Trump. He also wrote an op-ed published in The Washington Post calling President Donald Trump "dangerous" for America.

Other former senior Trump administration officials, including former national security adviser John Bolton, have also spoken out against Trump but few have taken the step of publicly endorsing Biden. Anthony Scaramucci, who briefly served as Trump's communications director, has also voiced his support for Biden.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/17/polit...rse/index.html

In 2016, Trump said everything was "rigged." The polls are rigged, the debates are rigged, the nominating conventions are rigged, the primaries are rigged, the ballots are rigged, the voting machines are rigged, the news coverage is rigged.....and in 2020, he's at it again.

Trump warns of 'rigged election' as he uses conspiracy and fear to counter Biden's convention week

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/17/polit...ing/index.html

Biden campaign spokesman Andrew Bates says Donald Trump has "irrevocably shown his true colors yet again" by retweeting Russian propaganda. This should surprise no one. By idolizing Vladimir Putin, being a Russia sympathizer and parroting Russian propaganda, Trump is a traitor to the United States of America. Он заслуживает импичмента и удалены от должности.

Trump retweets Russian propaganda about Biden that US intel agencies say is intended to influence 2020 election

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/17/polit...ach/index.html

"Look, I'm not treating the 2020 election any differently than I treated the 2016 election, okay? If I win, then everything is good. But if I lose, then that proves the election was fake and rigged and fraudulent. We will do the election over, okay? And we will keep doing it over until I win, okay?"

Trump floats idea that fraud could lead to re-do of November election
Reuters, Aug 18 2020 12:46 PM

President Donald Trump today said a massive shift to mail-in voting in the November Presidential election could cause so many problems officials might have to re-do the vote. Trump has said repeatedly and without evidence that a shift to universal mail-in voting – something most states have not proposed doing – will lead to fraud in the November 3 election, when he faces Democratic challenger Joe Biden, who currently holds a substantial lead in public opinion polls. "It will end up being a rigged election or they will never come out with an outcome," Trump told reporters. "They'll have to do it again, and nobody wants that." As many as half the ballots in the November election could be cast by mail due to America's coronavirus crisis, election experts say. That is up from about one in four ballots that were cast by mail in 2016. Trump himself votes by mail.

Trump does not have the authority to reschedule an election. A national election "re-do" has never occurred in the more than 200 years the US has held elections, including during the Civil War, the Great Depression and two world wars.

https://www.aol.com/article/news/202...tion/24593407/

Joe Biden is leading Donald Trump in Arizona, Florida, Minnesonta, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania and really needs to win all five states to be guaranteed a victory in the Electoral College. A new CNN poll shows 34% of registered voters prefer to vote by mail in the Presidential election. In 2016, the number who voted by mail was 24%. The poll also shows 22% want to vote early at a polling place and 43% prefer to vote in person on election day.

Postal Service backs down on changes as at least 20 states sue over potential mail delays ahead of election
CNN, Aug 18 2020 4:49 PM ET

Embattled Postmaster General Louis DeJoy reversed course today, saying that all changes being made to the Postal Service would be suspended until after the November 3 election, just as 20 Democratic states announced plans to file federal lawsuits. DeJoy said that some of the deferred decisions mean that retail hours at post offices will not change, mail processing equipment and blue collection boxes will remain in place and no mail processing facilities will be closed.

At least 20 Democratic attorneys general across the country are launching a multi-pronged legal effort to push back on the recent changes that disrupted mail delivery across the country and triggered accusations that Trump and his appointees are trying to undermine mail-in voting. The attorneys general plan to argue that DeJoy is illegally changing mail procedures ahead of the 2020 election as the Post Office braces for an unusually high number of mail-in ballots as voters look to avoid casting ballots at polling centers where they could potentially contract the coronavirus.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/18/polit...joy/index.html

Russia wanted Trump to win in 2016 and Russia wants Trump to win in 2020. Loyal, patriotic Americans need to ask themselves why.

Republican-led Senate committee concludes Russia used Paul Manafort, WikiLeaks to boost Trump in 2016

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-u...-idUSKCN25E1US

Donald Trump continues to claim – without any evidence – that mail-in ballots lead to widespread fraud. Now he's attacking the idea of drop boxes where ballots can be deposited. He tweeted, "So who is going to 'collect' the Ballots, and what might be done to them prior to tabulation? A Rigged Election? So bad for our Country." What is bad for our country is to have an incompetent, unqualified, self-serving President who sees himself as a king and who sows fear, hatred and racial division. Our democracy can not survive another four years of Donald Trump. Seventy-seven days till election day.

Election officials look to bypass Postal Service with ballot drop boxes
HuffPost, Aug 18 2020 3:32 PM ET

With the Trump administration openly trying to undermine mail-in voting this fall, some election officials around the country are hoping to bypass the Postal Service by installing lots of ballot drop boxes in libraries, community centers and other public places. Such boxes have been used with success for several years in states such as Oregon, Washington and Colorado that rely largely or entirely on ballots that must be sent in. But their use is being expanded because of the coronavirus outbreak and, more recently, concerns about the post office's ability to do its job. State or local authorities in places such as Arizona, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania are pressing for more boxes or drop-off sites that would enable ballots to reach election officials without going through the mail.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/elect...b6835236030a48

The right to vote is one of the most basic rights of every adult American. John Lewis, who represented Georgia in the House of Representatives from 1987 until his death in July 2020, declared, "The right to vote is precious, almost sacred. People fought for it, bled for it, died for it. Honor their sacrifice. Vote." Unfortunately, we have a self-serving President who is doing everything he can to prevent Americans from being able to safely vote in the November 3 Presidential election. He is a typical dictator who hates democracy.

Trump campaign sues New Jersey over decision to mail ballots in November election
Reuters, Aug 18 2020 9:12 PM

The re-election campaign of President Donald Trump has sued New Jersey, following a decision Friday by its Democratic governor to mail a ballot to every voter in the state for November's elections, as well as hold in-person voting amid the coronavirus pandemic. Governor Phil Murphy's announcement came as Trump stepped up his attacks on voting by mail, which is expected to increase dramatically this fall because of the novel coronavirus. The Trump campaign filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for New Jersey late today to invalidate Executive Order 177. The filing was made as a "complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief" and described the step taken by the Democratic governor as "illegal."

It made two charges: first, that Murphy exercised power that belonged to the state legislature in changing the state's election law, and second, that the changes "will violate eligible citizens' right to vote." Trump has said the voting method is susceptible to large-scale fraud, though experts say voter fraud of any kind is extremely rare in the United States.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-u...-idUSKCN25F0B4

The Watergate office complex break-in. The attacks on vote-by-mail as "fraudulent." The lawsuits against states that want to expand vote-by-mail. The solicitation of homeless people to run for office in Arizona in order to dilute the Democratic vote. The withholding of Congressionally-approved military aid to Ukraine and dangling it as a bribe to coerce Ukraine into digging up dirt on Joe Biden. There is no limit to the dirty tricks Republicans will resort to in order to hurt Democrats and stay in power. No limit at all.

Amazon removes vulgar anti-Biden and Harris shirts
CNN, Aug 19 2020 8:16 PM ET

Amazon has removed merchandise sold by third parties with a vulgar anti-Joe Biden and Kamala Harris slogan and says it may take action against sellers listing them. Twitter users yesterday started pointing attention to shirts with various versions of the phrase "Joe and the Ho," referring to the Democratic nominees for President and Vice President, former Vice President Biden and US Senator Harris. As of 12:30 PM today, the products have all been removed for violating selling guidelines.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/19/tech/...cts/index.html

Biden is leading Trump by sizable margins in California, Colorado, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Trump is leading in Alabama, Alaska, Idaho, Iowa, Indiana, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and South Carolina.

73 former Republican CIA, FBI heads and national security officials to back Biden

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-u...-idUSKBN25G2C5

"I passed the Veterans Choice bill." False. "Obama spied on my campaign." False. "Biden won't take questions from journalists." False. "We're in the closing moments of the COVID-19 pandemic." False. "Polls are manipulated." False. "Democrats can't win unless the election is rigged." False. Here is the truth: Donald Trump is the world's biggest liar.

Fact check: Trump delivers blizzard of false claims in Pennsylvania speech attacking Biden

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/20/polit...eck/index.html

FiveThirtyEight.com's latest average of Presidential polls shows Biden beating Trump 51.1% to 42.4%. Biden is leading Trump by double-digit margins in California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, New York and Virginia. Trump is leading Biden by large margins in Alabama, Indiana, Kansas, Montana, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia, North Dakota, South Dakota and South Carolina. By a 24-point margin, 18-to-34-year-olds prefer Biden over Trump – but will they actually show up to vote?

Young voters prefer Biden – but they may not vote

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/22/polit...sis/index.html