Summary
We’re ending our coverage for today, thanks for following along. Some links and developments:
- Trump is planning to nominate Judge Amy Coney Barrett for the US supreme court, according to multiple reports.
- Amy Coney Barrett has a staunch conservative record on LGBTQ+ rights, immigration and more.
- Trump plans to officially announce his choice tomorrow at 5pm EST, but he declined to confirm he has selected Barrett when asked this evening.
- Ruth Bader Ginsburg became the first woman to lie in state in US Capitol.
- Breonna Taylor’s family condemned Louisville police, saying, “We are never safe.”
- The US supreme court vacancy has upended Senate races with just weeks to go.
- The attorney general has been giving misleading statements on election integrity, sparking backlash.
- Oregon declared a state of emergency over a planned Proud Boys rally.
- A Virginia health official is warning of a “severe public health threat” if a planned campaign rally for Donald Trump goes ahead.
- The United States has ticked past 7m confirmed Covid cases.
US prosecutor publicly criticizes Bill Barr
James D Herbert, a current assistant US attorney for the district of Massachusetts, has written a letter to the editor publicly criticizing Trump’s attorney general, Bill Barr:
While I am a federal prosecutor, I am writing to express my own views, clearly not those of the department, on a matter that should concern all citizens: the unprecedented politicization of the office of the attorney general. The attorney general acts as though his job is to serve only the political interests of Donald J. Trump. This is a dangerous abuse of power.
The letter appeared in the Boston Globe yesterday, but a reporter for ABC News has now confirmed it is authentic and that Herbert currently remains employed at the US attorney’s office:
NEW: Sources familiar confirm to @ABC the authenticity of this letter from current AUSA James Herbert publicly speaking out against AG Barr. "The current attorney general has brought shame on the department he purports to lead." w/ @AaronKatersky pic.twitter.com/4jzDtk7Q0r
— Alex Mallin (@alex_mallin) September 25, 2020
Covid hospitalizations expected to rise in California, officials warn
Covid-19 hospitalizations are expected to jump 89% in California, officials said at a news conference today. Cases continue to hover around 3% over the past two weeks – a promising sign that new sectors could begin reopening. But Dr Mark Ghaly, who heads California’s health and human services department, told reporters that the numbers are creeping up, likely due to some lag-time after Labor Day celebrations.
“We’re seeing more admissions than we did the day or week prior for Covid-19 in some of our hospital systems across the state,” he said.
More than 800,000 people in California have gotten Covid-19 as of Friday and deaths from the disease topped 15,000 earlier in the week. Hospitals aren’t currently close to capacity though, and won’t be even with a spike in cases. Over the summer there were more than 7,000 people hospitalized with the virus at one point and current state predictions through October are under 5,000.
California is expected to see an *89% increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations* over the next month as projected transmission rates in various regions have increased and ER visits have gone up over the past week throughout the statehttps://t.co/z3qr42Nc6a
— Colleen Shalby (@CShalby) September 25, 2020
California officials are still moving forward with a plan to allow nail salons to reopen, and are allowing counties to govern their own reopening plans based on a tier system.
Still, with flu season around the corner, Ghaly said they don’t want to take any chances.
“We’ve never done Covid hospitalizations with flu hospitalizations,” he said. “We see things coming together that we want to make sure we’re very vigilant around, to ensure that even if we go up a little bit with our hospitalizations, we don’t continue to have high rates and even come close to the numbers that we saw over the summer.”
Updated
Trump declines to comment on his supreme court pick
Despite the flurry of news reports suggesting that the president will be nominating Amy Coney Barrett, Trump himself has declined to confirm his selection.
He told reporters that he has made his decision, but said he would be withholding the news until 5pm EST on Saturday. He said it “could be anyone of them” and “they’re all outstanding”, referring to five women he has been considering. Asked explicitly about Barrett, he said, “I haven’t said it is her.”
“They’re all great,” said Pres Trump about his Supreme Court pick. “Could be anyone of them,” he said, refusing to give a hint. “I haven’t said it is her,” asked about was Judge Amy Coney Barrett. “They’re all outstanding,” he said of the 5 women he was considering. pic.twitter.com/54NrCqmUxF
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) September 25, 2020
Amy Coney Barrett's record on LGBTQ+ rights, immigration and more
Some additional background on Amy Coney Barrett’s record in the wake of reports that she is Trump’s pick for supreme court nominee:
LGBTQ+ rights: Barrett has “demonstrated hostility toward LGBTQ rights in her words and rulings”, according to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). She criticized the landmark marriage equality case of Obergefell v Hodges, questioning the role of the court in deciding the case. She also argued Title IX protections do not extend to trans people, claiming it was a “strain on the text” to reach that interpretation, HRC found. She has also misgendered trans people, referring to trans women as “physiological males” in one comment attacking trans rights.
Immigration: Barrett recently voted to support Trump’s controversial “public charge” rule, which allowed the government to deny green cards and visas to immigrants who rely on public benefits and went into effect in February. In an earlier case, she wrote the opinion for a three-judge panel that argued the Yemeni wife of a US citizen could not challenge the denial of her application for a visa.
Abortion: Barrett recently referred to abortion as “always immoral” and has twice issued rulings favoring additional restrictions on access. In one case, she argued in favor of a state law that would have required providers to notify parents of minors seeking abortion.
Some more on her record at CBS, NPR and Scotusblog.
The unnamed aides and White House sources confirming that Trump will nominate Amy Coney Barrett have told reporters that the president could change his mind between now and tomorrow, according to multiple accounts.
All signs, however, point to Barrett, reports say. The New York Times said aides “cautioned” that “Trump sometimes upends his own plans”, but also noted that the president appears to have only interviewed Barrett for the post.
CNN, which first reported the news, said Barrett was seen at her South Bend, Indiana home today. The network also said it was unclear if Barrett has been told she is the choice, and noted that she may be informed “as late as possible to maintain secrecy around the announcement”.
Some reporters have been camped outside her home:
The scene outside of Amy Coney Barrett’s South Bend Home, more than 24 hours before we hear the SCOTUS pick. pic.twitter.com/FFt8vOPDYF
— Adam Wren (@adamwren) September 25, 2020
While the enormity of tackling climate change can be so overwhelming that some people shut down, presenting people with examples of how they can take action offers hope, says prominent US climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe.
In a live interview with Reuters on Thursday Hayhoe explained how the climate crisis was causing weather events such as heat waves, wildfires and hurricanes to become more severe and more frequent.
“According to natural factors we should be very gradually but inevitably getting cooler right now,” said Hayhoe, an atmospheric scientist at Texas Tech University in Lubbock.
“Instead we’re getting warmer faster than any time in the history of human civilization on this planet.”
The urgency of climate change is real, she said, calling it “a here issue, and a now issue.”
Climate change was a major factor in heat waves that made recent fires in Siberia, Australia, and right now in the US West so extensive and damaging, she said.
Hayhoe, widely known as a top communicator of climate change, addressed what often stands in the way of more aggressive action toward reducing emissions and adapting our societies to cope with change.
“Scaring the pants off us, for most of us, doesn’t move us forward. It actually causes us to freeze. That’s how our brains are hard-wired,” Hayhoe said.
“We are wired to move forward not only to escape fear but rather towards a reward, something positive.”
Instead, Hayhoe focuses on communicating how climate change is affecting people locally and offering suggestions for how people can help provide solutions, even if those solutions appear small. Giving people a sense of efficacy, she said, means giving people hope.
Follow the Guardian’s special series Climate Countdown as we brace ahead of the election. Donald Trump’s actions are scheduled to cause the US to leave the Paris Climate Accord on November 4, the day after the election. That is the pact agreed between most of the world’s countries, to tackle the climate crisis.
Who is Amy Coney Barrett?
As more reporters confirm that Amy Coney Barrett is Trump’s pick for supreme court nominee, a quick reminder about some key parts of her background and legacy:
- She is a 48-year-old judge, who currently sits on the US circuit court of appeals in Chicago. If confirmed, she would be the youngest supreme court justice.
- Barrett was nominated by Trump and confirmed by the Senate in October 2017 by a 55-43 vote. The 7th circuit in Chicago covers the states of Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.
- She is a devout Catholic and mother of seven, who staunchly opposes abortion. Progressives fear she would vote to overturn the critical Roe v Wade ruling, which safeguards the right to abortion.
- In her nearly three years on the bench, Barrett has authored around 100 opinions and revealing dissents in which she has been consistently conservative on a wide range of topics, including guns, campus sexual assault and health care.
- Barrett served as a law clerk to supreme court justice Antonin Scalia, worked briefly as a private lawyer in DC and became a University of Notre Dame law school professor in 2002.
- When asked about her religious beliefs in the 2017 confirmation hearings, she said: “I would stress that my personal church affiliation or my religious belief would not bear in the discharge of my duties as a judge.”
- Barrett was on Trump’s list of potential nominees in 2018 to replace Anthony Kennedy, but the president reportedly said, “I’m saving her for Ginsburg.”
More:
Reporters across DC are confirming an Amy Coney Barrett pick, including CNN, CBS, PBS and others:
CONFIRMED: A senior White House official tells me President Trump is expected to nominate Judge Amy Coney Barrett as his nominee to the Surpreme Court.
— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) September 25, 2020
(CNN and CBS are also reporting this.)
BREAKING: Trump intends to nominate Amy Coney Barrett to Supreme Court https://t.co/s7qvKJAUHI
— CBS News (@CBSNews) September 25, 2020
Trump has said he will make an official announcement on Saturday.
GOP preparing for Amy Coney Barrett, AP reports
Another report is out on the rumors of Trump’s supreme court nominee pick scheduled to be revealed tomorrow: Republicans are expecting and preparing for Trump to announce that he is nominating Judge Amy Coney Barrett, the AP is reporting.
More from the AP:
Conservative groups and congressional allies are laying the groundwork for a swift confirmation process for Barrett, even before Trump makes the selection official. They, like the president, are wasting little time moving to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, organizing multimillion-dollar ad campaigns and marshalling supporters both to confirm the pick and to boost Trump to a second term.
A number of outside conservative groups are planning to spend more than $25 million to support the president’s nominee, the AP noted. The Judicial Crisis Network has organized a coalition that includes American First Policies, the Susan B Anthony List, the Club for Growth and the group Catholic Vote.
Some additional background on Barrett:
Updated
Oregon declares state of emergency over Proud Boys rally
Hi all - Sam Levin in Los Angeles, taking over our live coverage for the rest of the day.
First some news from Portland, Oregon, where Governor Kate Brown is sending state troopers and sheriffs deputies to the city to help police monitor a weekend rally by the rightwing Proud Boys and counter-protests by liberal groups.
As the AP reports, “Portland has been roiled by often violent protests for more than three months following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May. Demonstrations that went into a lull during wildfires resumed this week, fueled by a Kentucky grand jury’s decision to not indict officers in the killing of Breonna Taylor.
Brown told reporters she was exercising her authority to place Multnomah county sheriff Mike Reese and Oregon state police superintendent Travis Hampton in charge of Portland’s public safety on Saturday and Sunday. Brown said Portland mayor Ted Wheeler supported the plan.
“This is our entire community coming together to protect our community,” Brown said. “We want the highest level of coordination and the strongest leadership possible.”
Similar competing demonstrations have ended with fistfights and bloodshed, including the fatal shooting on 29 August of Aaron “Jay” Danielson, a supporter of a rightwing group who was killed after Trump supporters drove pickup trucks in a caravan downtown. The suspect, leftwing protester Michael Reinoehl, was killed by federal officers in neighboring Washington state.
Superintendent Hampton said: “If you want to come to Oregon, to Portland, to peacefully protest, to assemble, to voice your outrage, to voice your concern – we welcome you for that. If your job and your intent is to come to Oregon to commit crimes, to provoke, to make people feel unsafe in their homes then we do not want you to come here.”
Portland, of course, was one of the cities named by the US Department of Justice as an “anarchist jurisdiction” this week – a wholly political move by attorney general Bill Barr designed to support Donald Trump’s “law and order” electoral campaign.
For further reading, from another anarchist jurisdiction, here’s a piece from Gothamist and not the Onion, honest: “Local Anarchists Miffed By Trump’s Designation Of NYC As Anarchist Jurisdiction.”
Trump on threat not to concede power: I was joking… or was I?
I’m about to hand this blog on to Sam Levin in our West Coast office. In the meantime, according to the pool report, Donald Trump’s speech in Atlanta went on for around an hour and included the usual doozies, including a joke about fears he will not accept the result of the election should he lose to Joe Biden.
According to the pool report:
“Will we be president in 10 years?” President Trump asked, then explaining that whenever he said things like this he is joking, but “you can’t joke”.
“’I told you he’s a dictator, he will not give up power!’” he said, mimicking what he said were people failing to get his sense of humor.
“Twelve more years!” chanted the crowd after the president said the media exaggerates when people jokingly chant 12 more years.
Trump also repeated his claim that the election result may not be known on 3 November because of mailed-in ballots and added: “With me, we may end up in a dispute for a long time, because that’s the way [Democrats] want it, but we’re going to end up winning.”
The president was speaking to a predominantly African American audience, which reportedly was responsive to his evidence-free attacks on the Black Lives Matter movement.
Trump referenced Breonna Taylor and others. “Our hearts break for their families and for all families who have lost a loved one, especially if you look at this way – so senseless. But we can never allow mob rule.”
Says BLM is “really hurting the black community”. The crowd boos when he mentioned the words Black Lives Matter.
Says BLM aims to “achieve the destruction of the nuclear family, abolish the police, abolish prisons, abolish border security, abolish capitalism and abolish schools”.
Denounces “wealthy liberal hypocrites” supporting BLM and living in “walled compounds”.
Trump also took a shot at Biden, for “staying in again today”. In response to which the pool reporter notes, drily: “Actually, Biden went to Washington today to pay respects to the late justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg lying in state in the US Capitol.”
This is what happened yesterday, when Trump and first lady Melania Trump went to the supreme court to pay their respects:
To polling news, in light of the last post, because, well, everybody loves a good poll. Don’t they.
The Washington Post heralds a new survey it has carried out with ABC News, which says a clear majority of Americans do not think Donald Trump and the Republicans who hold the Senate should get to confirm a replacement for Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the supreme court justice who died last week aged 87, before the election on 3 November.
CNN says the replacement will be Amy Coney Barrett, which we all essentially knew, unless of course it isn’t.
The poll from WaPo and ABC, like others which have shown similar results, does not matter one tiny bit in the most obvious sense, because Donald Trump and the Republicans who hold the Senate are going to confirm their replacement for Ginsburg and there is nothing the Democrats or the voters can do to stop them.
The court is going to tip 6-3 to the right, after Trump stages his unveiling tomorrow.
But, anyway, the WaPo/ABC poll finds:
38% of Americans say the replacement for Ginsburg should be nominated by Trump and confirmed by the current Senate, while 57% say it should be left to the winner of the presidential election and a Senate vote next year.
Partisans are deeply divided on the issue, though clear majorities of independents (61%) and women (64%) say the next justice should be chosen by the winner of the election, including about half of each group who feel this way ‘strongly’.
What might such sentiment mean at the polls, is the question. My guess is it might be bad news for Trump and Senate Republicans and Democratic control of everything except the court might be on the way. But if it is, a sixth conservative justice will be one hell of a consolation prize.
Here again is David Litt, once a speechwriter to Barack Obama, now the author of Democracy In One Book Or Less, about what Democrats might do in return:
Amy Coney Barrett is Trump supreme court pick – report
Citing “multiple senior Republican sources with knowledge of the process”, CNN reports that Donald Trump has settled on Amy Coney Barrett as his pick to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the supreme court.
This is not a surprise, as the Indiana judge is widely expected to be Trump’s pick, to be unveiled at the White House on Saturday. Barbara Lagoa of Florida is also reported to have been in contention.
CNN has a kind of all-purpose Trumpnews disclaimer very close to the top of its report: “All sources cautioned that until it is announced by the president, there is always the possibility that Trump makes a last-minute change.” See: Iran, strikes against, influence of Tucker Carlson in postponing of (2019).
But Barrett “was the plan all along,” CNN quotes “a former senior administration familiar with the process” as saying.
“She’s the most distinguished and qualified by traditional measures. She has the strongest support among the legal conservatives who have dedicated their lives to the court. She will contribute most to the court’s jurisprudence in the years and decades to come.”
Trump was indeed reported to have said of Barrett, whose devout Catholicism fills women’s rights and pro-choice advocates with fear: “I’m saving her for Ginsburg.”
Here’s David Litt again, on what Democrats might do after Barrett is confirmed, because she will be, because it bears repeating:
Ron Paul: 'I am doing fine'
The AP has an update on the health of Ron Paul:
Former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul posted a picture of himself in a hospital on Friday but said he was OK, after video circulated online of him struggling to speak during an interview.
The 85-year-old former Texas congressman, who ran for the White House three times, posted a picture on Facebook showing him smiling in a hospital gown and giving a thumbs-up.
“I am doing fine. Thank you for your concern,” he said.
The post came after a video took off on social media showing Paul having trouble speaking during an appearance on his live-streamed show, Ron Paul Liberty Report. The video cut away to the interviewer as Paul struggles.
Paul is the father of Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, whose office did not immediately return a message.
Paul gained a loyal following running for president in 1988 and 2008, then saw his popularity rise with that of the Tea Party movement before he sought the White House again in 2012. He retired from his Texas district in 2013.
Trump speaks in Atlanta
Donald Trump has a speaking engagement in Atlanta this afternoon, at a campaign event titled “Black Economic Empowerment: The Platinum Plan.”
The pool report offers some interesting descriptions of an event, in a state where the polls are tighter than they might be for a Republican incumbent, which has featured “a series warm-up speeches from African American leaders, including housing secretary Ben Carson”.
“Speakers lauded the president with a torrent of scriptural references that frequently gave the atmosphere more of a church than election campaign.
‘God made this man president,’ said one.
Allow me to pause a second and allow the tiniest scrap of editorial voice into this blog, although as my editorial voice in such instances is essentially a poor impression of Christopher Hitchens after three Johnnie Walker Black Labels, faced on some college auditorium stage somewhere by an author of something called something like “The Atheist Delusion” … it’s probably a bad idea.
Anyway: “God made this man president”. Really? In that case, to quote Woody Allen, while I’m having bad ideas, “If it turns out that there is a God … the worst that you can say about him is that basically he’s an underachiever.”
“NFL great Herschel Walker” gave the last endorsement speech in Atlanta and said: “I’ve always know that he was different.
“He don’t get the credit for all the things that he done in the African American community. He keeps God in the house.
“All us Americans have received so many touchdown passes from this man that … it is time to recognize our quarterback.”
The pool report adds that “there are approximately 200 people in the audience, nearly all of them African Americans. Zero social distancing. A great many not wearing masks.”
Updated
Speaking of Covid-19, and of pleas by health authorities that Donald Trump not hold his rally in Virginia tonight, and of cases in the US ticking past 7m, and so on, as the Associated Press helpfully puts it, “Governor Ron DeSantis has lifted all restrictions on restaurants and other businesses in Florida, in a move to reopen the economy despite the spread of the coronavirus.”
The governor, a close Trump ally, has also banned local fines against people who refuse to wear masks. The AP, in the way of things, has more:
The Republican’s order unleashed fresh debate in the politically divided state, where pandemic responses have become intertwined with the upcoming presidential election. DeSantis acknowledged that the pandemic is far from over, but said the threat has eased.
“We’re not closing anything going forward,” DeSantis said, while insisting that the state is prepared if infections increase again.
The governor said he would stop cities and counties from collecting fines on people who don’t wear face masks.
“As an act of executive grace, all fines and penalties that have been applied against individuals are suspended,” the governor said.
Democrats bemoaned the push to reopen as hasty.
“No one is advocating for a full-scale lockdown in Florida. But we have been and continue to ask for common sense prevention measures such as face masks, which are essential to preventing further spread,” state senator Audrey Gibson said.
Florida has long been a Covid-19 hotspot, with nearly 700,000 infected. Nearly 14,000 have died.
The governor reluctantly closed bars and nightclubs on St Patrick’s Day and days later restricted restaurants to take-out dining. Amusement parks ground to a halt. The closures battered the economy. More than 2.5 million Floridians have sought unemployment benefits.
DeSantis has been under pressure to revive the economy – much of it dependent on tourism. Like Trump, DeSantis has questioned the efficacy of closures, arguing that states that had more aggressively shut down, including California, have fared no better.
California has had more than 800,000 coronavirus cases and more than 15,000 deaths. While California has suffered slightly more infections and deaths, its population is nearly twice that of Florida.
“The state of Florida is probably the most open big state in the country,” DeSantis boasted, nonetheless, on Friday.
New infections in Florida have steadily declined since a peak in July. Florida added 2,847 confirmed cases on Friday, pushing its total to 695,887. The state also announced 120 new deaths, pushing its total to 14,038.
US ticks past 7m Covid cases
Good afternoon – I’ll have the blog for the next couple of hours, taking over from Joanna Walters.
To start with, briefly: according to Johns Hopkins University, the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the US has now ticked past 7m. Here’s a link to their map, which shows 7,005,046 cases and 203,240 deaths.
Here meanwhile is a link to the Guardian’s embedded version of the Hopkins map, which usually updates a little more slowly:
Coronavirus warning over Trump rally tonight
A Virginia health official is warning of a “severe public health threat” if the planned campaign rally for Donald Trump goes ahead tonight.
Natasha Dwamena, a department of public health district director, said in a letter that the 4,000 people expected to attend Trump’s rally at the Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport in Virginia, scheduled for 9pm today, would be breaking governor Ralph Northam’s executive order banning gatherings of more than 250 people.
She said the rally should be canceled, rescheduled or scaled down to comply with the governor’s order, NBC reported via the Associated Press.
“The rally poses a concerning public health risk,” Dwamena said in the letter, which was addressed to the private company that leases the hangar where the rally is set to take place.
Hours before Trump was to arrive later this evening, Northam, a Democrat, announced that he and his wife, Pamela Northam, had tested positive for coronavirus. Northam’s office said he is not experiencing any symptoms and Pamela Northam is experiencing mild symptoms.
Northam’s top health and transportation aides also sent letters to airport officials around the state reminding them that they have “the authority to enforce” the state’s laws.
But it’s unlikely to make a difference, as the Trump campaign has routinely flouted public health guidelines intended to halt the spread of Covid-19. Trump has tried to use this summer’s mass protests over racial injustice and police misconduct as cover for his rallies, making the case that, if demonstrators can gather en masse, so can his supporters.
The president is in Georgia this hour, at an event in Atlanta. He flies to DC later, then to Newport News, then back to the White House.
Trump’s rallies have been noticeable for packing people close together, whether indoor or outdoor, and few masks being worn – except by those standing behind the president, who are the most visible on TV and are told to wear masks.
Just landed in Atlanta, Georgia. On my way now, see everyone shortly! https://t.co/RmFoqFkKE1 pic.twitter.com/tNe3hiwCHV
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 25, 2020
Updated
Ron Paul in hospital – reports
Ron Paul, a former presidential candidate and a pioneering figure in the libertarian movement, was hospitalized Friday after suffering an apparent medical incident during a live stream on his YouTube channel, Business Insider reported.
"Speaking during her afternoon show on Fox News on Friday, host Harris Faulkner reported that Paul is 'lucid and optimistic' at the hospital." https://t.co/PYHl76K7KI
— Jack Hunter (@jackhunter74) September 25, 2020
Paul, 85, is the father of arch conservative Kentucky Senator Rand Paul. Paul Sr was talking about federal stimulus money earlier today when his speech began to slur.
He was hospitalized in Texas for “precautionary reasons”, according to Fox News.
Fox News also reported that Paul was “lucid and optimistic”.
Updated
The FBI director, Christopher Wray, faced criticism from the White House for the second time in a week on Friday when Donald Trump’s chief of staff questioned his ability to detect voter fraud as the November election draws near.
Wray told lawmakers on Thursday he has not seen evidence of a “coordinated national voter fraud effort”, undercutting the Republican president’s unfounded assault on mail-in balloting before his 3 November contest against Democrat Joe Biden.
Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, denigrated Wray during an interview with CBS This Morning.
“With all due respect to Director Wray, he has a hard time finding emails in his own FBI, let alone figuring out whether there’s any kind of voter fraud,” he said without elaborating, Reuters reported.
A top federal prosecutor in the battleground state of Pennsylvania on Thursday said his office and the FBI were investigating whether nine military ballots cast for Trump had been handled improperly.
Meadows suggested to CBS that Wray “drill down on the investigation that just started ... Perhaps he needs to get involved on the ground and then he would change his testimony on Capitol Hill.”
The FBI had no comment on Meadows’ remarks.
With all due respect to Director Wray, he has a hard time finding emails in his own FBI, let alone figuring out whether there's any kind of voter fraud.” — White House Chief of Staff @MarkMeadows on FBI Dir. Christopher Wray saying he's seen no evidence of widespread voter fraud pic.twitter.com/W5PUfpnWCn
— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) September 25, 2020
Trump appointed Wray as FBI director after he fired James Comey in 2017 during a federal probe into ties between the 2016 Trump presidential campaign and Russia.
Last week, Wray testified before a House of Representatives committee that his biggest concern in the 2020 election was the “steady drumbeat of misinformation” coming from Russian interference.
That prompted Trump to retort: “I did not like his answers yesterday.”
Wray’s statements run contrary to the Republican president’s stances as he seeks re-election in the race against Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump continues to downplay the threat from Moscow and argues that mail-in voting, which many states are relying on during the coronavirus pandemic, poses a threat to election security.
Asked if Trump had confidence in Wray, Meadows told reporters on Friday he has not spoken to the president about it.
Trump himself has repeatedly and without evidence questioned the increased use of mail-in ballots, an established method of voting in the United States.
He also continues to bristle at US intelligence agencies’ finding that Russia acted to boost Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and undermine his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.
Updated
Some US stocks could face more volatility next week as Donald Trump and rival Joe Biden face off in their first debate ahead of a November election that betting services currently view as almost a coin flip.
A strong performance in Tuesday’s debate by Democratic candidate Biden, who currently has a modest lead in betting odds and polls, might boost stocks related to global trade and renewable energy, while a perceived debate victory by Trump as he seeks a second term in the White House could benefit fossil fuel and defense companies, Reuters reports.
The first of three scheduled debates comes at a fraught moment on Wall Street.
The S&P 500 has tumbled 10% from record highs in recent weeks as investors worry about a prolonged recovery from the coronavirus and uncertainty related to the 3 November vote, including the possibility of a delay in announcing a winner.
If one candidate emerges stronger on Tuesday, “the debate could be an individual stock and sector play”, said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Cresset Wealth Advisors.
“For example, I think life under Biden would be a lot simpler for Apple than life under Trump,” Ablin said, referring to Trump’s trade conflict with China.
Individual stocks and other assets have been susceptible to market moves as a result of debates, even as broader markets have generally shrugged them off.
Still, 29% of voters see the upcoming debates as “extremely important” (18%) or “quite important” (11%) to deciding their vote.
— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) September 20, 2020
That’s enough to completely uproot the 2020 race, based on how the debates go for each candidate.
👉🏻 https://t.co/3kRb1vPWAL https://t.co/rtOa3dnWDi
The 26 September 2016 debate between Trump and Hillary Clinton, for example, sparked a 2% surge in the Mexican peso as well as moves in oil, gold and Treasuries, according to a University of Michigan and Dartmouth College study.
Many investors view Biden as more likely to raise taxes, and see a second term for Trump, who favors deregulation, as better for the overall stock market. At the same time, a Trump win could spark concerns over ramped up tensions between Washington and Beijing.
Updated
Louisville to have new police chief
When Yvette Gentry takes up her post as the new police chief of Louisville, Kentucky, on 1 October, she will be the first Black woman to occupy the post.
She will also almost certainly be confronted by ongoing protests in the city relating to the widespread anger, sadness and frustration over what is seen as an absence of justice in the shooting death by three white police officers in March of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency medical technician.
The current, interim police chief, Robert Schroeder, will retire on that day and Gentry will take over. Schroeder has been the public face of the department this week as a grand jury announced that one officer would face charges, but not relating directly to Taylor’s death.
The mayor of Louisville, Kentucky, has appointed a new interim police chief. Yvette Gentry will be the first Black woman to serve in that role, according to a CNN affiliate. https://t.co/nMAnGNGGxR
— CNN (@CNN) September 7, 2020
And the other two officers involved in the death would not face charges. Brett Hankison was charged on Wednesday with wanton endangerment for firing his gun wildly during a botched raid on Taylor’s apartment, thereby, the prosecution argued, endangering neighbors.
Gentry, NPR reported, is not a new face at the department. She served more than 20 years with the Louisville metro police department, including as its deputy chief starting in 2011, before retiring from the force in 2014.
She will be the troubled department’s third chief since March, but is appointed as the permanent one, not just an interim.
Greg Fischer, the mayor, said earlier this month that he selected Gentry because she wants to help “reimagine public safety and address systemic racism”.
Protesters have demanded justice for Taylor daily for more than 120 days and activists declared earlier today that protests will continue until officers are charged directly for Taylor’s killing. They argue that a grand jury was not given the right evidence by prosecutors to come to the right conclusions in the case.
Updated
Today so far
That’s it from me today. My Guardian colleagues will be taking over the live blog for the rest of the day.
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- Benjamin Crump called for the grand jury transcripts in the Breonna Taylor case to be released. Crump, the civil rights attorney who is representing the Taylor family, criticized Kentucky’s attorney general, Daniel Cameron, for his handling of the case after a grand jury declined to issue charges in connection to the fatal police shooting. Tamika Palmer, Taylor’s mother, said in a statement read by her sister, “You robbed the world of a queen.”
- Ruth Bader Ginsburg became the first woman and the first Jewish person to lie in state at the Capitol. Lawmakers held a private ceremony to honor the late supreme court justice, who died last week. As Ginsburg’s casket departed, dozens of female members of Congress stood on the Capitol steps with their hands over their hearts.
- The governor of Virginia announced he had tested positive for coronavirus. The announcement from Ralph Northam comes just two days after Missouri’s governor, Mike Parson, said he had contracted the virus.
The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
Updated
Women of Congress line Capitol steps as Ginsburg's casket departs
The casket of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has now left the Capitol, after she became the first woman and the first Jewish person to lie in state this morning.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg departs U.S. Capitol. https://t.co/Z1SlERywGO pic.twitter.com/zO7QiwyELo
— CSPAN (@cspan) September 25, 2020
As a military honor guard carried Ginsburg’s casket out, dozens of female members of Congress lined the Capitol steps with their hands over their hearts.
Ginsburg will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery alongside her late husband, Martin Ginsburg, a tax attorney and Army veteran who died in 2010.
Female members of Congress are now gathering on the steps of the Capitol, so they can bid farewell to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as her casket leaves Statuary Hall.
Female mbrs of Congress now gathering on the Capitol steps to bid farewell to Ginsburg who has been lying in state pic.twitter.com/LdAxfhKc2o
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) September 25, 2020
A number of officials, including the secretary of defense and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, came to the Capitol to pay their respects to the late justice.
Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and General Mark Milley pay their respects to RBG. pic.twitter.com/fmHdVvgcUA
— Julie Tsirkin (@JulieNBCNews) September 25, 2020
Justice Stephen Breyer reflected on the loss of his supreme court colleague, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in an MSNBC interview.
“She made the world a better place for us to live in,” Breyer told MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell.
The liberal justice said his “heart sank” when he learned last Friday that his good friend had died. Breyer said he was informed about her death in a phone call that came while he was reciting the Mourner’s Kaddish at a virtual Rosh Hashanah service.
Breyer said he believed Ginsburg would be remembered as “a very brilliant and great jurist” and as a “woman of valor.”
Virginia governor tests positive for coronavirus
The governor of Virginia, Ralph Northam, and his wife have tested positive for coronavirus.
The Democratic governor said they received tests after a member of their residence staff developed symptoms and tested positive for the virus.
On Wednesday evening, @FirstLadyVA and I were notified that a member of our official residence staff had developed symptoms and tested positive for #COVID19.
— Ralph Northam (@GovernorVA) September 25, 2020
We both received PCR nasal swab tests yesterday and both tested positive.https://t.co/bwReZWQfsw
Northam’s wife, Pam, is experiencing mild symptoms, and the governor is asymptomatic. Northam said they would quarantine for 10 days and then reevaluate their symptoms.
“As I’ve been reminding Virginians throughout this crisis, COVID-19 is very real and very contagious,” Northam said in a statement.
“The safety and health of our staff and close contacts is of utmost importance to Pam and me, and we are working closely with the Department of Health to ensure that everyone is well taken care of.
“We are grateful for your thoughts and support, but the best thing you can do for us—and most importantly, for your fellow Virginians—is to take this seriously.”
Northam is the third governor known to have contracted coronavirus. Missouri Governor Mike Parson announced earlier this week he had tested positive, and Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt announced his positive test result in July.
The father of Jacob Blake, who was shot by police officers in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last month, spoke at the Louisville press conference.
Jacob Blake Sr expressed his condolences to Tamika Palmer, the mother of Breonna Taylor, and said he understood her pain about having your child be shot by police.
Blake noted he drove eight hours to Louisville to be with Taylor’s family after a grand jury declined to issue charges in the fatal police shooting.
“We didn’t choose this fraternity,” Blake said. “This fraternity chose us.”
Activist Tamika Mallory criticized Kentucky’s attorney general, Daniel Cameron, after a grand jury declined to issue charges in direct connection to the fatal police shooting of Breonna Taylor.
Mallory compared Cameron, who is black, to the “sellout Negroes that sold our people into slavery.”
“You are a coward. You are a sellout. And you were used by the system,” Mallory said. “You do not belong to black people at all.”
Taylor's mother: 'I never had faith in Daniel Cameron'
Bianca Austin, the aunt of Breonna Taylor, delivered a statement on behalf of Tamika Palmer, Taylor’s mother, at the Louisville press conference.
Austin wore Taylor’s EMT jacket as she delivered her statement.
“I never had faith in Daniel Cameron to begin with,” Palmer said in the statement that Austin read.
Palmer said Cameron, Kentucky’s attorney general, was “too inexperienced” to secure justice for her daughter after she was fatally shot by police.
“What he helped me realize is that it will always be us against them,” Palmer said in the statement.
Palmer noted that some might try to dismiss her as “an angry black woman.”
“Know this: I am an angry black woman,” Palmer said. “Angry because our black women keep dying at the hands of police officers.”
Palmer also argued it was not Cameron alone who failed Taylor, but the entire legal system, which gave the police officers a no-knock warrant to enter Taylor’s home and fatally shoot her.
“You robbed the world of a queen,” Palmer said.
Updated
Another lawyer representing Breonna Taylor’s family, Lonita Baker, called on Kentucky’s attorney general to “quit dodging the questions” about her death.
Baker noted that the attorney general, Daniel Cameron, refused to answer a question about whether he made a recommendation on charges to the grand jury.
Cameron has also not said whether he presented charges related to the fatal police shooting of Taylor.
A grand jury indicted only one of the three police officers involved in the shooting of Taylor, but those charges were related to an officer blindly firing into the apartment of Taylor’s neighbors.
Crump calls on Cameron to release grand jury transcripts in Taylor case
Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, who is representing the family of Breonna Taylor, called on Kentucky’s attorney general to release the transcripts from the grand jury process.
Attorney general Daniel Cameron has argued the police officers who fatally shot Taylor were “justified” in their use of force because Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired a shot before they started shooting.
(A 911 call placed shortly after the shooting indicates Walker did not know the shooters were police officers.)
Crump argued people could not be reassured that Cameron did everything he could for Taylor unless they saw what was presented to the grand jury.
Crump led the crowd at the press conference in a chant of, “Release the transcripts!”
Updated
Breonna Taylor's family holds press conference
The family of Breonna Taylor is holding a press conference in Louisville, two days after a grand jury declined to issue charges in direct connection to the fatal police shooting of Taylor.
Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, who is representing the Taylor family, noted Jacob Blake Sr is also present for today’s press conference.
Blake’s son, Jacob Blake Jr, was shot by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last month and is now paralyzed.
One man walked up to Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s casket and started doing push-ups as he paid his respects.
According to Capitol Hill pool reporters, that man was Ginsburg’s trainer.
Ginsburg’s exercise routine attracted tremendous interest in 2018 and even became the focus of a Saturday Night Live skit.
Updated
It should be noted Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell was not present for this morning’s ceremony honoring Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
House minority leader Kevin McCarthy also chose not to attend. The highest-ranking Republican lawmaker who was present for the ceremony appeared to be House minority whip Steve Scalise.
.@senatemajldr Mitch McConnell is on the “list of regrets” for the ceremony honoring Ruth Bader Ginsburg at the Capitol today, — where she is the first woman ever to lie in state, a source tells me
— Kasie Hunt (@kasie) September 25, 2020
@GOPLeader is also not expected to attend and has not been seen
A friend of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Denyce Graves, closed out the Capitol ceremony by singing “American Anthem.”
A recurring lyric in the song is, “America, America, I gave my best to you.”
Lawmakers are now coming up to Ginsburg’s casket one by one to pay their respects to the late supreme court justice.
Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden pay their respects to judicial icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg as she lies in state at the U.S. Capitol. https://t.co/Vu9w3lHBXW pic.twitter.com/jukuJqMU9f
— ABC News (@ABC) September 25, 2020
Updated
Rabbi Lauren Holtzblatt delivered remarks reflecting on the life and legacy of Ruth Bader Ginsburg during the Capitol ceremony.
“Justice Ginsburg’s dissents were not cries of defeat,” Holtzblatt said of Ginsburg’s supreme court opinions. “They were blueprints for the future.”
A rabbi just sang Min HaMetzar to honor Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who is the first Jewish person to lie in state at the Capitol.
From a Politico reporter:
Rabbi Lauren Holtzblatt just sang Min HaMetzar in the Capitol. Regardless of your politics, if you are jewish, a pretty amazing moment to hear Hebrew chanted in the Capitol.
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) September 25, 2020
House speaker Nancy Pelosi said she welcomed Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the Capitol with “profound sorrow and deep sympathy to the Ginsburg family.”
The Democratic speaker noted Ginsburg’s casket is resting on a wooden catafalque built in 1865 for Abraham Lincoln.
Ginsburg becomes first woman to lie in state
A military honor guard has carried Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s casket into Statuary Hall for this morning’s ceremony honoring the late supreme court justice.
Ginsburg is the first woman and the first Jewish person to lie in state.
House speaker Nancy Pelosi will be the first lawmaker to deliver remarks at the ceremony.
The Democratic presidential ticket, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, are now both seated in Statuary Hall for the ceremony honoring Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Statuary Hall. VP Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden (left) and Sen. Kamala Harris (right) await the arrival of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg pic.twitter.com/DE5542GJMz
— Kristin Wilson (@kristin__wilson) September 25, 2020
According to a CBS News reporter, this marks the first time Biden and Harris have been together in person since last month’s Democratic convention.
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris together to remember RBG at Capitol, first time the Dem ticket is together in-person since August convention 36 days ago.
— Bo Erickson CBS (@BoKnowsNews) September 25, 2020
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has arrived at the Capitol to attend this morning’s ceremony honoring Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
From our Hill pool producers @CarolineMcKee12 and @kristin__wilson: former VP Biden and his wife Dr. Biden have arrived on Capitol Hill for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s lie in state. pic.twitter.com/dAasFxZVQa
— Mariam Khan (@MKhan47) September 25, 2020
The president paid his respects to Ginsburg yesterday at the supreme court, where he was booed by those assembled there for her public viewing.
Ginsburg's casket arrives at the Capitol
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s casket has arrived at the Capitol, where she will lie in state today.
JUST IN: The hearse carrying Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's casket arrives at the steps of the U.S. Capitol, where she will be the first woman to lie in state at the building. https://t.co/FZh8qHi8MG pic.twitter.com/5oqxCqE84Q
— ABC News (@ABC) September 25, 2020
Ginsburg will be the first woman and the first Jewish person to lie in state at the Capitol, House speaker Nancy Pelosi noted yesterday.
Lawmakers, including Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris, have already started arriving in Statuary Hall for this morning’s ceremony to honor Ginsburg.
Sen Kamala Harris is in Statuary Hall surrounded by mostly women members of the House and Senate.
— Julie Tsirkin (@JulieNBCNews) September 25, 2020
Many are asking her to take photos with them — including Senators Warren and Sheila Jackson Lee, ahead of the start of the ceremony.
Steny Hoyer gave Harris a thumbs up. pic.twitter.com/ESHaid2s12
This is Joan Greve in Washington, taking over for Martin Belam.
White House chief of staff Mark Meadows attacked FBI Director Christopher Wray for not backing up Trump’s baseless claims about voter fraid.
Meadows told CBS News this morning, “With all due respect to Director Wray, he has a hard time finding emails in his own FBI, let alone figuring out whether there’s any kind of voter fraud.”
With all due respect to Director Wray, he has a hard time finding emails in his own FBI, let alone figuring out whether there's any kind of voter fraud.” — White House Chief of Staff @MarkMeadows on FBI Dir. Christopher Wray saying he's seen no evidence of widespread voter fraud pic.twitter.com/W5PUfpnWCn
— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) September 25, 2020
Meadows’ comments come one day after Wray told the Senate homeland security committee that the FBI had not seen evidence of a national voter fraud effort.
“We have not seen, historically, any kind of coordinated national voter fraud effort in a major election whether it’s by mail or otherwise,” Wray said.
“We have seen voter fraud at the local level from time to time, so my comments should in no way be construed as minimizing how seriously we take our responsibility to investigate such incidents.”
Trump has been trying to sow doubts about the legitimacy of the presidential election by claiming voting by mail will be tainted by widespread fraud, even though voter fraud is actually very rare.
Tom McCarthy reports for us on how attorney general William Barr appears to see himself locked in a historic struggle against literal evil, and he appears to regard the upcoming election as the climactic battle.
To some observers, the attorney general appears to have also laid the groundwork for a further alarming step, one that would answer the question of what action the Trump administration is prepared to take if a contested election in November gives rise to large new protests.
In order for Trump to steal the election and then quell mass demonstrations – for that is the nature of the nightmare scenario now up for open discussion among current and former officials, academics, thinktankers and a lot of other people – Trump must be able to manipulate both the levers of the law and its physical enforcement.
In Barr, Trump not only gets all of that, critics say but he also enjoys the partnership of a man whose sense of biblical stakes around the election imbues him with a deep sense of mission about re-electing Trump.
In a break with the relative reticence of his first 18 month in office, Barr has laid out his own thinking with a series of recent speeches, interviews and internal discussions. Even routine critics of Barr have been struck by the Barr that has now revealed himself.
Read it here: ‘His abuses have escalated’: Barr’s kinship with Trump fuels election fears
And that is it from me in London. I’m handing over to Joan Greve, and I will see you here, same time, same place, next week…
Kyle Rittenhouse faces extradition hearing over fatal shooting of protesters in Kenosha
It feels like the news is quite court heavy today, what with the Justice department seeking immediate action to ban WeChat [see 8:11], a federal judge insisting that the US census must carry on through October [see 7:32] and Trump’s attempt to stop his tax returns being handed over to a New York prosecutor [see 6:52]. But there’s more.
Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old accused of killing two protesters days after Jacob Blake was shot by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, faces a hearing on whether he should be sent to Wisconsin to stand trial on homicide charges that could put him in prison for life.
Rittenhouse was arrested at his home in Antioch, Illinois, a day after prosecutors say he shot and killed two protesters and injured a third on the streets of Kenosha on 25 August.
His attorneys have said Rittenhouse acted in self-defense and have portrayed him as a courageous patriot who was exercising his right to bear arms during unrest. He has become a bit of a cause célèbre among right-wing and gun rights circles.
Rittenhouse is charged with first-degree intentional homicide in the killing of two protesters and attempted intentional homicide in the wounding of a third. He also faces a misdemeanor charge of underage firearm possession for wielding a semi-automatic rifle.
A judge in Lake County, Illinois, is expected to rule on whether to send Rittenhouse to Kenosha to face the charges. A judge postponed a decision on his transfer last month after Rittenhouse’s public defender at the time asked for a delay in the extradition hearing so he had time to hire a private attorney.
Rittenhouse, who has been in custody in Illinois since his arrest, appears to have few options to fight the extradition.
His lawyers could argue that he’s mentally unfit and isn’t cooperating with them, which could delay the process, former Illinois judge and prosecutor David Erickson told the Associated Press.
“A prosecutor has to show that a crime was committed in the state of Wisconsin and, more likely than not, this is the guy,” he said.
Cheryl T. Bormann, a Chicago-area defense lawyer who’s not involved in the case, said fighting extradition is a “losing proposition” and that Rittenhouse’s guilt or innocence has no role in whether Illinois will honor Wisconsin’s request.
“The only real defense to extradition would be that Kyle Rittenhouse is not Kyle Rittenhouse. In other words, his lawyer would have to show that they got the wrong guy,” Bormann said.
Putin calls for US-Russia agreement on election cyber-meddling
Reuters report that President Vladimir Putin has called for an agreement between Russia and the United States to guarantee not to engage in cyber-meddling in each other’s elections.
In a statement ahead of the US election, Putin called for a reset between Russia and the US and said he wanted an agreement between the two countries to prevent incidents in cyberspace.
“(I propose)... exchanging guarantees of non-interference in each other’s internal affairs, including electoral processes, including using information and communication technologies and high-tech methods,” he said.
US intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 election with the aim of tilting it in Donald Trump’s favour, including by hacking into the campaign of his rival Hillary Clinton. Moscow denies that charge.
“One of the main strategic challenges of our time is the risk of a large-scale confrontation in the digital sphere,” Putin said in the Kremlin statement.
“We would like to once again appeal to the United States with a proposal to approve a comprehensive program of practical measures to reset our relations in the use of information and communication technologies.”
He proposed the two countries reach an agreement to prevent major cyberspace incidents, something he compared to a 1972 US-Soviet treaty reached at the height of the Cold War to prevent incidents at sea and in the air from escalating.
He also called for the two countries to fully restore communication lines between their respective agencies to discuss key international information on security issues.
Russia has denied it is attempting to interfere in the 2020 US campaign, despite evidence to the contrary. Microsoft said two weeks ago that hackers linked to Russia, China and Iran were trying to spy on people tied to both Trump and Biden. Russia and China dismissed the allegations.
Earlier this month, Microsoft also alerted one of Biden’s main election campaign advisory firms that it had been targeted by suspected Russian state-backed hackers. The Kremlin called the report “nonsense”.
If you fancy something to listen to, this week our Politics Weekly Extra podcast features Jonathan Freedland and Daniel Strauss talking about how important this year’s Senate race could end up being.
I should imagine we’ll have new polling news every day between now and the election, and this morning is no exception.
Chris Kahn at Reuters this morning says the latest data shows the presidential race is much closer than national surveys suggest - which currently give Biden an eight-ish point lead. But the latest Reuters/Ipsos opinion polls in battleground states show Joe Biden with only a slim lead over Donald Trump in three highly competitive states and in a dead heat in three others.
They have Biden and Trump tied among likely voters in Florida and North Carolina. Biden leading by 1 percentage point in Arizona, 3 points in Pennsylvania and 5 points in Wisconsin and Michigan. All six are critical to determining who wins.
This is the key point though – in each of the states, the difference between the two candidates was near or within the poll’s sampling error, meaning that neither candidate has a clear advantage.
Kahn says the state and national surveys show the 2020 election may wind up with the same mixed result as 2016, with the Democrats receiving a majority of the votes but the Republicans winning the Electoral College and the White House. While Biden has an early advantage in winning the national popular vote, Trump has nearly the same chances of winning the battleground states, and with them enough electoral votes for a second term.
If you want to get a broader overview of what is happening with polling in those key states, please allow me to recommend our US election poll tracker.
Jennifer Steinhauer and Helene Cooper report for the New York Times this morning that there is anxiety at the Pentagon that Donald Trump will attempt to drag the military into any post-election chaos. They write:
President Trump gave officials no solace on Wednesday and Thursday when he again refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power no matter who wins the election, and on Thursday, he doubled down by saying he was not sure the election could be “honest.” His hedging, along with his expressed desire in June to invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act to send active-duty troops onto American streets to quell protests over the killing of George Floyd, has incited deep anxiety among senior military and Defense Department leaders, who insist they will do all they can to keep the armed forces out of the elections.
“I believe deeply in the principle of an apolitical US military,” General Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in written answers to questions from House lawmakers released last month. “In the event of a dispute over some aspect of the elections, by law, US courts and the US Congress are required to resolve any disputes, not the US military. I foresee no role for the US armed forces in this process.”
But that has not stopped an intensifying debate in the military about its role should a disputed election lead to civil unrest.
In a paragraph they probably didn’t ever expect to have to write, Steinhauer and Cooper note that there has been some discussion of which branch of the nation’s security forces would be used to haul a recalcitrant president from the White House.
Pentagon officials swiftly said such an outcome was preposterous. Under no circumstances, they said, would the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff send Navy SEALs or Marines to haul Mr. Trump out of the White House. If necessary, such a task, Defense Department officials said, would fall to US Marshals or the Secret Service.
The bigger headache, it seems, is how the military would react if Trump were to attempt to use the two-century-old Insurrection Act, which enables a president “to send in active-duty military troops to quell disturbances over the objections of governors.”
Read it here: New York Times – At Pentagon, fears grow that Trump will pull military into election unrest
Justice department appeals to court for immediate ban on WeChat downloads
Associated Press are reporting that the Justice department has put in a court filing this morning seeking an immediate ban on downloads of WeChat in Apple and Google app stores.
Last week the US Commerce Department moved to ban WeChat from app stores but on Saturday, Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler in California agreed to delay the restrictions, saying they would affect users’ First Amendment rights.
The Justice Department has now asked Beeler to allow for an immediate ban while the case works its way through court.
WeChat is a messaging-focused app popular with many Chinese-speaking Americans that serves as a lifeline to friends, family, customers and business contacts in China. It’s owned by Chinese tech giant Tencent.
The Justice Department says WeChat allows the Chinese government to collect and use personal data on Americans to advance its own interests. It argues that the US will suffer irreparable harm, both substantive and procedural, if the court does not stay its decision.
Here’s a bit more on that incident in Los Angeles last night where two people were injured by vehicles during protests for justice for Breonna Taylor. ABC News report:
The “largely peaceful” group of protesters began marching around 7pm local time with only isolated reports of vandalism, but shortly after 9pm, things turned violent when a blue pickup truck traveling on Sunset Boulevard maneuvered through the crowd and became involved in an altercation, according to authorities. The driver of the truck attempted to get away from the situation, but police said he struck a protester standing in the street. The protester hit by the truck was transported to a local hospital with minor injuries.
Shortly after this happened, a second vehicle hit a car participating in the same protest as it tried to leave the area.
Police said that a white Prius had attempted to drive around the same protest, but a truck involved in the protests pinned it in, forcing it to stop. The driver of the Prius put the car in reverse to leave the area but then hit a green Mustang that was participating in the protest. Protesters then surrounded the vehicle.
Police state that all drivers and victims in both altercations have been identified and their investigation is ongoing.
You can see the incident take place in this clip, which also gives an idea of the scale of the crowd the vehicle was attempting to drive through. A warning though, the clip does show the injury taking place.
Content warning. Protesters get struck by car during Hollywood march/protest #losangeles #protest #hollywood pic.twitter.com/MJfParkHsS
— jessicarayerogers (@jessicarayerog1) September 25, 2020
Donald Trump has gone one of his wild early morning tweeting and retweeting sprees. Among his targets this morning are Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker who Trump has trashed as a Republican-in-name-only over mail in ballots in the state.
RINO Governor Charlie Baker of Massachusetts is unsuccessfully trying to defend Mail In Ballots, when there is fraud being found all over the place. Just look at some of the recent races, or the Trump Ballots in Pennsylvania that were thrown into the garbage. Wrong Charlie!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 25, 2020
The president of the United States is also unhappy about the polling figures being produced by Fox News.
One of the worst polls in 2016 was the @FoxNews Poll. They were so ridiculously wrong. Fox said they were going to change pollsters, but they didn’t. They totally over sample Democrats to a point that a child could see what is going on. Rasmussen, which was accurate, at 52%.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 25, 2020
But perhaps the most significant thing, and certainly very much targeted at firing up his base, the president seems to be trawling through the last week’s worth of tweets from the National Rifle Association of America and amplifying their attacks on Joe Biden. So far Trump has scrolled back as far as 17 September on their timeline.
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and wife Jill visit Washington today to pay respects to supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at the US Capitol this morning.
The Bidens will be hoping for a better reception than Donald Trump received yesterday, when he was booed and jeered.
The Washington Post has this to say today on the process going on behind Donald Trump’s upcoming supreme court pick, claiming that the process of inviting senators to meet with the nominee has already started. Seung Min Kim reports:
The White House has started its outreach to key senators who will play influential roles in the confirmation fight for President Trump’s yet-to-be-named nominee to the Supreme Court, a sign that the administration is preparing to move rapidly once the president reveals his pick Saturday afternoon.
White House officials have asked several members, both Democratic and Republican, of the Senate Judiciary Committee if they would like to meet personally with the nominee starting next week, according to two officials directly familiar with the invitations.
The administration has not disclosed the identity of the nominee in its outreach to senators, but Trump’s choice is widely believed to be Judge Amy Coney Barrett of the US Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit.
The courtesy one-on-one meetings between a Supreme Court nominee and senators are a traditional fixture of the confirmation process. Depending on the senator, the visits range from quick photo ops to lengthy, in-depth discussions about a nominee’s judicial philosophy.
The outreach to Democratic senators, in particular, shows the White House wants at least the semblance of a bipartisan process at the start of what will surely be a deeply contentious nomination fight. It’s unclear whether some Democratic senators would boycott a courtesy visit with the nominee, as most GOP senators did with Merrick Garland, President Barack Obama’s nominee in 2016.
Read more here: Washington Post – White House starts outreach to key senators on Supreme Court pick
Federal judge has stopped the 2020 census from finishing early
US District Judge Lucy Koh has been hearing a case in California over the plans to cut short the US census, and she delivered her ruling late last night. She has ordered the once-a-decade head count of every US resident to continue for another month through to the end of October, saying a shortened schedule likely would produce inaccurate results.
Civil rights groups and local governments had sued the Census Bureau, which was proposing to end the count at the end of September. Attorneys for the civil rights groups and local governments said the shortened schedule would undercount residents in minority and hard-to-count communities. Koh had also expressed concerns earlier in the hearings that a September deadline would make it harder to count people who had been displaced by California’s record-breaking wildfires.
Koh said inaccuracies produced from a shortened schedule would affect the distribution of federal funding and political representation, report the Associated Press. The census is used to determine how $1.5 trillion in federal spending is distributed each year and how many congressional seats each state gets.
Government attorneys had argued that the census must finish by the end of September to meet a 31 December deadline for turning over numbers used for deciding how many congressional seats each state gets. Koh’s preliminary injunction suspends that end-of-the-year deadline, too.
The San Jose, California-based judge had previously issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting the Census Bureau from winding down field operations until she made a ruling in the lawsuit. Attorneys for the Census Bureau and the Department of Commerce, which oversees the agency, had said during the hearing they would likely appeal.
One of the pictures I posted earlier showed riot police surrounding a church in Louisville in what had developed into a stand-off. The Louisville Courier Journal has this on what happened there last night:
After a two-hour standoff outside a downtown Louisville church, police officers and protesters brokered a deal allowing demonstrators back on to the city streets.
The negotiations, which allowed the protesters to return to their cars without being arrested for violating a 9pm curfew, capped off another tense evening in Kentucky’s largest city.
I’m at First Unitarian Church on South Fourth where protesters are using as a safe space. I’ve been here since about 6 p.m. with organizers. It’s 9:01 — one minute past curfew.
— Maggie Menderski (@MaggieMenderski) September 25, 2020
Churches are not included in the city’s curfew. @courierjournal pic.twitter.com/frHaZnq845
Line of police cars leaving the church.
— Maggie Menderski (@MaggieMenderski) September 25, 2020
The protesters can seemingly go home. pic.twitter.com/s4qypPFCqs
The paper also reports that Breonna Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, made a brief appearance at the protests last night to visit a memorial to her daughter.
Palmer, who has not spoken publicly since Wednesday’s grand jury announcement, was wearing a black satin “Until Freedom” jacket over a white T-shirt with a picture of Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron and the words “Mitch Bitch.”
The Taylor family are expected to give a press conference at 10:30am ET today.
Daniel Strauss in Washington has been looking at how the death of supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has upended Senate races just weeks before the election.
For Republicans, the battle for the Senate is an essential bid to cling to a hugely powerful body; for Democrats, wresting control of the chamber would be a hugely welcome – if previously unexpected – triumph.
In some races, the supreme court vacancy offers a chance for Democrats to rally their bases in states that increasingly lean left. In others, the vacancy gives Republican candidates the opportunity to remind voters who want the high court to tackle cases on abortion, deregulation, and overturning healthcare reform that senators can play a role.
“It should help red state enthusiasm in that it’ll remind people what’s at stake in this election,” said the Republican strategist Cam Savage, who added: “There will be places in the country where it benefits the Democrats.”
Read it here: US supreme court vacancy upends Senate races with just weeks to go
Appeal court hearing due today on releasing Trump tax returns to New York prosecutor
There’s a hearing today into whether Donald Trump needs to finally release his tax returns to a New York prosecutor.
The president’s lawyers argued in court papers filed yesterday that the office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr is resorting to “speculation and innuendo” to justify his demands
The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear arguments after a district court judge last month rejected Trump’s renewed efforts to invalidate a subpoena issued to the president’s accounting firm.
Trump’s lawyers maintain that the subpoena was issued in bad faith and is overly broad. They argued that aside from acknowledging an inquiry into money paid to two women who alleged affairs with Trump, Vance’s office hasn’t specified why it needs eight years of the president’s corporate and personal tax returns.
Vance’s office argued in court papers earlier in the week that there’s “a mountainous record” of public allegations of misconduct to support its efforts to obtain Trump’s tax returns, such as news reports alleging Trump or his companies inflated or minimized the value of assets for business and tax purposes.
“But this is all misdirection,” Trump’s lawyers wrote. “(Vance) nowhere claims that his office is actually investigating any of the discredited, state, and recycled allegations of wrongdoing that are recounted in the press reports he has compiled.”
Trump has called Vance’s investigation “a fishing expedition” and “a continuation of the witch hunt the greatest witch hunt in history.”
In addition to arguing the subpoena was issued in bad faith and overly broad, the president’s lawyers also contend that the investigation might have been politically motivated and amounted to harassment.
Vance’s office declined to comment to the Associated Press on the latest Trump filing. A temporary restraining order remains in effect, preventing any tax records from being turned over at least until the latest appeal is decided. Trump has said he expects the case to return to the Supreme Court, making it unlikely the dispute will be resolved before the November election.
Even if Vance does get Trump’s tax records, those would be part of a confidential grand jury investigation and not automatically be made public.
Here are some of the pictures that have been coming through showing lasts nights protests across the US.
Donald Trump may have made ‘law-and-order’ a centerpiece of his campaign, but as Ankita Rao reports for us, what he says about crime in US cities is often at odds with the reality.
Big American cities are largely run by Democrats, with only few under Republican leadership, making comparisons almost impossible, and the increase in crime has hit Republican areas too.
But Trump’s “law-and-order” narrative is now successfully deepening political fissures in the country, without addressing the actual issue of community violence at time of a pandemic which has cost 200,000 American lives, an economic collapse that has killed millions of jobs and widespread civic unrest.
Crime in US cities has been steadily trending down in recent decades, even with prevalent mass shootings and gun violence. This year, however, is an anomaly. At the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, as cities such as New York and Chicago went under various types of lockdown, certain types of crime – murder and burglary – dropped precipitously. Then, as the summer started, things changed.
“What we’re seeing in the US is a lot of communities under significant stress related to Covid and the economy. Stress causes violence to get worse,” said Charles Ransford, the director of policy and science at Cure Violence, an international anti-violence organization which has been credited with driving down gun violence in Chicago by more than 30% in 2008 by treating is as a disease.
Read it here: Trump makes ‘law-and-order’ pitch but rhetoric on crime at variance with reality
Elsewhere in the US, one person was hurt when a vehicle ran into a small crowd of people protesting police brutality in Los Angeles, authorities said.
The driver of a blue pickup truck got into an argument with demonstrators and struck the protester who was standing in the street as the driver tried to get away, police said in a statement. The protester was taken to a hospital with minor injuries.
Portland police again declared an unlawful assembly and tweeted that those who failed to leave could be subject to “arrest, citation, or the use of crowd control agents.”
A fire was set to the outside of a police union building late Thursday. Several photos and videos posted online showed flames erupting outside the doors of the Portland Police Association office. The fire was quickly extinguished.
Louisville State Rep Attica Scott arrested during Breonna Taylor justice protests in Louisville
Louisville Metro Police have confirmed to the Associated Press that at least 24 people were arrested in Louisville during the second night of protests over a grand jury’s decision not to indict police officers on criminal charges directly related to the death of Breonna Taylor.
Among them, the Louisville Courier Journal reports, were high-profile Louisville Democratic state lawmaker Rep. Attica Scott and well-known Black activist Shameka Parrish-Wright. The paper says that Scott’s daughter, Ashanti Scott, was arrested alongside them. Olivia Krauth writes:
All three are charged with first-degree rioting — a felony — along with failure to disperse and unlawful assembly, both misdemeanors.
“The allegations are outrageous on their face,” said Ted Shouse, Parrish-Wright’s lawyer.
All but one of the 24 protesters arrested last night were arrested near the Louisville Free Public Library on York Street.
At about Louisville’s 9pm curfew, someone broke a window at the library and threw a flare into the building. Shouse said neither Parrish-Wright nor Scott had anything to do with damaging the library.
Fellow state Rep. Josie Raymond tweeted Thursday night calling for Scott and Parrish-Wright to be released, saying “If you arrest the loudest voices fighting racial injustice in Louisville, we have to believe you want to silence the fight against racial injustice.”
If you arrest the loudest voices fighting racial injustice in Louisville, we have to believe you want to silence the fight against racial injustice. Let @atticascott4ky and @Seasoned4u out and get out of their way.
— State Representative Josie Raymond (@RepJosieRaymond) September 25, 2020
Read more here: Louisville Courier Journal – Louisville state Rep. Attica Scott arrested at Breonna Taylor protests in downtown Louisville
There were protests in many major US cities last night demanding justice for Breonna Taylor. Reporters for Associated Press spoke to people who were protesting in Kentucky.
“We’ve got to take it lying down that the law won’t protect us, that they can get away with killing us,” said Lavel White, a regular protester in downtown Louisville who is Black. He was drawn to a march Thursday night because he was devastated by a grand jury’s decision a day earlier not to charge the officers. “If we can’t get justice for Breonna Taylor, can we get justice for anybody?”
He said he was angry that police in riot gear were out in force when protesters had been peaceful as they streamed through the streets of downtown Louisville past a nighttime curfew.
Reginique Jones told reporters that she’ll keep pressing for increased police accountability and for a statewide ban on “no knock” warrants the kind issued in the Taylor case.
“I believe that we are going to get past this,” Jones said as she returned Thursday to the park in downtown Louisville that has been at the center of the protests. “We can still get some justice.”
Taylor’s family plan to speak later today in the park that’s become known locally as Injustice Square.
Here’s a reminder that yesterday Donald Trump again raised doubts about the legitimacy of the presidential election. Speaking to reporters before leaving for North Carolina, Trump said: ‘We want to make sure the election is honest, and I’m not sure that it can be.’
The US president has never provided any evidence for his claims about widespread fraud through unsolicited ballots, and voter fraud in the US is rare.
The FBI director, Christopher Wray, yesterday told the Senate homeland security committee: “We have not seen historically any kind of coordinated national voter fraud effort in a major election, whether it’s by mail or otherwise.”
Good morning and welcome to Friday’s edition of our US politics live blog. Here’s a summary of what is up, and what we can expect to see today.
- There were protests in multiple major cities across the country last night. Hundreds are still chanting Breonna Taylor’s name and voicing their frustration over the grand jury’s decision not to charge officers for her death.
- Taylor’s family will be holding a press conference at 10.30 am, their first since the announcement of the grand jury’s decision. They will be joined by their lawyers, including attorney Benjamin Crump.
- Top Republicans dismissed Donald Trump’s refusal to commit to peaceful transfer – a refusal which he repeated for a second day.
- Florida’s attorney general requested an inquiry into Mike Bloomberg’s effort to pay off court fees and other fines so people with felony convictions can vote in the battleground state. The effort has so far raised $16m.
- Bernie Sanders accused Trump and Republicans of ‘sowing the seeds of chaos’ by ‘casting doubt’ on the election, and called for an election commission.
- There were 45,176 new cases of coronavirus reported in the US yesterday – that’s 17% up on a fortnight ago. There were 885 new Covid deaths.
- Trump was booed and jeered on his visit to Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s casket.
- The president has got a busy day scheduled, he’s doing a Latinos for Trump Roundtable in Doral, Florida. Then he’s on to Atlanta to delivers remarks on “Black Economic Empowerment: The Platinum Plan”. After that he has another roundtable with supporters in Washington DC at the Trump International Hotel, and then on to an evening rally in Virginia.
- There’s also a federal appeals court hearing as Trump continues to fight to stop New York prosecutors getting his tax returns.
I’ll be here for the next couple of hours, and you can get in touch with me at martin.belam@theguardian.com
