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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Lauren Aratani (now), Kenya Evelyn, Adam Gabbatt, Joan E Greve and Martin Belam (earlier)

Critics condemn Trump's rewrite of race in America in DC speech – as it happened

Donald Trump speaks to the White House conference on American History at the National Archives Museum.
Donald Trump speaks to the White House conference on American History at the National Archives Museum. Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP

Summary

Here’s a quick recap of what’s happened today:

  • Critics have condemned Donald Trump’s new “patriotic education” plan, created in response to the New York Times’ 1619 project. The Pulitzer-winning project elaborates on the US’s 250 years of slavery and its effects on modern-day race relations. Trump likened such teaching to “child abuse”.
  • Kamala Harris made a pit stop in Pennsylvania as Democrats tapped into Black Voting Power.
  • Eric Trump’s lawyers said that he is willing to answer questions for the New York attorney general’s investigation into the Trump Organization – but only after the election.
  • A former aide to Mike Pence was featured in a scathing attack ad from Republican Voters Against Trump. The aide worked with Pence on the White House’s coronavirus taskforce, and she said Trump’s response to coronavirus has made it clear that “he doesn’t actually care about anyone but himself”.
  • Meanwhile, the House energy and commerce committee wants answers from senior advisor Stephen Miller and health and human services secretary Alex Azar about a “show of hands” vote on child separation.
  • A federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s operational changes at the US postal service.

Updated

Black voters in North Carolina are already getting their ballots rejected four times more than white voters, according to FiveThirtyEight, a concerning indicator of what may be to come as millions of voters fill out mail-in ballots over the next several weeks.

Of the over 13,000 ballots that black voters have sent in North Carolina, 647 were rejected. Meanwhile, of the 60,000 ballots white voters sent in, 681 were rejected.

A ballot is rejected if a voter made a mistake when filling out a ballot or did not fill out witness information. North Carolina gives a voter the opportunity to correct their ballot, but FiveThirtyEight points out that not all states allow “vote curing”, or the chance to fix their ballot. In Nevada, for example, 45% of 12,000 ballots that had missing or mismatched signatures were properly “cured” and thus counted.

What has been, at this point, well over a month of negotiations for a new coronavirus stimulus package is still not seeing success as the House and Senate break for the weekend today.

House Democrats passed their $3.4tn package in May and have budged down to $2.2 trillion, according to Politico. Republicans meanwhile have been firm about a much slimmer $650bn relief package.

Moderate Democrats have urged House speaker Nancy Pelosi to go along with a slimmer package, with fears that if Republicans refuse to cooperate, there will be no aid until after the election. In a tweet yesterday, Donald Trump urged Republicans to “go for much higher numbers”, though it’s unclear whether the tweet had any real sway on Republican lawmakers.

Updated

Yosemite national park just announced that it will be closing due to “significant smoke impacts and hazardous air quality” coming from the wildfires along the west coast.

Starting at 5pm Pacific time today, park entrance stations and roads will be closed until conditions improve, which could mean closure for the next several days at least. The park said it will continue to assess air quality, smoke impact and fire activity throughout the region to determine when the park will be safe to reopen.

Yosemite joins Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks in California, which have also closed due to wildfires in the region.

Updated

Donald Trump’s response to the attack ad that was released this afternoon by Republican Voters Against Trump: “I never met her.”

In the ad, Olivia Troye, who was an aide to Vice-President Mike Pence and was his top staffer on the White House’s coronavirus taskforce, said that Trump “doesn’t actually care about anyone else but himself” and emphasized his careless response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Troye says that she left her job after seeing how the administration was handling the virus, but Trump told reporters that she was “terminated”.

Updated

Controversial guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that said that those who had been exposed to Covid-19 did not need to get tested if they were not showing symptoms was not written by CDC scientists.

The New York Times just published a report that says several sources and internal documents have confirmed that CDC scientists were not onboard with the guidance and that it was written by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which “dropped” it on to the CDC’s website.

The Times quoted an anonymous source who said that the guidance came from “the top down, from the HHS and the taskforce”.

“That policy does not reflect what many people at the CDC feel should be the policy,” the federal official said.

When the guidance was released, multiple public health experts raised alarms that it would hurt efforts to trace and contain the virus and that it was a sign that the CDC’s integrity had been compromised by the White House’s taskforce.

Dr Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease expert, said that he was “worried” by the guidance, specifically that it would lead people to believe that asymptomatic spread of the virus is not a concern.

Updated

Scott Atlas, a Trump coronavirus adviser, has threatened to sue a group of Stanford professors who wrote an open letter denouncing multiple public statement Atlas has made about responding to Covid-19.

A letter from his lawyer said the professors’ statement “maliciously defames” Atlas and demanded the signers of the letters to withdraw their claims or be sued, according to Politico.

The open letter, which was published last Wednesday, said that Atlas’s statements and opinions “run counter to established science and, by doing so, undermine public-health authorities and the credible science that guides effective public health policy”. Over 100 faculty members with various medical expertise signed the letter.

In recent weeks, Atlas has raised concerns among public health experts by questioning the use of masks and embracing the controversial “herd immunity” response to the pandemic. Atlas was criticized for not having a background in public health or infectious diseases, as Trump’s former top advisors Deborah Birx and Anthony Fauci had.

Updated

Eric Trump says he's willing to be interviewed for Trump Organization investigation

Eric Trump, the president’s second-oldest son, said through his lawyers in a court filing today that he is willing to be interviewed by the New York attorney general’s office for its investigation into the Trump Organization – the caveat being that the questioning has to take place after the election.

New York attorney general Letitia James is currently investigating the Trump Organization for allegedly inflating the value of its assets to secure loans and deflating it to avoid taxes. The investigation was launched in March 2019 after Donald Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen told Congress that Donald Trump misrepresented the value of his financial assets.

The AG’s office has issued multiple subpoenas, including one for an interview with Eric Trump, which he has refused to comply with and has called “prosecutorial misconduct”.

In his court filings today, lawyers for Eric Trump said that an interview must wait for after the election because of his “extreme travel schedule and related unavailability between now and the election” along with his desire to “avoid the use of his deposition attendance for political purposes”.

Updated

Another former executive branch staffer has joined a group of Republican leaders and former Trump administration officials who are advocating against the president’s re-election.

Politico reported this afternoon that Josh Venable, former chief of staff to education secretary Betsy DeVos who served from the beginning of Trump’s tenure until October 2018, has joined the Republican Political Alliance for Integrity and Reform. The group was founded by two former senior Department of Homeland Security officials and is just one of a few groups of Republicans who are advocating against Trump in the lead up to the election, including Republican Voters Against Trump and the Lincoln Project.

Venable was listed by the group as an adviser, along with a handful of Republican leaders.

Updated

This is Lauren Aratani taking over for Kenya Evelyn. Republicans Voters Against Trump released an ad this afternoon featuring a former aide of vice-president Mike Pence.

In a two-minute ad, Olivia Troye, former homeland security and counter-terrorism advisor to Pence, who also served as Pence’s lead staff member on his Covid-19 response, said that working at the White House led her to see that Trump “doesn’t actually care about anyone else but himself”.

Troye described herself as a lifelong Republican, having supported George W Bush and John McCain, but said “at this point, it’s country over party”.

A member of the White House’s coronavirus taskforce, Troye said she distinctly remembers when Trump made a comment about how the pandemic may be a “good thing” since he doesn’t like shaking hands with people. “I don’t have to shake hands with these disgusting people,” he remarked, according to Troye’s recollection.

Troye pointed out that the “disgusting people” he referred to are his supporters, “the people he still claims to care about”.

In an interview with the Washington Post, Troye further elaborated on her opinion of the president, saying that his response to the pandemic has showed a “flat-out disregard for human life” and repeated that his main concerns were his re-election and the economy.

A reporter on Twitter said that Pence has responded to Troye comments, saying “one more disgruntled employee who’s left the WH decided to play politics during an election year”.

Updated

Let’s recap an eventful Thursday so far:

Here’s what you have missed amid a Thursday full of historic debate:

  • Kamala Harris made a pit stop in Pennsylvania as Democrats tapped into Black Voting Power
  • Critics have condemned Donald Trump’s revisionist American history
  • Meanwhile, the House energy and commerce committee wants answers from senior advisor Stephen Miller and health and human services secretary Alex Azar about a “show of hands” vote on child separation
  • A federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s operational changes at the US postal service

Stay up to date as my colleague Lauren Aratani provides you with all the latest from the rest of Thursday right here on the politics liveblog.

Updated

Federal judge blocks Trump administration’s USPS operational changes

Following reports of a scrapped plan to send masks to all US residences, a federal judge in Washington state has temporarily blocked proposed operational changes within the US postal service, accusing Donald Trump and Postmaster General Louis DeJoy of being “involved in a politically motivated attack on the efficiency of the Postal Service”.

The ruling grants a request from 14 states to temporarily block the changes, blaming them for a slowdown in mail delivery that could potentially disrupt the 2020 presidential election.

From the Washington Post:

Stanley A. Bastian, chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington, said that harm to the public “has already taken place” by changes put in place under DeJoy. Bastian ruled from the bench Thursday afternoon after a two-and-a-half hour hearing.

“The states have demonstrated that the defendants are involved in a politically motivated attack on the efficiency of the Postal Service. They have also demonstrated that this attack on the Postal Service is likely to irreparably harm the states’ ability to administer the 2020 general election,” he said.

Updated

Texas governor allows businesses to expand occupancy

Texas governor Greg Abbott announced on Thursday that some businesses across the state will be allowed to expand to 75% occupancy as early as this week.

After emerging as a hotspot in the coronavirus pandemic, Texas data now shows low hospitalization levels. But public health experts expect those numbers to surge as businesses and schools reopen.

Those permitted to expand capacity include restaurants, gyms, shopping centers, libraries and museums. However, bars will remain closed.

Until additional medical treatments are available, we must continue the safe practices that slowed the spread [of Covid-19] this summer. That includes staying at home if you’re sick, sanitizing your hands, maintaining safe distances & wearing a mask.

Greg Abbott, governor of Texas

Updated

More of the fallout from the White House on American history:

Following a revisionist speech at the first White House Conference on American History, in which Donald Trump introduced the 1776 Commission that will establish “patriotic” and “pro-America” education: members of the Trump administration - including education secretary Betsy DeVos - remain mum on the backlash.

Updated

House committee wants answers on alleged White House family separations vote

The US House energy and commerce committee announced it has called on Alex Azar, US secretary for health and human services, following an NBC News report detailing White House senior adviser Stephen Miller’s “show-of-hands” vote on family separations.

The NBC News report alleges that Miller and “other Trump administration officials were invited to a May 2018 meeting in the White House Situation Room where they voted by a show of hands to separate migrant children who crossed the border illegally with their parents”.

New from correspondent Jacob Soboroff:

Updated

Critics attack Trump's rewrite of race in America

The backlash is swift for Donald Trump following the White House Conference on American History, where he delivered remarks earlier today that critics and journalists quickly factchecked as blatantly false.

The president, who called curriculum on race “toxic propaganda, an ideological poison that, if not removed, will dissolve the civic bonds”, continued his administration’s efforts to restrict the telling of American history in schools to erase a legacy of racism, genocide and imperialism. More on that from Politico:

Trump recently threatened to nix federal funding for California schools that teach the 1619 Project, while the White House issued a government-wide directive to stop what it called “un-American propaganda training sessions” about race.

Responding to the president’s remarks, journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, the project’s author, made an observation on who isn’t included in Trump’s retelling of American history:

Updated

Kamala Harris makes Philadelphia campaign stop

This is Kenya Evelyn in Washington briefly taking over our politics live blog. Here’s what we’re following right now.

The campaign for Joe Biden continued its outreach to black voters Thursday, with running mate Kamala Harris making a stop in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to engage community leaders in the battleground state.

The California senator and VP nominee maintained social distance, however, bouncing elbows with people. Harris later called on Congress to pass voting rights legislation at a “Sister to Sister” community panel on women’s empowerment.

Democrats’ fight for black voters ramped up as polls showing the race tightening in states like Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan following the national convention. Harris was just in Milwaukee, where the scaled-down national convention left Democrats with a void of black voter enthusiasm.

As anti-racism protests enter their fourth straight month around the globe, the former vice-president and Harris will make additional stops in key states where Black Americans have disproportionately been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic and recession that followed.

Key up with the Guardian’s coverage of black voters ahead of the 2020 presidential election with our latest series: Black Voting Power.

Updated

Trump: children have received 'decades of leftwing indoctrination in our schools'

Donald Trump has launched an extraordinary attack on education at a history conference in Washington DC, claiming children have been subjected to “decades of leftwing indoctrination” and saying the founding of America “set in motion” the end of slavery.

“Our children are instructed from propaganda tracts, like Howard Zinn,” Trump said. “The left has warped, distorted, and defiled the American story.”

Trump said children should know “they are citizens of the most exceptional nation in the history of the world”.

The government, Trump says, is planning to introduce a “pro-American education” – “that celebrates the truth about our country’s great history”.

Trump then attacked the New York Times’ 1619 Project. The Pulitzer Prize-winning project was published last year to cast a spotlight on the 400th anniversary of the first slave ship arriving in America.

The 1619 project “warped” the American story, Trump said. The president said the project claimed the US was “founded on the principle of oppression, not freedom”.

Instead, “America’s founding set in motion the chain of events that abolished slavery”, Trump claimed.

Trump then moved on to statues – “leftwing mobs have torn down statues of our founders”, he says – in a classic appeal to his base, who disapprove of monuments to slave owners being removed.

Updated

I didn’t know Mike Pence was due to speak at this National Archives event – officially the event is called the White House history conference – but here he is.

Pence sets the scene with a run through of the Declaration of independence and the constitution – “the greatest charters of freedom the world has ever known”, Pence says.

Then its a straight-up attack on education and, seemingly teachers:

“Sadly we live in a time when some are seeking to erase our history,” Pence says.

Millions of people in the US are educated by people who “seek to wipe out our history”, the vice president claims.

Pence seems to be setting up Trump to – as reported – denounce some US schools’ focus on slavery and racism in history lessons.

Updated

Donald Trump is about to speak at the National Archives in Washington – where he’s expected to attack some US schools’ focus on slavery and racism in history lessons.

As we noted earlier: “The president will specifically criticize the New York Times’ ‘1619 Project.’ The Pulitzer Prize-winning project was published last year to cast a spotlight on the 400th anniversary of the first slave ship arriving in America.”

We’ll post updates, and video of the event is live here.

Updated

Pennsylvania’s top court ruled Thursday that voters could have more time to return their mail-in ballots to election officials this fall, a move likely to result in thousands more people having their votes counted in the key battleground state.

Pennsylvania, seen as crucial to Joe Biden’s chances of winning in November, is one of many states where voters are required to return their mail-in ballots to election officials by election night in order to have them counted.

But on Thursday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ordered the state to count ballots as long as they were postmarked by election day and arrived by 6 November, the Friday after election day.

One of the top reasons ballots get rejected is because they arrive too late to be counted. More than 15,000 ballots were rejected for arriving too late, according to an NPR analysis. In previous elections, missing the ballot receipt deadline has been one of the top reasons mail-in ballots get rejected.

The court relied in a provision in Pennsylvania’s constitution that says all elections need to be “free and equal” to make its decision and noted that a record number of people are expected to apply for mail-in ballots.

“In light of these unprecedented numbers and the near-certain delays that will occur in Boards processing the mail-in applications, we conclude that the timeline built into the Election Code cannot be met by the USPS’s current delivery standards,” Justice Max Baer, a Democrat, wrote for the court’s majority.

“Voters’ rights are better protected by addressing the impending crisis at this point in the election cycle on a statewide basis rather than allowing the chaos to brew, creating voter confusion regarding whether extensions will be granted, for how long, and in what counties.”

The Pennsylvania supreme court also said that counties could offer voters ballot drop boxes and that the state could only allow people to serve as poll workers in the county where they live. Donald Trump’s campaign had filed a separate suit in federal court seeking to block both requirements.

Donald Trump has acknowledged his lack of widespread tv advertising is a problem, venting to advisors about Joe Biden’s seemingly more cash-laden campaign, the Washington Post reports:

Trump spent last weekend complaining privately about Biden’s dominance in television advertising, according to three people familiar with the comments, only to tweet upon his return to Washington from a campaign swing that the “fake news” was exaggerating the disparity.

The zigzagging messages reflected a desire by Trump and his campaign to move beyond growing Republican concern about his relatively scant advertising budget and doubts about whether he has enough money in the bank to close the race in a strong position.

“We have much more money than we had at the same time in 2016,” Trump tweeted this week. “Also spending on other, and different, elements of the campaign.”

Biden has been raking in huge amounts of money over the past month, as my colleague David Smith wrote this week:

“While Joe Biden and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) raised a record $365m in August, it was revealed this week that the Trump campaign has surrendered what was once a $200m cash advantage. It has already spent more than $800m, the front page of the New York Times reported, leaving its coffers dangerously depleted for the critical final phase.”

Trump’s campaign has to report its cash on hand for the end of August by this Sunday.

The Green Party presidential candidate Howie Hawkins has been removed from the ballot in Pennsylvania – a win for Democrats ahead of the election.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Hawkins did not strictly follow procedures for getting on the ballot after he took over from Elizabeth Faye Scroggin as the Green party candidate.

Associated Press reports:

Democrats have long gone to court to keep Green Party candidates off the ballot, worried that they will siphon otherwise liberal voters in close contests against Republicans in the politically divided state.

In this case, Democrats targeted what they said were disqualifying irregularities in how Green Party candidates for president and vice president filed affidavits that accompany paperwork to get on the ballot.

Howie Hawkins.
Howie Hawkins. Photograph: Hans Pennink/AP

In 2016 Green Party candidate Jill Stein was blamed by some for drawing votes away from Hillary Clinton, although there is little evidence Stein’s performance made a difference.

Donald Trump won Pennsylvania by 46,765 votes while 49,678 people voted for Stein. Still, Hawkins’ absence is good news for Biden, as Pennsylvania has become increasingly crucial to his 2020 chances.

According to RealClearPolitics average of Pennsylvania polls Biden has a 4.3% lead in the state.

I interviewed Hawkins in August about his chances of clinching the presidency... which he conceded weren’t very high. This ruling means his hoped for 5% of the national vote is becoming a harder target to reach.

(This is Adam Gabbatt, covering for Joan E Greve.)

Updated

Today so far

Here’s where the day stands so far:

  • Twitter flagged another one of Trump’s tweets about voting by mail as “misleading.” The president once again sought to cast doubt upon the legitimacy of the election, saying in his tweet, “Because of the new and unprecedented massive amount of unsolicited ballots which will be sent to ‘voters’, or wherever, this year, the Nov 3rd Election result may NEVER BE ACCURATELY DETERMINED.” In reality, voter fraud is very rare, and secretaries of state of both parties have offered reassurances that ballots will be accurately counted.
  • Trump is reportedly expected to denounce some US schools’ focus on slavery and racism in history lessons when he delivers remarks at the National Archives later today. According to Bloomberg News, the president will specifically criticize the New York Times’ “1619 Project.” The Pulitzer Prize-winning project was published last year to cast a spotlight on the 400th anniversary of the first slave ship arriving in America.
  • Attorney general William Barr received criticism for attacking justice department staffers and comparing coronavirus shutdown orders to slavery. Barr said during an event hosted by Hillsdale College yesterday, “You know, putting a national lockdown, stay at home orders, is like house arrest. Other than slavery, which was a different kind of restraint, this is the greatest intrusion on civil liberties in American history.”

I’m handing the blog over to my Guardian colleague, Adam Gabbatt, for the next couple hours, so stay tuned.

Trump to denounce schools' focus on slavery in remarks today - report

Trump is reportedly expected to denounce some US schools’ focus on slavery and racism in its history lessons when the president speaks at the National Archives later today.

Bloomberg News reports:

‘The president will deliver remarks on his administration’s efforts to promote a more balanced, accurate, and patriotic curricula in America’s schools,’ the White House said in a statement.

That includes criticizing what the White House calls ‘the liberal indoctrination of America’s youth.’ Trump is expected to explicitly fault the New York Times’ ‘1619 Project.’ The Pulitzer-Prize winning public school curriculum developed by the newspaper orients American history from the date that the first slave ship arrived in what later became the U.S.

One of Trump’s top advisers, secretary of state Mike Pompeo, similarly attacked the “1619 Project” during a July speech at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.

“The New York Times’s 1619 Project — so named for the year the first slaves were transported to America — wants you to believe our country was founded for human bondage. They want you to believe America’s institutions continue to reflect the country’s acceptance of slavery at our founding,” Pompeo said.

“They want you to believe Marxist ideology that America is only the oppressors and the oppressed. The Chinese Communist Party must be gleeful when they see the New York Times spout their ideology.”

The University of Georgia announced it would provide an on-campus site for in-person early voting, reversing a widely criticized decision not to do so.

In a statement, the university said Stegeman Coliseum, where the school’s basketball team plays, would serve as a polling station for early voting. The statement noted the stadium is large enough to host voters while still respecting social distancing guidelines.

The university’s previous announcement that it had not found a suitable location for early voting was met with a fierce backlash, as many critics noted the school was moving forward with college football despite the coronavirus pandemic.

The intense public pressure appears to have worked, given the school reversed its decision just one day after announcing it.

Trump’s businesses have charged the US government more than $1.1 million since the president took office, according to the Washington Post.

The Post reports:

The documents, including receipts and invoices from Trump’s businesses, were released by the Secret Service after The Washington Post filed a public-records lawsuit. They added $188,000 in previously unknown charges to The Post’s running total of payments to Trump’s properties related to the presence of Secret Service agents.

In Bedminster this spring, the records show, Trump’s club charged the Secret Service more than $21,800 to rent a cottage and other rooms while the club was closed and otherwise off-limits to guests. The documents don’t give a reason for these rentals. Trump didn’t visit the club while it was closed, but his eldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, and her family reportedly visited at least once.

The family visited the club in April to celebrate Passover, a period that overlaps with several of the largest Secret Service charges. At the time, both the District of Columbia — where Ivanka Trump lives — and New Jersey had imposed ‘stay-at-home’ orders, telling residents to avoid travel except under limited circumstances.

Ivanka Trump was criticized after the New York Times reported on the April trip, with many noting the president’s daughter was simultaneously urging people to respect stay-at-home orders as she traveled out of state.

Democrats have also broadly criticized the president for allowing his businesses to charge the federal government while he is in office, sparking accusations that Trump is using the presidency for his own financial gain.

House minority leader Kevin McCarthy insisted Trump was right to challenge the CDC director’s timeline for the development of a coronavirus vaccine.

“If I just take the words of the CDC and the president, the president is right,” the Republican leader told reporters on Capitol Hill.

McCarthy added, “One of those two individuals had more information than the other, and that was the president.”

During his Senate testimony yesterday, CDC Director Robert Redfield said a coronavirus vaccine would not be widely available to the American public until “late second quarter, third quarter 2021.”

That comment is in line with timelines offered by other health experts, but Trump attacked Redfield at his press conference yesterday, insisting the CDC director was “confused” when he testified.

“I think he made a mistake when he said that. It’s just incorrect information,” Trump said.

Twitter adds label to Trump's tweet about accuracy of election results

Twitter has added another label to one of Trump’s tweets about voting by mail, which the president has falsely claimed is particularly vulnerable to voter fraud.

In reality, voter fraud is very rare, and the US has been using mailed-in ballots in its elections for decades.

The president tweeted this morning, “Because of the new and unprecedented massive amount of unsolicited ballots which will be sent to ‘voters’, or wherever, this year, the Nov 3rd Election result may NEVER BE ACCURATELY DETERMINED, which is what some want. Another election disaster yesterday. Stop Ballot Madness!”

This is not true. Several states are mailing ballots to all registered voters because of the coronavirus pandemic, but they are not sending ballots to “wherever.” And while it may take longer to count the votes in certain states because of the higher level of voting by mail, the accurate results of the presidential race will be known shortly after the November election.

Twitter said of Trump’s tweet, “We’ve added a label to this Tweet for making a potentially misleading statement regarding the process of mail-in voting, and to offer more context for anyone who may see the Tweet. This action is in line with our recently-updated Civic Integrity Policy.”

Twitter has previously labeled other Trump tweets about voting by mail because, as the social media giant said last month, the false messages “could potentially dissuade people from participation in voting.”

CNN’s chief fact-checker, Daniel Dale, said Trump “might be more dishonest about voting and election integrity than about any other subject.” That’s a fairly remarkable statement, considering the president has made more than 20,000 false or misleading claims since taking office.

Schumer denounces Trump's 'outrageous' comments on coronavirus death toll

Addressing reporters at House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s weekly press conference, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer denounced Trump’s comments about coronavirus deaths in Democratic-controlled states.

Schumer said Trump’s comments yesterday were “outrageous.” “What a despicable man,” the Democratic leader said. “How low can he go?”

During his press conference yesterday, Trump suggested that the US coronavirus death toll would be much lower if the deaths in Democratic-controlled states were ignored.

“If you take the blue states out, we’re at a level that I don’t think anybody in the world would be at. We’re really at a very low level. But some of the states, they were blue states and blue state-managed,” Trump said.

A new poll shows a close race in Arizona, a state that Trump won by 3.5 points in 2016 and Joe Biden is hoping to flip in November.

According to the Monmouth University poll, Biden has a 4-point lead over Trump among Arizona’s registered voters, 48%-44%.

But Biden’s small advantage narrows even further when likely voters are polled. If the election sees a high level of voter turnout in Arizona, Biden leads by 2 points, 48%-46%. But if voter turnout is low, Trump and Biden are tied, 47%-47%.

If Biden were to win Arizona, he could afford to lose either Michigan or Wisconsin and still capture the White House, assuming he maintained control of all the states that Hillary Clinton won in 2016.

Despite some promising polling results for Biden, Republicans note that the last Democratic presidential candidate to carry Arizona was Bill Clinton in 1996.

As far as the Arizona Senate race, Democratic candidate Mark Kelly has a 6-point lead over Republican senator Martha McSally among Arizona’s registered voters, 50%-44%. But Kelly’s lead among likely voters narrows to 1 to 4 points, depending on the level of turnout.

Health and human services secretary Alex Azar will appear before the House select committee on the coronavirus response next month, House majority whip Jim Clyburn just announced at House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s weekly press conference.

Clyburn said the October 2 hearing with Azar will mark the health secretary’s first appearance before Congress since February.

Democrats have criticized Azar’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, accusing him of helping Trump to downplay the threat of the virus.

Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer called on Azar to resign earlier this week. Schumer said in a floor speech, “We need a secretary of health and human services who will look out for the American people, not President Trump’s political interests.”

Former FBI Director James Comey is expected to appear before the Senate judiciary committee later this month, according to a Politico reporter.

The Republican chairman of the panel, Lindsey Graham, said he had also invited Robert Mueller to appear, but the former special counsel declined because of a lack of time to properly prepare.

Both Comey and Mueller have become targets of the president’s ire, given their roles in the investigation into Russian election interference.

FBI Director Christopher Wray also took a question about threats of domestic terrorism, specifically about Antifa, which the president has repeatedly denigrated.

Wray emphasized that the FBI did not view threats in terms of liberal or conservative politics. “We’re focused on the violence, not the ideology,” Wray said.

Wray noted that the domestic terrorism threats the FBI monitors range from “racially motivated violent extremists” to “anti-government, anti-authority violent extremists.”

“We look at Antifa as more of an ideology or a movement than an organization,” Wray added.

Senior intelligence officials, including the FBI director, are currently testifying before the House.

FBI Director Christopher Wray has repeatedly addressed election interference in his testimony to the House committee on homeland security, saying the bureau is committed to blocking such interference efforts in this year’s elections.

Wray specifically said the bureau has witnessed “very active efforts by the Russians to influence our election in 2020.” The FBI director said Russian agents were mainly trying to affect the election through “malign foreign influence,” such as social media, state media and the use of proxies.

Wray noted the Russians’ efforts were meant “primarily to denigrate Vice President Biden and what the Russians see as kind of an anti-Russian establishment.”

A previous report from the director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center described efforts by Russia to attack Biden, but the report also claimed China was against Trump’s reelection, although it included much less detail about Beijing’s interference efforts.

Democrats have complained that the report inappropriately equated China’s criticism of Trump with Russia’s extensive interference efforts against Biden.

Watch the rest of the House hearing here.

Updated

Barr criticized for comparing shutdown orders to slavery and attacking justice department staffers

Attorney general William Barr is attracting severe criticism for his comments yesterday during an event hosted by Hillsdale College.

For one thing, the attorney general described shutdown orders issued at the start of the coronavirus pandemic as the “greatest intrusion on civil liberties” since slavery.

“You know, putting a national lockdown, stay at home orders, is like house arrest. Other than slavery, which was a different kind of restraint, this is the greatest intrusion on civil liberties in American history,” Barr said, prompting applause from the crowd.

Barr also attacked more junior justice department staffers and dismissed accusations that he had inappropriately interfered with cases involving associates of Trump.

“Name one successful organization or institution where the lowest level employees’ decisions are deemed sacrosanct, there aren’t. There aren’t any letting the most junior members set the agenda,” Barr said.

He added, “It might be a good philosophy for a Montessori preschool, but it is no way to run a federal agency.”

Barr also seemed to argue FBI agents were carrying out their duties to serve him. “These people are agents of the attorney general. As I say, FBI agents, whose agent do you think you are?” Barr said.

He went on to say, “And I say, ‘What exactly am I interfering with?’ When you boil it right down, it’s the will of the most junior member of the organization who has some idea he wants to do something. What makes that sacrosanct?

“They do not have the political legitimacy to be the public face for tough decisions and they lack the political buy-in necessary to publicly defend those decisions.”

The comments will likely further inflame tensions in the justice department, given career prosecutors have repeatedly raised concerns that Barr is politicizing law enforcement.

From former acting attorney general Sally Yates:

This is Joan Greve in Washington, taking over for Martin Belam.

The Cook Political Report has moved Arizona from “Toss Up” to “Lean Democrat,” after a new poll shows Joe Biden leading Trump by 5 points in the state, which the president won in 2016.

The Cook Report’s Amy Walters writes:

Arizona is geographically large, but its population is concentrated in Maricopa County (Phoenix). About two-thirds of the vote comes from Maricopa. Voters there, as in other suburban areas in and around big metro areas, have soured on Pres. Trump. Biden leads Trump there by six points, 46 percent to 40 percent. In 2016, Trump carried Maricopa with almost 52 percent of the vote.

Another troubling sign for Trump in Arizona is that GOP voters are not as committed to supporting him as they are in the other Sun Belt states. ...

Trump is also struggling with Latino support in Arizona, taking just 17 percent of the vote to Biden’s 55 percent. In Florida, however, where Latinos also make up a similar percentage of the electorate, Trump is taking 36 percent of the vote to Biden’s 53 percent.
This poll tracks with other recent surveys of Arizona which show Biden ahead. The FiveThirtyEight average puts Biden’s lead in the state at five points (49-44 percent). The new data in this poll, combined with other recent polling in the state, all find Arizona slipping away from Trump. We are moving it from Toss Up to Lean Democrat.

Biden’s strength in Arizona could also help Democrats’ chances of winning the Senate, considering Democratic candidate Mark Kelly is trying to unseat Republican senator Martha McSally in Arizona as well.

Secretary of state Mike Pompeo has just tweeted that he is off on his latest trip. He will be touring Suriname, Guyana, Brazil, Colombia and then dropping into Texas on the way back.

The state department has billed the trip as highlighting “the United States’ commitment to defend democracy, combating Covid-19 while revitalizing our economies in the pandemic’s wake, and strengthening security against regional threats.”

On the Brazil leg of the trip they specifically say that “Pompeo will underscore the importance of US and Brazilian support for the Venezuelan people in their time of need by visiting with Venezuelan migrants fleeing the manmade disaster in Venezuela.”

And it is wheels up for me too, as I am finished for the day. My colleague Joan Greve in Washington will be along to take over shortly.

White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to meet airline CEOs today as sector's job fears grow

White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said he would meet with airline CEOs today as industry workers face layoffs. He urged lawmakers to embrace a $1.5 trillion coronavirus aid package proposed by a bipartisan lawmakers group, which has also been embraced by President Donald Trump. That has set Trump against the fiscal hawks in his party who have been pushing instead for a ‘skinny’ relief bill.

“I’m meeting with airline CEOs today. We’ve got tens of thousands of people that are about to be laid off,” he said in an interview with Fox News. “So if nothing more, let’s go ahead and put that package on the floor and pass that. Because hopefully all of us can agree that laying off airline workers at this particular time is not something we should do.”

The $25 billion in federal aid airlines received when the deadly Covid-19 first began spreading across the country and around the world is set to expire this month, report Reuters.

Companies such as American Airlines are now pleading for a six-month extension while they simultaneously negotiate with employees to minimize thousands of job cuts that are expected without another round of aid.

Air travel has plummeted over the last six months and with a major revenue plunge, airlines have had to turn to the federal government for help in saving jobs.

The Washington Post this morning have a report on the crisis engulfing the United States Postal Service (USPS) which they say is based upon nearly 10,000 pages of emails, memos and other private documents.

The documents, which mostly span March and April, depict an agency in distress, as its deteriorating finances collided with a public-health emergency and a looming election that would be heavily reliant on absentee ballots.

The key points that the Post raises include:

  • USPS occasionally used the legal counsel of Stefan C. Passantino, formerly a top White House lawyer under president Trump, and part of a new pro-Trump legal coalition preparing for a legally-contested election, raising ethics flags over USPS conduct running up to the election.
  • In April, USPS leaders drafted a news release announcing plans to distribute 650 million masks nationwide. The idea had originated out of the department of Health and Human Services, and appears to have been further along than previously thought. The plan was stopped by the White House.
  • The USPS was swamped with messages from concerned workers and their families that as essential workers they were being forced to work without adequate protection against the spread of coronavirus.
  • In April the Treasury Department demanded operating control over the agency in return for emergency Covid funding, a move that the USPS’s legal team determined to be illegal.
  • Despite Trump’s repeated evidence-free allegation that the USPS under-charges Amazon, the documents reveal that the online outfit drove roughly $3.9 billion in revenue, and $1.6 billion in profit for the USPS in 2019. However the documents reveal that renegotiating the USPS contract with Amazon earlier in the year was fraught.

There’s much more, too. Read it here: Washington Post – A scrapped plan to ship masks to Americans. A standoff with Amazon amid pressure from Trump. New documents detail USPS’s spring in crisis

The debate over the sale of TikTok to Oracle continues to rumble on this week. The US government is currently reviewing the plan, while TikTok’s current owners have said that the Chinese government will also have to approve the move.

China late last month updated its export control rules to give it a say over the transfer of technology such as TikTok’s user recommendation algorithm to foreign buyers.

ByteDance and its founder Zhang Yiming have faced public criticism in China for seeming to give in to US pressure. This morning Reuters report that, when asked about ByteDance’s comments regarding the need for China’s approval, the Chinese foreign ministry on Thursday urged the United States to respect the principles of the market economy and fair competition, and to stop politicising normal economic and trade cooperation.

Which I’m sure will go down brilliantly in Washington.

Pensacola International Airport remains closed and officials say they need to assess the safety of the runway and its facility before it reopens after Hurricane Sally came ashore on the Gulf Coast yesterday. The westernmost city in the Florida Panhandle bore the brunt of the hurricane yesterday.

A city worker drives through the flooded street during Hurricane Sally in downtown Pensacola, Florida.
A city worker drives through the flooded street during Hurricane Sally in downtown Pensacola, Florida. Photograph: Chandan Khanna/AFP/Getty Images

Hurricane Teddy, in the meantime, has become a Category 2 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph, the National Hurricane Center said.

The storm is currently located about 625 miles (1006 km) east-northeast of The Lesser Antilles. Teddy is moving toward the northwest at about 12 miles per hour (19 kph), the general motion it is expected to continue through the weekend.

Satellite images show six tropical storm systems swirling around the Atlantic and Pacific oceans near the Americas.

Six active tropical systems spanning the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
Six active tropical systems spanning the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Photograph: Noaa Handout/EPA

Additional strengthening is forecasted to happen during the next couple of days, and Teddy could become a major hurricane Thursday night or Friday, the Associated Press report.

Mike Ryan, one of the health experts at the World Health Organisation, described the science around the coronavirus as “complicated stuff” this morning in Geneva. Jessica Glenza has been looking for us at one of enduring mysteries of Covid, including how long a person’s immune system protects against the virus after an infection.

A man in Nevada was infected with Covid-19 in March. He recovered and then tested negative for Covid-19. His would have been an unremarkable story amid a pandemic that has infected millions of people in America – if he had not been infected again less than six weeks later.

The 25-year-old male from the American south-west became what appears to be only the second published case of Covid-19 reinfection in the scientific literature, alongside a case of reinfection in Hong Kong.

Researchers believe he was reinfected when a family member, also an essential worker, brought a slightly different coronavirus strain home in early June. The man had to be hospitalized on his second bout with Covid-19, but eventually recovered. He is still suffering side-effects.

Read it here: Nevada reinfection case raises question: how long does Covid immunity last?

The president’s first tweet of the day is to again cast doubt on the result of the forthcoming election. Trump writes:

Because of the new and unprecedented massive amount of unsolicited ballots which will be sent to “voters”, or wherever, this year, the Nov 3rd Election result may NEVER BE ACCURATELY DETERMINED

As mentioned earlier [see 6:56], Trump’s former director of national intelligence Dan Coats has called this morning in the New York Times for Congress to establish a bipartisan commission to monitor voting and ensure that laws and regulations are followed in November’s election.

Former REM singer Michael Stipe has written for us this morning, saying “Athens, Georgia, was my home. Its leaders are letting Covid-19 wreak havoc”

Early this year, great friends in Italy, and later in NYC, witnessed suffering and community-wide devastation that should have presaged wise action around the globe, so others would not have to experience the same pattern of heartbreaking deaths. Unfortunately, cities here in Georgia were soon to face the burden of some of America’s worst tendencies toward magical thinking and ignorance of science, and the most basic of disease prevention tactics. Our leaders are largely to blame.

Georgia’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp, a Donald Trump acolyte, was slow to order safety measures and quick to lift them, even limiting individual cities’ abilities to create a stronger framework than his recommendations. Despite weak steps from state leadership, Athens was full of smart and careful residents, and the community remained much lower in case and death metrics than other population centers in Georgia throughout the spring and summer.

Hold tight. The return of tens of thousands of young university students to the University of Georgia here has upended this sense of relative safety.

Read it here: Michael Stipe – Athens, Georgia, was my home. Its leaders are letting Covid-19 wreak havoc

Hawaii to relax Covid quarantine travel restrictions

Hawaii’s governor says that starting on 15 October, travelers arriving from out of state may bypass a 14-day quarantine requirement if they test negative for the coronavirus.

Associate Press report that Gov. David Ige said travelers will have to take the test within 72 hours before their flight arrives in the islands. Ige says drug store operator CVS and healthcare provider Kaiser Permanente will conduct the tests.

The state has previously delayed the start of the pre-travel testing program twice as Covid-19 cases spiked on the U.S. mainland and in Hawaii.

Leaders hope pre-travel testing will encourage tourists to return while keeping residents safe. Tourism traffic to the state has plunged more than 90% during the pandemic, closing hundreds of hotels and putting many people out of work. Hawaii has recorded just over 100 deaths from coronavirus.

Kari Paul in San Francisco has been reporting for us on some of the problems that have been hampering firefighters attempting to deal with the unprecedented wildfires that have ravaged the west cost of the US.

When wildfires burned near Palo Alto last month, emergency workers in this city legendary for its resident high-tech companies relied on relatively low-tech tools to coordinate a response.

Emergency response units talked by two-way radio and sent each other text messages with photos of paper maps, said Kenneth Dueker, the director of Palo Alto’s office of emergency services.

“Here we are right in the middle of Silicon Valley,” Dueker said. “Why am I using paper and pencil and a two-way radio when I should be using geospatial tools? It’s very 1920s, frankly.”

California fires are evolving amid global warming, becoming more frequent, more intense, faster-moving and more difficult to contain. The communications of those who fight them, however, are stuck in the past, Dueker said.

Read it here: Paper maps, two-way radios: how firefighting tech is stuck in the past

Former director of national intelligence calls for a bipartisan commission to oversee election

In an op-ed this morning for the New York Times, Dan Coats who served as the director of national intelligence from 2017 to 2019 has called for Congress to establish a bipartisan commission to monitor voting and ensure that laws and regulations are followed in November’s election. It is expected that both the process and results will be heavily contested, with Joe Biden already assembling an army of attorneys for the expected post-election legal fight. Coats writes:

Our democracy’s enemies, foreign and domestic, want us to concede in advance that our voting systems are faulty or fraudulent; that sinister conspiracies have distorted the political will of the people; that our public discourse has been perverted by the news media and social networks riddled with prejudice, lies and ill will; that judicial institutions, law enforcement and even national security have been twisted, misused and misdirected to create anxiety and conflict, not justice and social peace.

If those are the results of this tumultuous election year, we are lost, no matter which candidate wins. No American, and certainly no American leader, should want such an outcome. Total destruction and sowing salt in the earth of American democracy is a catastrophe well beyond simple defeat and a poison for generations. An electoral victory on these terms would be no victory at all. The judgment of history, reflecting on the death of enlightened democracy, would be harsh.

The most urgent task American leaders face is to ensure that the election’s results are accepted as legitimate. Electoral legitimacy is the essential linchpin of our entire political culture. We should see the challenge clearly in advance and take immediate action to respond.

Read it here: New York Times – Dan Coats: The election needs oversight

A wedding in Maine has been described as a “superspreader event” and linked to 170 Covid cases and seven deaths.

A rural church wedding and reception on a beautiful day in the shadow of Mount Katahdin was no doubt a happy day. But it has spread misery ever since.

That single event on 7 August is linked to coronavirus outbreaks in at least two other locations in Maine, with more than 170 people contracting the virus and seven deaths since.

Nirav Shah, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control, said the single event has the power to undo much of the state’s progress during the pandemic. The virus can become “the uninvited guest at every single wedding, party or event in Maine”, he warned.

The “superspreader” event started with wedding attendees in the Katahdin region and spread to the community at large and to a nursing home in Madison.

An attendee worked at the York county jail, 220 miles away, where there are more than 70 cases. The state is also investigating an outbreak at a church in Sanford, home of the wedding’s officiant. None of those who died actually attended the wedding and reception.

Read it here: Maine ‘superspreader’ wedding linked to 170 Covid cases and seven deaths

Asked about Trump and CDC contradictions, WHO expert says it is important countries have “consistent messaging” on Covid

Those contradictory statements over masks were raised in Geneva this morning. Reuters report that the World Health Organization’s top emergency expert, asked about Trump and his director, said it was important for all countries to have “consistent messaging” for their public.

“It is important that we have consistent messaging from all levels, and it’s not for one country or one entity; consistent messaging between science and between government,” the WHO’s Mike Ryan said in response to a question about the exchange.

The science around the coronavirus was “complicated stuff”, with data and new evidence evolving, Ryan said. “So it isn’t easy and it isn’t easy for everyone to be on message all of the time.”

“What is important is that governments, scientific institutions, step back, review the evidence, and give the most comprehensive easy-to-understand-and-digest information so that people can take the appropriate action.”

Ryan, a veteran of Ebola outbreaks in Africa and other epidemics, said authorities must engage with communities to address anxieties.

“It’s understanding the confusion, it’s understanding their concern, it’s understanding their apprehension. And not laughing at it and not turning that into some kind of political football,” he added.

Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead for Covid-19, said it recommended a comprehensive package of measures including physical distancing to prevent spread of the virus.

“Masks are part of it,” she added.

Here’s a reminder of the contradictions that Donald Trump and CDC Dr Robert Redfield. Redfield said: “This face mask is more guaranteed to protect me against Covid than when I take a Covid vaccine” and he added they were “the most important public health tool we have.”

Later on, during his press conference yesterday, Trump said of him: “As far as the mask is concerned, he made a mistake.”

Newt Gingrich has made an unfortunate typo in a tweet this morning, which he has acknowledged himself, but it has allowed people to leap on it.

By mistake, meaning to talk about vaccines, he tweeted “How can Joe Biden and Kamala Harris wage a campaign to convince Americans to not take a virus”.

CNN’s John Harwood has responded to say that “35K of them are unwillingly taking it [the virus] daily, and 1K are dying from it” suggesting that is why “Trump is losing and reacting by openly injecting politics into vaccine research”

Barack Obama promotes new book to be published after November election

The first volume of former US president Barack Obama’s memoirs is to be published globally on 17 November 2020 by Penguin Random House, placing the release just two weeks after the US election. It will be issued simultaneously in 25 languages.

The publishers describe the first volume as covering the story of “his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his identity to leader of the free world” indicating that it will cover his ascendency to being the first Black American president of the United States, and his first term in office.

Obama himself tweeted about the publication, stating “There’s no feeling like finishing a book, and I’m proud of this one.”

He said that in the volume he tries to “provide an honest accounting of my presidency, the forces we grapple with as a nation, and how we can heal our divisions and make democracy work for everybody.”

The publishers state that Obama “offers a unique and thoughtful exploration of both the awesome reach and the limits of presidential power, as well as singular insights into the dynamics of US partisan politics and international diplomacy.”

Obama brings readers inside the Oval Office and the White House situation room, and to Moscow, Cairo, Beijing, and points beyond. We are privy to his thoughts as he assembles his cabinet, wrestles with a global financial crisis, takes the measure of Valdimir Putin, overcomes seemingly insurmountable odds to secure passage of the Affordable Care Act, clashes with generals about US strategy in Afghanistan, tackles Wall Street reform, responds to the devastating Deepwater Horizon blowout, and authorizes Operation Neptune’s Spear, which leads to the death of Osama bin Laden.

Penguin Random House say that in the book “He is frank about the forces that opposed him at home and abroad, open about how living in the White House affected his wife and daughters, and unafraid to reveal self-doubt and disappointment.”

Obama adds “I hope more than anything that the book inspires young people across the country—and around the globe—to take up the baton, lift up their voices, and play their part in remaking the world for the better.”

In the US, the print edition, which includes two 16-page photo inserts, will sell for $45, while there is an $18 digital edition. An unabridged audio edition of the book, read by the author himself, will be simultaneously released in digital and physical formats

Details about an Obama book tour will be announced later this autumn. A publication date for the second, and concluding, volume of the memoirs has not yet been set.

Updated

Amy Dorris alleges she was sexually assaulted by Donald Trump in 1997, when she was 24. Speaking publicly about the alleged incident for the first time, the former model claims Trump grabbed her as she came out of the bathroom of his VIP box at the US Open tennis event, forced his tongue down her throat and held her in a grip from which she could not escape. Trump’s lawyers said he denied in the strongest possible terms having ever harassed, abused or behaved improperly toward Dorris. Here’s her interview:

The claim from Amy Dorris that Donald Trump sexually assaulted her in 1997 makes her at least the 26th woman to come forward and accuse him of acts like this in allegations that span decades.

Trump has denied every charge, dismissing his accusers as liars and publicity seekers, claiming never to have met some of them and, in at least two cases, suggesting they were not attractive enough for him.

Here’s a backgrounder on all of the allegations that have been made about the president’s conduct: ‘It felt like tentacles’: the women who accuse Trump of sexual misconduct

Exclusive: Donald Trump accused of sexual assault by former model

We have an exclusive this morning from Lucy Osborne, that former model Amy Dorris alleges that president Donald Trump forced his tongue down her throat and groped her at 1997 US Open.

A former model has come forward to accuse Donald Trump of sexually assaulting her at the US Open tennis tournament more than two decades ago, in an alleged incident that left her feeling “sick” and “violated”.

In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, Amy Dorris alleged that Trump accosted her outside the bathroom in his VIP box at the tournament in New York on 5 September 1997.

Dorris, who was 24 at the time, accuses Trump of forcing his tongue down her throat, assaulting her all over her body and holding her in a grip she was unable to escape from.

Read it here: Donald Trump accused of sexual assault by former model

Federal officials sought 'heat ray' to clear Black Lives Matter protests in Washington – reports

The Washington Post this morning have a report from a whistleblower about the extent to which law enforcement official were trying to stockpile ammunition and source weapons before clearing protesters from Lafayette Square, Washington DC in early June.

The Post reports the sworn testimony DC National Guard Maj. Adam D. DeMarco, saying:

DeMarco’s account contradicts the administration’s claims that protesters were violent, tear gas was never used and demonstrators were given ample warning to disperse — a legal requirement before police move to clear a crowd. His testimony also offers a glimpse into the equipment and weaponry federal forces had — and others that they sought — during the early days of protests that have continued for more than 100 days in the nation’s capital.

The weapons sought included “devices that could emit deafening sounds and make anyone within range feel like their skin is on fire”. DeMarco said they were looking to use crowd control technology deemed too unpredictable to use in war zones.

Overnight Congresswoman Ilhan Omar responded to the reports, saying the current behaviour of authorities was “a test of the strength” of the US Constitution.

Read it here: Washington Post – Federal officials stockpiled munitions, sought ‘heat ray’ device before clearing Lafayette Square, whistleblower says

The clean-up may have started after Hurricane Sally hit the Gulf coast yesterday, but experts are warning that there may be more danger yet to come for residents in Alabama and Florida from rivers swollen by the storm’s rains.

A man walks his bicycle through a street flooded by Hurricane Sally in Pensacola, Florida.
A man walks his bicycle through a street flooded by Hurricane Sally in Pensacola, Florida. Photograph: Chandan Khanna/AFP/Getty Images

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis warned residents and visitors in flooded areas that they would need to remain vigilant as water from the hurricane subsides, because heavy rains to the north were expected to cause flooding in Panhandle rivers in the coming days.

“So this is kind of the initial salvo, but there is going to be more that you’re going to have to contend with,” DeSantis said at a Wednesday news conference in Tallahassee.

Pensacola bore the brunt, with nearly 3 feet (1 meter) of water covering streets downtown, the National Weather Service reported.

Floodwaters move on the street, in Pensacola.
Floodwaters move on the street, in Pensacola. Photograph: Gerald Herbert/AP

Some Pensacola streets looked like rivers with whitecaps at times. The waters swamped parked cars before receding.
A replica of Christopher Columbus’ ship the Nina was missing from where it was docked at the Pensacola waterfront, police said. The ship was later seen run aground in downtown Pensacola, Pensacola News Journal reported.

The storm was a nerve-racking experience for University of West Florida student Brooke Shelter. She was wide awake Wednesday morning as strong winds and rainfall battered her home, marking her first experience with a hurricane. “The damage around my home is pretty minor, for which I am thankful for,” Shelter said. “However, it is so sad seeing how flooded downtown is.”

Smoke from west coast wildfires stretching across US and pushing as far as Europe

Here’s some of the latest on the wildfires from the Associated Press, which reports that the smoke from the western United States is stretching clear across the country and even pushing into Mexico, Canada and Europe.

Susan Montoya Bryan writes that while the dangerous plumes are forcing people inside along the west Coast, residents thousands of miles away in the east are seeing unusually hazy skies and remarkable sunsets.

Although experts say the smoke poses less of a health concern for those who are farther away, and New Yorkers were flooding social media with shots of a spectacular sunset, on the west coast, air quality conditions were among some of the worst ever recorded.

Smoke cloaked the Golden Gate Bridge and left Portland and Seattle in an ashy fog, as crews have exhausted themselves trying to keep the flames from consuming more homes and even wider swaths of forest.

A person takes a walk along the waterfront near the Golden Gate Bridge, which is shrouded in heavy haze in San Francisco.
A person takes a walk along the waterfront near the Golden Gate Bridge, which is shrouded in heavy haze in San Francisco. Photograph: John G Mabanglo/EPA

Satellite images showed that smoke from the wildfires has traveled almost 5,000 miles (8,000 kilometers) to Britain and other parts of northern Europe, scientists said Wednesday.

The current weather system, which favors a westerly wind across the higher levels of the atmosphere, is to blame for the reach of the smoke, experts explained.

This RAMMB/NOAA satellite image shows various hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean and the hazy plume of smoke above the north east of the US.
This RAMMB/NOAA satellite image shows various hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean and the hazy plume of smoke above the north east of the US. Photograph: RAMMB/NOAA/NESDIS/AFP/Getty Images

“We always seem, at times, to get the right combination of enough smoke and the upper level jet stream to line up to bring that across the country, so we’re just seeing this again,” said Matt Solum with the National Weather Service’s regional operations center in Salt Lake City, Utah. “It’s definitely not the first time this has happened.”

Kim Knowlton, a senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council in New York City, said she woke up Wednesday to a red sunrise and more haze.

She said millions of people who live beyond the flames can end up dealing with diminished air quality as it’s not uncommon for wildfire smoke to travel hundreds of miles.

Although the health impacts are reduced the farther and higher into the atmosphere the smoke travels, Knowlton and her colleagues said the resulting haze can exacerbate existing problems like asthma and add to ozone pollution.

Overnight Joe Biden continued his theme of calling Donald Trump a ‘climate arsonist’ and attempting to make the president’s response to wildfires a campaign issue.

Good morning and welcome to our US politics live blog for Thursday. Here’s a quick catch-up on where we are, and a taster of what might be coming up during the day

  • The CDC director Robert Redfield said a coronavirus vaccine won’t be widely available until late 2021. Donald Trump outlined a national federal plan to distribute it, but contradicted him and said it would be ready mid-October.
  • Redfield also suggested that face masks may be “more guaranteed to protect me against Covid” than a vaccine. Trump also later contradicted that, saying “No, vaccine is much more effective than the masks.”
  • Joe Biden said “Let me be clear, I trust vaccines. I trust scientists. But I don’t trust Donald Trump, and at this moment, the American people can’t either.”
  • There were 993 new coronavirus deaths recorded in the US yesterday. There were also 39,124 new Covid cases. The last couple of days have seen a slight movement up again on the national caseload, and levels are very similar to that seen a fortnight ago.
  • A study has found that minorities are much more likely than white people to test positive for Covid.
  • Hurricane Sally has killed one person and left ‘historic flooding’ across the metropolitan areas of Pensacola, Florida, and Mobile, Alabama, encompassing nearly a million people.
  • Wild fires continue to burn on the west coast as armed civilian roadblocks in the Oregon town of Corbett fuel fears over vigilantism.
  • Acting secretary of homeland security Chad Wolf, FBI director Christopher Wray and national counterterrorism center cirector Christopher Miller will testify before the House committee on homeland security at 9am.
  • Nancy Pelosi has demanded an investigation into a whistleblower’s claims that there were forced hysterectomy procedures at an Ice centre in Georgia.
  • The president’s plans today include a credentialing ceremony for newly appointed ambassadors in the morning, delivering remarks at the White House Conference on American History which is being held at the National Archives Museum in DC, and then he heads for a campaign stop in Mosinee, Wisconsin.
  • Biden will be fund-raising in the morning, and hosting a virtual Rosh Hashanah event this afternoon. Then later on in Scranton, Pennsylvania he will be doing a CNN town hall.

I’m Martin Belam and you are welcome to get in touch with me at martin.belam@theguardian.com

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