From me and Joan E Greve:
- Donald Trump spoke to a packed crowd in Pennsylvania. He lied and misled supporters on the economy, on Joe Biden’s policy platforms, windmills, the news media, leftwing groups, and several other topics.
- Joe Biden spoke to Jacob Blake by phone today as he visited Kenosha. The Democratic nominee met with several members of Blake’s family, and Blake himself called in to the meeting from his hospital bed, as the 29-year-old African American man continues to recover after being repeatedly shot in the back by a white police officer.
- Biden struck an overall optimistic tone as he spoke at a community meeting in Kenosha, amid ongoing protests over the police shooting of Blake. Biden reflected on how far the country has come since the unrest of 1968, after Dr Martin Luther King was assassinated. “Don’t tell me things can’t change,” Biden said. But he added, “I made a mistake: I thought you could defeat hate. It only hides.”
- Trump and his advisers tried to walk back his comments encouraging North Carolinians to vote twice in November. The White House claimed the president was only encouraging voters to ensure their mailed-in ballots are counted. But Trump said of voting by mail yesterday, “Let them send it in and let them go vote. And if the system is as good as they say it is then obviously they won’t be able to vote” in person.
- US jobless claims fell to 881,000 last week, as concerns about unemployment linger. The figure represented a decrease from a week earlier, but 29 million Americans are still receiving unemployment benefits of some kind.
- Facebook said it would restrict political ads in the final week before the presidential election. The social media giant said it would not accept any new political ads in the week leading up to 3 November, and the company pledged to flag any attempt by a campaign to declare premature victory.
Updated
The recent deadly protest in Portland, where a far-right supporter was killed, was just one of many organized in recent weeks with the help of a network of pro-Trump, pro-police and anti-Black Lives Matter activists in a local Facebook-powered pro-police network in Oregon.
That network’s ability to draw the support of far-right groups and more mainstream Republicans alike reveals an increasingly energized and militant grassroots Trumpist movement, which includes some members who are prepared to engage in violence, experts say.
The network is composed of like-minded activists in two overlapping groups, “Back the Blue PDX”, and “COPS NW”. Those activists are planning future events, and given the high tensions following the shooting death of one of its supporters – with the suspected shooter reportedly supportive of local leftwing anti-fascist groups – the prospect of more unrest is high.
That is especially true as the country enters the final stages of the presidential election with Donald Trump running on a law-and-order message, while inflaming racial tensions and offering support to his most extreme supporters, including those who engage in violence.
Working mostly on Facebook, the small group of local activists have helped stage a series of recent events in or near the Portland metro area.
Saturday’s “Trump cruise” saw a large number of participants stray from the highway-only protest route agreed with the Portland police bureau (PPB) and roll into the downtown area for a confrontation with leftwing protesters. There, reporters recorded rightwing protesters discharging pellet guns and Mace into the ranks of nearby protesters and media.
Soon after, in a nearby street, a man wearing a cap bearing the insignia of Patriot Prayer, a prominent far-right group, was shot dead.
In an email announcing a memorial event, James Buchal, a lawyer and chair of the Multnomah County Republican party, identified the dead man as Aaron J Danielson. The Oregonian reported on Monday that a PPB homicide investigation was focused on a BLM supporter and regular attendee of downtown protests in recent weeks.
Danielson’s death was highlighted by Trump who retweeted an account which had incorrectly identified the victim, adding “Rest in Peace Jay”. He also defended the use of paintball guns by his supporters in Portland.
Read the full report:
Trump lies at campaign event in Pennsylvania
Speaking at a campaign event in Latrobe, Pennsylvania – to a packed crowd that isn’t remotely socially distanced – Trump has launched with a series of lies and misdirections.
To start, he told supporters, “We have record stock markets... Your stocks are going up, your 401Ks are through the roof. Had a little pause today.”
My colleagues reported on that “little pause” earlier:
Stock markets have lost some of their spectacular gains made over the past several months, as investors sold off high-flying tech companies and worried about the continuing crisis in the US jobs market.
In New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 808 points, or 2.78%, after passing 29,000 for the first time since February on Wednesday. The S&P 500 was down 3.5% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 4.9%.
Both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq had set their latest record highs a day earlier, and the latter index is still up nearly 28% for the year. The S&P 500 had been up nine of the last 10 trading days and posted its fifth straight monthly gain in August.
Trump has also outright lied or misled supporters on his rival Joe Biden’s proposed policies on climate change, policing and gun control.
“Biden’s plan is to appease the domestic terrorists and my plan is to arrest them and prosecute them,” Trump said. The president has repeatedly resisted condemning white supremacist and rightwing vigilantes.
Biden is polling ahead of Trump in Pennsylvania, where the former vice-president grew up.
Updated
Donald Trump has repeatedly denigrated service members, per a report from the Atlantic.
Among the assertions in Jeffrey Goldberg’s story: Trump, who blamed the rain for skipping a visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris in 2018, said: “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.”
“In a separate conversation on the same trip, Trump referred to the more than 1,800 marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as ‘suckers’ for getting killed,” Goldberg writes.
Trump, in 2015, said of John McCain, who spent five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, “I like people who weren’t captured.”
Trump remained fixated on McCain, one of the few prominent Republicans to continue criticizing him after he won the nomination. When McCain died, in August 2018, Trump told his senior staff, according to three sources with direct knowledge of this event, “We’re not going to support that loser’s funeral,” and he became furious, according to witnesses, when he saw flags lowered to half-staff. “What the fuck are we doing that for? Guy was a fucking loser,” the president told aides.
The White House has responded by calling the report “patently false”.
The Guardian has not independently verified the story, but it seems the AP has.
Updated
From Dominic Rushe and Graeme Wearden:
Stock markets have lost some of their spectacular gains made over the past several months, as investors sold off high-flying tech companies and worried about the continuing crisis in the US jobs market.
In New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 808 points, or 2.78%, after passing 29,000 for the first time since February on Wednesday. The S&P 500 was down 3.5% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 4.9%.
Both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq had set their latest record highs a day earlier, and the latter index is still up nearly 28% for the year. The S&P 500 had been up nine of the last 10 trading days and posted its fifth straight monthly gain in August.
In London, the sell-off ended a rally on the FTSE 100, which closed 90 points lower at 5,850. The index is now down 22% for the year. Markets across Europe also ended the day lower.
Big tech companies have seen huge gains in their share price in recent months as investors bet the firms would continue posting huge profits even with many coronavirus restrictions still in place, as people might spend even more time online with their devices. Market watchers have questioned recently whether those gains were overdone.
Apple’s 8% share price fall knocked $180bn off its value. Other hot stocks fell further with Tesla dropping 9% and video conferencing company Zoom falling 10%.
In San Francisco, a group has strung hair dryers and curlers up on a tree in front of Nancy Pelosi’s house. A reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle has captured the scene:
Protesters have gathered in front of Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco home and are stringing up curlers and blow dryers on a tree after a video surfaced of Pelosi getting her hair done indoors/maskless at a SF salon @sfchronicle pic.twitter.com/v6KVORByaP
— Jessica Christian (@jachristian) September 3, 2020
Republicans have lambasted the Democratic House speaker for visiting a hair salon in her home district, in violation of city guidelines designed to slow the spread of coronavirus. During a White House press conference today, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany played a video, on loop, of Pelosi not wearing a mask while at the salon. The House speaker briefly removed her face covering during a visit that she said she had been told was above board.
Protestors outside Pelosi’s home say they want to be able to get their hair and nails done as well. This week, some San Francisco hair salons and barbershops have been allowed to reopen for business outdoors.
Russia is boosting baseless allegations that voting by mail will lead to fraud – allegations that echo rhetoric from Donald Trump – per an intelligence bulletin obtained by ABC.
ABC reports:
Analysts with the Department of Homeland Security’s intelligence branch issued the warning on Thursday to federal and state law enforcement partners after finding with “high confidence” that “Russian malign influence actors” have targeted the absentee voting process “by spreading disinformation” since at least March.
“Russian state media and proxy websites in mid-August 2020 criticized the integrity of expanded and universal vote-by-mail, claiming ineligible voters could receive ballots due to out-of-date voter rolls, leaving a vast amount of ballots unaccounted for and vulnerable to tampering,” the bulletin notes.
“These websites also alleged that vote-by-mail processes would overburden the U.S. Postal Service and local boards of election,” it continues, “delaying vote tabulation and creating more opportunities for fraud and error.”
Trump has also sown distrust in the electoral system, falsely claiming that the mail-in voting system is rife with fraud.
Here’s my colleague Sam Levine’s explainer debunking misinformation about mail-in voting:
Democrats on the House oversight and reform committee have called for an investigation into possible Hatch Act violations during the Republican national convention.
During last week’s convention, several Republicans appeared to use their government positions for political gain, boosting the Trump campaign while in their official capacity. Trump also included a pardon and naturalization ceremony as part of the convention and used the White House as a backdrop for campaign events and speeches.
Trump and other government officials appeared to violate the Hatch Act, which prohibits government employees from participating in political activity while in their official capacity.
“We are alarmed that President Trump and some senior administration officials are actively undermining compliance with – and respect for – the law,” lawmakers wrote in a letter to the Office of Special Counsel, calling for an investigation.
Although the president and vice-president and except from the Hatch Act, other federal employees are not. During the RNC, acting homeland security secretary Chad Wolf appeared alongside Trump in a naturalization ceremony at the White House, and secretary of state Mike Pompeo delivered a convention speech from Jerusalem, where he was traveling on official business.
Updated
The Trump administration has identified dozens of major fossil fuel, energy and water projects that could be fast-tracked by expediting environmental reviews amid the pandemic, according to internal government documents.
At least 19 of the projects are from companies that have spent a total of $16m lobbying the interior department since early 2017, according to an analysis by the conservation group the Center for Western Priorities. ConocoPhillips spent $11.2m of that amount lobbying the department, including on plans to drill for oil and gas within the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, the group said.
Three of the companies that could potentially benefit have met with the interior secretary, David Bernhardt, personally. Another is the Garrison Diversion Conservancy District, which Bernhardt represented as a lawyer at the firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck. The district is seeking to divert water from the Missouri River to supply the Red River Valley in North Dakota, a project environmental advocates oppose.
The list was obtained with a public records request by the Center for Biological Diversity and first reported by the Associated Press. It was written in response to an executive order Donald Trump signed in June directing agencies to use emergency authority to speed energy and infrastructure projects during the economic downturn from the coronavirus pandemic.
The administration had already prioritized the approval of many of the projects on the list before the executive order. Agencies are trying to finalize unfinished business before 20 January, in case Trump does not win re-election.
A group of nearly 100 Republicans and independents will endorse Joe Biden over Donald Trump, Reuters reports.
The group is called “Republicans and Independents for Biden”, led by Christine Todd Whitman, the former governor of New Jersey.
“Biden is a decent man, he’s a steady man,” Whitman told Reuters. “Trump is trying to paint the world of Joe Biden as horrific - but that’s Trump’s America now.”
She accused Trump of betraying conservative values by undermining the rule of law and national security, lying, dividing Americans along racial lines, and failing the country in his response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Weld, a former governor of Massachusetts, briefly and unsuccessfully challenged Trump in the 2020 Republican nominating contest. Another leading member of the group is Rick Snyder, a two-term governor of Michigan who left office in 2019.
Snyder decried what he called Trump’s divisive and bullying tactics, adding: “Having worked with Joe Biden and Donald Trump when I was Governor, I believe Biden is the clear choice to put our country back on a positive path.”
Whitman, who headed the Environmental Protection Agency under Republican President George W. Bush, said the group will target voters in a handful of battleground states, particularly suburban women and voters who do not like Trump but still hesitate to back Biden.
The group launches a website on Thursday and plans to campaign, buy advertisements and place opinion pieces in state and national media in support of Biden.
This group represents only the latest round of Republicans who’ve endorsed Biden over Trump. The Lincoln Project political action committee – led by disaffected Republicans – has been dispersing a steady stream of anti-Trump memes and ads.
During the Democratic national convention, several Republicans – including Whitman, former secretary of state Colin Powell and former Ohio governor John Kasich – spoke on behalf of Biden.
Updated
Sanders' 'foul-mouthed Jew' line stirs controversy
Leaks from former White House press secretary Sarah Sanders’ new memoir continue to cause controversy, in today’s case over a passage in which she calls Josh Raffel, a former aide to Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, a “liberal, aggressive, foulmouthed Jew from New York City”.
The remark was reported by Jewish Insider.
The Guardian obtained its own copy, and can confirm that Sanders adds: “Despite our differences, I had grown to love Josh. He is one of the funniest people I know, intensely loyal, and probably the most talented communications strategist I’ve ever worked with. Nobody in the White House could work a story better than Josh, and he was always one of the first colleagues I turned to for help on the toughest assignments.”
Raffel told Jewish Insider Sanders “is a close friend”, but nonetheless Bend the Arc, a progressive Jewish group, said in a statement: “Joke or not, Sanders’ depiction of Raffel relies on antisemitic tropes of Jewish men as crude and perverted – and these tropes can fuel further antisemitic sentiment and even violence against Jews.
That this type of humor was welcome in the Trump White House speaks volumes about the degree to which the Trump administration and the Republican party have fully embraced antisemitism – from Trump’s own references to Jews as ‘disloyal’ and ‘brutal killers’ to Stephen Miller’s record of sharing Nazi propaganda, to the Republican party’s inclusion of antisemitic conspiracy theorists like Marjorie Taylor Greene in Georgia, and Laura Loomer in Florida.”
Here’s our story on the book, which concerned an anecdote about Kim Jong-un, an apparent wink and some boorish behaviour from the president:
Today so far
That’s it from me for today. My west coast colleague Maanvi Singh will take over the blog for the next few hours.
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- Joe Biden spoke to Jacob Blake by phone today as he visited Kenosha. The Democratic nominee met with several members of Blake’s family, and Blake himself called in to the meeting from his hospital bed, as the 29-year-old African American man continues to recover after being repeatedly shot in the back by a white police officer.
- Biden struck an overall optimistic tone as he spoke at a community meeting in Kenosha, amid ongoing protests over the police shooting of Blake. Biden reflected on how far the country has come since the unrest of 1968, after Dr Martin Luther King was assassinated. “Don’t tell me things can’t change,” Biden said. But he added, “I made a mistake: I thought you could defeat hate. It only hides.”
- Trump and his advisers tried to walk back his comments encouraging North Carolinians to vote twice in November. The White House claimed the president was only encouraging voters to ensure their mailed-in ballots are counted. But Trump said of voting by mail yesterday, “Let them send it in and let them go vote. And if the system is as good as they say it is then obviously they won’t be able to vote” in person.
- US jobless claims fell to 881,000 last week, as concerns about unemployment linger. The figure represented a decrease from a week earlier, but 29 million Americans are still receiving unemployment benefits of some kind.
- Facebook said it would restrict political ads in the final week before the presidential election. The social media giant said it would not accept any new political ads in the week leading up to 3 November, and the company pledged to flag any attempt by a campaign to declare premature victory.
Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
Updated
Polls: a Biden lead in Pennsylvania and virtual ties in Florida and North Carolina
A new series of battleground state polls shows Joe Biden is pulling ahead in Pennsylvania, while he and Trump remain virtually tied in Florida and North Carolina.
According to a new Quinnipiac University poll, Biden is eight points ahead of the president among Pennsylvania’s likely voters, 52%-44%.
That number should help to calm some Democrats after a separate Monmouth University poll of Pennsylvania released yesterday showed Biden with a one- to three-point lead among the swing state’s likely voters, depending on the level of turnout.
But the Quinnipiac University poll also found a very tight race in Florida, with Biden leading by three points among likely voters in a survey with a 2.8-point margin of error.
A separate Monmouth University poll showed a similarly close race in North Carolina. Biden leads Trump there by 2 points, which is well within the poll’s margin of error.
NORTH CAROLINA VOTER POLL: #GeneralElection (RV)
— MonmouthPoll (@MonmouthPoll) September 3, 2020
PRESIDENT
47% @JoeBiden
45% @realDonaldTrump
US SENATE
46% @CalforNC Cunningham
45% @ThomTillis
GOVERNOR
51% @RoyCooperNC
40% @DanForestNChttps://t.co/18gBXPinXR pic.twitter.com/KFkLfkbrtH
The polls add to the overall evidence that last month’s party conventions don’t seem to have moved the needle all that much, and Biden has maintained his national advantage in the race.
However, Biden and Trump are still running neck and neck in several swing states, which will ultimately tip the balance of the Electoral College and determine the winner of the presidential race.
Updated
Wisconsin’s Democratic governor said he urged Joe Biden not to visit Kenosha today, as protests continue over the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Tony Evers told reporters in a press call that he “made his position clear” to Biden, but the Democratic nominee chose to come to Kenosha anyway.
“Candidates can make their own decisions,” Evers said. “I would prefer that no one be here.”
Biden said yesterday that he had received “overwhelming requests” from Democratic leaders to go to Kenosha, but some local officials publicly said they would prefer neither presidential nominee visit at this time.
Evers previously sent a letter to Trump, who visited the city on Tuesday, similarly discouraging him from coming.
“I am concerned your presence will only hinder our healing,” Evers said in the letter. “I am concerned your presence will only delay our work to overcome division and move forward together.”
During his community meeting in Kenosha, Joe Biden pledged to “go down fighting for racial equality”, saying he is “optimistic” about the opportunity for change.
“I really am optimistic,” Biden said. “I promise you, win or lose, I’m going to go down fighting. I’m going to go down fighting for racial equality, equity across the board.”
The Democratic presidential nominee, who is leading national polls by about seven points right now, added, “This is something worth losing over, but we’re not going to lose.”
Updated
Joe Biden said he spoke to Jacob Blake for about 15 minutes, and he noted Blake is now out of the intensive care unit.
Asked about what Blake said, the Democratic nominee said Blake emphasized that “nothing was going to defeat him.”
Blake is currently paralyzed from the waist down after being repeatedly shot in the back by Kenosha police, but Biden said the 29-year-old was determined to keep fighting, even if he never walked again.
The presidential candidate said he was also struck by the resilience and optimism of Blake’s family members, who expressed gratitude for the support they have received since the shooting.
Jacob Blake joined Biden meeting by phone, attorney says
Jacob Blake himself joined his family’s meeting with Democratic nominee Joe Biden by phone earlier today, according to the family’s lawyer.
Benjamin Crump, the civil rights attorney representing the Blake family, said in a new statement that the Bidens and the Blakes had a “very engaging 90-minute in-person meeting.”
Jacob Blake called into the meeting from his hospital bed, as the 29-year-old continues to recover after being repeatedly shot in the back by Kenosha police.
.@AttorneyCrump’s statement on Vice President Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden’s visit today with the family of #JacobBlake. pic.twitter.com/II0FvUzfHU
— Ben Crump Law, PLLC (@BenCrumpLaw) September 3, 2020
“Jacob Jr shared about the pain he is enduring, and the vice-president commiserated,” Crump said.
“The vice-president told the family that he believes the best of America is in all of us and that we need to value all our differences as we come together in America’s great melting pot.
“It was very obvious that Vice-President Biden cared, as he extended to Jacob Jr a sense of humanity, treating him as a person worthy of consideration and prayer.”
Trump also visited Kenosha earlier this week, but the president did not meet with the Blake family during the trip.
Updated
Biden: 'Don't tell me things can't change'
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is speaking at a community meeting in Kenosha, Wisconsin, amid ongoing protests over the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old African American.
Biden recalled how his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, was devastated by unrest in the 1960’s, after the assassination of Dr Martin Luther King.
The former vice-president then flashed forward 40 years, to waiting at a Wilmington train station to go to Barack Obama’s inauguration.
“Don’t tell me things can’t change,” Biden said. But the presidential nominee conceded he had been too optimistic about the nation’s trajectory, saying, “I made a mistake: I thought you could defeat hate. It only hides.”
Biden condemned Trump’s leadership amid the national reckoning over racism, saying the president “legitimizes the dark side of human nature.”
“This is not who we are,” Biden said.
Updated
Joe Biden has arrived at Grace Lutheran Church in Kenosha, Wisconsin, for a community meeting “to bring together Americans to heal and address the challenges we face”, as the Democrat’s campaign has said.
According to a pool report, the meeting includes only a couple of dozen attendees due to coronavirus guidelines. The meeting is expected to last about an hour, and Biden will be the last person to speak.
.@JoeBiden has arrived at Grace Lutheran Church in Kenosha.
— Patrick Marley (@patrickdmarley) September 3, 2020
Just a few dozen people are allowed inside because of social distancing. pic.twitter.com/JHRpZJ6O0e
A Washington Post reporter noted that Biden had to reject a handshake from one of the meeting attendees because of coronavirus concerns. Instead, the presidential nominee grabbed the man’s arm and complimented his biceps.
At the start of Biden’s meeting in Kenosha, Wisc., a man extends his hand to shake hands. “Can’t do that,” Biden says, before feeling the man’s biceps and exclaiming, “Nice guns!"
— Matt Viser (@mviser) September 3, 2020
Updated
Dr Anthony Fauci said it is not likely that a coronavirus vaccine will be approved and ready for distribution by the end of October.
Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, has previously said a vaccine could be approved by November or December, but the CEO of Pfizer recently said he should have enough data by the end of October.
Fauci acknowledged that all of the timelines mentioned are “guesstimates,” but he considers it unlikely a vaccine will be ready by October.
“It is conceivable that you could have it by October, though I don't think that that's likely,” Dr. Anthony Fauci tells @jimsciutto about a coronavirus vaccine as CDC documents say states should prepare to distribute vaccines as soon as late October. https://t.co/hVC9nZv9pr pic.twitter.com/XRZJqv16pY
— CNN (@CNN) September 3, 2020
“If someone comes out and says I’m going to shoot for the possibility that I’ll get it by October, you can’t argue strongly against that,” Fauci said. “That’s unlikely, not impossible. I think most of the people feel it’s going to be November, December.”
Fauci added, “It is conceivable that you could have it by October, though I don’t think that that’s likely.”
The exact vaccine timeline could have serious consequences on the presidential election, which will be held on November 3.
Trump has previously said a vaccine may be ready by the end of the year or “much sooner,” but that appears to be wishful thinking.
Twitter has placed a public interest notice on two of Trump’s tweets about encouraging voters to cast two ballots in November.
“We placed a public interest notice on two Tweets in this thread for violating our Civic Integrity Policy, specifically for encouraging people to potentially vote twice,” Twitter said.
“Per our policies, this Tweet will remain on the service given its relevance to ongoing public conversation. Engagements with the Tweet will be limited. People will be able to Quote Tweet, but not Like, Reply, or Retweet it.”
We placed a public interest notice on two Tweets in this thread for violating our Civic Integrity Policy, specifically for encouraging people to potentially vote twice. https://t.co/UU9kJfqptz
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) September 3, 2020
The president’s tweets were an apparent attempt to clean up his comments yesterday on voting twice. During his trip to North Carolina, Trump said of voting by mail, “Let them send it in and let them go vote. And if the system is as good as they say it is then obviously they won’t be able to vote” in person.
The president later claimed he was simply encouraging people to ensure their votes are tabulated if they mail in their ballots.
But the North Carolina board of elections specifically discouraged people from going to polling places on Election Day to verify their ballots were counted.
“The State Board office strongly discourages people from showing up at the polls on Election Day to check whether their absentee ballot was counted,” Karen Brinson Bell, the executive director of the board, said in a statement. “That is not necessary, and it would lead to longer lines and the possibility of spreading COVID-19.”
Joe and Jill Biden are now heading towards Kenosha and will arrive in about 30 minutes.
Their meeting with members of the family of Jacob Blake, the 29-year-old Kenosha man, who is African American and was shot in the back by a white police officer on August 23 and is hospitalized with grave wounds, was kept private and details are not expected to be released by Biden’s campaign.
The Democratic presidential candidate is due to attend a community meeting in the small city and apparently has another stop in Kenosha, of which details have not yet been disclosed.
Today so far
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- Joe Biden met with the family of Jacob Blake in Milwaukee. The Democratic nominee is holding a community meeting in Kenosha today as protests continue over the police shooting of Blake, an African American father of six.
- Trump and his advisers tried to walk back his comments encouraging North Carolinians to vote twice in November. The White House claimed the president was only encouraging voters to ensure their mailed-in ballots are counted. But Trump said of voting by mail yesterday, “Let them send it in and let them go vote. And if the system is as good as they say it is then obviously they won’t be able to vote” in person.
- US jobless claims fell to 881,000 last week, as concerns about unemployment linger. The figure represented a decrease from a week earlier, but 29 million Americans are still receiving unemployment benefits of some kind.
The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany concluded her briefing after about 25 minutes.
Before stepping away from the podium, McEnany addressed reports that one of Trump’s top medical advisers was encouraging the administration to embrace herd immunity as a response to the coronavirus pandemic.
“That was never something that was ever considered here at the White House,” McEnany said, claiming the idea of endorsing herd immunity was “made up in the fanciful minds of the media.”
But the president himself appeared to raise the idea during his interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham earlier this week.
“Once you get to a certain number, we use the word herd, once you get to a certain number, it’s going to go away,” Trump said.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said the administration was “deeply troubled” by the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.
McEnany called the attack “reprehensible,” and she read yesterday’s statement from the National Security Council condemning the poisoning.
It’s worth noting that Trump himself has not yet addressed the attack on Navalny. The German government announced yesterday that it appeared the opposition leader was poisoned with a nerve agent previously used by Russian agents.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany dismissed concerns that Trump is pressuring the FDA to approve a coronavirus vaccine before the presidential election.
“No one is pressuring the FDA to do anything,” McEnany said.
A number of health experts have warned that, if the FDA uses its emergency authority to approve a coronavirus vaccine, it could create safety issues.
A reporter asked White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany about the president’s conflicting statements on his visit to Walter Reed Medical Center last year.
.@PeterAlexander: Trump said last November he went to Walter Reed to begin his physical. Now he says he completed it. Which is it?
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 3, 2020
McENANY: The president did his physical in two parts. I'm not engaging in conspiracy theories. pic.twitter.com/GborMXk0Cw
The White House initially said Trump made the unexpected visit to Walter Reed to start his physical, but the president now says he went to complete his physical.
“The president did his physical in two parts,” McEnany said. “The media is engaging in conspiracy theories about the president’s health.”
At the risk of stating the obvious, it is not a conspiracy theory to point out that the president’s own comments contradict each other.
White House says Trump does not condone unlawful voting
No surprise here: the first question directed at White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany had to do with the president’s advice to North Carolina voters to try to cast two ballots in November.
McEnany claimed the press was taking Trump’s comments out of context. “The president does not condone unlawful voting,” McEnany said.
Here’s exactly what the president said yesterday: “Let them send it in and let them go vote. And if the system is as good as they say it is then obviously they won’t be able to vote” in person.
McEnany holds White House briefing
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany began her briefing by playing a video on loop of House speaker Nancy Pelosi not wearing a mask in a San Francisco salon.
.@PressSec Kayleigh McEnany: "We found Nancy Pelosi going into her hair salon. We will be playing the video on loop for all of you to see during the duration of this introduction...Apparently the rules do not apply to Speaker Nancy Pelosi."
— CSPAN (@cspan) September 3, 2020
Full video: https://t.co/6bTwrMa5OG pic.twitter.com/rfDCWOCPpV
Pelosi briefly removed her mask during an indoor visit to a San Francisco salon, which was in violation of city guidelines aimed at limiting the spread of coronavirus.
But it’s worth noting that Trump has not worn a mask at all during recent events, including during his convention acceptance speech on the White House South Lawn last week, which was attended by 1,500 people.
Updated
Bidens meet with the Blake family
Joe Biden is meeting with several members of Jacob Blake’s family at the Milwaukee airport, according to a pool report.
The Democratic nominee and former second lady Jill Biden met with Blake’s father, Jacob Blake Sr, and three of his siblings.
Blake’s mother, Julia Jackson, and the family’s attorney, civil rights lawyer Benjamin Crump, joined the meeting by phone.
The meeting comes less than two weeks after Blake was repeatedly shot in the back by a white police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Trump visited Kenosha on Tuesday but did not meet with the Blake family. The president instead toured property that had been damaged amid recent protests and held a roundtable with local officials, during which he once again called for “law and order” in the city.
Wisconsin’s Republican senator encouraged Joe Biden to look at property that had been damaged amid recent protests when the Democratic nominee visits Kenosha today.
“I welcome @JoeBiden into our state today,” Senator Ron Johnson said in a tweet. “I hope he actually views the destruction and starts to understand how [devastating] it is. How continued protests create a siege and can shut down a city. I also hope he understands exactly what it took to stop the rioting in #Kenosha.”
I welcome @JoeBiden into our state today. I hope he actually views the destruction and starts to understand how devasting it is. How continued protests create a siege and can shut down a city. I also hope he understands exactly what it took to stop the rioting in #Kenosha.
— Senator Ron Johnson (@SenRonJohnson) September 3, 2020
The Kenosha mayor lifted the city’s curfew last night due to the past several “relatively peaceful” nights of protesting, so it’s unclear how the city is under “siege,” as Johnson claimed.
Trump toured damaged property when he visited Kenosha on Tuesday, but one owner of a business highlighted during the president’s Kenosha roundtable complained that Trump was exploiting his struggles for political gain.
Democratic nominee Joe Biden criticized Trump over the president’s scheduled trip to Latrobe, Pennsylvania, later today.
“When President Trump speaks in Westmoreland County today, you almost certainly won’t hear him take responsibility for the economic hardship his presidency has caused Pennsylvanians,” Biden said in a new statement.
“President Trump’s mishandling of the economy and the coronavirus pandemic has caused millions of people across the Commonwealth to file for unemployment since March.”
The president’s campaign appearance in Latrobe comes three days after Biden delivered a speech on racial injustice in Pittsburgh.
Trump carried Pennsylvania by less than 1 point in 2016, and Democrats hope to flip the state in November. A new Monmouth University poll shows the race in Pennsylvania tightening, with Biden leading Trump by just 4 points among the swing state’s registered voters.
The Guardian’s Daniel Strauss reports:
Intense scrutiny of the United States Postal Service and its likely role in November’s election is calling new attention to the chairman of the organization’s board of governors, who has deep ties to influential Republicans including the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell.
The postal service’s smooth running is seen as key to the success of mail-in voting in 2020, with tens of millions of voters expected to use postal votes instead of going to polling stations, out of health fears due to the coronavirus pandemic. Democrats have raised concerns that Republicans are seeking to disrupt the agency’s operations in ways that could hinder mail-in voting.
The USPS board of governors chairman, Robert M Duncan, is partially the target of a request by the House oversight committee. The committee, chaired by Carolyn Maloney, a Democrat from New York, is asking for documents related to how the postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, was selected for his position.
Through a spokesman for the USPS board of governors, Duncan declined a request by the Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer to provide more information on the appointment of DeJoy, a major Republican donor. The 11-member USPS board of governors oversees the policies and expenditures of the postal service. The board can also fire the postmaster general.
To at least one former member of the board of governors, having a sitting member, much less a chair like Duncan, with such extensive political ties that could be a conflict of interest is unprecedented.
“We never had that type of situation come up,” said the former Nevada congressman James Bilbray, who served on the board in different capacities for a decade. “I don’t think we would have hired anybody or picked anybody that had a conflict. The reason is it just would not be the right thing to do, at least on my part.”
North Carolina board of elections reminds voters it is illegal to vote twice
Another sign of how remarkable this election season is: the North Carolina board of elections just sent out a reminder that it is a felony to cast two ballots, after Trump encouraged his supporters to vote by mail and in person.
STATEMENT: A Message from State Board Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell to NC Voters#ncpol #YourVoteCountsNC pic.twitter.com/eDdXBuAhxV
— NCSBE (@NCSBE) September 3, 2020
“It is illegal to vote twice in an election,” Karen Brinson Bell, the executive director of the board, said in a statement.
“Attempting to vote twice in an election or soliciting someone to do so also is a violation of North Carolina law.”
Bell noted that there are a number of checks in place to ensure no voter is allowed to cast more than one ballot. She also outlined several ways for voters to ensure their absentee ballot was counted.
“The State Board office strongly discourages people from showing up at the polls on Election Day to check whether their absentee ballot was counted,” Bell said. “That is not necessary, and it would lead to longer lines and the possibility of spreading COVID-19.”
The statement comes one day after Trump said this in an interview when asked about voting by mail: “Let them send it in and let them go vote. And if the system is as good as they say it is then obviously they won’t be able to vote” in person.
The Guardian’s Kenya Evelyn reports:
Joe Biden will meet Jacob Blake’s father, Jacob Blake Sr, later today as well as other members of the family of the 29-year-old who is gravely wounded and still fighting for his health in a local hospital in Kenosha after being shot in the back by a white police officer on August 23.
On his visit, in addition, the Democratic presidential nominee has vowed not to do “anything other than meet with community leaders” to “start to talk about what has to be done”.
“I’m not going to tell Kenosha what to do, but what we’ll do together,” Biden said following a campaign speech from his Wilmington, Delaware, home on Wednesday.
Biden took questions about the Blake shooting after the speech on Wednesday.
He said: “I think we should let the judicial system work its way. I do think at a minimum they need to be charged, the officers.”
Biden is due in the battleground state of Wisconsin as Kenosha, a small city located between Milwaukee and Chicago on the shore of Lake Michigan, became a focus of nationwide protests against institutionalized racism and police brutality, ahead of the 2020 election.
The visit by Biden and his wife Jill follows a controversial stop by Donald Trump just two days prior. During his own trip, the president pinpointed cities such as Kenosha, Minneapolis and Portland to promote a campaign message of “law-and-order.”
Trump also opted out of mentioning Jacob Blake’s name or meeting with any members of his family, leading members of which indicated they had no interest in meeting or talking with him. Instead Trump toured buildings damaged when initial protests after the police shooting splintered into violence on the fringes in the night. Trump also talked with officials and business owners.
Updated
Trump and his advisers are trying to walk back his comments encouraging North Carolinians to vote twice in the November elections.
The president said yesterday, “Let them send it in and let them go vote. And if the system is as good as they say it is then obviously they won’t be able to vote” in person.
It’s worth comparing that comment to what the president said of Republican voters in May. Trump said at the time, “The level of dishonesty with Democrat voting is unbelievable. If you told a Republican to vote twice, they’d get sick at even the thought of it.”
Trump yesterday: “If you get the unsolicited ballots ... send it in early, and then go and vote.”
— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) September 3, 2020
Trump in May:
“If you told a Republican to vote twice, they'd get sick at even the thought of it."pic.twitter.com/bjWMotfXrP
Joe and Jill Biden are en route to Kenosha, Wisconsin, where they will meet with the family of Jacob Blake, who remains hospitalized after being repeatedly shot in the back by police.
Joe and Jill Biden board the plane to Wisconsin. The Bidens will meet with Jacob Blake’s family and hold a community event, two days after Trump traveled to Kenosha. pic.twitter.com/KFwG2hsqjB
— Tyler Pager (@tylerpager) September 3, 2020
The Democratic nominee is scheduled to hold a community meeting in Kenosha to “bring together Americans to heal and address the challenges we face.” Biden will later make a local stop in the city as well.
Trump tries to clean up comments about voting twice
The president and his aides are attempting to clean up his comments from yesterday, when he encouraged voters to try to cast two ballots in the November elections.
“Based on the massive number of Unsolicited & Solicited Ballots that will be sent to potential Voters for the upcoming 2020 Election, & in order for you to MAKE SURE YOUR VOTE COUNTS & IS COUNTED, SIGN & MAIL IN your Ballot as EARLY as possible,” Trump said in a new tweet thread. “If it has not been Counted, VOTE (which is a citizen’s right to do).”
Based on the massive number of Unsolicited & Solicited Ballots that will be sent to potential Voters for the upcoming 2020 Election, & in order for you to MAKE SURE YOUR VOTE COUNTS & IS COUNTED, SIGN & MAIL IN your Ballot as EARLY as possible. On Election Day, or Early Voting,..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 3, 2020
But it’s important to note that Trump did not tell voters yesterday to verify their mailed-in ballots were tabulated. He specifically advised voters to mail in their ballots and then attempt to vote in person in order to test states’ election systems.
“Let them send it in and let them go vote,” Trump said. “And if the system is as good as they say it is then obviously they won’t be able to vote” in person.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany defended Trump for advising North Carolinians to vote twice in November, which is illegal.
“The president is not suggesting anyone do anything unlawful. What he said very clearly there is make sure your vote is tabulated, and if it is not, then vote,” McEnany told Fox News this morning.
WH Press Sec. McEnany: Trump “not suggesting anyone do anything unlawful” by telling supporters to vote by mail and in person. pic.twitter.com/tHzyylyzX2
— The Recount (@therecount) September 3, 2020
But the president very clearly said in an interview yesterday that voters should try to both send a ballot by mail and then try to vote in person.
“Let them send it in and let them go vote,” Trump said. “And if the system is as good as they say it is then obviously they won’t be able to vote” in person.
McEnany also claimed that Democrats were trying to unroll a “whole new fraudulent system of mail-in voting never tried before in American system” amid the coronavirus pandemic.
In reality, US states have been sending ballots through the mail for decades, and five states -- Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Utah and Hawaii -- already conduct elections primarily by mail.
In case you missed it yesterday: Trump attracted severe criticism for urging his supporters in North Carolina to vote twice, which is obviously illegal.
“Let them send it in and let them go vote,” Trump said in an interview with WECT-TV in Wilmington, North Carolina, when asked about the security of voting by mail. “And if the system is as good as they say it is then obviously they won’t be able to vote” in person, Trump added.
The comments came as the president continues to attack voting by mail, even though US states have been sending ballots to voters through the mail for decades. Trump has claimed mailed-in ballots are highly vulnerable to fraud, but voter fraud is actually very rare.
The Democratic attorney general of North Carolina quickly warned voters in the state not to follow the president’s advice.
“Today, President Trump outrageously encouraged NCians to break the law in order to help him sow chaos in our election,” Josh Stein said in a tweet.
“Make sure you vote, but do NOT vote twice! I will do everything in my power to make sure the will of the people is upheld in November.”
Today, President Trump outrageously encouraged NCians to break the law in order to help him sow chaos in our election. Make sure you vote, but do NOT vote twice! I will do everything in my power to make sure the will of the people is upheld in November.
— Josh Stein (@JoshStein_) September 2, 2020
US jobless claims drop to 880,000 but economic concerns remain
The number of people filing claims for unemployment benefits dropped sharply last week as the US labor department switched to a new method of counting weekly jobless claims figures.
For the week ending 29 August, 881,000 claims for benefits were filed, down from just over 1m the previous week. It was only the second time since the pandemic hit the US economy that claims had dipped below 1m.
However, last week the labor department announced it was switching its statistical model to better reflect the extraordinary number of unemployment claims made during the pandemic.
Government bodies routinely use “seasonal adjustments” to smooth out annually occurring events that can cause spikes in numbers, such as the January layoffs of retail workers hired for the holiday season. The unprecedented nature of the coronavirus has meant the old method of seasonal adjustments may have overstated the actual number of weekly unemployment claims.
While the fall in the latest claims numbers suggests firings are slowing, the job market remains deeply troubled. The labor department said the total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending August 15 was over 29 million, an increase of 2m from the previous week.
Cuomo and Trump trade barbs over threat to 'defund' New York
Trump and New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, are trading insults over the president’s threat to cut federal funding to Democratic-run cities.
The White House issued a memorandum last night suggesting the president was looking at ways to decrease federal funding for cities that have recently seen anti-racism protests, including New York.
“My Administration will not allow Federal tax dollars to fund cities that allow themselves to deteriorate into lawless zones,” Trump said in the memo.
Cuomo, who has repeatedly clashed with the president over his administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, derided the proposal to cut New York’s funding as an “illegal stunt.”
“President Trump has actively sought to punish NYC since day one,” the Democratic governor said. “He is not a king. He cannot ‘defund’ NYC.”
President Trump has actively sought to punish NYC since day one.
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) September 2, 2020
He let COVID ambush New York.
He refuses to provide funds that states and cities MUST receive to recover.
He is not a king. He cannot "defund" NYC.
It's an illegal stunt.
Trump fired back by criticizing Cuomo’s handling of coronavirus in New York, which has lost more residents to the virus than any other US state.
Governors Andrew Cuomo of New York has the worst record on death and China Virus. 11,000 people alone died in Nursing Homes because of his incompetence!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 3, 2020
Facebook to restrict new political ads in the final week before elections
Facebook plans to flag any attempt by the Donald Trump campaign to declare a premature victory in the presidential race on the platform, the company announced Thursday.
The social media giant, which has come in for heavy criticism for failing to police foreign and domestic elections propaganda on its network, also said it would not accept any new political ads in the final week of the 2020 presidential race.
Facebook did not single out Trump in its announcement that it would label posts by any campaign that tries to declare victory before the final election results are in.
But Trump’s opponent, Joe Biden, has shown no intention of declaring premature victory and has never challenged the integrity of US elections, while Trump announced on the first day of the Republican national convention last week that any election that he did not win would be invalid.
“The only way they can take this election away from us is if this is a rigged election,” Trump told cheering Republican party officials at the convention.
Trailing badly in the polls, Trump has kept up a constant attack on the integrity of the upcoming presidential election for months, focusing on the expanded use during the coronavirus pandemic of mail-in voting.
Bernie Sanders rejected the Trump campaign’s argument that Joe Biden has adopted his “radical socialist” agenda.
Appearing on MSNBC, Sanders was asked if the president’s attacks on the Democratic nominee were true.
“Oh, that it were, but it’s not,” the former presidential candidate joked.
I asked @SenSanders about conservative voices adopting the talking point that @JoeBiden has taken on his "socialist agenda."
— Stephanie Ruhle (@SRuhle) September 3, 2020
His response? "Oh that it were, but it's not." pic.twitter.com/must6iQsGi
Sanders said he supported Biden in the presidential race, but he emphasized his agenda is quite different than Biden’s.
Trump and his allies have accused Biden of being a “Trojan horse” for the “radical left,” but polls indicate that a small share of Americans consider the Democratic nominee to be radical.
Updated
Biden to visit Kenosha and meet with Jacob Blake's family
Greetings from Washington, live blog readers.
Democratic nominee Joe Biden will visit Kenosha, Wisconsin, today to meet with the family of Jacob Blake, an African American father of six who was repeatedly shot in the back by police.
Some local leaders said they did not want either presidential nominee to visit the city right now, as protests continue over the shooting of Blake.
But Biden has defended his decision to travel to Kenosha, arguing he can be a “positive influence” to help bring the community together.
“We’ve got to heal. We’ve got to put things together and bring people together,” Biden said in Wilmington, Delaware, yesterday. “So my purpose in going will be to do just that.”
The trip is also clearly an effort to draw a sharp contrast with Donald Trump, who visited Kenosha on Tuesday to call for “law and order,” in the key swing state of Wisconsin.
“We have to condemn the dangerous anti-police rhetoric,” Trump said during a roundtable in Kenosha. “It’s getting more and more, it’s very unfair. You have some bad apples, we all know that, and those will be taken care of through the system, and nobody’s going to be easy on them either.”
Many critics pointed out in response to Trump’s comments that he has not yet condemned the alleged actions of Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old charged with killing two Kenosha protesters. It seems very likely Biden will echo that criticism during his trip today.
The blog will have more details as Biden makes his way to Wisconsin, so stay tuned.
