Donald Trump has refused to back down from his controversial suggestion that November’s election be postponed despite an outcry among his fellow Republicans, insisting “I don’t want to see a crooked election”, as he continues to claim mail-in voting - a likely necessity given the coronavirus outbreak - is vulnerable to fraud.
His predecessor Barack Obama, who yesterday delivered an impassioned eulogy at the funeral of civil rights hero John Lewis while Trump stayed away, has reportedly been describing the president as “racist, nativist and sexist” in Zoom calls with fundraisers on behalf of Democratic challenger Joe Biden, his old deputy.
In his latest White House press conference, Trump threatened to send the National Guard to Portland, Oregon, to stop ongoing Black Lives Matter protests, improbably attempted to compare the US coronavirus situation to countries like Japan and Australia and pushed for the reopening of schools, falsely claiming that young people are “almost immune” to Covid-19.
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Trump recorded complaining about 'bulls***' cancel culture in call with senator
The New York Times reports today that a recent call between the president and Oklahoma Republican senator James Inhofe was secretly recorded when the latter rather unwisely put the chat on speakerphone in an Italian restaurant in DC.
In the audio, seemingly taped by a fellow patron and passed to The NYT, Trump is heard to say: “All right, my friend. Are you doing good? We’re going to keep the name of Robert E Lee?”
The discussion concerns pressure to rename a US military base named after the Confederate general in the wake of the reckoning with American history and its monuments in response to the George Floyd killing.
Inhofe responds on the tape: “Just trust me. I’ll make it happen.”
“I had about 95,000 positive retweets on that,” Trump chimes in, referring to the tweet below. “That’s a lot.”
Trump is then reportedly dismissive of the whole “cancel culture” conversation, saying people’s primary concern is returning to normality after the pandemic lockdown.
“A lot of people want to be able to go back to life - not this bulls***,” he says.
President praises late Herman Cain, says US Covid-19 crisis no worse than other countries and pushes for school reopening
Also in yesterday’s briefing, Trump paid tribute to his late friend, the former GOP presidential candidate and Godfather's Pizza executive Herman Cain, who died on Thursday in hospital after contracting coronavirus at June’s MAGA rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at which he had flaunted not wearing a mask.
"Unfortunately, he passed away from a thing called the China virus," was how Trump phrased it.
He also attempted to compare the disastrous US coronavirus situation with other countries like Japan and Australia, a laughably ludicrous proposition if it weren’t all so tragic.
It was a tactic that hadn’t didn’t work too well for him on Twitter either.
Also on the pandemic, Trump said keeping schools closed is likely to cause “probably more death” than Covid-19 (?) and falsely claimed that young people “are almost immune to this disease”.
Here’s Louise Hall’s report on his latest desperate attempts at defending his record.
Trump threatens to send National Guard to Portland to quell protests
Back to that White House press conference yesterday, where the president had a renewed threat for Black Lives Matter protesters in the Oregon city that has become the epicentre of national unrest since the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on 25 May.
“The governor and the mayor, we’ve been dealing with them, and we think they don’t know what they’re doing because this should not have been going on for 60 days,” Trump said. ”It’s not our job to go clean out the cities, it’s supposed to be done by local law enforcement.”
He said that federal police officers would stay in Portland to see how local law enforcement does and, if they don’t wrest control of the city, then the federal government will “take care of it”.
“And we’re telling these protestors, and many should be arrested because these are professional agitators, these are professional anarchists, these are people that hate our country,” Trump said.
“They’re working today and probably tomorrow to clean out this beehive of terrorists, and if they do it I’m going to be very happy. And then slowly we’ll be able to leave the city. If they don’t do it we’ll send in the National Guard.”
He said that federal police officers would stay in Portland to see how local law enforcement does and, if they don’t wrest control of the city, then the federal government will “take care of it”.
“And we’re telling these protestors, and many should be arrested because these are professional agitators, these are professional anarchists, these are people that hate our country,” Trump said.
“They’re working today and probably tomorrow to clean out this beehive of terrorists, and if they do it I’m going to be very happy. And then slowly we’ll be able to leave the city. If they don’t do it we’ll send in the National Guard.”
For their part, the Portland protesters maintain it is the strongarm tactics of federal agents that are escalating tensions, not their peaceful demonstrations calling for police reforms.
Here’s Justin Vallejo’s report.
Obama brands president 'racist, nativist and sexist'
Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama, who yesterday delivered an impassioned eulogy at the funeral of civil rights hero John Lewis while Trump stayed away, has reportedly been describing the president as “racist, nativist and sexist” in Zoom calls with fundraisers on behalf of Democratic challenger Joe Biden, his old deputy.
James Crump has this one.
Republicans tell Trump: ‘You can't delay 2020 election’
This president has repeatedly tested the Republican Party's limits on issues including race, trade and immigration. On Thursday, he finally hit a wall.
GOP officials from New Hampshire to Mississippi to Iowa quickly pushed back against Trump's suggestion that it might be necessary to delay the November election - which he cannot do without congressional approval - because of the unfounded threat of voter fraud. They reassured voters that the election would proceed on the constitutionally mandated day as it has for more than two centuries.
Iowa senator Chuck Grassley was especially blunt: "All I can say is, it doesn't matter what one individual in this country says. We still are a country based on the rule of law, and we want to follow the law."
New Hampshire governor Chris Sununu vowed his state would hold its November elections as scheduled: "End of story."
Wyoming congresswoman Liz Cheney, who leads the House Republican Conference, said, "The resistance to this idea among Republicans is overwhelming."
Andrew Naughtie has more reaction.
Trump refuses to back down from election delay proposal
Donald Trump has refused to back down from his controversial suggestion that November’s election be postponed, insisting “I don’t want to see a crooked election”, as he continues to claim mail-in voting - a likely necessity given the coronavirus outbreak - is vulnerable to fraud.
“I want an election and a result, much, much more than you,” he said at the White House on Thursday.
“I don’t want to delay. I want to have the election. But I also don’t want to have to wait three months and then find out that the ballots are all missing, and the election doesn’t mean anything.”
The president cited recent media reports about potential problems with postal ballots arriving late and said it could take weeks, months or even years to sort it out.
“Do I want to see a date change? No, but I don’t want to see a crooked election,” he said.
Trailing badly in the polls to presumptive Democratic candidate Joe Biden, Trump posted a tweet yesterday that said voting by mail, which many states are likely to use because of the pandemic, would result in a “fraudulent” vote.
“It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???,” he added, his tweet following hot on the heels of the news that US GDP fell 9.5 per cent in the second quarter, wiping out five years of growth and therefore not fooling anyone, given that his re-election case is centered on prosperity.
Trump continued to make his case on Twitter last night…
...glorying in forcing the “very dishonest LameStream Media to finally start talking about the RISKS to our Democracy”, rather than the economic turmoil.
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