Evening summary
We’re wrapping up our live politics coverage for tonight. Please stay safe this holiday weekend. An updated summary of key news events today:
- Current and former members of the military, Democrats and Biden assailed Trump over a report that he had made disparaging remarks about soldiers who had been killed or captured. Trump has denied the report.
- The US economy added 1.4 million jobs in August, but that the pace of growth was slower than earlier this year and joblessness remains high.
- Both Trump and Biden seized on the new jobs report to make starkly different campaign arguments. Trump pointed to the unemployment figures, which dropped below 10% this month, as a success. Biden, in a speech in Wilmington, accused Trump of deepening the economic crises by failing to control the coronavirus pandemic that has left millions of Americans out of work.
- Facebook removed an image posted by Republican congressional candidate and avowed Qanon supporter Marjorie Greene, which showed her brandishing a firearm next to photos of progressive Democratic lawmakers.
- Facebook also removed the page for Patriot Prayer, the far-right group linked to years of violent protests in Portland, as part of its crackdown on “violent social militias”. On Saturday, Aaron “Jay” Danielson, a man wearing the insignia of Patriot Prayer, was shot dead in Portland.
- The Justice Department also announced criminal charges against two “Boogaloo Bois,” one of whom had been profiled by CNN at a protest in Minneapolis in early June.
Updated
Report: White supremacists most serious US terror threat
A yet-to-be-released report from the Department of Homeland Security names white supremacists as the deadliest terror threat in the United States, and a greater threat than foreign terror groups, Politico reports.
Three different drafts of the same report were reviewed by Politico, and none of the drafts referred to a threat from Antifa,” the anti-fascist activists who senior Trump administration officials have described as major domestic terrorists.
DHS declined to comment on “allegedly leaked documents,” Politico reported.
White supremacists present the gravest terror threat to the United States, according to a draft report from the Department of Homeland Security https://t.co/t0Z6GSHbaN
— POLITICO (@politico) September 4, 2020
Facebook removes Patriot Prayer page as part of takedown of 'violent social militias'
My colleague Jason Wilson has documented Patriot Prayer’s years of involvement in violence at protests in Portland. The far-right group’s leader, Joey Gibson, was charged with rioting, a felony, in 2019.
On Saturday, a man wearing the insignia of Patriot Prayer was shot dead in Portland.
Now, Facebook has removed the Patriot Prayer page, the New York Times reports. Gibson’s page has also been removed, Reuters reports.
Once again, Facebook’s action to take down a group with many previous documented links to violent behavior comes after someone has already been killed.
New: Facebook has removed the pages of right-wing group Patriot Prayer. FB spox tells me, “They were removed as part of our ongoing efforts to remove Violent Social Militias from our platform.”
— Davey Alba (@daveyalba) September 4, 2020
Updated
Trump insults John Kelly in response to questions about him disparaging war dead
Asked during the press conference about the multiple reports that he made disparaging remarks about members of the military and the war dead, Trump said the anonymous officials who spoke to media outlets about his remarks “could have been a guy like John Kelly”, a retired US Marine Corps general and his former White House chief of staff, who left the White House in 2018 and has since publicly criticized the president.
Trump then personally attacked Kelly, saying that “he got eaten alive” and “he was unable to handle the pressure of this job”.
Updated
Trump thanks news media for footage he said is used to make arrests
While touting the number of arrests of “rioters, looters and domestic terrorists” made after nationwide protests and unrest over police violence towards black Americans, Trump thanked the news media for providing footage of people that is used to charge them with crimes. “We get that from the media free of charge,” the president said.
“We’re working with the state and local authorities to comb through hours of videotape identifying arrest suspects and prosecute lawbreakers. We’ve already got over 300 in jail,” Trump said. “I want to thank the media for helping us out, because they’re taking different angles. We have it from every angle ... we see it from the sky and the ground and from the right and from the left, so when they say they didn’t do it, we say, ‘What’s this?’”
Activists have long highlighted the risk of photos and videos documenting protests being used by state authorities to file criminal charges against protesters, and have encouraged people documenting protests not to share images of protesters’ faces.
In recent years, some protesters have also confronted news media covering demonstrations over concerns about having their participation documented.
Updated
‘Another campaign speech as a White House “news conference”’
A journalist known for his real-time fact-checking of the president’s statements has a succinct summary of the press conference Trump is doing right now.
The president is doing another campaign speech as a White House “news conference,” saying the things he says.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) September 4, 2020
Updated
Justice Department announces charges against two ‘Boogaloo Bois’
This is Lois Beckett, taking over our live politics coverage for this evening.
The justice department said it had charged two self-described “Boogaloo Bois” with attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, Hamas.
At least one of the men charged, 22-year-old Benjamin Ryan Teeter, had been profiled by CNN during protests in Minneapolis in early June.
Back in June, CNN appears to have spoken to Benjamin Ryan Teeter, one of two "boogaloo" adherents charged today with attempting to provide support to Hamas.
— Nick Martin (@nickmartin) September 4, 2020
He's pictured here in the center with bleached blond hair. https://t.co/GrVBRbEnua pic.twitter.com/KbYWJz0hLc
A confidential informant posing as a member of Hamas recorded conversations with Teeter and Michael Robert Solomon, 30, leading to criminal charges against them, the justice department said:
Solomon and Teeter also expressed their desire to employ themselves as “mercenaries” for Hamas as a means to generate cash for the Boogaloo Bois/Boojahideen movement, including funding for recruitment and purchasing land for a training compound.
According to the allegations in the criminal complaint and law enforcement affidavit, Solomon and Teeter shared with the CHS, and another individual whom they believed to be a more senior member of Hamas (and who was actually an undercover employee of the FBI), their ideas about destroying government monuments, raiding the headquarters of a white supremacist organization in North Carolina, and targeting politicians and members of the media.
Updated
Jennifer Griffin, a national security correspondent for Fox News, said she has confirmed reporting by The Atlantic with two former senior Trump administration officials.
One former official told her: “When the President spoke about the Vietnam War, he said, ‘It was a stupid war. Anyone who went was a sucker.’”
More from her thread:
This former official heard the President say about American veterans: "What's in it for them? They don't make any money." Source: "It was a character flaw of the President. He could not understand why someone would die for their country, not worth it."
— Jennifer Griffin (@JenGriffinFNC) September 4, 2020
Regarding McCain, "The President just hated John McCain. He always asked, 'Why do you see him as a hero?" Two sources confirmed the President did not want flags lowered but others in the White House ordered them at half mast. There was a stand off and then the President relented.
— Jennifer Griffin (@JenGriffinFNC) September 4, 2020
Afternoon summary
- Current and former member of the military, Democrats and Biden assailed Trump over a report that he had made disparaging remarks about soldiers who had been killed or captures. Trump has denied the report.
- The US economy added 1.4 million jobs in August, but that the pace of growth was slower than earlier this year and joblessness remains high.
- Both Trump and Biden seized on the new jobs report to make starkly different campaign arguments. Trump pointed to the unemployment figures, which dropped below 10% this month, as a success. Biden, in a speech in Wilmington, accused Trump of deepening the economic crises by failing to control the coronavirus pandemic that has left millions of Americans out of work.
- Facebook removed an image posted by Republican congressional candidate and avowed Qanon supporter Marjorie Greene, which showed her brandishing a firearm next to photos of progressive Democratic lawmakers.
Updated
Reaction to the Atlantic story continue to pour in as Trump and the White House continue to vehemently deny the report.
Former Vermont governor Howard Dean was blunt.
My brother was captured in Laos in September of 1974 and executed by the North Vietnamese on December 14, 1974. Fuck you, Donald Trump.
— Howard Dean (@GovHowardDean) September 4, 2020
Trump, facing accusations that he disparaged members of the military and the war dead, vowed that the military’s independent newspaper Stars and Stripes would not be defunded.
His comments come after it revealed that the Pentagon ordered the newspaper to cease publication by the end of the month and to dissolve the organization by January.
The United States of America will NOT be cutting funding to @starsandstripes magazine under my watch. It will continue to be a wonderful source of information to our Great Military!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 4, 2020
US attorney general William Bar hailed the killing by law enforcement of a suspect in the shooting death of a right-wing activist in Portland, Oregon, as a “significant accomplishment.”
On Thursday night, officers from a federally led fugitive taskforce shot and killed Michael Forest Reinoehl, 48, as they attempted to take him into custody, said Pierce county sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer.
Reinoehl, a regular attendee of anti-racism protests in Portland, was suspected of killing Aaron “Jay” Danielson, 39, a supporter of the far-right group Patriot Prayer, which staged a counter-demonstration against anti-racist protesters in Portland last Saturday.
The tracking down of Reinoehl — a dangerous fugitive, admitted Antifa member, and suspected murderer — is a significant accomplishment in the ongoing effort to restore law and order to Portland and other cities,” Barr said in a statement. “I applaud the outstanding cooperation among federal, state, and local law enforcement, particularly the fugitive task force team that located Reinoehl and prevented him from escaping justice. The streets of our cities are safer with this violent agitator removed, and the actions that led to his location are an unmistakable demonstration that the United States will be governed by law, not violent mobs.”
Amid unrest over racial inequality, Barr has consistently blamed Antifa, a loose movement that purportedly stands against fascism, for much of the street violence that has erupted during nationwide demonstrations. But federal officials have so far provided scant evidence to support that claim.
At a press briefing today, US national security adviser Robert O’Brien said the US warned China, Russia, Iran that they would face “extraordinary consequences” for attempts to interfere with the US election.
O’Brien said that China has the largest program among the countries seeking to interfere in the US election and has played the “most active role”, but provided no further details.
Last month, American intelligence officials warned that China was “expanding its influence efforts” in the US ahead of the presidential election, as Russia continued to spread disinformation on behalf of Trump and Iran sought to sow chaos.
Trump and his allies seized on the report, claiming the intelligence shows China prefers Biden, who they have sought to cast as soft on Beijing.
But the statement did not said that China was interfering on Biden’s behalf, rather that China was attempting to use its influence “to shape the policy environment in the United States.”
Democrats have accused intelligence officials of conflating China’s efforts with those of Russia to appease the president.
Trump has downplayed the threat of election interference and has disputed the conclusion by American intelligence agencies that Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election on his behalf. Moscow has denied interference.
Updated
Cindy McCain, the widow of senator John McCain, has shared an image of the service members in her family amid the controversy over Trump’s comments about the military.
Duty, Honor, Country. Four generations who have served and are serving. @McCainJack pic.twitter.com/AKetszm6zS
— Cindy McCain (@cindymccain) September 4, 2020
Biden took one more questions as aides attempted to shuffle him off, about his travel to Shanksville, Pennsylvania, next Friday, the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Trump is also scheduled to visit Shanksville, where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed after being hijacked during the attacks.
MORE: I asked @JoeBiden if he would share a stage with the president in Shanksville, if asked to do so. Biden said yes: “He is still the president of the United States.”
— Ed O'Keefe (@edokeefe) September 4, 2020
During the press conference, Biden was asked a few more questions on Trump’s comments on voting, mask-wearing, ongoing Russian election interference and the economic agreement between Serbia and Kosovo.
“It is a felony!” he said of Trump’s illegal suggestion that voters vote twice.
At a rally on Thursday, Trump mocked Biden for wearing a mask, to which Biden replied: “It’s hard to respond to something so idiotic.”
“There are a lot of countries that would like to see our elections destabilized,” he continued, “But the country working the hardest, most consistently, has never let up is Russia.”
Biden said he wasn’t aware of the newly signed economic agreement between Serbia and Kosovo, part of broader diplomatic talks that resulted in Israel and Kosovo agreeing to mutual recognition. But he said it “seems positive” that a Muslim-majority nation would take steps toward normalizing relations with Israel.
“I also believe that Israel has to be prepared to genuinely work toward a two-state solution,” he added.
Asked about Qanon and Trump’s refusal to denounce the conspiracy and its followers, replied: “I’ve been a big supporter of mental health.”
He said supporters of the theory should avail themselves of the mental health resources provided by the Affordable Care Act.
“I’d recommend people who believe it should take advantage of it while it still exists under the Affordable Care Act,” he said.
He said it was “bizarre” that Trump would not disavow Qanon supporters.
Biden also said that he is has been tested for the coronavirus. It’s the first time he has disclosed this publicly.
““I’ve been tested once with the deep test, and I’m going to continue to be tested on a regular basis,” he said.
Updated
Biden is now taking questions from reporters for a second time this week. He said he believes the Atlantic report because it echoes what Trump has said publicly. He called the remarks “disgusting” and “deplorable.”
He asked the reporter to imagine how it would feel to read those comments as the parent of solider deployed in Afghanistan or who had lost a child in combat.
“How would you feel if you had a son or daughter in Afghanistan right now?” he said.
Updated
In remarks on Friday, Biden assailed Trump’s stewardship of the economy during the coronavirus pandemic.
“Donald Trump’s malpractice during this pandemic has made being a working American life-or-death work,” he said, arguing that Trump’s response depended the economic crisis.
He said the president’s pre-occupation with the stock market belies the real economic hurt facing low-income Americans, particularly people of color who have been hit hardest by the virus.
“The painful truth is we just have a president who just doesn’t see it. He doesn’t feel it,” Biden said. “He doesn’t understand. He just doesn’t care. .... He thinks if the stock market is up that everything’s fine.”
Biden assails Trump: 'Who the heck does he think he is?'
A visibly angry Joe Biden called Trump’s comments on the military, as reported by the Atlantic, “disgusting” and said the story is further evidence that his opponent is “not fit to be commander-in-chief”.
“When my son volunteered and joined the United States military — and went to Iraq for a year, won the Bronze Star and other commendations, he was not a sucker,” Biden said, his voice rising, as he opened his remarks on the economy from Wilmington on Friday. His son Beau, who died of brain cancer in 2015, was deployed to Iraq in 2008.
“If these statements are true, the president should humbly apologize to every Gold Star mother and father and every Blue Star family,” Biden said.
He adds angrily: “Who the heck does he think he is?”
“I’m always cautioned not to lose my temper,” Biden said. “This may be as close as I come in this campaign. It’s just a marker of how deeply the president and I disagree on the role of the president of the United States of America.”
The Biden campaign is seizing on Trump’s alleged comments about American service members, releasing a new campaign video that pulls directly from the story.
New Biden campaign video pulls quotes directly from @TheAtlantic story
— Johnny Verhovek (@JTHVerhovek) September 4, 2020
“If you don’t respect our troops, you cannot lead them,” video concludes pic.twitter.com/fn1aM4dC6j
Updated
After days of talks between Serbia and Kosovo, brokered by the US, the countries agreed to take steps toward economic normalization – and offered Trump an important diplomatic victory.
Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump announced that Serbia had committed to moving its Israeli embassy to Jerusalem.
Congratulations to @predsednikrs Vucic for announcing the move of Serbia’s Embassy to Jerusalem by July. It is a brave and historic move!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 4, 2020
Serbia’s decision to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem follows the controversial move by the Trump administration, which moved the US embassy there in May 2018.
Updated
Speaking from the Oval Office on Friday, Trump publicly denied the Atlantic article and claimed to have done more for the military than “almost anybody.”
Asked if he should apologize for his comments about service members, as reported by the Atlantic, Trump said: “No, it was a fake story.”
Q: "Do you need to apologize to service members and veterans?"
— CSPAN (@cspan) September 4, 2020
President Trump: "No. It was a fake story." pic.twitter.com/tWCeiQWPAu
Contrary to the report, Trump said he does not consider those who died in combat to be “suckers” or “losers” but to be “absolute heroes.”
“It was a terrible thing that somebody could say the kinds of things –especially to me, because I’ve done more for the military than almost anybody else,” he told reporters, during a signing ceremony with the president of Serbia and the prime minister of Kosovo regarding the increased economic normalization between the two nations.
One achievement Trump has repeatedly taken credit for is the Veterans Choice program. But that was signed into law in 2014, by then-president Barack Obama.
Trump has lied more than 150 times that he is the one who got the Veterans Choice program.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) September 4, 2020
It’s especially egregious when he wields Choice to claim he’s done more than John McCain, who is, unlike Trump, actually responsible for getting Choice: https://t.co/MQRgQXEwNR
Updated
The Fraternal Order of Police, the nation’s largest police union, voted unanimously in favor of endorsing Trump this election cycle, praising him as “America’s law and order president.”
On behalf of the 355,000 members of the Fraternal Order of Police, we are proud to unanimously endorse @realDonaldTrump for President of the United States. #FOP4Trump pic.twitter.com/uAF6SWNRnA
— National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) (@GLFOP) September 4, 2020
“Look at what the national discourse has focused on for the last six months, Patrick Yoes, the group’s president, said in a statement. “President Trump has shown time after time that he supports our law enforcement officers and understands the issues our members face every day. The FOP is proud to endorse a candidate who calls for law and order across our nation. He has the full and enthusiastic support of the FOP.”
The endorsement comes amid a roiling national debate over police brutality and systemic racism in law enforcement after a summer of unrest in response to a series of high-profile and often lethal encounters between Black Americans and white officers.
Amid scenes of street violence that has occurred alongside mostly peaceful protests, Trump has reoriented his campaign around a message of law-and-order, in an attempt to boost his standing against Biden.
During a visit this week to Kenosha, where protests continued for a second week in response to the shooting of Jacob Blake, Trump focused on the violence that had erupted there and deflected protesters concerns about racism.
Update: Facebook spokesman Andy Stone says the company has removed the image by Republican candidate Marjorie Greene after journalists highlighted her remarks.
Thanks for raising this. We've removed this image as it violates our policies.
— Andy Stone (@andymstone) September 4, 2020
Greene used a past decision by Facebook to remove one of her ads to decry the alleged bias of Big Tech and rally supporters around her anti-establishment message.
Republican candidate Marjorie Green Taylor, who has expressed support for the baseless conspiracy theory Qanon and is all-but certain to win her race in a heavily Republican Georgia congressional district, has posted a Facebook photo of herself wielding a gun next to images of three progressive congresswomen.
Here’s the photo she posted: https://t.co/psgZSVV8Tw pic.twitter.com/60bXKMDacP
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) September 4, 2020
The post, published on Thursday, includes members of the so-called “Squad”, including Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, the first two Muslim women to serve in Congress, as well as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the progressive New York Democrat and Republican bête noire. It’s captioned: “Squad’s worst nightmare.”
“SAVE AMERICA. STOP SOCIALISM. DEFEAT THE DEMOCRATS!” says the accompanying post, which is signed “Marjorie.”
Greene has said that Muslims do not belong in government.
After she won her runoff primary in August, Trump hailed Greene as a “future Republican star.”
Facebook previously removed an ad in which Greene brandished a rifle and threatened Antifa protesters, saying the content violated its policies against inciting violence.
Updated
Trump criticized for reported military comments: 'His soul cannot conceive of integrity and honor'
Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth, a Purple Heart recipient who lost both of her legs during a combat mission in Iraq, lashed Trump for his comments about American service members, accusing him of attempting to “politicize and pervert our military to stroke his own ego,” on a press call hosted by Biden’s campaign.
This is a man who spends every day redefining the concept of narcissism; a man who’s lead a life of privilege, with everything handed to him on a silver platter. Of course, he thinks about war selfishly. He thinks of it as a transactional cost, instead of in human lives and American blood spilled, because that’s how he’s viewed his whole life. He doesn’t understand other people’s bravery and courage because he’s never had any of his own.
“I take my wheelchair, and my titanium legs over Donald Trump suppose that bone spurs any day,” she added, referring to the reason Trump received draft deferments during the Vietnam war.
Duckworth, who was vetted to be Biden’s running mate, has nicknamed Trump “Cadet Bone Spurs.”
The call also included Democratic congressman Conor Lamb, a Marine veteran and Khzir Khan, a Gold star father whose son was killed by a suicide bomber in Iraq in 2004.
Khan said Trump is “incapable – let me repeat it again – he is incapable of understanding service, valor and courage.”
“His soul cannot conceive of integrity and honor,” Khan continued. “His soul is that of a coward.”
Asked if the anonymously quoted sources should come forward publicly, Duckworth and Lamb said that was their prerogative, but stressed that the private episodes detailed in the story echo what Trump has said publicly. They hoped this story would help sharpen the contrast between Trump and Biden, whose late son, Beau, whose National Guard unit deployed to Iraq in 2008.
Read more from my colleague David Smith, who interviewed Khan last month:
Updated
USA Today has obtained a memo from the Pentagon that orders the publisher of Stars and Stripes to present a plan to shutter the military newspaper by 15 September.
NEW: Trump orders the military's legendary independent newspaper @starsandstripes to stop publishing on Sept. 30. Shutdown plan due by Sept. 15. @USATODAY has the Pentagon memo: https://t.co/BUgBaDEkFo via @usatoday
— Kevin Baron (@DefenseBaron) September 4, 2020
Kathy Kiely, an opinion contributor at USA Today, writes:
In a heretofore unpublicized recent memo, the Pentagon delivered an order to shutter Stars and Stripes, a newspaper that has been a lifeline and a voice for American troops since the Civil War. The memo orders the publisher of the news organization (which now publishes online as well as in print) to present a plan that “dissolves the Stars and Stripes” by Sept. 15 including “specific timeline for vacating government owned/leased space worldwide.
The last newspaper publication (in all forms) will be September 30, 2020,” writes Col. Paul Haverstick Jr., the memo’s author.
The newspaper began publication during the American civil war and remains the “local paper” of the military, delivered daily to troops stationed around the world, including those on the frontlines.
I read Stars and Stripes on a mountain in Afghanistan when I was a 19 year old aspiring journalist. Now I work there. This doesn’t stop the journalism. I’m juggling 3 future news stories today. https://t.co/z9ZEHWa7mW
— Steve Beynon (@StevenBeynon) September 4, 2020
This Tweet was shared by the official account of Stars and Stripes.
A new ABC News/Ipsos poll release on Friday found that a majority of Americans believe Trump’s response to the protests has made the unrest worse, not better.
Fifty-five percent of Americans in the new poll say they think Trump is aggravating the situation, while 13% say they think he is making it better.
Fewer than one-third, 29%, believe what Trump has said on the topic has had no effect on the protests over racial injustice,” ABC reports.
Among his base, 30% of Republicans say the president is improving the situation, compared to 26% who say he’s having an adverse impact. Only 18% of white, non-college educated Americans, another core constituency for the president, believe he is having a positive effect on the protests, while 41% view his comments on the demonstrations amid the debate over racial equality as having a negative influence.”
The findings call into question the effectiveness of Trump’s attempt to reframe the race against Biden around his “law and order” messaging
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo defended the president’s support of members of the military in an interview on Friday morning.
Speaking to radio host Hugh Hewitt, Pompeo said he had not read the Atlantic article but insisted the description does not comport with what he knows about Trump.
“I’ve never heard that. Indeed, just the opposite,” Pompeo told the radio host. “I’ve been around him in lots of settings where there were both active duty military, Guardsmen, reservists, veterans. This is a man who had the deepest respect for their service, and he always, he always interacted with them in that way. He enjoys those times. He values those people.”
Yet the comments echo those that Trump made publicly about Senator John McCain as a presidential candidate, when he said he preferred people who “weren’t captured.”
“He lost and let us down,” Trump continued in 2015, referring to McCain’s capture and subsequent torture in Vietnam. “I’ve never liked him as much after that.”
The Atlantic article, citing anonymous sources, says that Trump used similar language to privately describe members of the military who were captured or killed in combat.
Trump received deferments from Vietnam because of alleged bone spurs in his feet and has claimed avoiding sexually transmitted diseases was his “personal Vietnam.”
Updated
US economy adds 1.4 million jobs
The US economy added 1.4 million jobs in August, the Labor Department said on Friday, as unemployment fell below 10% for the first time since the coronavirus forced the nation to halt economic activity.
The Trump campaign seized on the toplines, claiming that Trump has positioned the US to “reopen faster than doomsayers like Biden predicted.”
But the Guardian’s Dominic Rushe reports that there are troubling signs in the numbers.
“August’s figure was also boosted by the temporary hiring of 238,000 people to conduct the 2020 Census,” he writes.
“The racial disparities in unemployment remained. The unemployment rate for Black Americans (13%) was almost double the rate for whites (7.3%). The rate for Latinx Americans was 10.5% and for Asians, 10.7%.”
Trump reportedly disparaged members of the US military
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s coverage of US political news.
Today we’re watching the fallout from a stunning report in the Atlantic – and later confirmed by the Associated Press and the Washington Post – detailing multiple occasions in which Donald Trump disparaged members of the US military who have been captured or killed as “suckers” and “losers”. The White House vehemently denied the story, calling it “reprehensible lies” while Trump falsely claimed that he “never called” Senator John McCain, a prisoner of war in Vietnam who died in 2018, a “loser.”
The story broke hours before North Carolina, which has one of the largest military populations in the US, began sending out absentee ballots to voters on Friday.
At a rally in the state on Wednesday, Trump suggested voters in North Carolina vote by mail and in person in November’s election, prompting a sharp response from the state’s election chief.
“It is illegal to vote twice in an election,” said Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the North Carolina state board of elections, said in a statement.
Trump today will greet the president of Serbia and the prime minister of Kosovo for a signing ceremony and a trilateral meeting.
Biden is due to give remarks on “the economic crisis that has been worsened by Trump’s failure to get the virus under control” from his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, later this afternoon.
Updated
