Summary
From me and Joan E Greve:
- The Trump administration has refused to join an international effort to develop and distribute a coronavirus vaccine. The US has chosen to go it alone, making deals directly with vaccine manufacturers. The World Health Organization, which helped coordinate the alliance among more than 170 countries says the US would be free to pursue bilateral agreements with drug companies alongside involvement in the international group, which could provide Americans with backup options should any of its vaccine efforts fail.
- Trump visited Kenosha, Wisconsin, as protests continue over the police shooting of Jacob Blake. The president toured damaged property with several senior administration officials, including attorney general William Barr, but Trump did not meet with the family of Blake, who was repeatedly shot in the back by Kenosha police. Asked during a roundtable whether he considers violence against people of color to be a systemic problem for police departments, Trump said no.
- Democrats have hit back at Trump and his supporters’ claims that a Biden presidency would bring more unrest. In a new campaign ad portraying right-wing violence and threats alongside police brutality against protestors, the Democrats presented a bleak depiction of “Trump’s America”.
- A federal appeals court temporarily blocked the Manhattan district attorney from obtaining Trump’s tax returns. The three-judge panel granted a temporary stay until the president’s appeal in the case plays out in court. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for 25 September.
- Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin testified before the House subcommittee reviewing the federal government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. Mnuchin indicated he still supports the passage of another coronavirus relief bill, but negotiations between the White House and congressional Democrats remain stalled over the topline cost of the package.
- New York City delayed resuming in-person classes. The city planned to resume classes next week with a combination of virtual and in-person instruction, but the start date has been pushed back to 21 September, after teachers threatened to strike over the plan.
- The White House physician said Trump had never experienced a stroke. In a tweet this morning, the president denied having “suffered a series of mini-strokes”, in response to allegations from some of his Twitter critics. A new book reports that, during Trump’s unexpected visit to Walter Reed Medical Center last year, Vice President Mike Pence was “on standby to take over the powers of the presidency temporarily if Trump had to undergo a procedure that would have required him to be anesthetized”.But the book’s author said he did not report the cause of Trump’s visit.
The Russian agency that interfered in the 2016 US election created a fake leftwing news publication, staffed it with fake editors with AI-generated photos and hired real freelance reporters as part of a fresh influence operation detected and removed by Facebook, the company said on Tuesday.
The latest operation by the Internet Research Agency (IRA) was still in its early stages when it was detected thanks to a tip from the FBI, according to Facebook’s head of security policy, Nathaniel Gleicher. The network had 13 accounts and two pages, with about 14,000 total followers.
The Facebook accounts and pages were designed to bolster PeaceData.net, an English- and Arabic-language website that claims to be a “global news organization”, but whose editorial staff are fictitious. Headshots of PeaceData’s “staff” were created using Generative Adversarial Networks, a type of AI that can produce lifelike images of faces, according to Graphika, a social media analysis firm that produced a report on the IRA operation.
“They put substantial effort into creating elaborate fictitious personas, trying to make fake accounts look as real as possible,” Gleicher said.
Many of the characters had profiles on Twitter and LinkedIn. Twitter said on Tuesday that it had suspended five accounts associated with PeaceData for “platform manipulation that we can reliably attribute to Russian state actors”. The company said tweets from the accounts were “low quality” and “spammy”, and that it would block links to content from PeaceData. LinkedIn did not immediately respond to a query.
Two Los Angeles sheriff’s deputies fatally shot a Black man after ordering him to stop on his bicycle, the latest police shooting to rock the region in recent months.
Family members identified the 29-year-old as Dijon Kizzee, 29, CBSLos Angeles reported. Officers shot him on Monday afternoon, after they tried to stop him for allegedly violating vehicle codes.
Kizzee’s body was left in the streets for hours, sparking a large demonstration of angry residents and activists demanding accountability for a sheriff’s agency with a legacy of controversial killings, brutality cases and corruption scandals.
The sheriff’s lieutenant Brandon Dean said two deputies from the South Los Angeles station had been driving in the South Los Angeles neighborhood of Westmont when they saw a man riding his bicycle in violation of vehicle codes, according to the Los Angeles Times. It was not known which codes the man allegedly broke, Dean said.
Agencies contributed reporting.
In a new ad, the Democrats have hit back at Republican claims that a Joe Biden presidency would bring about lawlessness, collating video of police brutality and rightwing, white supremacist violence and threats under the banner “This is Trump’s America”.
The ad features video of the deadly Charlottesville Unite the Right rally, and of Kyle Rittenhouse, the Trump supporter who has been charged with killing two people in Kenosha.
The Democrats’ video counters ongoing messages from the Trump campaign and Republicans depicting scenes of destruction as part of “Biden’s America”.
Updated
From Adam Mahoney in Kenosha, Wisconsin:
As Donald Trump toured parts of the Wisconsin city of Kenosha on Tuesday – against the wishes of local government officials – the family of Jacob Blake, the young Black father now paralyzed after being shot by city police, had a message for the visiting US president.
Justin Blake, Jacob’s uncle, kicked off a community party on the same Kenosha block where his nephew was shot multiple times in the back by a police officer. The shooting triggered yet another harsh examination of US police practices and led to the gun deaths of two protesters, killed by a white militia supporter last week.
“We’re not going to let anyone smudge my nephew’s name,” said Justin Blake, as Trump held court elsewhere with local law enforcement and criticized the protesters who had taken to streets after the shooting.
“We don’t have any words for the orange man in the White House,” Blake added.
Trump’s visit came to a town at the center of US politics following Blake’s shooting, the nights of protest and vandalism that it triggered, and finally the deaths of two protesters allegedly at the hands of Kyle Rittenhouse, who now stands charged with murder.
Trump had billed his trip to Kenosha as a unifying move, but Blake’s family declined to meet with him and his schedule was dominated by meetings with local police officials and business leaders. He toured damaged property and paid far more attention to the destruction than to the police shooting that preceded it.
To many residents, especially Black citizens, Trump’s visit was roundly unwelcome, echoing the local mayor, John Antaramian, and Wisconsin governor, Tony Evers, who had asked the president not to come. At the local courthouse, about 100 Trump supporters and a similar number of Black Lives Matter supporters traded chants back and forth. About 50 yards away, members of the national guard sat laughing and joking behind the courthouse wall.
Jacob Ansari, a 42-year-old IT security adviser, wore a shirt depicting the Republican party being thrown into the trash. He said: “The president has no business being here and inflaming tension. He’s riling up his supporters and bringing in all these people who aren’t wearing masks and who have the potential to incite more violence.”
Speaking with Fox News, Mike Pence responded to a report in a new book that during an unexpected visit to Walter Reed medical center by Donald Trump last year, Pence was “on standby to take over the powers of the presidency temporarily if Trump had to undergo a procedure that would have required him to be anesthetized”.
The vice-president told the host Brett Baier: “I don’t recall being told to be on ‘standby’... but the American people can be confident that this president is in remarkable health.”
In a tweet this morning, Trump denied having “suffered a series of mini-strokes”, responding to allegations from critics on social media. The White House physician also issued a statement never experienced a stroke. Both were apparently responding to Twitter critics, as no reputable news organization has alleged that the president suffered a stroke. Joe Lockhart, and political analyst who contributes to CNN asked whether that might have in a tweet – prompting the Trump campaign to issue a an attack on his record as a political consultant.
Updated
Critics have asked MSNBC host Joy Reid to apologize after she compared how the media talks about “the way Muslims act” to the discourse around Donald Trump’s radicalized supporters.
“When leaders – let’s say – in the Muslim world talk a lot of violent talk and encourage their supporters to be willing to commit violence,” Reid said, “We in the US media describe that as they are radicalizing those people – particularly they are radicalizing young people. That’s how we talk about the way Muslims act.”
“When you see what Donald Trump is doing, is that any different from what we describe as radicalizing people?” she continued.
Honestly, this kinda of casual Islamophobia is hurtful and dangerous.
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) September 1, 2020
We deserve better and an apology for the painful moment for so many Muslims around our country should be forthcoming. https://t.co/megnZyL9dd
Minnesota representative Ilhan Omar said, “Honestly, this kinda (sic) of casual Islamophobia is hurtful and dangerous” and called on Reid to deliver “an apology for the painful moment for so many Muslims”.
The civil rights group Muslim Advocates said Reid’s “comments are the latest in a longstanding pattern. Muslim Advocates has previously raised concerns about posts on Reid’s old blog that shared similar, anti-Muslim sentiments.”
Madihha Ahussain, Muslim Advocates’s special counsel for anti-Muslim bigotry, said, “an unfortunate reality for American Muslims today is that anti-Muslim comments like this are routinely made by people who are ostensibly sympathetic to us. But that should not give them a pass to promote hate.”
Updated
US won't join international group to find coronavirus vaccine
The Trump administration said it won’t join an international group to develop and distribute a Covid-19 vaccine because of the coalition’s association with the World Health Organization.
The decision not to join more than 170 countries in the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access Facility, or Covax, first reported by the Washington Post, follows the administration’s decision this summer to pull out of the WHO.
Donald Trump has often scapegoated the WHO for the severity of the coronavirus pandemic in the US, accusing the international health agency, without evidence, of withholding information.
The WHO says that even countries like the US – which is working directly with drug manufactures to secure a vaccine – would benefit from participating in the international alliance, as Covax would provide backup options incase the ones the US is pursuing aren’t successful.
Updated
August was deadliest month for coronavirus in California and Idaho
As August came to a close, several states marked the month as their deadliest yet in battling the coronavirus pandemic, including Idaho and California.
According to an LA Times analysis, California reported 3,745 Covid-19 deaths in August, an 18% increase since July. With 700,000 coronavirus cases, California had the most in the country.
Meanwhile in Idaho, the number of deaths last month nearly doubled.
But as the US reached the milestone on Sunday of more than 6m coronavirus infections nationwide, it is midwestern states such as Iowa, North and South Dakota, as well as Minnesota that have emerged as the nation’s fastest-growing areas for the virus.
On Sunday, White House coronavirus taskforce experts cautioned Iowa lawmakers that the nation’s current hotspot should close bars in 61 counties and test all returning college students.
Still, Iowa State University planned to host 25,000 fans at its football home opener in Ames on 12 September, despite the New York Times labeling it the country’s worst coronavirus “hotspot” city.
“If we determine that mitigation measures were not followed adequately at the first game, we will have no fans at future games,” the athletic director, Jamie Pollard, told fans in a letter published on Monday.
Data supports some health officials who say the outbreak may be slowing down. Nationwide, new cases, deaths, hospitalizations and the rate of positive tests have all declined.
But while new daily cases have continued their downward trend and the rate of daily reported deaths remains well below its spring peak, the total more than doubled on average since early July. The US is currently on track to reach a sobering total of 200,000 deaths by mid-September.
The outbreak continues to wreak havoc on vulnerable groups including the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions. Officials with the Department of Veterans Affairs also reported more coronavirus deaths in August compared with previous months.
Updated
Today so far
That’s it from me 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:
- Trump visited Kenosha, Wisconsin, as protests continue over the police shooting of Jacob Blake. The president toured damaged property with several senior administration officials, including attorney general William Barr, but Trump did not meet with the family of Blake, who was repeatedly shot in the back by Kenosha police. Asked during a roundtable whether he considers violence against people of color to be a systemic problem for police departments, Trump said no.
- A federal appeals court temporarily blocked the Manhattan district attorney from obtaining Trump’s tax returns. The three-judge panel granted a temporary stay until the president’s appeal in the case plays out in court. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for 25 September.
- Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin testified before the House subcommittee reviewing the federal government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. Mnuchin indicated he still supports the passage of another coronavirus relief bill, but negotiations between the White House and congressional Democrats remain stalled over the topline cost of the package.
- New York City delayed resuming in-person classes. The city planned to resume classes next week with a combination of virtual and in-person instruction, but the start date has been pushed back to 21 September, after teachers threatened to strike over the plan.
- The White House physician said Trump had never experienced a stroke. In a tweet this morning, the president denied having “suffered a series of mini-strokes”, in response to allegations from some of his Twitter critics. A new book reports that, during Trump’s unexpected visit to Walter Reed Medical Center last year, Vice President Mike Pence was “on standby to take over the powers of the presidency temporarily if Trump had to undergo a procedure that would have required him to be anesthetized”. But the book’s author said he did not report the cause of Trump’s visit.
Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
Updated
Trump to use CDC to block evictions - report
Trump is reportedly expected to use his executive authority to block evictions, as negotiations over the next coronavirus relief package remain stalled.
Bloomberg News reports:
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention plans to temporarily halt evictions of consumers earning no more than $99,000 a year to prevent the virus from spreading, a senior administration official said Tuesday. The policy will take effect immediately.
The administration is acting unilaterally after failing to reach a deal with lawmakers over another round of stimulus relief funding, aimed in part at keeping renters in their homes.
To obtain the relief, renters must assert they are incapable of paying their rent or are likely to become homeless if kicked out of their property, the administration official said.
Individuals who received a coronavirus stimulus check earlier this year also qualify for the protection, as do couples who jointly file their taxes and expect to earn less than $198,000.
The move is an unprecedented use of executive authority, and may face legal challenges from landlords who have seen rental income evaporate during the crisis. But administration officials believe they have the ability under a federal law that allows the CDC to order emergency measures when it determines that state and local governments haven’t taken sufficient steps to prevent the spread of a communicable disease.
Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin testified today before the House subcommittee reviewing the federal response to the pandemic, and he signaled he still supported passing another relief bill, but the White House and congressional Democrats have been unable to agree on a topline cost for the package.
Democratic nominee Joe Biden raised at least $350m in August, according to Bloomberg News.
NEWS: The Biden campaign and DNC will report raising more than $350 million in August. Final number is still being calculated and could be higher. https://t.co/gj24VleGcO
— Tyler Pager (@tylerpager) September 1, 2020
The New York Times reported earlier today that Biden’s August fundraising total was at least $300m, representing a record-breaking sum.
But Biden’s team is still totaling the money that was raised, and it now appears the final figure will be closer to $400m.
In comparison, Hillary Clinton raised $143m in August 2016. The current single-month fundraising record is believed to be held by Barack Obama, who raised $193m in September 2008.
Updated
During his roundtable in Kenosha, Trump briefly acknowledged the widespread protests against racism and police brutality, but he quickly pivoted to his calls for “law and order”.
"They want law and order ... where they aren't raped and murdered" -- Trump simply refuses to acknowledge that Black Lives Matter protesters have any valid claims whatsoever pic.twitter.com/qBzcPbvId6
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 1, 2020
“I think people are calling for structural change, and then you could take the people of Kenosha … that you won’t see and that aren’t protesting, but they want change also. They want to see law and order. That’s the change they want,” Trump told reporters, as they pressed the president for his thoughts on the protests, which have been mostly peaceful.
“They want people that are going to keep them safe, where their houses aren’t being broken, where they’re not raped and murdered. That’s what they want. And they’re protesters, too, but they don’t walk down the street, up and down the street.”
Updated
Trump dodges questions about mostly peaceful protests
Trump said he does not consider violence toward Americans of color to be a systemic issue for police departments.
Taking questions after his roundtable on community safety in Kenosha, Trump said, “I think the police do an incredible job, and I think you do have some bad apples.”
Q: Do you believe systemic racism is a problem in this country?
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 1, 2020
TRUMP: "We should talk about the kind of violence we've seen in Portland and here and other places... you have anarchists, and you have the looters, and you have the rioters... that's what you should be focused on." pic.twitter.com/vZEaXflAub
The president argued some of the recent police violence stems from officers being “under this tremendous pressure” and not handling those situations well.
“They call it choking, and it happens,” Trump said.
The president repeatedly dodged questions about the recent protests against racism and policing, which have been mostly peaceful. When reporters pressed Trump for his thoughts on the protests, he kept trying to redirect the conversation.
“Well, you know, you just keep getting back to the opposite subject,” Trump told one reporter who asked about the protests. “We should talk about the kind of violence that we’ve seen in Portland and here and other places.”
Trump has repeatedly indicated that the situation in Kenosha, Wisconsin, improved after the state’s Democratic governor called in the National Guard.
Officials in Wisconsin continue to stress that Pres Trump is not telling the truth when he says law enforcement in Kenosha has been federalized. Gov Evers deployed Wisconsin National Guard troops & got National Guard troops from other states.
— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) September 1, 2020
FBI & US Marshals are also helping.
But it’s worth noting that Governor Tony Evers deployed Wisconsin National Guard troops and used some National Guard members from other states, but none of those troops have been federalized. It was not Trump who called in the National Guard.
Some federal agents from the FBI and the US Marshals Service are also helping in Kenosha.
Days after the police shooting of Jacob Blake, Trump praised the “great people” who serve as law enforcement officers.
“We’re all safe, and we’re safe because of law enforcement,” Trump said during his roundtable on community safety in Kenosha. “And we honor you.”
The president then called on Americans to “condemn the dangerous, anti-police rhetoric” whenever it arises.
It’s worth noting that Trump received criticism yesterday, when he refused to condemn the alleged actions of 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse, who has been charged with murdering two protesters in Kenosha.
Trump is now holding a roundtable on “Wisconsin community safety” in Kenosha, amid ongoing protests over the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
The president opened the roundtable by asking, “Where is my Reince?” That was a reference to Trump’s first White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus, who is from Wisconsin.
Trump said his visit today was meant to show support for the people of Kenosha and the people of Wisconsin.
“The state of Wisconsin has been very good to me,” Trump said.
The president carried Wisconsin by less than 1 point in 2016, and Trump’s team views the state as crucial for his reelection effort.
Appeals court rules Manhattan DA cannot get Trump's tax returns for now
A federal appeals court has ruled that the Manhattan district attorney may not immediately obtain Trump’s tax returns.
A three-judge panel granted the president’s request for a temporary stay as his legal team appeals a previous decision allowing Manhattan district attorney Cy Vance access to his financial records.
“The question at this juncture is quite simple but also quite important,” one of the president’s lawyers, William Consovoy, said. “Will the president be given an opportunity to appeal that ruling before his personal records are disclosed to the grand jury and the status quo is irrevocably changed?”
Consovoy criticized the DA’s subpoena as part of an “arbitrary fishing expedition,” but Vance’s team has said they need a wide range of documents to aid a “complex financial investigation.”
Trump’s appeal is expected to be resolved in a matter of weeks, with a hearing in the case set for 25 September.
The appeals court’s decision comes two months after the supreme court rejected the president’s argument that he was immune from grand jury requests.
Updated
After arriving in Kenosha, Trump surveyed property that had been damaged amid recent protests over the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
Trump in Kenosha pic.twitter.com/MyK07qPnX5
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) September 1, 2020
The president is also scheduled to soon participate in a roundtable on “Wisconsin community safety,” but Trump is not expected to meet with Blake’s family.
Meanwhile, the site of Blake’s shooting has turned into a block party, as his family calls for “healing the community”.
The scene of Jacob Blake’s shooting has been turned into a block party as President Trump visits another part of Kenosha. pic.twitter.com/fmkilI4sUY
— Patrick Marley (@patrickdmarley) September 1, 2020
Updated
White House doctor says Trump never experienced a stroke
The White House has issued a statement from Dr Sean Conley, the physician to the president, regarding Trump’s health.
“I can confirm that President Trump has not experienced nor been evaluated for a cerebrovascular accident (stroke), transient ischemic attack (mini stroke), or any acute cardiovascular emergencies, as have been incorrectly reported in the media,” Conley said.
“The President remains healthy and I have no concerns about his ability to maintain the rigorous schedule ahead of him. As stated in my last report, I expect him to remain fit to execute the duties of the Presidency.”
White House statement from Dr. Sean P. Conley, Physician to the President: pic.twitter.com/9ty3n4pM3x
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) September 1, 2020
It’s important to note that no reputable news outlet has reported Trump had a stroke or a mini-stroke.
According to the New York Times, journalist Michael Schmidt reports in his new book that, during Trump’s unexpected visit to Walter Reed Medical Center last year, Vice President Mike Pence was “on standby to take over the powers of the presidency temporarily if Trump had to undergo a procedure that would have required him to be anesthetized.” But Schmidt said the book does not speculate about the cause of the visit.
Trump instead appears to have been replying to some of his Twitter critics when he tweeted this morning, “It never ends! Now they are trying to say that your favorite President, me, went to Walter Reed Medical Center, having suffered a series of mini-strokes. Never happened to THIS candidate - FAKE NEWS.”
Updated
Trump and attorney general arrive in Kenosha
Trump has arrived in Kenosha, Wisconsin, accompanied by several senior administration officials, including attorney general William Barr.
.@realDonaldTrump has brought Attorney General Bill Barr along for trip to Kenosha, Wisconsin. pic.twitter.com/UWGIYBwVoQ
— Jeff Mason (@jeffmason1) September 1, 2020
The president is expected to meet with local law enforcement officials and tour damaged property, as protests continue over the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
The Guardian’s Ankita Rao reports:
Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan announced today that they will invest $300m in election infrastructure, including poll worker recruitment, polling place rentals and drive-through voting.
The announcement comes after congressional Republicans have repeatedly denied more election funding in the recent Covid-19 aid bills. While organizations like the Brennan Center have estimated that it would require $4bn to run this year’s election, there has only been a fraction of that allocated so far.
Zuckerberg and Chan are funneling their contribution through nonpartisan organizations such as The Center for Tech and Civic Life and Center for Election Innovation and Research.
State officials have applauded the investment. “In a time when so much is changing around us, Americans need to know now more than ever how to make their vote count this fall,” said Frank LaRose, Ohio’s Secretary of State, in a press release.
But critics pointed out that Zuckerberg’s investment also contradicts the Facebook platform itself, and how it has undermined democratic processes for years, from peddling disinformation about voting to targeted campaign ads to the rise of filter bubbles.
I don’t know who needs to hear this, but Mark Zuckerberg and Priscella Chan could give all their billions to pro-democracy charities and university centers and it will never make up for the damage Facebook has done and continues to do to democracy around the world.
— Justin Hendrix (@justinhendrix) September 1, 2020
Updated
Mnuchin testifies before House coronavirus subcommittee
Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin is testifying before the House subcommittee that is reviewing the federal economic response to the coronavirus pandemic.
The hearing is meant to “examine the urgent need for additional economic relief for children, workers, and families and the Administration’s implementation of key stimulus programs,” the subcommittee previously said.
The chairman of the subcommittee, Democratic Congressman Jim Clyburn, opened the hearing by criticizing the White House for not agreeing to Democrats’ compromise offer of crafting a $2 trillion package for the next coronavirus relief bill.
Republican Congressman Jim Jordan then delivered a fiery statement defending Trump’s response to the pandemic so far, saying the previous relief packages had helped millions of Americans.
In his opening statement, Mnuchin said, “I believe a bipartisan agreement still should be reached.”
Today so far
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- Trump is en route to Kenosha, Wisconsin, where protests continue over the police shooting of Jacob Blake. The president intends to meet with law enforcement officials and tour damaged property, but the family of Blake, who was repeatedly shot in the back by Kenosha police, has expressed little interest in speaking to Trump during his visit.
- New York City delayed resuming in-person classes. The city planned to resume classes next week with a combination of virtual and in-person instruction, but teachers had threatened to strike over the plan, so the start date has been pushed back to Sept. 21.
-
Trump denied having “suffered a series of mini-strokes.” A new book reports that, during Trump’s unexpected visit to Walter Reed Medical Center last year, Vice President Mike Pence was “on standby to take over the powers of the presidency temporarily if Trump had to undergo a procedure that would have required him to be anesthetized.” But the book’s author said he did not report the cause of Trump’s visit.
The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
Before leaving for Kenosha, Trump called on the Big Ten college football conference to “immediately” resume games, despite concerns about the spread of coronavirus.
“Had a very productive conversation with Kevin Warren, Commissioner of the Big Ten Conference, about immediately starting up Big Ten football,” Trump said in a tweet. “Would be good (great!) for everyone - Players, Fans, Country. On the one yard line!”
Had a very productive conversation with Kevin Warren, Commissioner of the Big Ten Conference, about immediately starting up Big Ten football. Would be good (great!) for everyone - Players, Fans, Country. On the one yard line!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 1, 2020
The Big Ten conference includes several teams in battleground states that will be key to Trump’s reelection bid, such as Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
The president’s tweet comes days after Joe Biden’s campaign released an ad blaming Trump for the suspension of many sports seasons because of his response to the pandemic.
Joe Biden is reportedly expected to announce he raised a record-breaking $300 million in August.
The New York Times reports:
The sum would shatter past monthly records as small donors have poured money into Mr. Biden’s coffers, especially since the selection of Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate, and big contributors, from Silicon Valley to Wall Street, have given checks that can be as large as $620,000.
In a sign of the financial momentum behind Democrats, ActBlue, the main site that processes donations to the party, reported the second-biggest fund-raising day in its history on Monday, with more than $35 million donated. A majority of Mr. Biden’s August total came from online grass-roots donors, according to another person familiar with the figures.
The people familiar with Mr. Biden’s fund-raising did not know the exact final figure for the month of August, or how much higher than $300 million it would be. ...
Mr. Biden’s sum laps what is believed to be the previous monthly record of $193 million, set by then-candidate Barack Obama in September 2008, though there is no formal record-keeping.
Reporter Michael Schmidt, the author of the new book Donald Trump v The United States, confirmed that his book does not mention anything about whether the president’s unexpected visit to Walter Reed last year had to do with him suffering from mini-strokes.
Book says nothing about mini-strokes. https://t.co/XGfJEMsORu
— Michael S. Schmidt (@nytmike) September 1, 2020
According to the New York Times, Schmidt’s book reports that, during Trump’s November 2019 visit to Walter Reed, Mike Pence was “on standby to take over the powers of the presidency temporarily if Trump had to undergo a procedure that would have required him to be anesthetized.”
Updated
Trump is en route to Kenosha, and the president took some questions from reporters before boarding Air Force One.
Asked whether he would meet with Jacob Blake’s family today, the president said he did not know, although members of Blake’s family have indicated little interest in speaking to Trump.
TRUMP: "A person was on a plane, said there were about 6 people like that person, more or less, and what happened is the entire plane filled up with the looters, the anarchists, rioters, people looking for trouble. The person felt very uncomfortable on the plane." pic.twitter.com/VP0idEzLNi
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 1, 2020
The president was also pressed on his conspiracy theory, shared with Fox News host Laura Ingraham last night, that a planeload of “thugs” wearing “black uniforms” attempted to disrupt last week’s Republican convention.
Trump provided no evidence to support the allegation, which appears to have been inspired by a months-old Facebook rumor.
The president claimed he had heard about the incident from a well known person, and he said he would check if that person would share more details on the matter.
“A person was on a plane, said that there were about six people like that person, more or less, and what happened is the entire plane filled up with the looters, the anarchists, the rioters, people that obviously were looking for trouble,” Trump said. “And the person felt very uncomfortable on the plane.”
A White House aide told NBC News that Trump’s tweet denying he’s “suffered a series of mini-strokes” was in response to a tweet from Bill Clinton’s former press secretary, Joe Lockhart.
A White House aide says Trump was referring to a Monday tweet from @joelockhart, President Clinton's former press secretary: "Did @realDonaldTrump have a stroke which he is hiding from the American public?" https://t.co/s5oJT4cHD1
— Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) September 1, 2020
Lockhart asked in a tweet yesterday, “Did @realDonaldTrump have a stroke which he is hiding from the American public?”
But it’s unclear why the president specifically denied having “a series of mini-strokes,” which Lockhart did not suggest in his tweet.
Trump denies 'having suffered a series of mini-strokes'
Trump just sent a tweet to push back against a report about his unexpected November 2019 visit to Walter Reed Medical Center.
“It never ends! Now they are trying to say that your favorite President, me, went to Walter Reed Medical Center, having suffered a series of mini-strokes,” Trump said in a tweet.
“Never happened to THIS candidate - FAKE NEWS. Perhaps they are referring to another candidate from another Party!”
It never ends! Now they are trying to say that your favorite President, me, went to Walter Reed Medical Center, having suffered a series of mini-strokes. Never happened to THIS candidate - FAKE NEWS. Perhaps they are referring to another candidate from another Party!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 1, 2020
But what’s noteworthy about Trump’s tweet is that the report he’s referring to does not mention anything about the cause of his visit to Walter Reed.
The New York Times reported this yesterday about journalist Michael Schmidt’s new book on Trump:
Describing Trump’s unexpected November 2019 visit to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, he reports the White House wanted Mike Pence ‘on standby to take over the powers of the presidency temporarily if Trump had to undergo a procedure that would have required him to be anesthetized.’ (The vice president never had to take this step.)
It’s unclear where Trump heard accusations that he had “suffered a series of mini-strokes.” The White House has said the president went to Walter Reed to begin his annual physical exam, although the results of the physical were not released until June.
NYC delays in-person classes by 11 days
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announced this morning that he was delaying resuming in-person classes in the city by 11 days.
The announcement comes as New York teachers threatened a strike over the plan to resume classes on 10 September.
Union leaders joined de Blasio at a press conference this morning, and they emphasized they believed it was possible to safely hold in-person classes, but teachers needed more time to prepare.
Classes will now resume on 21 September with a hybrid of in-person and online instruction for students.
New York’s plan to start the school year with some in-person classes was unique among the country’s largest school systems.
Schools leaders in Chicago, Los Angeles and Houston all decided to begin their academic years with solely virtual learning.
Updated
The president of the Kenosha NAACP said he does not want either of the presidential nominees to visit the city right now, as protests continue over the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
When asked whether Trump should be traveling to Kenosha today and whether Joe Biden should also visit the city, Kenosha NAACP president Anthony Davis said, “Not at this time. I would not like to see either candidate here.”
Davis argued the city needed time to heal after the shooting of Blake, an African-American father of six who was repeatedly shot in the back by Kenosha police.
“We have our own issues here in Kenosha,” Davis said. “We don’t need to be having candidates come here and talking to the people or hearing this or that or about what they’re going to do. We just need some time for ourselves.”
Markey and Kennedy face off in Senate primary
Voting is underway in Massachusetts, where Congressman Joe Kennedy has launched a primary challenge against Democratic Senator Ed Markey.
Recent opinion polls have given the advantage to Markey, a 74-year-old incumbent who is best known for co-sponsoring the Green New Deal.
If Markey can pull off a win, Kennedy will become the first member of his famous family to lose a political race in Massachusetts.
Kennedy has focused his campaign pitch on the need for a new generation of leaders, but polls indicate many young Democrats do not find that argument to be as persuasive as Markey’s record of backing progressive proposals.
While Markey has been endorsed by well-known progressives like Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Kennedy has received the endorsement of House speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Nearly 800,000 ballots had already been cast in the race as of yesterday morning. The results will start to come in tonight, and they will provide another data point on the future of the Democratic party.
On Monday, Donald Trump defended Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager charged with killing two protesters at anti-racism protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last week. On Tuesday, however, he was quite happy to attack NBA players for boycotting games over police brutality.
“People are tired of watching the highly political @NBA,” wrote Trump on Twitter. “Basketball ratings are WAY down, and they won’t be coming back. I hope football and baseball are watching and learning because the same thing will be happening to them. Stand tall for our Country and our Flag!!!”
Trump is correct that the NBA’s ratings have declined: the Athletic reported last month that viewership is down 45% since the 2011-12 season on network television broadcasts and 20% on ESPN. However, it is hard to put the blame entirely on politics: numbers were down before player protests started, while television viewership has declined generally as people watch online or on illegal feeds. Younger viewers are also believed to prefer highlights over watching full games.
The Milwaukee Bucks were the first team to boycott a game, doing so last week in response to the police shooting of Jacob Blake. Blake, who is black, was shot in the back in front of three of his children by a white police officer. Other NBA teams followed, as did teams in the WNBA, MLS, MLB and NHL.
Although white athletes have participated in the recent round of protests, more than 80% of NBA players are black, and Trump has a long history of attacking black athletes. In 2017, he called black NFL players kneeling during the national anthem “sons of bitches”, and has traded insults with the NBA’s biggest star, LeBron James.
Trump’s latest conspiracy theory may be based off a months-old Facebook rumor, as new reporting from NBC News indicates.
The president told Fox News host Laura Ingraham, “We had somebody get on a plane from a certain city this weekend. And in the plane, it was almost completely loaded with thugs, wearing these dark uniforms, black uniforms, with gear and this and that.”
Trump provided absolutely no evidence for that bizarre claim, but it appears the president might have been extrapolating from a viral Facebook post.
NBC News reports:
The claim about a flight matches a viral Facebook post from June 1 that falsely claimed, ‘At least a dozen males got off the plane in Boise from Seattle, dressed head to toe in black.’ The post, by an Emmett, Idaho man, warned residents to ‘Be ready for attacks downtown and residential areas,’ and claimed one passenger had ‘a tattoo that said Antifa America on his arm.’
That post was shared over 3,000 times on Facebook, and other pages from Idaho quickly added their own spin to it, like the Idaho branch of the far-right militia group 3 Percenters.
One post claimed that ‘Antifa has sent a plane load of their people’ and that the Payette County Sheriff’s Office confirmed it. Within days, that version of the rumor picked up enough steam in Idaho Facebook groups that the Payette County Sheriff’s Office had to release a statement insisting that the viral rumor was ‘false information.’
Jacob Blake’s family members have indicated they do not intend to meet Trump when the president visits Kenosha, Wisconsin, today.
Blake’s father, Jacob Blake Sr, said yesterday that he would not “play politics with my son’s life,” as the 29-year-old man remains hospitalized from multiple gunshot wounds to the back.
Blake Sr said the family has received threats, and he had to take his other son, 20, to the hospital for depression. “I received some threats, and it affected my son,” Blake Sr said.
Jacob Blake’s uncle, Justin Blake, said of Trump’s visit to Kenosha, “President Trump is a racist who stokes racial tensions. He has been stirring racial tensions since he got in the White House. Why, as Jacob’s uncle, would I want to talk to him? Our focus is on Jacob and healing the community.”
Justin Blake added that Blake Sr has indicated he “has no interest in speaking with President Trump.”
Fauci pushes back against conspiracy theory on coronavirus death toll
Dr Anthony Fauci pushed back against a conspiracy theory questioning the country’s coronavirus death toll, which Trump shared in a retweet this weekend.
FULL INTERVIEW: Dr. Fauci weighs in on 6M US coronavirus cases, deaths and comorbidity.@arobach https://t.co/Jmk8Ni1mQV pic.twitter.com/ELvo50X68N
— Good Morning America (@GMA) September 1, 2020
The theory centers on the issue of comorbidities, conditions like hypertension and diabetes that can make someone more susceptible to becoming severely ill with coronavirus.
Some have pointed to the presence of comorbidities in the vast majority of coronavirus deaths to argue that those people did not actually die from coronavirus. But as Fauci emphasized, that argument has no basis in reality.
“The numbers that you’ve been hearing, the 180,000-plus deaths, are real deaths from Covid-19,” Fauci told “Good Morning America” today.
“Let there not be any confusion about that. It’s not 9,000 deaths from Covid-19. It’s 180-plus thousand deaths.”
According to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, at least 183,602 Americans have now died from coronavirus, and the country has confirmed more than 6 million cases of the virus.
Donald Trump’s appetite for baseless conspiracy theories scaled new heights on Monday when he alleged that people in “dark shadows” are controlling Democratic rival Joe Biden.
The US president made a mysterious claim about “thugs” in “dark uniforms” flying into Washington and also compared police brutality against African Americans to golfers cracking under pressure.
With the presidential election just two months away, Trump was interviewed at the White House by Laura Ingraham, a host on the conservative Fox News network. “Who do you think is pulling Biden’s strings?” she asked. “Is it former Obama people?”
The president replied: “People that you’ve never heard of, people that are in the dark shadows. People that –”
Even Ingraham, evidently sympathetic to Trump, interjected: “What does that mean? That sounds like a conspiracy theory. Dark shadows. What is that?”
Trump insisted: “There are people that are on the streets, there are people that are controlling the streets.”
The conversation then took an even stranger turn. “We had somebody get on a plane from a certain city this weekend,” the president said. “And in the plane, it was almost completely loaded with thugs, wearing these dark uniforms, black uniforms, with gear and this and that.”
A puzzled Ingraham pressed for details. Trump deflected cryptically: “I’ll tell you some time. It’s under investigation right now.”
Trump to visit Kenosha amid ongoing protests over Blake shooting
Greetings from Washington, live blog readers.
Donald Trump will visit Kenosha, Wisconsin, today, as protests continue over the police shooting of Jacob Blake, an African American father of six who was repeatedly shot in the back by an officer.
Trump’s visit also comes less than a week after 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse was arrested for allegedly shooting and killing two protesters in Kenosha.
But while Democratic nominee Joe Biden has condemned recent violence, including the alleged actions of Rittenhouse, Trump has instead defended the accused murderer.
“I guess he was in very big trouble,” Trump said at a press briefing yesterday. “He probably would have been killed but it’s under investigation.”
Those comments, as well as Trump’s repeated calls for “law and order,” have sparked concerns that the president’s Kenosha visit will only further inflame racial tensions in the city.
Wisconsin’s Democratic governor, Tony Evers, said in a letter to Trump, “I am concerned your presence will only hinder our healing. I am concerned your presence will only delay our work to overcome division and move forward together.”
Trump will soon leave for Kenosha, so stay tuned.
