Trump's temper tantrum shows why we must stop praising those who don't accept defeat

Adrian Chiles

We are brought up to admire athletes for refusing to throw in the towel, but events in the White House are putting that mindset to the test. We all know a bad loser when we see one and we all know what a tantrum looks like. So there has been something wearily familiar about Trump the grump’s carry-on in the White House. If you have watched a football match or dealt with kids, or indeed adults, you’ll have come across his type before.

Except I am not sure we have. When you think about it, his kind of behaviour is actually rather rare. Then again, normalising the abnormal and hitherto unacceptable would appear to be the president’s special gift. I have seen many a tantrum in my time; I’m afraid I have had a few myself. But this is of a different order. It’s one thing to spit the dummy, throw the toys out and make a noise; it’s quite another to keep up the performance without calming down, sulking for a bit and then muttering a few apologies before moving on. I must admit I have upended a Monopoly board and, in the field of sporting endeavour, I once literally took my bat home. Not that it mattered; the others had bats of their own so they carried on without me. What a loser.

Sportspeople, especially footballers, are generally thought to be poor role models. Setting aside how they spend their private lives, on the pitch they contest every refereeing decision, feign injuries, cause injuries and generally cheat. But they know how to accept defeat. A match can be as hotly contested and ill-tempered as you like, yet, once the final whistle is blown, you rarely see anything but handshakes, hugs and the odd smile. When I was a kid watching West Brom play fierce local derbies against Aston Villa and Wolves on boggy 70s pitches, I remember being gobsmacked in grudging admiration at the sight of all the bonhomie as they trudged off at the end. I assumed this is what it meant to be an adult. For my part, I fantasised about harming every member of the opposition. Usually these homicidal urges passed within hours or sometimes days. I’ve grown up now and get these feelings only occasionally. more...

Pompeo brushes aside results of presidential election

MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is brushing aside results of last week’s presidential election showing that President Donald Trump lost his bid for a second term. Pompeo told reporters with a grin on Tuesday that the “transition” to a second Trump term would be “smooth,” but later said the State Department would be prepared no matter who is president on Inauguration Day.

Tongue-in-cheek or not, Pompeo's remarks implying that Trump might yet be reelected were striking, coming at a tense moment for the nation as Trump refuses to concede to President-elect Joe Biden. Pompeo, America's top diplomat and fourth-in-line for the presidency, spoke even as world leaders have been congratulating the former vice president. Pompeo, one of Trump’s most loyal Cabinet members, also dismissed as “ridiculous” the suggestion that Trump’s evidence-free claims of fraud could hurt America’s credibility when weighing in on foreign elections.

Pompeo's comments about the transition came in response to a question about whether the State Department was prepared to engage with the Biden team. “There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration,” Pompeo said with a chuckle, before shifting to a more serious tone. “We’re ready. The world is watching what’s taking place here. We’re going to count all the votes. When the process is complete, there will electors selected. There’s a process, the Constitution lays it out pretty clearly.” more...

1 in 5 children have vaccine-wary parents, which may affect future immunization campaigns

By Sandee LaMotte, CNN

(CNN) One in five children in the United States had a "vaccine hesitant" parent last year, according to new research from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Parental concerns over vaccine safety have contributed to several major outbreaks of preventable diseases in the US and other countries in recent years. The 2019 measles outbreak in the US -- the largest number of cases in 27 years -- was largely driven by parents in New York and Washington state who failed to follow childhood vaccine guidelines.

Outbreaks in the US of mumps and pertussis, or whooping cough, have also occurred in recent years due to a lack of basic childhood immunizations, while yearly flu vaccinations among children are much too low, according to the CDC.

Connection to Covid-19?

On a larger level, experts are concerned that vaccine hesitancy may also impact the ability of the US and other nations to control the coronavirus pandemic. Pollng varies, but an online poll by the Associated Press/NORC Center for Public Affairs in May found half of Americans would refuse or hesitant to take a Covid-19 vaccine, while a study by King's College London found a similar response in the UK. In May, about a fourth of the French population said they would refuse to take a vaccine.

"You have a lot of folks who are very concerned about injecting a foreign substance with potential preservatives and things like that into the body, something that's very unnatural," said Dr. Henry Wu, an associate professor of infectious diseases at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, who was not involved in the study. "The irony is vaccines are really a way to train your body to fight off infections naturally," said Wu, who directs the Emory TravelWell Center. more...

What Bill Barr’s memo and Mitch McConnell’s speech mean for the election

Top Republicans are starting to sound somewhat sympathetic to Trump’s unsubstantiated claims of fraud. But how far will it go?

By Andrew Prokop

President Donald Trump has refused to concede the election to Joe Biden, making unsubstantiated claims that he only lost because of fraud — and top Republicans are beginning to sound at least somewhat sympathetic to him. On Monday, Attorney General Bill Barr gave special authorization for US attorneys to investigate “substantial” allegations of election fraud, in a departure from the Justice Department’s typical practice of waiting until election results are certified to avoid influencing the results. After meeting with Barr, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a speech on the Senate floor that Trump was “100 percent within his rights to look into allegations of irregularities and weigh his legal options,” adding that “the courts are here to work through concerns.”

Later on Monday, news broke that Richard Pilger, the career Justice Department official who headed the Election Crimes Branch, resigned from his post in protest of Barr’s move, writing in an email to colleagues that the new guidance was “abrogating the forty-year-old Non-Interference Policy for ballot fraud investigations.” (Pilger has not resigned from the department entirely, though, just from his particular post.)

It’s unclear whether Barr’s authorization of election fraud investigations will lead to anything at all, much less a second term for Trump. To get to 270 electoral votes, Trump would need to somehow overturn the outcome in at least three states where Biden leads by 10,000 votes or more. Among the many (largely dubious) claims of election irregularities the president’s legal team has made so far, there’s nothing close to a claim that would disqualify that many votes. more...

The Republican Lawsuit To Overturn Obamacare Seems Doomed At The Supreme Court

Liberal and conservative justices alike took shots at the GOP lawsuit Tuesday. Chief Justice John Roberts said it’s “not our job” to overturn the law.

Paul McLeod BuzzFeed News Reporter

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court appears likely to uphold the Affordable Care Act after Justices John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh bluntly criticized the logic underpinning a Republican lawsuit against it Tuesday during oral arguments. Roberts and Kavanaugh seemed to clearly side with the court’s liberal wing of Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Stephen Breyer in rejecting the idea that the ACA should be declared unconstitutional as a whole. Other conservative justices were less direct but also expressed skepticism.

Kavanaugh said there is “fairly clear” precedent that even if Republicans prevail on more narrow points, the overall law should be left intact. Roberts, who wrote the 2012 opinion upholding Obamacare, said some members of Congress may have hoped the courts would repeal the law but “that’s not our job.” Republican states, led by Texas and joined by the Trump White House, argued that Congress unintentionally made the ACA unconstitutional in 2017 when it made changes to the law. Repealing the ACA, also widely known as Obamacare, would strip 20 million people of health insurance and end the ban on discriminating against people with preexisting conditions.

The lawsuit had been winding its way through the court for years and is the first major case being heard since Republicans took a solid 6–3 majority on the court. But even new Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett gave Republican lawyers a rough ride, questioning their argument that the court should disregard the will of Congress. The Republican lawsuit rested on the novel theory that if one clause of the ACA is unconstitutional then the entire 900-page law must be thrown out as well. more...

'Maybe the greatest golf shot you'll ever see': Jon Rahm skips ball across pond in amazing hole-in-one at the Masters

By Ben Morse, CNN

(CNN) Talk about birthday luck. Jon Rahm, on his 26th birthday, produced potentially one of the all-time best golf shots during a practice round on Tuesday ahead of the 2020 Masters. The Spanish golfer skipped the ball across the pond on hole No. 16, as is tradition in the practice rounds in the lead-up to the iconic major in Augusta, Georgia.

But after taking a favorable bounce when the ball made land on the other side, it weaved all the way across the lush Augusta green and finally into the hole for a remarkable hole-in-one. Rahm's extraordinary feat unsurprisingly sent fans on Twitter into meltdown, with words such as "ludicrous" and "ridiculous" being used to describe it. Some even called it "maybe the greatest golf shot you'll ever see." more...

Biden says ‘it’s an embarrassment’ that Trump won’t concede with transition under way

Christina Wilkie

WASHINGTON – President-elect Joe Biden said Tuesday that the Trump administration’s refusal to authorize the start of the official transition process “does not in any way change the dynamic of what we’re able to do.” “We have already started the transition, we are well under way,” Biden said at a press conference in Wilmington, Delaware. Asked what he thought of President Donald Trump’s refusal so far to concede, Biden said: “I just think it’s an embarrassment, quite frankly.”

Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 presidential election on Saturday, after he secured the 270 electoral college votes needed to defeat Trump, according to NBC News and other major media outlets. Yet the president has so far refused to accept that he lost, and baselessly claims that Biden’s win is the result of “illegal votes.” Trump’s campaign has filed lawsuits in several states over various elements of the voting process or the vote counting. Legal experts say the suits appear more like one piece of a public relations than they do a legal strategy. more...

Friend who bought rifle Kyle Rittenhouse used in Kenosha shooting charged

Bruce Vielmetti Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

MILWAUKEE — A 19-year-old Kenosha man has been charged with illegally giving a rifle to Kyle Rittenhouse, which the 17-year-old used to kill two people and wound a third during unrest in Kenosha in August. Dominick Black faces two counts of intentionally giving a dangerous weapon to someone under 18, resulting in death. The counts relate to Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, the men Rittenhouse killed. Rittenhouse's attorneys say he was acting in self-defense.

According to records obtained by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel after litigation, Black told investigators he had purchased the Smith & Wesson M&P 15 rifle for Rittenhouse last summer while they were both in Ladysmith, Wisconsin, with money Rittenhouse supplied. Someone under 18 cannot legally purchase a firearm, but Black signed paperwork indicating he was buying the rifle for himself. more...

Will Supreme Court Invalidate Obamacare A Decade After It Was Enacted?

Heard on Morning Edition

Nina Totenberg at NPR headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Obamacare is back before the Supreme Court on Tuesday, with opponents challenging it for a third time. The first attempts to derail the law failed in the high court by votes of 5-to-4 and 6-to-3. But the makeup of the court is very different now, with three justices appointed by President Trump – among them new Justice Amy Coney Barrett. 'I Am Not Hostile To The ACA': Barrett Pushes Back On Democrats' Claims

Before her nomination, Barrett consistently criticized the court's two previous decisions, a critique that Senate Democrats repeatedly bludgeoned her with at her confirmation hearings. But the ACA has remained in place for a decade, and the legal landscape has changed so much over that time that many of those who originally took issue with the law in the Supreme Court think this challenge is a stretch. In fact, most of the groups that fought the ACA after it was enacted in 2010 are missing in action from Tuesday's case. more...

Brace yourselves. The next Donald Trump could be much worse

Bhaskar Sunkara

If Biden governs as an establishment Democrat, it won’t be long before the US elects another, far more effective Donald Trump. Joe Biden has defeated Donald Trump. Millions across the country are applauding the downfall of a president who has been mendacious in his public communications, loathsome in his personal conduct, and utterly inept in his handling of a pandemic that has killed 230,000 Americans. Amid the celebration, however, there should be nagging fear. Biden ran largely on the idea that he will be a return to the normalcy of the Obama years. But if he governs as a “normal” Democrat, it won’t be long before we have to deal with the next Donald Trump.

The real Trump buried himself in blunders and couldn’t deliver on campaign promises to voters. Instead of saving manufacturing jobs and protecting, as he pledged, “the jobs, wages and wellbeing of American workers before any other consideration”, the Trump administration eliminated paid overtime rules, created tax cuts for the rich and lost 740,000 manufacturing positions this year alone.

Yet a different Donald Trump might have handled the coronavirus pandemic competently and launched an ambitious infrastructure and jobs program capable of improving the lives of millions of people. Without actually challenging oligarchs and big business interests, this alternate-reality Trump might have been able to effectively marry economic populism with xenophobia, the same formula that has propelled rightwing authoritarians to power elsewhere in the world. A different Trump might have even managed to win over enough voters who typically vote for Democrats, including black and brown voters, to expand his base into one capable of winning the popular vote. As bad as the last four years have been, we’ve been lucky to get the actual – bumbling – Trump, as opposed to a more effective politician, an American Narendra Modi or Jair Bolsonaro. more...

First Thing election special: Barr authorises baseless voter fraud investigation

Attorney general has authorised prosecutors to look into ‘substantial allegations’ of voter fraud, despite a lack of evidence. Plus, Trump sacks defense secretary

Molly Blackall

Good morning. The attorney general, William Barr, has authorised federal prosecutors to investigate “substantial allegations” of voter irregularities in the election, despite a total lack of evidence. Trump supporters reacted to the news with joy, while lawyers and election officials expressed skepticism. The justice department official overseeing voter fraud investigations resigned a few hours later.

The news came after Donald Trump’s campaign team insisted he had no intention of conceding the election, with one senior campaign adviser saying “the word is not even in our vocabulary right now”. But even Fox News isn’t buying it. The famously Trump-supporting news outlet cut away from a White House press briefing that repeatedly peddled the Trump campaign’s accusation that “illegal votes” were being counted. more...

The $68 trillion transfer of wealth in America is evaporating amid crisis

Ellen Sheng

When the pandemic hit in March, Kelly Kearney, owner of Pacific Fine Food Catering in Alameda, California, initially thought things might go back to normal after a couple of months. She bought the company in 2004 and built up a business with a loyal, dependable staff and long-time clients. At age 58, she wasn’t intending to retire anytime soon, but she and her husband, who is 66, were starting to step back a little to enjoy the success they earned after many years of hard work. They recently bought an apartment in Italy, with a view of the Riviera, and would stay for two weeks every quarter.

Then, like for so many others, the crisis brought big changes. With no events to cater, business fell by 85%. She had to lay off most of her staff of 17. Travel restrictions meant she couldn’t visit her favorite vacation spot. “Now I’m working 350 days a year,” she said. Then her father passed away in May. Kearney said that’s when she thought, “I can’t do this anymore. Maybe it’s time to retire.” She’s currently selling the business to her employees at a steep discount. more...

How senior Republicans have reacted to Trump's refusal to concede election

Guardian News

Along with the president himself, the vast majority of Republican politicians have refused to accept Trump's election loss.more...

DOJ's top election crimes prosecutor quits in protest after Barr tells federal attorneys to probe unsupported allegations of voting irregularities.

By Evan Perez, CNN Justice Correspondent

(CNN) The Justice Department's top election crimes prosecutor resigned Monday in protest after Attorney General William Barr told federal prosecutors that they should examine allegations of voting irregularities before states move to certify results in the coming weeks. Richard Pilger, director of the elections crimes branch in the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section, told colleagues in an email that the attorney general was issuing "an important new policy abrogating the forty-year-old Non-Interference Policy for ballot fraud investigations in the period prior to elections becoming certified and uncontested." Pilger also forwarded the memo to colleagues in his resignation letter.

Pilger resignation email didn't make clear whether he plans to stay in the department in another capacity. Barr's densely worded memo had told prosecutors they could take investigative steps such as interviewing witnesses during a period that they would normally need permission from the elections crimes section. It's not clear what practical effect the policy would have in an election in which President Donald Trump trails President-elect Joe Biden by tens of thousands of votes in several key states. more...

Former Vice President Dan Quayle: It is time for Trump to 'move on'

By Justine Coleman

Former Republican Vice President Dan Quayle said on Monday that it is time for President Trump to “move on” and accept defeat days after President-elect Joe Biden was projected the winner of 2020 presidential election. Quayle, who served as vice president under George H. W. Bush, is the only surviving member of the last presidential ticket in which the incumbent was defeated in their reelection campaign. He and the senior Bush lost to former President Clinton in 1992.

“You know, it’s tough in defeat,” he said, according to The New York Times. “Unfortunately, we were the last incumbent president to lose, and it’s not easy,” he said. “But we’ve had enough time to look at what’s going on, there have been a lot of allegations they continue to investigate, but from my viewpoint, I don’t think there’s any systemic fraud.”

“It’s time to move on, and therefore I hope that there’s some sort of announcement from the White House sooner rather than later,” he continued. Quayle is among the few current and former Republican leaders who have acknowledged Biden’s electoral win. more...

Analysis on Trump's legal strategy after Biden's projected win

CBS This Morning

CBS News contributor and election law expert David Becker joins "CBS This Morning" to analyze the president's legal strategy and if there is validity to the claims in several key states as Joe Biden hits 270 electoral votes and is projected to win the presidential election. video...

Republicans Back Trump’s Refusal to Concede, Declining to Recognize Biden

Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, slammed Democrats for expecting the president to quickly concede and said he had every right to pursue legal challenges.

By Nicholas Fandos and Emily Cochrane

Leading Republicans rallied on Monday around President Trump’s refusal to concede the election, declining to challenge the false narrative that it was stolen from him or to recognize President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory even as party divisions burst into public view.

Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the top Republican in Congress, threw his support behind Mr. Trump in a sharply worded speech on the Senate floor. He declared that Mr. Trump was “100 percent within his rights” to turn to the legal system to challenge the outcome and hammered Democrats for expecting the president to concede.

In his first public remarks since Mr. Biden was declared the winner, Mr. McConnell celebrated the success of Republicans who won election to the House and the Senate. But in the next breath, he treated the outcome of the presidential election — based on the same ballots that elected those Republicans — as unknown. more...

Pelosi says Esper firing shows Trump intent on sowing 'chaos'

By Cristina Marcos

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Monday blasted President Trump for firing Defense Secretary Mark Esper just two days after Joe Biden was projected as the winner of the presidential election. “The abrupt firing of Secretary Esper is disturbing evidence that President Trump is intent on using his final days in office to sow chaos in our American Democracy and around the world," Pelosi said in a statement.

"Continuity and stability are always important during a presidential transition; they are absolutely imperative at this moment, as this historically erratic Administration prepares for its departure," she added. Trump announced via tweet that he had fired Esper and would replace him with Christopher Miller, who has been serving as director of the National Counterterrorism Center, as acting secretary of Defense. more...

Fox cuts away from McEnany press conference

By Morgan Chalfant

Fox News on Monday cut away from a press conference during which White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany accused Democrats of “welcoming” fraud and illegal voting. “She is charging that the other side is welcoming fraud and welcoming illegal voting. Unless she has more details to back that up, I can’t in good countenance continuing showing you this,” Fox News host Neil Cavuto said on air as the network cut away from the press conference in Washington, D.C. “Maybe they do have something to back that up, but that’s an explosive charge to make that the other side is effectively rigging and cheating,” Cavuto continued. more...

Barr OKs investigations of voting irregularities despite lack of evidence of massive fraud

Kristine Phillips USA TODAY

WASHINGTON – Attorney General William Barr has authorized U.S. attorneys to pursue "substantial allegations" of voting irregularities during the 2020 elections, contradicting longstanding Justice Department practice of not taking steps that could impact the results of an election. "Such inquiries and reviews may be conducted if there are clear and apparently-credible allegations of irregularities that, if true, could potentially impact the outcome of a federal election in an individual State," Barr said in a memo to federal prosecutors Monday.

Though President Donald Trump and his campaign have repeatedly claimed there has been fraud, there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud. In fact, election officials from both political parties have publicly stated the election went well, though there having been minor issues that are typical in elections, including voting machines breaking and ballots that were miscast and lost. Barr noted in his memo that the Justice Department has not concluded that "voting irregularities have impacted the outcome of any election." more...

President-Elect Joe Biden’s Transition: Live Updates as McConnell Backs Trump’s Refusal to Concede

NPR

Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, did not contradict President Trump’s false claims that the election was stolen from him. President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. unveiled his coronavirus task force. Mr. Trump fired Mark T. Esper, the secretary of defense. more...

Facing runoffs, Georgia’s Republican senators ask the state’s top elections official, also a Republican, to step down.

By Rick Rojas and Emily Cochrane

Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler of Georgia on Monday called for the resignation of the state’s top elections official, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, as they accused his office of failing to oversee an honest and transparent election without evidence or citing specific concerns.

Their extraordinary joint statement on Monday came as a rift among Republicans in Georgia has intensified as Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s lead over President Trump has steadily grown, pushing the president’s supporters to lash out against Mr. Raffensperger, who is a Republican.

“We believe when there are failures, they need to be called out — even when it’s in your own party,” the senators said in their statement, which did not offer any specific allegations or explain how they believed Mr. Raffensperger had fallen short.

“Honest elections are paramount to the foundation of our democracy,” they said. “The Secretary of State has failed to deliver honest and transparent elections. He has failed the people of Georgia, and he should step down immediately.” more...

Biden kicks off presidential transition by begging Americans to wear masks

"It won't be forever, but that's how we'll get our nation back," Biden said in Wilmington, Delaware.

By Adam Edelman

President-elect Joe Biden on Monday pleaded with Americans to wear masks, kicking off his presidential transition with a message declaring the practice the most effective tool to control the Covid-19 pandemic until a vaccine is distributed. Biden, in his first public remarks since his Saturday night victory speech, also tied mask-wearing, which can stem the spread of Covid-19, to his campaign message of unity.

“It doesn't matter who you voted for, where you stood before Election Day. It doesn't matter your party, your point of view, we can save tens of thousands of lives if everyone would just wear a mask for the next few months. Not Democrat or Republican lives, American lives,” Biden said in Wilmington, Delaware. “Please, I implore you, wear a mask,” he added. “A mask is not a political statement, but it is a way to start pulling the country together.” more...

Did Trump Warn Against Recounts in Battleground States in 2012?

A years-old tweet resurfaced in 2020 as the Trump campaign called for a recount in Wisconsin.

Bethania Palma

In 2012 Donald Trump tweeted, "We don’t want to have a recount in any of the battleground states. Obama will steal it." On Nov. 4, 2020, as votes were still being counted in the U.S. presidential election, the campaign for incumbent U.S. President Donald Trump said it would request a recount of ballots in Wisconsin after the state was called for Trump’s opponent, Democrat Joe Biden.

In 2016, Wisconsin flipped in favor of Trump, but in 2020, the state flipped back to the Democrats and went to Biden by an estimated 20,000-ballot margin.

Citing the Twitter meme known as “there’s always a tweet,” meaning that at some point in his history of tweets, Trump has made a statement contradicting his current position on an issue, author Molly Jong Fast dug one up from 2012. Dated Nov. 3, 2012, Trump, then a private citizen, aired his opinion that no recounts of ballots in battleground states should be done because then-President Barack Obama would “steal” the election: more...

Will Mitch McConnell strangle Joe Biden's legislative program at birth?

The Kentucky senator revels in the nickname the Grim Reaper and tried to frustrate the previous Democratic president at every turn

Julian Borger in Washington

After celebrating the winning of a Joe Biden presidency, Democrats are waking to the hangover of figuring out how to govern under the shadow of a runaway pandemic and the potential for gridlock imposed by the man who likes to call himself the Grim Reaper, the Republican Senate leader, Mitch McConnell.

The imagined “blue wave” that was to bring Democratic control over the Senate did not materialize, but Biden’s party has not entirely given up hope. There will be two Senate run-off races in Georgia on 5 January, and if Democrats win both, that will scrape a 50-50 tie in the chamber, allowing Kamala Harris, as vice-president, to cast tie-breaking votes.

It is not impossible. Voter registration drives look to have succeeded in turning the state blue in the presidential election for the first time since 1992. But it will be an uphill task, and most Georgia observers expect the parties to emerge from the runoffs with one seat apiece, leaving the Senate split 51-49 in the Republicans’ favor.

In that case, a Biden presidency would have to contend with the veteran senator from Kentucky who relishes the nickname of Grim Reaper for his lethal treatment of almost all Democratic legislation. He said in 2010 that “the single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president”.

McConnell failed in that task but made up for it by killing off mounds of Democratic legislation and Obama nominations for administrative positions. So despite winning more votes than anyone in US political history, Biden will have to share power with the head of a chamber in which Wyoming (population 586,107) has the same clout as California (nearly 40 million). more...

Arkansas police chief resigns after calling for violence against Democrats

By Blake Ellis and Melanie Hicken, CNN

(CNN) An Arkansas police chief who posted calls for violence against Democrats on social media resigned from his job on Saturday. Lang Holland, who was police chief of the roughly 1,300-person city of Marshall, Arkansas, drew outrage from both local residents and people around the country after making ominous comments online in recent days. In addition to repeatedly saying Democrats should be killed, he shared memes from conspiracy theory QAnon and claimed that the election was being stolen.

"Death to all Marxist Democrats," Holland posted on Parler, a new social media site popular with conservatives and used as an alternative to Twitter. "Take no prisoners leave no survivors!!" One image he shared depicted a group of Democrats, including Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, wearing prison jumpsuits. Under the image he wrote: "I pray all those in that picture hang on the gallows and are drawn and quartered!!!! Anything less is not acceptable."

CNN could not reach Holland for comment. His Parler account was made private on Saturday. Marshall Mayor Kevin Elliott issued a statement Saturday stating Holland had resigned from his position, effective immediately. "The City of Marshall strongly condemns the actions of Mr. Holland in his posts to social media," Elliot wrote in the statement. "The Marshall community does not in any way support or condone bullying or threats of violence to anyone of any political persuasion...the Marshall Police force is here to serve and protect EVERYONE." Elliott said he called a meeting with Holland on Saturday after his phone continued to ring off the hook with calls from people who had seen the chief's posts on Parler -- posts that were also spread across Twitter and Reddit.more...

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ends truce by warning ‘incompetent’ Democratic party

New York representative denies Movement for Black Lives and Green New Deal cost seats. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: ‘The party does not have the core competencies, and no amount of money is going to fix that.’

Tom McCarthy

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has criticised the Democratic party for incompetence in a no-holds-barred, post-election interview with the New York Times, warning that if the Biden administration does not put progressives in top positions, the party would lose big in the 2022 midterm elections. Signaling that the internal moratorium in place while the Democrats worked to defeat Donald Trump was over, the leftwing New York representative sharply rejected the notion advanced by some Democrats that progressive messaging around the Movement for Black Lives and the Green New Deal led to the party’s loss of congressional seats in last week’s election.

The real problem, said Ocasio-Cortez, was that the party lacked “core competencies” to run campaigns. “There’s a reason Barack Obama built an entire national campaign apparatus outside of the Democratic National Committee,” she told the Times’ Astead Herndon. “And there’s a reason that when he didn’t activate or continue that, we lost House majorities. Because the party – in and of itself – does not have the core competencies, and no amount of money is going to fix that.” Ocasio-Cortez, who defeated a longtime Democratic politician in 2018 and who won re-election in her Bronx district by more than 50 points, endorsed the Vermont senator, Bernie Sanders, over Joe Biden in the Democratic presidential primary. more...

Biden plans immediate flurry of executive orders to reverse Trump policies

By Matt Viser, Seung Min Kim and Annie Linskey

President-elect Joe Biden is planning to quickly sign a series of executive orders after being sworn into office on Jan. 20, immediately forecasting that the country’s politics have shifted and that his presidency will be guided by radically different priorities.

He will rejoin the Paris climate accords, according to those close to his campaign and commitments he has made in recent months, and he will reverse President Trump’s withdrawal from the World Health Organization. He will repeal the ban on almost all travel from some Muslim-majority countries, and he will reinstate the program allowing “dreamers,” who were brought to the United States illegally as children, to remain in the country, according to people familiar with his plans.

Although transitions of power can always include abrupt changes, the shift from Trump to Biden — from one president who sought to undermine established norms and institutions to another who has vowed to restore the established order — will be among the most startling in American history. more...

False News Targeting Latinos Trails the Election

Rampant falsehoods evolved online on Wednesday, intended to make Spanish speakers question the unfolding election results and believe that President Trump was being robbed of victory.

By Patricia Mazzei and Nicole Perlroth

MIAMI — The posts proliferated on election night before anything remotely definitive was known about the results of the presidential race. “Robado,” they falsely repeated again and again in Spanish: President Trump was being robbed of a victory. He had won Arizona. George Soros was funding violent “antifa riots.”

The baseless social media messages to Latinos trying to delegitimize the election and the results for Joseph R. Biden Jr. circulated online on Tuesday night and into Wednesday, part of a disinformation campaign to undermine Latino confidence in the vote as it unfolded.

Ahead of Election Day, false news in Spanish tried to turn Latinos against Black Lives Matter and tie Mr. Biden to socialism, tactics that experts said could depress the Hispanic vote. Now that voting is complete, the rampant falsehoods have only garnered larger audiences — including among immigrants less familiar with the institutions of American democracy. The gist of the falsehoods is that the election is “rigged” against Mr. Trump.

Joe Biden administration likely to overturn controversial Donald Trump diversity training executive order

Jessica Guynn - USA TODAY

A Joe Biden administration would likely scrap an executive order from the Trump administration that restricts the federal government and its contractors from offering diversity training that President Donald Trump labeled "divisive" and "un-American."

Trump's executive order, which affected government agencies, Fortune 500 companies, educational institutions, nonprofits and any others that have federal contracts or plan to apply for them, had an almost immediate chilling effect on reinvigorated efforts to address racial disparities in the workplace after the death of George Floyd, a Black man, under the knee of white officer in Minneapolis in May.

“I think it’s highly probable that this executive order will be rescinded in fairly short order,” Franklin Turner, a partner with law firm McCarter & English who represents multinational contractors and small and medium-sized companies, told USA TODAY. more...

How Stacey Abrams and her band of believers turned Georgia blue

She and voting rights advocates saw 2020 as the perfect time to make a play for Georgia. The battle was getting the Democratic Party to believe it.

By MAYA KING

The people leading the effort to flip the state — a group composed of Black female elected officials, voting rights advocates and community organizers — understood why Democrats had often fallen short in the South the past decade. Topping the list of reasons: the region’s long-running conservative bent, voter suppression tactics by the right and the failure by Democrats to mount a sustained voter outreach program.

But something changed in 2018. Abrams’ razor-thin loss in Georgia’s gubernatorial election made clear to her and other liberals in the state that demographic shifts in the suburbs had reached a tipping point. Their argument to the national party was simple: Democrats could win more races by expanding their coalition to include disengaged voters of color, as opposed to continuing the focus on persuading undecided, moderate, often white voters.

Abrams had come close with the strategy: Her campaign and its allies registered more than 200,000 new voters in the run-up to the 2018 election. When Fair Fight and the New Georgia Project, two organizations founded by Abrams, tried again this year, they quadrupled their gains, registering more than 800,000 new voters.

This vast new coalition of first-time voters, many young and of color, put Joe Biden over the top in the state by more than 7,000 votes as of Saturday. The expected win in Georgia would bring his Electoral College total to over 300 votes. more...

'It's not over': Trump supporters flock to state capitols after Biden victory is announced

Susan Miller, Jordan Culver - USA TODAY

As word finally came Saturday after an exhausting and tense week that Joe Biden will become the 46th U.S. president, cities across the nation braced for a darker side: potential violence. Some supporters of President Donald Trump flocked to state capitols as encouraged by a campaign called "Stop the Steal," an effort to delegitimize the vote count that was booted from Facebook for spreading misinformation and inciting violence.

“We all know why Joe Biden is rushing to falsely pose as the winner, and why his media allies are trying so hard to help him: they don’t want the truth to be exposed," Trump said in a statement after the race was called. "The simple fact is this election is far from over." Amid a few exchanges of heated words, the initial counterprotests were mostly peaceful in the hours after Biden's victory was announced. But Trump backers remained defiant. Hundreds massed outside the state Capitol in Lansing, Michigan, waving signs saying "It's not over" and chanting "We won!" Several dozen Biden supporters stood nearby, urging the group to accept the election results. more...

Republican Michigan lawmakers issue subpoena to officials for election records

Biden projected winner by AP, NBC

Victor Williams

LANSING, Mich. – A rally was held in Lansing by supporters of President Donald Trump Saturday. Attendees were energized by the president’s declaration he will not concede the election to former Vice President Joe Biden. Supporters flooded the steps of the State Capitol after it was announced Biden had won enough electoral votes to become the next President of the United States.

Tempers flared in the crowd with some supporters unwilling to accept the results of the election. State Republican lawmakers have issued a subpoena for election records to investigate the ballot-counting process at the TCF Center. The investigation will take a look into the, as of now, baseless claims of voter fraud among absentee ballots. more...

*** Donald J. Trump your fired now go straight to jail. Lock him up! ***

Joseph R. Biden Jr. elected 46th president of the United States

Joe Biden will secure the 270 electoral votes needed to defeat incumbent President Donald Trump.

Author: Associated Press, TEGNA

The Associated Press has called the U.S. presidential election for former Vice President Joe Biden after calling Pennsylvania at 11:25 a.m. Saturday. Democrat Joe Biden has surpassed the 270 electoral vote threshold to take the White House and become the 46th president of the United States. Biden also carried Arizona, Wisconsin and Michigan on his path to the presidency, flipping states that President Donald Trump won in 2016. The AP also called Nevada for Biden on Saturday.

Pennsylvania was a must-win state for Trump. President-elect Joe Biden says it’s time for America to “unite” and to “heal.” Biden said in a statement Saturday, “With the campaign over, it’s time to put the anger and the harsh rhetoric behind us and come together as a nation.” “We are the United States of America,” he wrote. “And there’s nothing we can’t do, if we do it together.” Biden made no mention of his opponent, President Donald Trump, who has not conceded the race. The president-elect is expected to speak at 8 p.m. ET Saturday. more...

Hate crime against Black couple jolts beach town known for tolerance

Johnny and Ann Parham have received a groundswell of support from residents across Fire Island but are still grappling with the incident and its aftermath.

By Rich Schapiro

Nearly 50 years ago, Johnny and Ann Parham bought a beach house near New York City to provide a summer escape for them and their infant son. It was a two-story, cedar-shingle cottage in the tiny town of Ocean Beach on Fire Island — a place known for its natural beauty, old-time feel and liberal spirit.

In the decades that followed, the Parhams enjoyed magical summers. They hosted large lobster dinners, helped to organize community events like the Golden Wagon Film Festival and spent long days at the beach with their son and, years later, their two grandsons. Even though they were the only Black homeowners in town, Johnny and Ann never felt even a tinge of racism in Ocean Beach. “This has always been a magnificent place for us,” Johnny, now 83, said. more...

Report: Armed men arrested in Philadelphia were trying to deliver fake ballots

By Jason Hanna, Rob Frehse and Sonia Moghe, CNN

(CNN) Two armed Virginia men who were arrested Thursday outside the Philadelphia Convention Center were "coming to deliver a truck full of fake ballots" to the city, CNN affiliate KYW reported, citing prosecutors. The center is one of the places where election workers have been counting votes from the 2020 general election, which includes the race for president. Text messages reveal that the men were concerned about the tallying of votes at the convention center, prosecutors said, according to KYW.

Antonio LaMotta, 61, and Joshua Macias, 42, both of Chesapeake, Virginia, were arrested Thursday night outside the center on suspicion of carrying handguns in Pennsylvania without permits, authorities said. Philadelphia police said they found the men Thursday night after receiving a tip that people with firearms were heading to the Pennsylvania Convention Center in a silver Hummer truck. Officers found a silver Hummer a block from the center -- parked and unoccupied -- around 10:20 p.m. Thursday, about seven minutes before finding the men, who acknowledged the Hummer was theirs, police said.

Both men were carrying loaded handguns, and police found an AR-type rifle in the Hummer, authorities said at a news conference Friday. About 160 rounds of ammunition were found in the weapons and the vehicle, authorities said. Stickers and a hat with logos of the QAnon conspiracy movement were found in the vehicle, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said. LaMotta and Macias were charged with having a concealed firearm without a license and carrying a firearm on a public street or public property, Krasner said. more...

For Black students, Mississippi's new state flag means end of a 'Confederate relic'

Some Mississippi school leaders refused to display the state’s previous flag, to shield students from a symbol of the Old South. A new flag is changing that.

By Bracey Harris

JACKSON, Miss. — Eighth grader Ethan Lott had seen the Confederate battle emblem plenty of times, but he didn’t connect it with Mississippi’s state flag. The 13-year-old had spotted the emblem — a blue X against a red square with 13 white stars — on bumper stickers and flags in front of some homes here. But it wasn’t flown in his middle school, which only raised the American flag. Ethan thought the state flag, which included the Confederate emblem in the upper left corner, was just one “white people had when they didn’t like Black people.”

It wasn’t until late October, as the state prepared to vote on a new flag, that he learned the Confederate symbol had officially represented Mississippi for decades. “He was taken aback,” said LaShunna McInnis, principal of Powell Middle School, who discussed the flag with Ethan. “I could see it in his face.” McInnis had called Ethan to ask if he would participate in a ceremony that would take place at the school if voters chose the new flag. more...

Trump has told people he has no plans to concede even if his path to victory is blocked

By Kevin Liptak and Kaitlan Collins, CNN

(CNN) Facing a disappearing pathway to victory, President Donald Trump offered little indication on Friday he was prepared to concede defeat, leading those around him to wonder who might be able to reckon with a leader who has given virtually no thought to leaving the White House. Even as vote totals now show him trailing former Vice President Joe Biden in key battlegrounds, Trump has not prepared a concession speech and in conversations with allies in recent days, he has said he has no intention of conceding the election, people familiar with the matter said.

So far he has been bolstered in his stance by those closest to him, including his senior advisers and his adult sons, who have mounted an aggressive effort in the courts to challenge the results and have pressured other Republicans into defending him. Top aides, including his chief of staff Mark Meadows, have not attempted to come to terms with the President about the reality of what is happening. Instead, they have fed his baseless claim that the election is being stolen from underneath him.

Trump has acknowledged to some allies he recognizes the electoral math will not work in his favor, according to people familiar with the conversations, but has maintained that a prolonged court battle and corrosive rhetoric about election fraud would sow enough doubt to allow him to refuse to accept the results. Two campaign advisers and one source close to the President said Trump will exhaust his legal avenues for fighting the results in several key battleground states before giving any consideration to conceding. more...

Six states "decided to stop counting" votes as Donald Trump was "headed for a win” on election night.

By Daniel Funke November 4, 2020

Battleground states did not ‘stop counting’ votes on election night when Trump was ahead. None of the states cited in the post stopped counting votes altogether on Nov. 3. Election officials in Fulton County, Ga., briefly paused counting ballots after a pipe burst at a facility in Atlanta. North Carolina stopped counting in-person votes once 100% of precincts were reported, but the state is still counting absentee ballots. Delays in election results are due to an influx of mail-in ballots, spurred by the coronavirus pandemic. more...

'They Gonna Do Him Dirty': 50 Cent Says Donald Trump Is Going to Jail

By Janice Williams

Rapper 50 Cent seems to think that President Donald Trump is "going to jail." At least, that's what the rapper tweeted on Thursday. Like many people across the country, 50 Cent—whose real name is Curtis Jackson—is keeping an eye on the results of the 2020 presidential election and Trump's comments on the state of the race. Votes are still being counted in places like Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. However, the president, along with claiming a premature victory, has publicly called for the counting of votes to be discontinued. The notion has apparently left 50 Cent baffled, causing the 45-year-old to take to Twitter to share his thoughts. "Man they gonna do Trump dirty, he going to jail. you ever herd [sic] a president say stop counting the f**king votes. LOL SMH," 50 Cent wrote on Thursday. more...

Twitter permanently suspends Steve Bannon account after talk of beheading

By Curt Devine and Donie O'Sullivan, CNN Business

(CNN Business) Twitter permanently suspended an account belonging to former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon after he suggested Thursday morning that Dr. Anthony Fauci and FBI Director Christopher Wray should be beheaded. His comments were made in a video posted to his Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter accounts. Bannon falsely claimed President Trump had won reelection, despite several key states still being too close to call, and said that he should fire both Fauci and Wray. He then said he would go further: "I'd put the heads on pikes. Right. I'd put them at the two corners of the White House as a warning to federal bureaucrats. You either get with the program or you are gone." The comments came during a livestream of Bannon's "War Room: Pandemic" online show. more...

Trump’s Special Twitter Treatment Would End With Biden Win

By Kurt Wagner

As U.S. president, Donald Trump receives special treatment from Twitter Inc. when he violates the company’s rules around offensive or misleading content. That exemption will end in January if he loses the presidency.

The social network treats transgressions from world leaders differently than those from regular users, and often leaves up tweets that violate its content policies, adding a warning instead of forcing users to delete the posts. This is part of Twitter’s philosophy that people should be able to hear from world leaders even when they share controversial posts because their messages are inherently newsworthy.

But former world leaders aren’t protected under that policy. High-profile politicians no longer in office -- like former U.S. President Barack Obama -- are treated like regular users if they violate Twitter’s rules, which prohibit messages that include hate speech or posts that glorify violence or contain certain types of false information, like dangerous health-related misinformation.

Trump will fall into the “former” group if he leaves office in January, Twitter confirmed. If that happens, breaking one of Twitter’s rules means his tweets may be removed entirely instead of labeled. He could also rack up “strikes” for multiple violations, which would increase the severity of punishment issued from the company, and could lead to temporary account freezes, suspensions or even a permanent ban. more...

DO AS I SAY - Local GOP Pushes Trump Voters to Cast Ballots After Election

An email obtained by The Daily Beast shows Republicans in Wisconsin urging volunteers to contact Pennsylvania Trumpers to get them to turn in ballots days after the election.

Lachlan Markay, Sam Stein

Local Republican officials were recruiting volunteers on Thursday to call Pennsylvania voters and urge them to send in their ballots—two full days after Election Day. This plea was emailed out just hours before President Donald Trump went on national television Thursday to declare the inherent illegitimacy of ballots received after Nov. 3.

The request, election lawyers say, appears to flagrantly run afoul of state law. Under Pennsylvania law and a recent state Supreme Court decision, absentee and mail-in ballots are valid as long as they were postmarked by Election Day and received by Nov. 6. Any Trump supporter who sends in their ballots either Thursday or Friday would not have it postmarked within the acceptable deadline—creating the precise situation that the president himself has deemed fraudulent and corrupt. more...

VIRGINIA VIGILANTE- Philadelphia Police Take Man Into Custody in Connection With Plot to Attack Vote-Counting Center: Reports

Police said an armed group had driven up from Virginia in a Hummer with violence in mind.

Blake Montgomery

Philadelphia police took at least one man into custody Thursday night in connection with an alleged plot to attack the city’s convention center where the swing state’s presidential votes are still being counted, according to reports. An armed group is said to have driven a Hummer up from Virginia with violent intent. No one was reported injured, and police did not identify the suspect or provide details about the alleged plot. Video showed the suspect being taken away in handcuffs and police retrieving a large gun.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that a Hummer matching the description was seen with stickers linked to the QAnon conspiracy movement, including a large “Q” and “#WWG1WGA,” which the pro-Trump conspiracy theorists use to stand for “Where we go one, we go all”—the group’s motto. QAnon is a baseless far-right internet conspiracy theory whose increasingly violent adherents claim a “deep state” of Democratic leaders are cannibalizing and trafficking children and President Donald Trump is secretly fighting them off. more...

Mitch McConnell is already preparing to torpedo Joe Biden's Cabinet picks

Roger Sollenberger, Salon

As a stream of key swing state votes begins to turn the election in presidential nominee Joe Biden's favor, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., wasted no time in signaling that he would block potential progressive nominees for Cabinet positions if the GOP keeps its grip on the upper chamber. A source close to the majority leader told Axios that a Republican-controlled Senate would work with Biden to confirm centrist nominees but reject so-called "radical progressives" or other individuals who rankle conservatives. The source said Republicans would do all they could to limit a Biden agenda, adding: "It's going to be armed camps." After expressing confidence in an eventual electoral victory on Wednesday, the Biden campaign quietly launched a website for its transition team. The site posted a message telling Americans that while the vote counts were not over, the transition team would continue its preparations so "the Biden-Harris Administration can hit the ground running on Day One." more...

Republicans tell the truth about Biden probe: “It would certainly help Donald Trump win re-election”

Democrats compared the admission to Kevin McCarthy's 2015 boast that the Benghazi probe was aimed to hurt Clinton

Igor Derysh

Democrats accused Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., of abusing his position after he publicly admitted that his investigation into the party's presidential nominee Joe Biden would "certainly" help President Donald Trump's re-election chances.

Johnson, the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, has led a probe into Obama-era intelligence activities and Biden's alleged ties to Ukraine for months after a similar effort by Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani led to the president's impeachment last year. Johnson acknowledged during an interview first flagged by Politico that his probe would "certainly" damage Biden's electoral hopes. more...

Fact checking the unfounded claim that USPS lost 300,000 ballots

By Paul P. Murphy, CNN

(CNN) On Wednesday reports that the US Postal Service had lost or failed to deliver hundreds of thousands of ballots began circulating online, fueling outrage in many Democratic corners of social media. The idea began to spread after the Washington Post and the New York Times reported that roughly 300,000 ballots were missing delivery scans. Since then, those reports have been aggregated by other outlets and picked up by Democrats on social media.

Facts First: There's no evidence that hundreds of thousands of ballots went undelivered. While there were roughly 300,000 ballots that did not have delivery scans, that doesn't mean they weren't delivered. According to the USPS, the lack of delivery scans were a result of ballots that were picked out of the mail stream to speed up their processing. In testimony on Wednesday and Thursday in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, USPS's Kevin Bray, who is in charge of all mail processing during the election this year, said that the Postal Service knew that due to the extraordinary volume of ballots going through the mail, that a significant number were going to miss the scans in order to be delivered on time.

Mark Dimondstein, American Postal Workers Union president, agreed, telling CNN that a high number of missing delivery scans is likely indicative of the ballots getting sped through the system. more...

Obama criticizes Trump in scathing, personal terms

FLINT, Mich. (AP) — Barack Obama is hitting President Donald Trump right where he thinks it’ll hurt most: His ego.

Campaigning for Joe Biden on Saturday, the former president painted Trump as insecure and self-absorbed, describing him as a failed president who cares more about himself than the country. “Trump cares about feeding his ego. Joe cares about keeping you and your family safe,” Obama said in Flint, Michigan. In a scathing speech, Obama mocked and belittled Trump for everything from the president’s criticism of the media coverage of the coronavirus pandemic — Trump, he said, was “jealous of COVID’s media coverage” — to his “obsession with crowd size.” “He’s still worried about his inauguration crowd being smaller than mine. It really bugs him. He’s still talking about that. Does he have nothing better to worry about?” Obama said. “Did no one come to his birthday party as a kid? Was he traumatized?”

After delivering a sober indictment of Trump’s presidency and warning that America’s democracy is at stake this election at the Democratic National Convention, Obama has taken on a more lighthearted approach since returning to the campaign trail earlier this month for Biden. The personal attacks on Trump have been a centerpiece of Obama’s campaign pitch, and he seems to relish the opportunity to needle his successor. On Saturday, Obama at times smiled as he jabbed the president and often sounded incredulous at the state of his administration. “The president wants to get credit for the economy he inherited and zero blame for the pandemic he ignored,” Obama said. Obama also dinged Trump on his masculinity. Without mentioning the president directly, Obama said that “kindness, humility, responsibility, helping somebody else out” used to be “the definition of manliness.” more...

As President Trump's campaign threatens legal moves, judges in 2 states dismiss lawsuits

By Mark Sherman - AP

As Democrat Joe Biden inched closer to the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the White House, President Donald Trump's campaign put into action the legal strategy the president had signaled for weeks: attacking the integrity of the voting process in states where the result could mean his defeat. But judges in Georgia and Michigan dismissed lawsuits by Trump's campaign on Thursday. more...

He Did Not Commit the Crime. Yet He Served 44 Years in Prison.

In all the time I've spent fighting for criminal justice reform, I've rarely seen a case as bad as Ronnie Long's.

By Jason Flom

The mood at the courthouse in Concord, North Carolina was tense. Ronnie Long, 20, a Black cement mason, was on trial for the rape of Sarah Bost, 54, a wealthy, white widow. All summer, protesters had demonstrated against Long's arrest, accusing police of racial bias. Now, hundreds were gathered outside for the verdict in a case that had torn the community apart. Inside, tensions were even higher. Virtually every spectator on the defense's side was Black; everyone on the prosecution's side, and all twelve jurors, were white. When Long was declared guilty, the audience erupted, and police rushed to clear the courtroom.

That was in October 1976. This past August, Long was exonerated and walked out of prison a free man. He'd been locked up for forty-four years, placing him third on the list of American prisoners who've served the longest sentences for crimes they did not commit.

Since 1989, when DNA was first used in the United States to prove a prisoner's innocence, more than 2,650 inmates nationwide have been exonerated. Altogether, that's 24,150 years lost to wrongful convictions. And those are just the cases that the system has been forced to acknowledge. more...

Democrats are projected to lose House seats but keep their majority

Jacob Pramuk

Democrats will keep their U.S. House majority in the next Congress, according to NBC News. But after a series of rough early returns from the 2020 election, the party will likely have fewer seats in January than it does now. NBC estimates Democrats will hold 226 House seats, while Republicans will have 209. The figures could change, as NBC said the parties may ultimately end up with as many as eight seats more or less than those projections. (Eight fewer seats for Democrats would put them at 218, the minimum they need for a majority). In races called by NBC, Republicans have flipped a net three seats. Democrats have won 199 seats, the GOP has carried 188 and 48 remain uncalled. more...

Trump campaign says it is suing to stop Michigan and Pennsylvania ballot counts

Dan Mangan

President Donald Trump’s campaign said Wednesday that it filed suits to halt the counting of ballots in Michigan and Pennsylvania, as the campaign demanded increased access to observe the tallying process at numerous locations in those battleground states. The states have a combined 36 Electoral College voters at stake. The Trump campaign said that its in Michigan lawsuit demands that the campaign be allowed to “review those ballots” ... “which were opened and counted while we did not have meaningful access.”

In Pennsylvania, the campaign said it is moving to intervene in an existing Supreme Court case related to that state’s extension of its mail-in ballot receipt deadline. Separately, the campaign is filing two legal actions: one aimed at stopping what the campaign called the “hiding” by Democratic officials of “ballot counting and processing from our Republican poll observers,” the other which seeks to undo an order extending the deadline for absentee and mail-in voters to provide missing proof of identification. more...

Frustrated Democrats eye two more years in minority after falling short in key Senate races

By Alex Rogers and Manu Raju, CNN

(CNN) Democrats poured record-shattering sums of money into Senate races across the country, betting that President Donald Trump's deep unpopularity would provide their path back to power. Party leaders thought Trump's botched handling of the coronavirus pandemic, and divisive behavior would convince voters to flip the chamber and put an end to what Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden recently called "the chaos, the tweets, the anger, the hate, the failure."

But Trump's coattails in GOP-leaning states, combined with Democrats' miscalculations in states where they had little chance of winning and ultimately got trounced, have dramatically limited their chances to take the Senate. Moreover, Republicans believe the aggressive push to fill Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Supreme Court seat energized their base at a crucial juncture -- while an unfolding sex scandal dogging the North Carolina Senate Democratic candidate gave them a late boost in a pivotal race that had seemed out of reach.

For Democrats, they could still end up in the majority in the next Congress. But at best, Democrats will have an extremely slim majority even if Biden wins -- and that's only if Georgia's Senate races suddenly take a turn their way.

Postal service tells U.S. judge it cannot complete sweep for delayed ballots by deadline

By David Shepardson - Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Postal Service told a judge it could not complete his order to sweep mail processing facilities on Tuesday afternoon for delayed election ballots and immediately dispatch any for delivery in about a dozen states, including closely fought battlegrounds Pennsylvania and Florida.

USPS data showed as of Sunday about 300,000 ballots that were received for mail processing did not have scans confirming their delivery to election authorities. While ballots may be delivered without scans, voting rights groups fear mail delays could cause at least some of those votes to be disqualified.

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan on Tuesday had ordered the sweep in response to lawsuits by groups including Vote Forward, the NAACP, and Latino community advocates. Affected by the order were processing centers in central Pennsylvania, northern New England, greater South Carolina, south Florida, Colorado, Wisconsin and parts of Illinois, Arizona, Alabama and Wyoming, as well as the cities of Atlanta, Houston, Philadelphia, Detroit. Sullivan ordered postal officials to complete the inspections by 3 p.m. ET (2000 GMT) and certify by 4:30 p.m. ET (2130 GMT) that no ballots were left behind. more...

Federal judge orders USPS to rush delivery of mail ballots as deadlines near

By John Kruzel

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday ordered the U.S. Postal Service to sweep facilities for remaining mail ballots and rush their delivery, as receipt deadlines close in. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, who has presided over several lawsuits aimed at Postal Service election mail delays, gave the Postal Service until 3 p.m. to "ensure that no ballots have been held up" in regions that have been slow to process mail ballots.

The order comes as a record number of Americans have already cast their ballots for Tuesday’s elections through the mail as a safety precaution during the coronavirus pandemic. With the exception of Pennsylvania and Texas, each of those states requires that mail ballots be received by the close of polls on Election Day, meaning late-arriving ballots would not be counted.

Pennsylvania’s Nov. 6 mail ballot due date is also subject to change, after three conservative Supreme Court justices last week held open the possibility of taking up a GOP appeal after Election Day that, if successful, would invalidate any ballots arriving after Nov. 3. Texas will accept mail ballots postmarked by Election Day and received by 5 p.m. the following day. more...

Florida Deputies Punch, Elbow Biden Supporter Repeatedly in Rally Video

By Aila Slisco

A video appearing online allegedly shows sheriff's deputies in Pinellas County, Florida repeatedly punch and elbow a supporter of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden during a political demonstration on Sunday.

Scott Rexroat, 59, can be seen in the video being hit while he is already on the ground and being restrained by two deputies, according to WMNF. The video does not appear to show Rexroat resisting as a deputy with his back facing the camera can be seen repeatedly striking him, although the entire event is not visible due to the angle of the recording.

Police say that Rexroat was arrested for "mocking" supporters of President Donald Trump and later assaulting a police officer, according to WFLA. A picture said to be of Rexroat at the event shows him draped in a confederate flag while wearing a Trump mask and holding a sign that reads "Disabled Bone Spurs Will Work 4 Fools." more...

Democrats say San Marcos officials didn’t respond to “Trump Train” that harassed Biden bus

San Marcos officials were alerted of the Biden campaign event in the city 24 hours in advance, but Democrats in Hays County say officials did not adequately prepare a response given the political climate.

by Kate McGee and Aliyya Swaby

San Marcos city officials were notified more than 24 hours in advance about a planned campaign event Friday on behalf of Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee. Lisa Prewitt, a Democratic candidate for Hays County Commission, flagged local law enforcement early Thursday afternoon for the campaign to share safety concerns about the visit.

She called again the next day to report the dozens of cars and trucks with Trump flags surrounded the campaign bus on Interstate 35, creating a so-called “Trump Train” that led to a minor collision and an FBI investigation.

But San Marcos police never made it to the scene. Prewitt, a former City Council member, said in an interview with The Texas Tribune that she called Chase Stapp, San Marcos’ director of public safety, on Friday and said that the bus was 30 minutes away from the event location in San Marcos and was being followed by 50 or so vehicles with Trump flags. more...

Trump is reportedly telling advisers if he loses, he expects intense scrutiny from prosecutors

Catherine Garcia, The Week

President Trump is confident in his chances of winning Tuesday's election, several aides and allies told The New York Times, because he is being buoyed by the crowds at his rallies and assured by people close to him that he will win the Electoral College. Still, Trump has shown concern over what will happen to him if he loses, several advisers told the Times, and he expects prosecutors will take a closer look at his business dealings; there are already established investigations into the Trump Organization in New York.

Most of the more than a dozen allies and aides interviewed by the Times said they do believe he will win re-election, but the stars must align in certain areas; for example, the president must pull ahead in Minnesota, Michigan, or Wisconsin, all states where he is trailing behind Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in the polls. more...

This Republican lawyer just totally exposed the Trump campaign's voter suppression efforts

Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large

(CNN) The jig is up. At least according to Ben Ginsberg, the single most prominent Republican election lawyer in the country, who, in a scathing piece published Sunday by The Washington Post, called out President Donald Trump (and his legal team) for engaging in a widespread attempt to suppress votes in the 2020 election under the guise of sniffing out voter fraud.

Wrote Ginsberg:

"Trump has enlisted a compliant Republican Party in this shameful effort. The Trump campaign and Republican entities engaged in more than 40 voting and ballot court cases around the country this year. In exactly none ��� zero — are they trying to make it easier for citizens to vote. In many, they are seeking to erect barriers.

All of the suits include the mythical fraud claim. Many are efforts to disqualify absentee ballots, which have surged in the pandemic. The grounds range from supposedly inadequate signature matches to burdensome witness requirements. Others concern excluding absentee ballots postmarked on Election Day but received later, as permitted under state deadlines. Voter-convenience devices such as drop boxes and curbside voting have been attacked....

"...This attempted disenfranchisement of voters cannot be justified by the unproven Republican dogma about widespread fraud. Challenging voters at the polls or disputing the legitimacy of mail-in ballots isn't about fraud. Rather than producing conservative policies that appeal to suburban women, young voters or racial minorities, Republicans are trying to exclude their votes." Which, well, yeah. more...

Fact check: Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. spread false information in run up to election

By Holmes Lybrand and Tara Subramaniam, CNN

Washington (CNN) As two of his top surrogates, President Donald Trump's eldest sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, have spread a significant amount of false information this campaign season on topics ranging from the coronavirus, to their father's alleged successes, to attacks against his Democratic opponent former Vice President Joe Biden. On the eve of the election here's a look at some of the false and misleading claims from Trump's sons.

Trump Jr.

The coronavirus has been the subject of a ton of misinformation online, some of which has been spread by Trump Jr. Back in July, Twitter even restricted his account for sharing a video that spread false information about hydroxychloroquine.

Here are some of the more notable claims he's made about the coronavirus.

Covid deaths

During a Fox News interview on Thursday, Trump Jr. said that the number of deaths from Covid-19 is now "almost nothing."

"I went through the CDC data because I kept hearing about new infections," Trump Jr. said, "but I was like, 'Well, why aren't they talking about deaths?' Oh, oh, because the number is almost nothing."

Facts First: This is false. The day Trump Jr. made this claim nearly 1,000 virus-related deaths were reported. More than 231,000 people in the US have died from the virus. You can watch a complete debunking of this claim from CNN's Brianna Keilar here. more...

Why Clarence Thomas is a clear-cut case for impeachment from the Supreme Court

It is never too late to do justice

Bill Blum

With the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett, the radical right has completed its long and painstaking project to seize control of the Supreme Court, and to reshape constitutional law for generations to come. Barrett's elevation will give conservatives a 6-3 majority on the court and usher in a crisis of legitimacy for the third branch of government not seen since the 1930s.

The right's triumph has prompted anger and soul-searching among Democrats and progressives, sparking calls to expand the number of Supreme Court justices, echoing Franklin D. Roosevelt's unsuccessful effort to add additional seats to the high tribunal in the midst of the Great Depression.

Enlarging the Supreme Court is entirely within the power of Congress, as the number of justices is not set by the Constitution. The court's composition has, in fact, varied over time, ranging from six justices when the Constitution was ratified to 10 in 1863. The panel was reduced to nine by an act of Congress in 1867 and has remained there since then by statute.

While Democrats should definitely demand court expansion if they retake the White House and the Senate and hold the House, there is at least one additional step they should take to address the court's legitimacy crisis—the impeachment of its most corrupt member—Clarence Thomas.

Thomas should be impeached on charges of perjury for allegedly lying in his annual financial disclosure statements for over a decade and, more fundamentally, for lying in his 1991 confirmation hearing about his disgusting history of sexual harassment. more...

Protesters With Trump Flags Swarm William Barr's Home Demanding He 'Lock Up Joe Biden'

By Darragh Roche

Protesters carrying Trump flags picketed Attorney General William Barr's home on Saturday because they believe he isn't doing enough to bring former Vice President Joe Biden to justice. President Donald Trump has referred to Biden as a criminal and said he and his son, Hunter Biden, are part of an "organized crime family." This is due in part to unsubstantiated allegations about the Bidens' business dealings with foreign countries.

"It's come to this: A neighbor reports that AG William Barr's house in McLean is being picketed by Trump supporters who believe he's not doing enough to lock up Joe Biden," tweeted Glenn Kessler, editor and chief writer for The Washington Post's Fact Checker. Other social media users also shared photos of the scene, with one picture featuring a white horse. AP journalist Mike Balsamo reported that the Department of Justice had said Barr went out to speak to the picketers. more...

Trump Supporters Spend Weekend Clogging America’s Highways

Cars and trucks carrying Trump 2020 flags swamped freeways from New Jersey to Texas on Sunday as supporters posted #TrumpTrain videos on Twitter.

Patricia Kelly Yeo

In a show of support of questionable political value, pro-Trump demonstrators clogged freeways Sunday across the country, from blue states like New Jersey, New York, and Washington state, to red-leaning Texas and purple Arizona. “WHOOO! We shut it down baby! We shut it down!” says one pro-Trump videographer as he pans the camera nearly 360 degrees, showing viewers the group of cars that had brought traffic to a complete standstill along the northbound Garden State Parkway in New Jersey.

In a show of support of questionable political value, pro-Trump demonstrators clogged freeways Sunday across the country, from blue states like New Jersey, New York, and Washington state, to red-leaning Texas and purple Arizona. “WHOOO! We shut it down baby! We shut it down!” says one pro-Trump videographer as he pans the camera nearly 360 degrees, showing viewers the group of cars that had brought traffic to a complete standstill along the northbound Garden State Parkway in New Jersey.  more...

FBI investigating alleged harassment of Biden campaign bus by Trump supporters

By Josh Campbell, CNN

Washington (CNN) The FBI is investigating the alleged harassment of a Joe Biden campaign bus last week by motorists displaying Trump 2020 flags, an FBI spokesperson confirmed Sunday. "FBI San Antonio is aware of the incident and investigating," FBI spokesperson Michelle Lee told CNN. The incident took place in Texas on Friday as the campaign bus was traveling from San Antonio to Austin as part of a push to urge Biden supporters to cast their ballots on the state's last day of early voting. A Biden campaign official described the motorists' actions as an attempt to slow down the bus and run it off the road. People in vehicles that were part of a "Trump Train" began yelling profanities and obscenities and then blockaded the entire Biden entourage, according to a source familiar with the incident.

At one point they slowed the tour bus to roughly 20 mph on Interstate 35, the campaign official said. The vehicles slowed down to try to stop the bus in the middle of the highway. The source said there were nearly 100 vehicles around the campaign bus. Biden staffers were rattled by the event, the source said, though no one was hurt. Neither Biden nor his running mate, California Sen. Kamala Harris, were on the bus. Multiple sources told CNN that Wendy Davis, a former state senator who is challenging Republican Rep. Chip Roy for Texas' 21st Congressional District, was on the bus. Davis' campaign declined to comment to CNN on Saturday. more...

*** Trump is planning to steal the election by denying millions of people their valid votes. ***

Trump Adviser Equates Counting Ballots With Stealing the Election

‘HIJINKS’

Justin Baragona

Trump campaign adviser Jason Miller previewed Team Trump’s strategy for Election Night, suggesting on Sunday morning that counting all legally cast ballots was akin to stealing the election. During an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, Miller predicted that Trump would be ahead in the vote counts of several swing states on Tuesday evening and that would give him the necessary number of electoral votes to win the election.

“If you speak with many smart Democrats, they believe that President Trump will be ahead on election night probably getting 280 electors, somewhere in that range. and they’re just going to try to steal it back after the election,” Miller exclaimed. “We believe we'll be over 290 electoral votes on election night. So no matter what they try to do, what kind of hijinks or lawsuits or whatever kind of nonsense they try to pull off, we're still going to have enough electoral votes to get President Trump re-elected.”

Stephanopoulos, meanwhile, didn’t provide any pushback to Miller’s baseless assertion that counting ballots after Election Day is “nonsense” and thievery. Furthermore, some states—such as Pennsylvania—are unable to immediately count mail-in ballots due to state laws. (Mail-in vote totals are expected to be heavily Democratic.) Even some Republicans criticized Miller’s comments that the election should be decided only by votes counted on Tuesday. more...

*** Is Trump going to steal the election? ***

Trump Reportedly 'Plans To Declare Victory Before Election Is Called'

The president is said to have told sources he will declare himself the winner if it looks like he's “ahead.”

By Léonie Chao-Fong

Donald Trump plans to declare victory over the US presidential election even before the results are called, according to reports. Trump has reportedly told sources that he will walk up to the podium on the night of Nov 3 and announce himself as the winner if it looks like he’s “ahead”. The American news site Axios has cited three anonymous sources and claimed the incumbent president has spoken privately through the scenario “in some detail” in the past few weeks.

The report says: “Trump has privately talked through this scenario in some detail in the last few weeks, describing plans to walk up to a podium on election night and declare he has won. “For this to happen, his allies expect he would need to either win or have commanding leads in Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, Texas, Iowa, Arizona and Georgia.” It is entirely possible that the results of this year’s election will not be known on the election day itself. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, far more people are casting mail-in and absentee ballots than in any previous election. In some states, those ballots cannot be opened, processed or counted until election day. As a result, results in some key swing states, including Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, will not and cannot be projected by the end of Election Day. more...

FBI investigating alleged harassment of Biden campaign bus by Trump supporters

By Josh Campbell, CNN

Washington (CNN) The FBI is investigating the alleged harassment of a Joe Biden campaign bus last week by motorists displaying Trump 2020 flags, a law enforcement source familiar with the probe told CNN on Sunday. The incident took place in Texas on Friday as the campaign bus was traveling from San Antonio to Austin as part of a push to urge Biden supporters to cast their ballots on the state's last day of early voting. A Biden campaign official described the motorists' actions as an attempt to slow down the bus and run it off the road.

People in vehicles that were part of a "Trump Train" began yelling profanities and obscenities and then blockaded the entire Biden entourage, according to another source familiar with the incident. At one point they slowed the tour bus to roughly 20 mph on Interstate 35, the campaign official said. The vehicles slowed down to try to stop the bus in the middle of the highway. The source said there were nearly 100 vehicles around the campaign bus. Biden staffers were rattled by the event, the source said, though no one was hurt.

Neither Biden nor his running mate, California Sen. Kamala Harris, were on the bus. Multiple sources told CNN that Wendy Davis, a former state senator who is challenging Republican Rep. Chip Roy for Texas' 21st Congressional District, was on the bus. Davis' campaign declined to comment to CNN on Saturday. Staffers on the bus called 911, which eventually led to local law enforcement assisting the bus to its destination. more...

Texas Supreme Court rejects Republican-led effort to throw out nearly 127,000 Harris County votes

A handful of GOP activists and candidates had asked the state's highest civil court to rule Harris County's drive-thru voting locations illegal, and invalidate votes that have already been cast. The challenge has also been filed in federal court.

by Jolie McCullough

A legal cloud hanging over nearly 127,000 votes already cast in Harris County was at least temporarily lifted Sunday when the Texas Supreme Court rejected a request by several conservative Republican activists and candidates to preemptively throw out early balloting from drive-thru polling sites in the state's most populous, and largely Democratic, county. The all-Republican court denied the request without an order or opinion, as justices did last month in a similar lawsuit brought by some of the same plaintiffs.

The Republican plaintiffs, however, are pursuing a similar lawsuit in federal court, hoping to get the votes thrown out by arguing that drive-thru voting violates the U.S. constitution. A hearing in that case is set for Monday morning in a Houston-based federal district court, one day before Election Day. A rejection of the votes would constitute a monumental disenfranchisement of voters — drive-thru ballots account for about 10% of all in-person ballots cast during early voting in Harris County. more...

*** Trump was projecting what he was going to do to win when he claimed voter fraud and rigged election. ***

Trump’s plan to win by invalidating votes, explained

First, make it illegal to count votes quickly. Second, paint the slow count as suspicious.

By Matthew Yglesias

Behind in the polls, Republicans are becoming increasingly blunt about their plan to win the election: don’t let everyone’s votes be counted. As Astead Herndon and Annie Karnie reported for the the New York Times Saturday evening: “Trump advisers said their best hope was if the president wins Ohio and Florida is too close to call early in the night, depriving Mr. Biden a swift victory and giving Mr. Trump the room to undermine the validity of uncounted mail-in ballots in the days after.”

This is a very plausible scenario. As Vox’s Andrew Prokop has explained, due to differences in local election law, “the general expectation is that Florida, North Carolina, and Arizona are in a good place to count most of their votes on election night or soon afterward” but “Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan — the trio of states that clinched Trump’s victory in 2016 — are a different story.”

Current polls show Biden leading in all six states. But his leads are narrower in the fast-counting states than in the slow-counting states, so if Trump does moderately better than polls currently suggest, he could win the fast-counting states on election night and wage battle in the courts to try to prevent the slow-counting from fully tallying their votes.

It’s a long-shot effort, but the only reason it’s on the table at all is that the GOP-controlled legislatures in those three states have deliberately acted to keep the vote count slow. So there’s indication Trump may have party support if he tries to undermine the counting. Meanwhile, other actions over the weekend from North Carolina to Texas reveal a Republican Party that is broadly committed to using roadblocks to voting as a strategy for victory. more...

Trump on supporters' caravan surrounding Biden campaign bus: "I love Texas!"

Axios

President Trump posted video Saturday night of his supporters surrounding a Biden-Harris campaign bus with the comment, "I LOVE TEXAS!" in a tweet Democrats called "reckless." Why it matters: Democratic officials and witnesses said the pro-Trump vehicles attempted to "force" the Biden-Harris campaign bus "off the road" in the incident on Friday, per the New York Times. The incident comes amid heightened concerns of Election Day and post-election violence, which has prompted officials in some cities and states to take unprecedented measures to prepare.

Driving the news: Videos of the incident show several trucks bearing Trump flags and signs surround the bus as it headed from San Antonio to Austin on Interstate 35, per NYT. "These Trump supporters, many of whom were armed, surrounded the bus on the interstate and attempted to drive it off the road," tweeted historian Eric Cervini, who said he traveled to Texas to help with the Biden-Harris campaign. The vehicles "ended up hitting a staffer’s car," Cervini added. Trump supporters also "followed the Biden bus throughout central Texas to intimidate Biden supporters," Travis County Democratic Party Chair Katie Naranjo said in a Twitter post. "They ran into a person's car, yelling curse words and threats. Don't let bullies win, vote." more...

President Trump Appears To Embrace Actions Of Caravan That Surrounded Biden-Harris Campaign Bus In Texas

AUSTIN (CBSDFW.COM/CNN) — After documented reports of pro-Donald Trump supporters following, surrounding and allegedly threatening a Joe Biden-Kamala Harris campaign bus in Texas, Saturday night the President appeared to embrace the actions of his supporters.

Trump tweeted a video of the caravan surrounding the Biden bus with the caption, “I LOVE TEXAS!” Biden spokesman Bill Russo responded to Trump’s tweet by pointing to reports that Trump’s campaign was not prepared to shuttle attendees who had been bused to a rally at a Pennsylvania airport back afterward, leading to a chaotic situation with his supporters walking across roads to cars parked miles away. “For the second time in a week your campaign has left your supporters stranded in the cold with no transportation at one of your superspreader rallies,” Russo said on Twitter. “Maybe you should spend more time worried about those buses than ours.” more...

Extra Officers Patrolling After SMU Student Shot Dead In Downtown Dallas

CBSDFW

Extra Officers Patrolling After SMU Student Shot Dead In Downtown Dallas. video...

Kentucky Police Training Quoted Hitler and Urged ‘Ruthless’ Violence

A training slide show that urged officers to “always fight to the death” is no longer used but has raised an outcry in a state that has struggled with police violence.

By Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs

A slide show once shown to cadets training to join the Kentucky State Police includes quotations attributed to Adolf Hitler and Robert E. Lee, says troopers should be warriors who “always fight to the death” and encourages each trooper in training to be a “ruthless killer.” The slide show, which came to light on Friday in a report from a high school newspaper, brought harsh condemnation from politicians, Jewish groups and Kentucky residents, but not from the Kentucky State Police department itself, which said only that the training materials were old.

Morgan Hall, a spokeswoman for the Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet, which oversees the State Police, said that the slide show was “removed” in 2013 and was no longer in use but declined to answer a list of questions, including queries about how long the material was used and how many cadets had seen the training. more...

Lindsey Graham Says Young Women Can 'Go Anywhere' If They're Pro-Life and Embrace Religion, Points to Barrett

By Christina Zhao

Republican South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham believes women in America can achieve anything if they are pro-life, embrace religion and follow a traditional family structure—like Judge Amy Coney Barrett. Speaking at a campaign event in Conway, South Carolina, the Republican incumbent praised Barrett, who was recently confirmed to the Supreme Court, and offered some advice to young women.

"You know what I like about Judge Barrett? She's got everything," the senator said. "She's not just wicked smart, she's incredibly good. She embraces her faith." "I want every young woman to know there's a place for you in America if you are pro-life, if you embrace your religion, and you follow traditional family structure. That you can go anywhere, young lady," he added. more...

'Out of harm's way': US Marshals Service leads recovery of 27 missing children in Virginia's 'Operation Find Our Children'

Steve Kiggins USA TODAY

A five-day search in Virginia resulted in the recovery of 27 missing children, the latest in a series of operations led by the U.S. Marshals Service that have reunited hundreds of endangered youngsters with their legal guardians this year.

More than 60 law enforcement investigators collaborated with the Virginia Department of Social Services, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and a team of medical professionals during “Operation Find Our Children,” according to news release from the Justice Department.

“I can think of no more critical or satisfying mission for a law enforcement officer than rescuing an endangered child,” Nick E. Proffitt, U.S. Marshal for the Eastern District of Virginia, said in the release. “This operation brought together a formidable team that was, and is, determined to come to the aid of our youth and bring to justice those among us that choose to prey on these vulnerable children.” more...

Unrest after Walter Wallace Jr. shooting boiled over from the disconnect between a Philadelphia community and police

By Nicole Chavez, CNN

(CNN) Walter Wallace Jr.'s shooting death was maddeningly familiar but the decades of trauma that West Philadelphia has endured, made it much more painful. After Wallace's mother and neighbors watched him get shot by police while he had a mental health crisis, the streets near the family's home in Cobbs Creek, a predominantly Black neighborhood, were filled with glass and burnt debris, and some businesses were looted. Thirty-five years prior, tensions between police and a Black liberation group culminated with a bombing just blocks away that some people believe has contributed to the anger and frustration behind last week's protests.

"If we had gone through the hard work of reconciliation after the MOVE Bombing, maybe those officers would have seen in Walter someone in need of a helping hand, rather than a threat," Jamie Gauthier, a Philadelphia council member representing Wallace's district, tweeted on Thursday. "They would have seen him and realized he was someone's son, father, husband, neighbor," she added. Some families in Philadelphia have endured police brutality and racism for generations and this year alone has exacerbated that frustration and pain. The coronavirus pandemic highlighted economic and health disparities, George Floyd's death in Minneapolis brought on a reckoning about race and hundreds of lives have been shattered by gun violence. more...

White House plots possible second-term Cabinet purge

A second-term Trump administration is considering expelling Cabinet members who have crossed the president, refused to mount investigations he has demanded or contradicted him on coronavirus.

By NANCY COOK

President Donald Trump and his top aides are planning a huge overhaul of his Cabinet if he wins a second term, scuttling officials in key health-related and intelligence jobs who Trump views as disloyal, slow-acting or naysayers. The shift would amount to a purge of any Cabinet member who has crossed the president, refused to mount investigations he has demanded, or urged him to take a different, more strict tack on the coronavirus response.

The evictions could run the gamut from senior health officials to much of the national security leadership. Already, the White House and administration officials have started to vet names of health care experts who could take over the agencies running many elements of the government’s pandemic response and overseeing the country’s health insurance system, according to two Republicans close to the White House. And the president is eying a remake of leadership at the FBI, CIA and Pentagon, exasperated with what he perceives as unwillingness to investigate his preferred subjects or take on the government’s “deep state.”

This personnel overhaul of the Trump Cabinet at the start of a second term would mirror the turnover his administration has already experienced during his first four years. Of the 23 Cabinet-level posts in the Trump White House, only seven officials lasted all four years. Many, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt and Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, had public and contentious departures. And it would represent a fully unencumbered Trump, no longer constrained by political considerations or pushback from Congress. more...

Police used pepper spray to break up a North Carolina march to a polling place

By Artemis Moshtaghian and Dakin Andone, CNN

(CNN) Law enforcement officers used pepper spray on Saturday to break up a march to a polling place in Graham, North Carolina. According to a statement from the Graham Police Department, officers pepper sprayed the ground to disperse the crowd when the demonstration was deemed "unsafe and unlawful" due to unspecified "actions." But Scott Huffman, a North Carolina Democratic congressional candidate who attended the march, said demonstrators were only exercising their First Amendment rights when law enforcement used the pepper spray in Graham, about 30 miles east of Greensboro.

"We were peacefully demonstrating, we were exercising our First Amendment rights with Black Lives Matter," Huffman said in a video he shared on Twitter. The "I Am Change" march was branded as a "march to the polls" where participants were encouraged to march in honor of Black people whose deaths have fueled protests over racial injustice, including George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Trayvon Martin, among others, according to a flyer for the event. Attorney Ben Crump, who represents the families of numerous victims of police brutality, was scheduled to speak at the event, the flyer shows, along with Brooke Williams, George Floyd's niece.

Video published by the Raleigh News & Observer appears to show demonstrators and law enforcement scuffling over sound equipment in front of the Graham courthouse. Alamance County Sheriff's deputies wearing gray uniforms soon deploy pepper spray, and at least one deputy is seen spraying a man in the face. Others spray toward demonstrators' feet. At least eight people were arrested during the rally on various charges, including failure to disperse and one instance of assault on a law enforcement officer, Graham police said. more...

'A whole lot of hurt': Fauci angers Trump White House with dark Covid outlook

Martin Pengelly in New York

The US is “in for a whole lot of hurt” under the coronavirus pandemic, senior public health expert Anthony Fauci said, predicting a winter of 100,000 or more cases a day and a rising death toll. “We’re in for a whole lot of hurt,” Fauci told the Washington Post in a hard-hitting interview published on Saturday night, three days out from election day, immediately angering the Trump White House. “It’s not a good situation. All the stars are aligned in the wrong place as you go into the fall and winter season, with people congregating at home indoors. You could not possibly be positioned more poorly.”

More than 9.1m cases of Covid-19 have been recorded in the US and more than 230,000 people have died. Daily case counts vary but agree that on Friday the US set a world record for cases in a single day, at between 99,000 and 100,000. On Saturday, Johns Hopkins University reported more than 81,000 new cases. There were 862 deaths, down from more than 1,000 the day before. Donald Trump, recently recovered from the virus himself, continues to campaign for re-election, staging rallies at which Covid mitigation strategies such as mask-wearing and social distancing are not observed and regularly claiming the US is “rounding the corner”. On Friday he made the baseless claim that doctors were rewarded financially if people died of Covid. more...

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