Tierney Sneed has been all over this story since the night of the final presidential debate, when it bubbled into the open: whether the RNC was violating that decades-old consent decree it is saddled with by virtue of having an atrocious record of trying to deny minorities their right to vote.
Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve spent more of my time on this story than any other we’ve been covering, so I was eager to see the ruling from the federal court in New Jersey that was handling the case.
The judge’s decision just came down, and I think he nailed it.
You can read it here.
Let me share a basic premise with you. Right or wrong, it’s informed my understanding of the race for months. The Clinton campaign has better information about the race than the media (i.e., public polls) or the Trump campaign.
More than 800 polling places across the South closed since the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in 2013. Check it out.
I flagged this yesterday but here Deadspin or whoever put together this video has put the two segments together.
You Make The Call: https://t.co/62pm8bNWVO pic.twitter.com/oU1Tjbg5Uu
— Deadspin (@Deadspin) November 5, 2016
This follows up on what David wrote below about watching Trump’s speech this morning. This has been going on for so long a lot of it starts to seem normal. Like a child or a spouse living in an abusive household, your perception of what’s normal, tolerable and okay becomes deformed by the impact of the abuse. Some of it though is simply not having listened – listened closely – to Trump for a while and what he actually says. As David said, here’s Lauren’s write up of this morning’s rant.
One of the challenges for journalists on the trail covering any presidential campaign is that the stump speeches become a sort of metronomic monotony. After a few weeks or months of hearing the same themes and the same canned lines over and over, you begin to listen only for what is new or different, and everything else becomes background noise. This isn’t a news flash. It’s just one of the hazards of the job, but in a real sense it colors the coverage in its own way.
Which brings us to Trump.
Friends, readers, like we do in every big election, I want to invite you to send us your pictures of the election, specifically going to the polls. Elections aren’t just about counting. It’s not just a numerical exercise. It’s a civic, communal activity. As much as this campaign has besmirched, we shouldn’t, we can’t forget that. We can begin to overcome it through the democratic act of voting.
I always want to make clear. Some states have laws against photographing your ballots – so-called ‘ballot selfies’. Don’t break any laws. But other than that share your experience with us and we’ll share them here on the site.
Here are some examples from 2012. #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6.
I can’t wait to see them.
David Pecker, the CEO of the company that owns The National Enquirer is a close ally of Donald Trump. Their alliance has come up on several occasions during Trump’s run for the White House. In August, Pecker paid $150,000 to Karen McDougal, a 1998 Playboy Playmate of the Year, to cover up her story of the consensual affair she had with Donald Trump in 2006, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Trump married the former Melania Knaus in 2005. Melania Trump gave birth to their son Barron Trump in 2006.
A TPM Reader notes that there may well be more to the Melania Trump working in the US illegally story. The AP found evidence that Melania worked in the US illegally prior to the date her lawyer says she first obtained a work permit. Good work by the AP. But we don’t actually know she got a work permit even then. We’re just talking her lawyer’s word for it. It’s like Trump’s taxes. No evidence, we just have to take their word. I don’t blame the AP for that, to be clear. They can’t prove she didn’t get a permit then. So they did the story exactly right. But Melania Trump have provided no evidence that wasn’t working in the country illegally for a much longer period.
