Biden Taps Kamala Harris, And Trump Revives Birther Conspiracy
- The 2020 presidential campaign entered a new phase on Tuesday, with former Vice President Joe Biden choosing his own veep, California Sen. Kamala Harris.
- Harris, the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, is the first Black woman to appear on a major presidential ticket.
- The Trump campaign issued a predictably unhinged statement after Biden announced Harris as his running mate. During a press conference Tuesday evening, President Trump repeatedly called Harris “nasty.” Trump then doubled down, calling Harris a “dangerous choice.”
- Later in the week, Trump’s attacks on Harris took a racist turn. On Thursday, Trump revived his racist birther campaign, this time directed at Harris, who was born in Oakland, California, and is fully eligible to serve as president and vice president.
- The President’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, kept the birther ball in the air on Friday, refusing to say whether or not he believed Harris was eligible to serve.
It’s Sabotage
- Trump made his efforts to cripple the U.S. Postal Service explicit this week, confirming that he is holding up emergency funds for USPS to hamper mail-in voting.
- “Now they need that money in order to make the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots,” Trump told Fox Business Network. “But if they don’t get those two items, that means you can’t have universal mail-in voting.”
- The Biden campaign called Trump’s admission “an assault on our democracy and economy by a desperate man.”
- Despite railing against mail-in voting at every opportunity, Trump has requested a mail-in ballot for next week’s Florida primary.
- The head of the Postal Workers Union called Trump’s efforts to sabotage the Postal Service “truly shameful.”
QAnon In Congress
- Here’s a first. Marjorie Greene, a QAnon supporter, won a primary runoff in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District on Tuesday. Her primary win almost guarantees she will sail through the general election and into Congress.
- For the uninitiated, the QAnon conspiracy centers around the belief that Trump’s enemies are pedophiles and satanists working to take down the President.
- Trump congratulated Greene after her win, calling her a “future Republican star.” And the Trump campaign went after Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who denounced Greene.
- A number of other Trump World figures have flirted with the QAnon conspiracy, including Michael Flynn and Roger Stone.
- For more on the conspiracy, listen to the latest episode of “The Josh Marshall Podcast” here, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
