We are rightly focusing on President Trump last night telling rally goers he’d never be in their dump of a town if the election weren’t going so badly for him. But let’s not miss the more important and lasting part of this message. President Trump is already previewing one explanation and justification for his defeat: COVID. He was cruising toward reelection, he claims, when COVID struck. For him, there’s the added feature that it was the handiwork of his purported arch-enemy China.
Meadows Claims ‘High Probability’ Of Trump Releasing ’60 Minutes’ Interview Early
White House chief of staff Mark Meadows on Wednesday appeared to hype the ominous hit job that President Trump teased the day before when he abruptly stormed out of a solo interview with CBS News’ “60 Minutes.” Continue reading “Meadows Claims ‘High Probability’ Of Trump Releasing ’60 Minutes’ Interview Early”
NYT: McConnell Trying To Scuttle COVID Relief Deal To Uphold Rushed SCOTUS Confirmation
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is reportedly trying to hamper the White House and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) negotiations on a COVID-19 relief bill, fearing that bringing it to a vote before Election Day will complicate his efforts to rush Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation.
Biden Thinks There Should Be ‘More Limitations’ On Debate Interruptions
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said on Tuesday that he supports a recent rule change by the Commission on Presidential Debates that will mute candidates’ microphones to allow for uninterrupted answers during his final debate with President Donald Trump before the election.
“I think it’s a good idea,” Biden told local ABC affiliate in Wisconsin WISN12 News in an interview on Tuesday. “I think there should be more limitations on us not interrupting one another.”
The comments come after Trump condemned the new rules as “unfair” and an effort to protect Biden — just weeks after saying he would not participate in the second presidential debate after the CPD announced a virtual format amid the President’s announcement of a coronavirus diagnosis days after descending the debate stage after a chaotic first contest in Cleveland, Ohio.
Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien issued a statement saying that the President would not back down from the final debate slated to take place in Nashville, Tennessee, on Thursday.
“President Trump is committed to debating Joe Biden regardless of last-minute rule changes from the biased commission in their latest attempt to provide advantage to their favored candidate,” Stepien said.
The comments were a turnaround from a letter he issued to the commission on Monday, when he called muting the candidates’ microphones “unacceptable.”
In the same letter, Stepien appeared to take issue with the topics of the debate which include various areas that have drawn widespread criticism of the President — including fighting COVID-19, American families, race in America, climate change, national security and leadership.
“We urge you to recalibrate the topics,” Stepien wrote in the letter, suggesting that not enough focus had been placed on foreign policy. But the debate commission has long said that the third debate format would mirror the first.
Biden said Tuesday that he hopes Trump will be open to debating the outlined topics, which both candidates agreed would be decided by the moderator, but told WISN12 that he is doubtful that will be the case.
“My guess is he’s kind of signaling that it’s all gonna be about personal attacks,” Biden said, suggesting that the President would try to sidestep issues of health care, which have become a central issue for Democratic lawmakers that some Republicans have shied away from as the Supreme Court prepares to hear a challenge to the Affordable Care Act just days after the Nov. 3 election.
“I’m going to try very hard to focus on the issues that affect the American people and talk to them, and I hope they keep the rule” for uninterrupted two-minute answers Biden said.
GOPer On Debate Commission Slams ‘Incalculable’ Damage Of Trump’s Attacks
Former Sen. John Danforth (R-MO), a longtime member of the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), tore into President Donald Trump’s efforts to smear the commission as corrupt and biased on Tuesday.
Continue reading “GOPer On Debate Commission Slams ‘Incalculable’ Damage Of Trump’s Attacks”
Trump Says ‘Not Much’ He Would Change In Hypothetical COVID Do-Over
President Donald Trump on Tuesday said there’s “not much” he would change if he had a shot at a do-over on the coronavirus pandemic that has now killed roughly 221,000 people in the United States.
Sinclair’s Eric Bolling asked the President during a town hall scheduled to air Wednesday night if there anything the President “could have done differently” if he had another chance to tackle the coronavirus pandemic from the beginning.
Not sure what all the fuss was about today with @60Minutes and @realDonaldTrump .. He seemed perfectly fine at my TownHall- taped just minutes after he finished with @cbs.
Judge for yourselves-> pic.twitter.com/GQoOUoPEHR
— ?? ERIC BOLLING ?? (@ericbolling) October 21, 2020
“If you had a mulligan or a do-over on one aspect of the way you handled it, what would it be?” Bolling asked.
“Not much,” Trump said. “Look, it’s all over the world. You have a lot of great leaders, a lot of smart people — it’s all over the world. It came out of China. China should’ve stopped it.”
When pressed on the matter he doubled down, again saying, there was “not much” he would change amid a pandemic that is far from contained in the United States. The nation’s seven-day average of new daily cases had exceeded 58,300 as of Monday — a case average not seen since the first week of August, according to CNN.
“I did it very early,” Trump said in an apparent reference to a travel ban that he put on China that he repeatedly has suggested saved millions of lives.
The President knocked top infectious-disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci and others he said discouraged him from banning travel from the East Asian country, adding that while gets along with him “fine” that the public health expert has “made mistakes.”
The President also appeared to refer to claims made by Fauci that he had been discouraged from making some media appearances and “then you see him do 60 Minutes, not one of the greatest shows in the world.”
The comments come after President Trump sat down with correspondent Lesley Stahl for a “60 Minutes” interview Tuesday that he cut short, later making accusations of the interview being “fake” and “biased” while threatening on Twitter to release the taped interview early.
Sources told the Daily Beast that Trump has often told close associates and advisers that Fauci is acting like a member of anti-MAGA “resistance” commentators.
Two sources with knowledge of Trump’s private comments told the Daily Beast that the President believes Fauci is hoping to win adulation from the press and appears at times to be “audition[ing]” or “trying to get a job at CNN.”
Voters In At Least Two States Received Threatening Emails To ‘Vote For Trump Or Else’
Voters in Florida and Alaska reported receiving threatening emails telling them to “Vote for Trump or else!” in what appear to be attempts at voter intimidation and have pushed elections officials in those states to contact law enforcement for further investigation, according to CNN.
‘Bold Strategy’: People Scratch Their Heads Over Trump Telling PA Rallygoers He Didn’t Want To Be There
President Donald Trump got remarkably candid on Tuesday night with his supporters in Pennsylvania, a state he desperately needs to win on Election Day, by telling them that if he had a choice, he wouldn’t have bothered to grace them with his presence.
Debate Commission Co-Chair Defends Mic Muting Rule: ‘Both Parties Agreed’
The co-chair of the Commission on Presidential Debates on Tuesday defended the non-partisan organization’s decision to mute microphones during certain portions of the final presidential debate this week, which President Trump has deemed as “very unfair.” Continue reading “Debate Commission Co-Chair Defends Mic Muting Rule: ‘Both Parties Agreed’”
‘No Such Thing As No Risk,’ Atlas Says While Pushing Policy Experts Say Will Increase Death
A top White House coronavirus adviser pushing to “reopen” the country with minimal COVID-19 restrictions explained Tuesday that there was “no such thing as no risk in life.”