Former President Barack Obama delivered a passionate eulogy at the memorial service for the late Rep. John Lewis, a Georgia congressman and civil rights icon who died earlier this month, that urged vigilance in the face of growing “dark currents” that threaten the progress of the nation’s democracy.
Continue reading “Obama Eulogizes Legacy Of John Lewis In Most Pointed Call-To-Action Yet”
We reported last week on a major disruption to the COVID-19 data ecosystem: A hospital patient flow company, Pittsburgh-based TeleTracking, would replace the CDC as the government’s primary recipient of COVID-19 data from hospitals — everything from drug and ventilator use to bed capacity.
Fox News host and politics editor Chris Stirewalt asserted Thursday that President Donald Trump suggesting that the November elections ought to be delayed doesn’t bode well for his reelection prospects.
As former President Obama made a passionate case for honoring the legacy of the late Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) by expanding voting rights, he said that the Senate filibuster should be eliminated if it stands in the way of measures that protect the right to vote.
For weeks, COVID-19 testing in the United States has been complicated for many by a single factor: the time it takes to get a result.
There’s a strong temptation, maybe a reflex, to be frightened and outraged by the President’s floating the idea of delaying the November election. But the only appropriate response is mockery and ridicule of the President’s weakness and corruption. As a factual and procedural matter, none of this is in the President’s control. In practice, no one can change the date of the election. In theory, Congress could do it. But good luck getting Nancy Pelosi to sign on to that. Even beyond this, it is a case where the ramshackle and decentralized process of American elections works in the favor of democracy. There is no national election. States hold elections. Nothing and no one can stop California, New York, Illinois and Virginia from holding their elections and rendering electors to the electoral college meeting in December.
But the bigger issue, the deeper issue here isn’t factual. It’s characterological.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) rejected an idea floated by Trump to delay the November presidential election, saying Thursday that it should go forward as planned.
“Never in the history of the federal elections have we ever not held an election and we should go forward with our election,” McCarthy told reporters when asked about the proposition of a delay during a press conference.
The remarks follow a Thursday morning tweet by the President that suggested delaying the election due to the baseless assertion that widespread mail-in voting will lead to a “fraudulent” election.
But Trump does not have the authority to move an election and bide more time to win favor from his diminishing base.
Federal law sets Election Day as “the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November.” If Trump or any of his GOP allies in the Senate wanted to change this law, they would need to go through the Democratic House.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has already made clear in a statement confirmed by his communications director, David Popp, that November’s election date is set in stone. In an interview with WNKYTV, a local NBC and CBS affiliate in Kentucky scheduled to air in full Thursday evening, the GOP senator will cite past crises that have taken place during an election.
CNN correspondent Manu Raju tweeted after Trump’s suggestion Thursday that even close Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) had said when asked about a potential delay: “I don’t think that’s a particularly good idea.”
Before Trump’s tweet on Thursday, Democrats had expressed growing concern that the President will try to delay the election or deem its results illegitimate.
Trump has made a routine of railing against mail-in voting, making claims that bristle against the wisdom of experts, by saying that ballots will be reprinted, robbed from mailboxes and cause widespread fraud.
During a House Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday, Democratic leaders asked Attorney General William Barr whether he believed that claims of election fraud were legitimate. Barr, who has repeatedly sided with the President and politicized the Justice Department to favor Trump and many of his allies, said that that while he doesn’t not advocate for “wholesale” mail-in voting he has “no reason to think” that the upcoming election will be “rigged.”
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday did not reject the notion of President Donald Trump somehow going through with his suggestion to delay the 2020 election, even though a president does not have the authority to do so.
Continue reading “Pompeo Refuses To Say Trump Doesn’t Have Power To Delay The Elections”
There was a lot going on this morning.
The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will reconsider an order from a panel of its judges that sought to block Michael Flynn’s judge from probing the reasons the Justice Department wants Flynn’s case dropped.
Continue reading “Full Appeals Court To Rehear Dispute Over Flynn Judge’s Handling Of His Case”
