thehuffingtonpost--2020-11-02--‘Justice Is On The Ballot’: DOJ Alums Say Trump Reelection Could Be ‘Point Of No Return’

“ The department has been taken off a road that I think it ’ s basically been on since the @ @ @ @ @ ’ s been that separation of the Justice Department from the White House , ” @ @ @ @ @ really need to look at the department as a whole .
The people there , @ @ @ @ @ at main justice , their motives have been called into question , their patriotism has @ @ @ @ @ and all of that has to be dealt with .
The department has got to @ @ @ @ @ was and what it must always be and clearly not what it is now .
@

The Justice Department can’t take four more years of President Donald Trump.
Scores of former department officials from both political parties said that the severe damage inflicted by the president on the department and its components over the past four years will become permanent and irreversible if Trump wins a second term. The result, they said, would be a fundamental subjugation of the rule of law and the transformation of the department into an overtly political operation.
No president since Richard Nixon has had as much of a negative effect on the Justice Department as Trump. He fired one FBI director and is considering firing another. He pushed out his first attorney general and is engaging in a public campaign to pressure current Attorney General William Barr to investigate his chief political rival, Joe Biden, hinting that he might dismiss Barr if he doesn’t.
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Trump bulldozed the wall between the White House and the Justice Department meant to prevent political interference in prosecutions. He unleashed an extensive campaign against the FBI, accusing the nation’s buttoned-up and conservative-leaning law enforcement agency of being behind a secret cabal to take him down. He has left the bureau to deal with the long-term, real-world damage to its reputation.
“As bad as that has been over the past four years, it would be obviously even worse over the next four years,” Greg Brower, the FBI’s former congressional liaison and a Republican appointed by President George W. Bush as Nevada’s top federal prosecutor, told HuffPost.
“I worry a great deal about what they would do with another four years in power,” former Attorney General Eric Holder told HuffPost. “People need to understand that there’s no doubt that the Department of Justice is on the ballot this year.”
A number of former U.S. attorneys who were appointed by Republican presidents ― including a man who served as both FBI and CIA director under President Ronald Reagan ― agreed. They condemned Trump, whom they called “a threat to the rule of law in our country,” and endorsed former Vice President Biden, who they said would “refocus the Justice Department on the cause of impartial justice” and help address the country’s “deep-seated societal issues.”
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“Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have hammered home that justice is on the ballot in 2020,” said Julie Zebrak, a former Justice Department official turned political consultant. “Four more years of manipulating DOJ to serve the president’s personal agenda — and personal vendettas — could very well bring the department to the point of no return.”
Indeed, for many Justice Department employees who endured four years of the Trump administration, the outcome of the election will determine the future of their careers. Significant brain drain is a near certainty if Trump wins another term.
A White House spokesman did not respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
Holder said that four years of Trump had done “substantial” but recoverable harm to the Justice Department. He’s not so sure if Trump wins reelection.
“After eight years you would have such structural damage done to the department that I really worry about the ability of a new administration [in 2024] to actually repair the damage that would’ve been done after eight years under Donald Trump,” Holder said.
Uncharted Waters
A few days before the 2016 election, a journalist shot off an email to his fellow reporters on the Justice Department beat, proposing Election Day drinks. It had been an unusual few months on a beat that was usually calm in the run-up to a presidential election, in part because of policies meant to prevent the department from affecting elections.
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“Once every four years, it is certain that DOJ/FBI reporters will have a quiet few weeks before Election Day,” the reporter wrote. “That promise was stolen from us.”
There was FBI Director James Comey’s highly unusual press conference on Hillary Clinton’s emails in July, followed by the discovery of emails on Anthony Weiner’s laptop, which threw the whole campaign into chaos just days before the election. Ongoing investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election had mostly faded into the background. The focus was on Clinton, and the FBI probe overshadowed any potential connections between the Trump campaign and foreign adversaries.
With Clinton far ahead in the polls, it seemed at the time that things on the Justice Department beat were about to return to regular order. The 2016 campaign’s effect on the Justice Department beat was supposed to be an aberration. But Trump’s surprise Electoral College win made it the new normal.
From the beginning of his 2016 campaign, fueled by chants of “lock her up” aimed at Clinton, Trump has viewed the Justice Department as a potential political tool, as a means of protecting his interests and punishing his enemies.
The Justice Department’s operations have always been affected by politics. The administration gets to set policy, and those policy changes trickle down to federal prosecutors across the nation. But the Justice Department itself isn’t typically a wholly political beast. It’s often a step removed from politics: influenced by politics, but not overtly political. That’s critical to its reputation.
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But Trump wasted little time forcing his agenda on the Justice Department and making clear whom he wanted federal prosecutors to target. There was the travel ban. The firing of the acting attorney general. Major rollbacks on the Barack Obama administration’s civil rights agenda. Questionable prosecutions of protesters. Political pardons. And, most critically, the firing of Comey.
Suddenly, the Justice Department was the political story. The deputy attorney general became a household name. Television networks signed up former U.S. attorneys as contributors. Former Justice Department officials landed lucrative book deals.
Robert Mueller’s special counsel investigation ― itself a product of Trump’s overt interference in investigations and prosecutions that would affect him or his allies ― dominated the news cycle. And after Attorney General Jeff Sessions was forced out after the 2018 election, Trump found in William Barr an attorney general even more willing to do the president’s political bidding.
He spun the Mueller report ahead of its publication, creating, in Mueller’s words, “public confusion about critical aspects of the results of our investigation” that undermined the Mueller investigation’s central purpose: “to assure full public confidence in the outcome of the investigations.” When the Mueller report finally came out, it became clear how Barr had misled the public about its findings. The larger truth was this: Trump almost certainly escaped prosecution simply because he’s president of the United States.
Chris Truax, an appellate lawyer and former spokesman for Republicans for the Rule of Law, said that Barr turned himself into one of Trump’s “toadies” and embarrassed himself to advance Trump’s interests.
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“Four more years of Donald Trump would be immensely corrosive to the rule of law. I am impressed and proud that we’ve held out as well as we have as long as we have. But that reserve of fortitude is not infinite,” Truax said. Many Republican lawyers appointed by Trump himself have helped thwart some of Trump’s worst plans, but the dam will eventually break under pressure, he said.
“They’ve just been chipping away at the guardrails of democracy, and eventually they’ll fail. Four more years I don’t want to even have to contemplate,” Truax said. “We’re already near the breaking point, … and another four years would do incalculable damage to the democratic institutions and norms that we’ve all come to take for granted.”
Trump just didn’t care about the rules that were supposed to protect the Justice Department’s reputation and prevent Americans from viewing it as a purely political entity interested in settling political scores rather than fairly enforcing laws passed by Congress.
Former White House Counsel Don McGahn prepared memos for Trump that laid out what he couldn’t do to make the Justice Department go after his political enemies, New York Times reporter Michael Schmidt said in his book “Donald Trump v. the United States: Inside the Struggle to Stop a President.” “There is a strong norm against political involvement in decisions about prosecution or criminal investigations,” McGahn wrote.
Americans and justice officials, McGahn wrote, “share a strong aversion to even the appearance that law enforcement decisions reflect political calculations rather than the sound exercise of legal judgment.” McGahn told Trump he had no authority to initiate an investigation of his political enemies and that there could be serious consequences ― including impeachment ― if he abused his power. There’s no evidence that Trump ever read the memos, Schmidt wrote.
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Holder for years was criticized by Republicans aghast that the attorney general once jokingly referred to himself as former President Obama’s “wingman” in a radio interview. But for him, the breakdown of the wall between the Justice Department and the White House is astonishing to witness.
Holder said that Obama, a former law school professor, would have never thought of pressuring the Justice Department to conduct specific criminal investigations of his political enemies the way Trump has.
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters in the Oval Office in May as Attorney General William Barr listens. Jonathan Ernst / Reuters
“I think you can search long and wide and look at anything you want, and you will never see Barack Obama ask Eric Holder to prosecute Mitt Romney or anybody else on the other side. That just didn’t happen,” Holder said. “You can’t point to anything that he asked me to do or that I did that was inconsistent with the principle of the independence of the Justice Department.”
Some Republicans hoped that the Mueller report, as well as Trump’s impeachment for trying to pressure a foreign country to launch a politically damaging investigation of Biden, would scold the president and teach him a lesson. Yet just weeks before the election, Trump publicly called for the Justice Department to use its powers to attack Biden.
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Mary McCord, the former chief of the Justice Department’s national security division, said that a second term would see Trump continue to “use the department for personal political and financial purposes” and would mean that more department employees would have to stand up to pressure to uphold the department’s reputation.
“We’ve seen judges unwilling to accept representations from DOJ attorneys in court, demand further information in support of their reputations, and generally deny the department the benefit of the presumption of regularity,” McCord told HuffPost. “DOJ can recover from the last four years, but four more would further tarnish the Department’s reputation and further deplete its cadre of experienced attorneys.”
Barr and some of Trump’s appointed U.S. attorneys have been willing to go along with Trump’s push against groups such as “antifa” while generally downplaying the threat posed by white nationalists. Trump appointees have aggressively prosecuted the president’s perceived political enemies on highly questionable charges, often relying on rarely used federal statutes that greatly expand the power of the federal government and step on police and prosecutorial powers generally left to the states.
In addition to blasting the career prosecutors in his own department, Barr has also attacked elected progressive prosecutors who disagree with his “tough on crime” approach to politics.
In the run-up to the election, the department attacked Democratic governors, declared certain Democratic-led cities “anarchist jurisdictions,” floated that they were considering federal criminal charges against mayors for their handling of unrest and put out incomplete information about an ongoing investigation that fueled fears of voter fraud. Even still, Trump is “not happy” with Barr, as he made clear in interviews with conservative media outlets last month.
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Republicans have gone along with the plan to use the Justice Department to influence the election. A GOP congressional aide told Axios that Barr’s failure to deliver a report on the origins of the Russia probe ― a report the administration wanted to use to attack the Obama administration and Democrats ― before the election was a “nightmare scenario” because it was “arguably the number one issue for the Republican base.”
In an interview on Fox Business last month, Trump said that Barr’s fate ― whether he’ll be the “greatest attorney general in the history of our country” or an “average guy” ― would be determined by whether he made a splashy announcement that would benefit Trump’s campaign.
A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment on any pressure campaign.
Yet hours before before Trump’s call to Fox Business, the Justice Department showed how willing it was to accommodate Trump’s political interests. It blasted out a national news release about misdemeanor charges against two Portland protesters ― one 20, the other 18 ― who allegedly blocked the entrance to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement building and “failed to move despite repeated warnings not to impede vehicular traffic.”
Weeks later, when pro-Trump demonstrators showed up outside of Barr’s home to pressure him to take steps to help Trump’s campaign, Barr took a different approach: He reportedly shook hands with them and posed for photos.
Restoring Trust
If Biden does win the election, his attorney general will face a monumental task: undoing the rank politicization of the department while untangling and unwinding the controversial cases and investigations launched by Barr.
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When Holder arrived at the department in 2009, he spoke about the need to restore and rebuild the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, which had been heavily politicized and gutted during the Bush administration.
This time around, Holder thinks the job will be much bigger. Components such as the FBI have been “pilloried by this president” and need to deal with major morale problems.
“The department has been taken off a road that I think it’s basically been on since the Nixon administration, where there’s been that separation of the Justice Department from the White House,” Holder said. “You really need to look at the department as a whole. The people there, both in the field and at main justice, their motives have been called into question, their patriotism has been called into question, and all of that has to be dealt with. The department has got to be restored to what it was and what it must always be and clearly not what it is now.”
Brower, the former FBI official and elected Republican, hopes that the Justice Department can “snap right back into shape” with new political leadership that understands how the White House is supposed to interact with career officials at the department.
Brower said it would “take some work” to restore the FBI’s reputation and that it was important to separate legitimate concerns about transparency and oversight of the bureau from the purely partisan approach Trump took.
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“Increasingly, folks have figured out that this is just a sham. This guy is not serious. He just says these things for political reasons. He’s not sincere. But, you know, he’s still got somewhat of a following out there. I don’t think it’s enough to be reelected,” Browser said.
“I’m not going to speculate on who the next AG is going to be, but I will say that he or she is going to have a lot of work to do to rebuild trust inside and outside the institution,” Holder said. “I think that a President Biden would understand the work that needs to be done and give a future attorney general the space that he or she needs to restore integrity and the independence of the department.”
FBI Director Chris Wray’s fate also likely hangs in the balance. Wray ― who told senators during his confirmation that he would quit before breaking the law for the president ― has generally declined to get sucked into politics the way Trump would like.
Wray shot down the false notion, heavily promoted by Trump, that voter fraud is a widespread problem in America. As some conservatives have spread theories about mass conspiracies by the loosely organized anti-fascist movement known as “antifa,” Wray said that antifa is an ideology rather than an organization. He even recently signaled support for peaceful demonstrations, telling law enforcement officials that “the voices of people demonstrating to support the bedrock principles of justice and equality deserve to be heard.”
The FBI Agents Association wrote a letter to both Biden and Trump urging them both to keep Wray on the job no matter who wins the election. “Major law enforcement associations representing current and former FBI agents as well as police and sheriff’s departments across the country have consistently expressed their full support of Director Wray’s leadership of the bureau,” a senior FBI official told HuffPost.
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Holder said it might be a good idea to more explicitly spell out the limits on the relationship between the White House and the Justice Department in order to leave no doubt about where the ethical lines lay.
“A lot of the concepts that we have called ‘norms’ President Trump has just run roughshod over,” Holder said. “I think that in order to prevent that from happening in the future that perhaps we need to codify some of these norms, … especially in terms of the relationship between the White House and the Justice Department.”
The new attorney general will also have to address how to handle controversial cases already brought by the Trump administration and how to handle investigations of members of the administration, including Trump himself.
The administration has initiated a number of irregular federal prosecutions, aimed in particular at ideological opponents of the president. Crimes that would have been considered local matters were elevated to federal prosecutions.
Past administrations have hesitated to dismiss ongoing cases even when they disagreed with the approach to the cases, Politico reported. Changing course on such prosecutions could give rise to controversy, especially if Republicans were able to paint the Justice Department as soft on rioters and even if the federal prosecution of otherwise local crimes seems to violate the principle of states’ rights, a core conservative principle.
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If Trump leaves office, the statutes of limitation on many of Trump’s potential crimes would still be running. An electoral defeat would deprive Trump of the “get out of jail free” card that comes with the Oval Office under longstanding Justice Department legal opinion.
That’s the trap that awaits a Biden administration. Trump isn’t going to go away after the election. He’ll have a massive platform and a conservative media system that will stand ready to accuse the Biden administration and the so-called “deep state” of unfairly targeting Trump. Efforts by the Biden administration to clean up the Trump White House’s actions could be quickly spun into an effort to politicize the Justice Department. (Making such claims without support would, of course, expose most congressional Republicans to charges of hypocrisy).
Holder — who had federal prosecutor John Durham investigate whether CIA officials broke the law by using unauthorized interrogation techniques in connection with the deaths of two individuals overseas and destroyed videotapes — said a new administration would have to come up with a strategy for investigating past misconduct. Holder’s investigation was relatively limited. The next attorney general will be looking at a much larger scope of potential conduct.
“There’s such a wealth of inappropriate conduct coming from the Trump administration that I think that they’re actually going to have to prioritize what they’ll look at,” Holder said. “If you looked at all the negative things, all the inappropriate things, you would spend an inordinate amount of time focusing on the inappropriate conduct by cabinet members, White House officials, the president himself, and that could inhibit the ability of the new administration to focus on what the American people want them to focus on.”
He thinks the new administration has to define the scope of the conduct it wants to examine, figure out what that universe looks like, and move ahead.
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thehuffingtonpost--2020-11-02--Former Republican Communications Directors Say They Voted For Biden: 'Country Over Party'

Several former Republican National Committee communications directors revealed Monday that they voted for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden , joining the unprecedented list of Republicans to break party rank and stand against President Donald Trump .
“ Proud to vote country over party , ” tweeted Ryan Mahoney , who led communications for the GOP from 2017 to 2019 under RNC chair Ronna McDaniel .
Doug Heye , the RNC ’ s communications director in 2010 , also tweeted Monday that he ’ d declined to vote for Trump .
He instead cast a vote for Sen. Mitt Romney ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nominee .
On Friday , I wrote-in Mitt Romney - a good man who has acted on principle - for president .
I 'm under no illusion he will win , but wanted to vote for a conservative I can be proud of , someone I believe is fully capable of being president .
— Doug Heye ( @ DougHeye ) November 2 , 2020 Heye ’ s predecessor , Trevor Francis , and Lisa Miller , who led RNC communications during President George W. Bush ’ s administration , both told The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ former Republican officials join scores of GOP bigwigs and operatives to cross party lines ahead of Tuesday ’ s election .
Michael Steele , who was chair of the RNC from 2009 to 2011 , has been highly critical of the Trump administration and its GOP allies .
He told followers last month that he endorses Biden because character , leadership , decency and constitutional norms matter .
Steele partnered with The Lincoln Project , a super PAC founded by conservative political strategists who have been fighting to take down Trump .
It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ multiple “ Never Trump ” Republican groups campaigning against the president .
Other prominent Republicans to come out in support of Biden include former Ohio Gov .
John Kasich , former Secretary of State Colin Powell and Cindy McCain , the widow of Sen. John McCain of Arizona .
In August , more than 70 former national security officials from the last several Republican administrations and other GOP officials endorsed Biden .
We want to know what you ’ re hearing on the ground from the candidates .
If you get any interesting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , robocalls or hear anything else you think we should know about , email us at scoops @ huffpost.com .

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Several former Republican National Committee communications directors revealed Monday that they voted for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, joining the unprecedented list of Republicans to break party rank and stand against President Donald Trump.
“Proud to vote country over party,” tweeted Ryan Mahoney, who led communications for the GOP from 2017 to 2019 under RNC chair Ronna McDaniel.
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Proud to vote country over party
Proud to vote for @JoeBiden pic.twitter.com/jK0DKaeI52 — Ryan Mahoney (@rcmahoney) November 2, 2020
Doug Heye, the RNC’s communications director in 2010, also tweeted Monday that he’d declined to vote for Trump. He instead cast a vote for Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah.), the 2012 Republican nominee.
On Friday, I wrote-in Mitt Romney - a good man who has acted on principle - for president. I'm under no illusion he will win, but wanted to vote for a conservative I can be proud of, someone I believe is fully capable of being president. — Doug Heye (@DougHeye) November 2, 2020
Heye’s predecessor, Trevor Francis, and Lisa Miller, who led RNC communications during President George W. Bush’s administration, both told The Hill they voted for Biden.
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“It was a choice, and I chose country over party,” Miller told the news site.
The former Republican officials join scores of GOP bigwigs and operatives to cross party lines ahead of Tuesday’s election. Michael Steele, who was chair of the RNC from 2009 to 2011, has been highly critical of the Trump administration and its GOP allies. He told followers last month that he endorses Biden because character, leadership, decency and constitutional norms matter.
Steele partnered with The Lincoln Project, a super PAC founded by conservative political strategists who have been fighting to take down Trump. It’s among the most prominent of multiple “Never Trump” Republican groups campaigning against the president.
Where you stand in the moment matters. In this moment, leadership, decency, constitutional norms matter. Character matters. Our vote matters. The president we choose matters. I stand with @JoeBiden because America matters. #Vote https://t.co/TGR08YQ3gd — Michael Steele (@MichaelSteele) October 20, 2020
Other prominent Republicans to come out in support of Biden include former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, former Secretary of State Colin Powell and Cindy McCain, the widow of Sen. John McCain of Arizona. In August, more than 70 former national security officials from the last several Republican administrations and other GOP officials endorsed Biden.
We want to know what you’re hearing on the ground from the candidates. If you get any interesting ― or suspicious! ― campaign mailers, robocalls or hear anything else you think we should know about, email us at scoops@huffpost.com.


thehuffingtonpost--2020-11-02--QAnon Backers Behind Pro-Trump Caravans Blocking Roads And Disrupting The Election

These events , and dozens more in nearly every state in the U.S. , were coordinated online by “ MAGA Drag the Interstate , ” a self-described “ grassroots assemblage of patriots ” who organize the “ rolling rallies ” in a purported effort to remind people “ that traditional American values matter.
” At least 18 of the listed event organizers in 14 states have openly supported the far-right conspiracy theory known as QAnon on social media , HuffPost found .
Many of the events were planned in Facebook groups listed on the website , including some with several @ @ @ @ @ @ @ photos there show long lineups of honking trucks and cars decked out in Trump gear , in many cases snarling traffic to a halt .
MAGA Drag the Interstate has been organizing caravans since at least early September , but the events of the past few days , dubbed “ MAGA Weekend , ” appear to be the largest coordinated effort .
Several of the vehicle rallies seem to have targeted voting centers and racially diverse neighborhoods , actions that are in line with the pattern of voter intimidation encouraged by the Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ raises the specter of violence : In the past two years , bombing plots , kidnapping schemes , car chases and a murder have been linked to the belief in an anti-Semitic , pro-Trump conspiracy theory .
Throughout the campaign , Trump has urged his supporters to help him fight back against what he falsely describes as a Democratic plot to steal the election through voter fraud .
He has urged his supporters to go to polling locations “ and watch very carefully , ” a directive that is likely illegal .
His @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to join the so-called Army for Trump .
Asked at a debate to condemn white supremacists and militias who support him , Trump instead told the Proud Boys , a neo-fascist street gang , to “ stand back and stand by.
” A nonprofit organization that monitors political violence determined last month that militia groups “ pose a serious threat ” to American voters .
MAGA Drag the Interstate did not respond to HuffPost ’ s emailed list of questions .
The group ’ s founder , Keith Lee , has been a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ On his now-suspended Twitter account , he has used popular QAnon hashtags and posted videos of himself reciting the QAnon slogan , “ Where we go one , we go all , ” often styled as WWG1WGA .
He has also issued online certificates to fellow Twitter users , labeling each one a “ deputized digital warrior ” along with the WWG1WGA tag .
At one North Carolina MAGA caravan in September , members of the Alamance County Trump Convoy screamed “ White power !
” and “ Go back home , cunt @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Elon University computer science professor who researches far-right extremism , while she held a “ Black lives matter ” sign on the sidewalk .
At another event in Texas last month , 44-year-old Jason Lata was arrested after punching a man in the face , breaking his tooth , as the YG and Nipsey Hussle song “ Fuck Donald Trump ” played in the background .
Trump and other Republican officials have praised the caravans at rallies and on social media , with the president giving his explicit endorsement to their intimidation of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the president tweeted a video of the Texas caravan surrounding the Biden bus set to rapper Tech N9ne ’ s song “ Red Kingdom.
” When the FBI confirmed it was investigating the incident , Trump tweeted , “ these patriots did nothing wrong ” and encouraged the FBI to instead investigate the right-wing bogeyman of “ antifa.
” “ I saw yesterday a video of these people in Texas .
Did you see it ?
All the cars on the road , ” Rubio said .
“ We love what they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they don ’ t know : We do that in Florida every day !
” One of the MAGA Drag the Interstate group ’ s rallies lists a GOP candidate for Connecticut state representative , Erin M. Domenech , as its leader and links to her official websites .
Domenech did not respond to questions from HuffPost about her listed involvement in the event .
Facebook has long been a key platform for far-right extremists to coordinate their efforts .
After failing to remove a page used by a militia to encourage members @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Kenosha , Wisconsin , until after a 17-year-old vigilante shot and killed two protesters , Facebook updated its policies to prohibit militarized social movements and QAnon from organizing on the platform .
Facebook has also pledged to remove coordinated efforts to intimidate voters .
But the social media giant ’ s enforcement has been inconsistent , and events that can be used to coordinate political violence or voter intimidation can evade Facebook ’ s moderators by refraining from explicitly discussing those plans on the platform .
We want to know what you ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ candidates .
If you get any interesting ― or suspicious !
― campaign mailers , robocalls or hear anything else you think we should know about , email us at scoops @ huffpost.com .

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Across the country, caravans of Donald Trump supporters have taken over highways, bridges and city streets in recent days in aggressive displays of support for the president.
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These events, and dozens more in nearly every state in the U.S., were coordinated online by “MAGA Drag the Interstate,” a self-described “grassroots assemblage of patriots” who organize the “rolling rallies” in a purported effort to remind people “that traditional American values matter.”
“It’s time to stand up and take our Country back!” the group declares on its website.
At least 18 of the listed event organizers in 14 states have openly supported the far-right conspiracy theory known as QAnon on social media, HuffPost found. Many of the events were planned in Facebook groups listed on the website, including some with several thousand members. Newly posted videos and photos there show long lineups of honking trucks and cars decked out in Trump gear, in many cases snarling traffic to a halt.
MAGA Drag the Interstate has been organizing caravans since at least early September, but the events of the past few days, dubbed “MAGA Weekend,” appear to be the largest coordinated effort. Several of the vehicle rallies seem to have targeted voting centers and racially diverse neighborhoods, actions that are in line with the pattern of voter intimidation encouraged by the Trump campaign. The presence of QAnon-affiliated organizers raises the specter of violence: In the past two years, bombing plots, kidnapping schemes, car chases and a murder have been linked to the belief in an anti-Semitic, pro-Trump conspiracy theory.
Voting info:
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Throughout the campaign, Trump has urged his supporters to help him fight back against what he falsely describes as a Democratic plot to steal the election through voter fraud. He has urged his supporters to go to polling locations “and watch very carefully,” a directive that is likely illegal. His campaign has spent months recruiting poll watchers to join the so-called Army for Trump. Asked at a debate to condemn white supremacists and militias who support him, Trump instead told the Proud Boys, a neo-fascist street gang, to “stand back and stand by.” A nonprofit organization that monitors political violence determined last month that militia groups “pose a serious threat” to American voters.
MAGA Drag the Interstate did not respond to HuffPost’s emailed list of questions. The group’s founder, Keith Lee, has been a vocal QAnon supporter on social media. On his now-suspended Twitter account, he has used popular QAnon hashtags and posted videos of himself reciting the QAnon slogan, “Where we go one, we go all,” often styled as WWG1WGA. He has also issued online certificates to fellow Twitter users, labeling each one a “deputized digital warrior” along with the WWG1WGA tag.
QAnon followers are “good people” who “want this country back,” Lee said in a YouTube video about MAGA Drag the Interstate, while ranting about the mainstream media, lockdown protocols, “antifa” and Black Lives Matter demonstrators.
“It’s strength in numbers,” Lee added, urging viewers to join the caravans. “It’s fight or flight, and by God, we gotta fight.”
At one North Carolina MAGA caravan in September, members of the Alamance County Trump Convoy screamed “White power!” and “Go back home, cunt!” at Megan Squire, an Elon University computer science professor who researches far-right extremism, while she held a “Black lives matter” sign on the sidewalk. At another event in Texas last month, 44-year-old Jason Lata was arrested after punching a man in the face, breaking his tooth, as the YG and Nipsey Hussle song “Fuck Donald Trump” played in the background.
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Trump and other Republican officials have praised the caravans at rallies and on social media, with the president giving his explicit endorsement to their intimidation of the Biden campaign bus. On Saturday, the president tweeted a video of the Texas caravan surrounding the Biden bus set to rapper Tech N9ne’s song “Red Kingdom.” When the FBI confirmed it was investigating the incident, Trump tweeted, “these patriots did nothing wrong” and encouraged the FBI to instead investigate the right-wing bogeyman of “antifa.”
The Republican Party of Texas issued a bizarre statement in response to a Texas Tribune inquiry about the caravan, invoking numerous pro-Trump conspiracy theories, including mention of billionaire philanthropist George Soros controlling the media ― a common anti-Semitic trope.
“It is more fake news and propaganda,” Republican Party of Texas Chairman Allen West said in the statement.
“Prepare to lose…stop bothering me. Maybe Soros can cut y’all another check in 2022.”
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) also cheered on the convoys during a speech at a Trump rally Sunday in Miami-Dade County, Florida, specifically mentioning the footage of the caravan in Texas.
“I saw yesterday a video of these people in Texas. Did you see it? All the cars on the road,” Rubio said. “We love what they did, but here’s what they don’t know: We do that in Florida every day!”
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One of the MAGA Drag the Interstate group’s rallies lists a GOP candidate for Connecticut state representative, Erin M. Domenech, as its leader and links to her official websites. Domenech did not respond to questions from HuffPost about her listed involvement in the event.
And on Sunday, former Trump aide Sebastian Gorka tweeted videos of himself driving alongside a caravan in Washington, D.C., while exclaiming “This is amazing” and “Absolutely incredible.”
Facebook has long been a key platform for far-right extremists to coordinate their efforts. After failing to remove a page used by a militia to encourage members to bring weapons to a protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, until after a 17-year-old vigilante shot and killed two protesters, Facebook updated its policies to prohibit militarized social movements and QAnon from organizing on the platform. Facebook has also pledged to remove coordinated efforts to intimidate voters. But the social media giant’s enforcement has been inconsistent, and events that can be used to coordinate political violence or voter intimidation can evade Facebook’s moderators by refraining from explicitly discussing those plans on the platform.
Facebook announced on Monday night that its Election Operation Center would be tracking content related to voter suppression, as well as other issues including “the potentially dangerous activity we saw with the swarming of Biden campaign buses this weekend.” At the time of its statement, pages connected to the MAGA Drag the Interstate operation remained active.
We want to know what you’re hearing on the ground from the candidates. If you get any interesting ― or suspicious! ― campaign mailers, robocalls or hear anything else you think we should know about, email us at scoops@huffpost.com.


thehuffingtonpost--2020-11-02--MAGA 'Trump Trains' Jam Roadways In Several States

Make America Great Again “ Trump trains ” of flag-waving pickup trucks jammed traffic on highways Sunday in New Jersey , Pennsylvania , Kentucky , Texas , Indiana and Virginia in an effort to support President Donald Trump .
Trump supporters in pickups and vans shut down lanes on the busy Garden State Parkway near Lakewood , New Jersey , and clogged the Mario Cuomo Bridge in New York .
In Louisville , Kentucky , protesters on foot turned the tables on a Trump train and temporarily blocked vehicles in a high school parking lot before the caravan headed to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
As protesters continued to try to contain the vehicles , one man from the caravan began to direct traffic with his gun , The Courier-Journal reported .
Some protesters also carried firearms .
Officials said the drivers hadn ’ t obtained the permits required for the event .
A member of the local board of education complained in a tweet that a rally beginning at a public high school to “ honor such an evil man is beyond the pale.
” He called for a police investigation into the illegal possession of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you feel the need to bring an assault rifle to a public school to demonstrate your support for a politician , there ’ s something seriously wrong with both you and the politician .
https : //t.co/ZJsZTa7QJW — James Craig ( @ JamesDeVille ) November 1 , 2020 Agree .
Great conversation with @ JamesDeVille .
I have already asked LMPD to investigate and properly hold accountable anyone who had guns on their person on school property .
That is illegal and in current times , we should not tolerate guns on school @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Anthony Piagentini ( @ CMPiagentini ) November 2 , 2020 An Indianapolis police official said he was “ not pleased ” about a Trump train that repeatedly drove an I-465 loop in support of Trump , the Indy Star reported .
“ Anything that impacts traffic puts people at risk , anything at all .
It doesn ’ t take much , ” Indiana state police Sgt .
Dennis Scudder told the newspaper .
The latest events followed a dangerous Trump train confrontation with Biden ’ s campaign bus caravan in Texas on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Make America Great Again signs and flags swarmed the caravan on a busy Texas highway .
One of the Trump train vehicles was videotaped colliding with a car in the caravan to force it out of its lane : Trump praised the action on Twitter and later at a rally Saturday , calling it a “ hot thing ” and boasting that the ambush was trending on Twitter .
He described the drivers as “ patriots ” in a tweet on Sunday .

LOADING ERROR LOADING
Make America Great Again “Trump trains” of flag-waving pickup trucks jammed traffic on highways Sunday in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Texas, Indiana and Virginia in an effort to support President Donald Trump.
Trump supporters in pickups and vans shut down lanes on the busy Garden State Parkway near Lakewood, New Jersey, and clogged the Mario Cuomo Bridge in New York.
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NJ: Trump vehicle convoy shuts down the Garden State Parkway. @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/djgi96aZFk — Breaking911 (@Breaking911) November 1, 2020
Garden State Parkway in Democratic New Jersey at a standstill in support of President Trump. @TeamTrump @EricTrump @DonaldJTrumpJr @POTUS pic.twitter.com/3tAL8oC3Tv — The Lakewood Scoop (@LakewoodScoop) November 1, 2020
In Louisville, Kentucky, protesters on foot turned the tables on a Trump train and temporarily blocked vehicles in a high school parking lot before the caravan headed to a rally in support of the president.
As protesters continued to try to contain the vehicles, one man from the caravan began to direct traffic with his gun, The Courier-Journal reported. Some protesters also carried firearms. Officials said the drivers hadn’t obtained the permits required for the event.
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A member of the local board of education complained in a tweet that a rally beginning at a public high school to “honor such an evil man is beyond the pale.” He called for a police investigation into the illegal possession of assault rifles on school grounds.
If you feel the need to bring an assault rifle to a public school to demonstrate your support for a politician, there’s something seriously wrong with both you and the politician. https://t.co/ZJsZTa7QJW — James Craig (@JamesDeVille) November 1, 2020
Agree. Great conversation with @JamesDeVille. I have already asked LMPD to investigate and properly hold accountable anyone who had guns on their person on school property. That is illegal and in current times, we should not tolerate guns on school property. https://t.co/QZlc0KzhmD — Councilman Anthony Piagentini (@CMPiagentini) November 2, 2020
An Indianapolis police official said he was “not pleased” about a Trump train that repeatedly drove an I-465 loop in support of Trump, the Indy Star reported.
“Anything that impacts traffic puts people at risk, anything at all. It doesn’t take much,” Indiana state police Sgt. Dennis Scudder told the newspaper.
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The latest events followed a dangerous Trump train confrontation with Biden’s campaign bus caravan in Texas on Friday. Scores of trucks bristling with Make America Great Again signs and flags swarmed the caravan on a busy Texas highway. One of the Trump train vehicles was videotaped colliding with a car in the caravan to force it out of its lane:
Trump praised the action on Twitter and later at a rally Saturday, calling it a “hot thing” and boasting that the ambush was trending on Twitter. He described the drivers as “patriots” in a tweet on Sunday.
The FBI is investigating.


thehuffingtonpost--2020-11-02--Women Have Spent Trump's Time In Office Building Political Power

Soon after , I was packed into her living room with about a dozen other women and a couple of men .
( This was a time when being packed into a living room with other unmasked humans didn ’ t feel out of the ordinary . )
There was a buzz in that room ( and plenty of good snacks ) , an energy born of grief that was palpable .
A few drinks and many more tears later , this informal group of close friends and strangers became something more solid , with regularly scheduled meetings , a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ To The Front .
The story of the last four years is not a reductive story of “ women ’ s empowerment , ” a term that has steadily lost all meaning , along with “ girl boss ” and “ badass.
” It ’ s also not about “ silver linings , ” a term that Richards pointed out feels off when talking about an administration under which so many have suffered deeply .
It ’ s a story about desperate , uncertain , unsafe , harrowing , exhausting times , in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and specifically of women — across age , socioeconomic status , race and locale have begun taking responsibility for the mess of a nation they live in .
“ Donald Trump Is Giving America Permission To Hate Women , ” I declared in January , after he went after then-Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly , labeling her a “ bimbo ” and spurring his supporters to call Kelly much worse .
Two months later , I wrote that “ the tagline for the 2016 GOP race might as well be , ‘ Make @ @ @ @ @ @ @ back , I realize it would have been more accurate to say “ keep America misogynist ” or “ make America more explicitly misogynist.
” ) I wrote ‘ about ’ his obsession with critiquing women ’ s bodies , his continued attacks on female journalists , the tape where he brazenly bragged about sexual assault , and the ways in which he denigrated the women who came forward to say that he was , in fact , a person who serially committed sexual assault .
We know that the president ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ getting elected .
It didn ’ t even stop a significant percentage of white female voters from voting for him ( though the oft-repeated 52 % number , which came from exit polls , has been disputed ) .
However , as Me Too founder Tarana Burke said , it did act as “ jet fuel ” to fire up American women across the board .
Could we be on the precipice of wrenching what remains of that culture away from him ?
Maybe , maybe not .
Ahead of Election Day , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been more starkly divided by gender , with Biden leading with women nationally by an average of 25 percentage points .
And the president ’ s unhinged desperation for American women to need him , approve of him , show up for him , submit to him , has only increased as they have mobilized against him in greater numbers .
“ Do me a favor , suburban women , would you please like me ?
I saved your damn neighborhood , OK ?
” he begged women in Pennsylvania during a recent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a Biden presidency will “ destroy ” the suburbs for the “ Housewives of America.
” As hundreds of thousands of women are being forced out of the workforce because of COVID-19 , rolling back the hard-earned , conditional inroads that women had made over the course of the last 100 years , the president ’ s big pitch is that he will get their “ husbands back to work.
” But those aforementioned “ suburban housewives ” are not the terrified white mass , desperate to return to the 1950s , that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Some of them have been politically engaged for decades .
Some of them have run for office .
Some of them have had family members die from the coronavirus , a public health crisis that this administration has catastrophically mismanaged .
Some of them have had political awakenings and started groups to push their swing states blue , like the women featured on The Daily podcast ’ s recent episode about white women in Ohio .
Of course , women are not a monolith , nor have they uniformly moved left .
That @ @ @ @ @ @ @ untrue .
Just take a glimpse at one of the president ’ s many rallies , and you ’ ll see many women , overwhelmingly white , who cling to a brand of masculinity and whiteness that is taking its last dying , gasping breaths .
( As New York Magazine put it , it is not white suburban housewives who now make up Trump ’ s base , but “ tradwives ” — women who have a deep investment in traditional gender roles . )
“ I turned 18 under this presidency @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” Day said , “ and those are such influential years of your life .
It has made me step back and realize how messed up our political system is and how crazy it is that it got to this point .
It made me want to get out there and do something about it.
” And she has .
If women drive change in this country through their ballots , it will be because a diverse cross-section of American women , organizing in small pockets around racial justice and gun control @ @ @ @ @ @ @ voting rights and health care and child care and paid family leave and sexual violence and immigration reform , have all gotten on , as Burke put it to me , “ the same frequency.
” The last four years did not cause women to “ find their voices.
” They ’ ve always had those .

Three days after Election Day in 2016, I got a message on Twitter from a new friend. She was having a handful of people over, mostly women, to sit and talk and process and — most importantly — make some plans to “try to stop the human rights apocalypse.” Did I want to join?
Soon after, I was packed into her living room with about a dozen other women and a couple of men. (This was a time when being packed into a living room with other unmasked humans didn’t feel out of the ordinary.) There was a buzz in that room (and plenty of good snacks), an energy born of grief that was palpable. A few drinks and many more tears later, this informal group of close friends and strangers became something more solid, with regularly scheduled meetings, a fundraising arm and a name, Women To The Front.
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A tiny political action group had been born over the course of a few hours. Four years later, it’s still going strong, and I have watched as my friends furiously organize text banks and phone banks and get-out-the-vote campaigns from their laptops in the midst of a pandemic.
What I didn’t know when I first got that Twitter DM was that this sort of thing was happening all over the country and would continue in waves over the following four years: groups of people, many of them women, organizing in big and small ways around an incredibly diverse slate of issues that impact their respective communities.
“The story of the last four years isn’t about him. Not really. It’s about us. It’s about American women.”
The man in the White House loves nothing more than to be at the center of a big story. But the story of the last four years isn’t about him. Not really. It’s about us. It’s about American women.
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“American women across race, across geography, across issues, have been mobilized in a way I’ve never seen in my lifetime,” said Cecile Richards, co-founder of Supermajority and former president of Planned Parenthood, who added that since Election Day 2016 you haven’t been able to “throw a rock without hitting a new women’s group.” (Supermajority, which Richards launched in April 2019 with Alicia Garza and Ai-jen Poo, is one of those organizations.)
The story of the last four years is not a reductive story of “women’s empowerment,” a term that has steadily lost all meaning, along with “girl boss” and “badass.” It’s also not about “silver linings,” a term that Richards pointed out feels off when talking about an administration under which so many have suffered deeply. It’s a story about desperate, uncertain, unsafe, harrowing, exhausting times, in which a wider swath of people — and specifically of women — across age, socioeconomic status, race and locale have begun taking responsibility for the mess of a nation they live in.
* * *
In the runup to 2016, I thought Donald Trump was the story. A buffoon-like, sexist white supremacist, straight out of a bygone era, was a predictable reaction to eight years of a Black man leading the nation and stood in stark contrast to the first female presidential nominee from a major party.
Between January and October of that year, I wrote and published more than 10 essays on Trump’s misogyny. It was so obvious. So grotesque. It needed to be painstakingly documented. Of course people would care. Right?
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How many ways are there to say that a powerful man doesn’t see women as fully human? And this was all before he got elected.
We know that the president’s overt misogyny did not stop him from getting elected. It didn’t even stop a significant percentage of white female voters from voting for him (though the oft-repeated 52% number, which came from exit polls, has been disputed). However, as Me Too founder Tarana Burke said, it did act as “jet fuel” to fire up American women across the board.
“One of the largest marches in the history of the country happen[ed] on the heels of this person being inaugurated,” Burke said. “Whatever that jet fuel is, we keep being provided it. Jetting us right to the polls.”
Tiana Day (right) leads the March 4 Our Future down Montgomery Street in San Francisco on Nov. 1, 2020. San Francisco Chronicle/Hearst Newspapers via Getty Images
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He has taken up space in all of our brains, regardless of political affiliation, to an extent that is difficult to comprehend. He has, in all of his malignant narcissism, “bent American culture toward him,” as Michelle Goldberg put it in The New York Times.
Could we be on the precipice of wrenching what remains of that culture away from him? Maybe, maybe not. Ahead of Election Day, polls show that American voters have never been more starkly divided by gender, with Biden leading with women nationally by an average of 25 percentage points. And the president’s unhinged desperation for American women to need him, approve of him, show up for him, submit to him, has only increased as they have mobilized against him in greater numbers.
“Do me a favor, suburban women, would you please like me? I saved your damn neighborhood, OK?” he begged women in Pennsylvania during a recent rally, echoing his frequent refrain that a Biden presidency will “destroy” the suburbs for the “Housewives of America.” As hundreds of thousands of women are being forced out of the workforce because of COVID-19, rolling back the hard-earned, conditional inroads that women had made over the course of the last 100 years, the president’s big pitch is that he will get their “husbands back to work.”
But those aforementioned “suburban housewives” are not the terrified white mass, desperate to return to the 1950s, that the president imagines them to be. Some of them have been politically engaged for decades. Some of them have run for office. Some of them have had family members die from the coronavirus, a public health crisis that this administration has catastrophically mismanaged. Some of them have had political awakenings and started groups to push their swing states blue, like the women featured on The Daily podcast’s recent episode about white women in Ohio.
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“The candidates didn’t change, I changed,” said one of those women, a former lifelong anti-abortion Republican who voted for Gary Johnson in 2016.
Of course, women are not a monolith, nor have they uniformly moved left. That story would be too simplistic and plainly untrue. Just take a glimpse at one of the president’s many rallies, and you’ll see many women, overwhelmingly white, who cling to a brand of masculinity and whiteness that is taking its last dying, gasping breaths. (As New York Magazine put it, it is not white suburban housewives who now make up Trump’s base, but “tradwives” — women who have a deep investment in traditional gender roles.)
On the flip side, progressive social movements have always been led by Black and brown women — and 2020 is no exception to that rule.
Tiana Day had just started high school in the suburbs of San Francisco when the 2016 presidential election happened. She’d never really tuned in to politics — the whole thing just felt separate from her life. But when Trump won, it shook her. Four years later, after a senior year ended in quarantine and a summer filled with Black Lives Matter protests against police brutality, Day has found a place as a budding organizer and youth-focused nonprofit co-founder.
“I turned 18 under this presidency, I went all through high school,” Day said, “and those are such influential years of your life. It has made me step back and realize how messed up our political system is and how crazy it is that it got to this point. It made me want to get out there and do something about it.” And she has.
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She teamed up with another teenager via Instagram to organize a Black Lives Matter march across the Golden Gate Bridge. They thought a handful of people would show up. It drew a crowd of thousands. Since then, Day has launched her nonprofit, Youth Advocates for Change, and just this past weekend led another protest in San Francisco.
“We don’t have time to joke around anymore,” she said. “My sister is involved in politics and she’s in fifth grade! We’ve had such a terrible run with Trump and it’s really woken people up. We need to save our democracy.”
“That tension is serious. It’s 200k people dead, it’s the children in cages, it’s the knee of the officer on the Black man’s neck. But I feel hopeful. ... If we can get through this, the rest of us are about to go forward.” - Tarana Burke, Me Too founder
If women drive change in this country through their ballots, it will be because a diverse cross-section of American women, organizing in small pockets around racial justice and gun control and abortion access and climate action and voting rights and health care and child care and paid family leave and sexual violence and immigration reform, have all gotten on, as Burke put it to me, “the same frequency.” The last four years did not cause women to “find their voices.” They’ve always had those.
“We have been raising our voices for decades and decades,” Burke said. “The last three or four years might have just found a frequency that you all can hear us on. We should be hoarse now from how much we raise our voices.”
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The man in the White House thrives on fear: Fear of the other. Fear of ceding even an ounce of power. Fear that nothing matters. Fear of change.
But where Trump and his ilk stoke fear, women like Richards and Burke and Day are counting on hope. Burke likened this uncertain political moment — a moment that was perhaps sped up by Trump, but not created by him — to a slingshot, where the tension rises and rises as the slingshot is pulled back, only to eventually propel a rock far ahead of where it started.


thehuffingtonpost--2020-11-02--The Christian Radio Network Working To Reelect Trump

As President Donald Trump trails in polls before the presidential election on Tuesday , the right-wing media have continued to blast out a fantastical narrative that Trump is the last bulwark between the United States and leftist anarchy .
Few places has that message been more clear than on conservative and Christian radio .
Last month , Salem Radio Network host Kevin McCullough appeared on the show of Eric Metaxas , a nationally syndicated host and author who also serves on the president ’ s evangelical advisory council , to forecast a landslide Trump victory in the election .
McCullough @ @ @ @ @ @ @ called “ a culture of abortion , a culture of sexual anarchy ” as he talked about his voting predictions .
Salem Radio Network is a group of radio and publishing enterprises started in the 1980s that has grown into a media powerhouse that reaches listeners in every corner of the country .
It has openly celebrated Trump ’ s 2016 victory as a boon for its business and its many shows , with Senior Vice President Phil Boyce calling the president “ a game changer for our format ” and “ the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a speech at an industry conference in 2018 .
As Trump ’ s attacks on fact-based media outlets have eroded trust in mainstream news sources among conservatives , right-wing radio has offered an alternative reality in which pro-Trump listeners can hear only what they want .
The symbiotic , cynical relationship between Christian media and Trump appears to be mutual .
Trump has long admired the profitable empires of televangelists and megachurch pastors even while privately deriding their faith .
Former aides and close allies have recounted Trump mocking faith leaders as “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ also viewing them as important resources for securing voters .
And , leading up to the election , Trump has sunk money into radio ads , leveraged a sprawling network of right-wing hosts and sent out surrogates to shore up support among his base .
“ Salem is the exception .
Salem is an explicitly conservative , explicitly Christian company , ” said Brian Rosenwald , author of “ Talk Radio ’ s America ” and a fellow at the University of Pennsylvania.
“ They want you to be on the Republican team @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stick to that formula.
” Executives at Salem have described the company as a vanguard in the culture war , and the daily lineup on one of Salem ’ s stations , called The Answer , is a parade of Trump allies and misinformation peddlers .
Its roster includes right-wing activists Charlie Kirk and Dennis Prager ; former White House official Sebastian Gorka ; and Jay Sekulow , who was as one of Trump ’ s lead attorneys during the impeachment case .
Although they don ’ t achieve the same numbers as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Salem ’ s hosts , such as Hugh Hewitt , are estimated to reach a cumulative weekly audience of 8 million listeners .
Other broadcasts , like Kevin McCullough ’ s faith and news show , claim to air on more than 200 outlets around the country .
During the presidential campaign , they have used this platform to spread wild , sometimes bigoted , pro-Trump falsehoods to listeners .
“ I ’ ve talked to people who know him personally , who tell the story of how he became pro-life when @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on his show on Oct. 23 .
“ I really do think he has changed.
” Many of Salem ’ s hosts , such as McCullough , tend to blur the line between traditional Christian talk radio and conservative talk radio , sometimes appearing on both its syndicated station focused on politics ( The Answer ) and its station dedicated to faith talk ( The Mission ) .
Often the voices on Christian talk radio don ’ t directly mention Trump , but the messaging clearly aligns with White House narratives .
Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ even as the Biden campaign has tried to make inroads and target its own ads at conservative Christian voters .
About 78 % of white evangelical protestants support Trump , a number that has held steady since 2016 even as he has lost ground among other demographics .
Although Christian radio hosts may not shift votes , experts say they can potentially remind their pro-Trump audiences why they should go to the polls .
The ad also mentions Trump ’ s Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett , who anti-abortion advocates hope will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Wade decision and implementing widespread restrictions on abortion .
Many conservative radio hosts have focused on a similar theme , touting Trump as a “ pro-life ” candidate who appeals to white evangelical Protestants whose most critical issue in the election is abortion , according to polling .

LOADING ERROR LOADING
As President Donald Trump trails in polls before the presidential election on Tuesday, the right-wing media have continued to blast out a fantastical narrative that Trump is the last bulwark between the United States and leftist anarchy. Few places has that message been more clear than on conservative and Christian radio.
Last month, Salem Radio Network host Kevin McCullough appeared on the show of Eric Metaxas, a nationally syndicated host and author who also serves on the president’s evangelical advisory council, to forecast a landslide Trump victory in the election. McCullough condemned the Democratic Party for what he called “a culture of abortion, a culture of sexual anarchy” as he talked about his voting predictions.
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Metaxas falsely described Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris as “literally the most liberal senator who exists in the Senate” and then went on a racist diatribe questioning whether Harris is really Black.
“It’s this cynical thing about picking somebody who is supposedly Black. I think I am far darker than she is, and she’s married, of course, to a white man,” Metaxas, who is white, told listeners.
Salem Radio Network is a group of radio and publishing enterprises started in the 1980s that has grown into a media powerhouse that reaches listeners in every corner of the country. It has openly celebrated Trump’s 2016 victory as a boon for its business and its many shows, with Senior Vice President Phil Boyce calling the president “a game changer for our format” and “the gift that keeps on giving” during a speech at an industry conference in 2018. As Trump’s attacks on fact-based media outlets have eroded trust in mainstream news sources among conservatives, right-wing radio has offered an alternative reality in which pro-Trump listeners can hear only what they want.
“Salem is an explicitly conservative, explicitly Christian company. They want you to be on the Republican team, and they want their hosts to stick to that formula.” - Brian Rosenwald, author of “Talk Radio’s America”
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“Our listeners despise the mainstream media. You can capitalize on that despisement,” Boyce said at the 2018 conference.
The symbiotic, cynical relationship between Christian media and Trump appears to be mutual. Trump has long admired the profitable empires of televangelists and megachurch pastors even while privately deriding their faith. Former aides and close allies have recounted Trump mocking faith leaders as “hustlers” and ridiculing religious beliefs while also viewing them as important resources for securing voters. And, leading up to the election, Trump has sunk money into radio ads, leveraged a sprawling network of right-wing hosts and sent out surrogates to shore up support among his base.
While most radio networks and media outlets tend to value profits above any ideological mission and may employ hosts across the political spectrum, experts say Salem’s dogmatic adherence to right-wing Christian views makes it unusual even in the generally conservative world of talk radio.
“Salem is the exception. Salem is an explicitly conservative, explicitly Christian company,” said Brian Rosenwald, author of “Talk Radio’s America” and a fellow at the University of Pennsylvania.“They want you to be on the Republican team, and they want their hosts to stick to that formula.”
Executives at Salem have described the company as a vanguard in the culture war, and the daily lineup on one of Salem’s stations, called The Answer, is a parade of Trump allies and misinformation peddlers. Its roster includes right-wing activists Charlie Kirk and Dennis Prager; former White House official Sebastian Gorka; and Jay Sekulow, who was as one of Trump’s lead attorneys during the impeachment case.
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President Donald Trump shakes hands with Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk on July 23, 2019, at a Turning Point USA Teen Student Action Summit in Washington. Kirk is among the right-wing activists who regularly appear on the Salem Radio Network channel The Answer. Andrew Harnik/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Although they don’t achieve the same numbers as Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity, some of Salem’s hosts, such as Hugh Hewitt, are estimated to reach a cumulative weekly audience of 8 million listeners. Other broadcasts, like Kevin McCullough’s faith and news show, claim to air on more than 200 outlets around the country. During the presidential campaign, they have used this platform to spread wild, sometimes bigoted, pro-Trump falsehoods to listeners.
Metaxas is one of Salem’s biggest names pushing Trump’s narrative. Throughout the campaign, Metaxas has been a staunch advocate for Trump as a protector of Christian values while denigrating his political opponents, including in a Wall Street Journal editorial earlier this year headlined “The Christian Case for Trump.”
Like other conservative radio hosts, notably Limbaugh, Metaxas acts as a mediator between the public and Republicans in order to massage tensions and mend rifts, including with evangelicals who have qualms about the president’s behavior.
“I’ve talked to people who know him personally, who tell the story of how he became pro-life when Barron was born,” Metaxas said on his show on Oct. 23. “I really do think he has changed.”
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Many of Salem’s hosts, such as McCullough, tend to blur the line between traditional Christian talk radio and conservative talk radio, sometimes appearing on both its syndicated station focused on politics (The Answer) and its station dedicated to faith talk (The Mission). Often the voices on Christian talk radio don’t directly mention Trump, but the messaging clearly aligns with White House narratives.
“God hates lawlessness,” Robert Jeffress, a Dallas megachurch pastor and close Trump ally, said on a Salem radio podcast during anti-racism protests in July.
“The call you hear in many quarters now to completely dismantle or to defund or replace the police, that is contrary to the teachings of the Bible,” he added.
“Christian radio, like local conservative talk and like big national conservative talk, can help excite voters ― can help drive them to turn out.” - Brian Rosenwald
Trump retains broad support among white evangelicals, even as the Biden campaign has tried to make inroads and target its own ads at conservative Christian voters. About 78% of white evangelical protestants support Trump, a number that has held steady since 2016 even as he has lost ground among other demographics. Although Christian radio hosts may not shift votes, experts say they can potentially remind their pro-Trump audiences why they should go to the polls.
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“Christian radio, like local conservative talk and like big national conservative talk, can help excite voters ― can help drive them to turn out,” Rosenwald said.
In mid-October, the Trump campaign made a six-figure ad buy specifically targeting evangelical audiences with radio spots on Salem and fellow Christian network Bott Radio stations. One of the ads is a direct appeal to anti-abortion voters, calling Trump “the strongest pro-life president in history.”
The ad also mentions Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, who anti-abortion advocates hope will aid in overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and implementing widespread restrictions on abortion. Many conservative radio hosts have focused on a similar theme, touting Trump as a “pro-life” candidate who appeals to white evangelical Protestants whose most critical issue in the election is abortion, according to polling.
“Joe Biden and the radical left want to continue the Obama-Biden policies that forced immoral values in our homes and schools and support abortion up until the moment of birth,” the ad falsely states.
“Donald Trump speaks for us boldly leading the way. He’s never let us down. And never will.”
We want to know what you’re hearing on the ground from the candidates. If you get any interesting ― or suspicious! ― campaign mailers, robocalls or hear anything else you think we should know about, email us at scoops@huffpost.com.


thehuffingtonpost--2020-11-02--Cindy McCain Reveals 'The Final Straw' With Trump That Led To Biden Endorsement

“ You know , I ’ m the mother of two veterans and a wife of a veteran , and @ @ @ @ @ .
They were not losers and suckers by any chance .
It angered me a @ @ @ @ @ me .
And so I thought , you know , I can either sit here @ @ @ @ @ can do something .
”

“You know, I’m the mother of two veterans and a wife of a veteran, and my father was a veteran. They were not losers and suckers by any chance. It angered me a great deal. It angered me. And so I thought, you know, I can either sit here and be angry or I can do something.”


thehuffingtonpost--2020-11-02--Don Trump Jr. Urged Texans To Give Kamala Harris 'Trump Train Welcome' Before Bus Incident

Donald Trump Jr. called on MAGA “ Trump train ” supporters to “ go have some fun ” with Sen. Kamala Harris ( D-Calif. ) in her Texas campaign travels .
He issued the order last Wednesday in a video tweet two days before scores of trucks with flags and MAGA signs swarmed Democratic nominee Joe Biden ’ s campaign bus caravan in a dangerous highway ambush outside Austin .
One truck was filmed deliberately colliding with an accompanying car to force it into another lane , leaving the vehicle seriously damaged .
The FBI ’ s San Antonio office @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the bus called 911 , and law enforcement eventually aided the bus to its destination , CNN reported .
These tactics have no place in Texas , my home state , and no place in America .
Please vote .
Please volunteer this weekend .
The future of our democracy is at stake .
pic.twitter.com/G0O4yg2vnJ — Dr. Eric Cervini ( @ ericcervini ) October 31 , 2020 “ It ’ d be great if you guys would all get together , head down to McAllen and give Kamala Harris a nice Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his video message to Laredo , Texas .
“ Get out there , have some fun , ” he urged .
“ Get out there , guys.
” The “ Trump train ” apparently did not target Harris , but focused instead that Friday on the Biden bus .
The Biden campaign was forced to cancel events because of the safety fears amid the vehicles ’ threatening actions .
The Biden campaign has slammed the ambush by the MAGA supporters — the same Trump supporters who rail against wearing masks as an outrageous @ @ @ @ @ @ @ than engage in productive conversation about the drastically different visions that Joe Biden and Donald Trump have for our country , Trump supporters in Texas instead decided to put our staff , surrogates , supporters and others in harm ’ s way , ” said Tariq Thowfeek , Texas communications director for the Biden campaign .

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Donald Trump Jr. called on MAGA “Trump train” supporters to “go have some fun” with Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) in her Texas campaign travels.
He issued the order last Wednesday in a video tweet two days before scores of trucks with flags and MAGA signs swarmed Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s campaign bus caravan in a dangerous highway ambush outside Austin.
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One truck was filmed deliberately colliding with an accompanying car to force it into another lane, leaving the vehicle seriously damaged. The FBI’s San Antonio office is investigating the action.
Biden staffers on the bus called 911, and law enforcement eventually aided the bus to its destination, CNN reported.
These tactics have no place in Texas, my home state, and no place in America.
Please vote. Please volunteer this weekend. The future of our democracy is at stake. pic.twitter.com/G0O4yg2vnJ — Dr. Eric Cervini (@ericcervini) October 31, 2020
Self-declared law-and-order President Donald Trump has praised the reckless highway stunt and called the drivers “patriots.”
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“It’d be great if you guys would all get together, head down to McAllen and give Kamala Harris a nice Trump train welcome,” he said in his video message to Laredo, Texas.
“Get out there, have some fun,” he urged. “Get out there, guys.”
Texas is Trump country so @DonaldJTrumpJr has a special message to Laredo, Texas. Head to McAllen, Texas on October 30th and help give Kamala Harris a big Trump Texas welcome. pic.twitter.com/qB4hukL6xz — Kambree (@KamVTV) October 28, 2020
The “Trump train” apparently did not target Harris, but focused instead that Friday on the Biden bus. The Biden campaign was forced to cancel events because of the safety fears amid the vehicles’ threatening actions.
The Biden campaign has slammed the ambush by the MAGA supporters — the same Trump supporters who rail against wearing masks as an outrageous infringement of their freedoms.
“Rather than engage in productive conversation about the drastically different visions that Joe Biden and Donald Trump have for our country, Trump supporters in Texas instead decided to put our staff, surrogates, supporters and others in harm’s way,” said Tariq Thowfeek, Texas communications director for the Biden campaign.


thehuffingtonpost--2020-11-02--USPS Says COVID-19 Is Delaying Ballot Delivery In Swing States

Agency data shows that a significant share of absentee ballots in Detroit , greater Michigan , and central Pennsylvania — all regions that could play a crucial role in deciding the presidential election — are not arriving within an “ on time ” window of about two days .
On Saturday in the greater Michigan district , the percentage of ballots delivered on time was 69.1 % .
It was 78 % in the Detroit district , and 56.6 % in central Pennsylvania .
Hundreds of USPS employees in Detroit facilities have tested positive for COVID-19 since the start of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ number of postal workers in Detroit are still contracting the coronavirus or missing work for family obligations or because family members have the virus , a postal official testified Saturday .
The same is true for facilities in central Pennsylvania .
“ We ’ re reacting to it , making the necessary adjustments , ” Dane Coleman , the regional vice president of processing operations for the eastern U.S. , said .
Plants in central Pennsylvania and Detroit are sending some of their non-election mail to other facilities for sorting help , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cover staffing shortfalls , Coleman said .
“ But we do know and acknowledge that we ’ ve had some impacts because of that , ” he added .
If too many absentee ballots arrive late to election officials , it could easily tip the outcome of the race .
Supporters of former Vice President Joe Biden are far more likely than supporters of President Donald Trump to have relied on the mail to cast their votes .
Note : If you have not voted by this point , you should drop off @ @ @ @ @ @ @ instead of relying on the mail , or you should plan to vote in person .
USPS officials testified Saturday that every postal district is using all the tools at its disposal to deliver voters ’ completed ballots to election officials in time to be counted .
The judge for the case , U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan , ordered the agency on Sunday to remind senior managers that these measures are mandatory .
But time is running out for ballots to be delivered .
Michigan will not count mail-in ballots that arrive @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Pennsylvania will not count ballots that are postmarked after Election Day , and ballots must arrive by 5 p.m. on Friday , Nov. 6 , although Republicans are battling for the courts to invalidate those ballots as well .
Biden is counting on substantial support from Detroit in order to carry Michigan , with absentee ballots projected to drive up his margins in the city anywhere from 9 % to 26 % .
More than half the people of color in Wayne County , most of whom are Black , say they planned @ @ @ @ @ @ @ around Detroit would leave Black voters disproportionately disenfranchised .
Federal courts ordered DeJoy to reverse those changes , but recent court filings show things aren ’ t back to normal .
For example , measures DeJoy implemented to reduce the number of mail trucks making late and extra trips still appear to be having an effect .
Until mid-July , postal trucks made roughly 1,900-2,400 extra trips and 3,000 to 5,000 late trips per day , compared to about 500-700 extra trips and 2,000 late trips per day in early October .
Instead @ @ @ @ @ @ @ DeJoy ’ s changes , court records show , the USPS was quibbling as recently as Oct. 15 over whether it was accurate to say late and extra trips were “ banned ” outright .
The data is not a perfect snapshot of how fast the USPS is delivering ballots .
That was the agency ’ s main explanation for the low on-time service scores it reported in North Carolina .
On Saturday in the mid-Carolinas , which includes Charlotte , 76.45 % of inbound ballots arrived on time , and in Greensboro @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The main thing the data fails to capture , Barber testified , is the local arrangements many districts have made to deliver ballots directly to the board of elections .
As soon as a piece of sorting equipment identifies a ballot , postal workers take that ballot out of the processing stream to be delivered directly to election officials .
That is one of several extraordinary measures the agency is taking to deliver ballots as quickly as possible .
Others include maximizing overtime , reassigning any employees who aren ’ t scheduled to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to election duty , and upgrading any ballots being mailed out of state to express mail .
Sorting facilities are conducting multiple sweeps per day , meaning someone physically goes and checks every point in the sorting process that ballots might have gotten left behind .
The USPS Office of Inspector General is inside plants observing all of this .
We want to know what you ’ re hearing on the ground from the candidates .
If you get any interesting ― or suspicious !
― campaign mailers , robocalls or hear anything @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , email us at scoops @ huffpost.com .

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COVID-19 cases and “employee unavailability” are behind the significant slowdowns in ballot delivery happening in parts of Michigan and Pennsylvania, the U.S. Postal Service told a federal court this weekend.
Agency data shows that a significant share of absentee ballots in Detroit, greater Michigan, and central Pennsylvania — all regions that could play a crucial role in deciding the presidential election — are not arriving within an “on time” window of about two days. On Saturday in the greater Michigan district, the percentage of ballots delivered on time was 69.1%. It was 78% in the Detroit district, and 56.6% in central Pennsylvania.
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Hundreds of USPS employees in Detroit facilities have tested positive for COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic. A “disproportionate” number of postal workers in Detroit are still contracting the coronavirus or missing work for family obligations or because family members have the virus, a postal official testified Saturday. The same is true for facilities in central Pennsylvania.
“We’re reacting to it, making the necessary adjustments,” Dane Coleman, the regional vice president of processing operations for the eastern U.S., said. Plants in central Pennsylvania and Detroit are sending some of their non-election mail to other facilities for sorting help, and the agency is reassigning nearby employees to cover staffing shortfalls, Coleman said. “But we do know and acknowledge that we’ve had some impacts because of that,” he added.
If too many absentee ballots arrive late to election officials, it could easily tip the outcome of the race. Supporters of former Vice President Joe Biden are far more likely than supporters of President Donald Trump to have relied on the mail to cast their votes.
Note: If you have not voted by this point, you should drop off your absentee ballot at an authorized location instead of relying on the mail, or you should plan to vote in person.
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An election worker carries mail-in ballots to be processed by election workers in Salt Lake City on Oct. 29, 2020. GEORGE FREY via Getty Images
USPS officials testified Saturday that every postal district is using all the tools at its disposal to deliver voters’ completed ballots to election officials in time to be counted. The judge for the case, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, ordered the agency on Sunday to remind senior managers that these measures are mandatory.
But time is running out for ballots to be delivered. Michigan will not count mail-in ballots that arrive after 8 p.m. on Election Day. Pennsylvania will not count ballots that are postmarked after Election Day, and ballots must arrive by 5 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 6, although Republicans are battling for the courts to invalidate those ballots as well.
Biden is counting on substantial support from Detroit in order to carry Michigan, with absentee ballots projected to drive up his margins in the city anywhere from 9% to 26%. More than half the people of color in Wayne County, most of whom are Black, say they planned to vote by mail, meaning delays around Detroit would leave Black voters disproportionately disenfranchised.
Mail service has been slow in Detroit for years. And in Philadelphia, which is also reporting delays in ballot delivery, the turnover among letter carriers has historically been high.
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The situation became even worse earlier this year when delivery rates for mail plunged in many parts of the country because of COVID-19 and changes implemented by Trump’s handpicked postmaster general, Louis DeJoy.
Federal courts ordered DeJoy to reverse those changes, but recent court filings show things aren’t back to normal. For example, measures DeJoy implemented to reduce the number of mail trucks making late and extra trips still appear to be having an effect. Until mid-July, postal trucks made roughly 1,900-2,400 extra trips and 3,000 to 5,000 late trips per day, compared to about 500-700 extra trips and 2,000 late trips per day in early October. Instead of following a court order to reverse DeJoy’s changes, court records show, the USPS was quibbling as recently as Oct. 15 over whether it was accurate to say late and extra trips were “banned” outright.
“I don’t know if I’ll be able to certify with 100% accuracy that there were no ballots left behind.” - Dane Coleman, a USPS regional vice president
USPS data on ballots shows that overall, they are moving faster than first-class mail — a crucial distinction because first-class mail in many parts of the country is experiencing massive delays.
“We have deployed everything,” said Michael Barber, the agency’s vice president of processing and maintenance operation.
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“At this point, it’s all about execution of the processes and the extraordinary measures that we have in place,” Coleman said. “That’s the key.”
The data is not a perfect snapshot of how fast the USPS is delivering ballots. That was the agency’s main explanation for the low on-time service scores it reported in North Carolina. On Saturday in the mid-Carolinas, which includes Charlotte, 76.45% of inbound ballots arrived on time, and in Greensboro, 78.26% arrived on time.
The main thing the data fails to capture, Barber testified, is the local arrangements many districts have made to deliver ballots directly to the board of elections. As soon as a piece of sorting equipment identifies a ballot, postal workers take that ballot out of the processing stream to be delivered directly to election officials.
That is one of several extraordinary measures the agency is taking to deliver ballots as quickly as possible. Others include maximizing overtime, reassigning any employees who aren’t scheduled to perform another core part of their job to election duty, and upgrading any ballots being mailed out of state to express mail. Sorting facilities are conducting multiple sweeps per day, meaning someone physically goes and checks every point in the sorting process that ballots might have gotten left behind. The USPS Office of Inspector General is inside plants observing all of this.
The agency has even tried hiring more staff, although Barber acknowledged that it hasn’t made up for staffing shortfalls: “There is a learning curve.”
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“We have identified a process to capture every single ballot,” Coleman testified. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to certify with 100% accuracy that there were no ballots left behind.”