washingtonmonthly--2020-10-14--EXCLUSIVE: The Speedy Mail-In Ballot Plan that Can Thwart Trump’s Election Power Grab

Under ordinary circumstances , the U.S .
Postal Service would be perfectly equipped to manage the surge of mail ballots during the 2020 elections .
Experts predict that more than 60 million Americans will vote from home over several weeks .
( More than 10 million citizens have already cast ballots . )
That ’ s only a modest uptick in mail volume compared to , say , the Christmas season , when the USPS delivers roughly 28 million packages a day .
But these aren ’ t ordinary circumstances .
Donald Trump ’ s Postmaster General , Louis DeJoy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ through a raft of policy changes , including removing sorting machines that could whiz through mail ballots .
And the president has admitted to blocking funding to the USPS to undermine its capacity to handle election mail .
There ’ s a reason for that .
The president and his GOP allies have indicated that they would use a slow tally of absentee ballots to contest the election results .
( Trump said he is “ counting ” on the Supreme Court to “ look at the ballots.
” ) At the same @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that could speed up the counting of absentee ballots in battleground states .
They are blocking legislation in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin to allow elections officials to begin processing and counting those votes before Election Day .
In effect , they are manufacturing a crisis that the president could use to challenge the voters ’ will .
Trump ’ s logic is clear : He wants the tabulation of absentee ballots , which will lean Democratic in 2020 , to be as slow as possible .
He ’ s deterred Republicans from voting by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” As a consequence , Democrats are planning to vote from home in far greater numbers than Republicans .
That means the president is relying on the early returns from in-person voting to show him with a lead in key states .
Then , as the absentee voting results are announced , and his lead erodes , Trump will challenge those mailed-in ballots as being fraudulent .
Fortunately , the courts are striking down some of the GOP ’ s gambits to impede voting from home , such as the Pennsylvania Republican scheme @ @ @ @ @ @ @ boxes .
While these judicial rulings are a major victory for voting rights , it ’ s still essential to get ballots counted quickly , lest Trump misleadingly declares victory on November 3 .
New polling has found that 77 percent of GOP voters will trust the president if he claims he won on Election Night .
One cautiously hopeful sign is that the major postal unions and the USPS are in talks to get ballots to elections officials more quickly so that they can be counted without delay .
The big four @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Letter Carriers , the American Postal Workers Union , the National Rural Letter Carriers Association , and the National Postal Mail Handlers Union .
Under current Postal Service policy , mail dropped in a mailbox gets picked up by letter carriers and taken to the nearest post office .
Then , that mail gets put in a truck that takes it to the nearest processing center—usually a huge facility the size of several football fields—where it goes through a machine that determines which post office next receives it .
After that , a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ center to the appropriate post office , where letter carriers will pick it up and deliver it .
This process has slowed in recent years because many processing centers have been closed due to cost-cutting .
Those delays have been exacerbated since DeJoy ’ s changes , including getting rid of the much-needed sorting machines .
The result is that it takes anywhere from two to seven days between the time a ballot is dropped in a mailbox to when it gets delivered to an elections office .
“ By and large the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ end , it ’ s what happens at the plants , ” a midwestern letter carrier and union official told me .
“ That ’ s where mail gets stacked up.
” Postal union leaders have proposed to ameliorate this problem by cutting out the middleman .
Rather than take ballots to mammoth processing plants , letter carriers can pre-sort election mail at local post offices themselves and then deliver those ballots directly to local election boards .
The reform would cut ballot delivery time to less than 24 hours instead of either @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more .
The unions argue that this method of sorting should be temporary , just for seven to 10 days before the election For decades , letter carriers in states and municipalities with a history of vote by mail have used this easy work-around to expedite the delivery of mail-in ballots .
According to Amber McReynolds , CEO of the National Vote at Home Institute , who used to run Denver ’ s elections offices , this speedy bypass became an Election Day staple after Colorado letter carriers made a deal with the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , it would be understandable for some to think it is now too late for the USPS to make a major system change with fewer than three weeks to the election .
Fortunately , letter carriers have shown their ability to make such changes under immense time pressure .
In the 2020 primary , for instance , Duluth , Minnesota ’ s letter carriers pre-sorted and delivered local election mail at the local post office , avoiding the processing plant in Minneapolis , which was more than five hours away .
“ We @ @ @ @ @ @ @ during the last few days , so we were able to get them to the clerk ’ s office much quicker , ” a Duluth letter carrier told me .
“ We went through the mail ourselves , put all local ballots into their own bin , and then at the end of the day delivered them directly to the clerk.
” The success of this experiment in jurisdictions across the country , such as Duluth , is why postal union leaders urged national USPS management to adopt the idea in meetings over @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sources familiar with the matter .
Those pleas seem to have made an impact .
Sources tell me that USPS management is working on a directive , with a target release date of October 20 , telling letter carriers they can pre-sort election mail and deliver it directly to the city or county clerk ’ s office .
( If the mail ballot is for a non-local race , however , it would still go to the processing plant , where it would be sent to appropriate jurisdiction . )
An additional part @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for ordering all letter carriers to circumvent central processing in the election ’ s final days is to avoid a crazy quilt of special arrangements throughout the United States , which may lean in different directions politically .
Instead , it wants to have uniform standards that can ensure a quicker vote count .
“ I think it would be nice if there was consistency applied , more of a directive put out by the Postal Service , so that it isn ’ t 10,000 local election officials having to make 10,000 deals @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” an elections official told me .
Of course , this is still Trump ’ s America .
We don ’ t know if DeJoy might put the kibosh on this idea to serve the president ’ s interest .
We don ’ t know if DeJoy , perhaps fed up with criticism that he ’ s a MAGA collaborator , will authorize the reform .
He has held off instituting some of the dreaded changes he ordered until after the election , like cutting overtime .
We don ’ t know if @ @ @ @ @ @ @ around from being implemented .
What we do know is that , if this reform is implemented in time , it will help speed the vote count and be a rampart against Trump ’ s Election Night scheme .
For that reason , everyone who cares about American democracy and the integrity of the 2020 election should rally behind the idea now .

Under ordinary circumstances, the U.S. Postal Service would be perfectly equipped to manage the surge of mail ballots during the 2020 elections. Experts predict that more than 60 million Americans will vote from home over several weeks. (More than 14 million citizens have already cast ballots.) That’s only a modest uptick in mail volume compared to, say, the Christmas season, when the USPS delivers roughly 28 million packages a day.
But these aren’t ordinary circumstances. Donald Trump’s Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy, has already slowed down the mail through a raft of policy changes, including removing sorting machines that could whiz through mail ballots. And the president has admitted to blocking funding to the USPS to undermine its capacity to handle election mail. There’s a reason for that. The president and his GOP allies have indicated that they would use a slow tally of absentee ballots to contest the election results. (Trump said he is “counting” on the Supreme Court to “look at the ballots.”)
At the same time, Republicans are deliberately thwarting policies that could speed up the counting of absentee ballots in battleground states. They are blocking legislation in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin to allow elections officials to begin processing and counting those votes before Election Day. In effect, they are manufacturing a crisis that the president could use to challenge the voters’ will.
Trump’s logic is clear: He wants the tabulation of absentee ballots, which will lean Democratic in 2020, to be as slow as possible. He’s deterred Republicans from voting by mail with his lies about “fraud.” As a consequence, Democrats are planning to vote from home in far greater numbers than Republicans. That means the president is relying on the early returns from in-person voting to show him with a lead in key states. Then, as the absentee voting results are announced, and his lead erodes, Trump will challenge those mailed-in ballots as being fraudulent.
Fortunately, the courts are striking down some of the GOP’s gambits to impede voting from home, such as the Pennsylvania Republican scheme to restrict the availability of ballot drop boxes. While these judicial rulings are a major victory for voting rights, it’s still essential to get ballots counted quickly, lest Trump misleadingly declares victory on November 3. New polling has found that 77 percent of GOP voters will trust the president if he claims he won on Election Night.
One cautiously hopeful sign is that the major postal unions and the USPS are in talks to get ballots to elections officials more quickly so that they can be counted without delay. The big four postal unions are the National Association of Letter Carriers, the American Postal Workers Union, the National Rural Letter Carriers Association, and the National Postal Mail Handlers Union.
Under current Postal Service policy, mail dropped in a mailbox gets picked up by letter carriers and taken to the nearest post office. Then, that mail gets put in a truck that takes it to the nearest processing center—usually a huge facility the size of several football fields—where it goes through a machine that determines which post office next receives it. After that, a truck takes the mail from the processing center to the appropriate post office, where letter carriers will pick it up and deliver it.
This process has slowed in recent years because many processing centers have been closed due to cost-cutting. Those delays have been exacerbated since DeJoy’s changes, including getting rid of the much-needed sorting machines. The result is that it takes anywhere from two to seven days between the time a ballot is dropped in a mailbox to when it gets delivered to an elections office. “By and large the real vulnerability is not on the delivery end, it’s what happens at the plants,” a midwestern letter carrier and union official told me. “That’s where mail gets stacked up.”
Postal union leaders have proposed to ameliorate this problem by cutting out the middleman. Rather than take ballots to mammoth processing plants, letter carriers can pre-sort election mail at local post offices themselves and then deliver those ballots directly to local election boards. The reform would cut ballot delivery time to less than 24 hours instead of either days, a week, or even more. The unions argue that this method of sorting should be temporary, just for seven to 10 days before the election
For decades, letter carriers in states and municipalities with a history of vote by mail have used this easy work-around to expedite the delivery of mail-in ballots. According to Amber McReynolds, CEO of the National Vote at Home Institute, who used to run Denver’s elections offices, this speedy bypass became an Election Day staple after Colorado letter carriers made a deal with the state’s rural election boards
Still, it would be understandable for some to think it is now too late for the USPS to make a major system change with fewer than three weeks to the election. Fortunately, letter carriers have shown their ability to make such changes under immense time pressure. In the 2020 primary, for instance, Duluth, Minnesota’s letter carriers pre-sorted and delivered local election mail at the local post office, avoiding the processing plant in Minneapolis, which was more than five hours away. “We had a bunch of ballots coming in during the last few days, so we were able to get them to the clerk’s office much quicker,” a Duluth letter carrier told me. “We went through the mail ourselves, put all local ballots into their own bin, and then at the end of the day delivered them directly to the clerk.”
The success of this experiment in jurisdictions across the country, such as Duluth, is why postal union leaders urged national USPS management to adopt the idea in meetings over the last several weeks, according to sources familiar with the matter. Those pleas seem to have made an impact. Sources tell me that USPS management is working on a directive, with a target release date of October 20, telling letter carriers they can pre-sort election mail and deliver it directly to the city or county clerk’s office. (If the mail ballot is for a non-local race, however, it would still go to the processing plant, where it would be sent to appropriate jurisdiction.)
An additional part of the Postal Service’s rationale for ordering all letter carriers to circumvent central processing in the election’s final days is to avoid a crazy quilt of special arrangements throughout the United States, which may lean in different directions politically. Instead, it wants to have uniform standards that can ensure a quicker vote count. “I think it would be nice if there was consistency applied, more of a directive put out by the Postal Service, so that it isn’t 10,000 local election officials having to make 10,000 deals with local post offices on this,” an elections official told me.
Of course, this is still Trump’s America. We don’t know if DeJoy might put the kibosh on this idea to serve the president’s interest. We don’t know if DeJoy, perhaps fed up with criticism that he’s a MAGA collaborator, will authorize the reform. He has held off instituting some of the dreaded changes he ordered until after the election, like cutting overtime. We don’t know if old-fashioned bureaucratic inertia will stop this work around from being implemented. What we do know is that, if this reform is implemented in time, it will help speed the vote count and be a rampart against Trump’s Election Night scheme. For that reason, everyone who cares about American democracy and the integrity of the 2020 election should rally behind the idea now.


washingtonmonthly--2020-10-14--Dark Money Interests Are Buying the Supreme Court

According to John Cheves , a reporter with The Lexington Herald-Leader , when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell taught a college course on politics back in the 1970s , he identified the three things you need to succeed in politics : money , money , and money .
Over the course of his 35-year Senate career , McConnell hasn ’ t simply blocked attempts to reform the campaign finance system , he ’ s actually argued for more money in politics .
Perhaps the crowning glory of his efforts was the 2010 Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v FEC @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dark money into politics .
But when it comes to congressional elections , McConnell ’ s efforts aren ’ t producing what he expected , as journalists James Larkin and Elena Schnieder noted in Politico about the “ green tsunami ” Democrats are building via small donor contributions online .
According to an article in the New York Times , McConnell recognized this when , during a phone call with lobbyists this week , he “ vented that the party ’ s Senate candidates are being financially overwhelmed because of small-dollar contributions to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ McConnell has switched gears .
As I ’ ve written previously , he is now content to neuter the Senate and empower the courts to legislate from the bench .
That is why , over the last few years , he has touted stacking the courts with conservatives as the most consequential accomplishment of his political career .
In an interview with Sean Hannity last year , McConnell even gave his efforts a name , calling them the “ Judicial Project.
” That is the context for an extraordinary presentation by Sen. Sheldon @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Coney Barrett on Tuesday .
Majority Leader McConnell is the legislative arm for a scheme the Democrat from Rhode Island outlined .
Dark money is pulling the strings of the puppet show being played out in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee this week , said Whitehouse , a former prosecutor .
Whitehouse charged three groups with leading this scheme .
The first is the Federalist Society , which famously promotes or , as Whitehouse says , selects conservative candidates for Republican court nominations .
The second is the Judicial Crisis Network , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ behalf of the nominees .
Finally , a group of “ legal ” organizations—like the Pacific Legal Foundation—bring cases and orchestrate a chorus of amicus briefs to tell the courts what to do .
These aren ’ t three separate groups , but one scheme pulling the strings behind the scene , which was demonstrated when Leonard Leo gave up leadership of the Federalist Society and Carrie Sevarino , who had previously been in charge of the Judicial Crisis Network , easily took his place .
But what ties these efforts together , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of dark money that fund their activities .
It comes from conservative benefactor organizations like the Bradley Foundation and something called the Donor Trust Fund , which the 64-year-old Yale Law grad described as a “ gigantic identity scrubbing device for the right wing.
” This network of dark money is the same one that Washington Post reporters Robert O ’ Harrow and Shawn Boberg found when investigating the Federalist Society ’ s Leo .
They were able to identify an interlocking system of nonprofits Leo had set up to funnel over $ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ efforts to “ remake the nation ’ s courts.
” Whitehouse ended his presentation by addressing what these dark money donors want from the court in return for their investment .
While it ’ s true that someone like Barrett was nominated to overturn the Affordable Care Act , Roe v Wade , and Obergfell v Hodges , that is hardly the only agenda .
Whitehouse reviewed 80 Supreme Court cases since John Roberts became the Chief Justice that had these things in common : • None The 5-4 decision was partisan , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by Republicans in the majority • None There was an identifiable Republican donor interest in the case In every case , the Republican donor interest prevailed .
All of those cases were about power , Whitehouse explained , noting that they generally fit into four categories .
Sen. Whitehouse shared his fellow Democrats ’ anger that Republicans are hypocritically rushing through Barrett ’ s confirmation days before the election after refusing to even hold hearings when Obama nominated Merrick Garland 10 months before the 2016 balloting .
“ My experience around politics is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ daylight , look for power in the shadows , ” Whitehouse said .
Dark money interests are lurking in the shadows , exploiting the Supreme Court to maintain their power .
Amy Coney Barrett is simply their latest tool to do so .

According to John Cheves, a reporter with The Lexington Herald-Leader, when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell taught a college course on politics back in the 1970s, he identified the three things you need to succeed in politics: money, money, and money. Over the course of his 35-year Senate career, McConnell hasn’t simply blocked attempts to reform the campaign finance system, he’s actually argued for more money in politics. Perhaps the crowning glory of his efforts was the 2010 Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v FEC, which allowed the flow of unlimited dark money into politics.
But when it comes to congressional elections, McConnell’s efforts aren’t producing what he expected, as journalists James Larkin and Elena Schnieder noted in Politico about the “green tsunami” Democrats are building via small donor contributions online. According to an article in the New York Times, McConnell recognized this when, during a phone call with lobbyists this week, he “vented that the party’s Senate candidates are being financially overwhelmed because of small-dollar contributions to ActBlue.”
Not to be deterred, McConnell has switched gears. As I’ve written previously, he is now content to neuter the Senate and empower the courts to legislate from the bench. That is why, over the last few years, he has touted stacking the courts with conservatives as the most consequential accomplishment of his political career. In an interview with Sean Hannity last year, McConnell even gave his efforts a name, calling them the “Judicial Project.”
That is the context for an extraordinary presentation by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse at the confirmation hearings for Amy Coney Barrett on Tuesday. Majority Leader McConnell is the legislative arm for a scheme the Democrat from Rhode Island outlined. Dark money is pulling the strings of the puppet show being played out in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee this week, said Whitehouse, a former prosecutor.
Whitehouse charged three groups with leading this scheme. The first is the Federalist Society, which famously promotes or, as Whitehouse says, selects conservative candidates for Republican court nominations. The second is the Judicial Crisis Network, which mounts a public relations effort on behalf of the nominees. Finally, a group of “legal” organizations—like the Pacific Legal Foundation—bring cases and orchestrate a chorus of amicus briefs to tell the courts what to do.
These aren’t three separate groups, but one scheme pulling the strings behind the scene, which was demonstrated when Leonard Leo gave up leadership of the Federalist Society and Carrie Sevarino, who had previously been in charge of the Judicial Crisis Network, easily took his place. But what ties these efforts together, Whitehouse explained, are the same sources of dark money that fund their activities. It comes from conservative benefactor organizations like the Bradley Foundation and something called the Donor Trust Fund, which the 64-year-old Yale Law grad described as a “gigantic identity scrubbing device for the right wing.”
This network of dark money is the same one that Washington Post reporters Robert O’Harrow and Shawn Boberg found when investigating the Federalist Society’s Leo. They were able to identify an interlocking system of nonprofits Leo had set up to funnel over $250 million in dark money aimed at efforts to “remake the nation’s courts.”
Whitehouse ended his presentation by addressing what these dark money donors want from the court in return for their investment. While it’s true that someone like Barrett was nominated to overturn the Affordable Care Act, Roe v Wade, and Obergefell v Hodges, that is hardly the only agenda. Whitehouse reviewed 80 Supreme Court cases since John Roberts became the Chief Justice that had these things in common:
They were decided 5-4 The 5-4 decision was partisan, with Roberts and the four justices nominated by Republicans in the majority There was an identifiable Republican donor interest in the case
In every case, the Republican donor interest prevailed. All of those cases were about power, Whitehouse explained, noting that they generally fit into four categories.
Allowed unlimited and dark money in politics Knocked the civil jury system down Weakened regulatory agencies Suppressed the vote
Sen. Whitehouse shared his fellow Democrats’ anger that Republicans are hypocritically rushing through Barrett’s confirmation days before the election after refusing to even hold hearings when Obama nominated Merrick Garland 10 months before the 2016 balloting. “My experience around politics is that when you find hypocrisy in the daylight, look for power in the shadows,” Whitehouse said. Dark money interests are lurking in the shadows, exploiting the Supreme Court to maintain their power. Amy Coney Barrett is simply their latest tool to do so.


washingtonmonthly--2020-10-15--LIVE BLOG: The Biden-Trump Town Halls

LIVE BLOG: The Biden-Trump Town Halls

Tonight was supposed to be the second debate between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden .
But after Trump contracted coronavirus and refused the debate commission ’ s call for a virtual event , the two candidates wound up committing to dueling town halls on major networks : Biden first agreed to go on ABC , in lieu of the debate after Trump refused to participate , then NBC offered Trump a platform at the same time .
We didn ’ t quite know how to cover it , so our editor in chief Paul Glastris decided @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he spends any major campaign event texting back and forth with his two brothers , George and Bill Glastris .
Tonight , we ’ re going to publish their uncensored texts as part of our live blogs .
If nothing else , it will provide a window into how three Greek American men are processing this most unusual of elections .
We hope you find it entertaining—and perhaps even a little insightful .
George : Trump was out of his depth on policy and was just selling .
Paul : I did notice @ @ @ @ @ @ @ policy , it ’ s seldom in an explanatory way , but in an old-fashioned salesman ’ s kind of way .
Bill : Interesting—Joe not leaving the room of him contInuing to engage with the questioners .
Continues to be on TV and on brand while the ABC commentators describe his very good performance .
George : At least a used car salesman knows how much horsepower the engine has .
Paul : I ’ m listening to the reactions from network pundits .
They ’ re making a lot of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were reading us !
George : Let ’ s see what Santorum has to say .
Oh , he ’ s talking about court packing .
Paul : Also , did you notice all the Biden commercials on ABS before , during , and after the town hall ?
That ’ s a campaign with a lot of money that ’ s smart enough to try to goose up the instant poll numbers to Biden ’ s advantage .
Did either of you see what ads were running on NBC ?
Bill : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ support Biden .
He was ready , direct , honest , and , in my view , right again and again .
George : He knows his stuff , period .
Trump was just yakking .
Paul : Final question from Stephanopoulos : Will you demand at the next debate that the president take a Covid test and will you take one yourself ?
His answer : I expect the Cleveland clinic which runs the debate won ’ t make the same mistake this time as last time , and of course I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ take one every day , I don ’ t want to expose anyone , especially the folks behind the cameras and the Secret Service guys , it ’ s just the decent thing to do .
The correct , common sense , presidential answer , and exactly on brand .
Paul : Is there a reason the Trump town hall ended earlier that Biden ’ s ?
The former keeps saying Joe doesn ’ t have the stamina to be president , but that ’ s no way to show it .
Biden @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Bill : “ Everyone is entitled to be treated with dignity ” —kind of the essence of the Biden candidacy .
George : I love that line— ” If I ’ m elected , you want to hear me race baiting.
” Bill : Joe “ America first has meant America alone … I do compliment the President on the deal with Israel but if you look around the world we are not trusted anymore ” Joe talking straight to this Trump voter .
Not sure this questioner wants to be convinced @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on foreign policy very well , disagreed with the questionnaire but very politely .
Bill : On what he ’ ll do about LGBQT rights being violated by Trump orders , Joe says , “ I ’ ll flat out change the law.
” George : I ’ ve heard Joe tell the story about two men kissing each other when he was a kid more times than I can count .
He need some fresh material .
But yes , he is a friend to the LGBT community .
And that was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ll change the law.
” Paul : The self-described conservative asked a smart , tricky question listing a number of Trump foreign successes .
Biden answered by granting him one—the Israel-Arab deal—then drowning him in examples of Trump foreign policy failures .
Extremely effective answer .
Biden was clearly in his comfort zone .
George : I just flipped over to the Biden town hall .
This questionnaire about the environment is 10 times better than all the Trump questionnaires put together .
George : Biden ’ s answer compared to all of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ between watching Ken Burns documentary on PBS and some cheap show on the history channel—night and day , night and day .
George : Hey Bill , this answer Biden is giving is like listening to Paul at the breakfast table going off on the dairy industry when all you said is , “ Please pass the butter.
” Paul : You know I like me some policy .
Paul : Biden ’ s answer about bringing jobs to SE Pennsylvania—hire 128,000 to cap closed wells etc.—was Clinton-like in it ’ s specificity @ @ @ @ @ @ @ careful though .
This isn ’ t the Washington Monthly .
It ’ s prime time George : Don ’ t they claim that they burn off method because it ’ s not worth capturing ?
Or is that gas from oil wells ?
Paul : I think those flames you see are on refineries .
The fracking wells leak it silently .
But WTF do I know .
George : Once again , Trump he ’ s done more for Blacks except for Lincoln .
This woman just complimented his smile and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ too .
Bill : Trump— “ Where do you come from ?
” Questioner— “ My grandparents are from Russia and Poland.
” Trump , “ Very good ” Why does that matter ?
Paul : Last question to Trump : for undecided voters , how are you going to convince them that you will improve ?
Answer : I ’ ve done a great job .
George : Pointed out the hypocrisy of his opposing Obama nominating Merrick Garland eight months before the 2016 election—whereas he is nominating Coney Barrett a month @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hearing for why he should put Coney on the court now .
Bill : There are at least four or five options consistent with and constitutional to deal with the situation with the Supreme Court .
I am not a fan of that ( packing the court ) but I am open depending with what happens and how it is handled .
Vote for a Senator that shares your view .
Paul : George Stephanopoulos was pretty aggressive with Biden on expanding the Supreme Court .
Fair enough but I ’ m disappointed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ VP about his position on Greece .
Am I right ?
Bill : It ’ s coming , of course .
Not to worry .
George : Now the moderator is asking about his taxes .
“ Who do you owe $ 400 million to ?
” Trump says he borrowed $ 400 million as a favor to banks—that $ 400 million is a tiny percentage of his net worth .
Bill : Asked if he owes any money to foreign banks , Trump says , “ Not that I know of but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ won ’ t release his tax returns because of common sense and intelligence .
Bill : “ I ’ m treated very badly by the IRS , ” just said the man who paid $ 750 in taxes to the IRS .
Really ?
?
George : Somehow , he pivoted to Hillary and the Democrats dealing with Russia ; see head spin .
George : So Bill you ’ ve watched both ; any thoughts ?
Bill : Very , very different tones .
Paul : My guess is if you ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ certainly more of those watching him tonight than Biden supporters—you ’ re liking his answers .
But it sure seems like he ’ s been on the defensive half the night .
And I can ’ t imagine that ’ s a good thing for him .
Biden much less so .
Bill : Joe nailing the tough question from this gentleman about what exactly he ’ s going to do for African Americans other than “ you ain ’ t Black.
” Great question and he ’ s handling it really well @ @ @ @ @ @ @ saying we ’ re going to protect pre-existing conditions but won ’ t say how .
Paul : Biden just gave a terrific answer about the need for policies to help Black Americans accumulate wealth .
“ They ’ re behind the 8-ball now.
” Would love to see poling on how that was received by Black voters , especially young ones .
George : An “ undecided Democrat ” is asking about another stimulus check .
Of course , it ’ s all Nancy ’ s fault , Trump says .
Bill @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Joe is putting forth his best – I think his best “ performance ” the entire election season .
Rapid fire , cogent , direct , and very believable .
George : Why do I have to watch this clown ?
“ I ’ m ready to sign a big beautiful stimulus , ” Trump says .
Bill : I ’ ll watch it on DVR later .
Paul : Outstanding answer on the value of community policing .
Biden wrote the law and he knows the details .
Making the distinguish @ @ @ @ @ @ @ community and more driving around in Humvees .
George : Now Trump is railing against vote by mail .
Thousands of ballots with my name have been dumped in dumpsters [ there ’ s no evidence of that , at all ] .
He ’ s so wound up .
He ’ s going to bite someone .
Paul : During the convention , the Democrats and Biden were criticized , fairly in my view , for downplaying the Biden-Harris economic agenda .
Not true tonight .
George .
She ’ s asking @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from other countries but only China at first .
There ’ s no middle ground .
He was talking about differences between what he did and what he told Woodward .
He still questioning masks .
Paul : Trump was doing well talking about the economy .
Now he ’ s questioning mask usage and picking a fight with Tony Fauci .
George : Well , obviously , when he ’ s talking about something he wants to talk about he ’ s happy , but one question about something he doesn ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s getting very defensive and bitchy .
George : The moderator is bringing up white supremacy .
Bill : Joe : “ Look George [ Stephanopolous ] and I think you know well too that the words of a President matters ” Questioner : “ Absolutely.
” George : He ’ s getting really pissed off with everyone .
George : On QAnon , he says , “ I know nothing about it … but that they are against pedophilia.
” Paul : Trump ?
At the questioners ?
Or at all his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , I don ’ t know about satanic pedophilia .
Bill : Joe pulls out a card to discuss tax revenue and tax cuts .
Smart .
Both avoiding a misstatement and frankly reciting facts .
George : Savannah Guthrie just said to Trump : “ You ’ re not someone ’ s crazy uncle , why are you retweeing the Bin Laden lie ?
Paul : Biden on Trump saying he didn ’ t want to panic the public about COVID-19 : “ The American people don ’ t panic .
He @ @ @ @ @ @ @ being asked about Rose Garden ceremony .
He ’ s now questioning masks .
He ’ s saying people with masks catch it all the time .
He said fallen heroes ’ families want to touch him .
Paul : This is OK , but if the Cardinals had advanced in the playoffs would you have rather be watching that ?
George : “ Excess mortality—we ’ re a winner , ” Trump says .
Cards , yes .
Trump , no .
George : Now he ’ s doing his schtick about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ worse than the disease but … plus China China China .
Bill : My early impression on Biden to be honest is that he ’ s coming across quite well .
Thoughtful , direct and actually conversational .
Bill : Am I the only one that is concerned whether Joe is going to be as prepared for this event as he was for the debate ?
Paul : Maybe .
But I wonder if for these kinds of town has a candidate can over prepare .
It ’ s not like he ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Bill : Sparse looking room .
That in itself is a bit of a statement .
Paul : So , George , I ’ m glad you volunteered to watch the Trump town hall .
Had you not , Bill and I would have made you since you ’ re the youngest .
George : My youth gives me the strength to take it .

Tonight was supposed to be the second debate between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden. But after Trump contracted coronavirus and refused the debate commission’s call for a virtual event, the two candidates wound up committing to dueling town halls on major networks: Biden first agreed to go on ABC, in lieu of the debate after Trump refused to participate, then NBC offered Trump a platform at the same time.
We didn’t quite know how to cover it, so our editor in chief Paul Glastris decided to do something different. Usually, he spends any major campaign event texting back and forth with his two brothers, George and Bill Glastris. Tonight, we’re going to publish their uncensored texts as part of our live blogs. If nothing else, it will provide a window into how three Greek American men are processing this most unusual of elections. We hope you find it entertaining—and perhaps even a little insightful.
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9:36-9:42
George: Trump was out of his depth on policy and was just selling.
Paul: I did notice that about Trump. When he talks policy, it’s seldom in an explanatory way, but in an old-fashioned salesman’s kind of way.
Bill: Interesting—Joe not leaving the room of him contInuing to engage with the questioners. Continues to be on TV and on brand while the ABC commentators describe his very good performance.
George: At least a used car salesman knows how much horsepower the engine has.
Paul: I’m listening to the reactions from network pundits. They’re making a lot of the same points we did. They clearly were reading us!
George: Let’s see what Santorum has to say. Oh, he’s talking about court packing.
Paul: Also, did you notice all the Biden commercials on ABS before, during, and after the town hall? That’s a campaign with a lot of money that’s smart enough to try to goose up the instant poll numbers to Biden’s advantage. Did either of you see what ads were running on NBC?
George: I didn’t notice Biden ads but I’m in Chicago.
9:32-9:35
Bill: Ok – I really am proud to support Biden. He was ready, direct, honest, and, in my view, right again and again.
George: He knows his stuff, period. Trump was just yakking.
Paul: Final question from Stephanopoulos: Will you demand at the next debate that the president take a Covid test and will you take one yourself? His answer: I expect the Cleveland clinic which runs the debate won’t make the same mistake this time as last time, and of course I’ll take the test, I take one every day, I don’t want to expose anyone, especially the folks behind the cameras and the Secret Service guys, it’s just the decent thing to do. The correct, common sense, presidential answer, and exactly on brand.
9:22-9:30
Paul: Is there a reason the Trump town hall ended earlier that Biden’s? The former keeps saying Joe doesn’t have the stamina to be president, but that’s no way to show it. Biden’s then Energizer Bunny by comparison.
Bill: “Everyone is entitled to be treated with dignity”—kind of the essence of the Biden candidacy.
George: I love that line—”If I’m elected, you want to hear me race baiting.”
9:16-9:21
Bill: Joe “America first has meant America alone … I do compliment the President on the deal with Israel but if you look around the world we are not trusted anymore” Joe talking straight to this Trump voter. Not sure this questioner wants to be convinced.
George: He handled that question on foreign policy very well, disagreed with the questionnaire but very politely.
Bill: On what he’ll do about LGBQT rights being violated by Trump orders, Joe says, “I’ll flat out change the law.”
George: I’ve heard Joe tell the story about two men kissing each other when he was a kid more times than I can count. He need some fresh material. But yes, he is a friend to the LGBT community. And that was a great answer: “I’ll change the law.”
Paul: The self-described conservative asked a smart, tricky question listing a number of Trump foreign successes. Biden answered by granting him one—the Israel-Arab deal—then drowning him in examples of Trump foreign policy failures. Extremely effective answer. Biden was clearly in his comfort zone.
9:01—9:14
George: I just flipped over to the Biden town hall. This questionnaire about the environment is 10 times better than all the Trump questionnaires put together.
George: Biden’s answer compared to all of trumps answers it’s the difference between watching Ken Burns documentary on PBS and some cheap show on the history channel—night and day, night and day.
George: Hey Bill, this answer Biden is giving is like listening to Paul at the breakfast table going off on the dairy industry when all you said is, “Please pass the butter.”
Paul: You know I like me some policy.
Paul: Biden’s answer about bringing jobs to SE Pennsylvania—hire 128,000 to cap closed wells etc.—was Clinton-like in it’s specificity.
George: He needs to be careful though. This isn’t the Washington Monthly. It’s prime time
George: Don’t they claim that they burn off method because it’s not worth capturing? Or is that gas from oil wells?
Paul: I think those flames you see are on refineries. The fracking wells leak it silently. But WTF do I know.
8:54-8:59
George: Once again, Trump he’s done more for Blacks except for Lincoln. This woman just complimented his smile and told him he’s very handsome too.
Bill: Trump—“Where do you come from?” Questioner—“My grandparents are from Russia and Poland.” Trump, “Very good” Why does that matter?
Paul: Last question to Trump: for undecided voters, how are you going to convince them that you will improve? Answer: I’ve done a great job.
8:50
George: Pointed out the hypocrisy of his opposing Obama nominating Merrick Garland eight months before the 2016 election—whereas he is nominating Coney Barrett a month before the 2020 one—Trump blames the Kavanaugh hearing for why he should put Coney on the court now.
Bill: There are at least four or five options consistent with and constitutional to deal with the situation with the Supreme Court. I am not a fan of that (packing the court) but I am open depending with what happens and how it is handled. Vote for a Senator that shares your view.
Paul: George Stephanopoulos was pretty aggressive with Biden on expanding the Supreme Court. Fair enough but I’m disappointed he hasn’t asked the former VP about his position on Greece. Am I right?
Bill: It’s coming, of course. Not to worry.
8:37-8:43
George: Now the moderator is asking about his taxes. “Who do you owe $400 million to?” Trump says he borrowed $400 million as a favor to banks—that $400 million is a tiny percentage of his net worth.
Bill: Asked if he owes any money to foreign banks, Trump says, “Not that I know of but probably.”
George: Trump says he won’t release his tax returns because of common sense and intelligence.
Bill: “I’m treated very badly by the IRS,” just said the man who paid $750 in taxes to the IRS. Really??
George: Somehow, he pivoted to Hillary and the Democrats dealing with Russia; see head spin.
George: So Bill you’ve watched both; any thoughts?
Bill: Very, very different tones.
Paul: My guess is if you’re a Trump supporter—and there are almost certainly more of those watching him tonight than Biden supporters—you’re liking his answers. But it sure seems like he’s been on the defensive half the night. And I can’t imagine that’s a good thing for him. Biden much less so.
8:31-8:35
Bill: Joe nailing the tough question from this gentleman about what exactly he’s going to do for African Americans other than “ you ain’t Black.” Great question and he’s handling it really well.
George: He’s still saying we’re going to protect pre-existing conditions but won’t say how.
Paul: Biden just gave a terrific answer about the need for policies to help Black Americans accumulate wealth. “They’re behind the 8-ball now.” Would love to see poling on how that was received by Black voters, especially young ones.
George: An “undecided Democrat” is asking about another stimulus check. Of course, it’s all Nancy’s fault, Trump says.
Bill: Ok we are 33 minutes in and Joe is putting forth his best – I think his best “performance” the entire election season. Rapid fire, cogent, direct, and very believable.
George: Why do I have to watch this clown? “I’m ready to sign a big beautiful stimulus,” Trump says.
Bill: I’ll watch it on DVR later.
Paul: Outstanding answer on the value of community policing.
Biden wrote the law and he knows the details. Making the distinguish between more beat cops integrating with the community and more driving around in Humvees.
8:22-8:29
George: Now Trump is railing against vote by mail. Thousands of ballots with my name have been dumped in dumpsters [there’s no evidence of that, at all]. He’s so wound up. He’s going to bite someone.
Paul: During the convention, the Democrats and Biden were criticized, fairly in my view, for downplaying the Biden-Harris economic agenda. Not true tonight.
George. She’s asking why he didn’t ban travel from other countries but only China at first. There’s no middle ground. He was talking about differences between what he did and what he told Woodward. He still questioning masks.
Paul: Trump was doing well talking about the economy. Now he’s questioning mask usage and picking a fight with Tony Fauci.
George: Well, obviously, when he’s talking about something he wants to talk about he’s happy, but one question about something he doesn’t want to talk about he’s getting very defensive and bitchy.
8:17-8:21
George: The moderator is bringing up white supremacy.
Bill: Joe: “Look George [Stephanopolous] and I think you know well too that the words of a President matters” Questioner: “Absolutely.”
George: He’s getting really pissed off with everyone.
George: On QAnon, he says, “I know nothing about it … but that they are against pedophilia.”
Paul: Trump? At the questioners? Or at all his enemies?
George: Both. Shit, I don’t know about satanic pedophilia.
Bill: Joe pulls out a card to discuss tax revenue and tax cuts. Smart. Both avoiding a misstatement and frankly reciting facts.
George: Savannah Guthrie just said to Trump: “You’re not someone’s crazy uncle, why are you retweeing the Bin Laden lie?
8:02-8:15
Paul: Biden on Trump saying he didn’t want to panic the public about COVID-19: “The American people don’t panic. He panicked.”
George: Now Trump is being asked about Rose Garden ceremony. He’s now questioning masks. He’s saying people with masks catch it all the time. He said fallen heroes’ families want to touch him.
Paul: This is OK, but if the Cardinals had advanced in the playoffs would you have rather be watching that?
George: “Excess mortality—we’re a winner,” Trump says. Cards, yes. Trump, no.
Bill: What town hall?
George: Now he’s doing his schtick about how the cure can’t be worse than the disease but … plus China China China.
Bill: My early impression on Biden to be honest is that he’s coming across quite well. Thoughtful, direct and actually conversational.
7:55-7:58
Bill: Am I the only one that is concerned whether Joe is going to be as prepared for this event as he was for the debate?
Paul: Maybe. But I wonder if for these kinds of town has a candidate can over prepare. It’s not like he’s trying to memorize his zingers.
Bill: Sparse looking room. That in itself is a bit of a statement.
Paul: So, George, I’m glad you volunteered to watch the Trump town hall. Had you not, Bill and I would have made you since you’re the youngest.
George: My youth gives me the strength to take it.


washingtonmonthly--2020-10-15--That Ukraine, New York Post Story? It’s a Big Nothingburger

The New York Post seems to be the vehicle for President Trump ’ s long-awaited October Surprise .
But its article should only be handled with asbestos gloves and a hazmat suit .
We have to keep in mind Russian disinformation efforts , treat the authenticity of any of the documents with extreme skepticism .
Twitter has taken the extraordinary step of blocking the distribution of the article on its site and Facebook has tried to limit its distribution .
Josh Marshall lays out important caveats here .
So what does the Post have ?
In the front-page article , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ blockbuster correspondence ” that Biden assisted his son Hunter ’ s work on behalf of a shady Ukrainian natural gas company .
“ Ukrainian Exec Thanked Hunter Biden for Opportunity to Meet Veep Dad , ” blares the Post headline .
Even if authentic , and they quite possibly are not , the supposedly startling finds were given to the Post by Donald Trump ’ s personal lawyer and former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani , which should trigger wariness .
Even if one accepts the Post ‘ s new Ukraine bits @ @ @ @ @ @ @ less intriguing , let alone incriminating than the story implies .
The tabloid ’ s treasure trove turns out to be two alleged emails from a Ukrainian executive , as well as a salacious video purportedly captured from the hard drive of a what seems to be Hunter Biden ’ s MacBook Pro , a laptop that the Democratic nominee ’ s scion supposedly left at a Delaware computer repair shop .
To assess the import of the Post ’ s material , which allegedly and not very convincingly ties the Democratic nominee @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we have to hearken back to Trump ’ s impeachment woes of 2019 and 2020 .
The House ’ s impeachment inquiry began with that famed whistleblower , Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman , alleging that Trump , on a phone call monitored by Vindman and other National Security Council officials , tried to muscle Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Hunter Biden ’ s work on behalf of the Ukrainian energy company , Burisma .
Hunter reportedly received $ 50,000 a month for his services despite not having experience in the energy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2018 appearance at the Council of Foreign Relations , the former vice-president boasted that while he was in office , he ’ d forced out a corrupt Ukrainian prosecutor , Viktor Shokin , by threatening to withhold approximately $ 1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees .
This talk raised the antennae of Trump allies , including Giuliani , who shared the widespread expectation that Biden might well be Trump ’ s Democratic opponent in 2020 and believed Ukrainian corruption would hinder , if not doom , a Biden presidential bid .
Trump ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the board of a Burisma , which had been under investigation for money laundering in both Ukraine and the United Kingdom .
So Giuliani flew to Ukraine several times .
His goal : Prove former Vice President Biden had forced Shokin out to aid his son rather than as part of overwhelming evidence that it was just part of U.S. efforts to fight corruption in the former Soviet Republic .
Giuliani never found evidence to support this theory , but he raised legitimate questions about why Hunter was paid handsomely to serve on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t the only one concerned about Biden .
In February 2015 , while serving as the Acting Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv , George Kent raised concern about Hunter ’ s Burisma role .
As Kent explained during his testimony before the Senate Finance and Homeland Security committees in 2020 , he found Hunter ’ s presence on the board made it harder for the Embassy to push an anti-corruption agenda with Ukrainian officials .
While Kent insisted that Hunter ’ s presence on the board never @ @ @ @ @ @ @ get Kyiv to crackdown on corruption , he was concerned the Ukrainians would detect hypocrisy and use it as an excuse to reject his advice .
Kent raised a legitimate concern , which Hunter all but conceded in an October 2019 interview with ABC News .
Taking the appointment to Burisma ’ s board , Hunter told the network , “ was poor judgment on my part.
” Voters can consider Hunter ’ s service with Burisma , but they should understand the facts .
Biden ’ s son seems guilty of taking @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to make gobs of money .
That may be untoward , but it ’ s not a crime , and Hunter has never been charged with one .
Perhaps the former vice president could have used his fatherly clout to stop his scion , but as the elder Biden has said , Hunter is an adult ( now 50 ) responsible for his own decisions .
Kent would later testify at Trump ’ s impeachment inquiry that it was unconscionable for the president to demand Zelensky investigate Hunter as a condition of receiving @ @ @ @ @ @ @ denied as it spun the president ’ s conversation with the Ukrainian president .
Back to the Post story .
The hard drive allegedly includes video of a sexual nature and photographic evidence of Hunter using drugs .
Even by the Post ’ s own account , the supposedly tawdry images have nothing to do with Ukraine .
And now , lots of questions are being raised about the owner of the repair shop and the weird metadata on the pics , which suggests they might well have been altered .
It ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” to the Burisma board that drives the supposedly revelatory article .
Both were purportedly sent from Vadim Pozharskyi .
Their authenticity seems dubious , at best .
One isn ’ t even an email but a screenshot of an email .
Here ’ s what ’ s in them .
The 2014 email allegedly says Burisma is facing extortion from the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs .
It asks Hunter if he can use his “ inﬂuence to convey a message / signal , etc .to stop what we consider to be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s no evidence that Biden ever did anything in response or even got the email if it ’ s authentic .
In the other email , sent in 2015 , Pozharskyi thanks Hunter for inviting him to Washington , D.C , and allowing him to meet his father .
Yet , there ’ s no mention of anything discussed in the meeting with the Veep , not even where it took place or how long it lasted .
It can even be read as his request for a future meeting with the elder @ @ @ @ @ @ @ up for scrutiny when he claimed that he has “ never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings.
” But this letter fragment doesn ’ t contradict that , and the Biden campaign says the meeting never happened .
Notably , these allegations came to light through Giuliani , although they could have begun in Moscow .
According to the Post , the computer repair shop owner told the Department of Justice about the hard drive in September , after which the FBI subpoenaed it .
However , before turning it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a copy and delivered it to Giuliani ’ s attorney , Robert Costello .
Not typical behavior when you ’ re under subpoena .
It ’ s also worth noting that Steve Bannon , the former adviser to President Trump , told the Post about the existence of the hard drive in late September , and Giuliani provided the Post with a copy of it on Sunday .
Finally , it ’ s interesting that the New York Post runs this story rather than the Wall Street Journal , New York Times , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t believe the major newspapers would run it and never shopped it to them , or he did peddle it to them but failed to pique their interest .
Either way , the Washington Post and Times have come back with strong stories questioning the whole thing ’ s authenticity .
There ’ s a profound irony here .
By getting the president obsessed with Hunter Biden ’ s work in Ukraine , Giuliani arguably started a chain of events that began with his bumbling investigation of Hunter Biden , which led @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , which led to Trump ’ s impeachment .
Now Giuliani surely hopes this last-second effort to stop Biden ’ s march to victory will help .
The Murdoch mouthpiece will milk this for all it ’ s worth , but it ’ s not worth much .

The New York Post seems to be the vehicle for President Trump’s long-awaited October Surprise. But its article should only be handled with asbestos gloves and a hazmat suit. We have to keep in mind Russian disinformation efforts, treat the authenticity of any of the documents with extreme skepticism. Twitter has taken the extraordinary step of blocking the distribution of the article on its site and Facebook has tried to limit its distribution. Josh Marshall lays out important caveats here.
So what does the Post have? In the front-page article, the Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid claims to have “blockbuster correspondence” that Biden assisted his son Hunter’s work on behalf of a shady Ukrainian natural gas company.
“Ukrainian Exec Thanked Hunter Biden for Opportunity to Meet Veep Dad,” blares the Post headline.
Even if authentic, and they quite possibly are not, the supposedly startling finds were given to the Post by Donald Trump’s personal lawyer and former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, which should trigger wariness. Even if one accepts the Post‘s new Ukraine bits at face value, they are much less intriguing, let alone incriminating than the story implies. The tabloid’s treasure trove turns out to be two alleged emails from a Ukrainian executive, as well as a salacious video purportedly captured from the hard drive of a what seems to be Hunter Biden’s MacBook Pro, a laptop that the Democratic nominee’s scion supposedly left at a Delaware computer repair shop.
To assess the import of the Post’s material, which allegedly and not very convincingly ties the Democratic nominee to the world of Ukrainian corruption, we have to hearken back to Trump’s impeachment woes of 2019 and 2020.
The House’s impeachment inquiry began with that famed whistleblower, Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman, alleging that Trump, on a phone call monitored by Vindman and other National Security Council officials, tried to muscle Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Hunter Biden’s work on behalf of the Ukrainian energy company, Burisma. Hunter reportedly received $50,000 a month for his services despite not having experience in the energy sector or Ukraine.
During a January 2018 appearance at the Council of Foreign Relations, the former vice-president boasted that while he was in office, he’d forced out a corrupt Ukrainian prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, by threatening to withhold approximately $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees. This talk raised the antennae of Trump allies, including Giuliani, who shared the widespread expectation that Biden might well be Trump’s Democratic opponent in 2020 and believed Ukrainian corruption would hinder, if not doom, a Biden presidential bid.
Trump’s gumshoes knew Hunter Biden served on the board of a Burisma, which had been under investigation for money laundering in both Ukraine and the United Kingdom. So Giuliani flew to Ukraine several times. His goal: Prove former Vice President Biden had forced Shokin out to aid his son rather than as part of overwhelming evidence that it was just part of U.S. efforts to fight corruption in the former Soviet Republic. Giuliani never found evidence to support this theory, but he raised legitimate questions about why Hunter was paid handsomely to serve on Burisma’s board.
He wasn’t the only one concerned about Biden. In February 2015, while serving as the Acting Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, George Kent raised concern about Hunter’s Burisma role. As Kent explained during his testimony before the Senate Finance and Homeland Security committees in 2020, he found Hunter’s presence on the board made it harder for the Embassy to push an anti-corruption agenda with Ukrainian officials.
[T]he bottom line was, I said I believe that this creates the perception of a potential conflict of interest, given Vice President Biden’s role and his very strong advocacy for anticorruption action, and that I thought that someone needed to talk to Hunter Biden, and he should [step] down from the board of Burisma.
While Kent insisted that Hunter’s presence on the board never influenced the embassy’s efforts to get Kyiv to crackdown on corruption, he was concerned the Ukrainians would detect hypocrisy and use it as an excuse to reject his advice.
Kent raised a legitimate concern, which Hunter all but conceded in an October 2019 interview with ABC News. Taking the appointment to Burisma’s board, Hunter told the network, “was poor judgment on my part.”
Voters can consider Hunter’s service with Burisma, but they should understand the facts. Biden’s son seems guilty of taking advantage of his father’s position to make gobs of money. That may be untoward, but it’s not a crime, and Hunter has never been charged with one. Perhaps the former vice president could have used his fatherly clout to stop his scion, but as the elder Biden has said, Hunter is an adult (now 50) responsible for his own decisions.
Kent would later testify at Trump’s impeachment inquiry that it was unconscionable for the president to demand Zelensky investigate Hunter as a condition of receiving military aid, something the White House denied as it spun the president’s conversation with the Ukrainian president.
Back to the Post story. The hard drive allegedly includes video of a sexual nature and photographic evidence of Hunter using drugs. Even by the Post’s own account, the supposedly tawdry images have nothing to do with Ukraine. And now, lots of questions are being raised about the owner of the repair shop and the weird metadata on the pics, which suggests they might well have been altered.
It’s two emails from an “adviser” to the Burisma board that drives the supposedly revelatory article. Both were purportedly sent from Vadim Pozharskyi. Their authenticity seems dubious, at best. One isn’t even an email but a screenshot of an email.
Here’s what’s in them. The 2014 email allegedly says Burisma is facing extortion from the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs. It asks Hunter if he can use his “inﬂuence to convey a message / signal, etc .to stop what we consider to be politically motivated action.” But there’s no evidence that Biden ever did anything in response or even got the email if it’s authentic.
In the other email, sent in 2015, Pozharskyi thanks Hunter for inviting him to Washington, D.C, and allowing him to meet his father. Yet, there’s no mention of anything discussed in the meeting with the Veep, not even where it took place or how long it lasted. It can even be read as his request for a future meeting with the elder Biden. The Democratic nominee set himself up for scrutiny when he claimed that he has “never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings.” But this letter fragment doesn’t contradict that, and the Biden campaign says the meeting never happened.
Notably, these allegations came to light through Giuliani, although they could have begun in Moscow. According to the Post, the computer repair shop owner told the Department of Justice about the hard drive in September, after which the FBI subpoenaed it. However, before turning it over to the Bureau, he made a copy and delivered it to Giuliani’s attorney, Robert Costello. Not typical behavior when you’re under subpoena.
It’s also worth noting that Steve Bannon, the former adviser to President Trump, told the Post about the existence of the hard drive in late September, and Giuliani provided the Post with a copy of it on Sunday.
Finally, it’s interesting that the New York Post runs this story rather than the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, or Washington Post. Either Giuliani didn’t believe the major newspapers would run it and never shopped it to them, or he did peddle it to them but failed to pique their interest. Either way, the Washington Post and Times have come back with strong stories questioning the whole thing’s authenticity.
There’s a profound irony here. By getting the president obsessed with Hunter Biden’s work in Ukraine, Giuliani arguably started a chain of events that began with his bumbling investigation of Hunter Biden, which led to Trump’s pressure on Ukraine, which led to Trump’s impeachment. Now Giuliani surely hopes this last-second effort to stop Biden’s march to victory will help. The Murdoch mouthpiece will milk this for all it’s worth, but it’s not worth much.


washingtonmonthly--2020-10-12--Exclusive: Trump’s Tax Wizardry Is Even More Sophisticated Than You Thought

Millions of Americans believe that Donald Trump is a business failure who cheats on his taxes .
But to borrow one of his favorite insults , the president may not be “ the stone-cold loser , ” many imagine .
In some ways , he ’ s a success even considering his businesses generate vast losses , and he personally liable for the hundreds of millions of dollars in bank loans and junk bonds borrowed by those businesses .
Instead , think of Trump as practicing an extreme alchemy of the shameless rich : He uses loans from other people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as a tax shelter from millions in annual income .
How he does it is the fascinating and , perhaps , illegal part .
As reported by the New York Times , Trump ’ s tax returns provide a snapshot of decades of gaming the system .
In 2017 , Trump reported personal income of $ 14,770,496 from his branding deals , money-making investments , income tied to his reality TV show , and the first wave of revenues from favor seekers joining Mar-A-Lago and taking suites at his hotels .
( This @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) His Limited Liability Companies ( LLCs ) reported a net loss of $ 15,313,785 on gross revenues of $ 536.6 million .
That left Trump with no personal income tax liability on nearly $ 14.8 million in income .
He ended up paying his now widely derided $ 750 tax bill under a watered-down alternative minimum tax ( AMT ) .
Perhaps he felt that was too much .
The tax changes that Congress passed and he gleefully signed in December 2017 virtually abolished the personal AMT .
But Trump adds some @ @ @ @ @ @ @ strategy of mega-millionaires .
To start , he doesn ’ t put his own money in the businesses generating the losses .
He raises the capital instead from banks and investors .
In this period , Trump also doesn ’ t offer them any equity in the businesses .
Instead , his financing comes from debt — bank loans to an LLC he created , and junk bonds issued by that LLC .
Now , banks won ’ t lend large amounts of money to an LLC owned by someone with a history @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is willing to put considerable personal assets “ at risk , ” in addition to the collateral of the property itself .
That ’ s fine with Trump because the IRS Code dictates that he can claim the LLC ’ s tax losses against his own personal income only if he is personally liable .
It all boils down to this : By borrowing all the money and making himself personally liable for those loans , he ends up saving millions of dollars in taxes by losing other people ’ s money .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ operated in Atlantic City for decades as a casino magnate .
He bought and built three casino hotels and kept them afloat using multiple rounds of bank loans ( for which he was personally liable ) and multiple issues of junk bonds .
For the distinctive Trump touch , when he issued $ 100 million in junk bonds for the Trump Plaza casino in 1993 , he diverted half of it to cover his personal debts .
Desperate to stave off the casino hotel ’ s bankruptcy two years later , he created @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Casino Resorts .
This new company sold $ 140 million in public stock and issued $ 155 million in junk bonds ( at 15.5 percent interest ) .
Once again , he diverted part of the proceeds to pay down huge personal debts .
Based on his record , it ’ s likely that Trump ’ s current money-losing LLCs will go into bankruptcy when their loans come due in 2024 , which will be during his second term should he be reelected .
The junk bondholders will lose everything .
Trump will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and pay them a fraction of what he owes them , repeating what he did in Atlantic City .
Four years from now , the tax losses he claims will be worth more than what he pays his lenders .
In Atlantic City , this was a debacle for his lenders .
Trump the wizard claimed $ 916 million in tax losses based on $ 3.4 billion in debts owed to the junk bondholders and banks that put up the money .
That generated an estimated $ 341 million in tax savings for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) on top of the many millions of dollars he took out as management fees or diverted for his personal debts .
Trump ’ s current scheme appears to be planned carefully in other ways .
In this rerun , he has used the junk bonds and bank loans mainly to buy golf clubs and hotels .
Golf courses and hotels fit the bill for his scheme because , in addition to all of the expenses or costs that typical businesses generate , they also enjoy many forms of special tax treatment : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their core physical assets – everything but the foundations , walls , roof , windows and doors of the buildings – can be deducted or “ depreciated ” over shortened periods .
Golf clubs , hotels , and similar businesses also receive a special tax credit to cover the payroll taxes they pay for any portion of the wages of waiters , busboys , bartenders , and maids that can be attributed to tips .
Along with some other types of businesses , Trump ’ s LLCs can also claim a $ 9,600 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is a veteran or from certain low-wage groups such as food stamp recipients , the long-term unemployed , and ex-felons of the non-Michael Cohen variety .
And even all of those tax breaks aren ’ t enough for Trump and his congressional allies : They slipped a special provision into the 2017 Trump tax act providing “ bonus depreciation ” that allows his real estate ventures to deduct 100 percent of the cost of any new physical asset the very same year it is purchased , apart again from a building ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and doors .
Trump likes to play golf , and his LLCs currently own 15 18-hole golf courses .
But since his strategy is to make money by losing other people ’ s money , it helps that golf courses and their club facilities are notorious money losers .
Since at least 2006 , many more golf courses have closed than opened up ; and in 2018 , the equivalent of 198 18-hole golf courses closed while just 12.5 new 18-hole courses opened .
Another golf-industry analysis found that the average annual @ @ @ @ @ @ @ only $ 72,500 .
That includes the handful of highly successful brands such as Augusta and Pebble Beach .
And Trump bought most of his golf clubs only after he had exhausted the $ 916 million in tax losses from the serial bankruptcies of the casino hotels he purchased and built with other people ’ s money .
Sure , it is perfectly legal to be an at-risk “ owner ” of 15 golf courses that lose money .
( Tax courts , though , routinely disallow losses from investments undertaken solely to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ clubs and hotels are also highly susceptible to conventional forms of tax fraud .
Their operations involve millions of relatively small transactions that provide cheaters opportunities to underreport revenues and inflate costs .
Trump did this when two of his LLC properties paid his daughter Ivanka $ 747,622 for independent consulting fees while she worked as a full-time salaried employee of the Trump Organization .
Big money-losing businesses usually go belly up , and Trump naturally has an unsavory endgame .
When his Atlantic City empire ended in bankruptcies , Trump was personally @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the casino-hotel LLCs ’ $ 3.4 billion debt .
He haggled with his creditors for years as the three LLCs came out and went back into legal bankruptcy .
In the process , he managed to generate $ 160 million in personal management and other fees from the moribund properties .
In the end , he negotiated a 50-percent cut in his personal liability , which he settled by selling other properties , including the Plaza Hotel , the Trump shuttle , his yacht , and his private jet .
Then he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in tax losses that he used to offset his income for another 15 years .
This time , Trump is personally at-risk for $ 410 million in debts owed by his LLCs .
All of it is interest-only debt with the full principal coming due in 2024 .
( Again , just what you would want from a nearly 80-year-old president ending his second term : A giant balloon payment to unknown lenders . )
Since those LLCs lose millions of dollars every year , Trump inevitably will have to put most or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bankruptcy .
If he is serving a second term as president in 2024 , no one can doubt that he will use his presidential leverage to cut the sweetest of sweetheart deals , probably involving massive loan forgiveness .
( Trump is so used to the idea of shortchanging his lenders that he suggested give holders of U.S. debt a haircut when he was running for office in 2016 .
He was talked out of it when told it could lead to a worldwide financial collapse if 200 years of “ full , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ came crashing down . )
If Trump ’ s presidency ends in January 2021 , the required repayment may be greater .
Creditors usually can not seize a person ’ s primary residence for such debts , so Trump will keep Mar-A-Lago and perhaps have to turn over the Trump Tower triplex penthouse .
Whether or not Donald Trump is president when the bills come due in 2024 , he may still walk away with up to $ 150 million in tax savings to use over the next decade .
So , whatever @ @ @ @ @ @ @ business acumen , he has a singular knack for making money while losing other people ’ s money .

Millions of Americans believe that Donald Trump is a business failure who cheats on his taxes. But to borrow one of his favorite insults, the president may not be “the stone-cold loser,” many imagine. In some ways, he’s a success even considering his businesses generate vast losses, and he personally liable for the hundreds of millions of dollars in bank loans and junk bonds borrowed by those businesses. Instead, think of Trump as practicing an extreme alchemy of the shameless rich: He uses loans from other people to generate millions in annual tax losses as a tax shelter from millions in annual income.
How he does it is the fascinating and, perhaps, illegal part.
As reported by the New York Times, Trump’s tax returns provide a snapshot of decades of gaming the system. In 2017, Trump reported personal income of $14,770,496 from his branding deals, money-making investments, income tied to his reality TV show, and the first wave of revenues from favor seekers joining Mar-A-Lago and taking suites at his hotels. (This is while he’s president.) His Limited Liability Companies (LLCs) reported a net loss of $15,313,785 on gross revenues of $536.6 million. That left Trump with no personal income tax liability on nearly $14.8 million in income. He ended up paying his now widely derided $750 tax bill under a watered-down alternative minimum tax (AMT). Perhaps he felt that was too much. The tax changes that Congress passed and he gleefully signed in December 2017 virtually abolished the personal AMT.
But Trump adds some sleazy touches to the standard come-up-with-losses tax strategy of mega-millionaires. To start, he doesn’t put his own money in the businesses generating the losses. He raises the capital instead from banks and investors. In this period, Trump also doesn’t offer them any equity in the businesses. Instead, his financing comes from debt — bank loans to an LLC he created, and junk bonds issued by that LLC. Now, banks won’t lend large amounts of money to an LLC owned by someone with a history of serial bankruptcies, unless that person is willing to put considerable personal assets “at risk,” in addition to the collateral of the property itself. That’s fine with Trump because the IRS Code dictates that he can claim the LLC’s tax losses against his own personal income only if he is personally liable. It all boils down to this: By borrowing all the money and making himself personally liable for those loans, he ends up saving millions of dollars in taxes by losing other people’s money.
Trump’s strategy echoes how he operated in Atlantic City for decades as a casino magnate. He bought and built three casino hotels and kept them afloat using multiple rounds of bank loans (for which he was personally liable) and multiple issues of junk bonds. For the distinctive Trump touch, when he issued $100 million in junk bonds for the Trump Plaza casino in 1993, he diverted half of it to cover his personal debts. Desperate to stave off the casino hotel’s bankruptcy two years later, he created a new company, Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts. This new company sold $140 million in public stock and issued $155 million in junk bonds (at 15.5 percent interest). Once again, he diverted part of the proceeds to pay down huge personal debts.
Based on his record, it’s likely that Trump’s current money-losing LLCs will go into bankruptcy when their loans come due in 2024, which will be during his second term should he be reelected. The junk bondholders will lose everything. Trump will turn over the banks’ failed properties and pay them a fraction of what he owes them, repeating what he did in Atlantic City. Four years from now, the tax losses he claims will be worth more than what he pays his lenders. In Atlantic City, this was a debacle for his lenders. Trump the wizard claimed $916 million in tax losses based on $3.4 billion in debts owed to the junk bondholders and banks that put up the money. That generated an estimated $341 million in tax savings for himself (based on prevailing tax rates) on top of the many millions of dollars he took out as management fees or diverted for his personal debts.
Trump’s current scheme appears to be planned carefully in other ways. In this rerun, he has used the junk bonds and bank loans mainly to buy golf clubs and hotels. Golf courses and hotels fit the bill for his scheme because, in addition to all of the expenses or costs that typical businesses generate, they also enjoy many forms of special tax treatment: The value or cost of many of their core physical assets – everything but the foundations, walls, roof, windows and doors of the buildings – can be deducted or “depreciated” over shortened periods. Golf clubs, hotels, and similar businesses also receive a special tax credit to cover the payroll taxes they pay for any portion of the wages of waiters, busboys, bartenders, and maids that can be attributed to tips. Along with some other types of businesses, Trump’s LLCs can also claim a $9,600 tax credit for any new employee who is a veteran or from certain low-wage groups such as food stamp recipients, the long-term unemployed, and ex-felons of the non-Michael Cohen variety.
And even all of those tax breaks aren’t enough for Trump and his congressional allies: They slipped a special provision into the 2017 Trump tax act providing “bonus depreciation” that allows his real estate ventures to deduct 100 percent of the cost of any new physical asset the very same year it is purchased, apart again from a building’s foundation, walls, roof, windows, and doors.
Trump likes to play golf, and his LLCs currently own 15 18-hole golf courses. But since his strategy is to make money by losing other people’s money, it helps that golf courses and their club facilities are notorious money losers. Since at least 2006, many more golf courses have closed than opened up; and in 2018, the equivalent of 198 18-hole golf courses closed while just 12.5 new 18-hole courses opened. Another golf-industry analysis found that the average annual net income of private 18-hole courses was only $72,500. That includes the handful of highly successful brands such as Augusta and Pebble Beach. And Trump bought most of his golf clubs only after he had exhausted the $916 million in tax losses from the serial bankruptcies of the casino hotels he purchased and built with other people’s money.
Sure, it is perfectly legal to be an at-risk “owner” of 15 golf courses that lose money. (Tax courts, though, routinely disallow losses from investments undertaken solely to generate those losses.) But golf clubs and hotels are also highly susceptible to conventional forms of tax fraud. Their operations involve millions of relatively small transactions that provide cheaters opportunities to underreport revenues and inflate costs. Trump did this when two of his LLC properties paid his daughter Ivanka $747,622 for independent consulting fees while she worked as a full-time salaried employee of the Trump Organization.
Big money-losing businesses usually go belly up, and Trump naturally has an unsavory endgame. When his Atlantic City empire ended in bankruptcies, Trump was personally at-risk and liable for $830 million of the casino-hotel LLCs’ $3.4 billion debt. He haggled with his creditors for years as the three LLCs came out and went back into legal bankruptcy. In the process, he managed to generate $160 million in personal management and other fees from the moribund properties. In the end, he negotiated a 50-percent cut in his personal liability, which he settled by selling other properties, including the Plaza Hotel, the Trump shuttle, his yacht, and his private jet. Then he walked away with his $913 million in tax losses that he used to offset his income for another 15 years.
This time, Trump is personally at-risk for $410 million in debts owed by his LLCs. All of it is interest-only debt with the full principal coming due in 2024. (Again, just what you would want from a nearly 80-year-old president ending his second term: A giant balloon payment to unknown lenders.) Since those LLCs lose millions of dollars every year, Trump inevitably will have to put most or all of his golf clubs into legal bankruptcy.
If he is serving a second term as president in 2024, no one can doubt that he will use his presidential leverage to cut the sweetest of sweetheart deals, probably involving massive loan forgiveness. (Trump is so used to the idea of shortchanging his lenders that he suggested give holders of U.S. debt a haircut when he was running for office in 2016. He was talked out of it when told it could lead to a worldwide financial collapse if 200 years of “full, faith and credit” of Americas debt came crashing down.) If Trump’s presidency ends in January 2021, the required repayment may be greater. Creditors usually cannot seize a person’s primary residence for such debts, so Trump will keep Mar-A-Lago and perhaps have to turn over the Trump Tower triplex penthouse.
Whether or not Donald Trump is president when the bills come due in 2024, he may still walk away with up to $150 million in tax savings to use over the next decade. So, whatever the verdict is on Trump’s business acumen, he has a singular knack for making money while losing other people’s money.


washingtonmonthly--2020-10-16--Like Lincoln at Gettysburg, Biden Promotes Unity in His Closing Argument

Joe Biden is running on a more progressive platform than any Democratic presidential nominee in modern history .
His proposals include major investments in healthcare , climate change , housing , education , and infrastructure .
For example , Biden would invest $ 1.7 trillion over the next ten years to achieve a 100 percent clean energy economy with net-zero emissions by 2050 .
The former vice president demonstrated his detailed knowledge of policy at the ABC News town hall forum .
But his final statement on Thursday night was about optimism .
Last week , Biden delivered his own @ @ @ @ @ @ @ delivered near the sacred Pennsylvania battlefield was prompted by the first debate where Trump told white supremacists to “ stand down and stand by.
” At Gettysburg , Biden challenged such division and laid out his closing argument , drawing on Lincoln ’ s address more than 150 years ago .
There ’ s no more fitting place than here today in Gettysburg , to talk about the cost of division ... .
[ Abraham Lincoln ] believed in the rescue , redemption , and rededication of the union .
All this in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ division , but of widespread death , structural inequity , and fear of the future .
And he taught us this : a house divided could not stand .
That is a great and timeless truth .
Today , once again , we are a house divided , but that my friends can no longer be .
Biden explained that the battle for the soul of this nation means , once again , defeating the forces of division that pull us apart and hold us back .
He promised to be a president @ @ @ @ @ @ @ us , not the worst.
” That message was punctuated by the release of this ad airing nationally .
To policy wonks and political junkies , that can sound saccharine .
But I am reminded of what Mark Turnbull , managing director of Cambridge Analytica , said about the battleground on which elections are fought .
He noted that the big mistake political parties make is to attempt to win an argument with facts rather than a direct appeal to voters ’ hopes and fears .
Of course , the specialty of Cambridge @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Bannon worked with leading up to the 2016 election , was to exploit our fears .
That is what Republicans have been doing for several election cycles .
Tapping into fear engaged enough of Trump ’ s GOP base to eke out an electoral college victory in 2016 .
But Americans are exhausted after four years of lies , bullying , and fear-mongering .
The majority of voters are disgusted by the president ’ s antics , which is why Biden ’ s lead has been growing .
Some progressives suggest that Biden @ @ @ @ @ @ @ left in search of support from moderates .
They would have a point if Biden were abandoning his progressive policies .
But he ’ s not .
As he said in response to the president calling him a “ radical , ” Trump is “ trying to run against somebody other than me .
I ’ ve said to the left , the right , and the center exactly where I am on each of these issues.
” The policies Biden has put forward stand .
But his closing argument is designed to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , as Abraham Lincoln did , in the kind of leadership that calls out “ the better angels of our nature.
” It is a message of hope about what is possible if , as Biden said at Gettysburg , “ we do our part , if we stand together , if we keep faith with the past and with each other .
”

Joe Biden is running on a more progressive platform than any Democratic presidential nominee in modern history. His proposals include major investments in healthcare, climate change, housing, education, and infrastructure. For example, Biden would invest $1.7 trillion over the next ten years to achieve a 100 percent clean energy economy with net-zero emissions by 2050.
The former vice president demonstrated his detailed knowledge of policy at the ABC News town hall forum. But his final statement on Thursday night was about optimism.
Last week, Biden delivered his own Gettysburg Address. Aides say the speech delivered near the sacred Pennsylvania battlefield was prompted by the first debate where Trump told white supremacists to “stand down and stand by.” At Gettysburg, Biden challenged such division and laid out his closing argument, drawing on Lincoln’s address more than 150 years ago.
There’s no more fitting place than here today in Gettysburg, to talk about the cost of division.... [Abraham Lincoln] believed in the rescue, redemption, and rededication of the union. All this in a time, not just of ferocious division, but of widespread death, structural inequity, and fear of the future. And he taught us this: a house divided could not stand. That is a great and timeless truth. Today, once again, we are a house divided, but that my friends can no longer be.
Biden explained that the battle for the soul of this nation means, once again, defeating the forces of division that pull us apart and hold us back. He promised to be a president who “appeals to the best in us, not the worst.”
That message was punctuated by the release of this ad airing nationally.
To policy wonks and political junkies, that can sound saccharine. But I am reminded of what Mark Turnbull, managing director of Cambridge Analytica, said about the battleground on which elections are fought. He noted that the big mistake political parties make is to attempt to win an argument with facts rather than a direct appeal to voters’ hopes and fears.
Of course, the specialty of Cambridge Analytica, the consulting firm that Steve Bannon worked with leading up to the 2016 election, was to exploit our fears. That is what Republicans have been doing for several election cycles. Tapping into fear engaged enough of Trump’s GOP base to eke out an electoral college victory in 2016.
But Americans are exhausted after four years of lies, bullying, and fear-mongering. The majority of voters are disgusted by the president’s antics, which is why Biden’s lead has been growing.
Some progressives suggest that Biden is abandoning his party’s far left in search of support from moderates. They would have a point if Biden were abandoning his progressive policies. But he’s not. As he said in response to the president calling him a “radical,” Trump is “trying to run against somebody other than me. I’ve said to the left, the right, and the center exactly where I am on each of these issues.”
The policies Biden has put forward stand. But his closing argument is designed to forge a coalition of citizens who believe, as Abraham Lincoln did, in the kind of leadership that calls out “the better angels of our nature.” It is a message of hope about what is possible if, as Biden said at Gettysburg, “we do our part, if we stand together, if we keep faith with the past and with each other.”