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aidenborst

Trump's 'pro-law enforcement' image crumbles in his final days - CNNPolitics - 0 views

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Politics US Trump crisis Culture policy gop riot attack violence self-image

shared by aidenborst on 16 Jan 21 - No Cached
  • A President who has repeatedly touted himself as pro-law enforcement is now being accused of fueling a growing threat of extremists that has law enforcement officials across the nation on high alert.
  • As the presidency of Donald Trump draws to an end, the recent Trump-inspired attacks on law enforcement officers, his refusal to take the steps necessary to defuse violent elements of his base and the President's years-long assault on agencies such as the FBI and Justice Department, are all casting serious doubt on the sincerity of his self-described support for those who wear the badge.
  • Among the five people who died in the attack was a US Capitol Police officer who had been attempting to defend the building. Eyewitness video from the insurgence shows numerous rioters assaulting law enforcement officers, including gruesome images of a Metropolitan Police Department officer being crushed in a doorway as he screamed in agony.
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  • The President later released a stronger video denouncing the incident, but sources told CNN that Trump later appeared to regret making the video.
  • Although Trump has enjoyed widespread support from police unions in the run up to the 2020 election, even law enforcement organizations that endorsed him for reelection -- such as the powerful Fraternal Order of Police -- were appalled at the Trump-fueled January 6 attack on the Capitol.
  • In a strongly worded statement imploring the President to speak out against the Capitol violence, the group said, "the images coming in from the United State Capitol Building today are heartbreaking to every American. We call on President Trump to forcefully urge these demonstrators to stop their unlawful activity, to stand down, and to disperse."
  • While addressing a group of police officers early in his presidency, Trump encouraged those in attendance to be "rough" with suspects.
  • "When you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon. You see them thrown in rough," Trump said, adding, "Please don't be too nice."
  • The Gainesville, Florida, police department said Trump had "no business endorsing or condoning cops being rough with arrestees and suggesting that we should slam their heads onto the car while putting them in." The department added that Trump's remarks "set modern policing back and erased a lot of the strides we have made to build trust in our community."
  • Trump's caustic comments about the investigators working to uncover Russian influence stood at odds with his attempted "pro-law enforcement" image, as did comments made by the President's attorney, Rudy Giuliani, when he compared career FBI agents to murderous Nazis.
  • With less than a week remaining as president, Trump's ceaseless false claims of mass voter fraud continue to threaten and make life more difficult for law enforcement in America.
  • As the nation prepares to inaugurate Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States, federal law enforcement agencies have transformed the nation's capital into a veritable fortress -- fearful that pro-Trump supporters could stage an attack along the lines of the Trump-inspired violent insurgence at the US Capitol on January 6.
katherineharron

Something *very* important for our politics happened on Tuesday - CNNPolitics - 0 views

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maryland

shared by katherineharron on 13 Jan 21 - No Cached
  • While the eyes of the world were focused on the impeachment efforts against President Donald Trump in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, Gov. Larry Hogan of neighboring Maryland did something extremely important in beginning the long process of unwinding our current political polarization.
  • The Republican governor announced that via executive order he had created an independent commission he will task with redrawing the state's congressional and legislative lines following the decennial reapportionment later this year.
  • "This commission is the first of its kind in the long history of our state," Hogan said in making the announcement. "Unlike the partisan, backdoor manner in which our state's political power brokers have conducted the state's redistricting process, we want to make sure that this time the people of Maryland are actually the ones drawing these lines—not the politicians or the party bosses."
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  • Only the most ardent political junkies closely follow the re-shuffling and re-drawing of legislative and congressional districts that follow the decennial census. (Guilty, your honor!)
  • In fact, like many things that the general public either knows nothing about or has a decided lack of interest in, how these lines are drawn and by whom has an outsized impact on the sort of government we have -- and what the motivations of our elected officials are.
  • For decades, the line-drawing process has fallen, in most states, to state legislators and governors. What that has meant, in the main, is that when Democrats control the state capitol and, therefore, the line-drawing process, they create districts that are as favorable as possible for their side.
  • The strategy of both sides has been simple: Pack as many of the opposition party's voters into as few districts in the state as possible while spreading out their own voters to make as many districts winnable for their side as they can. Innovations in redistricting software have made this slicing and dicing of people based on their party registration or past voting history an art form -- allowing the line-drawers to literally go street by street when it comes to crafting new districts.
  • The state's congressional districts have regularly changed hands between the parties, with Republicans winning two previously-held Democratic seats in the 2020 election. And generally speaking, three of the four districts in the state -- the exception being the Republican-friendly 4th in western Iowa -- are extremely competitive every two years. Check out the winning percentages for four incoming members of Congress in the state: 62%, 49%, 50% and 51.3%. In the state's 2nd District, the Republican candidate leads the Democrat candidate by six -- SIX! -- votes.
  • The vast majority of members of Congress, on both sides of the aisle, represent what we would call "safe" districts -- meaning that their only chance of losing their job would be in a primary, not a general election.
  • In 1956, for example, less than 6 in 10 House incumbents won with 60% of the vote or more, according to Vital Statistics on Congress. By 2002, the first election after the 2001 nationwide redistricting, 85% of all House incumbents seeking reelection won with 60% or higher. In 2014 and 2016, that number hovered in the mid-to-high 70s before dipping to just 63% in the tumultuous 2018 midterm election.
  • The practical, political effect of this trend is simple: Members of Congress have little reason to demonstrate their ability to work across the partisan aisle and every reason to be as partisan and ideological as possible in hopes of staving off any sort of primary challenge.
  • Independent or bipartisan commissions to redraw the maps in states -- as Hogan is trying to do in Maryland -- work to reorient the incentive structure for members by creating districts that are far more competitive between the two parties in general elections.
  • Maps drawn over the past two decades -- by Democrats and Republicans -- in places like North Carolina, Texas and yes, Maryland -- have come under legal scrutiny for using political considerations as the sole motivator in creating legislative and congressional districts. Maps in which one party overreached have, occasionally, led to unpredictable results in which the party in power loses seats they expected to win because they tried to divide up their own voters among too many districts.
  • While bipartisan -- and independent -- line-drawing commissions are on the rise in recent years, the majority of states in the country still rely on politicians to draw lines.
katherineharron

In the Republican Party, the post-Trump era lasted a week - CNNPolitics - 0 views

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trump

shared by katherineharron on 28 Jan 21 - No Cached
  • Two roads diverged in American politics, and the Republican Party chose the one traveled by disgraced ex-President Donald Trump and QAnon conspiracy theorists.
  • Only a week after Trump left the White House, it's clear that his party is not ready to let him go. Extremists and Trumpists are on the rise, while lawmakers who condemned his aberrant conduct fight for their political careers. The anti-Trump wing -- represented by members of Congress such as Sens. Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Mitt Romney of Utah and Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger -- look like a small and outmaneuvered force.
  • This week's sorting will have significant implications for the GOP's positioning as it heads into the 2022 midterm elections,
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • A jazzed turnout by the pro-Trump base is vital to GOP hopes of winning the House in the 2022 midterms. But there is also a chance that a flurry of fervently pro-Trump Senate candidates in swing states could damage the party's hopes of overturning the thin Democratic majority in the chamber.
  • In a key impeachment test vote this week, 45 GOP senators signaled that they plan for Trump to pay no price for inciting the most heinous assault by a president on the US government in history in the Capitol riot.
  • In another sign of the GOP's future course, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was not censured by her party after CNN's KFile reported that she expressed supporting in recent years assassinations of Democratic leaders before she ran for Congress.
  • Greene, was rewarded with a plum committee assignment.
  • Remnants of the old GOP -- such as former George W. Bush aide Rob Portman -- who are unwilling to sign up to the unhinged populism that now drives the party of Lincoln have nowhere to go. The Ohio senator announced this week that he will not run for reelection.
  • But in Arkansas, former White House press secretary Sarah Sanders is wearing her wars with the Washington media in her dishonest tenure as a badge of honor to appeal to the fervidly pro-Trump base in a gubernatorial run.
  • And in Arizona, Oregon and Pennsylvania, anti-Trump Republicans such as Cindy McCain are being purged while Trump loyalists take prominent positions
  • Former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who is now a CNN commentator, said on "The Situation Room" that the GOP needed to move swiftly against Greene and compared the failure of leaders to honor its values with the courage shown by detained Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny.
  • The warning cited the presidential transition "as well as other perceived grievances fueled by false narratives" as potential catalysts for uprisings. Those narratives were pushed for weeks by Trump and his Republican enablers in Washington and still find a home in sections of the conservative media.
  • The former President has long enjoyed elevated approval ratings in his party that have protected him from the consequences of his unconstitutional power grabs and failures among Republicans leaders he bullied for years.
  • Still, a CNN/SSRS poll published just before he left office, found however that 48% of Republicans wanted to move on from Trump while 47% hoped that he would continue to be regarded as the leader of the party.
  • Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, whose presidential dreams were crushed by the former reality star in 2016, was long seen as the poster boy for a new, more optimistic and inclusive GOP. A career trajectory that now has him standing strongly with Trump and branding impeachment as all about "vengeance from the radical left" is an apt personification of the transformation Trump wrought in the party. It may also have something to do with chatter about a possible primary challenge from Ivanka Trump.
  • Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was among the most distraught Republicans over the attack on his beloved US Senate incited by Trump in his effort to thwart the constitutional transfer of power to Biden.
  • Another key Republican figure, former US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, who expertly engineered her exit from Trump's administration with the ex-President's blessing, has walked back her tame earlier criticism of Trump after the insurrection.
katherineharron

Donald Trump's Minnesota pipe dream - CNNPolitics - 0 views

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shared by katherineharron on 22 Oct 19 - No Cached
  • In the wake of a recent "Keep America Great" rally in Minneapolis, President Donald Trump tweeted this: "We are going to fight with all of our heart and soul and we are going to win the great state of Minnesota in 2020." But probably not actually, at least according to a new poll conducted for the Minneapolis Star Tribune and released Monday. In it, Trump trails both former Vice President Joe Biden and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren by double-digits in the state while Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders holds a 49% to 40% edge over the incumbent.
  • Those wide margins are a far cry from Trump's near-miss in Minnesota in 2016 when he lost by 44,000 votes out of more than 2.6 million cast -- one of the closest margins in the country.
  • To be clear: Trump doesn't need to win Minnesota to get reelected. He didn't win the state in 2016 and won the Electoral College relatively easily.
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  • The bigger issue here for Trump is whether his numbers in Minnesota are indicative of a broader weakness across the industrial Midwest -- Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin -- where he won the 2016 election. Trump's job approval numbers in these states has been consistent with the numbers in the Star Tribune poll for at least the last year. If that trend continues, his path to a second term narrows significantly.
katherineharron

This week was a turning point for Republicans on Trump - CNNPolitics - 0 views

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trump

shared by katherineharron on 20 Oct 19 - No Cached
  • But it was Vice President Mike Pence, along with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who went to Ankara to negotiate a ceasefire. "The President didn't go. He sent Pence in his place," says CNN White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins, who traveled with the vice president on Thursday. "It was just interesting watching Pence be in that room for so many hours negotiating."
  • As Collins flew back to Washington with Pence's team, they were already getting feedback from the US criticizing the deal, as well as some reports of ceasefire violations.
  • "The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments about President Trump's decision to end DACA," Shear says. That case, heard on November 12, will focus on whether the Trump administration will be allowed to phase out a program that provides protections for nearly 700,000 so-called Dreamers.
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  • Washington Post Congressional Reporter Karoun Demirjian says that election could have an impact on a critical trade deal, the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Neither Canada nor the US have ratified the USMCA.
  • Barrón-López reports that LULAC is "trying to register tends of thousands of Latinos ahead of the Iowa Democratic caucuses, hoping that the group could have some sway" in who ultimately carries the state in the Democratic presidential contest.
  • But McConnell did tell Senate Republicans in their weekly meeting that they needed to prepare for an impeachment trial. The GOP cracks when it comes to impeachment are very limited, but still worth tracking.Republican Rep. Francis Rooney of Florida this past week told CNN, "I don't think you can rule anything out until you know all the facts." Rooney also decided this past week not to seek reelection, which could him more of a wild card in the weeks ahead.Former GOP Gov. John Kasich of Ohio said he would vote yes on impeachment if he were in the House. Kasich was in the House back when President Bill Clinton was impeached. Kasich, though, is a constant Trump critic, so reading too much into his tough criticism would be unwise. But, again, it is worth tracking any Republican dissent or wavering on the impeachment question.
katherineharron

US diplomat Bill Taylor directly ties Trump to Ukraine quid pro quo - CNNPolitics - 0 views

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trump

shared by katherineharron on 23 Oct 19 - No Cached
  • The top US diplomat in Ukraine, Bill Taylor, testified Tuesday that he had been told President Donald Trump would withhold military aid to the country until it publicly declared investigations would be launched that could help his reelection chances — including into former Vice President Joe Biden, according to a copy of Taylor's opening statement obtained by CNN.
  • Taylor's explosive testimony is likely to add fuel to Democrats' impeachment inquiry into Trump and Ukraine, with Democratic lawmakers leaving the closed door session before three House committees declaring Taylor's testimony was damning for the President. The testimony also undercuts White House assertions that there was no "quid pro quo" tying security assistance with the opening of an investigation, as Taylor says he was told repeatedly that the two were linked.
  • Taylor testified that US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland told him he'd made a mistake by telling the Ukrainian officials that a White House meeting with Zelensky "was dependent on a public announcement of the investigations."
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  • Text messages between Taylor and Sondland and provided to Congress show that the two discussed the aid being frozen on the phone, amid concerns Taylor had raised that it was being held up in order to help Trump politically.
  • "I argued to both that the explanation made no sense: the Ukrainians did not 'owe' President Trump anything, and holding up security assistance for domestic political gain was 'crazy,' as I had said in my text message to Ambassadors Sondland and Volker on September 9," Taylor added.
  • Asked about Taylor's comments that Sondland had told him the aid was tied to an investigation, a source familiar with Sondland's testimony said that Sondland cited multiple reasons the security aid was frozen, including because the Europeans weren't giving Ukraine enough and corruption in general. The source said Sondland was only speculating when he referenced the political investigations into the 2016 election and Burisma.
  • Taylor says he was told by a National Security Council official that Trump told Sondland he had insisted Zelensky "go to a microphone and say he is opening investigations of Biden and 2016 interference."
  • Taylor, who testified before the three House committees leading the Democratic impeachment inquiry, planned to lay out the reasoning behind his different WhatsApp text messages in his opening statement Tuesday, the source said. Taylor planned to include a chronology of events, according to the source, dating back to June, when Taylor assumed his post, through October.
  • "I think Gordon Sondland may very well have to come back. He's got some explaining to do," said Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia.
  • Taylor did not bring any new documents to the committee, and he planned to just reference those that have already been made public, the source said. Volker, who is no longer at the State Department, provided the texts to Congress. Other witnesses who have appeared, including Sondland, have been prevented by the State Department from providing documents.
  • Taylor, as the US chargé d'affaires in Ukraine, was in a difficult and delicate position testifying Tuesday, the source said. Taylor's view was that he is there to speak to committee and answer their questions, and he was not looking to issue his own statement publicly. His full opening statement did eventually become public.
  • After the meeting, Taylor texted back and forth with Volker, and among other things he asked why Volker would not want to take the job. Volker said he was better off in his current role -- covering Ukraine as well as Washington and allies and NATO. Taylor was on the ground in Ukraine, serving as de-facto ambassador, about a month later.
katherineharron

Canada elections: Justin Trudeau, Andrew Scheer and Jagmeet Singh in the 'election about nothing' - CNN - 0 views

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election

shared by katherineharron on 21 Oct 19 - No Cached
  • Canada votes in a general election on Monday, and the campaign rhetoric to this date has been toxic and "a desert from a public policy point of view," says veteran Canadian pollster Nik Nanos of Nanos Research. All that has undeniably turned off Canada's voters, and added another layer of complexity to one of the most unpredictable Canadian elections in recent history
  • The two top contenders are Liberal leader and incumbent Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Conservative leader Andrew Scheer. Through it all, they've been tangled in a virtual tie for the popular vote. Neither has a clear path to governing in Canada's parliamentary system. "If people were to describe the election, it would be 'Indecision 2019'," says Nanos.
  • Canada's election takes place in 338 ridings or seats across the country, and preliminary results should be announced around 8pm on election night. One hundred and seventy seats are needed to be able to form a majority government, and polls show neither Trudeau nor Scheer are anywhere near that threshold.
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  • Justin Trudeau could have never imagined this time last year that he'd be fighting for a political future. He has been humiliated and diminished by scandals in recent months, all of them unforced errors. In 2015, he managed to awaken the 'Trudeaumania' that brought his late father, former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau to power in the 1960s. But this time there's no mania, just moodiness -- even among those in his base.
  • In a humiliating act of contrition last month, Trudeau had to apologize not just for wearing blackface during a school event nearly 2 decades ago, but admitting he had no idea how many times he had chosen to do so in his life. It was an embarrassing look for his campaign, which has focused on digging up dirt opponents, and the revelations disappointed many voters and likely contributed to the Liberals losing ground in the last few weeks.
  • Conservative Party Leader Andrew Scheer has tried and failed to capitalize on the scandal and other criticisms of Trudeau. His campaign has fiercely and consistently attacked Trudeau, but the negative emphasis hasn't engaged voters the way Scheer had hoped. Nor has it made his policies more appealing -- he is fiscally and socially conservative, offering a no-nonsense, stable government with tax cuts and eventually, balanced budgets. Crucially, voters in Quebec and Ontario, Canada's two largest provinces, haven't warmed much to him or his policies.
  • The rest of the contenders wouldn't normally be very consequential. But this time around, as a minority government is the most likely outcome, the smaller parties and their leaders could be election day spoilers.
  • Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party, is trying to convince Canadians that she and her party are about much more than the environment. Support for them has been growing steadily -- even if they win only a few seats, the Green Party could have a strong voice in Canada's next parliament. And then there is Quebec. Always a singular, distinctive place where voters often surprise. This time is no different. In Quebec, Bloc party leader Yves-Francois Blancet, a Quebec separatist, is nearly tied with Trudeau and the Liberal party. Blancet has made short work of the both the Liberals and the Conservatives in this campaign. And his popularity in a vast province a pivotal reason why it's unlikely any party will win a majority of seats this time around.
katherineharron

Trump donor Stephen Schwarzman plans private fundraiser with Mitt Romney - CNNPolitics - 0 views

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election

shared by katherineharron on 22 Oct 19 - No Cached
  • Stephen Schwarzman, an informal adviser and donor to President Donald Trump, is hosting a fundraiser with Sen. Mitt Romney in support of several Republicans colleagues seeking reelection, according to two people with knowledge of the event.
  • Helping Romney bolster his standing in the party as he attempts to cement his position as a self-described "renegade Republican" during an impeachment inquiry is notable because of Schwarzman's support for Trump. Since the 2016 election, Schwarzman has donated a total of about $850,000 to Trump's inauguration and political action committees, based on records compiled by CNN and the Center for Responsive Politics.
  • Romney also took a shot at Trump's character in an interview with The Atlantic where he criticized Trump for "berating another person, or calling them names, or demeaning a class of people, not telling the truth."
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  • "That's simply not true. As I point out, the idea that any one senator, even me — even Mitch McConnell — is not going to convince other senators to reach a different conclusion than they would reach on their own," said Romney in the interview.
  • Schwarzman has also contributed to Romney's various political campaigns over the years. Since 1993, Schwarzman, along with his wife Christine, have contributed around $94,200 to Romney's federal campaigns or Romney linked groups, according to Center for Responsive Politics. Most recently, the couple each donated the maximum to Romney's Senate bid in 2018.
  • Schwarzman reportedly visited the White House this summer at Kushner's request, who convened a dinner to discuss his father-in-law's campaign fundraising strategy.
liamhudgings

Amid Accusations Of Fraud, Bolivia's President Claims First-Round Election Victory : NPR - 0 views

www.npr.org/...s-first-round-election-victory

politics Bolivia

shared by liamhudgings on 26 Oct 19 - No Cached
  • Bolivia's President Evo Morales looked set to win reelection without a runoff, declaring outright victory as he pushed back against critics who dispute the results, accusing them of trying to stage a coup.
  • s the counting has continued, Morales' lead has mounted.
  • That has led to accusations of fraud by his opponents and protests across the country, including riots in six of Bolivia's nine regions and the capital, La Paz, where police fired tear gas at demonstrators, according to The Associated Press.
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  • In a national television address on Wednesday, Morales lashed out at his opponents, declaring that "a coup d'etat is under way." "The right wing prepared the coup with international support," he said.
  • The leftist leader did not elaborate on where the international support was coming from, but he has frequently railed against what he says is U.S. imperialism.
  • The country's constitution limits the presidency to two terms, but Morales has won permission from the Constitutional Court to stay in office until 2025.
katherineharron

Amash: Republicans wish they weren't 'trapped' into defending Trump - CNNPolitics - 0 views

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shared by katherineharron on 22 Oct 19 - No Cached
  • Rep. Justin Amash said his Republican colleagues are caught in an untenable position trying to defend President Donald Trump as the controversy surrounding his dealings with Ukraine continues to grow.
  • "I think they know better and I think, deep down, they wish they weren't, you know, trapped in this position," Amash said on CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront."
  • He linked that dynamic to many of the recent retirements in Congress, describing them as "people who are just trying to ride out this President, and they might think of coming back into public office later on, once this President is gone."
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  • "Anyone working in this administration is going to have a hard time explaining what's going on," Amash told Burnett. "You're asking a lot from these officials to go out onstage and try to keep the story straight."
  • Republican Rep. Francis Rooney of Florida suggested on Friday that he could be open to impeaching Trump -- before announcing Saturday that he would not run for reelection.
Javier E

Opinion | The Real Reason Facebook Won't Fact-Check Political Ads - The New York Times - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...-zuckerberg-political-ads.html

social media media targeting ads facebook ethics political data

shared by Javier E on 03 Nov 19 - No Cached
  • Facebook’s decision to refrain from policing the claims of political ads is not unreasonable. But the company’s officers have been incompetent at explaining and defending this decision.
  • If Facebook’s leaders were willing to level with us, they would stop defending themselves by appealing to lofty values like free speech
  • They would focus instead on more practical realities: Facebook is incapable of vetting political ads effectively and consistently at the global scale. And political ads are essential to maintaining the company’s presence in countries around the world.
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  • The truth or falsity of most political ads is not so easy.
  • During Game 7 of the World Series on Wednesday, the Trump campaign ran a television ad claiming that he has created six million jobs and half a million manufacturing jobs. Is that statement true or false? Was there a net gain of 500,000 more manufacturing jobs in the United States since Jan. 20, 2017? Or is that a gross number, waiting to be reduced by some number of manufacturing jobs lost?
  • Is the ad’s use of the active voice, saying that President Trump is creating those jobs, honest? Is Mr. Trump directly responsible? Or did the momentum of the economic recovery since 2010 push manufacturers to add those positions? Should Facebook block the ad if one of seven claims is false? Vetting such claims takes time and effort, and might not be possible at all.
  • Facebook could also defend political ads by conceding that it must continue the practice to maintain its status and markets
  • Ad fact-checking can’t be done consistently in the United States. It definitely can’t be done at a global scale — 2.8 billion users of all Facebook-owned services posting in more than 100 languages
  • Given the task of policing for truth on Facebook, it’s unrealistic and simplistic to demand veracity from a system that is too big to govern.
  • Might Facebook ban political ads altogether, like Twitter has? Mr. Zuckerberg could concede that it’s not an easy task. What’s not political? If an ad calling for a carbon tax is political, is an ad promoting the reputation of an oil company political?
  • Those are the false positives we know of. We have no idea how many false negatives Facebook has let slip through.
  • imagine Facebook’s contracted fact checkers doing that sort of research and interrogation for millions of ads from 22 presidential candidates in the United States, from candidates for 35 Senate seats, 435 House of Representatives seats and thousands of state legislative races.
  • Over all, Facebook has no incentive to stop carrying political ads. Its revenue keeps growing despite a flurry of scandals and mistakes. So its leaders would lose little by being straight with the public about its limitations and motives. But they won’t. They will continue to defend their practices in disingenuous ways until we force them to change their ways.
  • We should know better than to demand of Facebook’s leaders that they do what is not in the best interests of the company. Instead, citizens around the world should demand effective legislation that can curb Facebook’s power.
  • The key is to limit data collection and the use of personal data to ferry ads and other content to discrete segments of Facebook users — the very core of the Facebook business model.
  • here’s something Congress could do: restrict the targeting of political ads in any medium to the level of the electoral district of the race. Tailoring messages for African-American voters, men or gun enthusiasts would still be legal, as this rule would not govern content. But people not in those groups would see those tailored messages as well and could learn more about their candidates.
  • Currently, two people in the same household can receive different ads from the same candidate running for state senate. That means a candidate can lie to one or both voters and they might never know about the other’s ads. This data-driven obscurity limits accountability and full deliberation.
  • A reason to be concerned about false claims in ads is that Facebook affords us so little opportunity to respond to ads not aimed at us personally. This proposal would limit that problem.
  • The overall regulatory goal should be to install friction into the system of targeted digital political ads
  • This process would not be easy, as political incumbents and powerful corporations that sell targeted ads (not just Facebook and Google, but also Verizon, AT&T, Comcast and The New York Times, for example) are invested in the status quo.
  • We can’t expect corporate leaders to do anything but lead their corporations. We can’t expect them to be honest with us, either. We must change their businesses for them so they stop undermining our democracies.
katherineharron

The impeachment stakes just keep getting higher (opinion) - CNN - 0 views

www.cnn.com/...index.html

shared by katherineharron on 16 Jan 20 - No Cached
  • The contrast could not be more jarring. On one side, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday launched the solemn process that will trigger the trial of President Donald Trump in the Senate, naming the managers who will lay out the case against him, just ahead of the House vote to formally approve the ceremonial delivery of the articles of impeachment. On the other side, solemnity and decorum could not have been more distant.
  • Pelosi, as she has done, sought to frame the matter as something higher than politics, about defending American democracy from those bent on undermining it. "This is about the Constitution of the United States," she said, pointedly adding, "It's important for the President to know and for Putin to know, that the American voter should decide who our president is."
  • Then there's another detail that destroys the President's defense. He has claimed that the entire Ukraine/Biden operation aimed to combat corruption. The fact that Trump has never cared about corruption anywhere but in Ukraine may not be enough proof for some.But the release confirms what witnesses in the impeachment hearings said: Giuliani and his associates, working to pursue Trump's Ukraine policy, were demanding an announcement of an investigation. There's no evidence that what they wanted was an actual investigation.One of the most intriguing and damning pieces are paper scraps handwritten by Parnas, according to his attorney. "Get Zalensky (sic) to announce that Biden case will be investigated" it starts, moving on to other parts of the plan; also, "Victoria/Joe retained; 100,000 -month." "Begin media campaign."
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  • As with other bombshells made public since the December 18 impeachment, this one offers overwhelming evidence of malfeasance. But unlike other recent revelations, this looks like a snapshot of the underworld, filled with profanity, intimidation and possibly worse. The conduct of Trump and his team is reminiscent of the Sopranos. But unlike Tony Soprano and his mobsters, this gang works on the global stage; their actions affect not only the standing of the United States but the country's security.
  • As the Senate trial prepares to start, Americans of all parties should ponder, is this what they want from their president? Pressuring a foreign leader to investigate a political rival; having US diplomats tracked and intimidated? Allowing oligarchs with ties to the Kremlin to fund operations aimed at boosting his reelection chances?
katherineharron

Trump's push to overturn election result tears through GOP - CNNPolitics - 0 views

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election

shared by katherineharron on 03 Jan 21 - No Cached
  • President Donald Trump is tearing the Republican Party apart on his way out the door, forcing Republicans to choose sides as they wrestle with the future of the party in the wake of Trump's overt attempts to subvert the results of the election.
  • The President's fixation with overturning the results of a fair and free election is the latest crusade throwing the GOP into a full-blown crisis mode as members attack one another's motives
  • There's no evidence of widespread election fraud
  • ...15 more annotations...
  • But that hasn't stopped a dozen Republican senators -- including Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri -- and more than 100 House Republicans from planning to join with Trump to reject the Electoral College votes in states that Biden won when Congress convenes a joint session on Wednesday.
  • The effort will only delay the inevitable, as the objections are sure to fail in both the House and the Senate,
  • For weeks, McConnell privately warned his party against making an unforced error by forcing votes on the Electoral College objections, fully aware that questioning the results of the election when Congress meets Wednesday would expose rifts in his ranks and force members up for reelection in 2022 into an unenviable political position.
  • "I'm concerned about the division in America, that's the biggest issue, but obviously this is not healthy for the Republican Party either," said Sasse
  • A group of nearly a dozen Republican senators announced Saturday that they would vote for Hawley's objection when it was brought forward, unless a commission was created to study voter fraud, something that is unlikely.
  • Trump's close ally, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, tweeted on Sunday that proposing an election commission was "not effectively fighting for President Trump" and added "It appears to be more of a political dodge than an effective remedy."
  • But the long-term effects could stretch for years -- and into the 2022 Senate races, with Trump and his allies threatening primary challenges to those Republicans who cross him and vote against the objections. Aides to GOP members still trying to decide what to do next describe an anxious time for the party as members grapple with what choice to make.
  • Throughout Trump's four years in office, Republicans have often expressed frustration or looked the other way at some of Trump's efforts and rhetoric, though they rarely crossed him. But in the past month, many Republicans voted to override Trump's veto of a popular defense policy bill, the first override of Trump's presidency, and McConnell blocked his attempts to give people $2,000 stimulus checks instead of the $600 in the spending and Covid-19 bill that Trump reluctantly signed.
  • "There is substantial reason for concern about the precedent Congressional objections will set here. By objecting to electoral slates, members are unavoidably asserting that Congress has the authority to overturn elections and overrule state and federal courts," Cheney wrote. "Such objections set an exceptionally dangerous precedent, threatening to steal states' explicit constitutional responsibility for choosing the President and bestowing it instead on Congress. This is directly at odds with the Constitution's clear text and our core beliefs as Republicans," she added.
  • Former House Speaker Paul Ryan discouraged his former colleagues from objecting to the election results in a statement Sunday, saying it was "difficult to conceive of a more anti-democratic and anti-conservative act than a federal intervention to overturn the results of state-certified elections and disenfranchise millions of Americans."
  • "I think that if you have a plan, it should [be] a plan that has some chance of working. And neither of the two proposals that have been advanced will produce a result," said Sen. Roy Blunt, a Republican from Missouri, who added: "I don't believe it has much long-term impact on our conference."
  • On Thursday morning, McConnell repeatedly called on Hawley to make his case to members on why he was objecting to the results from at least one state. Hawley wasn't on the call, however, and later responded by email to the conference on his rationale. Then over the weekend, multiple senators including Romney, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania skewered any questions that the election had been compromised.
  • Romney specifically said the effort to overturn the election was an "egregious ploy" that "may enhance the political ambition of some, but dangerously threatens our Democratic Republic."
  • "I read Sen. Toomey's statement," Hawley said. "I recognize that our caucus will have varied opinions about this subject. That's not surprising. But I also believe we should avoid putting words into each other's mouths," Hawley wrote.
  • "The 2020 election is over. All challenges through recounts and appeals have been exhausted. At this point, further attempts to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the 2020 Presidential election are contrary to the clearly expressed will of the American people and only serve to undermine Americans' confidence in the already determined election results," the senators said.
lmunch

Donna Brazile: GOP Senate candidates in Georgia are Trump puppets who act like contestants on 'The Apprentice' | Fox News - 0 views

www.foxnews.com/...ia-senate-runoff-donna-brazile

Georgia Politics dnc

shared by lmunch on 03 Jan 21 - No Cached
  • The two U.S. Senate runoff elections that will be held in Georgia Tuesday will determine whether the Senate will work in partnership with President-elect Joe Biden to build a better future for Americans, or whether Republican obstructionists who put politics ahead of patriotism will be empowered to do everything possible to oppose our new president.
  • Recall that McConnell famously stated in 2010: "The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president."So McConnell’s goal 10 years ago — in his own words — was not to serve the American people. Not to create jobs, improve health care, strengthen education, protect national security, or fight for equal rights. No, he admitted that his top priority was to do everything humanly possible to hurt President Obama’s reelection prospects, regardless of the harm inflicted on the American people. You can bet every penny you have that McConell feels the same way about our incoming president.
  • The demonization of this pastor who now preaches in Dr. King’s church is part of a long and disgraceful history in Georgia of hostility to its Black residents. In fact, Georgia has never elected a single Black U.S. senator, governor, lieutenant governor, or secretary of state. And yet the Census Bureau estimates that 32% of the state’s population is Black.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Loeffler and Perdue were both against additional $2,000 COVID-19 economic stimulus checks before they were for the checks (but only after Trump’s belated tweet storm). They have both questioned the integrity of the November election and even demanded the resignation of a fellow Republican, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
yehbru

Republican efforts to undermine Biden victory expose growing anti-democratic streak - CNNPolitics - 0 views

www.cnn.com/...index.html

US Politics Trump Biden Election Voting Democrats Republicans

shared by yehbru on 03 Jan 21 - No Cached
  • The scattershot efforts to overturn President-elect Joe Biden's election victory are coalescing into a movement led by top Republicans determined to exploit a manufactured crisis for broader political gains.
  • Nearly a dozen more GOP senators, a handful of whom will be sworn-in Sunday, have now announced they will challenge Biden's clear Electoral College win over President Donald Trump next week during what has traditionally been a ceremonial exercise on Capitol Hill.
  • The President is, predictably, cheering on the charade. And in a taped phone conversation on Saturday, reported by The Washington Post, encouraged Georgia's top elections official to "find" enough votes to overturn Biden's victory in the state.
  • ...16 more annotations...
  • Vice President Mike Pence -- who has sought to keep a safe distance from the more inflammatory claims and behavior of fellow Republicans while subtly egging them on when it suits him -- has also welcomed congressional Republicans' challenge
  • "All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state."
  • "There's nothing wrong with saying, you know, um, that you've recalculated," Trump told Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger
  • Notably, none of the officials who signed the Saturday statement, nor any of what could be as many as 140 allies in the House, have suggested that the election fraud that so concerns them might have also affected their own races.
  • The group's citation of a poll that underscores voters' distrust in the election process ignores Trump's role in ginning up an increasingly paranoiac strain of conservatism
  • The process in his state, which the President won, had met a "high bar," he insisted, before suggesting that other states had a responsibility to "restore" the confidence that the leaders of his own party had spent so much time trying to break.
  • The announcement Saturday from Republican senators and senators-elect cut deeper and, framed in a maddening circular logic, argued that Congress should commission an "emergency 10-day audit" of results from "disputed states" because of the volume of "allegations of voter fraud, violations and lax enforcement of election law, and other voting irregularities."
  • Trump again attacked Raffensperger Sunday morning, before their phone call became public, complaining in a tweet that the Georgia Republican had not turned up evidence of nonexistent voter fraud.
  • Trump has called on Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, also a Republican, to resign after repeated recounts of the presidential vote there confirmed Biden's narrow win.
  • Kemp is one of a handful of Republicans to speak out against Trump's behavior. Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey, who is retiring in 2022, has also been critical of his GOP colleagues' rhetoric and, on Saturday, responded to the new announcement with a sharp rebuke of the senators involved.
  • Biden's success in Pennsylvania, Toomey concluded, said little about the election process and could be "easily explained by the decline in suburban support for President Trump and the President's slightly smaller victory margins in most rural counties."
  • The vice president, through Justice Department lawyers, pushed back against a lawsuit filed by Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert and Arizona Republicans that sought to give Pence the power to effectively dump the electoral college results and hand reelection to Trump. The suit was dismissed, for a lack of standing, by a federal judge on Friday night.
  • "Vice President Pence shares the concerns of millions of Americans about voter fraud and irregularities in the last election," Pence chief of staff Marc Short said in a statement. "The Vice President welcomes the efforts of members of the House and Senate to use the authority they have under the law to raise objections and bring forward evidence before the Congress and the American people on January 6th."
  • "They could not and would not give credence to what they know is not true," Biden said. "They knew this election was overseen, it was honest, it was free and it was fair. They saw it with their own eyes, and they wouldn't be bullied into saying anything different."
  • Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who caucuses with the Democrats and was Biden's toughest competition in the 2020 party primary, called the effort "pathetic" and its aims "unconstitutional."
  • "What all of this comes down to is that Donald Trump and right wing extremists are refusing to accept the will of the people and the fact that Trump lost the election," Sanders said in a statement. "In their contempt for democracy, they are using lies and conspiracy theories about 'voter fraud' in an attempt to overturn the election results."
lmunch

Nancy Pelosi reelected speaker Sunday despite narrower majority - CNNPolitics - 0 views

www.cnn.com/...index.html

Politics Pandemic dnc

shared by lmunch on 03 Jan 21 - No Cached
  • Speaker Nancy Pelosi won a fourth non-consecutive term to lead the House of Representatives, suffering a handful of defections in a narrow vote after her party lost seats but kept control of the chamber.After serving for 17 years in charge of the House Democrats, Pelosi ran unopposed in her election. She is the first woman to be speaker, leading the House from 2006 to 2011, and since the Democrats took back the House in 2018.
  • In order to win the speakership, Pelosi had to receive a majority of votes. In 2019, 15 Democrats defected from Pelosi but she can only afford to lose a few in 2021. After losing a dozen seats in 2020, House Democrats are likely to control around 222 seats next term.
  • The speaker has a myriad of tools at her disposal to curry votes, including a massive fundraising operation, committee assignments and legislation she can bring to the floor. In 2018, Pelosi, 80, suggested that this would be her last term in office, striking a deal with a small group of Democratic rebels that she would serve no more than two terms as speaker.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • "She is one of the few, clear leaders who can provide cohesion and leadership for the Democratic majority," said Connolly. "I think she goes into this in a strong position, but clearly cognizant of challenges she faces in terms of numbers and the uncertainty of coronavirus."
yehbru

Texas Supreme Court denies GOP-led petition seeking to invalidate 120,000 votes in Houston area - CNNPolitics - 0 views

www.cnn.com/...index.html

politics US election biden trump Texas Voting

shared by yehbru on 01 Nov 20 - No Cached
  • The Texas Supreme Court denied a petition Sunday by a group of Republicans seeking to invalidate nearly 127,000 drive-thru votes in Harris County, while a similar case awaits a decision in federal court just two days before Election Day.
  • The petition was filed last week and argued that drive-thru voting violated federal law
  • "We know that the law is on our side," he told CNN moments after the Supreme Court issued its ruling. "We know that we should be protecting these votes, making sure that all of our residents here can have their voice heard, can have their say in our democracy."
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • Republican State Rep. Steve Toth, who's listed on the petition as a plaintiff and who's running for reelection, argued it's the job of the state legislature -- not local counties -- to implement changes such as drive-thru voting
  • As of Friday, nearly 127,000 votes had been cast at those sites, marking roughly 10% of the votes cast in person during the early voting period.
  • The latest state and federal challenges argue that drive-thru voting violates the US Constitution, which says state legislatures decide how elections are run. The plaintiffs also argued it violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment, in that the county is adopting a manner of voting that has not been adopted by other Texas counties.
clairemann

GOP Tries To Save Its Senate Majority, With Or Without Trump | HuffPost - 0 views

www.huffpost.com/...ity_n_5f9f0d9ec5b6bef9f18ea6d0

US voting election trump pandemic gop

shared by clairemann on 01 Nov 20 - No Cached
  • Senate Republicans are fighting to save their majority, a final election push against the onslaught of challengers in states once off limits to Democrats but now hotbeds of a potential backlash to President Donald Trump and his allies on Capitol Hill.
  • Fueling the campaigns are the Trump administration’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis, shifting regional demographics and, in some areas, simply the chance to turn the page on the divisive political climate
  • Without it, Joe Biden would face a potential wall of opposition to his agenda if the Democratic nominee won the White House.
  • ...16 more annotations...
  • Republican incumbents are straining for survival from New England to the Deep South, in the heartland and the West and even Alaska.
  • With the chamber now split, 53-47, three or four seats will determine Senate control, depending on which party wins the White House.
  • What started as a lopsided election cycle with Republicans defending 23 seats, compared with 12 for Democrats, quickly became a more stark referendum on the president as Democrats reached deeper into Trump country and put the GOP on defense.
  • Suddenly some of the nation’s better-known senators — Lindsey Graham in South Carolina, Susan Collins in Maine — faced strong reelection threats.
  • Only two Democratic seats are being seriously contested, while at least 10 GOP-held seats are at risk.
  • Felkel added: “You’d be hard pressed to admit we don’t have a Trump problem.”
  • The political landscape is quickly changing from six years ago when most of these senators last faced voters. It’s a reminder of how sharp the national mood has shifted in the Trump era.
  • Younger voters and more minorities are pushing some states toward Democrats, including in Colorado, where the parties have essentially stopped spending money for or against GOP Sen. Cory Gardner because it seems he is heading toward defeat by Democrat John Hickenlooper, a former governor.
  • GOP senators must balance an appeal to Trump’s most ardent supporters with outreach to voters largely in suburbs who are drifting away from the president and his tone .
  • Arizona could see two Democratic senators for the first time since last century if former astronaut Mark Kelly maintains his advantage over GOP Sen. Martha McSally for the seat held by the late Republican John McCain.
  • In Georgia, Trump calls David Perdue his favorite senator among the many who have jockeyed to join his golf outings and receive his private phone calls. But the first-term senator faces a surge of new voters in the state and Democrat Jon Ossoff is playing hardball.
  • Ossoff called Pedue a “crook” over the senator’s stock trades during the pandemic. Perdue shot back that the Ossoff would do anything to mislead Georgians about Democrats’ “radical and socialist” agenda.
  • Democrats have tapped into what some are calling a “green wave” — a new era of fundraising —
  • Competitive races are underway in Republican strongholds of Texas, Kansas and Alaska where little known Al Gross broke state records, Democrats said, in part with viral ads introducing voters to the military-veteran-turned-doctor who once fought off a grizzly bear.
  • The COVID crisis has shadowed the Senate races as Democrats linked Trump’s handling of the pandemic to the GOP’s repeated attempts to undo the Obama-era Affordable Care Act, particularly its insurance protections for those with preexisting medical conditions.
  • “In more places in the country than not, the president is not getting good marks” on that, Flaherty said, and it’s damaging Senate GOP candidates, “especially those in lockstep with the president.”
katherineharron

Anthony Fauci: Trump suggests he might fire infectious disease expert after election - CNNPolitics - 0 views

www.cnn.com/...index.html

fauci

shared by katherineharron on 02 Nov 20 - No Cached
  • President Donald Trump suggested to a Florida crowd he may fire Dr. Anthony Fauci after the election, escalating his feud with the nation's leading expert on infectious diseases and providing a window into a potential post-November 3 administration purge.
  • "Don't tell anybody, but let me wait until a little bit after the election," Trump said to cheers. "I appreciate the advice."
  • Trump claimed Fauci is "a nice guy but he's been wrong a lot."
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • Trump's handling of the coronavirus outbreak remains the backdrop of this year's election.
  • Trump has proceeded with rallies in states with rampant coronavirus outbreaks, believing his message of reopening will resonate with voters.
  • Trump has previously claimed Fauci opposed mask wearing earlier in the pandemic, though at the time the administration was concerned about supply levels of medical grade equipment.
  • Trump's comments about Fauci came a day after the White House unleashed on the doctor, who is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
  • Deputy press secretary Judd Deere said Fauci had decided to "make his political leanings known," though acknowledged he "has a duty to express concerns or push for a change in strategy."
  • While Trump and Fauci put forward a show of cooperation earlier in the pandemic, their relationship has deteriorated significantly. Fauci has said he no longer briefs the President and has been replaced by Dr. Scott Atlas, whom the President has relied on for advice on handling the coronavirus.
  • In public polls, Americans have said they trust Fauci more than Trump to provide reliable information about the pandemic.
  • Trump has held off on any major Cabinet shakeups in the leadup to the election, hoping to avoid negative headlines about administration chaos before votes are cast. But how he acts after the election remains an open question; aides said they expected significant changes should Trump win reelection.
  • Under federal law, Trump doesn't have the power to directly fire Fauci, a career civil servant, and remove him from government. He could try ordering his political appointees to dismiss him, but it would be a time-consuming process that Fauci could appeal.
clairemann

GOP Election Attorney Rips Trump's Attack On Voting: 'As Un-American As It Gets' | HuffPost - 0 views

www.huffpost.com/...ack_n_5f9f91f4c5b6bef9f18f1a83

election US trump gop

shared by clairemann on 02 Nov 20 - No Cached
  • A longtime Republican attorney who worked for multiple presidential campaigns is calling out both President Donald Trump and members of his own party for their attacks on the election process and ballot counting.
  • “This is as un-American as it gets,” Benjamin L. Ginsberg, who worked for former President George W. Bush during the 2000 Florida recount and again in 2004, wrote in the Washington Post.
  • “Proof of systematic fraud has become the Loch Ness Monster of the Republican Party,” he wrote. “People have spent a lot of time looking for it, but it doesn’t exist.” 
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • “These are painful words for me to write,” he said.  “My party is destroying itself on the Altar of Trump,” he wrote. “Republican elected officials, party leaders and voters must recognize how harmful this is to the party’s long-term prospects.”
  • “My fellow Republicans, look what we’ve become. It is we who must fix this. Trump should not be reelected. Vote, but not for him.”
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