Trump’s rally in Tulsa on the weekend of Juneteenth proves what we already knew: he’s the largest superspreader of division and hatred we’ve seen in generations.
The video contrasts past speeches by leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy to those of Gov. George Wallace and the current occupant of the Oval Office who calls white supremacists “very fine people,” tells the police to “dominate the streets” and “please, don’t be too nice.”
L-R President Donald Trump, former Vice President Joe BidenThe Detroit Free Press reports the latest polling in the vital swing state of Michigan has some bad news for Donald Trump.
Two weeks ago, EPIC-MRA of Lansing, a polling firm that does work for the Free Press, released a survey showing former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, leading Trump 53%-41% in Michigan, a 12-point edge.
But a second poll, started on May 31, a day after the first poll began, and concluded a day later than the first poll, on June 4, showed Biden leading Trump 55%-39% in Michigan, a 16-point margin.
The survey had a margin of error of plus/minus 4 points. The new poll also showed: • 70% of those surveyed believe the country is headed in the wrong direction. The percentage who believe the U.S. is headed in the right direction fell from 30% to 22%. • 61% of those surveyed hold a negative view of Trump. The percentage of those with a positive view fell from 42% to 38%. • 51% said they would vote to replace Trump in November, while those who said they plan to vote to reelect him fell from 38% to 33%.
A vote by the Republican National Committee to leave the party’s 2016 party platform unchanged ahead of the November election has infuriated grassroots activists — including moderates who wanted to streamline its message and social conservatives who sought added language on emerging hot-button topics.
The decision by the party’s executive panel Wednesday means the GOP will maintain positions in the 4-year-old policy blueprint — including opposition to same-sex marriage and a nod to gay conversion therapy — and decline to stake out new positions on topics such as police reform, gender identity and third-trimester abortions.
Party officials and senior Trump campaign aides had previously discussed ways to pare down the 58-page document to a single notecard or abbreviated list of principles, but the effort broke down after several conservative groups registered complaints with the White House.
Donald Trump (image via Flickr/WhiteHouse) Donald Trump’s job approval has dropped to 39% as protests regarding racial injustice have endured for weeks across the country. From Gallup:
The decline in approval returns the metric to a level last seen in October, shortly after the House of Representatives launched an impeachment inquiry into Trump’s dealings with the Ukraine government.
Trump’s latest job approval rating fell significantly among all party groups, and by similar margins among each. This includes drops of seven percentage points among Republicans (to 85%) and independents (to 39%), and nine points among Democrats (to 5%).
Republicans’ approval of Trump is the lowest it has been since September 2018 (also 85%).
(graphic via Gallup) In related news, Trump was so incensed over a recent CNN poll showing him 14 points (55% – 41%) behind former Vice President Joe Biden, his campaign sent the cable news network a ‘cease and desist’ letter demanding a retraction and apology. “We stand by our poll,” responded CNN. The CNN survey found the Donald’s approval rating at 38% and his disapproval rating at 57 percent. That puts Trump on par with former one-term Presidents Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush at this point in their presidencies.
The latest from the conservative anti-Trump group, The Lincoln Project. Narration: “It took almost four years for Trump to get the crowds he wanted. After years of Donald Trump’s divisiveness and discord, America is coming together. This year we have a choice to make… America or Trump. Imagine how big the crowds will be when he’s gone. A new day begins on November 3rd.”
The Politico-Morning Consult poll released Wednesday morning found that 27 percent of respondents somewhat or strongly agree that Trump is religious, compared to 55 percent who somewhat or strongly disagree.
Slightly more than a third of self-identified Christians see Trump as religious, pollsters noted, while half say he is not.
Forty percent of evangelicals also agreed that Trump was a man of faith, while 33 percent disagreed.
A total of 23 percent of Catholics and 18 percent of independents supported the statement that Trump is religious.
Only majorities of ideological conservatives — 55 percent — and Republicans — 60 percent — said they see the president as religious.
The poll was conducted after Trump’s disastrous visits to two prominent religious venues (St. John’s Episcopal Church and Saint John Paul II National Shrine) last week. Trump was promptly excoriated for using the church for political theater.
In an interview with his former White House press secretary Sean Spicer last week, Trump, who infrequently attends church services, was asked whether he’s “grown in his faith” since becoming president.
“So I think maybe I have, from the standpoint that I see so much that I can do,” answered Trump before adding, “I’ve done so much for religion.”
Donald Trump (photo: public domain/Flickr)The Daily Beastreports that, in an effort to buoy Donald Trump’s temper tantrums regarding his falling approval numbers, his campaign has begun running pro-Trump ads in the Washington, D.C. area on networks the Donald is sure to watch.
With their boss growing increasingly agitated with the state of his re-election campaign and with the efforts of Republican critics to undermine it, President Donald Trump’s team hatched a plan. They’d run a series of hard-hitting ads and place them on networks that they knew the president and congressional Republicans would watch.
And so, over the past month, the Trump campaign has spent slightly more than $400,000 on cable news ads in the Washington, D.C., area, buying time largely on Fox News but with some smaller buys on CNN and MSNBC as well, according to filings with the Federal Communications Commission. The ads began running in late May and are scheduled through June 23.
It is, on a purely electoral level, a remarkably quixotic use of campaign cash. The purchases have no real shot of moving D.C., Maryland, or Virginia into the Trump column.
Former Vice President Joe Biden In an effort to engage with millions of LGBTQ voters ahead of the upcoming presidential election in November, former Vice President Joe Biden will launch a national voter outreach effort to coincide with Pride Month. CBS News reports the campaign program, titled ‘Out For Biden,’ a national get-out-the-vote effort focusing on the estimated 11 million LGBTQ voters across the nation, with special emphasis on vital battleground states. A study conducted by the UCLA School of Law Williams Institute found approximately 50 percent of registered LGBTQ voters identify as Democrats, 15 percent are registered Republicans and 22 percent say they are Independents. A notable factoid that requires attention: the study found about one-fifth of LGBTQs of voting age are not registered to vote. For perspective regarding possible impact, it’s worth noting that in 2016 Donald Trump won the state of Florida by 112,911 votes and there are approximately 772,000 LGBTQ voters in the Sunshine state. In Pennsylvania, Trump had a victory margin of 44,292 votes and there are an estimated 416,000 queer voters in the state. And in Michigan, where there are 311,000 LGBTQ voters, Trump squeaked by with a bare 10,704 votes. The ‘Out For Biden’ outreach will begin as a virtual effort primarily due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Online conversations will be held on issues of health, race and sports, related to the LGBTQ community. Additionally, “tool kits” will be available which include voter registration information and messaging to engage with others regarding LGBTQ equality issues. Campaign officials say the outreach will be led in part by a group of 32 LGBTQ politicians and allies including openly lesbian Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D) plus 6 other openly queer congressional members. Transgender elected officials, like Minneapolis City Council Vice President Andrea Jenkins, will also have a prominent voice. As Instinct reported last week, while the White House was silent regarding Pride Month this year, Biden penned a lengthy essay detailing his past efforts as well as his plans to empower the LGBTQ community as president. Biden, who crossed the delegate threshold to become the Democratic presidential nominee last week, closed his Pride proclamation writing, “I believe in the story of this country and the LGBTQ+ community.” For more information about ‘Out For Biden,’ visit the official Joe Biden campaign website. In related news, Biden has jumped to a 14 point lead in the latest CNN/SSRS national poll with Biden garnering 55 percent to Trump’s 41 percent. But for those inclined to follow politics, national polls may offer a sense of the country’s political temperature, but they aren’t useful in determining the actual state of the presidential race. As many have noted, the 2020 contest will most likely be determined in a handful of swing states like Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Florida, and Arizona. You can check in on those battleground states’ recent polls at Real Clear Politics. Currently, in RCP’s average of polls, Biden leads Trump nationally by 7.8 percent. But more importantly, he holds small leads in each of those above-named swing states.
Former Vice President Joe Biden (image via Instagram) Former Vice President Joe Biden officially crossed the threshold to secure the 2020 Democratic nomination for president. From NBC News:
Joe Biden won enough delegates on Saturday to become the Democratic presidential nominee in November’s election against President Donald Trump, NBC News projects.
To win the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination on the first ballot at the party’s convention, a candidate must receive support from a majority of pledged delegates — at least 1,991 of the total 3,979 pledged delegates available.
Heading into the weekend, Biden had already amassed a projected 1,970 pledged delegates after winning a series of Democratic primaries on June 2. He now has 2,000, according to NBC News.
(image via NBC News)Real Clear Politics’ average of polls shows Biden leading Trump in national polls, which don’t mean much, by 7.1 points. More importantly, although it’s was early, Biden leads in every swing state poll RCP is tracking. (image via RealClearPolitics)
As I’ve pointed out in the past, while national polls may provide a snapshot of the mood of the American electorate, it’s polling in about seven swing states (Wisconsin, Michigan, Florida, Arizona, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Minnesota) that you would want to keep an eye on. A new Fox News poll shows former Vice President Joe Biden leading Donald Trump by 9 points in the vital swing state of Wisconsin.
Majorities of Wisconsin voters rate the economy negatively and are concerned about coronavirus. That helps explain Democrat Joe Biden’s gains in the presidential race, in a Fox News Poll of Wisconsin registered voters released Wednesday.
Biden has a 9-point edge over President Donald Trump, 49-40 percent. That’s up from a 5-point advantage in January, and is outside the poll’s margin of sampling error. Another 11 percent are uncommitted.
A big reason Trump trails Biden is lack of party support: 85 percent of Republicans back him, while 93 percent of Democrats support Biden. Eight percent of Republicans defect to Biden. In addition, only 87 percent of those who approve of Trump’s job performance support his reelection.
Biden leads Trump by 14 points on job handling of the coronavirus health threat and 22 points on race relations. Only 22 percent view the economy in a positive light, while 76 percent rate it as fair or poor. Biden’s favorable rating (52 percent) is 8 points higher than his unfavorable (44 percent). Trump, however, is upside down by 12 points (43 favorable, 55 unfavorable). Trump’s strongest backing comes from (no surprise here) white men without a college degree (+19 points), white evangelical Christians (+29), and self-described very conservatives (+81). But Biden scores stronger support among women (+20 points), suburban voters (+14), and independents (+8). Of those voters who describe themselves as ‘extremely interested’ in the upcoming election, Biden holds a 15 point lead over Trump (55-40 percent). Also – there are more Biden supporters who say they are ‘extremely motivated’ to vote in the upcoming election (71 percent) than Trump supporters (63 percent) who say the same.
From the conservative, anti-Donald Trump group, The Lincoln Project: 
