Tag: Donald Trump

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New York Times Obtains Years Of Trump Tax Returns (Anyone Want To Guess What/If He Paid?)

Donald Trump

Donald Trump (image: public domain)
Two days before the first Presidential TV debate, the New York Times just dropped a bomb on Donald Trump’s campaign. The Times obtained several years of tax-return data for the Trumpster and it’s pretty much what everyone has expected:

Donald J. Trump paid $750 in federal income taxes the year he won the presidency. In his first year in the White House, he paid another $750.

He had paid no income taxes at all in 10 of the previous 15 years — largely because he reported losing much more money than he made.

As the president wages a re-election campaign that polls say he is in danger of losing, his finances are under stress, beset by losses and hundreds of millions of dollars in debt coming due that he has personally guaranteed.

Also hanging over him is a decade-long audit battle with the Internal Revenue Service over the legitimacy of a $72.9 million tax refund that he claimed, and received, after declaring huge losses. An adverse ruling could cost him more than $100 million.

Head over to the New York Times for much more.

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Trump Nominates Ultra-Conservative Amy Coney Barrett To SCOTUS

Judge Amy Coney Barrett (photo: Rachel Malehorn/Wikimedia Commons)
Today, Donald Trump announced the nomination of ultra-conservative Amy Coney Barrett to replace Justice Ginsburg, just days after Justice Ginsburg’s death and before her burial at Arlington National Cemetery next week. From the New York Times:

While other justices have been approved in presidential election years, none has been voted on after July. Four years ago, Senate Republicans refused to even consider President Barack Obama’s nomination to replace Justice Scalia with Judge Merrick B. Garland, announced 237 days before Election Day, on the grounds that it should be left to whoever was chosen as the next president.

In picking Judge Barrett, a conservative and a hero to the anti-abortion movement, Mr. Trump could hardly have found a more polar opposite to Justice Ginsburg, a pioneering champion of women’s rights and leader of the liberal wing of the court.

And the Human Rights Campaign notes just some of Coney Barrett’s low-lights regarding LGBTQ rights:

Coney Barrett defended the Supreme Court’s dissenters on the landmark marriage equality case of Obergefell v. Hodges, questioning the role of the court in deciding the case:

[Chief Justice Roberts, in his dissent,] said, those who want same-sex marriage, you have every right to lobby in state legislatures to make that happen, but the dissent’s view was that it wasn’t for the court to decide…So I think Obergefell, and what we’re talking about for the future of the court, it’s really a who decides question.” – Coney Barrett

Coney Barrett says Title IX protections do not extend to transgender Americans, claiming it’s a “strain on the text” to reach that interpretation:

“When Title IX was enacted, it’s pretty clear that no one, including the Congress that enacted that statute, would have dreamed of that result, at that time. Maybe things have changed so that we should change Title IX, maybe those arguing in favor of this kind of transgender bathroom access are right. That’s a public policy debate to have. But it does seem to strain the text of the statute to say that Title IX demands it.” – Coney Barrett

Coney Barrett misgendered transgender people, referring to a transgender women as “physiological males,” while casting doubt on transgender rights:

“People will feel passionately on either side about whether physiological males who identify as females should be permitted in bathrooms, especially where there are young girls present.” – Coney Barrett

A new ABC News/Washington Post poll shows 57 percent of Americans say the next justice of the U.S. Supreme Court should be left to the winner of the presidential election and a Senate vote next year. Only 38 percent feel the confirmation should happen in the next weeks. The same poll shows: • 54 percent of respondents oppose increasing the number of Supreme Court justices versus 32 percent who support the idea • 50 percent said they trust Joe Biden more to handle the next SCOTUS nomination versus 42 percent who trust Donald Trump more to make the choice

(graphic via ABC News/Washington Post poll)

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Trump Preps Attacks On Biden’s Family For First Debate

L-R President Donald Trump, former Vice President Joe Biden
The Washington Post reports that Donald Trump is preparing to hit Joe Biden with personal attacks that include the former vice president’s family.

President Trump is gearing up to launch blistering personal attacks on Joe Biden and his family in the first presidential debate on Tuesday, while Biden is bracing for an onslaught and worried allies are warning the Democratic nominee not to lose his temper and lash out, according to people with knowledge of the strategies in both camps.

Trump has told associates he wants to talk specifically about his opponent’s son Hunter Biden and mused that the debates are when “people will finally realize Biden is just not there,” according to one adviser.

The president is so eager to lay into his rival that he has called aides to test out various attacks, focusing on broadsides that cast Biden as a longtime Washington insider with a limited record of accomplishment, said another adviser.

Biden and his advisers are anticipating a venomous barrage, according to a person with knowledge of their thinking, and they are preparing to counter with an affirmative case for a Biden presidency. The Democrat wants to stay focused on how he would address the coronavirus pandemic and the country’s economic problems, which he blames Trump for worsening.

Friends and allies of Biden are a bit concerned because Biden’s ‘passion and empathy’ can sometimes bleed into anger when opponents go after his family.

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Fox News State Polls: Biden Ahead +11 In NV, +7 In PA, +5 In Ohio

L-R Former Vice President Joe Biden, Donald Trump
Let me start by pointing out this is a FOX News poll, ok…? From Fox News:

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden leads President Donald Trump in the battleground states of Nevada, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, according to Fox News statewide likely voter surveys.

In each of the three states, majorities disapprove of the job Trump is doing as president, pluralities say coronavirus is “not at all” under control, and Biden is the preferred choice when it comes to handling the virus. Plus, he’s favored over Trump to nominate the next U.S. Supreme Court justice.

There are few undecided voters, and Biden’s support is 50 percent or better in each state. His advantage over Trump is outside the margin of error in Nevada and Pennsylvania, but not Ohio.

Bolding is mine. NEVADA Biden: 52% Trump: 41% OHIO Biden: 50% Trump: 45% PENNSYLVANIA Biden: 51% Trump: 44% That said, this is totally NOT a done deal. We all need to get to the polls and cast our vote – either by mail or in person – by election day.

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Trump Greeted By Boos And Chants Of ‘Vote Him Out’ At SCOTUS

Donald Trump (screen capture)
I doubt Donald Trump is accustomed to being this close to his opposition. Arriving at the United States Supreme Court to pay respects to the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Donald was greeted with boos and a chorus of “vote him out!” Quite the visceral moment…

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Trump Refuses To Commit To Peaceful Transfer Of Power: ‘Get Rid Of The Ballots’

Donald Trump (screen capture)
During a press conference at the White House today, Donald Trump was asked if he would commit to a peaceful transfer of power in January should Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden win. White House correspondent Brian Karem asked the Donald directly if he would make such a commitment but Trump demured saying, “Well, we’re gonna have to see what happens, you know that. I have been complaining very strongly about the ballots and the ballots are a disaster and-and…” Trump responded as Karem interjected. Attempting to get a clear answer, Karem asked again, “I understand that, but people are rioting. Do you commit to making sure there is a peaceful transfer of power?” “Get rid of the ballots and you’ll have a very transfer – we’ll have a very peaceful,” Trump said. “There won’t be a transfer frankly, there will be a continuation. The ballots are out of control, you know it, and you know who knows it better than anybody else, the Democrats know it better than anybody else. Go ahead.”

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Cindy McCain, Widow Of 2008 GOP Nominee, Endorses Joe Biden For Prez

Cindy McCain (photo: Flickr/Gage Skidmore – CC License)
From NPR:

Cindy McCain, the widow of Sen. John McCain, is the latest prominent conservative to urge Republicans to cross party lines and support Joe Biden for president.

“There’s only one candidate in this race who stands up for our values as a nation, and that is Joe Biden,” she tweeted Tuesday evening.

McCain’s endorsement comes nearly a month after she contributed to a video that aired during the Democratic National Convention that detailed the friendship between her late husband and the Democratic presidential nominee.

Ms. McCain says she hopes she can encourage disillusioned voters in Arizona, which her late husband spent years representing in the Senate, to consider Biden over Trump amid the country’s current woes. In response, Trump predictably clapped back on Twitter saying he hardly knows Cindy McCain: “Joe Biden was John McCain’s lapdog. So many BAD decisions on Endless Wars & the V.A., which I brought from a horror show to HIGH APPROVAL. Never a fan of John. Cindy can have Sleepy Joe!”

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Mitt Romney Won’t Block Senate Floor Vote For Supreme Court Nominee

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT)
Republican Senator Mitt Romney of Utah has announced he will not block a floor vote for Donald Trump’s nominee to replace the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court before the upcoming presidential election. From NPR:

Romney issued a statement Tuesday that he intends “to follow the Constitution and precedent in considering the President’s nominee, and if the nominee reaches the Senate floor he intends “to vote based upon their qualifications.”

Romney’s support for moving ahead means that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is all but certain to have the 51 votes he needs to take up the nomination. Just two GOP senators, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, have said they oppose taking up the president’s nominee to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg in a presidential election year.

Romney, the party’s 2012 nominee for president, has been one of the few Republicans in the Senate to oppose Trump. In his statement, he asserted that the “historical precedent” of election-year nominations is that the Senate “generally does not confirm an opposing party’s nominee but does confirm a nominee of its own.”

“If the nominee reaches the Senate floor, I intend to vote based upon their qualifications,” concludes Romney’s statement. In 2016, nearly nine months before the presidential election, Senate Republicans refused to vote on President Obama’s nominee for the high court, Merrick Garland, claiming it was “too close to the election.” At the time, nothing was mentioned about ‘opposing party’ nominees. Trump has tweeted that he will announce his nominee to replace Ginsburg on Saturday. We are now just 42 days before the 2020 election day.

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Judge Throws Out Trump Lawsuit To Stop Mail-In Voting In Nevada

Donald Trump

The Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee (RNC) lost today in a legal court fight meant to derail mail-in voting in Nevada for the 2020 presidential election. From Talking Points Memo:

U.S. District Judge James Mahan on Monday threw out the Trump campaign’s lawsuit over Nevada’s vote-by-mail measure that directs all local elections officials to send mail-in ballots to all of the registered voters in the state.

Mahan ruled that the Trump campaign, along with the Republican National Committee (RNC) and the Nevada GOP, “make no showing” of an unfair advantage against GOP candidates caused by the measure, known as Assembly Bill 4 (AB 4).

The judge described the plaintiffs’ claims–that voting by mail hurts Republicans and that mail-in ballots illegally distort the vote count–as “generalized and speculative.”

“Plaintiffs never describe how their member voters will be harmed by vote dilution where other voters will not,” Mahan wrote. Republican candidates “face no harms that are unique from their electoral opponents.”

Trump has repeatedly attacked AB 4 in his attempts to undermine and suppress the vote in the battleground state. In sowing seeds of doubt, the Donald continually alleges – without any evidence – that Democrats (but not Republicans) would somehow cheat with mail-in voting. And yet the last time there was any voter fraud of note actually found, it was on behalf of a North Carolina Republican candidate back in 2018. Several states – including Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah, and Washington – have handled their elections via mail-in ballots for years with no irregularities reported.

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Trump Alleges Ginsburg’s Dying Wish Was Penned By Democrats

L-R Donald Trump, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
According to NPR’s Nina Totenberg, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dictated this message to her granddaughter Clara Spera just days before her passing: “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.” This morning, Donald Trump phoned into Fox & Friends, and with no evidence of any kind, alleged that Ginsburg’s dying wish was written by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), or Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). “I don’t know that she said that, or was that written out by Adam Schiff and Schumer and Pelosi?” said Trump. “I would be more inclined to the second. That came out of the wind, it sounds so beautiful. But that sounds like a Schumer deal, or maybe a Pelosi, or shifty Schiff. So that came out of the wind.” Schiff clapped back in a tweet: “Mr. President, this is low. Even for you. No, I didn’t write Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s dying wish to a nation she served so well, and spent her whole life making a more perfect union. But I am going to fight like hell to make it come true. No confirmation before inauguration.”