Category Archives: Donald Trump

U.S. Rep. Justin Amash says he wont be a spoiler for Donald Trump in the 2020 election.

Amash, who announced last week an exploratory committee to run for president as a Libertarian, addressed criticism that he would pull votes from Democrat Joe Biden and help Trump get re-elected in November.

The important thing is we dont know how the additional candidate changes a race. Its too impossible to figure out. There are too many calculations involved, Amash told Jake Tapper Sunday on CNNs State of the Union.

Amash, who left the Republican Party last summer, announced on Tuesday, April 27 that he launched a presidential exploratory committee.

After his announcement, some Trump critics said Amashs entrance into the race would only help the presidents re-election bid.

Former Republican Illinois congressman Joe Walsh wrote in an op-ed in the Washington Post that, Amash cant win. But he can siphon enough votes from the Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, to hand the election to Trump.

In Amashs home state of Michigan, Democrat Hillary Clinton lost to Trump in 2016 by just over 10,000 votes.

In the interview with Tapper, Amash called the two-party system dysfunctional and said most Americans are dissatisfied with their options. Tapper countered by saying that a CNN poll in March found that just over 10% of voters had an unfavorable view of both Trump and Biden.

When you look at a lot of different polling out there youll see that a good portion of the country, probably a plurality, is pretty independent, Amash said. If you make it a three-candidate field, and you have a compelling candidate, theyd be delighted to go to that candidate.

Related: Why Congressman Justin Amash believes he can win the presidency

Amash said his campaign is founded on respecting the constitution and fighting against the partisan death spiral in the Republican party that he left behind. He said that the polarization of politics has made it hard for Americans to work together.

These two factions that really control our political system are destroying our system, said Amash, who was first elected to Congress in 2010 during the conservative tea party wave. And making it impossible for the rest of us to, frankly, enjoy our lives.

Tapper also asked Amash to address the protest in Lansing in response to Gov. Gretchen Whitmers stay-at-home order.

Everyone has the right to protest and I think the governor overreached in a lot of ways and that upset a lot of people in the state of Michigan, Amash said. But when we protest we have to do it in a way that is appropriate.

Armed protesters stood in the Capitol expressing outrage over the stay-at-home order on Thursday, April 30. In the crowd on the Capitol steps were signs with swastikas and Whitmer doing a Nazi salute with a mustache similar to Adolf Hitler. Amash condemned those using Nazi symbols in their protest.

Whitmer, who was interviewed by Tapper earlier on Sunday, said the protest signs depicted some of the worst racism and awful parts of our history in this country.

More on MLive:

Meet Justin Amash: Michigan congressman exploring presidential bid as Libertarian

Gov. Whitmer supports Joe Biden despite sexual-assault claim by ex-aide

Michigan Congressman Justin Amash launches exploratory committee for presidential bid

Whitmer defends decision to continue coronavirus state of emergency, calls Capitol protest disturbing

Day of angry protests, political maneuvers sets stage for likely legal battle in Michigan

Michigan House adjourns without extending coronavirus state of emergency

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Justin Amash says his candidacy wouldnt tip 2020 election to Donald Trump - MLive.com

Bret Baier, Fox News chief political anchor and executive editor of Special Report,will co-anchor a town hall with President Donald Trump on Sunday evening along with The Storyhost Martha MacCallum, against the dramatic backdrop of the Lincoln Memorial.

It will be Trumps first town hall with Baier and MacCallum since March 5, in Scranton, PA, just before unprecedented stay-at-home orders swept the country, the economy took a nosedive and more than 60,000 died of the coronavirus.

The crisis also has put some focus on the way that Fox News covered the emerging pandemic but that largely has been of the opinion side of the network, not for its news anchors and reporters. Sean Hannity, for one, has challenged claims that he downplayed the virus and this week eventhreatened to sue The New York Times, which is not backing down.

Baier has stressed a division between the news and opinion side of the network, and he points to a recent scoop on the origins of the virus as an example of type of reporting he has done for Special Report, which last month topped cable news ratings.

In an interview with Deadline on Thursday, he talked about what he wants to ask Trump on Sunday, how he feels about getting lumped in with opinion hosts, and about why Fox News chose to carry the presidents daily task force briefings live and uninterrupted. He also talked about media coverage of Tara Reades allegations against Joe Biden and whether there is a double standard in the way that sexual assault allegations are handled.

DEADLINE: The town hall with President Trump will be held at the Lincoln Memorial. How did that all come about?

BRET BAIER: I know that the [Fox News] executives talked with the White House folks about different venues. I am not sure who suggested what, but they got the approval, and its going to be pretty iconic. I dont remember an event being on the memorial like that. My focus now is on the questions and the follow-ups, but itll be quite a sight on the National Mall.

DEADLINE: Just the other day the president complained about Fox News on Twitter. Im sure you saw it. He said, [Viewers] want an alternative now. So do I. What do you think is going on there?

BAIER: You know, I have been on the backend of some tweets from the president, not happy with coverage of him on the news side of things. I know my colleague Chris Wallace has as well. Sometimes, thats the way this president operates. Do I love it? No. But, you know, weve got a job to do. Were going to provide both sides, and sometimes the good, the bad, the ugly, is not a good day for him, and sometimes he expresses himself that way. He does tweet about Fox a little bit, but we kind of go about our job and we still ask him the questions that we think viewers want to hear.

Fox News Bret Baier Pushes Back On Donald Trump Claim Of Total Authority Over States: By The Constitution, You Cant Do That

DEADLINE: Do you think he was, quote unquote, working the refs a little bit. In other words, he was looking for more favorable coverage?

BAIER: I dont know. And hes tried, hes done that before. We had a town hall in Scranton; Martha and I last hosted that. And we had solid audience questions and tough but fair follow-ups to the president and elicited some substantive responses that I think went well. I mean, we didnt hold back. And obviously, this is where we are now. Its a different environment, really, with the country in the position it is now. I think when the president talks, just like those briefings, and I was just in one two weeks ago, theres pushback on some of the things he says. You know you want to get peoples questions answered. But you want to press him on some of the big issues of the day.

DEADLINE: How will you counter misinformation? For example, the president often says that his administration was early in its response in that instituted a travel ban from China, but there were exceptions to that.

BAIER: Right, and there definitely were thousands and thousands of people that came in from China most of them Americans, I should note. Right. We will note that. Some of the things he said numerous times in the White House briefing. You know, it follows a bit of a script on some of what hes talked about. So, of course, therell be some challenge to that. I think the focus of a lot the viewer questions, at least so far, is more forward-looking than it is back. But there will be some looking back to how the administrations handled this. You have to be ready for what you know the president will bring to the table, and thats part of preparation. This time, we found out confirmation [of the event] a little bit later, so we dont have as many days to prep. But Martha and I will be ready, and we look forward to it. You know its a great opportunity to not only ask the president questions whenever, but also in this time, when obviously so many people are paying attention to what the future is going to look like across the country.

DEADLINE: One of the major criticisms of the Biden campaign has been empathy, that the president has not shown it during the crisis. Is that something that you want to raise with him? I mean, I think this came up when he was boasting about the size of his audience for the briefings.

BAIER: Right. We know. I dont want to give you all the questions, but clearly the criticism will be noted on a number of fronts, and the president will address that for sure.

DEADLINE: What about what he saidlast week about disinfectants? You talked about this on-air last week. Is that something that you plan to raise with him? Some critics of the president believe this goes to the heart of why Trumps riffs can be dangerous, but the White House clearly wants to move on from that.

BAIER: I obviously made my feelings clear as I was asked questions on various shows about it. And, you know, it just was not sarcasm, looking at that briefing. I think Dr. [Deborah] Birx was pressed on it a couple of different times, a couple different ways. Who knows? We may go down that road, but again, a lot of the focus is going to be what America looks like going forward. Therell be opportunities. You know this was going to be a cross section from various kinds of folks all over the country dealing with various types of issues not all Trump supporters, not all Bidens supporters. Americans dealing with the circumstance that theyre in. And then Martha and I will be in position to follow up on that. Well see if that particular line of question comes up.

It Is A Matter Of Life And Death: Donald Trumps Disinfectant Comments Still Trigger Alarm Even After He Claimed He Was Being Sarcastic

DEADLINE: There has been some pressure on the news networks, when they were having the briefings, not to carry them live. What did you think about that? Other networks had kind of come in and out of the briefings for fact checking.

BAIER: Well, I just think, you can press the president, you can fact check I just think that those briefings provided information. And you didnt know when the doctors were going to be pressed about a question. I was there. I asked all different kinds of questions. I asked the first questions to the president about the whereabouts of Kim Jong-un. That led to a whole bunch of stories. The questions ran the gamut, and I think that, for our viewers, was important. Now, you could criticize how the president handles it or he talks too long. But coming out of those things was a lot of information, whether it was from [Dr. Anthony] Fauci or Dr. Birx or Vice President [Mike] Pence or the president.

DEADLINE: But what about this whole argument that the network should be fact-checking the president in real time?

BAIER: I think that is an interesting editorial decision, what you do with your on-air chyrons, I think that you have to trust the viewer. And you have to trust that they are following the coverage and you let it speak for itself and then afterwards you analyze different elements of it. Sometimes when you make an editorial decision definitively on the screen, it may be more nuanced than black and white. There may be more to it. And thats where you can get into trouble.

DEADLINE: I want to talk about Tara Reade because this is a big story right now. Theres been some criticism of the political media for not asking Joe Biden about these allegations in the media availabilities that hes had. [Biden appeared Friday, after this interview, on MSNBCs Morning Joe, to deny the allegations.]

BAIER: I dont know. I think that the egregious element of it is the disparity between the coverage of Brett Kavanaugh and the allegations against him and what were seeing now. You dont have to withdraw skepticism from any element of Tara Reades story. You dont have to say that shes 100% accurate, but you do have to look at how the media in general has covered one person who was in the spotlight, obviously in a Supreme Court hearing, and one person who is now the presumptive nominee for president, and that disparity is real. I hope she does an interview with someone who is tough but fair. I hope its on Fox.

DEADLINE: When do you think its fair game to raise with a presidential candidate.

BAIER: Well, if it was fair game with Brett Kavanaugh all of the things that flew against the wall in that time arguably Tara Reade has more dots connecting the past than when Christine Blasey Ford did at the time. So we covered both fairly. We did both sides on SpecialReport. We are going beyond, you know, to make sure that all sides are being heard. But the fact that Joe Biden has not been asked about it is kind of egregious.

Alyssa Milano On Why She Still Supports Joe Biden & How She Would Advise Him About Tara Reade Allegations Guest Column

DEADLINE: The Trump campaign has been tweeting about her accusations, do you think that makes it fair game to ask the president about accusations against him, even on Sunday at this town hall?

BAIER: Sure, it opens the door to all kinds of things, once the Trump campaign opens the door to that. The president has been asked numerous times about his multiple allegations. Im not sure the town hall is going to be the place to go down those roads. This town hall is called America Together how we are trying to get together as a country to beat not only the health crisis but the economic crisis. Our focus really is going to be that, and ideally providing substantive information that helps people, and you know therell be other questions, therell be other topics. Im not sure thats going to be one of them.

DEADLINE: Fox News did extensive coverage of the protests of the stay-at-home orders on the news side and the opinion side. What about the criticism that this was excessive, especially since the network has its own social-distancing policies in place?

BAIER: On my show, we made sure to focus on the calls and the warnings from Tony Fauci and the CDC director about, if youre going to protest make sure theres social distancing. We also pointed out that there wasnt a lot of [that]. And we covered the side of concern about the businesses they see evaporating before their eyes and the concern about people in these various states. I think we handled it in my show, which Im really focused on, 6 to 7 [PM ET], the appropriate way.

DEADLINE: There was a Pew poll that said roughly eight of 10 of those whose main source Fox News said the media slightly or greatly exaggerated the risks of the pandemic. How do you account for the difference between how viewers of Fox viewed the pandemic versus other networks?

BAIER: I dont know. I dont go over the rundowns of the primetime shows. They dont go over mine. So I cant really speak to how from the beginning all of it was talked about. I do know that if you look back in time, the February-to-March timeframe, people like Tony Fauci were saying things like, Americans dont have a lot to worry about, or that largely people can go about their business. And I think some of that perspective is lost back in those days, in the early part of this pandemic. Clearly, the story changed. The story evolved. And the threat evolved before our eyes. The medical experts made their determinations and the administration made its about what policy were going to follow.

Hollywood Torn About Joe Bidens VP Pick As Town Ponders Its Preferred Choice To Take On Trump & Pence

DEADLINE: Do you have concerns that, working on the news side, you are mixed in with the same criticism that is aimed at the opinion hosts like Sean Hannity and some of the others in primetime.

BAIER: I have been at Fox for 23 years. There have always been people who paint with a broad brush, who lump in opinion and news together. I think our viewers know what theyre looking at. They know, just like a newspaper one side is an opinion page and one side is the news page. Each has a job to do. And each does it in a different way. I respect those folks, a lot, but my job is to have kind of blinders on from six to seven to make sure were as fair as we can be to all sides. Most people who look, who follow my wish that if they havent seen Fox to tune into my show and watch it three times, and then drop me an email, Facebook [message], or tweet, and tell me if you think it was fair. And most people who do that, come back and say it was.

DEADLINE: You have in the past said that Sean Hannity has called you and he asked how much trouble he causes the news side on a scale of 1 to 10, and you said a solid six. Has that changed?

BAIER: I was just on Seans show last week. Actually weeks ago and another time, we had broken the story about the U.S. intelligence community investigating the Wuhan lab and what happened with the virus in the very beginning. Today the [director of National Intelligence] confirmed our reporting [from] 11, 12 days ago. So I was on Seans show. Again he has a different job. He does his job as an opinion maker very well. I have a news job, and occasionally we intermix like that day. And weve talked back and forth about all of this, going forward.

DEADLINE: Hes been very upset over criticisms that he has received for how he has handled the coronavirus coverage. Do you think theyre unfair?

BAIER: Listen, I dont go over Seans rundown back in the day, and what he said exactly. I know what his defense is. And Ive heard it loudly. So Im gonna let him fight that battle for himself.

As Coronavirus Becomes Global Pandemic, Rush Limbaugh And Sean Hannity Continue To Suspect Conspiracy

DEADLINE: By going on his show, do you think that confuses the viewer ever because youre going on an opinion show yet you are on the news side?

BAIER: You know, we work for one company. And when the news side breaks a big story, and the opinion side says, Will you come on and talk about it? I think it behooves us to share the news that weve broken. Im not going on there as an opinion maker. Im bringing the facts that weve brought to the table, and both sides so I think its fine.

DEADLINE: This is a concern at other news organizations too. There was a study from the Committee to Protect Journalists that actually said that was one of the recommendations, that maybe news organizations should rethink having their news side personalities go on the opinion side.

BAIER: Unfortunately, its usually Fox thats the only one thats focused on. We get a lot of media spotlight, but thats okay. We also get the most viewers, so thats alright.

DEADLINE: Is there anything you would have done differently, since this crisis started, in the way that it was covered.

BAIER: I think some of the trusting now this comes from experts as well of the models that came out at the beginning. I think there were more questions to be had to medical experts at the beginning who were saying that 2 million people, or that one million plus, could die. Remember they all got scaled back. Those models drove policy decisions. We still have so much to learn about the coronavirus and how to treat it and what to do. Hopefully, were going to be better prepared the next time, and I know as a news organization, were going to be better prepared to ask the questions that everybody didnt see at the beginning.

DEADLINE: Personally, how have you handled this. What changes will you be doing in the next week or so?

BAIER: Im obviously antsy always. I love being up at the office. I havent been there. The home studio has worked out great. Fox jumped on this right away with being able to, technically, get all of its anchors up on the air, with really minimal disruption. I mean, kudos to the technical side to be able to do that. Theres a part of me that has really enjoyed being with my family every day. I prior to this had traveled nonstop, to town halls and election coverage. Now Im every day with my 12-year-old, my 9-year-old, my wife, my dog. Theres something nice about that. They probably want to throw me out, but its been its been kind of an interesting time. And its gonna be interesting to see how America gets back, including getting back to work every day.

DEADLINE: In so many of the briefings, Trump has attacked the media, do you think that that has an impact?

BAIER: It does have an impact. I mean, he tweets about the media as well. I dont think its great, just as a spectator of politics. He thinks that it stirs up his base. I will say that some of the questioning, sometimes, seems to have a personal tone to it, that is attacking. Not everybody. But sometimes, and it gives the president ammunition against press in general. And I think that journalists, all of us need to be careful to not go over our skis either way to enable that to happen. This president expresses criticism a lot more than any other, but every president says the media is against him, all the way back to FDR.

Read the rest here:

Bret Baier On Co-Anchoring Donald Trumps Next Town Hall, The Presidents Media Bashing And Scrutiny Of Fox News Coronavirus Coverage The Deadline Q&A...

The president-elect arrived in Washington under a cloud manufactured in Moscow and St Petersburg. Less than a month after Donald Trump took office, the national security adviser Michael Flynn was ousted for lying to the vice-president about a conversation with Russias ambassador. All that, however, was a prelude to the firing of the FBI director James Comey and years of resulting turmoil. The Kremlin had succeeded beyond its wildest dreams.

Under the subtitle The Secret History of Disinformation and Political Warfare, Thomas Rid helps remind us how we reached this morass, one with antecedents reaching back to Czarist Russia and the Bolshevik revolution. To be sure, the US can use all the help it can get as it navigates the current election cycle and the lies, rumours and uncertainty that shroud the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.

Rid was born in West Germany amid the cold war. The Berlin Wall fell when he was a teenager. He is now a professor at Johns Hopkins.

So what are active measures? Previously, Rid testified they were semi-covert or covert intelligence operations to shape an adversarys political decisions.

Almost always, he explained, active measures conceal or falsify the source.

The special counsels report framed them more narrowly as operations conducted by Russian security services aimed at influencing the course of international affairs. Add in technology and hacking, and an image of modern asymmetric warfare emerges.

Rid travels back to the early years of communist Russia, recounting the efforts of the government to discredit the remnants of the ancien rgime and squash attempts to restore the monarchy. The Cheka, the secret police, hatched a plot that involved forged correspondence, a fictitious organization, a fake counter-revolutionary council and a government-approved travelogue.

Words and narratives morphed into readily transportable munitions. The migr community was declawed and the multi-pronged combination deemed wildly successful. The project also served as an inspiration for future active measures. A template had been set.

Fast forward to the cold war and the aftermath of the US supreme courts landmark school desegregation case. The tension between reality and the text and aspirations of the Declaration of Independence was in the open again. Lunch-counter sit-ins and demands for the vote filled newspapers and TV screens. The fault lines were plainly visible and the Soviet Union pounced.

In 1960, the KGB embarked on a series of race-baiting disinformation operations that included mailing Ku Klux Klan leaflets to African and Asian delegations to the United Nations on the eve of a debate on colonialism. At the same time, Russian operators posed as an African American organization agitating against the KKK.

More than a half-century later, Russia ran an updated version of the play. Twitter came to host the fake accounts of both John Davis, ostensibly a gun-toting Texas Christian and family man, and @BlacktoLive, along with hundreds of others.

The Internet Research Agency (IRA), a Russian troll factory, organized pro-Confederate flag rallies. As detailed by Robert Mueller, the IRA also claimed that the civil war was not about slavery and instead was all about money, a false trope that continues to gain resonance among Trump supporters and proponents of the liberate the states movement. According to Brian Westrate, treasurer of the Wisconsin Republican party, the Confederacy was more about states rights than slavery.

Depicting West Germany as Hitlers heir was another aim. At the time, some aging former Nazis still held positions of influence, Rid writes. In the late 1960s, encouraging anti-German tendencies in the West was very much a priority.

In 1964, with Russian assistance, Czech intelligence mounted Operation Neptun, sinking Nazi wartime documents to the bottom of the ominous sounding Black Lake, near the German border. The cache was then discovered media pandemonium ensued. Four years later the mastermind of the scheme, Ladislav Bittman, defected to the US.

Prior to 2016, Russias most notable active measure using the US as a foil was the lie that Aids was made in the USA. In retaliation for US reports of Soviet use of chemical weapons in Afghanistan, the KGB unfurled Operation Denver, a multi-platformed campaign that falsely claimed Aids was an American biological weapon developed at Fort Detrick, Maryland. Central to the effort was the earlier publication of an anonymous letter with a New York byline by an Indian newspaper. The forged missive claimed Aids may invade India: mystery disease caused by US lab experiments.

Rid writes that the letter was a masterfully executed disinformation operation, an amalgam of 20% forgery and 80% fact. The reality was that the Pentagon and the CIA had tested new types of biological weapons in densely populated areas of the US and Canada, and conducted research on disease and psychotropic drugs on an array of human guinea pigs.

The KGB doubled down and published a reworked version of the story in an English-language Soviet publication. At the same time and without any apparent nexus to the Soviet campaign, the Amsterdam News, a paper with a readership base in New Yorks African American community, opined that Aids was a likely result of US bacteria warfare. Once again, social mistrust helped weaponize a concocted narrative.

To be clear, Russian active measures did not tip the 2016 election to the Republicans. On that score, the FBI and Comey had a greater impact. Instead, the Russians caused the US to stare into a mirror, red and blue Americans each seeing what they expected.

Nor is an end in sight. According to the Senate intelligence committee, Russian disinformation efforts may be focused on gathering information and data points in support of an active measures campaign targeted at the 2020 US presidential election, with an emphasis upon gathering personal information from US-based audiences sympathetic to Russian disinformation topics.

America remains mired in a cold civil war. Active Measures is another book for such troubled times.

Original post:

Active Measures review: how Trump gave Russia its richest target yet - The Guardian

On the afternoon of Thursday, March 19, Donald Trump sat in the Oval Office obsessing over the beaches in Florida. CNN footage of shirtless spring breakers packed onto the sand while the coronavirus pandemic raged sparked national outrageand pressure on Trump to act. The next morning, New York governor Andrew Cuomo would announce strict stay-at-home orders for residents, but Floridas Republican governor Ron DeSantis refused to close his states beaches, a position even Floridas Republican senator Rick Scott called reckless. Lots of people were telling Trump to lean on Ron, a Trump adviser said.

Trumps view of the situation was complicated, though. For weeks, his top medical advisers, Dr. Deborah Birx and Dr. Anthony Fauci, had been hectoring him about the seriousness of the crisis and the necessity of swift action, testing, lockdowns. We knew from the beginning...we were going to get cases in the United States, Fauci told me.

We knew we were in for a very serious problem.

Sometimes, Trump listened. The disease was coming closer to his own circlechief of staff Mark Meadows and communications director Stephanie Grisham were self-quarantiningand the number of cases in New York City had reached 4,000. But the substrate of his thinking hadnt evolved, and it kept reappearing. He worried about the economy, which was crucial to his reelection. He vented to friends that the doctors were alarmist, and that the crisis was something Democrats and the media were doing to him. Trump was obsessed with Pelosi, Schiff, the media, just obsessed. He would say, Theyre using it against me! recalled a Republican in frequent contact with the White House. It was unhinged.

Florida was a test case of his magical thinking about the novel coronavirus: That it was temporary, that warm weather would make it disappear. But eight Florida residents had already died from COVID-19 and more than 400 had been diagnosed. Given the elderly population, if that took off, it would be a nightmare, a person close to Trump told me. At an advisers urging, Trump called DeSantis to tell him to shut down the beaches.

Ron, what are you doing down there? Trump said, according to a person briefed on the call.

I cant ban people from going on the beach, DeSantis snapped, surprising Trump.

These pictures look really bad to the rest of the country, Trump said.

Listen, were doing it the right way, DeSantis said.

DeSantiss intransigence backed Trump into a corner. The 41-year-old governor was a Trump protg and a crucial ally in a must-win state. Trump is worried about Florida, electorally, said a Republican who spoke with Trump around this time. Trump did something he rarely does: He caved. He told DeSantis the beaches could stay open.

I understand what youre saying, Trump said, and hung up.

It was inevitable that Health and Human Services secretary Alex Azar would become the West Wing COVID-19 scapegoat. An avuncular Yale educated lawyer with owlish glasses and a beard, Azar was not, as Trump liked to say, out of central casting. Equally bad, Azar was a Bushie, as Trump called Republicans who served in George W. Bushs administration. Azar was briefed on a new and dangerous coronavirus sweeping the Chinese city of Wuhan by CDC director Robert Redfield on January 3but he struggled to communicate this knowledge to the president. At the time of the outbreak, Trump had soured on Azar, whom he blamed for his weak health care polling numbers. Trump thought Azar was a disaster. He is definitely on the gangplank, a person close to Trump told me. Azar wasnt able to speak to Trump about the virus for two weeks, even though Trump called him during this period to scream that the White Houses ban on e-cigarettes, a response to a health crisis that he believed could help him politically, had become a drag on his poll numbers. I never should have done this fucking vaping thing! Trump told Azar on January 17, a person familiar with the call told me.

More here:

Inside Donald Trump and Jared Kushners Two Months of Magical Thinking - Vanity Fair

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Though President Donald Trump has been not big in the empathy department during the coronavirus pandemiche more often talks about his own TV ratings than the tens of thousands Americans who have died during the crisisthe Trump campaign wants his supporters to know that Trump truly cares about them during this time of tragedy and hardship. As proof of Trumps deeply felt concern, his campaign is offering to send his devotees a set of Trump-Pence pint glasses. All for just a contribution of $31.

Yes, the Trump campaign is exploiting the coronavirus to sell campaign swag to Trump supporters. And it is claiming this is a beneficent act on the part of Trump himself.

This week, the Trump campaign sent out a bizarre email to its lists of supporters. Friend, it began, We have some exciting news to tell you. It noted that Trump knows the past few weeks have been extremely difficult for Americans from all across the Nation. Trump, the email said, appreciated those who have stood with him and wanted to do something special for them.

That special act Trump wished to perform for his supporter during this difficult stretch was to offer them EXCLUSIVE ACCESS to Official Trump-Pence Pint Glasses. Isnt that special? Though you may be suffering due to the coronavirus, you now can buy Trump junk. But, the email pointed out, you have to send in $31 for the set of these glasses by midnight. (That was a crockbecause the campaign zapped out this email two days in a row. There was no actual midnight deadline.)

This sounds like a bad joke. But its not. While tens of thousands of Americans are dying, Trump and his campaign decided he could console his supporters and show them hes on their side by peddling them campaign tchotchkes. And this emailsent out with the subject heading Cheersalso requested contributions of $250 and more. What could be more Trumpian? I will recognize this is a difficult period for you and other Americans by offering you the opportunity to help me.

The Trump campaigns fundraising emails often have the whiff of grift. They frequently tell supporters they can join an exclusive group of donorsbecome part of the Trump Gold Card Member circle!and be placed on a list of names that Trump will review personally, as long as they send in a donation immediately. (It can be as small of $35.) This is all bunk and goes above and beyond the usual political sales pitches.

Now the coronavirus pandemic has been seized upon by the Trump campaign as a marketing opportunity. Especially, given that so many Americans are currently self-isolating in their homes. In other recent fundraising solicitations, the campaign has peddled BRAND NEW Trump-Pence 2020 Playing Cards. Two decks for only $30. And the email for this offer proclaimed this was another special deal, for Trump has requested that we give you EARLY ACCESS to get these iconic cards before anyone else. Moreover, the email stated, this is the perfect time to buy playing cards: We know youre at home right now, doing your part to Keep America Safe, and there is no better way to keep yourself entertained AND support your President than by purchasing our Official Trump-Pence 2020 Playing Cards. Another campaign email offered an Official Trump Puzzle for $45. This note, too, declared that during a time of social isolation there is no better way to pass the time with family AND show your support for President Trump than by purchasing a Trump Puzzle.

Trump glasses, Trump cards, Trump puzzles. Theyre part of a long tradition: Trump Steaks, Trump Vodka, Trump University. If theres a chance to sell something, Trump will give it a try. (Another recent email from the campaign promoted Trump-Pence welcome mats.) Blatant commercialism and self-promotion is no surprise for Trump. That is his brand. But this week he and his campaign showed that they can surpass the usual Trumpish crassness by using the horrific coronavirus nightmare to make a buck by selling pint glasses bearing the campaigns logo. How long can it be before Trump and his campaign attempts to raise money by hawking MAGA face masks?

The rest is here:

Donald Trump Is Exploiting the Coronavirus Pandemic to Sell Campaign Swag - Mother Jones

Trevor Noah doesnt like much of what Donald Trump is doing to protect the country during the pandemic. His Daily Social Distancing Show makes that clear.

Tonight, he likened the President of the United States to the detached narrator dealing with a deranged fan in Eminems Stan, all because Trump said he disagreed with Georgia Governor Brian Kemps decision to open up certain businesses in that state soon. I respect him, Trump said. But Id wait a little longer.

Because Kemp is a Republican and supports Trump, Noah saw that as the ultimate betrayal, akin to telling Kemp to show up on a road at a certain time while Trump drove a bus over him.

This is what you get, said Noah. These guys trying so hard to suck up to him, then Bam!

Noah also took issue with Trump not knowing the name of a scientist dismissed from his job who was working on a coronavirus vaccine. He felt since Trump has time to watch television, including reruns of baseball games, that he should know the man.

If you have time to watch reruns of baseball, you have time for anything, Noah said, mentioning that baseball is boring even in real time. Reruns of it? Its like watching paint dry through a PowerPoint slide.

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Trevor Noah Says President Donald Trump Is Like Eminem In The Song Stan - Deadline

The leader of the most prominent group in the US peddling potentially lethal industrial bleach as a miracle cure for coronavirus wrote to Donald Trump at the White House this week.

In his letter, Mark Grenon told Trump that chlorine dioxide a powerful bleach used in industrial processes such as textile manufacturing that can have fatal side-effects when drunk is a wonderful detox that can kill 99% of the pathogens in the body. He added that it can rid the body of Covid-19.

A few days after Grenon dispatched his letter, Trump went on national TV at his daily coronavirus briefing at the White House on Thursday and promoted the idea that disinfectant could be used as a treatment for the virus. To the astonishment of medical experts, the US president said that disinfectant knocks it out in a minute. One minute!

He went on to say: Is there a way we can do something, by an injection inside or almost a cleaning? Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so itd be interesting to check that.

Trump did not specify where the idea of using disinfectant as a possible remedy for Covid-19 came from, and the source for his notion remains obscure. But the Guardian has learned that peddlers of chlorine dioxide industrial bleach have been making direct approaches to the White House in recent days.

Grenon styles himself as archbishop of Genesis II a Florida-based outfit that claims to be a church but which in fact is the largest producer and distributor of chlorine dioxide bleach as a miracle cure in the US. He brands the chemical as MMS, miracle mineral solution, and claims fraudulently that it can cure 99% of all illnesses including cancer, malaria, HIV/Aids as well as autism.

Since the start of the pandemic, Genesis II has been marketing MMS as a cure to coronavirus. It advises users, including children, to mix three to six drops of bleach in water and drink it.

In his weekly televised radio show, posted online on Sunday, Grenon read out the letter he wrote to Trump. He said it began: Dear Mr President, I am praying you read this letter and intervene.

Grenon said that 30 of his supporters have also written in the past few days to Trump at the White House urging him to take action to protect Genesis II in its bleach-peddling activities which they claim can cure coronavirus.

On Friday, hours after Trump talked about disinfectant on live TV, Grenon went further in a post on his Facebook page. He claimed that MMS had actually been sent to the White House. He wrote: Trump has got the MMS and all the info!!! Things are happening folks! Lord help others to see the Truth!

Paradoxically, Trumps outburst about the possible value of an injection of disinfectant into the lungs of Covid-19 sufferers came just days after a leading agency within the presidents own administration took action to shut down the peddling of bleach as a coronavirus cure around the US.

Last week the US Food and Drug Administration obtained a federal court order barring Genesis II from selling what was described as an unproven and potentially harmful treatment for Covid-19. The FDA also ordered a disciple of Genesis II, Kerri Rivera, to remove claims that MMS cured coronavirus from her website.

Last August the FDA issued an urgent warning urging Americans not to buy or drink MMS, which it said was a dangerous bleach which has caused serious and potentially life-threatening side effects. Drinking MMS can cause nausea, diarrhea and severe dehydration that can lead to death, the federal agency said.

The Guardian contacted the White House asking whether Grenons letter had influenced Trumps comments on disinfectant, but did not immediately receive a response.

Another advocate of bleach as a miracle cure who has been seeking to interest Trump in the treatment is Alan Keyes. He is a former ambassador and adviser to Ronald Reagan who ran unsuccessfully as a Republican candidate for the US Senate and on three occasions for the US presidency.

Keyes has featured Genesis II bleach products as a miracle cure on his online conservative TV show, Lets Talk America.

It is not known whether Keyes has discussed MMS with Trump. But the two men have overlapping interests.

Not only have they both featured in Republican party and presidential politics, but they were both leading proponents of the Birther conspiracy theory that wrongfully suggested Barack Obama was born outside America.

Keyess TV show is hosted on IAMtv, a rightwing web-based channel. IAMtvs other leading anchor is Bob Sisson, who has also advertised Genesis II bleach products on air.

In one of his shows, first reported by the Daily Beast, Sisson held up two bottles of Genesis II MMS and said: Gonna meet Trump, its only a matter of time. President Trumps gonna invite us up there, when he finds out about this stuff.

On Friday Trump claimed he was being sarcastic in his remarks but there is no evidence to back up that claim and he appeared entirely serious as he made them.

Continued here:

Revealed: leader of group peddling bleach as coronavirus 'cure' wrote to Trump this week - The Guardian

The first responders arrived 10 minutes after I called 911, suited head to toe in the white hazmat gear you see in disaster films. One of them came into the house and helped my husband down the stairs, shouting down to another EMT that he didnt think theyd need a BiPAP. I made a mental note to ask my doctor-cousin what a BiPAP was and whether it was good or bad that Josh didnt need one.

I love you, I yelled through the screen door as they wheeled Josh on a stretcher toward the ambulance. Our six-year-old son, AJ, stood in the foyer, watching the whole scene unfold with wide-eyed wonder: Who were these guys? And why were they wearing space suits? A scary thought crept into my mind, but I quickly told my brain to shut up. Were not going there. Of course hell survive this. I grabbed my sons hand as the ambulance sped off to the Northwell Health Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead, New York, siren blaring. He didnt understand why I was crying.

If you told me on November 9, 2016, that in fewer than four years wed be hiding in our homes, terrified, fighting for our lives as society shut down around us, the only thing that would surprise me was that it didnt happen sooner. Whether it was a terrorist attack, an economic disaster, war, a global pandemic, or some combination of the above, I always knew that Donald Trump was beyond ill-equipped to handle a crisis, and that ifor whenone showed up, it would be an unmitigated catastrophe. This is why I cried after the 2016 election. This is why I still cant talk to people who didnt vote because they thought Hillary Clinton, the most qualified candidate to ever run for president, would have been just as bad. The situation in which America now finds itself is simultaneously shocking and totally inevitable, the Chaos Candidacy taken to its logical conclusion.

On March 15, when New York City schools were ordered closed, we packed up our car with food and over-the-counter medications and drove out to my parents unoccupied home on Long Island, grateful for a place to ride out the quarantine, not yet realizing that a 120-nanometer passenger had hitched a ride with us. Within daysonly two weeks after Trump told the American people that only 15 people in the U.S. had the coronavirus, and that within a couple of days [the number] is going to be down to close to zeromy otherwise healthy, 45-year-old husband was admitted to the ICU with a serious case of bilateral pneumonia, likely due to COVID-19. We suspected that he picked up the virus while traveling for work to Seattle, Sacramento, and Los Angeles in late February and early March, while our federal government publicly downplayed the severity of the crisis. Just stay calm, Trump had said on March 10. It will go away.

Its easier to be furious than scared, so I let the rage wash over me. I marinated in it. This was avoidable.

The week before Josh was hospitalized, as he isolated in an upstairs bedroom coughing, barely eating, and running a 103 fever, I tried desperately to get both of us tested. After all, Trump had told us on March 7 that anyone who wants a test can get a test. But like most things this president says, it was a lie. What he meant was that anybody who is a celebrity got a test. As a parade of NBA players, actors, and TV hosts came forward with the ultimate humblebrag of 2020that they had tested positive for COVID-19I turned to Twitter to express my outrage about the Kafkaesque hurdles I was experiencing.

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Donald Trumps Pathetic COVID-19 Response Is Killing Thousands of People - Vanity Fair

President Donald Trump weighed in on the news Friday that Randall Stephenson would be retiring and that John Stankey would succeed him.

Trump tweeted, Great News! Randall Stephenson, the CEO of heavily indebted AT&T, which owns and presides over Fake News @CNN, is leaving, or was forced out. Anyone who lets a garbage network do and say the things that CNN does, should leave ASAP. Hopefully replacement will be much better!

Stankey, however, has been chief operating officer since last fall and, before that, was CEO of WarnerMedia, the division that includes CNN.

Stankey also was present throughout AT&Ts defense of its proposed merger with Time Warner after the Justice Department challenged it in a landmark antitrust trial in 2018.

A judge ruled in favor of AT&T, allowing the merger to proceed, and an appeals court reaffirmed that decision before the government dropped the challenge.

Trump, though, opposed the merger from the start. During the campaign, he announced his opposition to the transaction, and it was rather clear then that the source of his discontent was over CNN, the network he has consistently bashed and tagged as fake news. He did so at Thursdays coronavirus press briefing, when he lashed out at correspondent Kaitlan Collins. As she pressed the president with a question about North Korea, he said, CNN is fake news. Dont talk to me.

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Donald Trump Cheers Exit Of Randall Stephenson From AT&T - Deadline

When it comes to the president, most people are dug in. They want him gone, or they admire him more than Abraham Lincoln. Tucked into the divide, though, is some small group still open to hearing what he has to say. Republican pollsters say theyve spotted these voters in their research. Neil Newhouse, who has polled for four different Republican presidential campaigns, told me about a survey his firm conducted last year showing that, of the voters who disapproved of Trumps job performance, 36 percent said they liked some of his policies and some actions that he took. Thats the prize. Theyre the voters Trump can target with an economic-nationalist position that may seem more relevant in the time of COVID-19, Newhouse and other Trump allies told me.

Read: The voters Trump needs most right now

An issue like thisnationalismcould come into play. They may not like everything hes doing, but they like the way hes standing up to China, Newhouse said. John McLaughlin, a Trump pollster who has also worked for dozens of Republican congressional and presidential candidates over the years, echoed that notion. There are some that may not like his style, but support his policies, and in particular, his economic-nationalist argument, he told me. Thats the persuadable middle. Thats where the votes are.

Even within this slice of the electorate, though, are some who see Trumps behavior as so repellent that they cant get past it. Donald Scoggins is one of them. A self-described moderate Republican from Northern Virginia, he backed Trump in the 2016 Republican primaries for a time and favored Trumps economic agenda, especially his pledge to bring manufacturing jobs home from overseas. He admires some of what Trump has done in office, especially Trumps passage of the First Step Act, a criminal-justice-system overhaul that reduced sentences for certain inmates. But its not enough to earn his vote. Youre the best thing since sliced bread if you agree with him, Scoggins, 74, a retired real-estate broker, told me. The minute you dont agree with him, he tends to denigrate you. Thats not an example we want for our youth.

Nor is a nationalist message certain to sway voters who have lost their jobs or fear that an ill-timed sneeze from somebody standing a few feet away might land them in the hospital. I dont know what argument is going to move 10 percent of the voters to Donald Trump, Michael Steele, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee, told me, pointing to the bloc of voters who may be undecided. I dont know what that economic argument is, unless youre so mind-numbingly dumb that you believe the Chinese are the culprits behind the fact that youve lost 30 percent of your retirement.

Its also not clear that Chinas culpability is a top-of-mind concern for many Americans. Geoff Garin, a Democratic pollster, told me that in a survey he conducted in battleground states, people ranked what they believed should be the federal governments priorities in the face of the pandemic. At the top of the list: quashing the virus. At the bottom: holding China accountable for allowing it to spread.

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Trumps Plan to Save His Presidency - The Atlantic