01 November 20
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Heather Cox Richardson | The Interests of Donald Trump
Heather Cox Richardson, Heather Cox Richardson's Facebook Page
Richardson writes: "A record number of 80 million early ballots have already been cast, and we are all parsing the polls for clues about who will emerge as the winner of the 2020 election. What is clear is that, as we approach the end of the campaigns, each is reflecting its presidential candidate."
our years ago, headlines across the country announced that FBI Director James Comey had sent a letter to Congress on October 28 saying that the FBI had “learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation” into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server when she was Secretary of State. That announcement, made despite the Justice Department’s policy of taking care not to do anything that could affect an election, swung the election toward Donald Trump, who won.
Four years later, Trump’s attempt to seed another “investigation” into his rival through the “discovery” of a compromising laptop has fizzled. Today, NBC News noted that a document purporting to show Democratic candidate Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden in a corrupt relationship with Communist leaders in China was actually ghost written by an academic and published under a fake identity.
Meanwhile, a record number of 80 million early ballots have already been cast, and we are all parsing the polls for clues about who will emerge as the winner of the 2020 election.
What is clear is that, as we approach the end of the campaigns, each is reflecting its presidential candidate.
This morning, the New York Times revealed that Trump and Attorney General William Barr worked together to try to stop a criminal investigation into a bank owned by the Turkish state. The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Geoffrey Berman, was preparing a case against Halkbank, which the government suspected was laundering money and sending billions of dollars to Iran, in violation of U.S. sanctions. Investigators believed Iran was using the money to pay for its nuclear weapons program. The case involved President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and members of his family and his political party. In June 2019, Berman was shocked when Barr asked him to end the investigations and let Halkbank get away with paying a fine and admitting some wrongdoing.
The story shows Trump undermining American policy to advance his own interests. From the beginning of Trump’s presidency, Turkey worked to gain influence with the new administration, hiring Trump’s former national security adviser Mike Flynn, for example, as a lobbyist. Erdogan had personally lobbied Trump hard to get rid of the Halkbank investigation. Senior officials worried that the president was chatting with an authoritarian leader about a criminal case, in a country where Trump does business. Erdogan had tried unsuccessfully to get the Obama administration to drop the case, but now appeared to be having better luck. Erdogan told reporters that Trump had assured him he would take care of the matter. It was not until Trump and Erdogan clashed over Syria last October that the U.S. charged the bank, but the charges did not include any individuals. Barr fired Berman this summer.
Similarly, Trump’s willingness to defend his own interests at others’ expense is showing in the final days of his campaign. It is showing generally, with his willingness to expose his supporters to coronavirus infections at his rallies. It is showing more specifically with Trump’s refusal to support endangered Republican Senators who have stood by him and lost support because of it. At Trump’s recent visit to Maine, he did not mention Senator Susan Collins, who is in a tight race with her Democratic challenger, Sara Gideon.
In Arizona, Trump mocked vulnerable senator Martha McSally. "Martha, just come up fast. Fast. Fast. Come on. Quick. You got one minute!" Trump said, as the senator rushed to the stage for some airtime with the president. "One minute, Martha! They don't want to hear this, Martha. Come on. Let's go. Quick, quick, quick. Come on. Let's go.” Trump gave McSally just 60 seconds to speak, before turning the microphone over to other national figures.
A recent endorsement of the president was damning. The publisher of the Spokesman-Review of Spokane, Washington, urged people to vote for Trump only because he claimed Biden’s policies would “strike at the economic well-being of the country.” As for Trump himself, the editorial acknowledged, he “is a bully and a bigot…. He panders to racists and prevents sensible immigration reform in a nation built on immigrant labor and intellect. He tweets conspiracy theories. He’s cavalier about Covid-19 and has led poorly through the pandemic. He seeks to dismantle the Affordable Care Act without proposing a replacement. He denies climate change.”
Even such a half-hearted endorsement drew rebuttals from an editor and a columnist at the paper.
The campaign continues to downplay the coronavirus. Tonight, campaign spokesperson Donald Trump, Jr., told Fox News Channel personality Laura Ingraham that the number of deaths from Covid-19 is now “almost nothing, because we’ve gotten control of this.” But today alone, at least 951 Americans died of the coronavirus, and more than 91,000 new cases were reported. Our overall official death total is approaching 230,000. “If things do not change, if they continue on the course we’re on, there’s gonna be a whole lot of pain in this country with regard to additional cases and hospitalizations, and deaths,” Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday night.
Trump has begun to muse about losing the election, and said he would like simply to drive away, or fly away, from the burden of the presidency. Yesterday, retired Brigadier General Peter B. Zwack wrote that, with his immense financial debts and pending legal issues, “Trump appears to be a classic flight risk.”
Still, though, the president continues to fire up his base with accusations that Democrats are engaging in voter fraud, and that counting ballots after November 3 will mean a stolen election. His rhetoric is so worrisome that business owners in Washington, D.C., are boarding up their windows and Walmart is pulling guns and ammunition from its shelves (although it will continue to sell them on request).
Tonight, both candidates are in Florida, and while Trump could have focused on today’s economic report showing 7% GDP growth in the third quarter, he went all-in with attacks on Hunter Biden and mused about losing.
In contrast to Trump’s erratic personality-driven campaign, Biden’s campaign is smooth and professional. Unlike the Trump campaign, it has plenty of money, and is running fun, moving, and professional ads on social media emphasizing unity and healing for the country.
In addition to the many other groups breaking in Biden’s favor, early data suggests that young Americans are turning out to vote in record numbers. About 63% of voters from ages 18 to 29 say they support Biden, while only about 25% support Trump.
While the polls are suggesting there is little movement in the race, there has been a shift toward Biden in Georgia in the past few days. That shift will likely get a boost from an astonishing moment in a hard-hitting debate last night between embattled incumbent Senator David Perdue, a Republican, and his challenger, Democrat Jon Ossoff.
After Perdue attacked Ossoff for taking money from out-of-state donors who support a “radical socialist agenda,” Ossoff countered with a devastating takedown: “Perhaps Senator Perdue would have been able to respond properly to the Covid-19 pandemic if you hadn’t been fending off multiple federal investigations for insider trading,” he said. “It’s not just that you’re a crook, Senator, it’s that you’re attacking the health of the people that you represent.” Perdue seemed frozen. The clip has gone viral, and today Perdue pulled out of the final debate scheduled between him and Ossoff. Instead he will join Trump for a rally that night.
Biden and Harris are reaching out to Hispanic voters, whose support will matter a lot in southern states. In Florida tonight, at a drive-in event, Biden hammered on Trump’s approach to the pandemic, called for racial justice, and promised that he will not be too hard on Cuba or too soft on Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela’s president. Biden got a boost today from an op-ed in the Miami Herald by Hispanic business and economic leaders who endorsed Biden as the candidate who would build “a stronger, more dynamic economy that works for everyone.” With Hispanic voters extra-concerned about charges of “socialism,” the op-ed’s authors emphasized that Biden is the candidate of “free enterprise.”
Today, Biden wrapped together his pitch to Hispanic voters, an appeal to morality and a better future, and an illustration of how a Biden presidency will be different than its predecessor. He promised that, if he is elected president, he will immediately create a task force to reunite the families of the 545 immigrant children still separated from their parents.
A Biden campaign bus faces dangerous intimidation by Trump supporters on a highway in Texas. (photo: The Daily Beast/Yahoo)
2020 Campaign: Serious Reports of Violent Intimidation Begin to Emerge
Kelly Weill, The Daily Beast
Weill writes: "'These Trump supporters, many of whom were armed, surrounded the bus on the interstate and attempted to drive it off the road,' he alleged. 'They outnumbered police 50-1, and they ended up hitting a staffer's car.'"
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The U.S. Postal Service says it has processed and delivered 122 million mail-in ballots. (photo: Gene J. Puskar/AP)
Delays Still Plague Mail Deliveries as Election Day Nears
Brian Naylor, NPR
Naylor writes: "With Election Day deadlines to receive mail-in ballots for many states around the corner, data show the U.S. Postal Service continues to struggle to meet its own criteria for on-time delivery of first-class mail."
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Early voters have turned out in droves, as seen at this polling location in Durham, N.C., on Oct. 15, 2020. (photo: Gerry Broome/AP)
Biden's Win Would Give Democrats 4 Years of Power. State Legislatures Could Give Them 10.
Phil McCausland, NBC News
McCausland writes: "DeAndrea Salvador said she feels immense political pressure from her state Senate race as she tries to reach new voters in her hometown of Charlotte, even though more than half of North Carolina has already cast its ballots."
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Federal officers use chemical irritants and projectiles to disperse Black Lives Matter protesters near the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse in Portland, Ore., on July 24, 2020. (photo: Noah Berger/AP)
In a First, ICE Agents Are Poised to Respond to Potential Election Day Unrest
Jordan Williams, The Hill
Williams writes: "Agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have been told to be ready for possible unrest in Washington, D.C., on Election Day, NBC News reports."
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Sunday Song: Sam Cooke | A Change Is Gonna Come
Sam Cooke, YouTube
Muhammad Ali and Sam Cooke share a moment, circa 1963. (photo: Unknown)
Excerpt: "There've been times that I thought I couldn't last for long. But now I think I'm able to carry on."
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Activity at a Bakken oil well pad south of Watford City, North Dakota. (photo: William Campbell/Corbis/Getty Images)
The $16 Million Was Supposed to Clean Up Old Oil Wells; Instead, It's Going to Frack New Ones
Nicholas Kusnetz, Inside Climate News
Kusnetz writes: "North Dakota, where Covid-19 rates are surging, is redirecting the federal relief money, turning it into grants that will go directly to oil companies."
orth Dakota's top oil and gas regulator had a problem. With winter bearing down, his department had yet to spend $16 million in federal coronavirus relief funds earmarked for cleaning up abandoned oil and gas well sites across the state, and the arrival of cold weather would halt the work.
If the money wasn't spent by the end of the year, the state would lose it. So Lynn Helms, director of the state's Department of Mineral Resources, proposed a different use for the funds: paying oil companies to hydraulically fracture new wells.
The proposal landed in front of state lawmakers on Wednesday during a budget meeting that many members attended remotely, calling in from easy chairs and living rooms because of the state's surging coronavirus caseload. Despite pleas from some lawmakers that the money would be better spent helping nursing homes safely allow family visits or amplifying contact tracing, the committee approved Helms' request.
Now North Dakota is poised to provide cash grants of up to $200,000 directly to any oil company that's ready to get to work.
The state's oil development is stagnating along with the price of oil, which is too low to spur much fracking activity, and Helms said the grants will change that. They will more than pay for themselves with the additional tax revenues they'll generate, he said, and will help put back to work hundreds of people who once criss-crossed the western corner of the state, fracking oil wells.
But state Rep. Joshua A. Boschee, a Democrat who voted against the proposal, said, "To divert funds away from addressing the public health needs of the citizens while this virus peaks is irresponsible."
Scott Skokos, who heads the Dakota Resource Council, a local environmental group, said in an interview before the hearing that the repurposing of funds seemed to get things exactly backwards. Money that was supposed to clean up old oil wells will instead be used to bring new ones to life. And if the $16 million can't go toward that clean up because of the weather, he said, what about sending it directly to some of the state's residents who are struggling to pay bills or keep businesses open, as coronavirus cases rise to some of the highest levels in the country?
"They're giving taxpayer dollars to the oil industry to frack wells with the hope it will bring the state more taxpayer dollars," Skokos said, "rather than taking the taxpayer dollars and actually using it to benefit taxpayers."
Many members of Skokos's group, who are mostly farmers and ranchers, have lost the use of portions of their land to decrepit well sites that were abandoned decades ago in previous oil busts. Helms has said the sites will be cleaned up next spring, once the ground thaws, using state funds instead. Even so, Skokos finds the repurposing of the money to frack new wells baffling.
"This is just a wild misuse of taxpayer dollars," he said.
At the hearing, lawmakers in favor of the decision said that some of the small businesses that service the industry are struggling to get through the downturn—oil-producing counties have some of the highest levels of unemployment in the state. The money would provide a lifeline, they said.
The $16 million in question is just a small example of the many ways the oil and gas industry has benefited from the coronavirus relief package that Congress passed this year. According to Bailout Watch, an advocacy group funded by Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, petroleum companies have received between $9 billion and $13.8 billion in direct assistance from the federal government. The Main Street Lending Program, in particular, was adjusted in ways that benefited oil companies, many of which were already saddled with high debt loads before the coronavirus struck. Bailout Watch found that the industry accounted for a growing portion of loans coming through that program, about 15 percent of the lending provided in September.
Helms was not available for an interview, but Katie Haarsager, a spokeswoman for the department, said the idea for the reallocation of funds grew out of discussions with representatives of the oil industry and other state agencies. In an email, she said the people who would have been employed cleaning up well sites with the federal money will still be put to work in the spring. "Redirecting the money will now allow others who also have lost work to be back on the job fracking wells that are sitting uncompleted," she added, using the industry spelling for the drilling method.
In its request to redirect the funds, the department said the proposal would create hundreds of jobs. North Dakota is highly dependent on taxes from oil production, which plummeted earlier this year, and the oil-related income it provides.
While production has climbed most of the way back, the department said it will start to fall again soon, because current oil prices aren't high enough to prompt oil companies to complete their wells—the state has more than 800 wells that have been drilled but have not been fracked, the final step before production begins. The grants, Helms said in the request, would stabilize production and boost tax revenues. He said several companies have already committed to frack more than 60 wells with the funds.
But those companies would probably frack those wells anyway, eventually, even without the grants, once oil prices climb high enough to warrant it. At the legislative hearing, Helms acknowledged that most of the jobs provided will only last as long as the funding, through the end of this year, after which the workers may again be furloughed.
"This is like a taxpayer bailout to the oil industry to get them to do something they would do anyway." Skokos said. "It's like corporate welfare at the highest level."
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