POLITICO NIGHTLY: How to swear in a pandemic president

BY RYAN HEATH AND THEODORIC MEYER Presented by With help from Renuka Rayasam and Myah Ward WHAT TO DO WHEN THERE’S A CALL — Joe Biden is on the precipice of the White House. He holds narrow leads in Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Georgia. Head to POLITICO’s 2020 election homepage for the latest results. WELL, SOMEBODY WILL GET INAUGURATED — The winner of the presidential election hasn’t been called, but one thing about Jan. 20, 2021, is all but certain: We won’t see the largest Inauguration Day crowds in the history of the National Mall. If Joseph R. Biden is declared president-elect in the coming days — to repeat, still not a certainty — the ceremonies aren’t likely to match the massive inaugurations when Biden was sworn in as vice president in 2008 and 2012. What might the day look like? Here’s the view from eight inauguration experts who spoke to Nightly over the past few days: There’s no constitutional requirement, except for an oath of office. But since 1901, a congressional committee — the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies — has planned a swearing-in ceremony at the Capitol. Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), the committee’s chair, said Wednesday that senators are still trying to figure out how to hold an inauguration during a pandemic. “I’ve decided that one of the things we’d do is plan for a big inauguration,” Blunt said during an online event hosted by the law and lobbying firm BakerHostetler. The committee decided June 30 to conduct the swearing-in ceremonies of the next president on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol, its traditional site since President Ronald Reagan’s inauguration in 1981. But even that plan is provisional. “It’s easier to scale back,” Blunt said, “and then do our best to meet the expectations of both the Congress and maybe more importantly on that day the person being sworn in as president. What do they want that day to look like and how do we do that as safely as we can?” For a West Front ceremony to happen in January, construction on the massive 10,000 square feet wooden platform needed to start from scratch on Sept. 21. So it did. Even so, “due to the ever-changing circumstances, we are constantly assessing the situation,” said Paige Waltz, a committee spokesperson. The Department of Defense, too, has 1,000 inauguration employees getting ready for Jan. 20. U.S. Army Colonel Robert Phillips, director of communication for Joint Task Force - National Capital Region, which coordinates the military’s inaugural support, said his team had been “planning pretty hard since August.” His message was stability and continuity: “The conditions may change, but that’s why we plan.” But inaugurations can be simple and small: In 2013, because Jan. 20 fell on a Sunday, President Barack Obama took the oath for his second term in the Blue Room of the White House surrounded only by his family and Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. The Jan. 21 public ceremony was just for show. Biden could choose to repeat that setting, livestreaming it, or go for some other smaller scale inauguration. With the presidential race still uncalled, a potential inauguration hasn’t been top of mind for Biden’s team. A Biden transition official said all inaugural planning would be handled by the Presidential Inaugural Committee, which hasn’t been set up yet. Clues are on the menu: Inaugural uncertainty shows in little details, like a non-committal answer on whether the traditional Inaugural luncheon at the Capitol would take place. “The JCCIC is committed to planning inaugural ceremonies that are as traditional, safe, and inclusive as possible,” is all Waltz would say. The luncheon would ordinarily include the outgoing and incoming president and vice president, the House and Senate leadership, Supreme Court justices and incoming cabinet nominees. A lunch like that seems unlikely. Other recent events at the Capitol, such as the funeral of John Lewis during summer’s coronavirus surge, operated at less than 20 percent of the normal occupancy. The Biden campaign’s current strict Covid protocols include everyone submitting to testing within 36 hours of being near him, everyone wearing N95 masks, no hand shaking, and no touching. That’s very difficult to manage in a traditional inaugural setting and scale. “The optics of having the inaugural be deemed a super-spreader event would tank the credibility of a new president who has vowed to tackle the virus head-on on day 1,” said one organizer of Obama’s 2013 inaugural. The biggest wild card is President Donald Trump’s role, were he to lose reelection. Michael Chertoff, Secretary of Homeland Security under President George W. Bush, said successful transfers of power “start at the top.” In Chertoff’s case, he said, “President Bush wanted it to be well executed and it was.” A small Biden inaugural could conceivably reduce or remove Trump’s role. Five outgoing presidents have skipped their successor’s swearing-in: John Adams (1800), John Quincy Adams (1829), Andrew Johnson (1869), Woodrow Wilson (1921), and just-resigned Richard Nixon in 1974. Bad weather can also wreck the best-laid plans. It sent Reagan’s 1985 ceremony into the Capitol Rotunda and William Taft’s 1909 ceremony to the Senate. What scope does a president-elect have to alter the arrangements? The Presidential Inaugural Committee, which forms after a new president is elected, can essentially take charge of events that occur outside of the Capitol complex, like parades, balls, and other celebrations. On the official ceremonies at the Capitol, Waltz predicted “vigorous discussions” with the president-elect and promised to “work to accommodate to the extent possible,” any requests of a new president. Given the Biden campaign’s obsessive Covid-19 safety planning, multiple big inauguration events per day seem unlikely, according to two senior Obama supporters involved in the 2013 inaugural. If Biden is inaugurated in January, don’t expect a big concert in front of Lincoln Memorial, or anything designed to attract millions of visitors for multiple days. Sign up for POLITICO Transition Playbook to track the appointments, the people and the power centers of the next administration. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out at rheath@politico.com, tmeyer@politico.com and rrayasam@politico.com, or on Twitter at @politicoryan, @theodoricmeyer and @renurayasam. A message from Care in Action: Right now, children are crying for their parents, because our government said “we need to take away children” - cruelly plotting to separate babies from their parents. How do we explain to our kids that families were separated on our watch? We need to reunite every family. Now.   Gabriel Sterling, Voting Systems Manager for the Georgia Secretary of State's office, answers questions during a press conference on the status of ballot counting in Atlanta. | Getty Images COVID-2020 IT’S STILL GOING — Biden seems to be closing in on a victory. But he’s staring at a deeply divided nation — and an opponent who may refuse to accept the results. In the latest POLITICO Dispatch, national correspondent Natasha Korecki breaks down how Biden is preparing for what would be a rocky transition. Listen to the latest POLITICO Dispatch podcast ‘SCAPEGOAT’ — Trump’s gains in South Texas among Mexican Americans and with Miami’s Cuban American population have raised alarms among many Democrats. But while Democrats are taking stock of their losses in those states, some are warning against pinning the blame on Latino voters, write Laura Barrón-López, Sabrina Rodríguez and Nightly’s Renuka Rayasam. “The overall fixation on Latinos is a scapegoat,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) told Laura. Biden’s share of Latino voters across the country matched Hillary Clinton’s four years ago. In the Rio Grande Valley and Miami, however, Trump’s Latino outreach yielded tens of thousands of new Republican voters. Some Democrats say the losses signal that the party needs to rethink its long-term messaging and strategy for Latinos — one more tailored to the unique experiences of Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, Venezulans, Cubans and more. “I do think unless the Democratic Party as a whole really begins taking seriously this flight of Latinos from Democratic Party to the Trump party we could lose folks for a generation,” said Democratic Rep. Veronica Escobar, who was reelected on Tuesday in her El Paso district.   NEW EPISODES OF POLITICO'S GLOBAL TRANSLATIONS PODCAST: The world has long been beset by big problems that defy political boundaries, and these issues have exploded in 2020. Are world leaders and political actors up to the task of solving them? Is the private sector? Our Global Translations podcast, presented by Citi, unpacks the roadblocks to smart policy decisions and examines the long-term costs of the short-term thinking that drives many political and business decisions. Subscribe for Season Two, available now.     ON THE HILL SPEAKER SPEAKS UP — Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants another two-year term running the House, cementing her role — for now — as the most powerful woman in Washington, John Bresnahan, Heather Caygle and Sarah Ferris write. The 80-year-old Pelosi is coming off a disappointing Election Day, where her party lost at least five seats so far in the House, but the California Democrat intends to stay in the speaker’s chair during the 117th Congress, according to letters sent to her colleagues this morning. Pelosi has served as the Democratic leader since 2002, and the vast majority of her colleagues have never known anyone else running their caucus. Pelosi also pledged to work closely with, in her words, “President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris,” who are now leading the race for the White House. House Democrats will formally begin choosing their leaders on Nov. 18. No challenger to Pelosi is expected to emerge, and none could defeat her, although a small number of disgruntled House Democrats want a change atop her caucus.       NIGHTLY NUMBER 638,000 The number of jobs U.S. employers added in October, a solid pace though far fewer than needed to regain most of the jobs lost to the pandemic recession just as new viral cases are setting record highs. PUNCHLINES WONDER WHAT COMEDIANS ARE TALKING ABOUT THIS WEEK? After giving you the recipe for a Pink Trumptini, Matt Wuerker, in the Punchlines Weekend Wrap , takes you through the latest in political satire and cartoons on the election. PALACE INTRIGUE OUTFOXED — Not all marriages of convenience end up in divorce court, but when they do, it’s easy pickings to find the forensic evidence that doom awaited the relationship, senior media writer Jack Shafer writes. And so it is this week, as Trump and Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News Channel all but finalized their own conscious uncoupling, that we can see that the two weren’t really falling apart as they were never really together. It’s true that Fox propped Trump up when other networks were treating him as a novelty, reliably televising his stemwinder speeches and letting his proxies spin away his blatant untruths and off-the-cuff insults. And it’s true that Fox was proud to have the president as Viewer Number One, taking his calls and often seemingly broadcasting directly to his bedroom TV. The truest thing you can say about politics and the entertainment business is that eventually, every political career grinds to an ugly end and every show gets canceled. For the longest time, it seemed, the Trump show on Fox was looking at a four-year renewal. But audiences and voters — like husbands and wives —can be a fickle bunch.   KEEP UP WITH THE PEOPLE AND POLITICS DRIVING GLOBAL HEALTH IN GLOBAL PULSE: This year has revealed just how pivotal it is to keep up with the politics and policy driving global health. Our Global Pulse newsletter connects leaders, policymakers, and advocates to the people and politics making an impact on our global health. Join the conversation and subscribe today.     PARTING WORDS GEORGIA ON MY MIND — Clayton County, south of Atlanta, is one of the keys to Biden’s tenuous lead in Georgia — and, therefore, to his lead in the race for 270 votes in the Electoral College. Renu grew up there. She emails us this dispatch about her childhood home: My parents, who grew up and got married in South India, settled in Jonesboro, Ga., in 1979 in a community built around a man-made lake called Lake Spivey. This is the southern part of Clayton County. It shared more similarities with Macon, about an hour south, than with the northern part of the county, which is part of John Lewis’ former congressional district and is a 25-minute drive away. In the 1980s Jonesboro residents had two things to brag about: Gone with the Wind was set in a fictionalized version of the area and Burt Reynolds filmed Smokey and the Bandit there. My brother and I still point out the house that Reynolds owned when we take friends out on our parents’ boat. As a kid, I was tasked with handing out the okra my mother grew in the backyard to our Southern neighbors, some of whom had Confederate flags flying on their doorsteps. My first Cabbage Patch Kid had blonde hair and blue eyes. Forty years later my parents still live in Jonesboro. We talk more about how rapper T.I. owned a home (and carried out his house arrest) on the lake than we talk about Mr. Burt Reynolds. Over the summer Slutty Vegan, a very popular Black-owned meatless burger joint, opened up a Jonesboro location. There are plenty of Black professionals, and no Confederate flags, in the neighborhood where my parents live now. These days Jonesboro feels more like an Atlanta suburb than the rural outpost of my youth. Still it came as a shock to me this morning when I woke up to see national reporters tweeting about Clayton County. Growing up in the 1980s, Jonesboro felt so far from the center of anything important that I fled the first chance I got. Clayton County’s change from a white, rural area to a majority Black Atlanta suburb, from a county that voted for George H.W. Bush in 1988 to one that could deliver Georgia to Biden, seemed like a slow transition. But looking back, it happened really fast. It’s not the kind of fast-growing suburban transformation that typically gets attention in a presidential election year — it was just Black families leaving New York and other expensive places for areas with cheaper housing. A lot of white families left to move farther South to build a different bubble. I saw it happening in my own lifetime, but I somehow missed its significance. Riding around the roads where I learned to drive, I remember the (sometimes traumatic) moments of my childhood. I see an area that suffers from poverty, unemployment and neglect. I missed other changes that have turned out to have national significance. But, today, voters in Clayton County may have proved what my mom has been trying to convince me of for years: There’s something happening in Jonesboro. A message from Care in Action: Right now, children are crying for their parents, because our government said “we need to take away children” - cruelly plotting to separate babies from their parents. “I always tell my kids to treat others the way you want to be treated. How do I explain to our kids that families were separated on our watch?” We can make this a nation we’re proud to leave our kids. We need to reunite every family. Now.   Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here.   Follow us on Twitter Renuka Rayasam @renurayasam Chris Suellentrop @suellentrop Tyler Weyant @tweyant Myah Ward @myahward   FOLLOW US

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MIDDLEBORO REPUBLICANS: YOU ARE AN EMBARRASSMENT!

 

MIDDLEBORO: YOU ARE AN EMBARRASSMENT!

SENATOR

MIDDLEBORO:

EDWARD J. MARKEY 6244

KEVIN J. O'CONNOR 6803

STATEWIDE VOTE TOTALS:

MARKEY 2,289,599 66.5%

O'CONNOR 1,154,600 33.5%

I watched an interview with Mr. O'Connor in which he was unable to answer basic policy questions.

Massachusetts Republican Voter Registration is at a 70 year low because unqualified candidates are being promoted and supported.

MIDDLEBORO: YOU ARE AN EMBARRASSMENT!

PLYMOUTH COUNTY TREASURER:

MIDDLEBORO:

THOMAS J. O'BRIEN 6411

CARINA LEEZA MOMPELAS 5503

COUNTY TOTALS:

THOMAS J. O'BRIEN 172,072 64%

CARINA LEEZA MOMPELAS 96,802 36%

CARINA LEEZA MOMPELAS is 24 years old, defeated when she ran for Mayor of Brockton, never held public office before

REPUBLICAN VOTER REGISTRATION IS AT A 70 YEAR LOW.

Voting for, supporting or electing unqualified candidates will not improve the PARTY and jeopardizes the future.

The PLYMOUTH COUNTY TREASURER is responsible for lots of retirees, lots of future retirees....

This is not a simple 'balance your checkbook' kinda job, bookkeeping or preparing tax returns.

Once upon a time, Middleboro's Braindead Republicans elected a man year after year after year...and he never figured out where Beacon Hill was, but he got his pension.

Fortunately, Middleboro was gerrymandered and blessed with 3 state reps.

Tom O'Brien was elected and boasted 100% attendance.

Tom O'Brien was elected at a time that PLYMOUTH desperately needed a new REGISTRY and Court House.

Anyone who attempted research at that time knew how overcrowded it was. Half of a year in the back hall, the rest of the year down stairs...and because it was so overcrowded, inadequate space for copy machines, books were on tables and title searchers waited to copy records....and if an attorney scheduled a closing, people were climbing over them....old parchment documents were on microfiche with all of the ups and downs so you needed at least 2 copies to make it readable.

I was researching an Indian Purchase during the Mass Bay Colony and it seems to me that the PROBATE RECORDS were on INDEX CARDS.

The records are now ON LINE and accessible.

There is space set aside for closings.

The OLD RECORDS have been put in books with newer technology that makes them readable.

Title searchers have their own offices.

There was a great deal of innovation that made the complex usable.

Her age simply highlights her lack of experience.

And I'm sorely disappointed at the vote in Middleboro that risked electing an unqualified candidate.

I've knocked on enough doors and heard "I'm a Republican! And vote only for Republicans" to understand that that attitude is folly!

MIDDLEBORO: YOU ARE AN EMBARRASSMENT!

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES:

BILL KEATING 6428

HELEN BRADY 6112

MICHAEL MANLEY [COACH TEAM AMERICA] 358

Lovvorn is not the only Bay State Republican embracing fringe theories in the run-up to the election. Helen Brady, the Plymouth Republican running against Rep. Bill Keating, recently tweeted a medical study that has been cited by coronavirus conspiracy theorists, and confirmed her concern to POLITICO that the government could use a Covid-19 vaccine to insert medical information into a patient's skin. Conspiracy theories about the pandemic have derailed contact tracing efforts in other states, and further conspiracies about a vaccine could deter people from getting it once it becomes available.

LINK

REPRESENTATIVE IN THE GENERAL COURT

TWELFTH PLYMOUTH DISTRICT

[STATE REPRESENTATIVE]

KATHLEEN R. LANATRA 1209  

SUMMER K. SCHMALING 1428

WHEN SUMMER K. SCHMALING SERVED ON THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE, SHE OPPOSED REPLACING 20 YEAR OLD SCIENCE TEXTBOOKS BECAUSE SHE SAID SCIENCE HADN'T CHANGED IN 20 YEARS. 

PLYMOUTH COUNTY TREASURER:

14-year incumbent faces challenger WHO HAS NEVER HELD PUBLIC OFFICE in Plymouth County treasurer race

ONCE UPON A TIME, MIDDLEBORO ELECTED A REPUBLICAN OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER....YEAR AFTER YEAR ... EVEN THOUGH THAT REPUBLICAN NEVER MANAGED TO FIND BEACON HILL MORE THAN ONCE OR TWICE A YEAR. 

BECAUSE OF THE SUCCESS OF MIDDLEBORO REPUBLICANS' SUPPORT, THE REPUBLICAN EARNED A HEALTHY PENSION FOR WHICH MIDDLEBORO RECEIVED NO REPRESENTATION. 

WHEN MIDDLEBORO WAS MERCIFULLY SPLIT, TOM O'BRIEN STEPPED FORWARD TO REPRESENT A PORTION OF MIDDLEBORO AND OTHER COMMUNITIES AT A TIME WHEN THERE WERE CHALLENGES. 

TOM O'BRIEN ADDRESSED THE CHALLENGE OF THE OVERWHELMED AND OVERCROWDED  PLYMOUTH REGISTRY OF DEEDS AND COUNTY OFFICES, CREATING A STATE OF THE ART FACILITY WITH ONLINE ACCESS.

TOM O'BRIEN BOASTED 100% ATTENDANCE REPRESENTING HIS CONSTITUENTS. 

HIS CURRENT REPUBICAN OPPONENT HAS NEVER HELD OFFICE, LOST ELECTION FOR MAYOR AND OFFERS NO LOCAL PARTICIPATION IN ANY ORGANIZATIONS. 

IS THIS THE REPUBLICAN PATH TO SUCCESS?   IF SO, THE MASS GOP IS DESTROYING ITSELF WITH CANDIDATES SUCH AS THIS.

REGISTER AND VOTE! 

14-year incumbent faces challenger in Plymouth County treasurer race

By  Wheeler Cowperthwaite The Patriot Ledger

Posted Oct 5, 2020 

Democrat Thomas O’Brien, who has held the treasurer position since 2006, is facing a Republican challenger in the general election.

One incumbent Democrat and one challenging Republican are running in this year’s election for treasurer of Plymouth County, a position that rarely grabs headlines but manages vast sums of money as part of its duties.

Incumbent Thomas O’Brien, 56, of Plymouth, is running for reelection for the fourth time. He was first appointed as treasurer in 2006 and successfully ran for election in 2008.

Challenging him is Republican Carina Mompelas, 24, of Brockton, who previously ran for mayor in 2019.

Before running for treasurer, O’Brien was elected to the state House of Representatives for the 12th District, between 1996 and 2006.

O’Brien said as the chief financial officer for the county, which has an annual budget of $10 million, he helped develop a 10-year plan for the county. He was also tasked in 2014 with starting a fund, called Other Post Employment Benefits, also known as OPEB. The Governmental Accounting Standards Board required cities and towns to prefund their benefit obligations. O’Brien helped create a multiple employer trust to leverage the resources of towns in Plymouth and surrounding areas.

“The combined assets of a number of employers mean better returns, lower fees and better performance,” he said.

A total of 28 cities, towns and other entities are part of the county-run trust, he said.

One of O’Brien’s statutory roles is the administration of $1.12 billion in the Plymouth County Retirement Association, which covers a total of 11,663 people.

“We’ve more than doubled assets under my management,” he said.

Mompelas said she works as a financial analyst and has worked in finance for many years. She graduated from the University of Massachusetts Boston.

Mompelas said she wants to “restore ethics” in the treasurer’s office and said O’Brien has “failed to serve his constituents,” charging O’Brien with not doing enough during his tenure.

She said she wants more transparency within county government, starting with the filming and publishing of public meetings, a position advocated for by candidates in the county commission primary.

Mompelas said not enough people know what the county treasurer does because of a lack of outreach.

She said she sees the role of country treasurer is to make sure money “is flowing the right way, and keeping revenue up for the county.”

The county is like a franchise of the state government, she said.

Voters in Massachusetts have until Oct. 24 to register to vote in the Nov. 3 primary and until Oct. 28 to request a mail-in ballot. Early voting will take place from Oct. 16 to Oct. 30.

Mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day and received by Nov. 6 will be counted. A town or city’s books will also remain open for 10 days for military and overseas ballots to arrive.

Registration can be done by mail or  at sec.state.ma.us/ovr. 

MEET THE CANDIDATES

Name: CARINA MOMPELAS

Address: 34 Walnut S., Brockton

Age: 24

Family: Single

Occupation: Financial analyst

Relevant experience: Ran for mayor of Brockton

Other: Volunteers for Best Buddies mentors with youth with RISE

Name: THOMAS O’BRIEN

Address: 38 Flint Locke Drive, Plymouth

Age: 56

Family: Married, 2 grown children

Occupation: Plymouth County treasurer

Relevant experience: Treasurer, 2006-present; state representative, 1996-2006; financial consultant 2000-2006

Other: Member, Kingston Lion’s Club, co-founder South Shore Recycling Co-Op, Massachusetts municipal treasurer’s license

PLEASE LISTEN TO THE DEBATE. CARINA MOMPELAS HAS NO EXPERIENCE, DOESN'T UNDERSTAND THE JOB RESPONSIBILITIES AND IS MAKING UNSUBSTANTIATED ACCUSATIONS.

WATD Studios: Listen to Live Political Forum with Candidates for Plymouth County Treasurer

On Tuesday night WATD held a political forum with the candidates for Plymouth County Treasurer, incumbent Democrat Tom O’Brien and Republican challenger, Carina Mompelas.

Moderator Christine James, was joined by Monday Night Talk Host, Kevin Tocci, and Reporter Charles Mathewson, asking questions.

Listen to entire forum here:

Audio Player

01:42

56:15

Use Up/Down Arrow keys to increase or decrease volume.

 

LINK

RUSSIANS PROMOTING BACK THE BLUE! MIDDLEBORO REPUBLICANS RALLY - NO FACE MASKS, INCLUDING NEIL ROSENTHAL!

If you do your research, RUSSIANS have been promoting SUPPORT THE BLUE as a way of 

creating division in the US with untrue information. 

REPUBLICANS seem to believe ANYTHING AND REFUSE TO DO ANY RESEARCH! 

Russian Operation Masqueraded as Right-Wing News Site to Target US Voters

he Russian group accused of meddling in the 2016 U.S. election has posed as an independent news outlet to target right-wing social media users ahead of this year's vote, two people familiar with an FBI probe into the activity told Reuters.

The latest operation centred around a pseudo media organisation called the Newsroom for American and European Based Citizens (NAEBC), which was run by people associated with the St. Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency, the sources said.

U.S. prosecutors say the agency played a key role in Russian efforts to sway the 2016 election in favour of President Donald Trump, and Facebook and Twitter exposed a fake left-wing media outlet in September which they said was run by people connected to the organisation.

NAEBC and its activity, which have not been previously reported, now show that Russian attempts to influence U.S. voters ahead of the 2020 election have targeted both sides of the political divide.

The website predominately focused on U.S. politics and current events, republishing articles from conservative media and paying real Americans to write about politically-sensitive issues. A network of accounts posing as editors and journalists then promoted the articles on social media sites favoured by right-wing users.

Topics covered by NAEBC ranged from attacks on Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to criticism of the Black Lives Matter movement and praise for Wisconsin shooter Kyle Rittenhouse.

Russia has repeatedly denied allegations of election interference. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he did not know anything about NAEBC or the fake left-wing news site, Peace Data. "The Russian state does not engage in such activity," he said.

The FBI declined to comment.

When asked by email about NAEBC's connections to Russia, a person identifying themselves as Nora Berka, an assistant editor, said: "I have no idea what does NAEBC have to do with it." The person declined to speak by phone or video call.

After Reuters contacted NAEBC for comment, social media accounts in the name of Nora Berka and other NAEBC staff removed all references to the website from their profiles and deleted some of their previous posts.

'SCREW OVER'

NAEBC presents itself as a "free and independent" media outlet based in Hungary with a mission to promote conservative and right-wing voices. Its main page carries a warning to its readers: "Don't get yourself fooled."

The website's own name, however, is a pun on a Russian expletive meaning to deceive or "screw over."

Ben Nimmo, head of investigations at social media analytics firm Graphika, analysed the website after being alerted to the activity by Reuters. He said NAEBC and the left-wing Peace Data showed Russian influence operations had evolved since 2016.

"But the overall strategy looks unchanged: energise Trump supporters, depress support for Biden, and target both sides with divisive and polarising messages," he said.

NAEBC has been active since late June and built a small network of personas on Twitter and LinkedIn - some of which used computer-generated photographs of non-existent people - to solicit articles from followers and freelance journalists, according to the Graphika analysis.

Nimmo said the accounts failed to attract any significant following but got more traction on Gab and Parler - two social media platforms favoured by right-wing users for their lax approach to content moderation.

Paul Rockwell, head of trust and safety at LinkedIn, said his company had previously suspended three NAEBC accounts. "This is part of our regular work to actively seek out signs of state-sponsored activity on the platform and quickly take action against bad actors," he said.

Facebook said it had stopped one attempt to create an NAEBC account and blocked the website from being shared on its platforms.

Twitter declined to comment. Before being contacted by Reuters, the company had already suspended NAEBC's main account and an account in the name of Nora Berka, as well as blocking the NAEBC website address as a "potentially harmful" link.

A spokeswoman for Parler said the company was not aware of NAEBC and had not discussed the activity with law enforcement. Gab did not respond to a request for comment.

DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS

A senior U.S. security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the press, said Russian operatives were increasingly recruiting "unwitting Americans" to write articles and post online.

Reuters identified three writers located in the United States who contributed articles to NAEBC. Two of them were established authors who had written for a number of right-wing outlets, while the third was an amateur journalist.

One of the writers, who asked not to be named publicly, said they had been working for NAEBC for the last month with no knowledge of its Russian backing.

Emails seen by Reuters show the website operated much like it's left-wing counterpart, Peace Data. Writers were paid from $50 to $75 per an article, and money was sent promptly via online transfer.

NAEBC staff also gave detailed instructions for the articles they commissioned and how they should be framed.

In late August, a person emailing as Nora Berka asked one writer for a story about calls to defund U.S. police departments in the wake of nationwide protests over a string of high-profile killings of black men by white officers.

NAEBC asked the author to question "how American citizens are supposed to protect themselves without police," and specifically mention increased gun purchases as well as incidents of violence and shootings.

"Here we should mention that a lot of democrats support de-funding the police," the person writing as Berka said. "And in case if they win 2020, it can happen."

https://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/65435-russian-operation-masqueraded-as-right-wing-news-site-to-target-us-voters

MIDDLEBORO REPUBLICANS RALLIED WITH NO FACE MASKS, INCLUDING NEIL ROSENTHAL. 

CLICK ON THE LINK - LOTS OF PHOTOS OF MIDDLEBORO REPUBLICANS WITH NO FACE MASKS!

Photos: We Back the Blue rally held in Middleboro

Photos: We Back the Blue rally held in Middleboro The Middleborough Republican Town Committee held a We Back the Blue standout at the busy intersection of South M...