POLITICO Massachusetts Playbook: SUPER PAC to boost LYNCH challenger — PATRICK on the DEMOCRATIC PARTY — Most kids will need FLU SHOTS

 

Aug 20, 2020   BY STEPHANIE MURRAY GOOD MORNING, MASSACHUSETTS. PATRICK: 'EVERYONE IS A TARGETED VOTER' — The first-ever all-virtual Democratic National Convention comes to a close tonight. Nominee Joe Biden will deliver remarks, following a week of speeches from the party's stars including vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris, former President Barack Obama and home state Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who delivered her address from a childcare center in Springfield on Wednesday evening. It's been eight years since Deval Patrick delivered his memorable speech at the 2012 convention. I spoke with the former governor and 2020 presidential candidate this week about the convention and the direction of Democratic politics. Patrick is co-chair of a joint effort by the Unite the Country and American Bridge 21st Century super PACs to boost Biden, and he supports Democratic candidates through his TogetherFund PAC, which launched earlier this year. Ahead of the November election, the party has to reject the habit of campaigning to its base and bring people together, Patrick told me. Democrats should be careful to avoid alienating voters who backed President Donald Trump in 2016 but are considering voting for Biden this time around, he added. The convention has made a clear effort to appeal to voters in swing states like Pennsylvania this week, where 2016 nominee Hillary Clinton lost. "Everyone is a targeted voter, if you will, and everybody matters. And I think that's important. You know, we have a bad habit in politics, I think, when people talk to people who already agree with them. And in the case of Donald Trump, he seems to be interested only in governing people who already agree with him," Patrick said. "It is a really important contrast for this convention to show that Democrats are interested, not just in getting these jobs, and that job of the presidency in particular, but actually doing it and that means paying attention to everybody," he continued. NEW: SUPER PAC TO SPEND FOR LYNCH CHALLENGER — A new super PAC is wading into the primary race between Rep. Stephen Lynch and Dr. Robbie Goldstein. Progressives are eyeing the Sept. 1 contest as an opportunity for an upset after victories in other states, like New York and Missouri. The new group is called the Committee for Access to Affordable Healthcare , and it is focusing on distinctions between Lynch and Goldstein on health care issues, like Medicare for All. Lynch voted against the Affordable Care Act and was previously against abortion, the group notes on its website. The longtime congressman is a moderate Democrat, and if the presidential primary is a guide, so are many of his constituents. Joe Biden won every city and town in Lynch's district on Super Tuesday. The Committee for Access to Affordable Healthcare has raised more than $60,000, according to treasurer Dr. Marjory Bravard, and the group plans to spend the cash on digital ads. Bravard is a doctor at Massachusetts General Hospital, where Goldstein works as a primary care doctor and infectious disease specialist. Goldstein has had a front-row seat to the pandemic, overseeing two intensive care units for Covid-19 patients at the hospital. The super PAC will provide a financial boost for Goldstein, who has $224,000 to spend in the final days of the primary race. Lynch reported having $1.5 million in his war chest at the end of the last FEC filing period. Have a tip, story, suggestion, birthday, anniversary, new job, or any other nugget for the Playbook? Get in touch: smurray@politico.com. TODAY — Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, Sen. Ed Markey and Rep. Joe Kennedy III speak at the Boston GreenFest virtual business summit. Markey campaigns in Worcester, Framingham and Ashland. Kennedy begins a 24-hour campaigning blitz around the state. Rep. Seth Moulton hosts a Democratic National Convention watch party.   PLUG IN WITH PLAYBOOK AT THE DNC : Join POLITICO Playbook Co-authors Anna Palmer and Jake Sherman from Aug. 18 to 20 for "Plug in with Playbook," our new political show making its virtual debut at this year's conventions. Get the latest developments on presumptive nominee Joe Biden's campaign, analysis of down-ballot races, a look at this cycle’s swing states, along with other election-related updates. Featured guests include DNC chair Tom Perez, convention CEO Joe Solmonese, Biden campaign senior adviser Symone Sanders, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and others. WATCH LIVE.     THE LATEST NUMBERS – “Massachusetts reports 28 new COVID deaths, 262 coronavirus cases on Wednesday,” by Tanner Stening, MassLive.com: “Massachusetts health officials announced another 28 coronavirus deaths on Wednesday, bringing the statewide death count to 8,645. Officials also confirmed another 262 cases of COVID-19, for a total of 115,048 cases statewide.” DATELINE BEACON HILL – “Unions say in-person learning plans not a done deal,” by Shira Schoenberg, CommonWealth Magazine: “Gov. Charlie Baker and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education have urged all communities with a low prevalence of COVID-19 – marked green or white on a new state color-coded map – to start with some form of in-person learning. When Baker issued that guidance August 11, all but 33 communities were in that low-prevalence category.” – “Flu vaccine now required for all Massachusetts students enrolled in child care, pre-school, K-12 and post-secondary institutions, state says,” by Melissa Hanson, MassLive.com: “Massachusetts health officials on Wednesday announced that influenza immunization will now be required for all children aged 6 months or older who are attending Massachusetts child care, pre-school, kindergarten, K-12, and colleges and universities, part of a measure to address respiratory illness during the coronavirus pandemic.” – “Governor’s Council members balk at holdover judge,” by Lisa Kashinsky, Boston Herald: “Members of the Governor’s Council are calling for the removal of an Industrial Accident Board judge still serving in a holdover role and collecting a six-figure salary eight months after they say she withdrew her renomination for the position. Gov. Charlie Baker moved to reappoint Administrative Judge Sabina Herlihy after her six-year year term expired on May 29, 2019, according to the state’s website.” FROM THE HUB – “Boston City Council rejects ZBA nominees, in rift with Walsh administration,” by Danny McDonald, Boston Globe: “In a break with Mayor Martin J. Walsh during a time when the city’s Zoning Board of Appeal is facing a backlog of hundreds of cases and has recently struggled to reach a quorum, the Boston City Council Wednesday rejected a trio of ZBA nominees. At Wednesday’s virtual council meeting, City Councilor Michelle Wu, who as chairwoman of the council’s committee on planning, development, and transportation made the recommendation to reject the nominations, said ‘This is not about individuals.’” – “Former Boston police union boss to face charges of raping two more children: source,” by Sean Philip Cotter, Boston Herald: “Patrick Rose Sr., the former Boston police union boss accused of child rape, now faces further charges of sexually assaulting two more children, according to a law enforcement source with knowledge of the matter. Rose, the 66-year-old former president of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association, pleaded not guilty in West Roxbury District Court last week.” – “Boston Election Department announces the availability of vote by mail drop boxes throughout the city,” by Douglas Hook, MassLive.com: “Vote by mail drop boxes will be made available for registered voters to vote by mail at Boston City Hall as well as early voting locations around the city for the Sept. 1 Massachusetts primary. The drop boxes will be located and available at each early voting location during the scheduled voting hours.” THE SENATE SHOWDOWN – “The content of their character,” by Michael Jonas, CommonWealth Magazine: “The squabbling and seeming hair-splitting over such votes underscores what’s been true since Kennedy first declared nearly a year ago that he would take on Markey for his seat: The two liberal lawmakers are pretty closely aligned on most major issues. That has contributed hugely to the increasingly personal tone of their attacks, jabs that go much more at what each is made of than how he would vote in office.” – “Are Joe Kennedy’s efforts to define Ed Markey coming too late?” by Victoria McGrane, Boston Globe: “Since the moment he announced his challenge to Senator Edward J. Markey in the Democratic primary, Representative Joseph P. Kennedy III has faced questions about why he is running and, subsequently, skepticism that he’s offered voters an effective enough rationale for seeking to unseat a longtime, party loyal incumbent. In recent weeks, Kennedy has sharpened his efforts to define Markey as out-of-touch with the struggles of many of his constituents.” PRIMARY SOURCES – “Baker-linked PAC targets Dem primary,” by Bruce Mohl, CommonWealth Magazine: “A super PAC with close ties to Republican Gov. Charlie Baker paid nearly $15,000 for a mailing supporting a political newcomer competing in the Democratic primary for a Governor’s Council seat representing the Worcester area. The Massachusetts Majority PAC is backing Padraic Rafferty in his Democratic primary race against Paul DePalo.” – “Candidates for Holyoke state rep. seat debate Soldiers’ Home, schools,” by Dennis Hohenberger, MassLive.com: “The three candidates vying to represent Holyoke at the Statehouse differed on remedies to problems at the Soldiers’ Home, schools and other aging infrastructure during an online debate Wednesday. David K. Bartley, Patrick Beaudry and Patricia Duffy are running for the 5th Hampden District state representative seat currently held by Aaron Vega, D-Holyoke, who is not seeking reelection.” – “New Bedford mayor backs Auchincloss as poll shows tight race in 4th District,” by Ted Nesi, WPRI: “He may not be able to vote in the Sept. 1 primary, but New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell is making his feelings known about the race to replace Congressman Joe Kennedy. During a morning event at Pier 3, Mitchell threw his support behind Newton City Councilor Jake Auchincloss, who is in an eight-way battle for the Democratic nomination in the 4th Congressional District.” – “Rivals hit Jake Auchincloss over marijuana skepticism,” by Dan Adams, Boston Globe: “In the latest progressive broadside aimed at Jake Auchincloss, other candidates in the crowded Fourth Congressional District Democratic primary are criticizing the Newton city councilor and former Marine captain over his shifting views on marijuana and refusal to back national cannabis legalization.” THE WILD WEST – “Retired US Rep. Barney Frank throws support behind Richard Neal in race against Democratic primary challenger Alex Morse,” by Patrick Johnson, Springfield Republican: “Retired U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, the first openly gay member of Congress, has come out in full support of his friend and longtime colleague U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal in his primary race against Holyoke Mayor Alex B. Morse. Further, the Newton Democrat dismisses allegations that Neal played any part in making a campaign issue of Morse’s sexuality.” YOU'VE GOT MAIL – “AG Maura Healey Calls For Postmaster General Louis DeJoy's Resignation, Moves Forward With USPS Lawsuit,” by Zoe Mathews, WGBH News: “Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey on Wednesday called for Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to resign, saying she's ‘fired up’ about his and the Trump administration's efforts to hinder mail-in voting by changing Postal Service operations during an election season. The USPS announced this week they would defer any changes — including changing operating hours at post offices and removing mail processing equipment and blue collection boxes — until after the election.” – “Congressional candidate sues state, seeks to expand time for voters to submit primary ballots,” by Matt Stout, Boston Globe: “One of the Democrats seeking the Fourth Congressional District seat petitioned the state’s highest court Wednesday to expand the amount of time residents can submit ballots for the Sept. 1 primary, citing fears that delays and changes within the Postal Service could leave swaths of voters disenfranchised.” DAY IN COURT – “Legal experts: prosecutors could drop Kraft case,” by Travis Andersen, Boston Globe: “Prosecutors may drop their prostitution case against New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, after an appellate court Wednesday upheld a lower court decision to toss video evidence that allegedly captured him paying for sex inside a Jupiter, Fla. spa last year, legal experts told the Globe.” WARREN REPORT – “Here’s what Elizabeth Warren said during her Democratic convention speech,” by Nik DeCosta-Klipa, Boston.com: “Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s speech Wednesday during the virtually held Democratic National Convention touched on some themes that may ring familiar to supporters of her 2020 presidential campaign.” FROM THE DELEGATION – “Reps. Lori Trahan, John Joyce draft bipartisan letter urging President Donald Trump to lower flags to half-staff for International Overdose Awareness Day on Aug. 31,” by Benjamin Kail, MassLive.com: “Reps. Lori Trahan of Massachusetts and John Joyce of Pennsylvania led a bipartisan effort this week to urge President Donald Trump to honor substance use disorder victims by lowering American flags to half-staff on Aug. 31, which is International Overdose Awareness Day.” MARIJUANA IN MASSACHUSETTS – “Boston Cannabis Board approves two marijuana retailers, defers action on Patriot Care,” by Dan Adams, Boston Globe: “The Boston Cannabis Board has approved two new marijuana retailers hoping to open in the city, including one run by former city councilor and mayoral candidate Tito Jackson, marking the reboot of a permitting process that had been stalled since October. At a virtual meeting Wednesday, the newly convened five-member agency voted unanimously to issue initial recreational pot permits to Verdant Medical in Mattapan and Massachusetts Citizens for Social Equity in Roxbury.” ABOVE THE FOLD — Herald: “MOVING ON!” “SILENT SPREADERS” — Globe: “History within grasp, Democrats unite,“ “Mass. schools to require flu vaccine.” FROM THE 413 – “Former Springfield Mayor Robert Markel joins the salute as lifelong friend Joe Biden earns nomination at Democratic National Convention,” by Ron Chimelis, Springfield Republican: “For Robert Markel, an essentially ceremonial moment in presidential election history will allow him a special opportunity afforded very, very few people. The former Springfield mayor will cast a meaningful vote for someone who is not just a name with a party affiliation, but a close friend whose relationship goes back more than 60 years.” REMEMBERING DAN H. FENN JR … from the Boston Globe: “Before the first shovel struck the soil to build the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Dan H. Fenn Jr. knew what he wanted the institution to accomplish. … Mr. Fenn, the library’s founding director and a force behind ensuring that an educational component would become a key part of libraries for presidents and politicians across the country, died Friday. He was 97 and had lived in Lexington for many years, participating in town government for decades.” Link. HAPPY BIRTHDAY – to Boston.com’s Nik DeCosta-Klipa, Daily Hampshire Gazette photog Carol Lollis, Targeted Victory CEO Zac Moffatt and Rachel Lea Fish. Want to make an impact? POLITICO Massachusetts has a variety of solutions available for partners looking to reach and activate the most influential people in the Bay State. Have a petition you want signed? A cause you’re promoting? Seeking to increase brand awareness among this key audience? Share your message with our influential readers to foster engagement and drive action. Contact Jesse Shapiro to find out how: jshapiro@politico.com.   INTRODUCING POLITICO MINUTES: An unprecedented campaign season demands an unconventional approach to news coverage. POLITICO Minutes is a new, interactive content experience that reveals the top takeaways you need to know in an easy-to-digest, swipeable format delivered straight to your inbox. Get a breakdown of what's been learned so far, why it matters, and what to watch for going forward. Sign up for POLITICO Minutes, launching at the 2020 Conventions.       Follow us on Twitter Stephanie Murray @StephMurr_Jour   Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook  |  Playbook PM  |  California Playbook  |  Florida Playbook  |  Illinois Playbook  |  Massachusetts Playbook  |  New Jersey Playbook  |  New York Playbook  |  Brussels Playbook  |  London Playbook View all our politics and policy newsletters FOLLOW US

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POLITICO NIGHTLY: The DNC’s top Latina on Biden’s Hispanic outreach

 

Aug 19, 2020   BY RENUKA RAYASAM Presented by Facebook With help from Myah Ward NIGHT 3 — For the speeches by Kamala Harris and Barack Obama, plus instant analysis, chats with POLITICO reporters and interviews with newsmakers, head to POLITICO’s convention hub: politico.com/dnc. Pregame starts with a live episode of “Four Square” at 8:30 pm ET. 'THIS IS OUR TIME' — New Mexico’s Michelle Lujan Grisham, the first Latina Democrat to be elected governor and a former Congressional Hispanic Caucus chair, is speaking tonight at the Democratic National Convention. Grisham, who was said to be on the long list to be Joe Biden’s running mate, could now be angling for the job of secretary of Health and Human Services. New Mexico’s record on Covid is her biggest selling point. The state’s positive test ratio is around 3 percent , less than a fifth of neighboring Texas and Arizona. The state had a drive-through testing site set up by the time President Donald Trump declared the pandemic a national emergency. She’s also part of Biden’s effort to reach Hispanic voters — after Eva Longoria, Grisham is likely to get the most speaking time of any Hispanic speaker at the convention. We spoke today about how New Mexico kept its Covid rate down, whether Biden is doing enough to reach Hispanic voters and whether Julián Castro was snubbed. This conversation has been edited. Do you think Biden has done enough to reach Latino and Hispanic voters? I’m going to broaden your question. I hope you don't mind. Most candidates have not really engaged the growing Hispanic communities and Latino communities across the country. What do you plan to talk about tonight? I get a unique opportunity to showcase New Mexico, both our Covid response and our smart, effective transition to renewable energy. Then immediately talk to Americans about the Biden plan for a clean energy future and worldwide leadership that saves our planet. How has New Mexico kept its Covid rate down? Early we said, it’s got to be a mandatory mask mandate everywhere. The second thing: We’ve done well because we test so aggressively. We’ve been in the top states for testing. I personally go after testing, supplies, commodities on the front end to swabs and then on the back end, reagents. We were one of the first states to say asymptomatic individuals need to be tested. That allowed us to do rapid responses. We go out immediately to a business or an organization that's got an infection. We clean it up, we work with them, we often close them down. We think we’re going to be the first state in the nation to be able to show a very limited, hybrid K through 5 in-person education approach that really mitigates risk to students and educators and their families. I'm cautiously optimistic that we're gonna be able to do that effectively because of our Covid success. Do you wish more Latino and Hispanic people were speaking at the convention this week? I appreciate that this is a campaign that is open to that criticism and is talking about it. For the first time in a long time, we've got a pretty deep, wide bench of Latinos, Latinas and Hispanic leaders, advocates, entrepreneurs, elected leaders, all across the country. I want to celebrate that we have such remarkable leaders. Having Julián Castro as a serious presidential contender, I’m not sure that a decade ago I would have said I would see that in my lifetime. I’m seeing record numbers of Hispanic members of Congress, women and men being elected all across the country. I think that this is our time. And we need to build on that, not tear it all down, when absolutely there will always be challenges to getting enough of our voices heard. Do you think Julián Castro should be speaking this week? There’s no doubt, add a full day, we could have been chock full of any number of incredible, iconic, Hispanic, Latino leaders. I’m always disappointed that we don’t showcase more. I think in the context of getting the messages across to voters, the Biden campaign is doing a fine job. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly: Coronavirus Special Edition. Oh the Germans, now requiring owners to walk their dogs twice a day. Reach out rrayasam@politico.com or on Twitter at @renurayasam.   A message from Facebook: Facebook launches new Voting Information Center. Facebook is building the largest voter information effort in US history, starting with the new Voting Information Center, where you can find the latest resources about voting in the 2020 election. Our goal is to help register 4 million voters. Explore our new Voting Information Center now.   Guests watch television coverage of the virtual Democratic National Convention at a party in Pittsburgh. | Getty Images FIRST IN NIGHTLY THE GOP’S QUIET VOTE-BY-MAIL PUSH — President Donald Trump may rail against mail-in ballots in public, but state and local Republicans are quietly telling Americans that’s exactly how they should vote, White House correspondent Anita Kumar writes. In Iowa, the Republican Party mailed absentee ballot applications to voters without waiting for requests. In Pennsylvania, the GOP’s website promotes voting by mail: “Vote Safe: By mail. From home.” And in Ohio, the Republican Party sent mailers with Trump’s photo saying “Join President Trump and Vote by Absentee Ballot.” Tens of millions of Americans will cast their ballot for president by mail this year — many in Republican-dominated states and swing states where Republican turnout is crucial for Trump — as the coronavirus outbreak keeps Americans at home. And it won’t be the first time. More than 33 million Americans — nearly one in four — voted by mail in Trump’s first successful election in 2016. “Vote by mail really works well here in Utah,” said Justin Lee, director of elections in Utah, where the Republican administration sends ballots to every voter in the state. “We do feel it’s safe and secure. We don’t feel there are any real instances of either widespread fraud or voter disenfranchisement.” Many Republicans are outwardly careful not to address Trump’s remarks, but privately they worry his escalating accusations of fraud could scare reliable supporters from voting remotely. New polling has fueled these concerns and Democrats are outpacing Republican requests for absentee ballots in some swing states. Trump frequently attempts to distinguish between mail-in ballots and absentee ballots, saying the latter has additional safeguards and only go to those who request them (election officials say the ballots look identical). Trump’s own campaign has been focused on absentee ballots, targeting counties in battleground states where they made a difference in 2016, and urging supporters through a website to request ballots, according to a person familiar with the plans. But across the country, the distinction between mail-in ballots and absentee ballots appears negligible.   PLUG IN WITH PLAYBOOK AT THE DNC : Join POLITICO Playbook Co-authors Anna Palmer and Jake Sherman from Aug. 18 to 20 for "Plug in with Playbook," our new political show making its virtual debut at this year's conventions. Get the latest developments on presumptive nominee Joe Biden's campaign, analysis of down-ballot races, a look at this cycle’s swing states, along with other election-related updates. Featured guests include DNC chair Tom Perez, convention CEO Joe Solmonese, Biden campaign senior adviser Symone Sanders, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and others. WATCH LIVE.     COVID-2020 HOW TO PLAY PA — The Trump and Biden campaigns will be spending plenty of time and money in Pennsylvania, a key swing state in November. Eugene Daniels, and Pennsylvania natives Charlie Mahtesian and Holly Otterbein talk about the state and its electoral dynamics in the latest edition of the New Swing State Map. Mr. and Mrs. 44 — It might be Biden's convention, but Michelle and Barack Obama are the stars. In the latest POLITICO Dispatch, chief Washington correspondent Ryan Lizza breaks down why Michelle's speech wowed viewers Monday — and what to expect from Biden's former boss tonight. Listen to the latest POLITICO Dispatch podcast FROM THE HEALTH DESK TRACING THE QUAD — Colleges across the country are testing contact-tracing apps, hoping that tech-savvy students accustomed to sharing so much of their life online will embrace the digital tool as densely populated campuses try to reopen. Tracing apps, announced with great fanfare early in the coronavirus pandemic, haven’t yet been in widespread use because of bureaucratic hurdles, tech hiccups and public apprehension about privacy risks, Mohana Ravindranath and Amanda Eisenberg write. But the contained environment of college campuses may be the ideal testing ground to boost the lagging digital effort to trace infections, say state officials and public health experts. “It’s clear across the entire United States that this is probably going to have to happen at the university level,” said Joyce Schroeder, a University of Arizona professor leading on-campus deployment of Covid Watch, an app that uses tracing technology developed by Apple and Google.       ASK THE AUDIENCE Nightly asked you: How have your convention viewing plans shifted with the changes in format and location? Do you plan on watching more or less? Do you have any traditions that you've had to alter or cancel? Send us your thoughts, and we'll include select responses in Friday's edition. NIGHTLY NUMBER 3.8 billion The number of views attracted by groups and pages that spread misleading health news on Facebook in the past year, nonprofit activist group Avaaz said in a report today. The bogus claims drew far more traffic than authoritative sources on topics like Covid-19. THE GLOBAL FIGHT OSLO LOSES CRUISE CONTROL — Norway’s attempt to relaunch its cruise industry has already hit the rocks. An apparent breakdown in quarantine processes on a Norwegian cruise ship touring the Arctic led to a spike in cases of Covid-19, the hospitalization of six crew members and a countrywide scramble to track down passengers who might have carried the virus back to their home areas. Two weeks after the first reports of the coronavirus outbreak on the MS Roald Amundsen operated by cruise company Hurtigruten, Norway’s government has banned cruise ships carrying more than 100 passengers from docking at Norwegian ports and a police investigation into the incident is underway, Charlie Duxbury reports. “My impression is that Hurtigruten didn’t follow the regulations and they have also themselves admitted that they didn’t follow all the regulations,” Bent Høie, Norway’s minister of health, said in an interview. “That has put employees and passengers at risk of infection.”   INTRODUCING POLITICO MINUTES: An unprecedented campaign season demands an unconventional approach to news coverage. POLITICO Minutes is a new, interactive content experience that reveals the top takeaways you need to know in an easy-to-digest, swipeable format delivered straight to your inbox. Get a breakdown of what's been learned so far, why it matters, and what to watch for going forward. Sign up for POLITICO Minutes, launching at the 2020 Conventions.     PARTING WORDS THE LAST CONVENTIONS? If you tuned into the Biden Nominating Show on any of the networks this week, you got to witness the national political convention approaching the vanishing point of relevancy it has been steadily vectoring toward for a half-century, senior media writer Jack Shafer writes. Once lusty, contentious affairs in which punches were literally traded on the floor — as happened between Robert Taft and Dwight Eisenhower delegates at the 1952 Republican confab in Chicago — the political conventions have grown more contrived, less dramatic, utterly propagandistic, and now, thanks to Covid-19, absolutely virtual. Ever since the TV networks started crashing the parties’ parties in the 1950s, the conventions have increasingly become scripted and stage-managed events designed to present their candidates’ best profiles to the nation. The parties made a conscious decision to drain the excitement and hazard out of their convention and began to manufacture them for television presentation, thrusting the party and its nominee’s best profile into the public eye. But a funny thing happened. As the networks encouraged the parties more and more to make their conventions more televisable, and they gladly did, television became less and less interested in televising them. This week, the broadcast networks have limited themselves to an hour of prime time, leaving the cable networks and the streaming channels to feed the swill at the bottom of the can to the politically insatiable. Tuesday night’s production contained all the excitement of a telethon only without the running tote board of donations. Bill Clinton croaked through a Biden testimonial. Bernie Sanders’ name was placed in nomination for … posterity, I guess. Everybody yelled at Donald Trump. Biden, who had won the nomination months ago, took official possession of it after a virtual roll call. If the old-time conventions had the spontaneity and spunk of an off-tune high school marching band, the 2020 Democratic National Convention sounded like a cheap Casio keyboard bleating out flat synth notes. It is almost as if the Democrats in charge of staging this thing watched thousands of hours of reality TV to learn the secrets of TV engagement so they could ignore those lessons and instead produce the most anodyne TV fare possible. Viewers rejected the show, according to Nielsen. The Democrats’ first night drew only 19.7 million viewers, a 24 percent decline from 2016.   A message from Facebook: How Facebook is preparing for the US 2020 election — Launched new Voting Information Center — More than tripled our safety and security teams to 35,000 people — Implemented 5-step political ad verification — Providing greater political ad transparency Learn about these efforts and more.   Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here.   Follow us on Twitter Renuka Rayasam @renurayasam   FOLLOW US

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RSN: FOCUS: Collusion? Yes, There Was Plenty of That

 

19 August 20

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FOCUS: Collusion? Yes, There Was Plenty of That

Heather Digby Parton, Salon
Excerpt: "Bipartisan committee finds a massive conspiracy of dunces and dupes. Does anyone really think Trump didn't know?"

Bipartisan committee finds a massive conspiracy of dunces and dupes. Does anyone really think Trump didn't know?

ince the moment President Trump fired former FBI Director James Comey and admitted to NBC's Lester Holt that it was "because of Russia," he has called the investigations a "hoax" and a "witch hunt." Attorney General Bill Barr declared Trump to be exonerated in all matters related to Russian interference in the 2016 election and the ensuing cover-up, and all Senate Republicans except one voted in his impeachment trial to acquit him of charges that he similarly enlisted the help of the Ukraine government in the 2020 election.

We know Trump abused his power in the Ukraine matter: That is a matter of public record, which he himself released. We also have Robert Mueller's voluminous report, which proved that the Trump campaign welcomed, if not directly conspired with, Russian government interference in the 2016 election and that the president subsequently obstructed the investigation.

All these probes have been attacked by Republicans as unjustified partisan attacks on Trump. However, this week, the Senate Intelligence Committee, chaired by Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., released the final volume of its investigation and it's impossible to make that charge. The report was signed by all members of the committee. Indeed, this is the only time during Trump's first term that Senate Republicans, aside from Mitt Romney of Utah, have done their duty to protect our democracy.

Essentially, the report shows the Trump campaign was crawling with Russians, many more than is commonly realized, and the evidence strongly indicates that any intelligence or law enforcement officials who didn't look into this bizarre circumstance would have been derelict in their duty.

The Mueller report stated explicitly that as a law enforcement investigation Mueller's team was not concerned with the non-legal concept of "collusion" and were instead bound by the criminal code's definition of "conspiracy," which they were unable to prove, largely due to a lack of cooperation by those involved in the probe. The Senate committee had no such restrictions and did investigate collusion — and found it.

Committee Republicans, led by Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, cherry-picked certain conclusions to deny that, but the details they provided in this 1,000-page report prove them to be either lying or delusional.

The report finds that former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was basically acting as a Russian agent. The campaign chairman. This is the man Trump publicly heaped glowing praise upon two years ago, patting him on the back for refusing to cooperate with the special counsel:  

The New York Times describes the Manafort-Russia relationship that Trump was so delighted Manafort refused to talk about: 

[T]he report showed extensive evidence of contacts between Trump campaign advisers and people tied to the Kremlin — including a longstanding associate of the onetime Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Konstantin V. Kilimnik, whom the report identifies as a "Russian intelligence officer."

In 2016, "on numerous occasions," Trump's campaign chairman "sought to secretly share internal Campaign information" with Kilimnik, who the investigation found was very likely tied to the main Russian interference operation centered at the GRU, successor organization to the KGB. There is also information that raises "the possibility of Manafort's potential connection to the hack-and-leak operations," which would be big news if it's true.

The report calls Donald Trump's campaign chairman a "grave counter-intelligence threat." How that doesn't fit everyone's definition of collusion is hard to fathom.

Kilimnik was also found to have "almost certainly helped arrange some of the first public messaging that Ukraine had interfered in the U.S. election" which, coincidentally I'm sure, Trump pushed in his famous phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, an act of betrayal for which he was impeached. Yet somehow, Trump and his henchmen continue to say that the president was absolutely untainted by any of this.

It is also made clear in the report that Trump's top dirty trickster, Roger Stone, directed some of the WikiLeaks dumps and that Trump almost certainly knew about it, according to numerous witnesses. So two people close to Trump, Manafort and Stone, appear to have been intimately involved in the most outrageous of the Russian interference operations, the hacking of the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and the timed leaks of those emails on behalf of Donald Trump. Unless we are to believe that the man who claims to have "aced" a memory test right about the same time forgot that he repeatedly spoke with Stone about the WikiLeaks operations, this means that the president lied to Mueller in his written answers.

Just as Mueller found that the White House obstructed his investigation, the committee found that it obstructed their investigation as well:

As this experience illustrated, White House intervention significantly hampered and prolonged the Committee's investigative effort. Most importantly, some witnesses were directed by the White House not to tum over potentially privileged information...

And a whole lot of people lied. As the Los Angeles Times has reported, the committee made criminal referrals of Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, Steve Bannon, Erik Prince and Sam Clovis to federal prosecutors in 2019, for misleading Congress. There's no word on what might have come of those referrals.

The report looks at the possibility of Kompromat and details some juicy testimony about trips to Moscow, an affair with a beauty queen and evenings at fetish clubs, among other things. They couldn't produce evidence of blackmail but kept it in the report for the purposes of showing that even misinformation could be deployed to gain influence.

The picture that emerges is of a presidential campaign, and an administration, so completely out of its depth that it "presented attractive targets for foreign influence, creating notable counterintelligence vulnerabilities." In other words, Trump and his cronies were willing dupes and the Russian government took full advantage of it. In fact, it still is.

This is not a particularly startling revelation but it does track nicely with another national security story this week, the commentary by former DHS national security official Miles Taylor who wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post headlined "At Homeland Security, I saw firsthand how dangerous Trump is for America." He offers a scathing assessment of the president as an ignorant, reckless, obsessive, self-centered fool who cannot be trusted with a second term.

Taylor says that if Trump wins re-election it will be "shock and awe" and there will be no guardrails left at all.

In case you're wondering what that might mean, just last month Vladimir Putin sneaked in a change to the Russian constitution that allows him to stay in power until 2036. He and Trump have been chatting frequently on the phone of late. We can only guess what they're talking about.

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