2020 Campaign - July
“I think mail-in voting is going to rig the election, I really do,” Trump told Fox News’ Chris Wallace 19 July 2020. When asked if he would accept the election results, he said: “I’ll have to see.” Joe Biden said 23 July 2020 “This president is going to try to indirectly steal the election by arguing that mail-in ballots don’t work — they’re not real, they’re not fair”.
The entire mission of The Lincoln Project is to defeat Trump and Trumpism. The founders are well-known (in political circles) Republicans and former Republicans who say they are holding elected leaders accountable to protect democracy. Among the most publicly known among them is George Conway, husband of senior counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway. Despite the founder’s stellar Republican credentials, The Lincoln Project has endorsed Joe Biden for president. They launched The Lincoln Project in December 2019 with an attention-grabbing op-ed in The New York Times saying that its aim was to transcend partisanship and protect American values from Trump, even if that means ushering in Democratic control of the Senate and expanding it in the House of Representatives. Not only did the authors say they opposed Trump, but they decried the Republican elected officials who “embraced and copied Mr. Trump’s cruelty and defended and even adopted his corruption", they wrote.
One ad in particular was shooting straight for Trump’s jugular, and seemed to have hit its intended target. In a spot clearly referencing the famous Morning in America ad from Ronald Reagan’s 1984 election campaign, The Lincoln Project took Trump to task for his handling of the Covid-19 crisis. Mourning in America showed bleak images of depressed American towns while citing bleak economic and health statistics. “Under the leadership of Donald Trump, our country is weaker and sicker and poorer,” the narrator says dolefully. “If we have another four years like this, will there even be an America?” he asks, over the strains of mournful violins. In early May, the spot aired on Fox news in the Washington, D.C. media market, where Trump was bound to see it.
On 27 July 2020, Trump retweeted a video of a group of doctors that included Stella Immanuel, a Houston-based paediatrician, who praised hydroxychloroquine as a cure for Covid-19 and insisted that masks do not help reduce transmission. Trump called Immanuel a “fearless warrior for the truth” and US media is dubbing her Trump's "Covid doctor." Immanuel declared in the videoy “Nobody needs to get sick. This virus has a cure – it is called hydroxychloroquine,” as she stood on the steps of the Supreme Court in Washington DC at a so-called “White Coat Summit” of like-minded doctors. She claimed it was so effective that it rendered mask wearing and lockdowns unnecessary.
In a video from 2013, Immanuel attributes infertility, impotence and gynecological conditions like endometriosis to “evil deposits” from “spirit husbands” – essentially a phenomenon where demons and witches have sex with people while they sleep. Immanuel claims that ailments such as cysts and fibroid tumors stem from the “demonic sperm” after demon dream sex, an activity she claims affects “many women.” In an article titled ‘Deliverance from Spirit Wives and Spirit Husbands’ on her website, she offered guidance on how to combat the spirits.
In a 2015 sermon, Immanuel, who leads a religious group called Fire Power Ministries, said: “There are people ruling this nation that are not even human,” describing them as “reptilian spirits” who are “half-human, half-ET.” In the same video, she laid out a supposed Illuminati plan hatched by a “witch” to destroy the world using abortion, gay marriage and a variety of children’s toys, books, and TV shows like Pokemon and Harry Potter. In another sermon, she warns that scientists had plans to install microchips in people, and are preparing a “vaccine” to prevent them from being religious.
Donald J. Trump tweeted Jul 29, 2020 "I am happy to inform all of the people living their Suburban Lifestyle Dream that you will no longer be bothered or financially hurt by having low income housing built in your neighborhood... ...Your housing prices will go up based on the market, and crime will go down. I have rescinded the Obama-Biden AFFH Rule. Enjoy!" The Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Final Rule sets out a framework for loca meaningful actions to overcome historic patterns of segregation, promote fair housing choice, and foster inclusive communities that are free from discrimination. National Associaton of Realtors NAR President Vince Malta, a broker at Malta & Co. Inc., in San Francisco, said HUD’s decision “significantly weakens the federal government’s commitment to the goals of the Fair Housing Act.”
Donald J. Trump on 30 July 2020 tweeted "With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???" But the president doesn’t have the power to delay an entire election. The election is run by the states.
The dates of presidential elections — the Tuesday after the first Monday in November in every fourth year — are enshrined in federal law and would require an act of Congress to change. The Constitution makes no provisions for a delay to the January 20, 2021 presidential inauguration.
The Postal Service predates the United States. It was created by the Second Continental Congress in July 1775, and Benjamin Franklin was the first postmaster general. A dramatic shift in many states to voting by mail is intended to protect voters from spreading the virus at polling places. But it's also making more work for post offices and contributing to delays in determining election winners. Trump opposes expanding voting by mail, asserting it will trigger fraud, even though there's no evidence that will happen. Trump and many of his administration's leading voices frequently vote absentee themselves.
Shares of Amazon.com Inc fell 4 percent on 02 April 2018 after Trump again attacked the online retailer over the pricing of its deliveries through the United States Postal Service and promised unspecified changes. "Only fools, or worse, are saying that our money losing Post Office makes money with Amazon," Trump tweeted. "They lose a fortune, and this will be changed. Also, our fully tax paying retailers are closing stores all over the country ... not a level playing field!" Critics say Trump is merely looking to punish Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in retaliation for unflattering coverage in The Washington Post, which the billionaire owns.
Trump alleged again 31 July 2020 that the November election could be rigged because of mail-in votes. “It’ll be fixed, it’ll be rigged,” Trump told reporters on the South Lawn of the White House before traveling to Tampa, Florida. Without providing any evidence, the president said Russia and China could forge US paper ballots and said, “This is going to be the greatest election disaster in history.”
Once Louis DeJoy — a supply-chain executive and extremely generous Republican donor — was appointed postmaster general in May 2020, he enacted changes that appeared intended to undercut the ability of the mail service to deliver the mail. In July 2020, carriers were instructed to “leave mail behind at distribution centers” if the packages would slow down the delivery process. Overtime, often necessary for the day’s workload to be finished, was also eliminated.
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