2020 Campaign - September
Cornel West, the eminent African American philosopher said he was planning to cast an "anti-fascist" vote for Biden in November despite his concerns about the former vice president's ties to "Wall Street and militarism". West knew all too well Biden will betray every single ideal and principle for which West stands, but he is so disgusted with Trump he was doing what in Persian is called "jumping from one crumbling column to another with hope". The same is true with Noam Chomsky, the world-renowned linguist and political activist who is also on the record encouraging people "to vote for Joe Biden and then haunt his dreams". The revolutionary thinker and activist Angela Davis too has said she is supporting Biden for president, calling it crucial to back the candidate "who can be most effectively pressured".
Microsoft warned that hackers operating from Russia, China and Iran have been stepping up efforts targeting the upcoming US presidential election. Microsoft announced on 10 September 2020 that in recent weeks, they detected cyberattacks from those countries targeting people and organizations involved in the election.
It said that Strontium, a group operating from Russia, has attacked more than 200 organizations including consultants serving Republicans and Democrats, and US-based think tanks since September 2019. It noted that Strontium has been identified as the group primarily responsible for the cyberattacks on the Democratic Party presidential campaign in 2016.
Microsoft said that Zirconium, operating from China, carried out thousands of attacks between March and September this year, resulting in nearly 150 compromises. It said the group targeted high-profile individuals in the Republican and Democratic camps, as well as prominent individuals from universities and policy organizations.
Microsoft said the majority of these attacks were detected and stopped by security tools built into its products. But it calls for vigilance as some illegal entries have been observed. The US Office of the Director of National Intelligence earlier warned of attempts by Russia, China and Iran to interfere in the US presidential election through cyberattacks and other means.
Roger Stone, who earlier this year had his 40-month prison sentence for perjury to Congress and witness tampering in the Russia probe reduced on the recommendation of Attorney General William Barr, told conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ on his online The Alex Jones Show that Trump should seize power and jail big names, including Bill and Hillary Clinton, as well as Mark Zuckerberg, if he loses to Joe Biden this November.
Trump told Fox News 12 September 2020 he would eagerly “put down” any left-wing protests: “We have the right to do that. We have the power to do that if we want. Look, it’s called insurrection. We just send in and we, we do it very easy. I mean, it’s very easy. I’d rather not do that, because there’s no reason for it, but if we had to, we’d do that and put it down within minutes, within minutes”. Trump brought up an incident in the city of Portland, Oregon in which US Marshals shot dead a suspect in the killing of a member of a right-wing group. “There has to be retribution when you have crime like this”, Trump said.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued an announcement 22 September 2020 to raise awareness of the potential threat posed by attempts to spread disinformation regarding the results of the 2020 elections. Foreign actors and cybercriminals could create new websites, change existing websites, and create or share corresponding social media content to spread false information in an attempt to discredit the electoral process and undermine confidence in U.S. democratic institutions.
State and local officials typically require several days to weeks to certify elections’ final results in order to ensure every legally cast vote is accurately counted. The increased use of mail-in ballots due to COVID-19 protocols could leave officials with incomplete results on election night. Foreign actors and cybercriminals could exploit the time required to certify and announce elections’ results by disseminating disinformation that includes reports of voter suppression, cyberattacks targeting election infrastructure, voter or ballot fraud, and other problems intended to convince the public of the elections’ illegitimacy.
Barton Gellman wrote "If Trump sheds all restraint, and if his Republican allies play the parts he assigns them, he could obstruct the emergence of a legally unambiguous victory for Biden in the Electoral College and then in Congress.... “The only way they can take this election away from us is if this is a rigged election,” Trump said at the Republican National Convention on August 24.... Trump is, by some measures, a weak authoritarian. He has the mouth but not the muscle to work his will with assurance.... Trump will jump ahead on Election Night, based on in-person returns, but his lead will slowly give way to a Biden victory as mail-in votes are tabulated.... December 8 is known as the “safe harbor” deadline for appointing the 538 men and women who make up the Electoral College.,,, the Supreme Court affirmed in Bush v. Gore that a state “can take back the power to appoint electors.”... Trump would ask state legislators to set aside the popular vote and exercise their power to choose a slate of electors directly... If the count is still incomplete on Inauguration Day, the speaker herself will become acting president."
On 22 September 2020 Trump said. “We need nine Justices. You need that. With the unsolicited millions of ballots that they’re sending, it’s a scam; it’s a hoax. Everybody knows that. And the Democrats know it better than anybody else.... I think it’s going to be very important. Because what they’re doing is a hoax, with the ballots. They’re sending out tens of millions of ballots, unsolicited—not where they’re being asked but unsolicited. And that’s a hoax, and you’re going to need to have nine Justices.” Trump said "This scam that the Democrats are pulling, it's a scam, the scam will be before the United States Supreme Court, and I think having a 4-4 situation is not a good situation."
A reporter asked Trump if he would commit to a peaceful transfer of power after the election. “We’re gonna have to see what happens... I’ve been complaining very strongly about the ballots and the ballots are a disaster.” he replied "We want to have -- get rid of the ballots,” continued the president, explaining if that happens “there won't be a transfer, frankly; there'll be a continuation.”
President Donald Trump paid just $750 in federal income taxes in both 2016 and 2017, after years of reporting heavy losses from his business enterprises to offset hundreds of millions of dollars in income, the New York Times reported on 27 September 2020, citing tax-return data. In a report that Trump dismissed as "fake news," the Times said the Republican president also paid no federal income taxes in 10 of the previous 15 years through 2017, despite receiving $427.4 million through 2018 from his reality television program and other endorsement and licensing deals.
Donald Trump and Democratic rival Joe Biden battled fiercely over Trump’s record on the coronavirus pandemic, healthcare and the economy in a chaotic and bad-tempered first debate on 29 September 2020 marked by personal insults and Trump’s repeated interruptions. FOX News referred to it as an "exhausting insult derby." Trump was a bully, childish and very rude. This was an 'embarrassment' to the United States. Trump bulldozed his way through the 90-minute debate, trying to goad Biden, claiming that Democrats were trying to steal the November presidential election and declining to condemn white supremacist groups when asked to do so. Moderator Chris Wallace never established control of the debate, with Trump repeatedly ignoring his calls to let Biden speak. The two White House contenders talked over each other and lobbed insults in a breathtaking political brawl that made it hard for either to make a point. At one point, an exasperated Biden said after Trump’s repeated interruptions: “Will you shut up, man? This is so unpresidential.”
Chris Wallace, the Fox talk show host who moderated the debate last month, said Trump interrupted him or Biden 145 times during the 90-plus-minute session. Trump proved, once more, that he is a pitiful excuse for a president. Calmness, thoughtfulness, maturity and rationality are anathema to Trump. Every disgraceful measure of this disgraceful president was on parade for a hellish evening. Trump shouted obscenities. He lied. He thundered. He deflected. He smirked. He, incredibly, played, again and again, the victim of a fictitious media cabal and an equally fictitious attempted coup d’état.
Trump told his legion of rabid, gun-toting fascist militias to “stand back and stand by”. The overt, unvarnished message was as unmistakable as it was reprehensible: be prepared, on my orders, to intimidate, threaten or harm your fellow citizens – whom I swore to protect and defend – to preserve my interests. As the debate progressed, Trump grew increasingly manic. By the time he got to “forest cities” and radical leftists overrunning America’s main urban centers (at least the ones in blue states), any sense of self-control had collapsed.
Andreas Nick, member of the German Bundestag's Foreign Affairs Committee and Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union, slammed the debate. Nick told DW that it was "an embarrassment in terms of the lack of decency, in terms of what it meant for the dignity of the presidency and of the democratic process" and "disturbing for voters in the United States, but also for friends and allies of the United States globally."
The lunacy on display was the product of the presence of Donald Trump and Donald Trump alone. The moderator repeatedly reminded Trump that the moderator was the one to ask questions. He also told Trump to stick to the debate rules, as the President made interruptions and interjections. The debate was interrupted a number of times as both interfered and accused each other of lying. Summing up Trump’s nearly four-year-long cavalcade of craziness, perjury, and criminality, Biden called Trump the worst president in US history.
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