BIDEN: America an ‘Idea’ We’ve ‘Never Lived Up To’

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BIDEN: America an ‘Idea’ We’ve ‘Never Lived Up To’

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden claimed on Wednesday that America is an “idea” that “we’ve never lived up to.”

The former vice president shared a clip from his interview on the podcast, “Unlocking Us with Brené Brown,” in which he blasts the U.S. for failing to meet its ideals and values.

“America was an idea, an idea,” Biden said. “‘We hold these truths to be self evident.’ We’ve never lived up to it, but we’ve never walked away from it before. And I just think we have to be more honest. Let our kids know, as we raise them, what actually did happen. Acknowledge our mistakes so we don’t repeat them.”

Critics immediately slammed him for insulting the many Americans who have made the country great.

Seattle, Portland, New York Sue Over Trump’s ‘Anarchy’ Label

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Seattle, Portland, New York Sue Over Trump’s ‘Anarchy’ Label

(Headline USA) New York, Seattle and Portland — three cities recently labeled “anarchist jurisdictions” by the U.S. Justice Department — filed a lawsuit Thursday to invalidate the designation and fight off the Trump administration’s efforts to withhold federal dollars.

“The Trump administration’s political threats against Seattle and other Democratic cities are unlawful and an abuse of federal power,” Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan said in a news release announcing the federal lawsuit. “It’s immoral, unconstitutional, and shameful that we are forced to expend any resources on this political theater.”

President Donald Trump issued a memorandum last month that sought to identify localities that permit “anarchy, violence and destruction in American cities” following riots that took place after George Floyd’s killing in a confrontation with Minneapolis police. The Justice Department last month identified New York City, Portland, Oregon, and Seattle as three cities that could have federal funding slashed.

The lawsuit ridiculed the designation, calling the president’s action “offensive to both the Constitution and common sense” and describing the notion of anarchist jurisdictions “an oxymoronic designation without precedent in American jurisprudence.”

But it also noted that the consequences of withholding federal money during a pandemic are “deadly serious.”

“I said weeks ago if the Trump administration persisted in trying to illegally take away funding from New York City we would take them to court, and we will beat them in court,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle, argues that unless Congress says otherwise, the president can’t add conditions to money Congress has appropriated. The cities say the designation was arbitrary and capricious, and based on vague and subjective factors. The lawsuit also alleges that the administration violated due process rights and the 10th Amendment to the Constitution, which specifies that powers not given to the federal government — such as local policing authority — are reserved for the states.

“It is the Defendants, not the Cities, who are engaging in lawless behavior and threatening the democratic order established by the Framers,” the lawsuit said.

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

New York City Corporation Counsel Jim Johnson, who joined de Blasio at the mayor’s daily briefing, said the cities are suing now because the federal government has begun taking concrete steps to withhold funds.

“They’ve actually taken this anarchist designation and started to include it in applications for federal grants,” Johnson said.

As much as $12 billion in federal money affecting health, transportation and law enforcement programs could be at stake, Johnson said.

In one example cited in the lawsuit, the Federal Transit Administration announced this month that it will consider applications for a current COVID-19 public transportation research grant “in accordance” with the anarchist memo.

The Justice Department said the three cities were designated as “anarchist” jurisdictions because they met criteria including “whether a jurisdiction forbids the police force from intervening to restore order amid widespread or sustained violence or destruction” and whether the city “disempowers or defunds police departments.”

For New York, Attorney General William Barr cited “increased unrest, gun violence, and property damage” as the City Council cut $1 billion from the police department’s budget for next year. For Portland, he cited the continuous riots and vandalism, and he accused Seattle of permitting anarchy in the “Capitol Hill Occupied Protest,” a protest zone of a few city blocks that officials cleared out months ago.

All three cities have previously challenged Trump administration actions successfully.

Those include Seattle and Portland’s efforts against the administration’s plan to withhold money for so-called “sanctuary cities” and New York’s efforts against adding a citizenship question to the census and excluding undocumented immigrants from the census count.

Adapted from reporting by Associated Press.

Mitt Romney Voted Early, but Not for Trump

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Mitt Romney Voted Early, but Not for Trump

(Associated Press) Republican Sen. Mitt Romney said Wednesday that he’s voted in the Nov. 3 election — but not for the leader of his party.

“I did not vote for President Trump,” the Utah senator told CNN.

He did not say whom he did vote for.

It was the latest chapter in the bitter history between the two men, who represent two wings of the modern Republican Party.

Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, has said publicly that the New York real estate magnate is unfit for the presidency.

In 2016, Romney said he wrote in the name of his wife, Ann, rather than vote for Donald Trump, the GOP presidential nominee.

Then, President-elect Trump appeared to court Romney for secretary of state, culminating in a now-famous photo of the two eating dinner in New York.

Trump later said he was trying to humiliate Romney, and the Cabinet post instead went to ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson, who has since been terminated.

In the Senate, Romney was the lone Republican to vote for Trump’s impeachment earlier this year.

NC Police Officers, in Uniform, Turned Away at Polling Place

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NC Police Officers, in Uniform, Turned Away at Polling Place

Two uniformed Durham County, NC sheriff’s deputies were turned away from an early-voting site this week in what the county’s Board of Elections now calls a “mistake.”

The two officers went to the Main Library polling place downtown this week but were turned away by election officials, the county’s election director, Derek Bowens, confirmed.

Not only were the officers told they couldn’t vote; They were told they couldn’t enter the polling station at all, according to the News & Observer.

“There was concern from an intimidation standpoint about weapons from the site coordinator,” Bowens said. “She did voice concerns to the sheriff, but that was completely an error in terms of not letting them come in … There is no direct statutory prohibition to weapons in the voting enclosure, but if it is causing intimidation and uproar it is the responsibility of that site coordinator to maintain peace and good order.”

Former Sheriff Mike Andrews posted about the incident on Tuesday and called the Durham Board of Elections “the problem.”

“I worked for 39 years in a uniform (and) never was turned away,” he said.

A Sheriff’s Office spokesman said the two officers were informed they could go back to the polling place and vote, and soon after the issue was “resolved quickly.”

But this is just the latest example of election officials trying to keep uniformed law enforcement officers away from polling places, according to state Sen. Ralph Hise.

“Uniformed police officers put their lives on the line to protect our community, and the Board of Elections just denied them the fundamental right to vote. This outrage is the natural result of the partisan Board of Elections’ chaotic power grabs,” Hise said in a statement. “They’ve thrown this election into chaos with each subsequent ‘rule,’ and they’ve already been rebuked by multiple federal judges for usurping the legislature’s authority by rewriting election laws with voting already underway.”

Last week, the State Board of Elections, which is controlled by the Democratic Party, passed a rule forbidding election officials from stationing law enforcement at polling places, calling their presence “intimidating.”

Facebook Apologizes to Babylon Bee After Censoring, Demonetizing Its Page

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Facebook Apologizes to Babylon Bee After Censoring, Demonetizing Its Page

Facebook apologized to Babylon Bee, a conservative satirical website, after the social media platform censored one of its posts and demonetized its entire page for making fun of Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii.

Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon revealed this week that Facebook had demonetized his website’s social media page for running a satirical article titled, “Senator Hirono Demands ACB Be Weighed Against A Duck To See If She Is A Witch.”

The article was an obvious spin-off of a popular movie scene by the British comedy troupe Monty Python, but Facebook argued that the article “incites violence” and demanded that the Babylon Bee remove it.

Dillon announced that he would not be removing the post, even if that meant losing the ability to raise money on his website’s Facebook page.

“They’re asking us to edit the article and not speak publicly about internal content reviews,” Dillon said earlier this week. “We will not be editing the article to get our page’s monetization reinstated.”

But soon after Dillon took the controversy public, Facebook issued an apology.

“This was a mistake and we apologize that it happened,” a Facebook spokesperson told Fox News. “Satire can be difficult for our systems to identify, but we’ve restored the article and their ability to monetize.”

This apology would have been easier to believe if this had been the first time Facebook made such a “mistake,” Dillon said. But this is not the first time something like this has happened, he pointed out.

“Why did it have to take getting the media involved to fix this? And why did it happen in the first place?” Dillon asked in response to Facebook.

“This was not just an algorithm flagging an article in error,” he continued. “Yes, that happened. But then a manual review took place and the ruling to penalize us was upheld. I notice they left that part out.”

Facebook has repeatedly accused the Babylon Bee of violating its “community standards,” Dillon said. And every time that happens, “Facebook is reaching—stretching as hard as they can—to treat us as if we’ve violated them,” he added.

UPDATE: Senate Judiciary Committee Advances Barrett Nomination Despite Dem Boycott

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UPDATE: Senate Judiciary Committee Advances Barrett Nomination Despite Dem Boycott

UPDATE VIA AP: The Senate Judiciary Committee voted Thursday to advance Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court nomination to the full Senate as Republicans powered past Democrats’ boycott of the session.

Democratic senators refused to show up in protest of the GOP’s rush to install President Donald Trump’s nominee to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Never has the Senate confirmed a Supreme Court nominee so close to a presidential election.

The Republicans, who hold the majority, voted in favor of Barrett, a conservative judge. Senators plan to convene a rare weekend session for procedural actions ahead of a final confirmation vote expected Monday.

“Barrett deserves to be on the Supreme Court and she will be confirmed,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the committee chairman. Democrats, he said, “made a choice not to participate.”

Instead, Democrats arranged for posters to be placed at their spots of constituents they said had been helped by the Affordable Care Act.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE: (Headline USA) Despite a Democrat boycott, Republicans are powering ahead to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court by Election Day with the Senate Judiciary Committee set to recommend President Donald Trump‘s nominee to the full Senate.

Never before has the Senate confirmed a Supreme Court pick so close to a presidential election. Thursday’s Judiciary Committee vote is expected to launch a rare weekend Senate session to push Barrett’s nomination forward, as millions of Americans are casting early ballots.

Senate Democrats plan to boycott Thursday’s meeting. But the Republican majority is prepared to vote swiftly, changing the panel’s rules if necessary, to ensure Trump’s choice to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is on track.

“Judge Barrett deserves a vote and she will receive a vote,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the committee chairman, in a statement. “Barrett deserves to be on the Supreme Court and she will be confirmed.”

Trump’s Republican allies in the Senate are counting on the 48-year-old federal judge’s ascent to the high court to improve their standing with voters, as shift the court in a more conservative direction, they hope. The court could open a new era of rulings on the Affordable Care Act, abortion access and even the results of the presidential election. A final Senate confirmation vote on Barrett is expected Monday.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer announced the planned boycott in a speech late Wednesday on the Senate floor.

“We should not be moving forward on this nomination,” Schumer said, calling Barrett’s views “so far out of the mainstream.”

Unable stop the confirmation, Democrats have tried unsuccessfully to stall the process until after the Nov. 3 election, so the winner of the presidency could name the new nominee.

“These are all such violations of American norms, values, decency and honor,” Schumer said, without offering any evidence.

With Republicans holding a 53-47 majority in the Senate, Trump’s pick for the court is almost certain to be confirmed. All Democrats are expected to oppose Barrett’s confirmation.

Boycotting Thursday’s committee hearing won’t stop the process, but could potentially force Republicans on the panel to alter the rules to keep the confirmation on track.

Committee rules say at least two members of the minority party, Democrats, would need to be present to constitute a quorum for doing business.

Mike Davis, a former top aide on the panel who now advises Senate Republicans, said the committee was well within its normal practice to hold the vote, even if Democrats skip it. He said the longstanding practice has been to allow business to go forward if all members of the majority, Republicans, attend.

Barrett is not expected to be present at Thursday’s session. The appellate court judge from Indiana appeared for three days before the panel last week, batting back questions. She was asked about her approach to legal questions surrounding abortion access, gay marriage and the nation’s tradition of a peaceful transfer of presidential power.

Trump has said he wants a judge seated in time to hear any potential disputes arising from the Nov. 3 election, as leaving the court with an even number of justices without a deciding vote could create further chaos.

Many judicial nominees decline to discuss their views on various issues, saying they will consider the cases as they come. Barrett took a similar approach, drawing deep skepticism from Democrats because she had previously spoken out against abortion and past rulings on the Affordable Care Act.

The court is set to hear a challenge to the health care law on Nov. 10, one week after the presidential election.

Senate Majority Leader McConnell has defended Barrett as “exceptionally qualified” as well as his own decision to push her nomination forward.

Adapted from reporting by Associated Press.

In Pitch for Biden, Obama Urges Voters to Cast Trump Out

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In Pitch for Biden, Obama Urges Voters to Cast Trump Out

(Headline USA) Former President Barack Obama blasted President Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus, his culpability in national discord and his overall fitness for the job on Wednesday as he made his first in-person campaign pitch for his former vice president, Joe Biden.

With less than two weeks before Election Day, Obama used a drive-in campaign rally in Philadelphia to assure voters that Biden and his running mate, Kamala Harris, can mend a fractured country, despite riots in major cities across the country inflicted by their backers.

He lauded the merits of democracy and citizenship as “human values” that the United States must again embrace.

“America is a good and decent place, but we’ve just seen so much nonsense and noise that sometimes it’s hard to remember,” Obama said, after spending much of his 35-minute speech upbraiding Trump as “incapable of taking the job seriously” and interested only in himself.

“I’m asking you to remember what this country can be,” Obama said. “I’m asking you to believe in Joe’s ability and Kamala’s ability to lead this country out of these dark times and help us build it back better.”

Obama’s visit to Philadelphia underscores the significance of Pennsylvania, the Rust Belt state that helped deliver Trump the White House four years ago. Pennsylvania is the battleground state that Biden has visited the most this campaign season. Trump has prioritized the state as well, aware that his path to victory would narrow considerably without the state’s 20 electoral votes. The president on Wednesday was in Erie, one of a handful of Pennsylvania counties that Obama won twice before it flipped to Trump.

Obama paid heed especially to disillusioned voters, including black men and progressives wary of Biden. His presence in Philadelphia indicated a Democrat concern that the party could be hemorrhaging black votes to Trump. He urged them not to sit out the Nov. 3 election, warning that complacency from some liberal voters is what helped Trump get elected four years ago.

“What we do these next 13 days will matter for decades to come,” Obama said. “The fact that we don’t get 100% of what we want right away is not a good reason not to vote.”

As with his Democratic National Convention speech two months ago, Obama pulled no punches on his successor. This time, though, he employed humor, sarcasm and outright incredulity befitting the trappings of a campaign rally. Tieless and with his sleeves rolled up, Obama stood on a stage facing car-bound supporters watching him on screen and rewarding his attack lines with a cacophony of honking horns.

Beneath the scorn was a defense of his own record.

“I never thought Donald Trump would embrace my vision or continue my policies, but I did hope for the sake of the country that he might show some interest in taking the job seriously,” Obama said. Trump “wants full credit for the economy he inherited and no blame for the pandemic he ignored.”

He disparaged the GOP’s “shameful” attempts to gut the 2010 Affordable Care Act while always promising a replacement.

“It’s been ‘coming in two weeks’ for the last 10 years. Where is it? Where is this great plan to replace Obamacare?” he asked. “There is no plan. They’ve never had one.”

Four years ago, Obama delivered Hillary Clinton’s closing argument in Philadelphia — at a rally for thousands the night before Election Day on Independence Mall. With his reprisal for Biden, Obama reminded voters of 2016, when Trump upset Clinton narrowly in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin to forge an Electoral College majority despite losing the popular vote nationally.

“I don’t care about the polls,” Obama said. “There were a whole bunch of polls last time. Didn’t work out because a whole bunch of folks stayed at home and got lazy and complacent. Not this time. Not this election.”

He is also planning to campaign for Biden in Miami on Saturday.

Obama said the future of the country is at stake.

“We’ve got to vote like never before,” he said in Philadelphia, “and leave no doubt.”

Adapted from reporting by Associated Press.

Ex-GOP Sen. on Debate Commission: Trump’s Accusations of Bias Do ‘Incalculable’ Damage’

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Ex-GOP Sen. on Debate Commission: Trump’s Accusations of Bias Do ‘Incalculable’ Damage’

A former Republican senator who now sits on the board of directors for the Commission on Presidential Debates ripped President Trump for accusing the organization of being biased against him.

In an op-ed for the Washington Post, former Sen. John Danforth, R-Mo., claimed Trump’s “attack on the debate commission is an attack on the election itself,” adding that Trump’s accusations could do “incalculable” damage to both the upcoming presidential debate and the election itself.

Trump called out the commission for setting him up against biased moderators, two of whom have had ties to the Democratic Party, and changing the debate topics to issues that were not agreed upon beforehand.

Danforth, however, argued that neither the moderators nor the topics were chosen to give Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden an edge.

“First, all the debate moderators the commission chose are highly professional and experienced. When the selection of the moderators was announced Sept. 2, neither campaign objected,” he wrote.

“It’s also nonsense to suggest that the commission has allowed the Biden campaign to steer the final debate away from foreign policy,” he added. “As the Trump campaign knows, subject matter for the debates is outside the commission’s province and is chosen solely by the moderators.”

Danforth went on to claim that “the fairness of our presidential debates and, in turn, the presidential election” is “at stake.”

The moderator chosen for the upcoming final presidential debate–NBC’s Kristen Welker—has longstanding ties to the Democratic Party.

She and her parents have donated thousands of dollars to Biden’s presidential campaign and former President Barack Obama’s past campaigns. She was also a registered Democrat as of 2012.

“Kristen Welker is terrible. I mean, she is totally partisan,” Trump said this week. “Her father and mother are big supporters of Joe Biden for a long time. They’re supporters of the Democrat Party, and she deleted her entire [Twitter] account.”

Minneapolis Residents Sue City Over Lack of Policing

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Minneapolis Residents Sue City Over Lack of Policing

Minneapolis residents are suing the city over a lack of policing after officials voted to defund the police department earlier this year.

The Minneapolis City Council voted unanimously in June to dismantle the police department in favor of a “Department of Community Safety.”

Though the plan has not moved forward, Mayor Jacob Frey did agree to slash the city’s police department by $14 million. As expected, crime in the city has skyrocketed, prompting several city council members to demand that the police increase their presence.

A group of residents, however, have had enough.

Former council member Don Samuels said the crime has gotten so bad that he and his family can no longer leave their home at night.

“We have made the emotional appeal,” Samuels said, according to Fox-9.

“We have demonstrated the statistical uptick, and now, this is the legal action we are exercising because it seems as if the City Council cannot hear us and doesn’t feel what we feel.”

The lawsuit accuses the city of violating its charter by allowing the Minneapolis Police Department to fall below its minimum thresholds.

“We simply want to have enough police on the streets to keep Minneapolis safe,” James Dickey, an attorney, said.

The city council and its attorneys responded to the lawsuit saying it should be since the MPD has a sufficient number of law enforcement officers.

A judge heard arguments on Monday and has 90 days to issue a ruling.

Seattle Police Officers’ Exit Interviews Reveal Frustration w/Lack of Support From City

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Seattle Police Officers’ Exit Interviews Reveal Frustration w/Lack of Support From City

The exit interviews of officers leaving the Seattle Police Department reveal how little support and concern for their well-being they received from city officials, according to KOMO News.

Dozens of officers have left the force over the past few months, in part because they no longer feel supported by city officials who are busy pushing a liberal agenda.

“I refuse to work for this socialist city council and their political agenda,” explained an outgoing patrol sergeant who had decided to retire after more than two decades with SPD, according to the report.

“This agenda sacrifices the health and well-being of the officers and ultimately will destroy the fabric of this once fine city,” said the sergeant.

Many exiting officers were especially concerned with the lack of consequences for rioters who committed crimes during the protests or against police department employees.

“In a precinct that is under civil unrest by a small group that is constantly committing multiple felonies and attempting to murder peace officers,” one patrol officer who had worked for the department for six to 10 years wrote.

The person later added that they largely enjoyed working with Seattle PD, but “[t]he one thing that I enjoyed the least was the handling of the last three months of riots.”

The entire department has suffered due to “the council wanting to defund us and gaining ground doing it,” another outgoing officer said. “Rioters not being charged even when they assault officers.”

Mayor Jenny Durkan tried to prevent the Seattle City Council from slashing the police department’s budget, but city council members managed to override her veto, cutting SPD’s budget by $4 million.

When asked if he’d be willing to return to the SPD in the future, a veteran police canine officer with more than 10 years with the SPD responded, “I highly doubt it.”

“You could pay me twice what you’re paying me now and I would not work for Seattle under this current political mayhem, Marxist collaborations, and lack of government and police leadership,” the officer wrote.

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