Financial Experts Debunk NYTimes’ Attempt to Smear Trump over Loan Debt

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Financial Experts Debunk NYTimes’ Attempt to Smear Trump over Loan Debt

(Headline USA) A recent New York Times article smearing President Donald Trump over his finances said Trump must pay back more than $300 million in loans over the next four years.

According to partisan attacks, Trump’s alleged debt raised the possibility of an unprecedented situation should he win a second term and not be able to raise the money: that lenders might foreclose on the leader of the free world.

But financial experts say the notion of Trump going broke anytime soon is farfetched.

Trump has dismissed the Times article that purportedly obtained his tax records under suspicious circumstances. He has indicated that the records were incomplete.

But even with a total debt load across his entire business empire estimated at more than $1 billion, experts noted Trump would still have plenty of property and assets he could cash in.

Among the holdings in his portfolio are office and condo towers, golf courses and branding deals that have been valued at $2.5 billion.

Based on Forbes magazine estimates of the value of his buildings, for instance, selling his partial interests in just two properties—an office complex in San Francisco and a Las Vegas tower that houses a hotel and condos—could bring in $500 million alone.

Even the Times report was quick to note that tax filings alone can’t help determine someone’s net worth.

Plenty of real estate investors report big losses under tax accounting rules, including sometimes generous depreciation charges that reflect expected wear and tear on buildings.

Phillip Braun, a finance professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Business, said Trump’s minuscule tax payments don’t surprise him, nor do the losses claimed. “His accountants work really to make sure he doesn’t pay any taxes,” he said.

A better idea of how Trump is faring, Braun said, comes from Trump’s operating profits.

“The real estate lending market is difficult at the moment, but for buildings throwing off cash? That shouldn’t be a problem,” said Bernard Kent, chairman at Schechter Investment Advisors in Detroit.

“For something like Trump Tower, the future cash flow wouldn’t be tremendously affected by COVID-19 or people moving out of New York,” he said. “Top-flight properties there tend to hold value.”

Forbes, which has been valuing Trump properties for decades for its annual billionaire issue, says Trump’s 40 Wall Street office tower generated $18 million in operating profits in 2019, Trump Tower $13 million, and Trump’s share in San Francisco’s 555 California Street tower $26 million.

According to Forbes’s latest valuation, even pandemic-reduced prices leave Trump with $2.5 billion worth of properties and other assets, and that is after subtracting his $1.2 billion in debt.

The Times said Trump’s real estate company has $421 million in loans he has personally guaranteed, with $300 million of that coming due over four years.

The Trump Organization did not immediately respond to an email and phone call requesting comment.

Trump dismissed the Times story as “fake news” and said he is “extremely underleveraged.”

“I have very little debt compared to the value of assets,” he wrote.

Among his lenders listed in his personal financial disclosure are New York-based commercial lender Ladder Capital, which is owed at least $110 million, and Bryn Mawr Trust Co. a suburban Philadelphia bank, which held Trump debt worth between $5 million and $25 million for Seven Springs, a New York estate owned by the Trump Organization.

Trump’s biggest lender on his disclosure is Deutsche Bank, his chief financier stretching back two decades.

It helped him buy and fix up several buildings in New York and Chicago and his Doral golf club in Miami. It is owed at least $125 million, with loans coming due in 2023 and 2024.

One option for Trump is to get his lenders to refinance his debt or to take out a new loan. Deutsche Bank is an obvious candidate to help him with either because it has been so forgiving to him over the years.

“If I was sitting at my old job and a Trump loan was coming due next year and he’s the president, I would just say let’s extend the maturity,” said Mike Offit, a former executive at Deutsche Bank who lent to Trump in the late ’90s

If all were lost, and Trump were really in trouble, some experts say there is another way he could raise money to pay off his lender: copy rocker David Bowie, who sold bonds that allow investors to make money off his music royalties.

“Trump Bonds” would enable investors to share in his future earnings from selling his name to, say, condo builders or purveyors of steaks or colognes or neckties.

“Trump has a brand that has value,” Kent said.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

GOP Senators Praise Amy Coney Barrett Ahead of Confirmation Fight

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GOP Senators Praise Amy Coney Barrett Ahead of Confirmation Fight

(Headline USA) Key Republican senators praised President Donald Trump‘s Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, as the conservative judge met privately on Capitol Hill Tuesday with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and others in preparation for her fast-track confirmation before the Nov. 3 election.

Joined by Vice President Mike Pence, McConnell said he was glad to welcome Barrett and “get the process started” on her confirmation. Pence said the judge “represents the best of America.”

The Republican leader declined to answer wishful thinking questions from the legacy media about whether Barrett should recuse herself if legal challenges in the election between Trump and Democrat Joe Biden land at the high court. But another key GOP senator said that’s “the entire reason” why the Senate should quickly fill the vacant seat.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas warned of a “crisis” if the eight-justice court is deadlocked on election matters.

“The entire reason the Senate should act and act promptly to confirm a 9th justice is so that the Supreme Court can resolve any cases that arise in the wake of the election,” Cruz told reporters at his meeting with the judge.

Democrats are confronting the limits of their power as they fight against the nomination and some have said they won’t meet with Barrett, who is expected to be confirmed for the seat held by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg by the end of October.

With Republicans holding a 53-47 Senate majority, and just two GOP senators opposing a quick vote, Barrett appears to have enough support for confirmation.

“She’s got a good chance of getting my vote,” said Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, the former Judiciary Committee chairman who now helms the Finance Committee.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer acknowledged Tuesday it will be an “uphill fight” to stop Trump’s nominee. But he said Americans are on Democrats’ side in preferring to wait until after the election so the winner can choose the next justice. He is among those refusing to meet with Barrett, calling the process “illegitimate,” and said her conservative views on health care, abortion and other issues are “far outside” the mainstream.

“It’s not over,” Schumer said on ABC’s “The View.”

Barrett made no public remarks at the start of what is expected to be days of meet-and-greet sessions with senators, a traditional part of the confirmation process. She also was to meet Tuesday with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and other senators on the panel. Hearings at the committee are set to begin Oct. 12.

No justice has ever been confirmed to the Supreme Court so close to a presidential election.

Unable to block Trump’s pick on their own, Democrats are aimed at avoiding mistakes that could hurt their party’s candidates in November. They are arguing, without evidence, to voters that Barrett’s nomination threatens the protections of the Affordable Care Act — a focus that Biden has embraced and many Democrats see as a winning message. The court will hear a case challenging the constitutionality of President Barack Obama’s health care law just after the election, adding to the urgency of the issue.

But there will also be ample opportunities for Democrats to move off-message as partisans on both sides infuse the nomination battle with cultural, gender and religious politics.

Some in the left wing of the Democratic Party are pushing for senators to boycott the hearings or commit to adding more justices to the court if Biden wins the presidential election. That has fueled concerns in the party about placing too much emphasis on procedural tactics that only delay votes by hours or days — even as precious time ticks away in the few remaining weeks before the Nov. 3 election.

Religion, in particular, could be a minefield.

Democrats worry that Barrett has tied her Catholicism too closely to some of her statements and decisions, and California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, still faces criticism for her comments during Barrett’s 2017 confirmation hearing. Feinstein had joined Republicans on the panel in asking Barrett about her faith, but then went further by telling the then-professor that “when you read your speeches, the conclusion one draws is that the dogma lives loudly within you.”

Republicans now use those comments against Democrats.

Adapted from reporting by Associated Press.

AG Agrees to Release Grand Jury Tapes in Breonna Taylor Case

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AG Agrees to Release Grand Jury Tapes in Breonna Taylor Case

(Headline USA) Kentucky’s attorney general has acknowledged that he never asked the grand jury to consider homicide charges against police in the killing of Breonna Taylor.

Amid outrage over the long-awaited charging decision, Attorney General Daniel Cameron said he would agree with a judge’s order to make public a recording of the proceedings, and that he wouldn’t object if members of the panel want to speak publicly about their grand jury experience.

In his statement Monday night, Cameron also revealed that the only charge he recommended to the jury was wanton endangerment. He had previously declined to provide details on what charges prosecutors brought to the grand jury to consider when it met last week.

Cameron said the grand jury is meant to be a “secretive body,” but “It’s apparent that the public interest in this case isn’t going to allow that to happen.”

Cameron said a recording of the grand jury proceedings would be released Wednesday.

“Once the public listens to the recording, they will see that over the course of two-and-a-half days, our team presented a thorough and complete case to the grand jury,” Cameron said.

But the public deserves to know if any other criminal charges were explored by the grand jury aside from Cameron’s recommendation, said attorney Kevin Glogower, who is representing a grand juror who sued to have the recordings released.

“We still don’t know what charges, if any, were presented outside of that recommendation,” Glogower told reporters Tuesday morning. Cameron has “yet to answer what was actually presented as far as the charges and the individual they were directed to. I think that’s important to know and my client feels the same.”

Cameron said at a news conference last week that prosecutors “walked them (the grand jury) through every homicide offense and also presented all of the information that was available to the grand jury.”

The grand jury in Louisville issued charges against one officer, Brett Hankison, for endangering three of Taylor’s neighbors by firing through her home, into an adjacent unit where bullets missed people. None of the the officers were indicted in the killing of Taylor, who was shot five times after officers knocked down her door to serve a narcotics warrant on March 13.

Cameron said last week that two of the officers, Jonathan Mattingly and Myles Cosgrove, were justified in firing their weapons because Taylor’s boyfriend had fired at them. Mattingly was struck by a bullet in the leg. There was no conclusive evidence that any of Hankison’s bullets hit Taylor, Cameron said.

A coroner’s report says Taylor was shot five times and died of multiple gunshot wounds. It says she was hit in the torso, her upper left extremity and both lower extremities. She tested negative for drugs and alcohol.

“Our prosecutors presented all of the evidence, even though the evidence supported that Sgt. Mattingly and Detective Cosgrove were justified in their use of force after having been fired upon by Kenneth Walker,” Cameron said in the statement. “For that reason, the only charge recommended was wanton endangerment.”

Hankison, who was fired from the force for his actions during the raid, pleaded not guilty on Monday.

Also Monday, an unidentified grand juror filed a court motion asking a judge to release the record of the proceedings, and to allow the panel’s members to talk publicly about their experiences.

Cameron suggested that his office would not stand in their way: “We have no concerns with grand jurors sharing their thoughts on our presentation because we are confident in the case we presented.”

The motion also said there was a “compelling public interest” to have the grand jury record released. The filing accused Cameron of “using the grand jury to deflect accountability and responsibility for (the indictment) decisions…”

Such a public disclosure of grand jury minutes is rare. Most states have laws that would make it impossible. Other states, such as California, allow it under very specific circumstances, and some places require a judge’s order.

Adapted from reporting by Associated Press.

Top Senate Dem. Condemns Hillary Clinton for Telling Biden Not to Concede Election

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Top Senate Dem. Condemns Hillary Clinton for Telling Biden Not to Concede Election

A top Senate Democrat who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee said he disagreed with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton‘s statement that former Vice President Joe Biden should not accept the presidential election results “under any circumstances,” ABC News Radio reported.

“I respect her. I like her. But I think she’s just flat-out wrong,” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos, a former Clinton surrogate, on “This Week” Sunday.

“The election itself is going to be announced,” he continued. “The winner will be announced at some point.”

Durbin echoed GOP Senate leaders in calling for a decisive outcome and peaceful aftermath, even as the more radical factions in his party threaten to riot and commit acts of arson and vandalism if they don’t get their way.

“If we are going to maintain a democracy, peaceful transition through an election is the only way to do it,” he said. “Whoever the winner is, if it is clear and legal, that should be announced and the other party should concede.”

Clinton’s remark last month added fuel to the fire as widespread concerns linger that Democrat officials may exploit a mail-in-voting scheme to rig the election in their favor.

Since Biden is unlikely to win on Nov. 3, Democrats have tried to prepare the American people for a delayed announcement of the presidential election’s winner.

Clinton said she hopes to convince Americans that the mail-in ballots trickling in days and weeks after the election should give Biden the legitimate victory.

Despite Clinton’s clear anti-democratic impulses and the post-election “war games” by groups like the George Soros-linked Transition Integrity Project strategizing how to strong-arm Democrats into victory, the media has focused, unsurprisingly on President Donald Trump’s more careful comments about conceding the election.

“Well, we’re going to have to see what happens. You know that,” he said in response to a question last week from partisan Playboy reporter Brian Karem.

Some leftist outlets rushed to torque the narrative by suggesting any efforts on the part of  Trump to contest the results would be tantamount to a coup.

However, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany clarified that Trump would accept the results of a “free and fair election.”

Others close to the president, including Eric Trump and former Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, noted that there was no reason for Trump to accept the false, hypothetical premise since he intended to win re-election.

Clinton has flipped her position on respecting the election results several times as the politics demanded.

During the 2016 election, she condemned then-presidential candidate Donald Trump for saying that he would have to review the election results before accepting them.

However, she herself later refused to accept the unfavorable results, scapegoating everything from racism to Russia.

She changed her mind once again in an Aug. 24 interview with The Recount.

“I think this is gonna drag out, and eventually I do believe [Biden] will win if we don’t give an inch and if we are as focused and relentless as the other side is,” she said.

Headline USA’s Ben Sellers contributed to this report.

Watchdogs Expose Corrupt Ballot-Harvesting Plot by Houston’s Dem. Election Officials

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Watchdogs Expose Corrupt Ballot-Harvesting Plot by Houston’s Dem. Election Officials

Two separate investigations in one of Texas’s biggest urban centers exposed corruption among the partisan officials overseeing the voter-rolls, as well as an illegal ballot-harvesting scam led by state Democrats in coordination with the Biden campaign.

The Public Interest Legal Foundation filed a lawsuit against Harris County, Texas and demanded that self-identified non-citizens be removed from voter rolls, according to a press release.

The lawsuit comes after PILF learned that Harris County—the county surrounding Houston—has for two decades approved voter registrations even when the applicants admit that they are not citizens.

Some of these illegal voters have been able to cast ballots in elections, the Washington Times reported.

If successful, PILF’s lawsuit would require Harris County to challenge or discard voter applications that non-citizens submit.

“The Foundation made a federal case to access to these records—now we see what the fight was all for,” said J. Christian Adams, PILF president and general counsel.

“Individuals claiming to be foreign nationals should not be registered in Harris County,” he said. “These failures harm citizens, but they also put those immigrants into serious jeopardy with federal officials. We hope to see swift action prior to the voting this fall.”

Harris County Registrar Ann Bennett, a Democrat who is herself currently running for re-election, said PILF found that 134 voters per year were wrongfully placed on the voter rolls, but they have since been removed, Fox 26 Houston reported.

She defended the local government, saying that these errors are slim when considering the more than 2.3 million people who are registered to vote in the county.

She also said PILF could not identify any non-citizens who are currently registered to vote.

“Nevertheless, this out-of-state organization filed a second lawsuit to ask a state court to order the Registrar to do what she is already doing—assure the integrity of Harris County’s voter records,” Bennett said.

“Tellingly, the organization demands $210,000 in attorney’s fees, despite failing to uncover any evidence that there are currently any non-citizens registered to vote.”

At the same time, another prominent Democrat in Harris County, Dallas Jones, was implicated in a massive ballot-harvesting scheme this week, according to American Greatness.

Jones is the Texas political director for the Joe Biden campaign.

Two private investigators—one a former FBI agent and the other a former police officer—said in sworn affidavits that they had evidence including videos, documentation and witnesses.

Harris County Democrats—including several top election officials—bragged that he had hoarded an estimated 700,000 mail-in ballots.

Among them were dead people, homeless people and those in nursing homes, according to the information originally reported by National File.

However, the investigators doubted anything would be done prior to the Nov. 3 election to hold the officials accountable.

Two of Congress’s most outspoken leftist radicals—Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee and Al Green—represent adjacent districts in the area surrounding south Houston.

These revelations come on the heels of a series of reports by watchdog Project Veritas that exposed a similar ballot-harvesting scheme in Minneapolis’s Somali community that implicated Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.

Headline USA’s Ben Sellers contributed to this report.

EPA Says Calif. Gov. Newsom’s Ban of Gasoline Cars May Be Illegal

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EPA Says Calif. Gov. Newsom’s Ban of Gasoline Cars May Be Illegal

(Headline USA) U.S. Environmental Protection Agency chief Andrew Wheeler on Monday ridiculed California Gov. Gavin Newsom‘s plan to ban the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035, saying the proposal raises “significant questions of legality.”

Last week, Newsom signed an executive order directing state regulators to come up with rules that would ban the sale of all new gas-powered passenger cars and trucks by 2035.

He said the plan will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 35%.

On Monday, Wheeler sent Newsom a letter questioning how the state could add millions of electric vehicles despite having “a record of rolling blackouts.”

He said it “begs the question of how you expect to run an electric car fleet that will come with significant increases in electricity demand, when you can’t even keep the lights on today.”

California had its first rolling blackouts in nearly 20 years last month when demand for electricity during a heat wave was so high the state ran out of power.

More than half a million homes and businesses lost power for about an hour.

The state came close to mandatory power shutoffs a few other times this year, but was able to avoid them.

“The truth it that if the state were driving 100 percent electric vehicles today, the state would be dealing with even worse power shortages than the ones that have already caused a series of otherwise preventable environmental and public health consequences,” Wheeler wrote.

The blackouts in August were complicated by a heat wave that blanketed much of the West, making it more difficult for California to purchase surplus power from other states.

Newsom has ordered an investigation of the blackouts and has signed an emergency proclamation allowing more energy users and providers to tap into backup power.

Meanwhile, massive wildfires continue to burn across the state. Newsom has said the fires have strengthened his resolve to combat climate change.

“While the Trump Administration tries to drive this country off a climate cliff, California is once again assuming the mantle of leadership in the fight against climate change,” said Newsom spokesman Jesse Melgar. “We aren’t going to back down from protecting our kids’ health and the air they breathe.”

Greenhouse gas carbon dioxide is a colorless, invisible gas, without particulates, so it doesn’t not affect breathing.

Roughly 87,500 Pacific Gas and Electric Company customers in California were without power on Monday, in effort to avoid more wildfires, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Adapted from reporting by Associated Press.

AOC Bails on Memorial to Israeli Peacemaker as Trump Brokers Truces Across Middle East

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AOC Bails on Memorial to Israeli Peacemaker as Trump Brokers Truces Across Middle East

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, has decided not to speak at a memorial commemorating the 25th anniversary of the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, former Israeli prime minister, general, and statesman, CNS News reported.

Americans for Peace Now, a pro-Israel organization, expected AOC to “reflect on fulfilling the courageous Israeli leader’s mission for peace and justice today in the U.S. and Israel” at his memorial service.

When APN announced that AOC would speak, however, she was immediately met with backlash from Palestinians who despise Rabin for his violent past.

AOC has since withdrawn from participating in the event. 

Rabin’s granddaughter, Noa Rothman, expressed her disappointment with AOC’s withdrawal. 

She replied to AOC’s tweet and accused her of submitting to popular outrage.

While AOC refuses to speak at the memorial service because of public outrage, President Donald Trump has fostered friendly relations between Israel and the Arab world.

Trump facilitated a peace deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, convincing the nations to forgive past injustices and animosities for the sake of a cooperative future.

“We’re here this afternoon to change the course of history,” Trump said on Sept. 15. “After decades of division and conflict, we mark the dawn of a new Middle East.”

Rabin has a contradictory and controversial history. 

During the first Palestinian uprising, which took place in 1987, Rabin served as Israel’s defense minister.

Critics accuse him of ordering his soldiers to “break the bones” of violent protesters, despite the Israeli statesman’s denial of the claim.

Many Israelis, however, laud Rabin for his peaceful legacy that came at the end of his life. 

Rabin and Palestine Liberation Organization chairman Yasser Arafat signed the Oslo Interim Accord in 1993 at the White House. 

In 1994, both leaders shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Shimon Peres, the then-Israeli Foreign Minister, “for their efforts to create peace in the Middle East.”

That same year, Rabin and King Hussein of Jordan signed the monumental Israel-Jordan peace treaty.

An Israeli ultranationlist assassinated Rabin at a rally in Tel Aviv on November 4, 1994.

Former U.S. ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro tweeted his support of Rabin.

Arsen Ostrovsky, a human rights attorney, did not want AOC to speak at the event.

In the end, Ostrovsky wasn’t surprised at the turn of events.

Many Palestinians, however, praised AOC’s choice. 

Adalah Justice Project, which calls itself as a “Palestinian Advocacy Organization based in the U.S.,” tweeted its elation that AOC listened “to the lived experience of the Palestinian people,” asserting that Rabin’s “legacy is one of violence and dispossession for Palestinians.”

Orde Kittrie, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former State Department attorney, composed a thread on twitter decrying AOC’s ignorance. 

Kittrie cited that Hussein attended Rabin’s funeral, despite Jordan and Israel’s Six Day War in 1967, which Rabin led and won.

In his eulogy of Rabin, Hussein honored Rabin “as a brother, a friend.”

“You lived as a soldier, and you died as a soldier of peace.”

Consumer Confidence Posts Solid Gain to 101.8 in September

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Consumer Confidence Posts Solid Gain to 101.8 in September

(Associated Press) U.S. consumer confidence rebounded more quickly in September than most economists had expected, though they remain far from levels that were the norm before the pandemic struck.

The Conference Board reported Tuesday that its consumer confidence index rose sharply to a reading of 101.8, up from 86.3 in August, largely due to a more favorable view on current business and labor market conditions.

“Consumer also expressed greater optimism about their short-term financial prospects which may help keep spending from slowing further in the months ahead,” said Lynn Franco, senior indicators director at the Conference Board.

Consumer confidence is closely watched for signals about consumer spending, which accounts for 70% of economic activity in the U.S. And the country is heading into a crucial economic period, the leadup to the holiday season.

“The sheer magnitude of today’s rise tells us the consumer thinks the worst days of the recession are over,” said Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at global financial group MUFG.

The big lift in September is a solid 16.1 point jump from the low of 85.7 hit in April as large swaths of the country went into lockdown.

However, that number was riding well above 100 in the months before April and the index hit 132.6 in February before the severity of COVID-19 infections became clear.

The September improvement reflects improving consumer optimism about present conditions which climbed to 98.5, up from 85.8.

It also shows rising consumer expectations, which strengthened to 104.0, up from 86.6 in August.

The percentage of survey respondents who viewed jobs as hard to get fell to 20%, from 23.6%, while those who viewed jobs as plentiful rose slightly to 22.9%, up from 21.4%.

Rubeela Farooqi, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, said that the rebound in confidence in September, while still below the high levels seen before the pandemic hit, likely reflected “some optimism about economic and job prospects from an ongoing and fuller reopening of the economy.”

Pelosi Prepares in Case House Decides Presidential Race

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Pelosi Prepares in Case House Decides Presidential Race

(Headline USA) House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is taking extraordinary steps to prepare for the 2020 election, seeking to increase Democrats’ hold on state congressional delegations in the highly unusual scenario that the House is called on to resolve a disputed presidential contest.

“We cannot leave anything to chance,” Pelosi said in a letter to colleagues, emphasizing the importance of winning House seats for Democrats — not just to expand their majority but to prepare for the possibility that the House must settle the presidential race.

She said she made the planning public after President Donald Trump claimed recently that, if the election ends up in Congress, he has the advantage over Democrat Joe Biden, because Republicans control a few more delegations in the House.

“It’s sad we have to have to plan this way, but it’s what we must do to ensure the election is not stolen,” Pelosi said Sunday in the letter.

She said Trump has shown he “will do whatever it takes to remain in power.”

The strategy being put in place by Pelosi is one of several scenarios envisioned ahead of the election as Trump and Biden face off this week in the first presidential debate.

Early voting is already underway in several states.

Tensions are high and rather than seeking calm, and the Left is creating doubt about the nation’s ability to conduct a legitimate election.

Trump tweeted fresh claims Monday of problems with ballots, such as discarded ballots in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and cases of disregarded mail-in ballots in New York and California.

“Many things are already going very wrong,” he said.

Meanwhile, states are bracing for a surge of mail-in ballots as voters avoid polling places due to potential health risks of gathering in crowds during the coronavirus pandemic.

Tabulating the results could drag on for days, with Democrats likely “finding” ballots to help in close elections.

Sen. Angus King, a Maine independent who caucuses with Democrats, has said Americans need to treat Election Day as “halftime” while awaiting the full results.

Normally, Americans cast their ballots for president and states certify the results through the Electoral College, which is made up of electors from the states. A joint session of Congress convenes Jan. 6 to tally the Electoral College votes and announce the winner. Typically, the decision has been resolved well in advance, usually on election night.

But if the Electoral College is deadlocked or unable to reach a majority outcome, the question goes to the House as a “contingent election.”

Each state’s congressional delegation, consisting of the newly elected House lawmakers, casts one vote to determine the presidential outcome, according to the House history website. The new president is to be inaugurated Jan. 20.

Democrats are not in serious danger of losing their majority in the House. But as of now, Pelosi explained, Republicans have a “razor thin” margin — 26 of the state delegations, compared with 22 for Democrats. Two states are essentially tied.

“We must achieve that majority of delegations or keep the Republicans from doing so,” Pelosi wrote.

Only a few elections have been decided in the House, and none since the 1800s.

Pelosi said Monday on MSNBC that she has been working on various scenarios for a while but went public once Trump started talking openly about relying on the House to win the election.

Lawmakers in Congress have been quietly gaming out scenarios for weeks.

“We are planning for all eventualities, I can tell you that,” Rep. Andy Levin, D-Mich., said earlier this month.

Adapted from reporting by Associated Press.

TRUMP: Rapid COVID Tests Going to Schools May Be Major Leap Toward Normalcy

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TRUMP: Rapid COVID Tests Going to Schools May Be Major Leap Toward Normalcy

(Headline USA) President Donald Trump announced Monday that the federal government will begin distributing millions of rapid coronavirus tests to states this week and urged governors to use them to reopen schools for students in kindergarten through 12th grade.

The tests will go out to states based on their population and can be used as governors see fit, but the Trump administration is encouraging states to place a priority on schools.

Statistics have routinely shown that children face a minuscule chance of succumbing to the virus and, barring any prior risk factors, the mortality rate is close to nothing.

The vast majority of deaths have been those over age 65, particularly those in nursing homes, who account for an estimated 40 percent of COVID deaths.

But leftists hoping to extend the lockdowns and virus panic through the election season have insisted that the risk factors for children to transmit the virus—even under the highly regulated social-distancing parameters in place and with widespread testing—are too great for them to relax while Trump remains in office.

White House officials said at a Rose Garden event that 6.5 million tests will go out this week and that a total of 100 million tests will be distributed to governors over the next several weeks.

Officials said the administration is emphasizing testing in schools because it’s important to the physical, social and emotional development of students to be back in classrooms to the degree that’s possible.

The Abbott Laboratories tests would allow parents to know whether their symptomatic child has COVID-19. In some cases, states could undertake some baseline surveillance, like testing a proportion of students per week or per month to make sure that the incidence of COVID-19 is low.

“You have too many states that are locked down right now,” Trump said. “The governors are … nobody knows what the governors are doing actually.”

The tests will come from a previously announced supply of 150 million ordered from Abbott. The company’s rapid test, the size of a credit card, is the first that does not require specialty computer equipment to process. It delivers results in about 15 minutes.

Rapid, convenient testing is considered essential to reopening the U.S. economy.

For months, Trump has prodded state and local leaders to open schools this fall. But private labs and hospitals struggled to ramp up testing capacity due to shortages of key supplies, including testing chemicals.

Only in the last two months has U.S. testing capacity generally exceeded demand. The government’s top testing official, Adm. Brett Giroir, told Congress last week that the nation will soon have the capacity to run 3 million tests per day, on average.

The U.S. has been averaging about 900,000 tests per day, according to data from the COVID Tracking Project.

Giroir demonstrated the ease with which the test is given, self-administering the nasal swab then placing it on a piece of paper that contained six drops of liquid.

“This is a very sophisticated little piece of cardboard with lots of antibodies and incredible technology,” he said.

Abbott’s test is an important advance because of its low cost and easy-to-use format. Until now, the vast majority of coronavirus tests had to be sent to high-grade medical laboratories for processing that typically took several days.

Backlogs led to repeated delays in reporting results, especially during a summer spike in cases.

But rapid, point-of-care tests like Abbott’s have their own downsides. They are less accurate, and positive results often need to be confirmed with higher-grade lab tests.

Additionally, because the tests are often performed outside the health care system, state officials have warned that many tests are going unreported. That could lead to undercounts of new cases, skewing government data needed to track the virus.

“What we’re hearing from the states is that they don’t know where these tests are being done,” said Dr. Jeffrey Engel of the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists, in a recent interview.

He warned that schools generally do not have the capacity or expertise to report mass testing results, which could artificially lower infection counts sent to state and federal officials.

Trump warned that with an increase in testing, there would “automatically” be an increase in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases.

“It’s important to remember that as younger and healthier people return to work and as we massively increase testing capacity, we will identify more cases in asymptomatic individuals in low-risk populations,” Trump said. “This should not cause undue alarm.”

The Trump administration announced earlier this month that the Abbott tests would also go to assisted-living facilities, moving to fill a testing gap for older adults who do not need the constant attention of a nursing home. Senior day care centers and home health agencies are getting the tests too.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

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