Campaign Insiders on Biden’s VP Prospects: No ‘Ideal Home Run Choice’

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Campaign Insiders on Biden’s VP Prospects: No ‘Ideal Home Run Choice’

As presidential candidate Joe Biden gets closer to announcing his vice president pick, some Democrats argue Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., will be his top choice.

“He’s going to take less of a chance because the polls look so good and political observers would say the race has tilted toward Biden,” Democratic strategist Joel Payne said.

“There are no surprises with Kamala,” he continued. “You know what you’re going to get out of her. No one will be shocked that Kamala Harris is the choice. It’s the safer, more conservative choice.”

The carefully-worded language hints at the campaign’s hope for wooing disaffected pro-Trump moderates away, despite Biden’s sharp veer recently to the far Left.

But others say Harris– the most recognizable name on his remaining shortlist, which focuses predominately on women of color—may be a red-herring, there to keep the buzz alive as he vets a slate of lesser-knowns.

The Obvious Choice?

Harris is firmly in the liberal branch of the party but has shied away from openly embracing an extremist, socialism-tinged agenda in favor of a more Establishment-friendly approach.

Kamala Harris
Kamala Harris / IMAGE: PBS via YouTube

The junior senator from California, who vehemently opposed Biden’s candidacy during the primaries, checks many of Biden’s boxes:

  • She’s a first-generation American woman of Jamaican and Indian heritage.
  • She is the only one in contention with legislative experience at the federal level, as well as her own experience on the presidential campaign trail.
  • While she comes with a certain amount of baggage—including a perceived abrasiveness stemming from her prosecutorial style and demeanor, she’s been able to shed it during some softball interviews to show the kinder, gentler Kamala.

Her quality as a political chameleon is likely to be especially crucial in the campaign of a man who has openly boasted about his ability to “prostitute” himself to whoever is in the room at the time.

As far as vice-presidential assets go, of course, one of the most important is being able to let the top of the ticket shine by not stealing the limelight.

And Harris’s own tendency to flub statements and flip–flop on policies could be a welcome reprieve for the former Obama veep who has garnered a reputation for doing such things in his own right.

“Knowing him, Kamala is the best pick for him,” one longtime Biden confidant told The Hill. “Their politics are very similar. I would be surprised if it wasn’t her.”

Reckonings on Race and Crime Ahead?

Yet, in an era where “defund the police” leads the Democrat agenda, Harris’s ties to law-enforcement may put off some far-left rioters—explaining, perhaps, why her own campaign sputtered early without even carrying her home state of California.

Harris enacted controversial policies during her tenure as a San Francisco prosecutor and California attorney general—among them, the threat of jail time for parents of students who were regularly truant in school.

Biden, likewise, will have to answer for his prominent role in a tough Bill Clinton-era crime bill that has contributed to mass incarcerations in the black community especially.

And just as Biden was forced to answer for racially insensitive remarks when he joined the Obama team, he likely will need to face a reckoning with Harris, who grilled him over his previous racist policies during the debates.

Since then, Biden has only gotten worse with several other flubs that appeared to belittle and take for granted the black community.

Another Crowded Field

Harris is so determined to become second-in-command to the 77-year-old Biden (who will turn 78 before the election) that she was reported last week to have been dropping opposition research on her rivals.

Harris’s backers argue that Biden’s other choices—which include former national security adviser Susan Rice, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, and California Rep. Karen Bass—are too risky, according to the source.

Despite Biden’s pledge to pick a woman of color, Warren’s claim to be Native American were widely mocked and Whitmer—whose totalitarian streak during her state’s coronavirus lockdowns may have damaged her stock—has no known ethnic heritage.

Karen Bass
Karen Bass / IMAGE: Los Angeles Times via YouTube

But other Democrats have argued that Rice and Bass are more appealing picks than Harris for several reasons. Rice has the experience, and she has a long history with Biden since they worked together in the Obama administration. And Bass is the head of the Congressional Black Caucus, which is a significant advantage given the current climate, the source explained.

“The Bass thing is real,” the source said. “In many ways, she’s the easiest pick, even though she may not be the most obvious pick,” the source said of Bass.

A Known Entity

Democrats have said the same thing of Rice, considered “safe” because Biden already knows and trusts her, according to Obama administration alumni.

He knows firsthand how she operates in close proximity to a president, and their personal relationship is one he could rely on.

She could also focus primarily on foreign policy while Biden turns his attention to domestic issues, specifically the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic slump the country is currently facing. 

Biden’s “entire theory of politics is personal relationships,” Ben Rhodes, who served as deputy national security adviser for communications under Rice.

Susan Rice
Susan Rice / IMAGE: ABC News via YouTube

“The idea of him taking a leap of faith on someone he really doesn’t know because it seems to check a political box seems very unlikely to me,” Rhodes said.

Rhodes worked in tandem with Rice on controversial matters such as the Benghazi cover-up and the failed Iran nuclear deal, in which he popularized the term “echo chamber” to boast of the administration’s ability to lead obsequious media outlets by the nose.

But those—and the ties that both Biden and Rice have to the ongoing Obamagate spying scandal—would make her an immediate target of conservative critics, likely deepening the existing partisan rancor.

Clawing Her Way to the Top

There are many other names being floated—from Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois to former First Lady Michelle Obama.

In fact, as noted by Politico, the one common threat seems to be the uncertainty about the selection with the election now less than 100 days away.

“I don’t think there is an obvious frontrunner,” one campaign insider told Politico.

“And that’s why it is going to come down to trust and relationships,” the source continued. “There is no one ideal home run choice.”

But despite her acrimonious past rivalry with Biden Harris isn’t willing to give up her VP chances just yet.

She seems to be waging a behind-the-scenes campaign for the vice presidency, digging up dirt on her opponents and sending them to the media, according to the Atlantic.

For example, Vox and Politico published similar stories criticizing Rep. Val Demings, D-Fla., because of her record as Orlando’s police chief.

Around the same time, ABC News published a story criticizing Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’s ties to “controversial figure” Kasim Reed, the former Atlanta mayor who left office in disgrace amid a federal corruption investigation.

And shortly thereafter, Politico also published a hit-piece against Bass, who once described Cuban dictator Fidel Castro as “comandante en jefe,” meaning, commander in chief. 

None of this is a coincidence. But still, some see Harris as the smartest choice to assuage fears about Biden’s age and declining cognitive ability, which seem likely to give his running mate an outsize role in the administration.

“I think when all is said and done, [Biden will] land on the woman who is ready to be president on day one and will help fill some of the gaps that he has,” the source said.

Liberty Headlines’ Ben Sellers contributed to this report.

Building Owner Seeks SCOTUS Relief After NYC Vandals Awarded $6.75M for Graffiti

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Building Owner Seeks SCOTUS Relief After NYC Vandals Awarded $6.75M for Graffiti

Should graffiti be protected from property owners?

That’s a question many people would consider ludicrous, but a New York City court awarded graffiti “artists” $6.75 million in damages when a building owner whitewashed what he considered vandalism.

Now, real estate developer G&M Realty is petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court for help.

“We are hopeful the Court will agree to review [the] case, which concerns important (and interesting) issues,” an attorney for the company told The Epoch Times on Sunday.

The case involves dilapidated warehouses in Long Island City, Queens, where graffiti routinely defaces private property.

The area is informally known by several names, “5Pointz,” “The Institute of Higher Burnin” and the “5Pointz Aerosol Art Center.”

According to The Art Newspaper, graffiti litters the buildings’ exterior and interior walls, and attracts people from all over the city who then paint on top of other peoples’ street markings.

The 5Pointz area has such a longstanding reputation for vandalism that a Bill Clinton-appointed judge at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York declared that cleaning up the warehouses violated the graffiti artists’ rights.

Since 2013, G&M Realty has been trying to repair the warehouses and make room for luxury residential apartments.

Local activists have stood in the way, and cried foul when the company painted over parts of the graffiti Mecca with white paint.

With the help of locally connected lawyers, the activists claimed the real estate company destroyed many valuable works of art.

U.S. District Judge Frederic Block agreed and blasted owner Jerry Wolkoff, now deceased.

“If not for Wolkoff’s insolence, these damages would not have been assessed,” wrote Block, who is reportedly a 5Pointz fan, in a 2018 decision.

G&M appealed the ruling, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit upheld it earlier this year.

Both decisions rely on the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990, which authorizes courts to impose damages of up to $150,000 per incident against the owner of a work of visual art of “recognized stature” if the owner destroys it.

Ironically, the applied logic makes G&M both the owner of the graffiti and liable for damaging it, even if they don’t want it and consider it vandalism.

In their Supreme Court petition, attorneys for the realty company say the case “raises a host of constitutional red flags.”

Border Agents Intercept Nearly 20K Fake Driver’s Licenses at Chicago Airport

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Border Agents Intercept Nearly 20K Fake Driver’s Licenses at Chicago Airport

Nearly 20,000 fraudulent driver’s licenses have been seized by federal border protection authorities this year—and that’s just in Chicago.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced on Monday that agents at the International Mail Facility at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport have confiscated 19,888 counterfeit U.S. driver’s licenses from Jan. 1 to June 30.

The seizures occurred across 1,513 different shipments mostly from China and Hong Kong, though other shipments came from Great Britain and South Korea.

“These counterfeit driver’s licenses can lead to disastrous consequences,” said Ralph Piccirilli, CBP’s acting Chicago Port Director, in a statement.

“Criminal organizations use these counterfeit IDs to avoid attracting attention to their illegal activities,” Piccirilli said. “Our CBP officers were able to identify these very realistic counterfeits and stop them from reaching their destinations.”

Fake driver’s licenses are also sought by illegal immigrant communities and further pose voter fraud risks.

There’s no way to know how many bogus ID documents are circulating throughout the country or may have slipped past O’Hare airport authorities, but the details regarding the recent seizures show certain patterns.

According to CBP, the licenses were created for a broad spectrum of people across multiple states. Many licenses depicted photos and birth dates of young, minority and mostly male adults. Others had the same picture but different biographical information.

The fake Michigan driver’s licenses had functional bar codes, authorities said.

The CPB statement reiterated the dangers of fraudulent licenses, which include identity theft, worksite enforcement, critical infrastructure protection, fraud linked to immigration-related crimes, human smuggling and human trafficking.

They’re also prerequisites for “individuals associated with terrorism,” authorities said, because fake IDs minimize normal scrutiny and undermine travel screening measures.

CBP is housed within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and its agents conduct periodic inspections at 328 international ports of entry.

In addition to fraudulent identity documents, agents commonly seize illegal narcotics, weapons, currency, agriculture products and other counterfeit items.

Fireworks Likely as Barr Goes Up Against Nadler’s House Judiciary Committee

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Fireworks Likely as Barr Goes Up Against Nadler’s House Judiciary Committee

(Headline USA) Attorney General William Barr is defending the federal law enforcement response to civil unrest in America, saying “violent rioters and anarchists have hijacked legitimate protests” during recent race riots.

Barr will tell members of the House Judiciary Committee at a much-anticipated hearing on Tuesday that the violence taking place in Portland, Oregon, and other cities is disconnected from the death of Floyd, which he described as a “horrible” event that prompted a necessary national reckoning on the relationship between the black community and law enforcement.

“Largely absent from these scenes of destruction are even superficial attempts by the rioters to connect their actions to George Floyd’s death or any legitimate call for reform,” Barr will say of the Portland protests, according to a copy of his prepared remarks released by the Justice Department on Monday.

Barr will also touch on other controversies that have shadowed his tenure, including his handling of the investigation into Trump campaign ties to Russia, which herefers to as “the bogus ‘Russiagate’ scandal.”

“As elected officials of the federal government, every Member of this Committee – regardless of your political views or your feelings about the Trump Administration – should condemn violence against federal officers and destruction of federal property,” Barr says.

“So should state and local leaders who have a responsibility to keep their communities safe.” he continued. “To tacitly condone destruction and anarchy is to abandon the basic rule-of-law principles that should unite us even in a politically divisive time.”

The attorney general has defended as necessary the broad use of law enforcement power to deal with the situation where violent unrest has taken root in cities like Seattle and Portland that have demanded local law enforcement stand down

But the department’s internal watchdog has opened investigations into use of force and other tactics by agents in Portland, as well as Washington, DC, where protesters were cleared near the White House a week after the riots began in June.

The hearing on Tuesday marks Barr’s first appearance before the House Judiciary Committee, bringing him face-to-face with a panel that voted last year to hold him in contempt over his earlier refusal to participate in the House’s politically motivated impeachment fishing expeditions.

Barr makes reference in his prepared statement to that antagonistic relationship, saying that “many of the Democrats on this Committee have attempted to discredit me by conjuring up a narrative that I am simply the President’s factotum who disposes of criminal cases according to his instructions. Judging from the letter inviting me to this hearing, that appears to be your agenda today.”

Beyond the federal response to the demonstrations, Barr is also expected to be pressed in detail about his intervention in criminal cases arising from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. The hearing will provide Barr with a forum to offer his most detailed account to date for his actions in the criminal cases, which he has said were taken in the interests of justice and without political pressure.

Those include the Justice Department’s decision to drop the prosecution of former Trump administration national security adviser Michael Flynn — a request now tied up in court — and his firing last month of the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, whose office oversaw investigations into allies of the president.

Barr also pushed for a more lenient sentence for another Trump ally, Roger Stone, prompting the entire trial team’s departure. That decision was at the center of a separate hearing before the same committee last month, when one of the prosecutors alleged that politics from Justice Department leadership had influenced the handling of the sentence.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday on MSNBC that Democrats want to question Barr about how Trump “is undermining the Constitution of the United States.” Barr previously rebuffed the House committee and Pelosi said that “we hope that he will show up.”

In the past, Barr has said that Flynn, who pleaded guilty as part of Mueller’s probe to lying to the FBI, should never have been charged and that the original sentencing recommendation for Stone — also charged in the Mueller investigation — was excessive.

Barr’s opening statement does not delve into the details of the case, though he will insist Tuesday that Trump has not attempted to interfere in those decisions and has “played a role properly and traditionally played by Presidents.”

Republican lawmakers have been overwhelmingly supportive of Barr’s performance and are likely Tuesday to help him push back against some of the Democratic criticism. Even among the GOP members, though, Barr faces pressure to deliver results soon on an investigation that he initiated into the origins of the Russia probe.

It is not clear when or how that investigation, being led by U.S. Attorney John Durham of Connecticut, will end, but Barr has said he hopes to have results by the end of the summer.

Tom Cotton Defends Bill Defunding Schools that Promote ‘Garbage’ 1619 Project

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Tom Cotton Defends Bill Defunding Schools that Promote ‘Garbage’ 1619 Project

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., introduced a bill last week that would pull federal funding from schools that include the New York Times’s “1619 Project.”

The “project” is a series of historically inaccurate essays that argue America was founded to preserve slavery, in their teaching curricula. 

The Saving American History Act of 2020 argues that America was founded on the ideals of the Declaration of Independence, not on the institution of slavery.

Any claim otherwise should not be taught in America’s public school system, Cotton argued.

He said schools that do try to include the “1619 Project” in their mandated curricula should not be eligible for federal professional-development grants. 

“The New York Times’s 1619 Project is a racially divisive, revisionist account of history that denies the noble principles of freedom and equality on which our nation was founded,” Cotton said in a statement.

“Not a single cent of federal funding should go to indoctrinate young Americans with this left-wing garbage,” he added.

Cotton was advocating for the bill this weekend when the mainstream media falsely accused him of defending slavery.

It’s important for Americans to “study the history of slavery and its role and impact on the development of our country, because otherwise we can’t understand our country,” Cotton said in an interview with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

“As the Founding Fathers said, it was the necessary evil upon which the union was built, but the union was built in a way, as Lincoln said, to put slavery on the course to its ultimate extinction,” Cotton continued.

Media outlets immediately claimed that Cotton had defended slavery as a “necessary evil,” but he clarified on Sunday night that that was not at all what he had said.

Tricare Apologizes for Telling 600,000 Military Servicemen They Had COVID

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Tricare Apologizes for Telling 600,000 Military Servicemen They Had COVID

A health insurance company for members of the U.S. military apologized for mistakenly telling more than 600,000 service members that they were infected with the coronavirus when they were not. 

Tricare released a statement last week explaining a poorly-worded email that implied each of the recipients were COVID-19 survivors. 

“As a survivor of COVID-19, it’s safe to donate whole blood or blood plasma, and your donation could help other COVID-19 patients,” the email read, according to American Military News.

“Your plasma likely has antibodies (or proteins) present that might help fight the coronavirus infection,” it continued. “Currently, there is no cure for COVID-19. However, there is information that suggests plasma from COVID-19 survivors, like you, might help some patients recover more quickly from COVID-19.”

Six hours later, Tricare’s regional manager, Humana Military, issued an apology.

“In an attempt to educate beneficiaries who live close to convalescent plasma donation centers about collection opportunities, you received an email incorrectly suggesting you were a COVID-19 survivor,” the insurer explained. “You have not been identified as a COVID-19 survivor and we apologize for the error and any confusion it may have caused.”

About 31,000 U.S. military servicemen have been diagnosed with COVID-19—far fewer than the 600,000 people the email targeted.

Some critics were quick to point out that this is a strategy health officials have used from the get-go to make the pandemic seem worse than it actually is.

In Virginia, for example, the state health department was caught combining the results of antibody and viral coronavirus tests, making it seem like there were many more active cases in the state than there actually were.

And in Florida, individual hospitals have been disputing the positive case numbers released by the state health department, arguing that their experiences do not line up with the numbers the state is reporting.

Sen. Scott Jensen, R-Minn., argued back in April that the federal government is encouraging this kind of false reporting by subsidizing positive coronavirus cases through Medicare payments and federal bail-outs.

“How can anyone not believe that increasing the number of COVID-19 deaths may create an avenue for states to receive a larger portion of federal dollars?” Jensen explained.

“Already some states are complaining that they are not getting enough of the CARES Act dollars because they are having significantly more proportional COVID-19 deaths.”

Cuomo Threatens Ted Nugent w/ 14-Day COVID Arrest over Pro-Police Rally

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Cuomo Threatens Ted Nugent w/ 14-Day COVID Arrest over Pro-Police Rally

Legendary rocker and devout patriot Ted Nugent was invited to sing the national anthem at a massive pro-law enforcement rally in Nassau County, New York, this weekend.

But Democrats, led by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, prevented Nugent from attending.

Cuomo even threatened to have Nugent arrested if he dared attend the “Back the Blue” demonstration in Eisenhower Park, Long Island.

The outspoken conservative rock star responded on Sunday in an InfoWars interview with Alex Jones.

Nugent said he was honored to be invited and that he was bringing his “six-string weapon of mass destruction” to perform a “fire-breathing Star-Spangled Banner” for the crowd of 10,000 police supporters.

Nugent said the “Marxist Antifa, MS-13 and Black Lives Matter monsters” have been allowed to destroy the morale of law enforcement across the country.

He also singled out the NYPD and called them heroes.

Nugent told Jones that he was literally disembarking from his plane with guitar in hand when health officials from the Cuomo administration threatened to place him under a 14-day COVID house arrest if he stepped one foot into the state.

“We were heart broke and pissed off,” he said.

In a separate Facebook response, Nugent said Cuomo and other politicians like him are “punks.”

“They tell us we have to wear a mask, but they don’t have to wear a mask. They tell us to stay home and quarantine, but they don’t stay home,” he said.

“Hey Governor Cuomo,” said Nugent. “Kiss my free a**.”

Six Democratic Nassau County legislators also teamed up against Nugent over the weekend.

“During his life in the public eye, Ted Nugent has consistently espoused racist, misogynistic, homophobic, anti-Semitic and xenophobic bile,” a joint statement said.

Nassau County Executive Laura Curran took to Twitter and said, “Extremely disappointed that Ted Nugent, a man with a history of hate-filled speech, is invited to attend Saturday’s rally in Nassau.”

After being turned away, Nugent told Jones that he flew back to Texas and was sad for NYPD officers and their families.

Cuomo and other Democrats are dedicated to protecting Antifa and Black Lives Matter even though Antifa is an actual fascist terror group and the organization “Black Lives Matter has nothing to do with betting black lives,” Nugent added.

“No worse crime than to be falsely accused,” he said. “The Marxist lying hating mob wins for now.”

HAWLEY: I’ll Only for Justice Who Opposes ‘Wrongly Decided’ Roe v. Wade

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HAWLEY: I’ll Only for Justice Who Opposes ‘Wrongly Decided’ Roe v. Wade

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said Sunday he will only vote to confirm Supreme Court justice picks who oppose Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that solidified abortion rights, and believe it was “wrongly decided.”

“I will vote only for those Supreme Court nominees who have explicitly acknowledged that Roe v. Wade is wrongly decided. By explicitly acknowledged, I mean on the record and before they were nominated,” Hawley told the Washington Post.

Hawley said he wants more than “private assurances” from candidates. Their “personal view” don’t matter, but their track records do, he explained.

“I’m not looking for forecasts about how they may vote in the future or predications—I don’t want any of that,” he added. “I want to see on the record, as part of their record, that they have acknowledged in some forum that Roe v. Wade, as a legal matter, is wrongly decided.”

The Missouri senator said it doesn’t matter “who nominates them.”

“This standard, for me, applies to Supreme Court nominees, whether they’re a sitting judge or whatever,” Hawley said.

“If there is no indication in their record that at any time they have acknowledged that Roe was wrong at the time it was decided, then I’m not going to vote for them — and I don’t care who nominates them.”

Hawley’s comments come less than a month after the Supreme Court struck down a pro-life law in Louisiana with a 5-4 decision, with Chief Justice John Roberts—for whom Hawley clerked—casting the deciding vote alongside the liberal justices.

Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito voted for the pro-life law, but only Thomas said in his dissenting opinion that the entire premise of the abortion debate, Roe v. Wade, is a problematic doctrine that needs to be overturned.

Neighbor Who Attacked Sen. Rand Paul Gets Additional Time after Lenient 30-Day Sentence

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Neighbor Who Attacked Sen. Rand Paul Gets Additional Time after Lenient 30-Day Sentence

(Associated Press) U.S. Sen. Rand Paul‘s former neighbor was resentenced Monday to an extra seven months behind bars and six months in home detention assaulting the Kentucky lawmaker.

Rene Boucher originally was given a 30-day sentence after pleading guilty to assaulting a member of Congress.

Federal prosecutors argued the sentence was too lenient, describing the 2017 attack outside Paul’s home in Bowling Green, Kentucky, as “vicious and unprovoked.” They sought at least 21 months for Boucher.

On Monday, another federal judge ordered Boucher to serve eight months in prison followed by six months of home confinement for the assault. He was given credit for the 30 days he’s already served behind bars.

Paul, a former presidential candidate, suffered multiple broken ribs and later underwent lung and hernia surgeries that he linked to the attack.

“Dr. Boucher is going to accept his punishment and he has sincerely apologized to the Pauls again today,” said Boucher’s attorney, Matt Baker. “He wants to put this behind him.”

Paul sued Boucher over the attack, and a jury last year awarded the Republican lawmaker more than $580,000 in damages and medical expenses.

Paul had testified during that trial that he feared for his life as he struggled to breathe after Boucher, an anesthesiologist by trade, slammed into him in their upscale Bowling Green neighborhood in late 2017.

Boucher testified that he attacked Paul after watching the senator form a brush pile near their property line.

Boucher has since sold his home, his attorney said.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press.

Gold Climbs 27% to $1,941 Per Ounce; Ranks as the Best Investment of the Year

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Gold Climbs 27% to $1,941 Per Ounce; Ranks as the Best Investment of the Year

(Headline USA) Wall Street is in the throes of a gold rush, as investors drive the price of the precious metal to new heights.

Gold has been the best investment of the year so far. The price of the precious metal has climbed nearly 27% this year, more than triple the return of the largest U.S. bond funds and towering over the roughly 1% return of big U.S. stocks.

After topping $1,800 per ounce in 2011, it’s taken nearly a decade for gold to surpass that level.

Gold closed Monday at a record $1,931 an ounce after briefly climbing to $1,941.90 an ounce.

Analysts at BofA Global Research say gold could reach $3,000 per ounce.

Several factors are pushing gold higher: Investors are anxious about the impact of shutdowns on the economy, worried over resurgent tensions between the U.S. and China, and fearful of runaway inflation as spending to cushion the economic fallout swells the federal budget deficit.

Uncertainty over the outcome of the elections in November may also be giving investors reason to hedge their bets with gold.

Meanwhile, the market’s sharp rebound from its lows in March is making stocks look expensive relative to earnings.

Based on forward 12-month earnings, the S&P 500 is trading at a 50% premium to its 20-year average. That’s likely making an asset like gold more attractive even as stocks continue to rally, said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA.

“There are many bricks in this wall of worry,” Stovall said.

Here is a closer look at the main reasons behind gold’s run to a record:

The biggest reason for the surge is fear surrounding the pandemic. No one knows how much of the world’s economy it will destroy. That sways investors toward the metal that has long been considered a safe haven for wealth in turbulent times.

U.S.-CHINA TENSIONS

Worries over U.S.-China tensions have also drawn investors to gold. Washington and Beijing had reached a first-stage trade agreement in January, but tensions between the two nations have grown heated again, adding new worries about the potential for the world’s two largest economies to impose tariffs on each others’ goods.

THE DOLLAR

Many investors see gold as a way to protect against a falling U.S. dollar, and the greenback is at its lowest level against the Swiss franc in more than five years.

The U.S. Dollar index, which measures its value against the Swiss franc and five other major currencies, is at its lowest level in more than two years. A weaker dollar also makes gold cheaper for investors buying in other currencies, because it’s priced in dollars.

LOW INTEREST RATES

For nervous investors, the safest places to put their money are Treasury bonds and gold.

But Treasurys are paying close to the lowest amount of interest in history, with a 10-year Treasury note yielding just 0.58%. After taking inflation into account, investors are probably losing purchasing power by holding a Treasury that long. That makes gold more attractive in comparison.

THE DEFICIT

The federal government’s budget deficit hit $864 billion in June, the biggest monthly budget shortfall in history. The deficit has ballooned as spending on programs to combat the coronavirus recession have exploded while millions of job losses have cut into tax revenues.

A surging federal budget deficit heightens the risk of inflation and may be contributing to investors’ appetite for gold. Investors have historically seen gold as a way to protect against inflation.

“Inflation did not spike the last time we flooded the economy with cash, but it did so in previous periods in history,” Stovall said.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press.

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