As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds.
In Chris Wallace's wide- ranging interview with moron vector Donald "COVID Donnie" Trump over the weekend, Wallace asked COVID Donnie if he would accept the outcome of the election:
“I have to see,” he told interviewer Chris Wallace. “I’m not going to just say ‘yes.’ I’m not going to say ‘no,’ and I didn’t last time either.”
Repeating a contention he has often made in recent weeks, the president said he believed that mail-in voting would “rig the election.” Critics have said Trump is trying to delegitimize the vote in advance, fearing a loss, especially if the pandemic means that balloting by mail is more widely used than usual.
Trump’s presumptive opponent, Joe Biden, often shrugs off the president’s broadsides, but aides offered an acerbic response to his suggestion he might not leave office willingly if voters reject him.
“The American people will decide this election,” the Biden campaign said in a statement. “And the United States government is perfectly capable of escorting trespassers out of the White House.” (our emphasis)Biden has said before he's convinced the military would "escort" Trump out of the White House if he loses and refuses to leave office. (We're convinced, too.) *
Phil Rucker and Felicia Sonmez report on that Chris Wallace interview as being full of the usual Trump lies and misinformation, much of which Wallace corrected in real time. Trump's malicious ignorance on the pandemic was especially damning:
Making one of his biggest media appearances in months — an hour-long, sit-down interview with “Fox News Sunday” anchor Chris Wallace — Trump was visibly rattled and at times hostile as he struggled to answer for his administration’s failure to contain the coronavirus, which has claimed more than 137,000 lives [now over 140,000] in the United States. [snip]
Trump — whom aides say no longer attends coronavirus task force meetings because he does not have time — showed himself to be particularly misinformed about the basics of the virus that has been ravaging the nation for more than four months.The whole piece is worth reading, especially if you haven't watched the interview (as we didn't).
It should be noted the lying and misinformation was the lede on news articles in both the Post article above and the New York Times:
Trump’s incessant dishonesty during interviews, rallies and other events is often convered in passing or not at all. Today, WaPo and the NYT treated it as the main story: pic.twitter.com/NgeJgsfdkc— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) July 20, 2020
Church attendance is down significantly due to the pandemic, although some preachers with bills to pay and pockets to line continue to spread more than the gospel:
Almost 40 places of worship and religious events have been linked to more than 650 U.S. cases of the coronavirus since the pandemic began, according to tracking by the New York Times. Along with the nationwide surge in infections that has followed the loosening of restrictions aimed at combating the virus, outbreaks connected to churches have sprouted at several spots.
Those include a Pentecostal church in northeastern Oregon tied to at least 236 positive tests; five flareups linked to churches in West Virginia, the largest one resulting in 51 infections; more than 50 cases stemming from an evangelical church outside San Antonio where the pastor allowed hugging again; a large worship service in Cleveland, Tennessee, that appears to have generated at least a dozen cases, including the pastor, who said he stopped counting after 12; a Christian camp in Missouri that had to shut down after 82 campers, counselors and staffers contracted the virus despite taking a number of precautions.We wrote about one unhinged superspreader preacher man earlier. Nothing says "love thy neighbor" like passing on a little COVID-19.
Meanwhile, we all have a serious job to do to get this dangerous loon and as many of his Republican tribe out of office as possible on November 3. Infidel 753 discusses why the support of "never Trump" Republicans should not be dismissed. For one reason,
... A vote is a vote. These people probably represent only a small proportion of Republicans, but in almost every election, several states are decided by very thin margins, and a few percentage points could change the outcome this time. My overriding concern is to get Trump and his enablers and toadies out of power. So long as someone votes for Biden and for Democratic candidates for the House, the Senate, and state-level offices, in practical terms it doesn't matter why they do it, only that they do it. And while the size of the popular-vote margin will not affect the legal outcome, its psychological importance will be enormous. Trump and Trumpism must be repudiated by the largest possible proportion of Americans, both for the sake of our standing as a people in the eyes of other democracies, and to discourage shenanigans by sore losers.You should, after you've read the rest of that piece, check out Infidel 753's link round-up for the most wide- ranging topics he's curated from around the Internet.
* UPDATE: Speaker Pelosi also weighed in on Trump's noncommittal answer --
“The fact is, whether he knows it yet or not, he will be leaving,” Pelosi told MSNBC “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski. “Just because he might not want to move out of the White House doesn’t mean we won’t have an inauguration ceremony to inaugurate a duly elected president of the United States. [snip]"Fumigated." Get the foggers ready!
“There is a process,” she said. “It has nothing to do with the certain occupant of the White House doesn’t feel like moving and has to be fumigated out of there.” (our emphasis)
