Author: Data and Research Manager

Seeking power in Jesus’ name: Trump sparks a rise of Patriot Churches

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KNOXVILLE, TENN. — The new congregation is gathered in a barn in Lenoir City, Tenn., with a roof that has a 60-foot American flag painted on it. And they are praying for a Trump landslide.

Standing in a circle, the dozen or so men and women, young and old, lay their hands on their pastor, Ken Peters, as he raises their requests to God.

He prays that “communism and socialism and transgenderism and homosexuality and abortion will not have their way in this land.”

“Yes, Lord,” someone cries. Continue reading.

In rural America, resentment over COVID-19 shutdowns is colliding with rising case numbers

As COVID-19 spreads through rural America, new infection numbers are rising to peaks not seen during this pandemic and pushing hospitals to their limits. Many towns are experiencing their first major outbreaks, but that doesn’t mean rural communities had previously been spared the devastating impacts of the pandemic.

Infection rates in rural and frontier communities ebbed and flowed during the first seven months, often showing up in pockets linked to meat packing plants, nursing homes or prisons.

Even if they had no cases, many rural areas were under statewide public health orders that left businesses closed and events canceled. And that has become part of the problem today. The early compassionate and cohesive community responses to COVID-19 quickly gave way to growing anger and compliance fatigue, especially when some isolated towns didn’t see their first positive cases until summer. Continue reading.

By Demonizing Immigrants And Refugees, Trump Only Harms The Innocent

A fanatic has been defined as someone who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject. It’s a good description of Donald Trump, who began his quest for the presidency stoking fear of foreigners and used this year’s final debate to keep doing it, as he has throughout his presidency.

Foreigners who come to America — with or without authorization — are viewed with hostility by this administration. It has diverted military funding to build Trump’s border wall. It has separated thousands of foreign children from parents who came without permission — and then failed to reunite hundreds of these families. It has cut refugee admissions by some 90% and legal immigration by half. It has declared war on “sanctuary cities.”

From the beginning, he’s combined pitiless policies with venomous rhetoric. In announcing his candidacy in 2015, he said of Mexicans coming to the U.S.: “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.” Continue reading.

For Black Minnesota voters, equality is on the ballot

The national discourse on race is echoing in presidential race. 

lacards urging visitors to vote surround George Floyd Square, a reminder that the nationwide racial reckoning that emanated from this south Minneapolis intersection in May has reverberated through this year’s election.

Black voters in South Carolina helped propel Joe Biden to the Democratic presidential nomination, and polls show that former President Barack Obama’s vice president is overwhelmingly favored by African Americans nationwide over President Donald Trump.

But while many Black activists see a president who is running with the backing of self-styled white supremacist groups, some younger activists holding vigils at Chicago Avenue and 38th Street remain unconvinced that the outcome of the presidential contest will help achieve the racial equality they seek. Continue reading.

Harris Slams ‘Greatest Failure In History’ As Meadows Admits Defeat In Pandemic

Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) on Sunday slammed the Trump administration for “admitting defeat” in the fight against COVID-19 after White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told CNN “we are not going to control the pandemic.”

Meadows made the remark Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union, telling host Jake Tapper that the president’s strategy is “to control the fact that we get vaccines, therapeutics and other mitigation areas,” even as cases skyrocket across the United States.

“They are admitting defeat,” Harris told reporters when asked about Meadows’ comment. “This is the greatest failure of any presidential administration in the history of America.” Continue reading.

White House signals defeat in pandemic as coronavirus outbreak roils Pence’s office

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The presidential campaign was roiled this weekend by a fresh outbreak of the novel coronavirus at the White House that infected at least five aides or advisers to Vice President Pence, a spread that President Trump’s top staffer acknowledged Sunday he had tried to avoid disclosing to the public.

With the election a little over a week away, the new White House outbreak spotlighted the administration’s failure to contain the pandemic as hospitalizations surge across much of the United States and daily new cases hit all-time highs.

The outbreak around Pence, who chairs the White House’s coronavirus task force, undermines the argument Trump has been making to voters that the country is “rounding the turn,” as the president put it at a rally Sunday in New Hampshire. Continue reading.

Infection of Pence Aides Raises New Questions About Trump’s Virus Response

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From the beginning, the president has turned mask wearing and other preventive measures into a loyalty test. He and his aides have taken the same approach inside the White House.

WASHINGTON — “Covid, Covid. Covid, Covid, Covid, Covid,” President Trump groused at a rally in North Carolina on Saturday, expressing dismay that the deadly coronavirus pandemic had come to dominate the final days of his struggling re-election campaign. He made up a scenario: “A plane goes down, 500 people dead, they don’t talk about it. ‘Covid, Covid, Covid, Covid.’”

But just seven hours later, the White House made its own Covid headlines when officials acknowledged that another coronavirus outbreak had struck the White House, infecting Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff and four other top aides — and raising new questions about the Trump administration’s cavalier approach to the worst health crisis in a century.

“We’re not going to control the pandemic,” Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday morning, essentially offering a verbal shrug in response to any effort to prevent an outbreak in the top echelon of the nation’s leaders. “We are going to control the fact that we get vaccines, therapeutics and other mitigations, because it is a contagious virus — just like the flu.” Continue reading.

GOP Senate confirms Trump Supreme Court pick to succeed Ginsburg

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The Senate confirmed Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court on Monday, providing President Trump with a last-minute political victory just days before Nov. 3. 

The 52-48 Senate vote on Barrett’s nomination capped off a rare presidential election year Supreme Court fight sparked by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Sept. 18. GOP Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) was the only Republican to oppose Barrett, saying she doesn’t believe a nomination should come up before the election. 

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who previously voted against advancing Barrett because of the election, supported her nomination on Monday. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) returned from the campaign trail to oppose Barrett’s nomination.  Continue reading.