Donald Trump Jr. said covid-19 deaths are at ‘almost nothing.’ The virus killed more than 1,000 Americans the same day.

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Donald Trump Jr. declared Thursday night that coronavirus deaths had dropped to “almost nothing,” questioning the seriousness of the pandemic on a record-breaking day for new cases in which more than 1,000 Americans died of the virus.

Speaking to Fox News host Laura Ingraham, Trump Jr. pointed to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that he suggested show a declining coronavirus death rate.

“I went through the CDC data, because I kept hearing about new infections, but I was like, ‘Why aren’t they talking about deaths?’ ” Trump Jr. said. “Oh, because the number is almost nothing. Because we’ve gotten control of this thing, we understand how it works. They have the therapeutics to be able to deal with this.” Continue reading.

Trump adviser Stephen Miller reveals aggressive second-term immigration agenda

The immigration hardliner says the president would fight to limit asylum, target “sanctuary cities,” expand the “travel ban” and cut work visas.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump‘s senior adviser Stephen Miller has fleshed out plans to rev up Trump’s restrictive immigration agenda if he wins re-election next week, offering a stark contrast to the platform of Democratic nominee Joe Biden.

In a 30-minute phone interview Thursday with NBC News, Miller outlined four major priorities: limiting asylum grants, punishing and outlawing “sanctuary cities,” expanding the so-called travel ban with tougher screening for visa applicants and slapping new limits on work visas.

The objective, he said, is “raising and enhancing the standard for entry” to the United States. Continue reading.

Economists warn against deceptive White House spin on new GDP figures: ‘Don’t be fooled’

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With the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis set to release third-quarter economic growth estimates Thursday that are expected to show a historic surge in GDP following the worst contraction on record in the previous quarter, experts and Democratic lawmakers are sounding the alarm about President Donald Trump’s election-minded efforts to portray the deceptive numbers as proof that the economy is roaring back under his leadership.

Even though the numbers have not yet officially been released, the Trump reelection campaign is already running Facebook ads touting the “fastest GDP growth in history” and celebrating the “Great American Comeback” that the figures supposedly show.

“The economic calamity threatening American households is largely self-inflicted, and will get even more dire unless Congress takes bipartisan action soon.”
—Rep. Don Beyer

Continue reading.

Coronavirus cases are on the rise in every swing state

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The Midwest, which helped deliver Trump the presidency, is now
the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States.

Coronavirus cases are surging in every competitive state before Election Day, offering irrefutable evidence against President Trump’s closing argument that the pandemic is nearly over and restrictions are no longer necessary.

In the 13 states deemed competitive by the Cook Political Report, the weekly average of new cases reported daily has jumped 47 percent over the past two weeks, from roughly 21,000 on Oct. 15 to more than 31,000 on Oct. 29.

Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota and Pennsylvania have all hit new weekly average highs in recent days, and in Florida and Georgia, case counts are growing again after having fallen from summer highs. Continue reading.

Inside the minds of the people who actually think Trump handled the pandemic well

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Countless critics of President Donald Trump, from liberals and progressives to Never Trump conservatives, have been arguing that Trump deserves to be voted out of office on Tuesday, Nov. 3, because of his wretched response to the coronavirus pandemic. The crisis has killed more than 227,900 people in the United States and over 1.1 million people worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. 

But journalist Olga Khazan, this week in an article for The Atlantic, offers some reasons why many White males in Trump’s hardcore MAGA base actually admire his coronavirus response. And as absurd as their reasoning is, Khazan’s piece is still an interesting read.

“Some 82% of Republicans approve of Trump’s coronavirus response — a higher percentage than before the president was diagnosed with the virus,” Khazan explains. “This is despite the fact that more than 220,000 Americans have died and virtually every public health expert, including those who have worked for Republican administrations, says the president has performed abysmally.” Continue reading.

A White House spokesman let slip a damning admission of callous disregard for Trump’s own voters

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We’re less than a week away from election night and the Trump administration is set on spreading the novel coronavirus to anyone it can get its hands on. Nationwide the U.S. is seeing a surge in COVID-19 cases following visits from Donald Trump’s campaign. As rallies for Trump continue daily, some states are reporting more than 50% increases in COVID-19 cases.

Despite this, the White House claimed Tuesday that Trump has ended COVID-19 and does not plan to take any action on stopping the spread. Interesting how rising hospitalizations and the country facing its highest number of per average cases a day is equivalent to ending the coronavirus for the Trump administration. The reality is Trump isn’t ending the coronavirus pandemic, he’s spreading it.

The only break Trump has taken in visiting states to campaign is when he himself was diagnosed with COVID-19. Mike Pence, however, took a different approach: instead of quarantining responsibly as one of the nation’s leaders, he continued to campaign despite having been in close contact with individuals who tested positive for COVID-19. Continue reading.

‘Facts Matter’: Vermont Urges Kavanaugh To Correct Major Error In Voting Rights Opinion

On Wednesday, Vermont Secretary of State Jim Condos took an extraordinary step to set the Supreme Court straight with a letter asking Justice Brett Kavanaugh to correct a recent opinion.

In a court decision on Monday that ruled against allowing ballots to be counted in Wisconsin after Election Day, Kavanaugh wrote a concurring opinion that incorrectly claimed Vermont had not changed its election rules for the unprecedented challenges facing the 2020 election, despite obvious evidence to the contrary.

“We have formally requested that #SCOTUS correct the erroneous claim by Justice Brett Kavanaugh that #VT has not changed voting procedures for the #2020Elections due to #COVID19. When it comes to issuing decisions on the voting rights of American citizens, facts matter,” The Vermont Secretary of State’s Office tweeted out Wednesday afternoon alongside a copy of the letter. Continue reading.

What happens to Fox News if Trump loses? Rupert Murdoch is prepared.

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Spend a couple hours with Fox News on a typical weeknight, and you may come to see the potential election of Joe Biden as a cataclysm in the making.

Prime-time host Laura Ingraham recently warned her viewers of the “Bolsheviks and billionaires” she said were propelling his candidacy. Frequent contributor Dan Bongino called Biden’s campaign “the biggest con job in presidential election history.” Just last week, Sean Hannity sent a camera crew to stake out Biden’s house to demand answers about the alleged contents of his son’s laptop. Even the network’s senior political analyst, Brit Hume, has repeatedly called the Democratic presidential candidate “senile” on air.

But behind the scenes, a strange calm prevails. The man who helped create Fox News as the most influential platform for conservative politics in America fully expects that Biden will win — and frankly isn’t too bothered by that. Continue reading.

WATCH: Trump Supporter Threatens Driver Unless She Votes For Trump

At a grassroots roadside rally for President Donald Trump in Beverly Hills, supporters waved huge American flags, a QAnon conspiracy cult flag, banners that said “Trump 2020,” and “Californians for Trump,” and handmade and printed signs that read “Asians for Trump,” “Latinos for Trump,” and “Challenge your beliefs.”

One social media user filmed the event from inside a car, capturing a man who threatened them to vote for President Trump.

“We got you now,” said the man, pointing a small sword with a Trump flag at the end towards the driver. “Your mother voted for Trump.”

Continue reading.

As pandemic raged and thousands died, government regulators cleared most nursing homes of infection-control violations

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Despite promises of ‘aggressive enforcement,’ over 40,000 residents died in homes that received a clean bill of health

At the outset of a looming pandemic, just weeks after the first known coronavirus outbreak on U.S. soil, the woman responsible for helping to protect 1.3 million residents in America’s nursing homes laid out an urgent strategy to slow the spread of infection.

In the suburbs of Seattle, federal inspectors had found the Life Care Center of Kirkland failed to properly care for ailing patients or alert authorities to a growing number of respiratory infections. At least 146 other nursing homes across the country had confirmed coronavirus cases in late March when Seema Verma, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, vowed to help “keep what happened in Kirkland from happening again.”

The federal agency and its state partners, Verma said, would conduct a series of newly strengthened inspections to ensure 15,400 Medicare-certified nursing homes were heeding long-standing regulations meant to prevent the spread of communicable diseases. It was another key component of a national effort, launched in early March, to shore up safety protocols for the country’s most fragile residents during an unprecedented health emergency. Continue reading.