Parscale steps away from Trump campaign as wife denies physical abuse

The former Trump campaign manager describes being under “overwhelming stress,” while his wife says her apparent allegations of domestic violence were “misconstrued.”

Brad Parscale, a senior adviser to Donald Trump’s campaign who was involuntarily detained by police this weekend, said he is stepping away from the reelection effort and seeking help for what he called “overwhelming stress” on him and his family.

In a statement provided to POLITICO on Wednesday, Parscale’s wife, Candice, also denied that Parscale physically abused her, despite a police report in which said she told authorities the contrary.

“The statements I made on Sunday have been misconstrued, let it be clear my husband was not violent towards me that day or any day prior,” she said. Continue reading.

Trump Is Not the Man He Used to Be

His belligerent debate performance revealed the president has lost the confidence he had four years ago, and it will cost him.

Donald Trump believes, to his core, that a single event in 2016 clinched him the presidency.

It wasn’t the FBI reopening its investigation into Hillary Clinton. It wasn’t the Wikileaks dump of hacked DNC emails. It wasn’t the published list of potential Supreme Court nominees, or the selection of Mike Pence, or Clinton’s comment about “deplorables.”

To Trump, the pivotal moment of the campaign was the second presidential debate. On the second Sunday in October, the Republican nominee arrived in St. Louis a dead man walking. Just 48 hours earlier, the Washington Post had publicized an old recording on which Trump boasted about grabbing women by the genitals. A number of leading Republicans publicly renounced his candidacy. Many more pleaded with the party chairman, Reince Priebus, to remove him from the ticket. The morning before the debate, Priebus warned Trump, “Either you’ll lose in the biggest landslide in history, or you can get out of the race and let somebody else run who can win.” Continue reading.

The Mask Hypocrisy: How White House COVID Memos Contradict Administration’s Public Face

Trump and Mike Pence join crowded rallies where many do not wear masks. But behind the scenes, the White House is recommending states adopt mask mandates and even fines.

While the president and vice president forgo masks at rallies, the White House is quietly encouraging governors to implement mask mandates and, for some, enforce them with fines.

In reports issued to governors on Sept. 20, the White House Coronavirus Task Force recommended statewide mask mandates in Iowa, Missouri and Oklahoma. The weekly memos, some of which have been made public by the Center for Public Integrity, advocate mask usage for other states and have even encouraged doling out fines in Alaska, Idaho and, recently, Montana.

Masks, a political flashpoint since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, are considered by public health officials to be a top safeguard against spreading the COVID-19 virus as the country awaits a vaccine. But the president’s own actions on masks have wavered: He has called them “patriotic” but often doesn’t wear one himself and has contradicted the advice of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director. During the presidential debate Tuesday, the president said masks were “OK” and then mocked Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s mask-wearing habits. In the audience, some Trump family members and staffers were not wearing masks, despite the rules set by the Cleveland Clinic, which hosted the debate. Continue reading.

Trump says he and first lady have tested positive for the coronavirus

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President Trump and his wife, Melania, have contracted covid-19, which is causing them symptoms and forcing the president to suspend campaign events after months in which he has often played down the global coronavirus pandemic and defied public health safety precautions.

Trump, 74, was diagnosed hours after it became publicly known that Hope Hicks, a top Trump aide who traveled with him on Air Force One and Marine One this week, tested positive for the virus Thursday morning.

“Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19,” the president tweeted just before 1 a.m. on Friday. “We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!”

White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told reporters Friday morning that the president was experiencing “mild symptoms,” but remained in “good spirits and very energetic.” Continue reading.

In the Know: October 2, 2020

Days Until the Election: 32

32 Days OUT – Let’s get to work!
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Continue reading “In the Know: October 2, 2020”

National Intelligence chief gave little notice for briefing on Russian assessment

The hastily assembled gathering on Tuesday night, led by John Ratcliffe, caught Senate staffers off-guard and heightened unease about the possible deployment of disinformation.

The nation’s top intelligence official raced to arrange a briefing for senators on Tuesday night, according to three congressional sources, after declassifyingwhat he acknowledged was an unverified Russian intelligence assessment.

The hastily assembled briefing, led by Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, caught staffers off-guard and exacerbated concerns about what Democrats said was the deployment of Russian disinformation to support President Donald Trump’s effort to discredit the investigation into his 2016 campaign’s contacts with the Russian government.

The episode also revived allegations from Democrats that Ratcliffe, a former Republican congressman and a longtime ally of the president, is abusing his position to aid Trump politically by selectively declassifying documents intended to denigrate Trump’s political opponents. Much of that information has been revealed through Republican senators who are conducting investigations targeting those opponents. Continue reading.

Senate passes spending bill to avert shutdown hours before deadline

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The Senate on Wednesday passed a short-term funding bill just hours before the deadline to prevent a government shutdown.

Senators voted 84 to 10 to keep the government funded at current levels through Dec. 11, setting up another funding fight after the November elections and right before the holidays.

The funding bill, passed by the House earlier this month, now heads to President Trump’s desk, where he is expected to sign it before midnight to keep the government running. Continue reading.

Here’s the reality behind Trump’s claims about mail voting

President Donald Trump continued his assault on the integrity of the U.S. elections during the first presidential debate Tuesday, spreading falsehoods about the security of voting and misrepresenting issues with mail ballots.

In the final segment of the contentious debate between Trump and Democrat Joe Biden, Trump launched into an extended argument against mail voting, claiming without evidence that it is ripe for fraud and suggesting mail ballots may be “manipulated.”

“This is going to be a fraud like you’ve never seen,” the president said of the massive shift to mail voting prompted by the coronavirus pandemic. Continue reading.

‘One more serious try’ on COVID-19 relief yields progress but no deal

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The lead negotiators haggling for another round of emergency coronavirus relief met in person Wednesday for the first time in weeks, with both sides citing headway in the search for an elusive compromise — but no deal to report.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchinhuddled for roughly 90 minutes in the Speaker’s office in the Capitol, emerging with hopes that an evasive bipartisan agreement is within their grasp.

“We’re gonna go back and do a little more work again,” Mnuchin said. “I think we’ve made a lot of progress in a lot of areas.” Continue reading.

Fox Business host gives Kayleigh McEnany a brutal reality check: ‘Biden won the debate’

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Following Trump’s presidential debate with former Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday night, September 29, Fox Business host Stuart Varney was honest enough to admit that Biden won the debate. And he was clearly in disagreement with White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany when she tried to convince him that Trump was the winner.

McEnany, appearing on Fox Business, told Varney that Trump was “in very good spirits” following the debate and “brought the fight that I think the American people wanted to see.” But Varney responded that Trump was much too abrasive for his own good during the debate, which was moderated by Fox News’ Chris Wallace.

“His style, the frequent interruptions — I mean, the insults came from Biden — but the frequent interruptions and the talking over everybody, that was a lot from President Trump,” Varney argued. “And I think that’s what the audience didn’t like and will turn off.” Continue reading.