ELECTION RESULTS -- November 3, 4

President-Elect Biden delivers very presidential remarks Wednesday afternoon:

~~~ MEANWHILE. Mark Sherman of the AP: “The Trump campaign said it filed lawsuits Wednesday in Pennsylvania and Michigan, laying the groundwork for contesting the outcome in undecided battleground states that could determine whether ... Donald Trump gets another four years in the White House. Suits in both states are demanding better access for campaign observers to locations where ballots are being processed and counted, the campaign said. The campaign also is seeking to intervene in a Pennsylvania case at the Supreme Court that deals with whether ballots received up to three days after the election can be counted, deputy campaign manager Justin Clark said. The campaign said it is calling for a temporary halt in the counting in both states until it is given 'meaningful' access in numerous locations and allowed to review ballots that already have been opened and processed. Trump is running slightly behind Democratic nominee Joe Biden in Michigan. The president is ahead in Pennsylvania but his margin is shrinking as more mailed ballots are counted.”

Alexander Burns & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: “With no winner declared in the 2020 presidential race, President Trump appeared in the White House just after 2 a.m. on Wednesday to brazenly claim he had already won the election — and to insist that votes stop being counted even though the ballots of millions of Americans had yet to be tallied. Speaking with a mix of defiance, anger and wonder that the election had not yet been called in his favor, the president recounted his standing in an array of battleground states before falsely declaring: 'Frankly, we did win this election.' No news organizations declared a winner between Mr. Trump and Joseph R. Biden Jr., and a number of closely contested states still had millions of mail-in ballots to count, in part because state and local Republican officials had insisted that they not be counted until Election Day. Mr. Trump said, without offering any explanation, that 'we’ll be going to the U.S. Supreme Court,' and added: 'We want all voting to stop.' No elected leader has the right to unilaterally order votes to stop being counted, and Mr. Trump’s middle-of-the-night proclamation amounted to a reckless attempt to hijack the electoral process as results in key battleground states were still not final, something without precedent in American politics.” ~~~

~~~ Philip Rucker, et al., of the Washington Post: “Addressing the nation from the White House about 2:30 a.m., Trump challenged the integrity of the vote to an unprecedented and breathtaking degree. The president said the ongoing vote count in Georgia, Pennsylvania and other key battleground states amounted to 'a major fraud on our nation,' and he vowed to file lawsuits to stop it. Claiming a conspiracy to keep from declaring him the victor, Trump said: 'This is a fraud on the American public. This is an embarrassment to our country. We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election.'” ~~~

~~~ David Bauder & Lynn Elber of the AP: “In a stunning scene in the middle of the night, news organizations rebuked ... Donald Trump after he falsely said on live television that he had won reelection even as votes were still being counted.... CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell said Trump was 'castrating the facts' by 'falsely claiming that he has won the election and disenfranchising millions of voters whose ballots have not been counted.' 'Donald Trump is losing right now both in the popular vote and the electoral vote and there are many states left to be called,' ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos said. Said NBC News’ Savannah Guthrie, 'The fact of the matter is we don’t know who won the election.' Guthrie had interrupted Trump’s speech to tell viewers that several of Trump’s statements were not true.... 'This is an extremely flammable situation and the president just threw a match into it,' said Fox News Channel’s Chris Wallace.” ~~~

~~~ Mark Sherman of the AP explains what's going on to Fuckface von Clownstick: “... Donald Trump says he’ll take the presidential election to the Supreme Court, but it’s unclear what he means in a country in which vote tabulations routinely continue beyond Election Day, and states largely set the rules for when the count has to end. 'We’ll be going to the U.S. Supreme Court — we want all voting to stop,' Trump said early Wednesday. But the voting is over. It’s only counting that is taking place across the nation. No state will count absentee votes that are postmarked after Election Day. Democratic challenger Joe Biden’s campaign called Trump’s statement 'outrageous, unprecedented, and incorrect.'”

Joe Scarborough asks, "If Democrats can't beat a candidate like Donald Trump, whom can they beat?" Good question.

Max Greenwood of the Hill: “Joe Biden said early Wednesday that he is on track to win the 2020 presidential election, as vote returns show a narrowing, yet still viable, path to victory for the former vice president. Speaking to supporters at a drive-in election night event in Wilmington, Del., in the early hours of Wednesday, Biden urged patience while election officials across the country tally outstanding ballots. But he projected confidence in his chances of capturing the White House, laying out a path to victory that runs through Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. 'It may take a little longer,' Biden said to honking car horns. 'As I’ve said all along, it’s not my place or Donald trump’s place to declare who won this election. It’s put to the American people. But I’m optimistic about the outcome.'”

New York Times live updates of election results are here.

New York Times' presidential results page is here.

New York Times live updates of Senate election results are here.

NBC News' House race results are here.

New York Times live updates of gubernatorial election results are here.

The Guardian's live Election Day updates are here.

Pre-Poll Closings, Brought Forward from November 3

Maggie Miller of the Hill: "Election results will be delayed almost an hour in the Tar Heel State after the North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE) voted Tuesday to extend hours at four polling locations due to early delays from technical issues."~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: To give you an idea of how little Republicans want Americans to have the right to vote, CNN reported that the N.C. state election board's vote was 3-2, with the three Democrats on the board voting yea & the two Republicans voting nay. These extensions were for only a few minutes & were to make sure voters in these precincts had the same access to the ballot as everyone else in the state had. It's a straightforward matter of fairness. The effect on outcomes would be negligible. And that was too much for Republicans.

John Kruzel of the Hill: "A federal judge in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday ordered the U.S. Postal Service to sweep facilities for remaining mail ballots and rush their delivery, as receipt deadlines close in. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, who has presided over several lawsuits aimed at Postal Service election mail delays, gave the Postal Service until 3 p.m. to 'ensure that no ballots have been held up' in regions that have been slow to process mail ballots."

Mike Allen & Margaret Talev of Axios: "If news organizations declare Joe Biden the mathematical president-elect, he plans to address the nation as its new leader, even if President Trump continues to fight in court, advisers tell Axios.... Biden advisers learned the lesson of 2000, when Al Gore hung back while George W. Bush declared victory in that contested election, putting the Democrat on the defensive while Bush acted like the winner. So if Biden is declared the winner, he'll begin forming his government and looking presidential — and won't yield to doubts Trump might try to sow. Biden's schedule for Tuesday includes a clue to this posture: He 'will address the nation on Election Night in Wilmington, Delaware.'"

The Washington Post's live election updates are here. They are free to non-subscribers.

From the NYT election updates: Thomas Kaplan, et al.: “Joseph R. Biden Jr. returned to his Pennsylvania birthplace, Scranton, on the morning of Election Day, addressing supporters outside a carpenters’ union hall and visiting his childhood home. 'It’s good to be home,' the former vice president said at a canvass kickoff, wearing a mask and speaking through a bullhorn with Biden-Harris stickers on it. 'Scranton is where I learned, like you did, all my basic values.'... Mr. Biden also paid a visit to his childhood home, where he signed a message the living room wall: 'From this house to the White House with the grace of God.'... Mr. Biden had started the day attending St. Joseph on the Brandywine Roman Catholic Church in Wilmington, Del., with his wife, Jill, and two of their grandchildren, and then visiting the cemetery where several members of his family are buried, including his son Beau, his first wife, Neilia, and their daughter, Naomi....” ~~~

~~~ Maggie Haberman, et al.: “... President Trump said Tuesday morning in an interview on 'Fox & Friends' that he would declare victory 'when there is victory, if there is victory.... I think the polls are, you know, suppression polls. And I think we will have victory....' At another point in the interview, when one of the hosts tried to get Mr. Trump to respond to criticism from his predecessor, President Obama, about the safety of Mr. Trump’s rallies amid a pandemic, the president instead started attacking Fox News. The network 'has changed a lot,' Mr. Trump said, falsely saying they’ve 'had Democrats on more than Republicans.'... Mr. Trump sounded tired, after spending all day Monday flying from rally to rally. He spent much of his last day on the campaign trail attacking the Supreme Court, accusing it of putting 'our country in danger' by ruling to allow Pennsylvania to continue accepting absentee ballots after Election Day, at least for the time being. In Kenosha, Wis..., Mr. Trump told a crowd, without basis, that the justices had made a 'political' decision that would lead to cheating by ... Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. His comments followed an angry tweet in which he charged — without providing any evidence — that the court’s decision would 'allow rampant and unchecked cheating' and 'induce violence in the streets.' Twitter quickly flagged the president’s assertions as potentially false....”

Erik Ortiz of NBC News: "A federal lawsuit is accusing police in North Carolina of voter intimidation after they deployed pepper spray during a get-out-the vote rally and hauled several participants to jail in a chaotic display of pre-Election Day discord. The complaint, filed late Monday against the police chief of Graham, a rural community west of Durham, and the Alamance County sheriff, says that protesters were not expecting conflict at Saturday's 'I Am Change' march, but that the situation escalated 'when deputies and officers planned and orchestrated the violent dispersal' of a peaceful crowd."

Jonathan Swan of Axios: "Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley held an off-the-record video call with top generals and network anchors this weekend to tamp down speculation about potential military involvement in the presidential election, two people familiar with the call tell Axios.... The nation's top military official set up Saturday's highly unusual call to make clear that the military's role is apolitical, one of the sources said — and to dispel any notion of a role for the military in adjudicating a disputed election or making any decision around removing a president from the White House."

The Commentariat -- November 3, 2020

It's E-Day. The World Is Watching.

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Maggie Miller of the Hill: "Election results will be delayed almost an hour in the Tar Heel State after the North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE) voted Tuesday to extend hours at four polling locations due to early delays from technical issues." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: To give you an idea of how little Republicans want Americans to vote, CNN reported that the N.C. state election board's vote was 3-2, with the three Democrats on the board voting yea & the two Republicans voting nay. These extensions were for only a few minutes & were to make sure voters in these precincts had the same access to the ballot as everyone else in the state had. It's a straightforward matter of fairness. The effect on outcomes would be negligible. And that was too much for Republicans.

John Kruzel of the Hill: "A federal judge in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday ordered the U.S. Postal Service to sweep facilities for remaining mail ballots and rush their delivery, as receipt deadlines close in. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, who has presided over several lawsuits aimed at Postal Service election mail delays, gave the Postal Service until 3 p.m. to 'ensure that no ballots have been held up' in regions that have been slow to process mail ballots."

Mike Allen & Margaret Talev of Axios: "If news organizations declare Joe Biden the mathematical president-elect, he plans to address the nation as its new leader, even if President Trump continues to fight in court, advisers tell Axios.... Biden advisers learned the lesson of 2000, when Al Gore hung back while George W. Bush declared victory in that contested election, putting the Democrat on the defensive while Bush acted like the winner. So if Biden is declared the winner, he'll begin forming his government and looking presidential -- and won't yield to doubts Trump might try to sow. Biden's schedule for Tuesday includes a clue to this posture: He 'will address the nation on Election Night in Wilmington, Delaware.'"

The Washington Post's live election updates are here. They are free to non-subscribers.

From the NYT election updates: "Joseph R. Biden Jr. returned to his Pennsylvania birthplace, Scranton, on the morning of Election Day, addressing supporters outside a carpenters' union hall and visiting his childhood home. 'It's good to be home,' the former vice president said at a canvass kickoff, wearing a mask and speaking through a bullhorn with Biden-Harris stickers on it. 'Scranton is where I learned, like you did, all my basic values.'... Mr. Biden also paid a visit to his childhood home, where he signed a message the living room wall: 'From this house to the White House with the grace of God.'... Mr. Biden had started the day attending St. Joseph on the Brandywine Roman Catholic Church in Wilmington, Del., with his wife, Jill, and two of their grandchildren, and then visiting the cemetery where several members of his family are buried, including his son Beau, his first wife, Neilia, and their daughter, Naomi...." ~~~

~~~ Maggie Haberman, et al.: "... President Trump said Tuesday morning in an interview on 'Fox & Friends' that he would declare victory 'when there is victory, if there is victory.... I think the polls are, you know, suppression polls. And I think we will have victory....' At another point in the interview, when one of the hosts tried to get Mr. Trump to respond to criticism from his predecessor, President Obama, about the safety of Mr. Trump's rallies amid a pandemic, the president instead started attacking Fox News. The network 'has changed a lot,' Mr. Trump said, falsely saying they've 'had Democrats on more than Republicans.'... Mr. Trump sounded tired, after spending all day Monday flying from rally to rally. He spent much of his last day on the campaign trail attacking the Supreme Court, accusing it of putting 'our country in danger' by ruling to allow Pennsylvania to continue accepting absentee ballots after Election Day, at least for the time being. In Kenosha, Wis..., Mr. Trump told a crowd, without basis, that the justices had made a 'political' decision that would lead to cheating by ... Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. His comments followed an angry tweet in which he charged -- without providing any evidence -- that the court's decision would 'allow rampant and unchecked cheating' and 'induce violence in the streets.' Twitter quickly flagged the president's assertions as potentially false...."

Erik Ortiz of NBC News: "A federal lawsuit is accusing police in North Carolina of voter intimidation after they deployed pepper spray during a get-out-the vote rally and hauled several participants to jail in a chaotic display of pre-Election Day discord. The complaint, filed late Monday against the police chief of Graham, a rural community west of Durham, and the Alamance County sheriff, says that protesters were not expecting conflict at Saturday's 'I Am Change' march, but that the situation escalated 'when deputies and officers planned and orchestrated the violent dispersal' of a peaceful crowd."

Jonathan Swan of Axios: "Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley held an off-the-record video call with top generals and network anchors this weekend to tamp down speculation about potential military involvement in the presidential election, two people familiar with the call tell Axios.... The nation's top military official set up Saturday's highly unusual call to make clear that the military's role is apolitical, one of the sources said -- and to dispel any notion of a role for the military in adjudicating a disputed election or making any decision around removing a president from the White House."

~~~~~~~~~~~

Presidential Race, Etc.

How to give a political speech:

Election Results. Dixville Notch. Lauren Dezenski & Cassie Spodak of CNN: "... Joe Biden took all five of the votes cast for president in Dixville Notch, a tiny New Hampshire township along the US-Canada border that is among the first places in the country to make its presidential preference known. The ballots were cast in the minutes after midnight, becoming some of the first cast and counted on Election Day.... Nearby Millsfield also opened its polls at midnight. Trump won Millsfield 16-5 over Biden."

The New York Times' live election updates Tuesday are here: Michael Cooper: "Nearly 100 million people had already cast their ballots before the day even dawned -- taking advantage of states' efforts to make voting safer during the pandemic.... Battleground states including Michigan and Pennsylvania were making news on the eve of the election not just for 11th-hour campaign stops, but for setting one-day records for new coronavirus cases.... There are now five million more people unemployed now than when Mr. Trump took office in January 2017. And the recent recovery is showing signs of stalling, as hopes begin to fade that many jobs lost to pandemic would return swiftly.... Millions of students are not taking classes in person, as many of the nation's largest school districts are still offering remote instruction or a hybrid that combines some in-person schooling with classes from home. And with the United States still suffering one of the worst outbreaks in the world, travelers have found a U.S. passport is not always welcomed anymore.... As Election Day dawned, the sight of plywood being put up over windows from Washington to New York to Los Angeles sent an ominous sign."

The Guardian's Election Day liveblog is here.

Alicia Parlapiano of the New York Times writes a general explanation of how votes will be counted, and how the early returns may be skewed one way or the other, then helpful state-by-state mini-analyses of when the polls close, the types of ballots that will be reported first, & the likely timing of unofficial reports. The Times will update the page as states release more information. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Michael McDonald of the University of Florida is keeping track of early voting -- both mail-in and in-person -- state-by-state and, where available, by party affiliation. Thanks to Ken W. for the link. As of early Tuesday morning, McDonald's site reports that 99,657,079 people had voted. CNN reported on-air this morning that more than 101 million Americans had voted early.

More Voter Intimidation. Tony Romm & Isaac Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post: "An unidentified robocaller has placed an estimated 10 million calls in the past several weeks warning people to 'stay safe and stay home,' spooking some Americans who said they saw it as an attempt to scare them away from the polls on Election Day. The barrage of calls all feature the same short, recorded message: A computerized female voice says the message is a 'test call' before twice encouraging people to remain inside. The robocalls, which have come from a slew of fake or unknown numbers, began over the summer and intensified in October, and now appear to have affected nearly every Zip code in the United States."

Annals of Journalism, Ctd. Ed Pilkington of the Guardian: "The president's reported intention to make a premature -- and potentially false -- victory speech by the end of Tuesday night, with large numbers of mail-in ballots yet to be counted, has provoked intense journalistic debate.... Were Trump to try to stage such a 'victory' stunt it would chime with the relentless doubt that he has sown for months around the election, with repeated false claims that mail-in voting is riddled with fraud. His comments suggest that his aim is to create the illusion that the election is being stolen from him in states such as Pennsylvania where early results from in-person voting might favor Trump in a so-called 'red mirage', only for the balance to swing to Biden as absentee ballots are counted beyond election day."

The New York Times live election updates for Monday are here. The Washington Post's live election updates Monday are here. The Post's updates are free to non-subscribers. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ The Guardian's live election blog for Monday is more fun than the U.S. papers' live election updates.

Trump's Closing Argument: Biden Backers Will Loot & Rob You. Also, I'm Not Going to Pay Mic Guy. Emily Goodin of the Daily Mail: "... Donald Trump invited his family on stage with him during his fourth rally of the day in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Monday, where he warned that Democrats will 'loot and rob' if Joe Biden doesn't win the election.... Trump battled problems with his microphone throughout the course of the Kenosha rally, with the sound dropping so low that the crowd couldn't hear him.... A staffer came on stage and gave the president a handheld microphone. 'I always said I want the perfect mic,' Trump said.... 'We're supposed to pay these people, right?' the president joked of the mishap. 'I won't pay the bill of the company that does this crazy microphone, and they'll do a story, "Trump is a horrible human being, he doesn't pay a bill." No, I don't like to pay bills when people do a bad job.' But he then agrees he will because it's a Kenosha-based company." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump's claim is a little odd since, so far, most election-related violence seems to be coming from his own supporters, and it is he, not Joe Biden, who is encouraging that violence, such as his repeated support for Trumpbots who he said were "protecting" a Biden bus by slowing it down & side-swiping a vehicle accompanying the bus on a Texas highway.

How to Shore Up the Latino Vote. Emma Nolan of Newsweek: "One of the big superstars of the world; Little Pimp!" is how Donald Trump introduced [Latino] rapper Lil Pump on stage at a final pre-election rally Tuesday morning."... The president then appears to have recognized his mistake and adds: 'There he is. You wanna come up here and say something? Lil Pump? Does everyone know who he is? You know how big he is? Come up here, that's a nice hat.'... This week, Lil Pump threatened to leave the U.S. if Trump is not reelected. 'Yo, no cap... If Trump does not get elected, I'm moving the f*** out of here n****,' he said in a recent post on his Instagram Story, per Complex. 'I'm going to Colombia, f*** it.'" Thanks to Akhilleus for the lead. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Lil Pimp seems like a nice guy ... for someone Trump would call an anchor baby from a shithole country (Colombia). Since I am so out of it, I never heard of one of the biggest superstars in the world, so I looked him up on the Wikis: "... he is often portrayed taking drugs such as marijuana, lean, and xanax.... [He was] expelled from multiple district schools. [Lil Pimp], thereafter, enrolled in an opportunity high school but was expelled in the tenth grade for fighting and inciting a riot.... On December 16, 2018, [Lil Pimp] was accused of being racist towards Asians after previewing a snippet of his new song 'Butterfly Doors'; the lyrics contained Asian stereotypes and slurs including 'Ching chong' and 'they call me Yao Ming cause my eyes real low' the lyric at which, [Lil Pimp] mockingly pulls his eyes back." Meanwhile, Lady Gaga performed & spoke at a Biden rally, & John Legend at a Harris rally.

David Brennan of Newsweek: "On Monday, while campaigning in the Pennsylvanian city of Scranton, where [Joe] Biden lived until he was 10 years old, the president appeared to threaten Democratic Governor Tom Wolf, as the crowd chanted: 'Tom Wolf sucks.' 'Make sure your governor doesn't cheat, because they are known for very bad things here,' Trump said, without elaborating. 'But we have a lot of eyes watching, a lot of very powerful eyes here. They don't want that to happen.... Open up your state and please don't cheat, governor, please don't cheat,' the president said to cheers from the crowd. 'We're all watching you.... We have a lot of eyes on the governor and his friends,' Trump added. 'Couple of other governors out there too.'" Wolf said Trump's threats would not intimidate local officials. ~~~

~~~ Trump Predicts, Encourages Election-Related Violence. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Speaking to supporters in Opa-locka, Fla., on Sunday night into Monday, the president ... began sizing up his opponent Joe Biden's physical attributes and describing how he might beat him up. 'So those legs -- those legs, they've gotten very thin,' Trump said.... He continued, drawing his words out carefully and slowly. 'You wouldn't have to close,' he said, holding up a clenched fist and then releasing it, 'you wouldn't have to close the fi-.' In a similar riff the day before, Trump's sentiment was even clearer, though he again suggestively trailed off at the end: 'A slight slap. You don't have to close -- even close your fist.'... A president who has repeatedly spoken in subtle -- and often far-less-subtle -- ways about violent acts by supporters and suggestively alluded to politically fueled post-election turmoil has made both a fixture of his final campaign pitch.... Trump this weekend also re-upped his long-running allusions to unrest after the election, saying there would be 'bedlam' if the result is drawn out as states count mail ballots in the days after the election.... 'November 3 is going to come and go, and we're not gonna know, and you're gonna have bedlam in our country, and you're gonna have this period of nine days, or seven days, or whatever it is, and many bad things. Ballots are gonna be, "Oh, we just found 10,000 ballots." Oh, that's good. "We just found another 10,000." This is a horrible thing that the United States Supreme Court has done to our country.'... At one point last week, he referred to the idea of Kamala D. Harris taking over, saying, 'Three weeks in, Joe's shot. Let's go, Kamala, you ready?'" ~~~

~~~ Ryan Lizza & Daniel Lippman of Politico: "At rallies across the Midwest and Sun Belt swing states..., Donald Trump has been openly discussing murky schemes to prevent legitimate ballots from being counted, escalating threats to disenfranchise millions of American as the weeks-long voting season ends tonight and his pathway to reelection becomes increasingly narrow. 'The Election should end on Nov. 3, not weeks later!' the president said on Friday. He repeated the claim at an event in Dubuque, Iowa on Sunday, adding falsely, 'That's the way it's been, and that's the way it should be.'... Trump has been abetted ... by top surrogates, including his sons, Eric and Don, and his daughter-in-law, Lara.... 'President Trump will be ahead on election night, probably getting 280 electoral [votes] -- somewhere in that range, and then they're going to try to steal it back after the election,' [senior advisor Jason] Miller said [Sunday], suggesting that fully counting ballots is a Democratic plot.... Most Republicans ... have remained publicly silent. It's not new for Trump's party brethren to duck and cover when he says something troubling. But after five years of perfecting the art of explaining how they 'didn't see the tweet,' ... it is shocking but not surprising that they aren't speaking up now, even when the integrity of America's electoral system is under attack by their party's leader." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Not all Republicans are "troubled" by Trump's anti-democratic antics. Consider the case of a Florida man: Aaron Blake of WashPo reports in the story linked above, "Speaking at [a] Florida rally, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said [of the Texas 'Trump Train' that threatened to run a Biden bus off the freeway]: 'We love what they did. But here's the thing they don't know: We do that in Florida every day.'"

The Last Harumph. Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump arrives at Election Day on Tuesday toggling between confidence and exasperation, bravado and grievance, and marinating in frustration that he is trailing Joseph R. Biden Jr., whom he considers an unworthy opponent.... Trailing in most polls, Mr. Trump has careened through a marathon series of rallies in the last week, trying to tear down Mr. Biden and energize his supporters, but also fixated on crowd size and targeting perceived enemies like the news media and Dr. Anthony Fauci.... At every turn, the president has railed that the voting system is rigged against him and has threatened to sue when the election is over, in an obvious bid to undermine an electoral process strained by the coronavirus pandemic.... His mad dash to the finish is a distillation of his four tumultuous years in office, a mix of resentment, combativeness and a penchant for viewing events through a prism all his own.... But by enclosing himself in the thin bubble of his own worldview, Mr. Trump may have further severed himself from the political realities of a country in crisis. And that, in turn, has helped enable Mr. Trump to wage a campaign offering no central message, no clear agenda for a second term and no answer to the woes of the pandemic.... On a trip to Florida last week, several aides told the president that winning the Electoral College was a certainty, a prognosis not supported by Republican or Democratic polling, according to people familiar with the conversation." ~~~

     ~~~ Jim Acosta of CNN, who has been following Trump around the country, called Trump's the "ugliest" closing argument he had ever heard.

Hunkered in the Bunker? Paul LeBlanc of CNN: "Federal authorities are expected to put back into place a 'non-scalable' fence around the entire perimeter of the White House on Monday as law enforcement and other agencies prepare for possible protests surrounding the election.... Washington, DC, Metro Police Chief Peter Newsham warned the District's City Council last month there was wide expectation of some type of civil unrest following the election. And many businesses in the downtown DC area in the proximity of the White House have boarded up doors and windows in the last couple of days in anticipation of possible protests. During this past summer, some businesses saw their windows smashed and other property damaged by protesters." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: So maybe the reason Trump cancelled his plans to party at the Trump Hotel on Election Night was not that he needed to hole up with his aides at the White House to scheme to steal the election or that he planned to use the People's House as a party venue. Instead, maybe he just wanted to be sure he could get to his hidey-hole in the basement bunker toot sweet.

Anne Gearan, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump is signaling that Election Day could be followed by a stretch of uncertainty and chaos as a purge of top officials, legal challenges to election results and potential resistance to a normal transition cloud the prospects for an orderly post-election period no matter who wins.... Trump, speaking at a rally in Ohio recently, openly suggested that he might throw a wrench in the transition process if [Joe] Biden prevails, making unfounded claims that his own transition was undermined. 'They ask me, "If you lose, will there be a friendly transition?" Well, when I won, did they give me a friendly transition?' Trump said. 'They spied on my campaign. They did all this stuff. That was not a friendly transition.' Trump has also complained about mail-in voting, erroneously casting much of it as fraudulent and falsely claiming that it is unusual or dangerous to continue counting ballots after Election Day. Biden's team is preparing for the possibility that Trump, should he lose, would block hundreds of Biden officials from gaining access to government resources as required by law. Top Biden transition members have discussed potential legal responses and are eyeing other ways, should Biden win the election, to begin what could be one of the most volatile transfers of power in American history...." ~~~

~~~ Jim Rutenberg, et al., of the New York Times: "With the election coming to a close, the Trump and Biden campaigns, voting rights organizations and conservative groups are raising money and dispatching armies of lawyers for what could become a state-by-state, county-by-county legal battle over which ballots will ultimately be counted. The deployments -- involving hundreds of lawyers on both sides -- go well beyond what has become normal since the disputed outcome in 2000, and are the result of the open efforts of President Trump and the Republicans to disqualify votes on technicalities and baseless charges of fraud at the end of a campaign in which the voting system has been severely tested by the coronavirus pandemic. In the most aggressive moves to knock out registered votes in modern memory, Republicans have already sought to nullify ballots before they are counted in several states that could tip the balance of the Electoral College.... In his last days of campaigning, Mr. Trump has essentially admitted that he does not expect to win without going to court. 'As soon as that election is over,' he told reporters over the weekend, 'we're going in with our lawyers.'" ~~~

~~~ Former Attorneys General Eric Holder & Michael Mukasey, in a Washington Post op-ed: "The most devastating event in our history came from a refusal to accept the election results in 1860. Abraham Lincoln's plaintive plea in his inaugural speech-- 'We are not enemies.... We must not be enemies.' -- went unheeded; 11 states refused to accept Lincoln's election and formed the Confederacy. The result was the Civil War.... History and contemporary events demonstrate that ... a resolution of policy disputes by means outside accepted governing frameworks does long-term harm to societies and ultimately puts individual freedom at risk.... This should not require saying, but we feel compelled to say it: ...our political leaders [should not] stoke or condone violence.... There is the insidious danger posed by charges that have nothing to support them other than an accuser's invitation to us to hallucinate evil.... If you can't imagine anything worse right now than the other side prevailing in this election, try this: Imagine a country where elections don't matter because those who do not prevail will not accept the result." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Don't know how Holder managed to get Mukasey, a hard-nosed winger and law partner & pal of Rudy Giuliani, to sign onto this editorial. But he did, so there you are.

Giovanni Russonello & Sarah Lyall of the New York Times: "If President Trump pieces together an Electoral College win on Tuesday, at least one pollster -- and perhaps only one -- will be able to say, 'I told you so.' That person is Robert Cahaly, whose Trafalgar Group this year has released a consistent stream of battleground-state polls showing the president highly competitive against Joseph R. Biden Jr., and often out ahead, in states where most other pollsters have shown a steady Biden lead. Trafalgar does not disclose its methods, and is considered far too shadowy by other pollsters to be taken seriously. Mostly, they dismiss it as an outlier. But for Mr. Cahaly, 'I told you so' is already a calling card. In 2016, its first time publicly releasing polls, Trafalgar was the firm whose state surveys most effectively presaged Mr. Trump's upset win. A veteran Republican strategist, Mr. Cahaly even called the exact number of Electoral College votes that Mr. Trump and Hillary Clinton would receive -- 306 to 227 -- although his prediction of which states would get them there was just slightly off."

Trump's Army Is AWOL. Jessica Huseman of ProPublica: "Donald Trump Jr. looked straight into a camera at the end of September as triumphant music rose in a crescendo. 'The radical left are laying the groundwork to steal this election from my father,' he said. 'We cannot let that happen. We need every able-bodied man and woman to join the army for Trump's election security operation.' It was an echo of what his father ... has said in both of his presidential campaigns. At a September campaign rally in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, the president encouraged his audience to be poll watchers. 'Watch all the thieving and stealing and robbing they do,' he said.... But the poll-watching army that the Trumps have tried to rally hasn't materialized. Although there's no official data, election officials across the country say that they have seen relatively few Republican poll watchers during early voting, and that at times Democratic poll watchers have outnumbered the GOP's.... Despite the small number of official poll watchers, unauthorized Trump supporters at times have shown up and behaved aggressively at polling places and drop boxes, according to tips received by Electionland."

California. Travis Gettys of the Raw Story: "A caravan of ... Donald Trump's supporters blocked access to a voting station in southern California. The caravan paraded for 60 miles through Riverside County before arriving at a Temecula sports park, where throngs of Trump supporters snarled traffic and prevented some voters from reaching the polling station, reported the Los Angeles Times. 'Law enforcement was contacted to ensure that access to the parking lot and voter assistance center were clear,' said Brooke Federico, a spokeswoman for Riverside County. 'The Sheriff's Department responded and cleared access to the parking lot and voter assistance center.'"

Michigan. Joseph Choi of the Hill: "The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) of Michigan said on Monday that several tombstones in the Ahavas Israel Cemetery in Grand Rapids had been desecrated with 'Trump' and 'MAGA' in red spray paint.... David J.B. Krishef, the congregation's rabbi, said in a statement to The Hill that it was unclear if the vandalism was an attack on the Jewish community."

Nevada. Stephanie Becker of CNN: "A Nevada judge rejected a GOP lawsuit seeking to halt early vote counting in Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, over stringency of signature-matching computer software and how closely observers can watch votes being counted. With less than 24 hours before Election Day, District Court Judge James Wilson denied the Nevada Republican Party and the Trump campaign their request challenging procedures for poll observation and mail-in ballot processing in heavily Democratic Clark County.... Donald Trump has consistently criticized Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak, a Democrat, for the decision to send ballots to all active voters because of the pandemic, and the battleground state is one of several where Republicans have tried to limit mail-in voting activity." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Texas. Neena Satija, et al., of the Washington Post: "A federal judge on Monday rejected Republicans' attempt to invalidate more than 100,000 ballots cast via drive-through voting in Harris County, Tex., home to Houston. But he also cautioned those who have not yet voted to avoid using those centers on Election Day.... U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen, an [Mrs. McC: ultra-conservative] appointee of President George W. Bush, noting that an appellate court could overrule him. The plaintiffs in the case -- Houston conservative activist Steve Hotze and a handful of Republican candidates -- have appealed the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, in hopes of a ruling Monday evening. Hotze and the candidates had sued the county last week over its drive-through voting stations, in which voters use a machine to vote from inside their cars. The new voting method was instituted for voters fearful of exposing themselves to the coronavirus at polling places. The plaintiffs argued that the Texas legislature never explicitly allowed for it. In his ruling issued from the bench Monday, Hanen said the plaintiffs did not have standing to challenge the validity of the ballots. If they did have standing, he said, he might have halted drive-through voting on Election Day." ~~~

     ~~~ An item on the ruling from the WashPo's live election updates Monday is free to non-subscribers & was linked yesterday afternoon.

Matt Scuffham, et al., of Reuters: "Deutsche Bank AG is looking for ways to end its relationship with ... Donald Trump after the U.S. elections, as it tires of the negative publicity stemming from the ties, according to three senior bank officials with direct knowledge of the matter.... In meetings in recent months, a Deutsche Bank management committee that oversees reputational and other risks for the lender in the Americas region has discussed ways in which it could rid the bank of these last vestiges of the relationship, two of the three bank officials said. The bank has over the years lent Trump more than $2 billion, one of the officials said."

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here.

Antonia Farzan, et al., of the Washington Post have a sort of round-up of world news, centering on the U.S., on the status of the coronavirus. This is a bit different from their usual updates, in that it is not broken into several discrete items. The article is free to non-subscribers. (Also linked yesterday.)

Debbie Gets Her Dander Up. Lena Sun & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force..., sounded alarms Monday about a new and deadly phase in the health crisis, pleading with top administration officials for 'much more aggressive action,' even as President Trump continues to assure rallygoers the nation is 'rounding the turn' on the pandemic. 'We are entering the most concerning and most deadly phase of this pandemic ... leading to increasing mortality,' said the Nov. 2 report from ... Birx.... 'This is not about lockdowns -- It hasn't been about lockdowns since March or April. It's about an aggressive balanced approach that is not being implemented.' Birx's internal report, shared with top White House and agency officials, contradicts Trump on numerous points: While the president holds large campaign events with hundreds of attendees, most without masks, she explicitly warns against them. While the president blames rising cases on more testing, she says testing is 'flat or declining' in many areas where cases are rising. And while Trump says the country is 'rounding the turn,' Birx notes the country is entering its most dangerous period yet and will see more than 100,000 new cases a day this week."

>Way Beyond the Beltway

Philip Oltermann of the Guardian: "Police in Vienna are hunting at least one gunman after a string of shootings described by the Austrian chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, as a 'repulsive terror attack' left at least three people dead. Two civilians were killed by gunmen, while one attacker was killed by police in the centre of the Austrian capital. At least one gunman remains on the run, but authorities have not ruled out there being more still at large. The initial shootings took place at six different locations in the city centre and authorities warned of a group of 'heavily armed and dangerous' gunmen. Fifteen other people -- including at least one police officer -- were seriously injured in exchanges of gunfire. Seven victims were reported to be in critical condition.... Speaking to the Austrian broadcaster ORF, [Kurz] said the attackers 'were very well equipped with automatic weapons' and had 'prepared professionally'.... One attacker was shot dead by police. According to government sources, the slain terrorist was carrying an explosive belt and a bag filled with ammunition, ORF reported." ~~~

     ~~~ The Guardian's liveblog for today is here. A fourth victim has died.

The Commentariat -- November 2, 2020

Afternoon Update:

From the WashPo's live election updates Monday: "A federal judge has rejected Republicans' attempt to invalidate tens of thousands of ballots cast via 'drive-through' voting in Harris County, which is home to Houston. But he also cautioned those who haven't yet voted to avoid using drive-through centers on Election Day because of outstanding questions about the method's legality. U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, found that the plaintiffs did not have standing to challenge the validity of the ballots. The decision follows a string of Republican attempts to limit the expansion of voting options in the Texas, particularly in Democratic-led Harris County, where local officials have spent tens of millions of dollars trying to making voting easier during the coronavirus pandemic." Mrs. McC: According to CNN on-air reporting, the plaintiffs plan to appeal the decision. Also linked below. Free to non-subscribers.

Stephanie Becker of CNN: "A Nevada judge rejected a GOP lawsuit seeking to halt early vote counting in Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, over stringency of signature-matching computer software and how closely observers can watch votes being counted. With less than 24 hours before Election Day, District Court Judge James Wilson denied the Nevada Republican Party and the Trump campaign their request challenging procedures for poll observation and mail-in ballot processing in heavily Democratic Clark County.... Donald Trump has consistently criticized Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak, a Democrat, for the decision to send ballots to all active voters because of the pandemic, and the battleground state is one of several where Republicans have tried to limit mail-in voting activity."

The New York Times live election updates for Monday are here. The Washington Post's live election updates Monday are here. The Post's updates are free to non-subscribers.

Alicia Parlapiano of the New York Times writes a general explanation of how votes will be counted, and how the early returns may be skewed one way or the other, then helpful state-by-state mini-analyses of when the polls close, the types of ballots that will be reported first, & the likely timing of unofficial reports. The Times will update the page as states release more information.

Paul LeBlanc of CNN: "Federal authorities are expected to put back into place a 'non-scalable' fence around the entire perimeter of the White House on Monday as law enforcement and other agencies prepare for possible protests surrounding the election.... Washington, DC, Metro Police Chief Peter Newsham warned the District's City Council last month there was wide expectation of some type of civil unrest following the election. And many businesses in the downtown DC area in the proximity of the White House have boarded up doors and windows in the last couple of days in anticipation of possible protests. During this past summer, some businesses saw their windows smashed and other property damaged by protesters." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: So maybe the reason Trump cancelled his plans to party at the Trump Hotel on Election Night was not that he needed to hole up with his aides at the White House to scheme to steal the election or that he planned to use the People's House as a party venue. Instead, maybe he just wanted to be sure he could get to his hidey-hole in the basement bunker toot sweet.

Antonia Farzan, et al., of the Washington Post have a sort of round-up of world news, centering on the U.S., on the status of the coronavirus. This is a bit different from their usual updates, in that it is not broken into several discrete items. The article is free to non-subscribers.

~~~~~~~~~~

Presidential Race, Etc.

Michael McDonald of the University of Florida is keeping track of early voting -- both mail-in and in-person -- state-by-state and, where available, by party affiliation. Thanks to Ken W. for the link. As of early Monday, about 94 million people have voted.

Nate Silver of 538: "I'm Here To Remind You That Trump Can Still Win. A 10 percent chance isn't zero. And there's a chance of a recount, too." Read it & weep. But good material for masochists.

The Washington Post's live election updates Sunday are here. The page is free to non-subscribers. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Annie Linskey of the Washington Post: "On the final Sunday before an election that could secure the prize that has eluded him in two previous national campaigns, Joe Biden hardened his pitch in the state that more than any other could decide the presidency.... His campaign events in Philadelphia marked the kickoff to a 36-hour blitz of Pennsylvania, broken only by an added side trip to next-door Ohio, where a victory would offer another pathway to the 270 electoral votes the winner needs. As Biden focused on a narrow corner of the country, President Trump scoured multiple states trying to ensure that his loyal followers come out to vote."

Katie Glueck & Annie Karni of the New York Times: "... President Trump and Joseph R. Biden Jr. are barreling into Pennsylvania and turning it into the top battleground in Tuesday's election, with Democrats flooding in with door-knockers and Republicans trying to parlay Mr. Trump's rallies into big turnout once again. ​Both campaigns see Pennsylvania as increasingly crucial to victory: Mr. Trump now appears more competitive here than in Michigan and Wisconsin, two other key northern states he hopes to win, and Mr. Biden's clearest electoral path to the White House runs through the state. Pennsylvania has more Electoral College votes, 20, than any other traditional battleground except Florida, and Mr. Trump won the state by less than one percentage point in 2016. Mr. Trump devoted Saturday to four rallies across the state, and he and Mr. Biden planned campaign events for the final 48 hours of the race as well, with a wave of prominent Democrats and celebrities slated to arrive. On Monday the president was set to make an appeal to white, working-class voters in Scranton, where Mr. Biden was born, while the Democratic nominee was aiming to solidify a broad coalition of white suburbanites and voters of color on a two-day swing through Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and elsewhere in western Pennsylvania.... Mr. Trump's rallies have energized many Republican voters, and his team is already preparing legal challenges over the vote if it ends up being close. On Sunday, the president told reporters, 'as soon as that election's over, we're going in with our lawyers.'" An AP story is here.

Jonathan Swan of Axios: "President Trump has told confidants he'll declare victory on Tuesday night if it looks like he's 'ahead,' according to three sources familiar with his private comments. That's even if the Electoral College outcome still hinges on large numbers of uncounted votes in key states like Pennsylvania.... Speaking to reporters on Sunday evening, Trump denied that he would declare victory prematurely, before adding, 'I think it's a terrible thing when ballots can be collected after an election. I think it's a terrible thing when states are allowed to tabulate ballots for a long period of time after the election is over.... I think it's terrible that we can't know the results of an election the night of the election.... We're going to go in the night of, as soon as that election's over, we're going in with our lawyers.... We don't want to have Pennsylvania, where you have a political governor, a very partisan guy. ... We don't want to be in a position where he's allowed, every day, to watch ballots come in. See if we can only find 10,000 more ballots." ~~~

~~~ Richard Hasen in Slate: "... such a claim is preposterous because no state fully counts their ballots on election night. Returns are unofficial and always contain errors. Many states allow military ballots to arrive for days after election day. Counting generally continues for days and weeks after election day and results are not certified until weeks after.... That's what makes the Trump campaign efforts to cast doubts on even the counting of ballots after election day, even of military ballots, so unprecedented. As Slate's Will Saletan noted, Trump adviser Jason Miller, speaking on ABC News' This Week, signaled a legal battle against ballots not yet counted by Tuesday. 'If you speak with many smart Democrats, they believe that President Trump will be ahead on election night,' Miller said. 'And then they're going to try to steal it back after the election.' Counting legitimate ballots is not stealing of flipping the election, and no amount of spin can make it otherwise.... Trump's blatant telegraphing of this strategy through leaks to Axios is a blessing in disguise. The public is now going to be hearing from the media about Trump's plans over the next few days...." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Look at this impending fake declaration of victory not only as a plan to steal the election but also as a way for Trump to claim he's not a loser -- a conceit that seems to be important to him. If he can tell himself he won, but Joe Biden or the Supreme Court or Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf or whoever stole the election from him, then he won't have to go crouch in a corner of the Oval Office (ha ha) in a catatonic state save the suck-suck-sucking on his tiny thumb.

For Want of a Surprise, the Kingdom Was Lost (Maybe). Shane Goldmacher & Adam Nagourney of the New York Times: "President Trump began the fall campaign rooting for, and trying to orchestrate, a last-minute surprise that would vault him ahead of Joseph R. Biden Jr. A coronavirus vaccine. A dramatic economic rebound. A blockbuster Justice Department investigation. A grievous misstep by a rival he portrayed as faltering. A scandal involving Mr. Biden and his son Hunter. But as the campaign nears an end, and with most national and battleground-state polls showing Mr. Trump struggling, the cavalry of an October surprise that helped him overtake Hillary Clinton in 2016 has not arrived. That has left Mr. Trump running on a record of an out-of-control pandemic, an economy staggered by disease, and questions about his own style and conduct that have made him a polarizing figure.... That is not to say Mr. Trump did not try to use the levers of the government to shake up the race, and he has lashed out at cabinet officials who would not do his bidding."

Kansas. Tim Hrenchir of the Topeka Capital-Journal: "Three people were shot late Saturday in North Topeka after a man confronted people he thought had committed past thefts of signs promoting the campaign of ... Donald Trump, a Topeka police supervisor said Sunday.... One person was taken by ambulance to a hospital with gunshot wounds that were considered potentially life-threatening, said police Lt. Joe Perry.... Two other people later sought hospital treatment in Topeka after arriving by private vehicle after suffering from gunshot wounds, Perry said. The seriousness of their injuries wasn't clear. The names, ages and genders of those wounded weren't available Sunday morning. Perry said two people were brought to police headquarters for questioning but he wasn't aware of any arrests having been made. The case remained under investigation. At least one man was taken away was in handcuffs, neighbors told a Capital-Journal reporter...." Mrs. McC: I wonder if Trump will praise the perps.

New Jersey & New York. WTF Is the Point? Neil Vigdor, et al., of the New York Times: "... on Sunday, caravans of Mr. Trump's supporters blockaded the Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge and the Garden State Parkway, snarling traffic on two of the busiest highways in the New York metropolitan area.... Videos taken by motorists showed the president's backers parked in the middle of the westbound lanes of the bridge, which carries Interstate 287 across the Hudson River and is named for the father of the current governor, Andrew M. Cuomo. A number of them exited their vehicles in the rain and waved Trump banners and American flags as motorists honked their horns.... [The Cuomo Bridge] replaced the Tappan Zee Bridge.... William Duffy, a spokesman for the New York State Police, said that troopers had monitored the protest, but that there were no arrests.... In New Jersey, a caravan of Trump supporters snarled traffic on the northbound lanes of the Garden State Parkway near the Cheesequake Service Area in South Amboy, according to videos and local media reports."

North Carolina. Racist Voter Suppression, Cop-Style. Carli Brousseau of the (Raleigh) News & Observer: "Pepper spray and handcuffs won't end his quest to lead voters to the polls in Alamance County, Rev. Greg Drumwright said during a news conference Sunday. He announced a march in Graham on Election Day. 'We're coming even stronger,' Drumwright said ... in Burlington, his childhood neighborhood. His release from jail the day before, following a get-out-the-vote march that never made it to the polling place, was conditioned on staying out of Graham[, N.C.] for 72 hours. On Saturday, Drumwright, a pastor in Greensboro, led about 200 people from Wayman Chapel AME Church in Graham to the town's Court Square, the site of frequent demonstrations this summer calling for justice.... The rally [on Saturday] ended with pepper spray. Alamance County sheriff's deputies began dismantling the group's audio equipment and used the spray when demonstrators intervened. More than a dozen people, including Drumwright, were arrested. The pepper fog caused several children who attended the march to throw up. Janet Johnson, a 56-year-old minister from Graham who attended the rally in a motorized scooter, had a panic attack and began to convulse." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: The police boasted that they did not spray the pepper solution in the marchers' faces but aimed it at the ground. Well, where the hell do they think the faces of little children & wheel-chair riders are? Why, close to the ground. In other words, they aimed their weapons at the most vulnerable.

Texas. Jolie McCullough of the Texas Tribune: "A legal cloud hanging over nearly 127,000 votes already cast in Harris County was at least temporarily lifted Sunday when the Texas Supreme Court rejected a request by several conservative Republican activists and candidates to preemptively throw out early balloting from drive-thru polling sites in the state's most populous, and largely Democratic, county. The all-Republican court denied the request without an order or opinion, as justices did last month in a similar lawsuit brought by some of the same plaintiffs. The Republican plaintiffs, however, are pursuing a similar lawsuit in federal court, hoping to get the votes thrown out by arguing that drive-thru voting violates the U.S. constitution. A hearing in that case is set for Monday morning in a Houston-based federal district court, one day before Election Day. A rejection of the votes would constitute a monumental disenfranchisement of voters -- drive-thru ballots account for about 10% of all in-person ballots cast during early voting in Harris County." ~~~

     ~~~ See also Mark Stern's Slate post on this, linked yesterday.

"Law & Order" President* Knocks FBI Investigation. Allan Smith & Julia Ainsley of NBC News: "... Donald Trump lashed out at the FBI on Sunday after it said it was investigating reports that a caravan of his supporters harassed a bus belonging to Joe Biden's campaign. 'In my opinion, these patriots did nothing wrong,' Trump said in a tweet. 'Instead, the FBI & Justice should be investigating the terrorists, anarchists, and agitators of ANTIFA, who run around burning down our Democrat run cities and hurting our people!'" ~~~

~~~ Matthew Schwartz of NPR: "President Trump is celebrating a caravan of supporters who followed [Mrs. McC: make that "harassed," at the very least] a Biden-Harris campaign bus in Central Texas.... Trump discussed the caravan at a Michigan campaign event on Sunday. 'Did you see the way our people, they were, ya know, protecting this bus ... because they're nice,' he said. 'They had hundreds of cars. Trump! Trump! Trump and the American flag.'" ~~~

~~~ Kate McGee, et al., of the Texas Tribune: "The Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking into a Friday incident in which a group of Trump supporters, driving trucks and waving Trump flags, surrounded and followed a Biden campaign bus as it drove up I-35 in Hays County, a law enforcement official confirmed to The Texas Tribune Saturday. The confrontation, captured on video, featured at least one minor collision and led to Texas Democrats canceling three scheduled campaign events on Friday. The campaign officials cited 'safety concerns' for the cancellations.... On Saturday night, Trump tweeted a video of the Trump supporters following the Biden bus saying, 'I LOVE TEXAS!'" Mrs. McC: Again, it is beyond extraordinary that a POTUS* would encourage dangerous, violent actions that the FBI is investigating as criminal activity. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Virginia. Matthew Brown of USA Today: "A group of protesters gathered in front of Attorney General William Barr's McLean, Virginia home on Saturday evening where they called for Barr to 'lock up' ... Joe Biden. Photos of the event showed a crowd of about a dozen men, donned in clothing and messages supportive of President Donald Trump, held signs with slogans such as 'Biden Lies Matter,' 'Equal Justice Is Coming' and 'They that forsake the law praise the wicked.' Others wore 'Trump 2020' flags and 'Crooked Hillary for Prison' T-shirts." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "Born amid made-up crowd size claims and 'alternative facts,' the Trump presidency has been a factory of falsehood from the start, churning out distortions, conspiracy theories and brazen lies at an assembly-line pace that has challenged fact-checkers and defied historical analogy. But now..., the consequences of four years of fabulism are coming into focus as President Trump argues that the vote itself is inherently 'rigged,' tearing at the credibility of the system. Should the contest go into extra innings through legal challenges after Tuesday, it may leave a public with little faith in the outcome -- and in its own democracy. The nightmarish scenario of widespread doubt and denial of the legitimacy of the election would cap a period in American history when truth itself has seemed at stake.... Even if the election ends with a clear victory or defeat for Mr. Trump, scholars and players alike say the very concept of public trust in an established set of facts necessary for the operation of a democratic society has eroded during his tenure with potentially long-term ramifications." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Witness to Treachery. The Last Tell-All Book. Natasha Bertrand of Politico: "As Rudy Giuliani searched for damaging information on the Bidens in Ukraine, waged shadow diplomatic campaigns in Venezuela and Turkey, and spoke regularly to ... Donald Trump about all of it, [Aaron Parnas, son of Lev,] a 19-year-old law student, was quietly watching and soaking it all in.... And he has now written an eyewitness account of many of the back-channel dealings conducted by Giuliani and a small group of his confidants.... The 153-page memoir ... traces [Aaron] Parnas' journey from an enthusiastic Trump supporter in 2016 ... to an eager Biden voter in 2020.... [Aaron] Parnas was ... a witness to Giuliani's dirt-digging missions targeting Joe and Hunter Biden, during which his father was with Giuliani 'almost every day.... Since they were inseparable during this time, I would often meet with the two of them together,' Parnas writes. 'During our meetings, I was able to witness Rudy talk with the President multiple times on the phone.... It was clear to me that everything the Mayor and my father did through the summer months of 2019 related to Ukraine and the Bidens was done at the direction and with the consent of President Trump.'"

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Sunday are here: "As Election Day nears and the United States reports its highest daily case totals yet, battleground Great Lakes states that could help decide the presidency are enduring some of the most alarming coronavirus surges. While the surge quickens and early voting draws to a close, President Trump has continued downplaying the virus and falsely saying the country is 'rounding the turn.' And on Thursday, Donald Trump Jr. tried to minimize the death toll, claiming it was 'almost nothing' in an appearance on Fox News. But deaths are beginning to rise across the country, averaging 818 a day over the last week, up nearly 15 percent since Oct. 1, according to a New York Times database. More than 84,000 new cases were announced Saturday in the United States, pushing the seven-day average for new cases above 80,000 for the first time, a rise of 86 percent over the same period." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Kevin Liptak of CNN: "... Donald Trump suggested to a Florida crowd he may fire Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's leading expert on infectious diseases, after the election. Speaking after midnight following a full day of campaigning, the President was complaining about the news media coverage of Covid-19 when the crowd broke out into a 'Fire Fauci' chant. 'Don't tell anybody but let me wait until a little bit after the election,' Trump said to cheers. 'I appreciate the advice.' Later, Trump claimed Fauci is 'a nice guy but he's been wrong a lot.'" Mrs. McC: Fauci is a civil servant, so I don't think Trump can "fire" him without cause. However, Trump can diminish Fauci's profile, removing him from the now-eviscerated White House Coronavirus Task Force, engineering Fauci's removal from his head-of-department status, etc.

     ~~~ Thanks to Forrest M. for the lead.

John Amato of the Crooks & Liars: "As many of the networks ask Trump administration health officials to join their shows, Trump's new favorite propaganda toy, Dr. Scott Atlas, instead went on Russian TV to attack the media, Dr. Fauci, and all health officials over their policies to ensure the public's safety from COVID. Dr. Atlas, who is not an epidemiology specialist, has become Trump's go-to COVID influencer since he became Tucker Carlson's favorite doctor. His job is to attack CDC officials trying to do their jobs, to spread misinformation, and to ignore the severity of COVID-19, all in an effort to help Trump's reelection campaign.... Atlas claimed the lock downs are not sparing Americans from the virus: 'The lock downs will go down as an epic failure of public policy.' Then he went so far as to tell Russian TV that Dr. Fauci's measures are actually killing people: 'The public health leadership has failed egregiously and they are killing people with their fear-inducing shutdown policies.'" Mrs. McC: Since the White House must approve Task Force members' interviews, either Atlas went rogue or Kremlin TV is a favored Trump outlet. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Update. Maria Arias of Axios: "President Trump's favorite coronavirus adviser Scott Atlas apologized on Twitter for appearing Saturday on Russia's state-controlled RT network, where he insisted that the U.S. is turning the corner on the pandemic and that lockdowns are actually 'killing people.' RT, formerly known as Russia Today, is a Russian state-owned media outlet registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. This means that all of its content is labeled as propaganda attempting to influence U.S. public opinion, policy and laws.... 'I recently did an interview with RT and was unaware they are a registered foreign agent,' Atlas tweeted.... Atlas appeared on RT just hours after the Washington Post released an interview with Anthony Fauci, who criticized Atlas for his controversial views on the pandemic." Mrs. McC: It's certain part of the job of a presidential advisor to find out who the hell he's talking to. But since Atlas doesn't know what the hell he's talking about, I guess we should not be surprised.

U.K. Karla Adam of the Washington Post: "Prince William caught the novel coronavirus in the spring around the same time that his father, Prince Charles, also tested positive, according to various British media reports. The Duke of Cambridge, 38, was left 'struggling to breathe,' according to the Sun newspaper, which first published the story. The British tabloid said that William, the second in line to the throne, kept the diagnosis secret because 'he didn't want to alarm the nation.' His diagnosis came a few days after the palace revealed in late March that Charles, the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II, had the virus." A BBC News story is here.

Not Their First Rodeo. Aaron Davis, et al., of the Washington Post: "On April 30, outside the Michigan Capitol, protesters gathered to demand that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer end the business closures and other measures she had imposed to slow the transmission of the coronavirus.... In the crowd that day, according to photos and videos, were Adam Fox and at least five others who are now charged in the plot to kidnap Whitmer or, in related cases, providing material support for a planned terrorist act.... Although charging documents placed them at one political rally, a Washington Post examination of images and video found that the men were present at at least seven rallies in Michigan in the six months before their arrests.... At events where the men were present, protest organizers, conservative activists and even law enforcement officers told crowds that the governor had grievously infringed on Michiganders' rights, the Post examination found."

Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post: "Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden will apply for Russian citizenship while also keeping his U.S. nationality, he said Monday. Snowden, who fled the United States and was given asylum in Russia after leaking top-secret files on U.S. government surveillance activities, has lived in Moscow for the past seven years. He received permanent residency last month, his lawyer told the Tass state news agency."

Beyond the Beltway

Kentucky. Jaclyn Peiser of the Washington Post: "The 33-page slide show used to train cadets for the Kentucky State Police encouraged ethical and moral decision-making, selflessness, pride and honor. But in doing so, the police also quoted Adolf Hitler and Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, and encouraged trainees to pursue violence at all costs. 'The very first essential for success is a perpetually constant and regular employment of violence,' Hitler wrote in his anti-Semitic manifesto 'Mein Kampf,' which was included on a police training slide entitled 'Violence of Action.' The line was one of three times the state police quoted the Nazi leader in the training material. The slide show was first reported Friday by Manual Redeye, a student newspaper at Louisville's duPont Manual High School. The students were given the documents by a local lawyer, who received them through an open records request for a lawsuit against the police agency. After the report published, state officials responded with anger and condemnation. In a statement to the Redeye, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) called the materials 'unacceptable.' 'We will collect all the facts and take immediate corrective action,' Beshear said." ~~~

~~~ Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs of the New York Times: "A slide show once shown to cadets training to join the Kentucky State Police includes quotations attributed to Adolf Hitler and Robert E. Lee, says troopers should be warriors who 'always fight to the death' and encourages each trooper in training to be a 'ruthless killer.' The slide show, which came to light on Friday in a report from a high school newspaper, brought harsh condemnation from politicians, Jewish groups and Kentucky residents, but not from the Kentucky State Police department itself which said only that the training materials were old. Morgan Hall, a spokeswoman for the Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet, which oversees the State Police, said that the slide show was 'removed' in 2013 and was no longer in use but declined to answer a list of questions.... Many of the nation's police academies and departments have long emphasized a warrior mentality, experts have said, with officers trained for conflict and equipped with the gear and weapons of modern warfare." A USA Today story is here.

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Both the Daily Beast & Slate now have gone almost entirely subscriber-firewalled. Add them to the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, many local newspapers (like the Houston Chronicle), New Yorker, Atlantic, New York, New Republic, Nation, etc., and my options are limited. Obviously, our sources of news & opinion are now extremely restricted. If you have an idea of how to get around this, let me know. One avenue could be (haven't checked it out yet for myself) is connecting up with your local library to "borrow" their subscriptions, if they have them.