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]]>The post Trump dismisses secret audio of sister calling him ‘cruel’: ‘Who cares?’ appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>President Trump dismissed secret audio recordings released Saturday evening of his older sister Maryanne Trump Barry saying he had “no principles” and was “cruel.”
“Every day it’s something else, who cares?” President Trump said in a statement, according to the Washington Post. “I miss my brother, and I’ll continue to work hard for the American people. Not everyone agrees, but the results are obvious. Our country will soon be stronger than ever before.”
The Post’s story about the recordings appeared one day after the White House hosted a private memorial service for Robert Trump, the president’s younger brother, who died Aug. 15 at age 71.
The recordings of Barry, 83, were made by Trump’s niece, Mary Trump, who published a scathing tell-all book on the president and their family last month.
MARY TRUMP: ‘MONEY WAS LITERALLY THE ONLY CURRENCY MY FAMILY TRAFFICKED IN’
“Donald is cruel,” Barry told her niece in a secretly recorded conversation in 2018.
“All he wants to do is appeal to his base. He has no principles. None. None. And his base, I mean my God, if you were a religious person, you want to help people. Not do this,” she allegedly said in the recording published by the Post, referring to the Trump administrations’s so-called zero-tolerance policy at the U.S.-Mexico border that led to children being separated from their parents amid immigration court hearings. The policy was later rescinded.
“His go—mned tweet and lying, oh my G–. I’m talking too freely, but you know. The change of stories. The lack of preparation. The lying. Holy s—,” she continued.
Barry also said her brother rarely reads and she claimed someone else took his SAT exam for him to get into the University of Pennsylvania, according to the Post.
In the recordings, however, Barry said her brother once asked her, “Where would you be without me?,” a reference to help he gave her in getting then-President Reagan to appoint her to a federal judgeship.
“The only favor I ever asked for in my whole life,” she said, adding she deserved the appointment on her own merit.
Barry also lamented that the president was the “only one who didn’t speak about Dad,” during Fred Sr.’s funeral in 1999. “Donald is out for Donald, period,” she said.
Barry has not yet commented on the release of the recordings and has not spoken publicly about Trump’s presidency.
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]]>WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is refusing to publicly commit to accepting the results of the upcoming White House election, recalling a similar threat he made weeks before the 2016 vote, as he scoffs at polls showing him lagging behind Democrat Joe Biden. Trump says it’s too early to make such an ironclad guarantee.
“I have to see. Look … I have to see,” Trump told moderator Chris Wallace during a wide-ranging interview on “Fox News Sunday.” “No, I’m not going to just say yes. I’m not going to say no, and I didn’t last time either.”
It is remarkable that a sitting president would express less than complete confidence in the American democracy’s electoral process. But for Trump, it comes from his insurgent playbook of four years ago, when in the closing stages of his race against Hillary Clinton, he said he would not commit to honoring the election results if the Democrat won.
Pressed during an October 2016 debate about whether he would abide by the voters’ will, Trump responded that he would “keep you in suspense.”
Trump has seen his presidential popularity erode over his handing of the coronavirus pandemic and in the aftermath of nationwide protests centered on racial injustice that erupted after George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis nearly two months.
Trump contends that a series of polls that show his popularity eroding and Biden holding an advantage are faulty. He believes Republican voters are underrepresented in such surveys.
“First of all, I’m not losing, because those are fake polls,” Trump said in the taped interview, which aired Sunday. “They were fake in 2016 and now they’re even more fake. The polls were much worse in 2016. “
Copyright © 2020 The Washington Times, LLC.
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]]>The post Trump dismisses question on deaths of Black Americans in police custody | TheHill appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>President Trump
Donald John TrumpWayfair refutes QAnon-like conspiracy theory that it’s trafficking children Stone rails against US justice system in first TV interview since Trump commuted his sentence Federal appeals court rules Trump admin can’t withhold federal grants from California sanctuary cities MORE on Tuesday asserted that “more” white Americans die at the hands of police than Black Americans and criticized a reporter for asking why African Americans are still dying in law enforcement custody.
“So are white people. So are white people. What a terrible question to ask,” Trump told CBS News’s Catherine Herridge when asked about the deaths of Black Americans at the hands of police. “So are white people. More white people, by the way. More white people.”
Police departments are not mandated to report statistics on police killings; however, studies have shown that police killings disproportionately impact Black Americans.
A Washington Post analysis updated earlier this month found that the rate at which Black Americans are killed by law enforcement officers is more than twice as high as the rate for their white counterparts. White Americans, who make up a larger share of the U.S. population, account for more deaths at the hands of police overall.
A study published by Harvard University researchers in June that analyzed data from 2013 to 2017 found that Black Americans were more than three times more likely than white Americans to be killed by police.
Meanwhile, an Associated Press-NORC poll released in June found that 61 percent of Americans believe police in most communities are more likely to use deadly force against a Black individual than a white individual. The survey also found that roughly half of U.S. adults say police violence is a very or extremely serious problem.
Trump’s remarks follow nationwide protests against police brutality and racism that were spurred by the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died in Minneapolis police custody in late May.
Trump has described Floyd’s death as a grave tragedy while also decrying the unruly protests that have accompanied the demonstrations following his killing. Trump’s response to the protests has been extremely controversial, particularly his comments on the matter and threat to use active-duty service members to quell protesters.
In June, Trump signed an executive order meant to encourage reforms to police training.
He has used official events since then to highlight his support for law enforcement, including a roundtable on Monday that aimed to amplify stories about police officers helping Americans and voice his opposition to the “defund the police” movement. Meanwhile, discussions about police reform legislation on Capitol Hill have largely stalled.
Trump has also drawn criticism for defending the Confederate flag.
The president has vocally opposed the renaming of military bases named for Confederate leaders and last week suggested NASCAR had seen a drop in its ratings after banning the flag from its races.
Trump told CBS in Tuesday’s interview that he is simply embracing “freedom of speech.” He wouldn’t directly answer when asked whether he would be comfortable with supporters displaying the flag at his campaign events and suggested that the flag doesn’t necessarily serve as a reminder of slavery.
“People love it, and I don’t view — I know people that like the Confederate flag, and they’re not thinking about slavery,” Trump said. “I just think it’s freedom of speech, whether it’s Confederate flags or Black Lives Matter or anything else you want to talk about. It’s freedom of speech.”
Updated 5:24 p.m.
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President Trump at an event about law enforcement at the White House on Monday. Trump has repeatedly downplayed the disproportionate impact of police violence on African-Americans.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
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Drew Angerer/Getty Images
President Trump at an event about law enforcement at the White House on Monday. Trump has repeatedly downplayed the disproportionate impact of police violence on African-Americans.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Updated 5:45 p.m. ET
President Trump dismissed outrage over police killings, saying Tuesday that “more white people” are killed by police than Blacks.
“So are white people!” Trump said when asked in an interview with CBS News why so many African Americans have been killed at the hands of police. “So are white people! What a terrible question to ask.”
Trump added that “more white people, by the way” are killed by police than Black people.
More white people overall may be killed by police annually, but Black Americans are killed at a far higher rate.
According to a database of police shootings since 2015 compiled by the Washington Post, 1,301 Black people have been killed by the police in the past five-and-a-half years; 2,495 whites were killed.
But, importantly, African Americans, who make up a far smaller portion of the population than whites, are killed at a rate more than twice that of whites.
In another comment also sure to inflame racial tension, Trump also said “people love” the Confederate battle flag and he considers it a “freedom of speech” issue. He called it it “very simple” and dismissed the idea that the flag is hurtful to Black Americans and others who see it as a racist symbol.
“Well, people love it, and I know people that like the Confederate flag, and they’re not thinking about slavery,” Trump said when asked whether he understood the pain it caused people because of its association with slavery.
An NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll last month found two-thirds of Americans believed President Trump had increased tensions after the killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. That poll was conducted after police forcibly removed peaceful protesters near the White House so Trump could pose with a Bible outside a partially burned church.
In an ABC News/Ipsos poll out last Friday, two-thirds of Americans also said they disapproved of the way President Trump is handling race relations. That comes as a majority of Americans also say they disapprove of the job he’s doing when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic.
All of it has led to what is perhaps the nadir of Trump’s political power. Another NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll from late June found a record 58% disapprove of the job Trump’s doing overall with a whopping 49% strongly disapproving of the job he’s doing.
That is a record level of intense disapproval that has certainly had an effect on his overall political standing against Democrat Joe Biden, Trump’s opponent this fall as Trump faces reelection. Trump is routinely behind Biden in head-to-head general-election match-up polls. In an average of the polls, Biden leads Trump by 9 percentage points, according to RealClearPolitics.
That’s why Trump has been asking for more debates and attacking Biden’s mental capacity and record.
“He never did anything except make very bad decisions,” Trump said from the Rose Garden at the White House Tuesday in what sounded more like a campaign-style event rather than a news conference.
In other excerpts of the CBS interview, Trump also said the city of Los Angeles had made a “mistake” by deciding to resume school classes in the fall via distance learning rather than reopening classroom.
“A decision like that is politics,” he claimed, accusing Democrats of wanting to hurt his chances in the November election by keeping schools closed.
California ordered the shut down of bars, indoor dining and movie theaters, as coronavirus cases have started to go back up. As for the claim of politics, no Republican has won California since 1988, and Democrat Hillary Clinton won it in 2016 by 30 points.
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]]>The post Jeff Sessions dismisses Trump’s ‘juvenile insults’: ‘My honor and integrity are far more important’ appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions blasted President Trump’s “juvenile insults” on Saturday in a marked departure from his characteristically tepid responses during the years of attacks from his former boss.
Trump had tweeted that Sessions was a “disaster” while offering support for Alabama Republican Tommy Tuberville, who’s running against Sessions for the Senate seat he held for decades before entering the Trump administration. “Jeff Sessions is a disaster who has let us all down. We don’t want him back in Washington!” Trump wrote.
“I’ve taken the road less travelled,” Sessions responded Saturday on Twitter. “Not sought fame or fortune. My honor and integrity are far more important than these juvenile insults. Your scandal ridden candidate is too cowardly to debate. As you know, Alabama does not take orders from Washington.”
Trump famously denounced his own attorney general after the latter recused himself from the Russia investigation in 2017. Earlier this year, Sessions said he had no regrets about the recusal, which came in response to scrutiny surrounding his contacts with Russia’s ambassador.
Sessions’ response came just days before he’s set to face off against Tuberville in Tuesday’s run-off election. Polling from May showed Sessions trailing Tuberville by six points.
When Sessions launched his Senate bid this year, he drew the Trump campaign’s ire for attempting to tie himself to the president.
“President Trump and his Campaign do not support your efforts to return to the U.S. Senate,” Trump campaign chief operation officer Michael Glassner wrote in a letter to Sessions at the time. “We demand that you and your campaign immediately stop circulating mailers — or any other similar communication — that wrongly suggest otherwise.”
Some conservatives have continued supporting Sessions even as Trump lobbed a series of attacks at him.
“Sessions HAD to recuse himself, you complete blithering idiot,” conservative author Ann Coulter wrote to Trump in a May tweet. “YOU did not have to go on Lester Holt’s show and announce you fired Comey over the Russian investigation. That’s what got you a Special Prosecutor.”
Earlier this week, she pointed to a New York Times article accusing Tuberville of leading business ventures that “turned out to be a financial fraud.” Investors sued Tuberville while his business partner, John David Stroud, was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
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Tuberville reportedly denied any wrongdoing, saying: “They sued me because I invested in it, and he used my name to get other people to put money in.”
He added: “There was nothing ever implicated by anybody that I’d done anything wrong. I felt bad that he used my name.”
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]]>The post Trump dismisses Fauci’s assessment of upcoming NFL season amid pandemic appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>President Trump dismissed Dr. Anthony Fauci’s notion that the NFL may not get underway unless the league adopted a “bubble” plan like the NBA.
Trump tweeted Friday that Fauci had “nothing to do” with the NFL and claimed the league was planning a “safe” start to the 2020 season. The president added that he wouldn’t be watching anyway if players decided to kneel during the national anthem to protest against racial injustice and police brutality.
COLIN KAEPERNICK HAS SHOT TO MAKE NFL AGAIN WITH THESE TWO TEAMS, SUPER BOWL-WINNING COACH SAYS
“Tony Fauci has nothing to do with NFL Football. They are planning a very safe and controlled opening. However, if they don’t stand for our National Anthem and our Great American Flag, I won’t be watching!!!” Trump tweeted.
Fauci said in an interview on CNN that the league would need to modify its plans if it intends to start on time and play a full season.
“Unless players are essentially in a bubble – insulated from the community and they are tested nearly every day – it would be very hard to see how football is able to be played this fall,” Fauci said. “If there is a second wave, which is certainly a possibility and which would be complicated by the predictable flu season, football may not happen this year.”
TRUMP PREDICTS NFL WILL HAVE ‘A LOT OF PROBLEMS’ IF IT ALLOWS KNEELING
Regardless, Dr. Allen Sills, the league’s top doctor, told Axios that he was “very optimistic” about the season kicking off in the fall but noted that it would not be the “usual” football everyone is used to.
Sills brought up the idea of the league using an “ecosystem” over a “bubble.” He argued the so-called ecosystem “encompasses the fact that it’s everybody who is together with shared responsibility and shared risk.”
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM
Sills also said the NFL is working with other leagues to gain knowledge and ideas about how to go about its own season.
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]]>The post Trump dismisses his own government’s mask guidance at news conference appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>President Donald Trump’s impromptu news conference late on Tuesday afternoon began with him musing about taking insulin just for fun and ended with him explaining his opposition to mail-in voting by characterizing voting as “an honor” (it’s actually a right). The stuff he said in between wasn’t any less wacky.
The event, which came on the same day that the official US coronavirus death toll closes in on 100,000 and was ostensibly about what his administration is doing to bring down the price of insulin, revealed how out of his depth Trump is in trying to respond to a public health crisis that requires scientific expertise — as well as how desperate he is to generate distractions giving him something else to talk about.
For anyone who isn’t already drinking the MAGA Kool-Aid, it was not a reassuring spectacle.
The president is hopelessly confused about how masks work
The first question Trump fielded was from Jeff Mason of Reuters, who asked him to explain a retweet he posted on Monday seemingly mocking presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden for wearing a mask during a public appearance earlier in the day. Trump’s response indicated he’s deeply confused about how masks work.
“He was standing outside with his wife, perfect conditions, perfect weather — when they’re inside they don’t wear masks,” Trump said. “And so I thought it was very unusual he had one on.”
Trump on why he seemingly criticized Biden for wearing a mask: “He was standing outside with his wife, perfect conditions, perfect weather — when they’re inside they don’t wear masks. And so I thought it was very unusual he had one on.” pic.twitter.com/zTcft2ymUP
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 26, 2020
But all Biden was doing was following the guidance of Trump’s own government about wearing masks in public. Trump seems to think he should also be wearing a mask at home, but the entire point is to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus when people are out and about — something Biden obviously doesn’t have to worry about at home. But even this basic understanding of how masks work is seemingly lost on the president.
Then, as Mason tried to ask a follow-up question, Trump cut him off and asked him to remove his mask. Mason refused, prompting Trump to dismiss mask-wearing as an effort to be “politically correct.”
“You want to be politically correct,” Trump said.
“No sir, I just want to wear the mask,” Mason responded.
To be clear, Mason was following the guidance of the federal government. Trump — who was not wearing a mask — was not. And yet here was the president chastising someone for taking basic precautions that are in the public interest and that he refuses to follow himself.
Trump won’t stop pushing baseless murder conspiracies
Trump’s retweet mocking Biden for wearing a mask was far from his only objectionable post. He also posted tweets over the weekend pushing a baseless conspiracy meant to implicate a prominent critic of his, MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, in the death of a woman named Lori Klausutis. (Trump has repeatedly falsely characterized the situation as a “cold case” — in fact, the woman died of natural causes.)
On Monday, Klausutis’s widower went as far as to pen a letter asking Twitter to take Trump’s tweet down, citing the trauma they’re inflicting on Klausutis’s family. But asked to address the situation on Tuesday, Trump indicated he has no regrets.
“A lot of people suggest that,” Trump said, alluding to his false claims about Scarborough’s involvement. “Hopefully somebody, people are gonna find out. Certainly a very suspicious situation. Very sad.”
But the situation isn’t suspicious. It has been investigated, and Klausutis was found to have died of natural causes. And yet during a follow-up exchange, Trump noted “there is no statute of limitations” and called for a baseless investigation into a prominent critic of his.
“A lot of people suggest that … very sad and very suspicious … there is no statute of limitations. So, it would be a very good thing to do” — Trump defends pushing false Joe Scarborough conspiracy theories and calls for him to be investigated pic.twitter.com/NeJQ2uBZp8
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 26, 2020
Trump’s behavior is clearly indecent, but he’s either incapable of or unwilling to recognize that. His call for transparently politicized investigations into discredited conspiracy theories would’ve generated major headlines in any previous era, but in 2020 it’s just Trump being Trump.
The Scarborough conspiracy theory was far from the only one Trump pushed during Tuesday’s event. He accused North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) of acting “very suspiciously” by refusing to commit to allowing 20,000 people to pack into a Charlotte arena for the Republican National Convention in August, even though Cooper has obvious commonsense reasons for being unwilling to do so at a time when coronavirus cases in his state are still increasing.
And Trump also tried to discredit mail-in voting by saying it would “destroy our country” and lead to “a rigged system” — even though five states, including deep-red Utah, already conduct their elections almost entirely with mail-in ballots.
Asked to explain his opposition to mail-in voting, claims “voting is a great honor” (it’s actually a right) and then ends his news conference pic.twitter.com/H0UDVDGgxC
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 26, 2020
Trump makes all sorts of stuff up
Trump spent Saturday and Sunday at the golf course, yet he wants people to believe that forcing states to reopen places of worship is something he’s deadly serious about doing. Trump doesn’t really have the power to follow through on this threat, which he first made during a White House event last Friday, but he’s not about to let the Constitution get in the way of his narrative.
Asked on Tuesday to detail what authority gives him the power to override governors and force open places of worship that have already proven to be coronavirus vectors, Trump claimed, “I can absolutely do it if I want to” — but couldn’t cite anything.
“We have many different ways where we could override them,” he said, without elaborating, before moving on.
“I can absolutely do it if I want to” — Trump insists he has the authority to overrule state governors if they refuse to reopen places of worship (he does not have that authority) pic.twitter.com/GxslxOJf1t
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 26, 2020
All in all, the event was both a throwback to the lengthy and at times highly confrontational news conferences Trump held just about every day in March and April — made-for-TV events he clearly enjoyed but that exposed his ignorance and ended after his advisers reportedly concluded they were hurting Trump in the polls.
Trump clearly can’t help himself — ignorant comments, conspiracy theories, and baseless claims are just his thing. But in the context of a pandemic he was unprepared for and has no plan to pull the country out of, the unintentional comedy seems less amusing than ever.
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