The president rarely misses a chance to sling mud but he has been uncharacteristically quiet about Tara Reade’s claim
Sometimes Donald Trump portrays his election rival, Joe Biden, as a sleepy geriatric who should be in a care home because “he doesn’t know he’s alive”. At others, the president speaks of Biden as a wily manipulator who conspired with the deep state and China.
Related: Who is Tara Reade and what are her allegations against Joe Biden?
Continue reading...Judge Robert Hinkle says current law is unconstitutional but his ruling is likely to face Republican challenge in key battleground state
A law in Florida requiring felons to pay legal fees as part of their sentences before regaining the vote is unconstitutional for those unable to pay, or unable to find out how much they owe, a federal judge has ruled.
Related: Democrats not confident 2020 US election will be fair, survey finds
Continue reading...Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions’ playground fight continued into Sunday. In an interview with Sinclair TV, Trump said Sessions had not been “mentally qualified” to be his first attorney general.
Related: Jeff Sessions snaps back after Trump tells Alabama not to trust him
Continue reading...Val Demings, a Democratic representative from Florida among contenders to be Joe Biden’s presidential running mate, has castigated Donald Trump for having the “gall and nerve” to use a gaffe by Biden as a weapon on the campaign trail.
Related: Jeff Sessions protests loyalty to Trump – again – despite Twitter abuse
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Here’s a look at today’s main stories:
After Donald Trump said on Friday that he believes places of worship should be deemed as essential services, Minnesota’s Democratic governor, Tim Walz, issued an executive order addressing the issue. Places of worship in the state will now be able to open at 25% of capacity. Individuals or households in the buildings must maintain six feet distance.
Walz said he still encouraged citizens to worship remotely. “I am under no illusion whatsoever: Every move we make that loosens up increases the risk,” Walz said.
Continue reading...The former president, the most popular politician in America with a huge social media following, can bolster the Democratic nominee with key groups and drive voter registration
Former president Barack Obama has dipped his toes into the 2020 presidential campaign recently and is positioned to do more in the coming months as Joe Biden’s effort to defeat Donald Trump gathers steam.
Interviews with about a dozen Democratic strategists, officials and people close to Obama indicated members of the party want the popular former president to use his powerful online presence and focus on rallying key Democrat constituencies that are critical to a Biden victory.
Continue reading...The lawyer representing Tara Reade, who has accused Joe Biden of sexual assault, said on Friday he was dropping her as a client although he continued to believe in the truth of her allegations.
Related: Coronavirus US live: Trump demands churches, synagogues and mosques reopen 'right now'
Continue reading...Joe Biden has been criticised after saying,'If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black'. The former vice-president made the comment in an interview with Charlamagne tha God, a co-host of the radio show 'The Breakfast Club'.
After a campaign aide said Biden had to wrap up the conversation, Charlamagne said: 'Listen, you’ve got to come see us when you come to New York, VP Biden. It’s a long way until November. We’ve got more questions.'
'You’ve got more questions?' Biden replied. 'Well I tell you what, if you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.' He said Charlamagne and voters should 'take a look at my record, man!'
Former vice-president said in an interview ‘If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black’
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden triggered a fresh controversy on Friday morning when he suggested that if American voters supported Donald Trump “then you ain’t black”.
The former vice-president did an interview with Charlamagne tha God, a co-host of the radio show The Breakfast Club. Charlamagne had pressed Biden on a number of issues, including the legalization of marijuana and his choice of running mate.
Continue reading...The presumptive Democratic nominee who once promised ‘nothing would fundamentally change’ now has a different tune
When Joe Biden launched his campaign for president in April last year, the unemployment rate was 3.6%, the lowest it had been in nearly half a century. Now, months into a once-in-a-century public health crisis, unemployment in the US is nearly four times that, soaring to levels not seen since the Great Depression.
Related: Coronavirus US live: experts urge caution on first holiday weekend of summer as deaths pass 94,000
Continue reading...President says he did not want to ‘give press the pleasure’ of seeing him in face mask
Pictures of Donald Trump wearing a face mask while on a visit in Michigan have emerged.
In a video published by Sky News, the US president can be seen wearing a navy blue mask.
Continue reading...State attorney general called president a ‘petulant child’ for refusing to wear a mask at the plant
Donald Trump defied requests from company executives and was called a “petulant child” by a state attorney general when he refused to wear a face mask during a visit to Michigan, a battleground state where he has repeatedly clashed with the Democratic governor, and on Thursday used a speech to urge American churches to reopen amid the pandemic.
Trump toured a plant belonging to the Ford car company, in Ypsilanti, Michigan, which has been recast to produce ventilators and personal protective equipment to use in the coronavirus crisis.
Continue reading...The Open Skies Treaty allows Russia and western nations to conduct observation flights
The US has declared its intention to leave the Open Skies Treaty, which is intended to reduce the risk of war by allowing Russia and western nations to conduct observation flights over each other’s territory.
Washington informed the other 33 parties to the treaty of its intention to deliver a formal six-month notice of withdrawal on Friday, accusing Russia of violations.
Continue reading...The US secretary of state criticises China's handling of the coronavirus outbreak, while backing Australia's push for an investigation into the origins of Covid-19. In a media address, Mike Pompeo attacks the Chinese Communist party, declaring it 'ideologically and politically hostile to free nations'. His comments come after China slapped 80% tariffs on Australian barley exports and continue similar rhetoric from the Trump administration that is increasingly critical of Beijing
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Joe Biden assailed Donald Trump in a pair of virtual events in Wisconsin, calling him “a destroyer of everything he touches.”
“All he’s ever done is hollow out what really matters and then slap a gold sign on a flimsy foundation,” Biden said during the virtual rally in the battleground state.
“Donald Trump claimed he would fight for the forgotten man, the working class,” the former vice president continued. “But as soon as he got into office, he forgot them.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Biden held a virtual roundtable with Wisconsin congressman Ron Kind and community advocates who spoke about the challenges facing rural Americans during the epidemic.
During the back and forth, Biden, referring to federal funding to combat the economic fallout from the virus, said: “Not one more penny should go to a Fortune 500 company. Period. Period. They don’t need it.”
“Among the speakers at the “rally” was Wisconsin senator Tammy Baldwin, who has been mentioned as a possible vice presidential nominee after she won re-election in 2018. Biden called her a “true champion for Wisconsin, a true leader.”
Biden has been ramping up his virtual campaign schedule in recent weeks. Earlier events have been riddled with technical glitches - and the occasional honking duck. By contrast, Wednesday’s events went smoothly.
Related: Biden's lead over Trump widens – but strain on his virtual campaign grows
Prisoners and advocates told the Guardian that some infected inmates are in isolation without medical care or adequate food, cut off from family and attorneys
More than 3,200 prisoners in California have contracted Covid-19 and at least 16 inmates have died, in a public health catastrophe that advocates say was both predictable and preventable.
Related: 'People are sick all around me': inside the coronavirus catastrophe in California prisons
Continue reading...After first moving the talks to a teleconference, the US president, this year’s summit head, is now suggesting a Camp David meeting
Donald Trump has said he may seek to revive a face-to-face meeting of Group of Seven leaders near Washington, after earlier canceling the gathering due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“I am considering rescheduling the G-7, on the same or similar date, in Washington, D.C., at the legendary Camp David,” the US president tweeted on Wednesday. “The other members are also beginning their COMEBACK. It would be a great sign to all – normalization!”
Continue reading...The only man ever convicted in a US court for a role in the 9/11 attacks has said he is renouncing terrorism, al-Qaida and the Islamic State.
Related: 'You lost, I won,' Moussaoui tells America as jury spares 9/11 plotter death penalty
Continue reading...Donald Trump on Tuesday further touted his apparent taking of the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as protection against coronavirus despite federal regulators warning of the potentially serious, even fatal, dangers.
As the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the US continued to rise and the death toll crept inexorably towards a landmark 100,000, the highest in the world, Trump spent public appearances repeatedly talking about a dubious treatment and an economic comeback.
Continue reading...Norma McCorvey, known as Jane Roe, reveals she was paid by evangelical Christian groups to take anti-abortion stance
Norma McCorvey, most notable for being the plaintiff known as Jane Roe in the 1973 landmark supreme court case Roe v Wade that led to abortion becoming legal in the United States, made a stunning admission just before her death in 2017, it has emerged.
“This is my deathbed confession,” she explained.
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Patrick Wintour and Julian Borger report:
Member states have backed a resolution strongly supportive of the World Health Organization, after Donald Trump issued a fresh broadside against the UN body, giving it 30 days to make unspecified reforms or lose out on US funding.
Related: Member states back WHO after renewed Donald Trump attack
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