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| Joe Biden vows to 'listen to scientists' on coronavirus – US politics live | Joe Biden vows to 'listen to scientists' on coronavirus – US politics live |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| Democratic nominee and vice-presidential pick Kamala Harris give joint interview to ABC News as campaign begins to quicken | Democratic nominee and vice-presidential pick Kamala Harris give joint interview to ABC News as campaign begins to quicken |
| An amusing tale from CNN, next. | |
| Former Department of Homeland Security official Miles Taylor has come out against Trump, who of course does not appreciate the gesture. On Friday night, Taylor told Anderson Cooper about the influence Fox Business host Lou Dobbs has inside the White House. | |
| Funny he should mention Lou Dobbs peddling conspiracy theories: on Thursday night Dobbs suggested Steve Bannon, Trump’s former campaign manager and White House adviser, had been arrested and indicted for fraud – a charge he denies – by agents of the “Deep State”. | |
| As we noted, Bannon himself has been a key propagator of that conspiracy theory, which holds that a permanent government of intelligence operatives and miserly, dastardly bureaucrats exists to thwart the Trump agenda. Unfortunately, he’s also on record as saying the Deep State idea is “for nut cases” and “You do realise that none of this is true.” | |
| Here’s Donny, setting a shining example as ever. The president has “taken to Twitter”, a formulation I will only ever use with quotation marks deployed, to complain about further confrontations in Portland, Oregon between protesters and law enforcement, and also to write: | |
| Guess what? It’s not true. | |
| The mysteries (or not) of support for Trump among evangelical Christians aside, here’s Politifact on the president’s conspiracy theory de jour, or if not de jour, then de wake up, roll over and tweet out a warm-up fib for the day: | |
| As a bonus, here’s John Gardner on Trump and the evangelical right: | |
| In the joint interview with ABC News, interviewer David Muir brought up Donald Trump’s first attacks on Kamala Harris. | In the joint interview with ABC News, interviewer David Muir brought up Donald Trump’s first attacks on Kamala Harris. |
| “President Trump has referred to you as ‘nasty’, ‘a sort of madwoman’, ‘a disaster’, ‘the meanest, most horrible, most disrespectful of anybody in the US Senate’. How do you define what you hear from the president?” | “President Trump has referred to you as ‘nasty’, ‘a sort of madwoman’, ‘a disaster’, ‘the meanest, most horrible, most disrespectful of anybody in the US Senate’. How do you define what you hear from the president?” |
| Harris laughed. Then she said: “Listen, I really – I think there is so much about what comes out of Donald Trump’s mouth that is designed to distract the American people from what he is doing every day that is about neglect, negligence and harm to the American people.” | Harris laughed. Then she said: “Listen, I really – I think there is so much about what comes out of Donald Trump’s mouth that is designed to distract the American people from what he is doing every day that is about neglect, negligence and harm to the American people.” |
| “And incompetence,” Biden added. “The idea that he would say something like that – no president, no president has ever said anything like that. No president has ever used those words. | “And incompetence,” Biden added. “The idea that he would say something like that – no president, no president has ever said anything like that. No president has ever used those words. |
| “And no president has said people coming out of fields with torches and spewing antisemitic bile and met by people who oppose them, and someone dies, and he says they’re good people on both sides. No president of the United States has ever said anything like that ever.” | “And no president has said people coming out of fields with torches and spewing antisemitic bile and met by people who oppose them, and someone dies, and he says they’re good people on both sides. No president of the United States has ever said anything like that ever.” |
| That was a reference to far right protests in Charlottesville, Virginia in August 2017, in which Heather Heyer, a counter-protester, was killed. Biden said those events, and Trump’s response to them, had inspired his third run for the White House. | That was a reference to far right protests in Charlottesville, Virginia in August 2017, in which Heather Heyer, a counter-protester, was killed. Biden said those events, and Trump’s response to them, had inspired his third run for the White House. |
| For what it’s worth, much of Trump’s anger with Harris seems to have been generated at least in part by her questioning of his second supreme court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, during his controversial confirmation in late 2018. To say the least, the former prosecutor turned senator from California was… tough. | For what it’s worth, much of Trump’s anger with Harris seems to have been generated at least in part by her questioning of his second supreme court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, during his controversial confirmation in late 2018. To say the least, the former prosecutor turned senator from California was… tough. |
| …and welcome to another day of coverage of US politics, the election, the coronavirus pandemic and more. Tom Lutz will be here shortly to take over but I’ll be your host for the first hour or so of the day. | …and welcome to another day of coverage of US politics, the election, the coronavirus pandemic and more. Tom Lutz will be here shortly to take over but I’ll be your host for the first hour or so of the day. |
| ABC News has started to release clips from its joint interview with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, newly minted Democratic nominees for president and vice-president, after what most observers considered a successful virtual convention this week. | ABC News has started to release clips from its joint interview with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, newly minted Democratic nominees for president and vice-president, after what most observers considered a successful virtual convention this week. |
| The full interview airs Sunday night in the US but in trailed clips Biden sought – obviously – to distinguish himself from Donald Trump, the president he will face at the polls in November. | The full interview airs Sunday night in the US but in trailed clips Biden sought – obviously – to distinguish himself from Donald Trump, the president he will face at the polls in November. |
| “I would shut it down,” Biden said, asked if he would close the country again to deal with the pandemic, as Trump has not done. “I would listen to the scientists. | “I would shut it down,” Biden said, asked if he would close the country again to deal with the pandemic, as Trump has not done. “I would listen to the scientists. |
| “I will be prepared to do whatever it takes to save lives because we cannot get the country moving, until we control the virus. That is the fundamental flaw of this administration’s thinking to begin with. In order to keep the country running and moving and the economy growing, and people employed, you have to fix the virus, you have to deal with the virus.” | “I will be prepared to do whatever it takes to save lives because we cannot get the country moving, until we control the virus. That is the fundamental flaw of this administration’s thinking to begin with. In order to keep the country running and moving and the economy growing, and people employed, you have to fix the virus, you have to deal with the virus.” |
| For a reminder, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, the US has now seen more than 5.6m cases of Covid-19, and more than 175,000 deaths. The New York Times thinks the death toll has passed 200,000. | For a reminder, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, the US has now seen more than 5.6m cases of Covid-19, and more than 175,000 deaths. The New York Times thinks the death toll has passed 200,000. |
| In an earlier, solo interview with ABC, Biden was asked about another subject that will be central to the quickening campaign, as protests over police brutality continue across the US: “President Trump says that you want to defund the police. Do you?” | In an earlier, solo interview with ABC, Biden was asked about another subject that will be central to the quickening campaign, as protests over police brutality continue across the US: “President Trump says that you want to defund the police. Do you?” |
| “No I don’t,” Biden said. | “No I don’t,” Biden said. |
| “I don’t want to defund police departments. I think they need more help, they need more assistance, but that, look, there are unethical senators, there are unethical presidents, there are unethical doctors, unethical lawyers, unethical prosecutors, there are unethical cops. They should be rooted out. | “I don’t want to defund police departments. I think they need more help, they need more assistance, but that, look, there are unethical senators, there are unethical presidents, there are unethical doctors, unethical lawyers, unethical prosecutors, there are unethical cops. They should be rooted out. |
| “By the way, he proposes cutting a half a billion dollars of local police support,” Biden added. ABC pointed out that was probably a reference to proposed cuts to a federal programme that helps hire local law enforcement officers. | “By the way, he proposes cutting a half a billion dollars of local police support,” Biden added. ABC pointed out that was probably a reference to proposed cuts to a federal programme that helps hire local law enforcement officers. |
| More on Harris’s part in the joint interview to come. Trump, who held a funeral for his brother Robert on Friday, has no events scheduled today till a 7pm reception “celebrating the White House Rose Garden”. So that’s plenty of tweeting time. | More on Harris’s part in the joint interview to come. Trump, who held a funeral for his brother Robert on Friday, has no events scheduled today till a 7pm reception “celebrating the White House Rose Garden”. So that’s plenty of tweeting time. |
| In the meantime, here’s some vital further reading from Chris McGreal in Monroe county, Michigan – a key part of Trump’s victory in 2016: | In the meantime, here’s some vital further reading from Chris McGreal in Monroe county, Michigan – a key part of Trump’s victory in 2016: |