STFU, Mike Pence!
Everything you need to know for Thursday, Oct. 8: Send the bastards to the Hague + Cal’s sex life (again!) + the Durham PA's power
Thursday, Oct. 8, 2020
26 days until the election
1 day until the voter registration deadline (click here to see if you’re registered)
7 days until early voting begins (you can register during early voting, too)
19 days until the deadline for absentee ballot requests
Today’s Numbers:
10,200,000,000,000
Total wealth, in dollars, held by the world’s 2,189 billionaires as of July, according to a report by UBS Global Wealth Management and PwC Switzerland. This is a new high, topping the $8.9 trillion that 2,158 billionaires held in 2017. The world’s richest people—especially those whose wealth stems from the tech, health care, and industrial sectors—have become significantly richer during the pandemic, the study found.
7,200,000,000
The amount, in dollars, that 209 billionaires have given away during the pandemic, which The New York Times tells us is “more … than ever before.”
Bad News:
Good News:
You can still clog your arteries with fried things that may not be safe for human consumption (e.g., Mountain Dew hushpuppies with Mountain Dew buttercream frosting).
ABOVE THE FOLD
—> Send the Bastards to the Hague
If you have low blood pressure, this NYT lede ought to cure you.
The five U.S. attorneys along the border with Mexico, including three appointed by President Trump, recoiled in May 2018 against an order to prosecute all undocumented immigrants even if it meant separating children from their parents. They told top Justice Department officials they were “deeply concerned” about the children’s welfare.
But the attorney general at the time, Jeff Sessions, made it clear what Mr. Trump wanted on a conference call later that afternoon, according to a two-year inquiry by the Justice Department’s inspector general into Mr. Trump’s “zero tolerance” family separation policy.
“We need to take away children,” Mr. Sessions told the prosecutors, according to participants’ notes. One added in shorthand: “If care about kids, don’t bring them in. Won’t give amnesty to people with kids.”
Rod J. Rosenstein, then the deputy attorney general, went even further in a second call about a week later, telling the five prosecutors that it did not matter how young the children were. He said that government lawyers should not have refused to prosecute two cases simply because the children were barely more than infants.
WE NEED TO TAKE AWAY THE CHILDREN. IT DOES NOT MATTER HOW YOUNG THEY ARE.
This was official government policy, coming from the top echelons of the Department of Justice.
I will give you a second to pick your jaws up off the floor.
The Justice Department’s top officials were “a driving force” behind the policy that spurred the separation of thousands of families, many of them fleeing violence in Central America and seeking asylum in the United States, before Mr. Trump abandoned it amid global outrage, according to a draft report of the results of the investigation by Michael E. Horowitz, the department’s inspector general.
The separation of migrant children from their parents, sometimes for months, was at the heart of the Trump administration’s assault on immigration. But the fierce backlash when the administration struggled to reunite the children turned it into one of the biggest policy debacles of the president’s term.
Sessions falsely tried to distance himself from the policy—like he wouldn’t get off on ripping brown kids from their mothers’ arms—but the IG’s report makes clear he knew damn well what he was doing.
Though Mr. Sessions sought to distance himself from the policy, allowing Mr. Trump and Homeland Security Department officials to largely be blamed, he and other top law enforcement officials understood that “zero tolerance” meant that migrant families would be separated and wanted that to happen because they believed it would deter future illegal immigration, Mr. Horowitz wrote.
“The department’s single-minded focus on increasing prosecutions came at the expense of careful and effective implementation of the policy, especially with regard to prosecution of family-unit adults and the resulting child separations,” the draft report said.
Rosenstein, the erstwhile hero of the #Resistance, offers this weak-sauce excuse: “If any United States attorney ever charged a defendant they did not personally believe warranted prosecution, they violated their oath of office. I never ordered anyone to prosecute a case.”
On the other hand, Rosenstein told the IG he didn’t concern himself with what happened to the children after the Border Patrol took them. That was someone else’s responsibility: “I just don’t see that as a DOJ equity.”
Even White Supremacist Gumby wants nothing to do with this mess.
Gene Hamilton, a top lawyer and ally of Stephen Miller, the architect of the president’s assault on immigration, argued in a 32-page response that Justice Department officials merely took direction from the president. Mr. Hamilton cited an April 3, 2018, meeting with Mr. Sessions; the homeland security secretary at the time, Nielsen; and others in which the president “ranted” and was on “a tirade,” demanding as many prosecutions as possible.
Some other fun things from the report, which—imagine this—won’t be formally released until after the election.
The Border Patrol was so focused on Trump’s “zero-tolerance” policy that they failed to stop actual sex offenders.
Because no one told the Marshals Service before implementing this policy, “the marshals were forced to cut back on serving warrants in other cases.”
A government prosecutor wrote to his superiors in 2017: “We have now heard of us taking breastfeeding defendant moms away from their infants. I did not believe this until I looked at the duty log.”
To sum: The policy was dumb, cruel, embarrassing, and counterproductive. It was also a form of torture. In other words, it was a perfect distillation of Trump’s first term.
LOCAL & STATE
—> Cal Can’t Quit (Literally)
According to the State Board of Elections, candidates can’t withdraw within 60 days of an election, so we’re stuck with Cal Cunningham no matter how messy this affair story gets. And, well, it’s not going away as long as local reporters find new scraps, no matter how marginal their news value.
The husband of the woman who confirmed an extramarital affair with Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Cal Cunningham said he should drop out of the North Carolina race. …
“Mr. Cunningham chose to repeatedly engage in activities that would hurt his family and a fellow junior officer and veteran,” Jeremy Todd said in a statement Wednesday to The News & Observer.
“If elected, I can only imagine how misplaced his judgment would be for the people he’s charged to represent,” Todd said. “I firmly believe Mr. Cunningham should drop out of the Senate race and ask that his behavior and actions be reviewed under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.”
So, look, nothing against Mr. Todd. It sucks to be cheated on, and it must suck a million times worse to be cheated on publicly. But perhaps his political opinions have been colored by hurt feelings, and anyway, a) it takes two to tango, and b) none of us knows anything about anyone’s personal situation, so maybe we should butt out.
This, on the other hand, might have more substance:
The U.S. Army Reserve Command confirmed Wednesday that it is investigating Cunningham, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve.
“The Army Reserve is investigating the matters involving Lt. Col. James Cunningham. As such, we are unable to provide further details at this time,” said Army Reserve Command, which is based at Fort Bragg, in a statement.
Extramarital affairs are a violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). Whether Cunningham could face charges under the UCMJ may depend upon whether he was on active duty at the time the extramarital activity took place.
If Cunningham and his paramour only hooked up twice, as she says, Cunningham should be able to show whether he was on active duty on those dates. If he wasn’t, he should say so, beg forgiveness, and move on.
If he was, on the other hand …
Last night, Cunningham made an attempt at an apology:
“I am deeply sorry for the hurt that I have caused in my personal life. And I also apologize to all of you. And I hope each of you watching at home will accept this sincere apology. We will continue to work together to change the direction of our country and strengthen our state.”
RELATED: Perhaps sensing a winnable race slipping away and looking to turn the tables, the American Ledger—an arm of the progressive campaign group American Bridge—dug up a Tennessee court document from 1979 in which Thom Tillis’s now ex-wife filed for divorce (six months after they married) alleging that Tillis was “guilty of such cruel and inhuman treatment or conduct.”
She dropped the divorce, though the couple split two years later. Then, according to the American Ledger—and I did not know this—they remarried and divorced a second time in 1987.
—> Dead Teacher’s Family Says She Caught COVID at School
In yesterday’s newsletter, I mentioned the COVID-19 death of Stanly County teacher Julie Richardson, which the local school board very quickly insisted had nothing at all to do with its schools reopening. Turns out, her family isn’t so sure about that.
The school district and the county health department are adamant that Davis didn’t get it from work, and have left no room for speculation. So why is it that her brother doesn’t believe them? …
On Sept. 3, the district announced that a student in another grade — not third, which is what Davis taught — had begun quarantining “due to a close contact in the community” with a COVID-19-positive individual …. The email said the student later developed symptoms and tested positive, becoming Norwood Elementary’s first COVID-19 case involving an employee or student. That student did not return to school before testing negative.
“Mrs. Davis and this particular student never had close contact at school with each other,” [interim superintendent Vicki] Calvert’s email states. “In fact, they were in separate buildings.”
Three weeks after that student began quarantining, on the evening of Thursday, Sept. 24, Julie Davis started feeling sick.
Three weeks is an unlikely incubation period. Still, there aren’t other viable suspects.
But while it officially remains a mystery — and although no other students or employees at Norwood are known to have tested positive since — Stan Andrews feels that how his sister got sick is abundantly clear.
“I said to her, ‘Julie, where did you get it?’” he says. “She said, ‘I got it at school. There was a student that had it.’ ...”
—> Power to the People’s Alliance
In his own newsletter and in the INDY, Jeremy Borden examines the influence of the 44-year-old Durham People’s Alliance. I have a few thoughts—some of which I shared with Borden—but it’s an important and overdue piece, and you should read it.
The alliance has accrued unmatched local power since its founding in 1976. … But in some ways, the alliance is a victim of its own success, reckoning with an increasingly prosperous city that’s still plagued by racial inequity, creating a divide in the organization and the area as a whole. …
An “old guard” versus “new guard” dynamic—one that also reflects power dynamics and, for some, implicit racism for the historically white group—has developed within the People’s Alliance, something that leaders acknowledged in interviews. It is also reflected more broadly in the Bull City as racial tension mounts.
Borden gets at what has been an unspoken if fundamental truth of Durham politics: The PA has been largely perceived as a bastion of white, well-intentioned, but often privileged liberalism—with all of the blind spots that entails. To no small degree, it also dictates who gets elected to city office.
Both the city and its activist community are evolving, and the PA needs to evolve with them.
PA PAC coordinator Nana Asante-Smith: “There has to be an acknowledgment of these issues through a racial equity lens. It requires an organization largely founded … as a white organization that needs to be able to relinquish some sort of power.”
HOWEVER: I have one quibble, less with the story itself than with the postscript on the newsletter version.
Borden dips into the brouhaha over the Durham County manager Wendell Davis, who accused Commissioner Heidi Carter of racism, and sides with journalist and pastor Carl Kenney in interpreting Carter’s words below, which Kenney quoted on his blog, as “clear racism.”
However, the manner, intensity and nature of the manager’s words and actions have created a hostile and threatening environment which makes it impossible for me to engage in work where he may be involved in any way. I am unable to sustain further risks to my reputation, my safety, and my health due to the possibility that additional negative and baseless allegations may be contrived.
I don’t presume to know what’s in Carter’s heart, but I think “clear racism” is a bit much.
There are a few pieces of context to address. The first is that the long-faded Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People wants to matter again. The second is that Kenney is a Davis pal and has been Davis’s advocate through lawsuits and controversies. Davis is a Committee guy. Carter comes from the PA, which endorsed four of the five incoming commissioners.
The third is that it was no coincidence Davis’s letter accusing Carter of racism leaked just before the March primary. Davis’s lucrative contract is up next year, and he stood a better shot at getting renewed if she lost. She didn’t.
The fourth is a suggestion: Re-read Carter’s words not through the prism of race, but through the prism of gender. I’ve been told more than once that the problem isn’t how Carter treats African Americans but how Davis treats women he views as adversaries. (Marqueta Welton’s lawsuit was dismissed, but her allegations are still pretty disturbing.)
Now, those two things aren’t mutually exclusive, and my sources have their own perspectives, biases, and agendas. Such is politics. But it’s important nonetheless to make sure you have the entire picture in the frame.
NATION & WORLD
—> Mike Pence Will Not Shut the F*ck Up
Over the course of 90 minutes last night, pasty-faced, pink-eyed Mike Pence denied climate change, denied systemic racism, invented economic reality, made up some wild shit about the pandemic, and talked and talked and lied and lied and interrupted and interrupted—basically, he was like Trump with less yelling and more pious smarm and casual misogyny. It was exhausting and infuriating.
Kamala Harris was … fine.
I’m fairly certain the debate won’t change anything, which means Biden won.
A week from now, I imagine the only thing we’ll remember is this:
And this:
—> The DOJ Prepares to Go to Bat for Trump
You know that longstanding Department of Justice policy about not announcing investigations into election fraud while an election is going on so as to not erode confidence in the election?
Enter the Trump administration.
For decades, federal prosecutors have been told not to mount election fraud investigations in the final months before an election for fear they could depress voter turnout or erode confidence in the results. Now, the Justice Department has lifted that prohibition weeks before the presidential election.
The move comes as President Trump and Attorney General William P. Barr have promoted a false narrative that voter fraud is rampant, potentially undermining Americans’ faith in the election.
A Justice Department lawyer in Washington said in a memo to prosecutors on Friday that they could investigate suspicions of election fraud before votes are tabulated. …
The new guidance stoked fears that Mr. Trump’s political appointees, led by Mr. Barr, were wielding the power of the Justice Department to help his re-election bid. Democrats, civil rights lawyers and former department officials from Republican and Democratic administrations have been on alert this year for unusual political moves by the department in service of the president’s relentless — and false — claims that the United States’ election system is being undermined by pervasive fraud.
—> Public Health Icon on COVID Response: ‘It’s a Slaughter’
This is insane. On Sept. 23, former CDC director William Foege, who is credited with eradicating smallpox, wrote a private letter to his successor, Robert Redfield, recommending that he send a letter to CDC staff outlining the agency’s failures, detailing what he would do without political interference, and letting the administration fire him.
“It is a slaughter and not a political dispute,” he wrote.
The letter was leaked to USA Today.
In an interview, Foege said he felt compelled to write to Redfield after the White House appointed Dr. Scott Atlas to the Coronavirus Task Force, even though he is not an infectious disease expert.
The Washington Post and other outlets reported that Atlas endorsed the controversial strategy of herd immunity, although Atlas denied doing so. …
Foege said he sees an opportunity for Redfield to help the United States turn around its response to COVID-19 if he helps implement the lessons learned from decades of fighting pandemics.
“So much of this is the deaths. It's the deaths,” Foege told USA TODAY, noting that he did not want the letter to become public for fear that it might create a political sideshow and add to Redfield’s burden.
“Going public can only embarrass him, and it doesn't allow him to redeem himself,” Foege said. “By doing this privately, he has a chance to do the right thing.”
Too late.
—> Polling Update
National: Biden 51–42 (YouGov)
National: Biden 53–42 (USC)
National: Biden 52–40 (Rasmussen)
Arizona: Biden 48–43 (Data Orbital)
Florida: Biden 49–44 (Cherry Communications, R)
Florida: Biden 51–40 (Quinnipiac)
Pennsylvania: 54–41 (Quinnipiac)
Iowa: Biden 48–47 (Civiqs)
Iowa: Biden: 50–45 (Quinnipiac)
Texas: Tie 48–48 (Civiqs)
Texas: Tie 49–49 (EMC Research)
Wisconsin: Biden 46–41 (Marquette)
Ohio: Biden 45–44 (NYT/Sienna)
Nevada: Biden 48–42 (NYT/ Sienna)
The math: Of these states, Trump can only afford to lose Nevada and Pennsylvania. With his polling deficits in Michigan consistently approaching double digits, anything else precludes him from getting to 270. Yet he’s down five in Florida in a Republican internal; down five in Wisconsin (Marquette is the state’s best pollster, FWIW); down five in Arizona; and tied in Iowa, Texas, and Ohio. He needs all of them.
Texas Senate: Cornyn (R, inc.) 47–46 (Civiqs)
Iowa Senate: Greenfield (D) 49–46 (Civiqs)
Iowa Senate: Greenfield (D) 50–45 (Quinnipiac)
Michigan Senate: Peters (D, inc.) 48–46 (Tarrance, R)
Michigan Senate: Peters (D, inc.) 51–43 (Change)
Arizona Senate: Kelly (D) 49–44 (Data Orbital)
Arizona Senate: Kelly (D) 50–44 (HighGround)
Arizona Senate: Kelly (D) 51–43 (Change)
North Carolina Senate: Cunningham (D) 50–46 (Change)
New Mexico Senate: Lujan (D) 51–41 (PPP)
Of note: 538’s new House forecast gives Democrats a 94 percent chance (as of 2:20 p.m. yesterday) of keeping the House, with the most likely outcome of 237 seats (they currently have 233). Democrats have a 67 percent chance of winning the Senate.
—> The Roundup
Donald Trump’s antibody treatment came about from cells that originated in an abortion.
Eli Lilly has asked the FDA for emergency use authorization for a potential COVID-19 antibody treatment.
Amy Coney Barrett was a “handmaid” in her weird, male-dominated People of Praise church.
The Texas Supreme Court sided with Republicans and blocked Harris County from mailing absentee ballot applications to all of its 2.4 million registered voters.
A federal appeals court ruled that a Manhattan prosecutor can enforce his subpoena for Trump’s tax returns.
Oil companies have been hiding their carbon emissions projections from investors.
Federal prison wardens denied 98 percent of compassionate release requests. At least 134 federal prisoners have died of COVID-19, and more than 15,800 have contracted the virus.
The gun-toting St. Louis couple featured at the Republican National Convention has been indicted on charges of exhibiting guns at protesters and tampering with evidence.
The Trump administration rewrote the rules for the federal duck stamp art competition to require painters to include “appropriate waterfowl hunting-related accessories or elements.”
After announcing his forthcoming retirement, Pennsylvania Republican Senator Pat Toomey penned an op-ed with former Pennsylvania Democratic Governor Ed Rendell asserting that term limits are the solution to what ails us. (Term limits are dumb and counterproductive, and remind me to tell you about the time Rendell fell asleep when I was interviewing him and I damn near called 911 because I thought he’d died.)
Read this DCist investigation into the city’s eviction court system and know that it’s the same pretty much everywhere.
—> Quote of the Day
“I feel great!”
