Critics condemn Trump's rewrite of race in America in DC speech – as it happened

17 Sept 202014.15 EDT

Sam Levine

Pennsylvania’s top court ruled Thursday that voters could have more time to return their mail-in ballots to election officials this fall, a move likely to result in thousands more people having their votes counted in the key battleground state.

Pennsylvania, seen as crucial to Joe Biden’s chances of winning in November, is one of many states where voters are required to return their mail-in ballots to election officials by election night in order to have them counted.

But on Thursday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ordered the state to count ballots as long as they were postmarked by election day and arrived by 6 November, the Friday after election day.

One of the top reasons ballots get rejected is because they arrive too late to be counted. More than 15,000 ballots were rejected for arriving too late, according to an NPR analysis. In previous elections, missing the ballot receipt deadline has been one of the top reasons mail-in ballots get rejected.

The court relied in a provision in Pennsylvania’s constitution that says all elections need to be “free and equal” to make its decision and noted that a record number of people are expected to apply for mail-in ballots.

“In light of these unprecedented numbers and the near-certain delays that will occur in Boards processing the mail-in applications, we conclude that the timeline built into the Election Code cannot be met by the USPS’s current delivery standards,” Justice Max Baer, a Democrat, wrote for the court’s majority.

“Voters’ rights are better protected by addressing the impending crisis at this point in the election cycle on a statewide basis rather than allowing the chaos to brew, creating voter confusion regarding whether extensions will be granted, for how long, and in what counties.”

The Pennsylvania supreme court also said that counties could offer voters ballot drop boxes and that the state could only allow people to serve as poll workers in the county where they live. Donald Trump’s campaign had filed a separate suit in federal court seeking to block both requirements.

Donald Trump has acknowledged his lack of widespread tv advertising is a problem, venting to advisors about Joe Biden’s seemingly more cash-laden campaign, the Washington Post reports:

Trump spent last weekend complaining privately about Biden’s dominance in television advertising, according to three people familiar with the comments, only to tweet upon his return to Washington from a campaign swing that the “fake news” was exaggerating the disparity.

The zigzagging messages reflected a desire by Trump and his campaign to move beyond growing Republican concern about his relatively scant advertising budget and doubts about whether he has enough money in the bank to close the race in a strong position.

“We have much more money than we had at the same time in 2016,” Trump tweeted this week. “Also spending on other, and different, elements of the campaign.”

Biden has been raking in huge amounts of money over the past month, as my colleague David Smith wrote this week:

“While Joe Biden and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) raised a record $365m in August, it was revealed this week that the Trump campaign has surrendered what was once a $200m cash advantage. It has already spent more than $800m, the front page of the New York Times reported, leaving its coffers dangerously depleted for the critical final phase.”

Trump’s campaign has to report its cash on hand for the end of August by this Sunday.

The Green Party presidential candidate Howie Hawkins has been removed from the ballot in Pennsylvania – a win for Democrats ahead of the election.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Hawkins did not strictly follow procedures for getting on the ballot after he took over from Elizabeth Faye Scroggin as the Green party candidate.

Associated Press reports:

Democrats have long gone to court to keep Green Party candidates off the ballot, worried that they will siphon otherwise liberal voters in close contests against Republicans in the politically divided state.

In this case, Democrats targeted what they said were disqualifying irregularities in how Green Party candidates for president and vice president filed affidavits that accompany paperwork to get on the ballot.

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In 2016 Green Party candidate Jill Stein was blamed by some for drawing votes away from Hillary Clinton, although there is little evidence Stein’s performance made a difference.

Donald Trump won Pennsylvania by 46,765 votes while 49,678 people voted for Stein. Still, Hawkins’ absence is good news for Biden, as Pennsylvania has become increasingly crucial to his 2020 chances.

According to RealClearPolitics average of Pennsylvania polls Biden has a 4.3% lead in the state.

I interviewed Hawkins in August about his chances of clinching the presidency... which he conceded weren’t very high. This ruling means his hoped for 5% of the national vote is becoming a harder target to reach.

(This is Adam Gabbatt, covering for Joan E Greve.)

Here’s where the day stands so far:

• Twitter flagged another one of Trump’s tweets about voting by mail as “misleading.” The president once again sought to cast doubt upon the legitimacy of the election, saying in his tweet, “Because of the new and unprecedented massive amount of unsolicited ballots which will be sent to ‘voters’, or wherever, this year, the Nov 3rd Election result may NEVER BE ACCURATELY DETERMINED.” In reality, voter fraud is very rare, and secretaries of state of both parties have offered reassurances that ballots will be accurately counted.
• Trump is reportedly expected to denounce some US schools’ focus on slavery and racism in history lessons when he delivers remarks at the National Archives later today. According to Bloomberg News, the president will specifically criticize the New York Times’ “1619 Project.” The Pulitzer Prize-winning project was published last year to cast a spotlight on the 400th anniversary of the first slave ship arriving in America.
• Attorney general William Barr received criticism for attacking justice department staffers and comparing coronavirus shutdown orders to slavery. Barr said during an event hosted by Hillsdale College yesterday, “You know, putting a national lockdown, stay at home orders, is like house arrest. Other than slavery, which was a different kind of restraint, this is the greatest intrusion on civil liberties in American history.”

I’m handing the blog over to my Guardian colleague, Adam Gabbatt, for the next couple hours, so stay tuned.

Trump is reportedly expected to denounce some US schools’ focus on slavery and racism in its history lessons when the president speaks at the National Archives later today.

Bloomberg News reports:

‘The president will deliver remarks on his administration’s efforts to promote a more balanced, accurate, and patriotic curricula in America’s schools,’ the White House said in a statement.

That includes criticizing what the White House calls ‘the liberal indoctrination of America’s youth.’ Trump is expected to explicitly fault the New York Times’ ‘1619 Project.’ The Pulitzer-Prize winning public school curriculum developed by the newspaper orients American history from the date that the first slave ship arrived in what later became the U.S.

One of Trump’s top advisers, secretary of state Mike Pompeo, similarly attacked the “1619 Project” during a July speech at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.

“The New York Times’s 1619 Project — so named for the year the first slaves were transported to America — wants you to believe our country was founded for human bondage. They want you to believe America’s institutions continue to reflect the country’s acceptance of slavery at our founding,” Pompeo said.

“They want you to believe Marxist ideology that America is only the oppressors and the oppressed. The Chinese Communist Party must be gleeful when they see the New York Times spout their ideology.”

The University of Georgia announced it would provide an on-campus site for in-person early voting, reversing a widely criticized decision not to do so.

In a statement, the university said Stegeman Coliseum, where the school’s basketball team plays, would serve as a polling station for early voting. The statement noted the stadium is large enough to host voters while still respecting social distancing guidelines.

The university’s previous announcement that it had not found a suitable location for early voting was met with a fierce backlash, as many critics noted the school was moving forward with college football despite the coronavirus pandemic.

The intense public pressure appears to have worked, given the school reversed its decision just one day after announcing it.

Trump’s businesses have charged the US government more than $1.1 million since the president took office, according to the Washington Post.

The Post reports:

The documents, including receipts and invoices from Trump’s businesses, were released by the Secret Service after The Washington Post filed a public-records lawsuit. They added $188,000 in previously unknown charges to The Post’s running total of payments to Trump’s properties related to the presence of Secret Service agents.

In Bedminster this spring, the records show, Trump’s club charged the Secret Service more than $21,800 to rent a cottage and other rooms while the club was closed and otherwise off-limits to guests. The documents don’t give a reason for these rentals. Trump didn’t visit the club while it was closed, but his eldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, and her family reportedly visited at least once.

The family visited the club in April to celebrate Passover, a period that overlaps with several of the largest Secret Service charges. At the time, both the District of Columbia — where Ivanka Trump lives — and New Jersey had imposed ‘stay-at-home’ orders, telling residents to avoid travel except under limited circumstances.

Ivanka Trump was criticized after the New York Times reported on the April trip, with many noting the president’s daughter was simultaneously urging people to respect stay-at-home orders as she traveled out of state.

Democrats have also broadly criticized the president for allowing his businesses to charge the federal government while he is in office, sparking accusations that Trump is using the presidency for his own financial gain.

House minority leader Kevin McCarthy insisted Trump was right to challenge the CDC director’s timeline for the development of a coronavirus vaccine.

“If I just take the words of the CDC and the president, the president is right,” the Republican leader told reporters on Capitol Hill.

McCarthy added, “One of those two individuals had more information than the other, and that was the president.”

During his Senate testimony yesterday, CDC Director Robert Redfield said a coronavirus vaccine would not be widely available to the American public until “late second quarter, third quarter 2021.”

That comment is in line with timelines offered by other health experts, but Trump attacked Redfield at his press conference yesterday, insisting the CDC director was “confused” when he testified.

“I think he made a mistake when he said that. It’s just incorrect information,” Trump said.

Twitter has added another label to one of Trump’s tweets about voting by mail, which the president has falsely claimed is particularly vulnerable to voter fraud.

In reality, voter fraud is very rare, and the US has been using mailed-in ballots in its elections for decades.

The president tweeted this morning, “Because of the new and unprecedented massive amount of unsolicited ballots which will be sent to ‘voters’, or wherever, this year, the Nov 3rd Election result may NEVER BE ACCURATELY DETERMINED, which is what some want. Another election disaster yesterday. Stop Ballot Madness!”

This is not true. Several states are mailing ballots to all registered voters because of the coronavirus pandemic, but they are not sending ballots to “wherever.” And while it may take longer to count the votes in certain states because of the higher level of voting by mail, the accurate results of the presidential race will be known shortly after the November election.

Twitter said of Trump’s tweet, “We’ve added a label to this Tweet for making a potentially misleading statement regarding the process of mail-in voting, and to offer more context for anyone who may see the Tweet. This action is in line with our recently-updated Civic Integrity Policy.”

Twitter has previously labeled other Trump tweets about voting by mail because, as the social media giant said last month, the false messages “could potentially dissuade people from participation in voting.”

CNN’s chief fact-checker, Daniel Dale, said Trump “might be more dishonest about voting and election integrity than about any other subject.” That’s a fairly remarkable statement, considering the president has made more than 20,000 false or misleading claims since taking office.

Addressing reporters at House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s weekly press conference, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer denounced Trump’s comments about coronavirus deaths in Democratic-controlled states.

Schumer said Trump’s comments yesterday were “outrageous.” “What a despicable man,” the Democratic leader said. “How low can he go?”

During his press conference yesterday, Trump suggested that the US coronavirus death toll would be much lower if the deaths in Democratic-controlled states were ignored.

“If you take the blue states out, we’re at a level that I don’t think anybody in the world would be at. We’re really at a very low level. But some of the states, they were blue states and blue state-managed,” Trump said.