Prominent Republicans throw weight behind Biden as Trump's convention opens

[webfact]

Prominent Republicans throw weight behind Biden as Trump's convention opens

 

FILE PHOTO: Former Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ) walks through the Ohio Clock Corridor off the U.S. Senate floor during the Senate impeachment trial of U.S. President Donald Trump on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., January 21, 2020. REUTERS/Tom Brenner/File Photo

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More than two dozen former Republican U.S. lawmakers, including former Senator Jeff Flake, endorsed Democrat Joe Biden for president as the Republican National Convention opened on Monday, a rebuke to President Donald Trump by members of his own party.

 

The 27 former members of Congress joined a "Republicans for Biden" initiative organized by the Biden campaign to encourage Republican support for the Democrat, the Biden campaign said. They cited Trump's "corruption, destruction of democracy, blatant disregard for moral decency, and urgent need to get the country back on course" as reasons for the move, according to a Biden campaign statement.

 

"I was a Republican long before the president ever called himself one, and I'll be a Republican long after identifying as such is no longer useful to him," Flake said in a 16-minute video explaining his decision to endorse Biden and vote for a Democratic presidential nominee for the first time.

 

"Given what we have experienced over the past four years, it's not enough just to register our disapproval of the president. We need to elect someone else in his place, someone who will stop the chaos and reverse the damage."

 

The former lawmakers are only the latest Republican group to endorse Biden and oppose Trump in the Nov. 3 election.

 

Separately, the Lincoln Project, one of the most prominent Republican-backed groups opposing Trump, said on Monday that former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele had joined it as a senior adviser.

 

"The chair behind the Resolute Desk has always been bigger than any political party," Steele said in a statement. "Sadly, we have witnessed its occupant devolve into preying upon fears and resentments with narcissism that nurtures only chaos and confusion. Leadership is needed now more than ever."

 

On Sunday, one of the group's co-founders, George Conway, and his wife, Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, both stepped down from their political roles, citing a need to spend time with family.

 

Last week, 73 former Republican national security officials, including former chiefs of the FBI and CIA, endorsed Biden while calling Trump unfit to serve.

 

Opposition groups object to Trump's alienation of U.S. allies abroad and his leadership at home, including his response to the coronavirus pandemic that has killed over 176,000 Americans.

 

The Trump campaign has described the groups as disaffected former officials "trying to take down the duly elected President of the United States."

 

(Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Scott Malone and Leslie Adler)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-08-25

 

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[webfact]

Trump secures votes needed for re-nomination at Republican convention

 

U.S. President Donald Trump disembarks from Air Force as he arrives at Charlotte Douglas International Airport in Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S., August 24, 2020. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

 

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump has secured sufficient votes to be re-nominated as Republicans' pick ahead of the Nov. 3 election against Democrat Joe Biden.

 

Trump is being formally nominated by a roll call vote of states at a party convention in Charlotte, North Carolina.

 

(Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw in Charlotte, N.C.; Writing by Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-08-25

 

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[Tippaporn]

No big deal.  How "prominent" can they be if they are all "former" lawmakers?  It's been well known that numbers of Republicans never endorsed Trump.  So what?  Former Democratic New Jersey Rep. Jeff Van Drew changed parties on Jan. 7th this year over Trump's impeachment.  Me thinks this article is attempting to take a nothing burger and create a something burger out of it.

[Tug]

9 minutes ago, Tippaporn said:

No big deal.  How "prominent" can they be if they are all "former" lawmakers?  It's been well known that numbers of Republicans never endorsed Trump.  So what?  Former Democratic New Jersey Rep. Jeff Van Drew changed parties on Jan. 7th this year over Trump's impeachment.  Me thinks this article is attempting to take a nothing burger and create a something burger out of it.

I think you are missing the point I think most serving republican lawmakers feel the same way they all know that if they don’t (toe the line) their lives and careers will be ruined it’s the same crippling influence in the trump administration everyone is one mood swing away from a ruined career and life that’s not a healthy way to (govern)a country the disaffected Republicans are pointing this obvious flaw in trump out good for them it gives the rest of us hope

[Chomper Higgot]

The real story here is these 27 add to all the other Republicans Trump has driven across to support Biden.

 

Mitch McConnell has given Trump until Labor Day to turn the polls around, if Trump can’t make that date ‘he’s on his own’.

[ukrules]

28 minutes ago, Tippaporn said:

No big deal.  How "prominent" can they be if they are all "former" lawmakers?  It's been well known that numbers of Republicans never endorsed Trump.  So what?  Former Democratic New Jersey Rep. Jeff Van Drew changed parties on Jan. 7th this year over Trump's impeachment.  Me thinks this article is attempting to take a nothing burger and create a something burger out of it.

An alternate headline could read "Has-beens back loser" ????

[Puchaiyank]

Many Republicans, lifetime members of the Washington swamp, never wanted Trump to head the party...now is their chance to create some mischief...like the Dems have managed to do for the past 4 years...

[Somtamnication]

The next 4 days of the RNC will be interesting and fastastical. Wikipedia will be exhausted.

[TopDeadSenter]

The GOP convention kicks off. Trump unveils the best 2nd term agenda ever, tackling the issues all Americans want. Sad to see the media ignore the GOP agenda they should be discussing, and run with this anti Trump nonsense of RINOs doing RINO stuff. IIRC, Flake and Conway hate Trump more than they love America, not exactly newsworthy.

 I hope we get a thread where we can objectively discus the GOP agenda for the 2nd term?

[RJRS1301]

17 minutes ago, TopDeadSenter said:

The GOP convention kicks off. Trump unveils the best 2nd term agenda ever, tackling the issues all Americans want. Sad to see the media ignore the GOP agenda they should be discussing, and run with this anti Trump nonsense of RINOs doing RINO stuff. IIRC, Flake and Conway hate Trump more than they love America, not exactly newsworthy.

 I hope we get a thread where we can objectively discus the GOP agenda for the 2nd term?

Objectivity/Trump/supporters=oxymoron

[Tug]

ahhh noooo they have no second term agenda 0 zip nada none lol but they will do lots of fear mongering lying gas lighting and blubbering about beeing some sort of victim trying to bs everyone lol I’m curious about how many lies per day of the convention should be entertaining

[Tippaporn]

1 hour ago, Tug said:

<snip> I think most serving republican lawmakers feel the same way they all know that if they don’t (toe the line) their lives and careers will be ruined <snip>

Sounds like a wild conspiracy theory to me.  Do you have any evidence of this happening?

[Tug]

29 minutes ago, Tippaporn said:

Sounds like a wild conspiracy theory to me.  Do you have any evidence of this happening?

It’s all over msn you know the ones that face consequences when they get it wrong not face book info wars britebart or fox news it is what it is 

Edited August 25, 2020 by Scott

[Damual Travesty]

This is all posturing by RINOs who are simply attempting to create a space for a post Trump world in 2024 in which they hope to stake out some centrist position and pull centrist Democrats who are horrified at the leftist direction of their party, but likewise detest Trump.

 

These people are looking for a return to a neo-conservative Republican party, and a move away from Trump foreign policy initiatives. Nothing new here we know who they are. A detestable bunch all of them Romney, Flake, all simply looking for future political power. They stand for nothing. They are only trying to regain what they lost in a GOP that has left them behind.

[Chomper Higgot]

18 minutes ago, Tippaporn said:

Sounds like a wild conspiracy theory to me.  Do you have any evidence of this happening?

Do you have evidence to back your claim of a ‘wild conspiracy theory’?

[Tippaporn]

21 minutes ago, Tug said:

27 minutes ago, Tippaporn said:

Sounds like a wild conspiracy theory to me.  Do you have any evidence of this happening?

It’s all over msn you know the ones that face consequences when they get it wrong not face book info wars britebart or fox(hoax)news it is what it is 

"it is what it is"

 

No supporting evidence, just rumour mill opinions?  Then it's conspiracy theory.  No basis in reality.

[bendejo]

What if this morning all those Republicans took a spinal growth hormone (SGH) and when the nominations come in DT loses?

What if in Melania's speech she says "My huzbin eez a liar and and a peeg" ?

 

Keep an eye out for this guy, he's an easy read Tom Cotton .  If DT maintains another 4 years (note I did nor say re-elected) he thinks he'll be the wingnut candidate for 2024.  Providing, of course, that DT leaves after 2 terms.

 

 

Edited August 25, 2020 by bendejo

[animalmagic]

29 minutes ago, Tippaporn said:

Sounds like a wild conspiracy theory to me.  Do you have any evidence of this happening?

Yes, leave wild conspiracy theories based on no evidence to the President!

[Thailand]

2 wheels on my wagon ------

[malibukid]

where's Rudy?

[Chomper Higgot]

2 hours ago, TopDeadSenter said:

The GOP convention kicks off. Trump unveils the best 2nd term agenda ever, tackling the issues all Americans want. Sad to see the media ignore the GOP agenda they should be discussing, and run with this anti Trump nonsense of RINOs doing RINO stuff. IIRC, Flake and Conway hate Trump more than they love America, not exactly newsworthy.

 I hope we get a thread where we can objectively discus the GOP agenda for the 2nd term?

12 key speakers, six of whom are called Trump.

 

 

 

 

Edited August 25, 2020 by Chomper Higgot

[Scott]

Off-topic posts removed.  

 

[mr mr]

pffft

[mtls2005]

49 minutes ago, malibukid said:

where's Rudy?

 

Hanging out with Jerry Falwell Jr.?

 

Jerry Falwell Jr. did address the 2016 RNC Convention. You can watch his speech on Youtube.

 

At least his pants are zipped and clipped. Can't see the "poolboy" though?

 

 

[webfact]

Trump sets convention tone by claiming without evidence Democrats will steal election

By Jeff Mason and Joseph Ax

 

U.S. President Donald Trump gives a thumbs up as Vice President Mike Pence waves, following the President's address on the first day of the Republican National Convention after delegates voted to confirm him as the Republican 2020 presidential nominee for reelection, in Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S., August 24, 2020. REUTERS/Leah Millis

 

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (Reuters) - Republicans opened their national convention on Monday by outlining a dire portrait of America if Democrat Joe Biden ousts President Donald Trump in November, adopting the grim tone that Trump set hours earlier when he warned, without evidence, that Democrats will seek to steal the election.

 

Trump spoke on the first day of the sharply scaled-back Republican National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, after receiving enough votes to win the nomination to take on Biden, the former vice president, in the Nov. 3 election.

 

Republicans had vowed to offer an inspiring, positive message in contrast to what they characterized as a dark and gloomy Democratic convention last week. But the first night's speakers peppered their remarks with ominous prognostications if Democrats win power.

 

"Trump was elected to protect our families - our loved ones - from the vengeful mob that wishes to destroy our way of life, our neighborhoods, schools, church, and values," said Charlie Kirk, a Republican activist who runs Turning Point USA, a conservative student group.

 

The four-day convention got under way at a critical juncture for Trump, who trails Biden in national opinion polls during a pandemic that has killed https://graphics.reuters.com/HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS-USA/0100B5K8423/index.html more than 176,000 Americans, erased millions of jobs and eroded the president's standing among voters.

 

Trump has focused on a "law and order" message in response to widespread protests following the police killing of George Floyd, a Black man in Minneapolis, and he has pushed schools and businesses to reopen despite the pandemic. Both messages represent the campaign's effort to win back suburban voters, especially women, who have abandoned the Republican Party in droves during the Trump era.

 

Another frenetic day for Trump threatened to overshadow his attempt to recalibrate the campaign, however. In Washington, congressional Democrats examined U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a Trump donor, over whether he was deliberately sabotaging mail service to harm voting by mail, while one of Trump's closest advisers, Kellyanne Conway, prepared to depart the White House.

 

The New York attorney general's investigation into Trump's family business deepened on Monday, while the National Guard was deployed in Wisconsin following unrest after a Black man was shot in the back by police.

 

A Reuters investigation revealed a sex scandal involving evangelical leader Jerry Falwell Jr., a high-profile Trump supporter, whose tenure at the Christian university he runs appeared in limbo.

 

TRUMP ON THE ATTACK

Earlier in the day, the president repeated his assertion that voting by mail, a long-standing feature of American elections that is expected to be far more common during the coronavirus pandemic, will lead to widespread fraud. Independent election security experts say voter fraud is extraordinarily rare in the United States.

 

As he has done repeatedly, Trump described states' responses to infections of COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, in starkly partisan terms, casting lockdowns and other steps recommended by public health officials as attempts to influence voting in November.

 

"What they're doing is using COVID to steal an election," Trump said. "They're using COVID to defraud the American people - all of our people - of a fair and free election."

 

During the prime-time program, the party aired a video praising Trump for his handling of the pandemic, after Democrats spent much of their convention attacking his administration for an uneven response. Medical professionals and small-business owners credited Trump with saving lives and livelihoods.

 

But during a prerecorded appearance at the White House, where Trump spoke with several essential workers including some frontline health workers, none of the participants wore masks, which has become a partisan flashpoint despite recommendations from epidemiologists that masks can slow the disease's spread.

 

The first night was due to showcase some of the party's diverse members to try to appeal beyond Trump's largely white base, including Senator Tim Scott, the lone Black Republican in the Senate, and Nikki Haley, Trump's former ambassador to the United Nations, who is Indian American.

 

But it also was scheduled to feature speakers seemingly aimed at firing up Trump's base, including Mark and Patricia McCloskey, a couple from St. Louis who drew national attention for brandishing guns at Black Lives Matter protesters who marched past their home.

 

As befits the first president who starred in his own reality television show, the four-night event will focus heavily on Trump himself.

 

While his acceptance speech will not come until Thursday, when he will address the party from the White House, Trump planned to appear each night, and several members of his family, including his eldest son Donald Jr on Monday, were due to deliver prime-time speeches.

 

The in-person proceedings marked a contrast with Democrats, who opted for an almost entirely virtual format instead of gathering in the election battleground state of Wisconsin in a nod to the pandemic.

 

Biden, 77, and his fellow Democrats portrayed Trump, 74, as a force for darkness, chaos and incompetence during their convention, while stressing the Democrats' diversity and values like empathy and unity."

 

Democrats have criticized Trump's plans to accept the nomination on the White House lawn as a partisan use of public property.

 

(Reporting by Jeff Mason in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Joseph Ax in Princeton, New Jersey; Additional reporting by Jarrett Renshaw, Leah Mills, Andrea Shalal, Heather Timmons, James Oliphant, Trevor Hunnicutt, Michael Martina, Diane Bartz and Tim Ahmann; Editing by Scott Malone, Peter Cooney and Howard Goller)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-08-25

 

- Whatever you're going through, the Samaritans are here for you

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[mtls2005]

4 minutes ago, webfact said:

Trump sets convention tone by claiming without evidence Democrats will steal election

 

What happens if/when he "wins"?

 

Will he have "stolen" the election?

 

It just seems like an argument which would only fool appeal to a simpleton?

 

 

 

 

Edited August 25, 2020 by mtls2005

[Berkshire]

3 hours ago, Tippaporn said:

No big deal.  How "prominent" can they be if they are all "former" lawmakers?  It's been well known that numbers of Republicans never endorsed Trump.  So what?  Former Democratic New Jersey Rep. Jeff Van Drew changed parties on Jan. 7th this year over Trump's impeachment.  Me thinks this article is attempting to take a nothing burger and create a something burger out of it.

"Prominent" Republicans jumping ship is significant because it signals to other moderate Republicans, mainly in suburbia, that Biden is a worthy option, that he's not a socialist intent on defunding the police and opening the borders.  Trump can't afford to lose many more Republicans because he's already lost most of the independents. 

[Pattaya Spotter]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Prominent Republicans

Do they mean the ones who were kicked out of the Party or quit after losing their primary races? Most people just call them "losers."

Edited August 25, 2020 by Pattaya Spotter

[Eric Loh]

21 minutes ago, Pattaya Spotter said:

Do they mean the ones who were kicked out of the Party or quit after losing their primary races? Most people just call them "losers."

Sound like a party in lots of trouble, in-fightings and not at all cohesive. Doesn’t augur well for their chances in the election. 

[OneMoreFarang]

I wonder how long it will take before every GOP politician will distance himself from Trump.

Maybe November, or December or January?

I guess by February they will all pretend Trump never existed and obviously they could not have possibly have supported someone who never existed.

 

No, I don't even want to think about that it's still possible that Americans vote again for him...