WASHINGTON In the past few months, President Donald Trump has invited supporters wearing "Make America Great Again" campaign gear onstage with him during official presidential speeches. He has criticized Democratic rival Joe Biden in Rose Garden addresses. He has played campaign-style videos in the White House briefing room, and he has used his campaign playlist, typically reserved for rallies, at official presidential events.

Presidents running for re-election have traditionally worked to balance official government business with campaign activity. But government watchdogs and officials from past administrations warn that Trump has smashed that norm, showing an unusual willingness to use his presidential platform for political purposes.

Trump's penchant for blurring the lines between his campaign and his official duties came to a head last week when he confirmed that he was considering giving his acceptance speech for the Republican presidential nomination one of the most anticipated moments of the election season from the White House South Lawn.

"I'll probably do mine live from the White House," Trump said on Fox News. "The easiest, least expensive and, I think, very beautiful [location] would be live from the White House."

Presidential ethics veterans said the savings weren't his to take. "What Trump is doing is a form of stealing," said Norm Eisen, who was President Barack Obama's special counsel and special assistant for ethics and government reform.

"The taxpayer entrusts funds to the government to do the official business of the government. If they want to support a political candidate, they make a political contribution," he said. "For Trump to effectively be reaching into all of our pockets to subsidize his proposed activity on the South Lawn ... no, the taxpayer should not have to pay for that."

Trump's boundary stretching goes beyond the location of his acceptance speech, Eisen and others said.

The president has increasingly turned official White House events, both in Washington and on the road, into political events as the coronavirus pandemic has kept him off the usual campaign trail and unable to hold large in-person rallies.

Since March, Trump has taken official presidential trips to Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, North Carolina and Ohio. He has also made multiple visits to Arizona, Texas and Florida. All of those states are critical to Trump's re-election.

"It's always been a fine line that presidents ride with making sure that the official activity in an election year does not go too far into campaign activity," said Kedric Payne, general counsel and senior director of ethics at the Campaign Legal Center, a nonprofit advocacy group. Trump, Payne said, is "barely disguising it as official activity."

On an official government trip to Texas in July, for example, a senior administration official told NBC News that the visit was intended to highlight Trump's energy policy and contrast it with that of Biden's. On another official White House trip in June, to Arizona, the president headlined an event hosted by Students for Trump at a Phoenix church.

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On his most recent presidential trip last week, to Ohio, the White House said Trump was met on Air Force One by a campaign senior adviser in the state, Bob Paduchik. The president held a small campaign-style rally on the tarmac and then visited a Whirlpool factory, where he made fun of Biden ("Did you ever watch Biden, where he's always saying the wrong state?"). He rounded out the journey with a supporters roundtable and a campaign fundraiser.

The trips can become expensive when the airfare and the cost of federally mandated Secret Service protection are taken into consideration.

When a presidential trip involves both official and political events, the White House is supposed to use a formula to determine the amount of money that the campaign or the party should reimburse to the Treasury Department to protect taxpayers from paying for any political activities. The formula generally is not made public.

A spokesperson for the Federal Election Commission said that to distinguish political travel from official travel, the White House should consider the purposes and the natures of the events at each stop.

According to FEC data, the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee have reimbursed more than $600,000 to the Treasury since May for airfare. Neither the Trump campaign nor the RNC provided NBC News with a breakdown of which trips taxpayers were reimbursed for.

Trump has also officially hosted a number of constituent-based events at the White House since the pandemic hit, involving truck drivers, farmers, veterans and seniors a key voting bloc whose support for the president has slipped amid the pandemic. Five of the nearly two dozen events have been with faith leaders, a demographic that propelled Trump to victory in 2016 but whose support this time around has softened.

The campaign has pushed back against criticism that the president is misusing White House events.

"Democrats and the media are desperate to muzzle President Trump. They don't want him tweeting, they don't want him holding rallies, they don't want him speaking at Mount Rushmore, and now they don't want him holding press conferences," said Tim Murtaugh, the campaign's communications director. "Every week, Joe Biden reads speeches off the teleprompter attacking the president and the media gleefully reports every word, and President Trump is entitled to fight back."

While there are some clear rules governing what sort of political activity the president can engage in on official trips and on the White House grounds (he cannot make fundraising calls from the Oval Office, for example), many of the president's political actions are guided by tradition and norms.

The Hatch Act, a law limiting the political activities that federal employees can engage in to ensure that federal policies are carried out in a nonpartisan fashion and to protect federal workers from political coercion, does not apply to the president.

Officials from previous administrations say decoupling the political from the policy can be difficult, and many relied on White House lawyers, advisers and watchdogs to avoid Hatch Act and ethics violations.

"They were afraid of losing Congress, so they pushed the envelope on a bunch of things," said Richard Painter, a Trump critic who was the chief White House ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush, recalling the 2006 midterm elections, when he frequently had to push back on some actions by administration officials.

Still, said Greg Jenkins, who was Bush's deputy assistant and director of White House advance, "we had a policy that drew a bright line between official and political events."

"All White Houses do events at the White House that advocate or oppose particular policies or proposals. While those are done for political purposes to persuade people to your side they weren't electioneering," Jenkins said.

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Johanna Maska, Obama's White House director of press advance from 2009 to 2015, said she and other officials would get regular Hatch Act and ethics training from the White House counsel.

Maska said she recalled discussions during the 2012 campaign about whether using Obama's official armored podium with the presidential seal at political events was an example of undue influence and a burden on taxpayers. Ultimately, the campaign decided to buy its own armored podium for Obama to use at events, which, Maska recalled, was expensive.

"Our typical default was we wanted to pay for everything to make sure we were following the law and weren't making any in-kind contributions," Maska said.

Eisen, the special counsel to Obama, said establishing a strict set of rules on the use of Air Force One and reimbursements, among other ethics issues, was a "huge priority" for the administration. "I personally trained everyone in the White House on these rules so they wouldn't break them," he said.

Eisen recalled telling Pete Rouse, a senior adviser to Obama who is an avid Grateful Dead fan, that he had to take down an Obama poster hanging in his office signed by the band because "there can be no taint of politics in this workplace, which is for policy."

Government watchdogs say Trump has strayed far from the ethics norms of past administrations. They say he sets a dangerous precedent that could erode public trust.

"There are all sorts of debates, and the thing I was proud about is that our counsel would challenge us to make sure we were making the best decision for the taxpayers," Maska said. "My question is: What is this counsel doing?"

Original post:

How Trump erased the election-year line between politics and policy - NBC News

When President Donald Trump gave an Independence Day speech at Mount Rushmore in early July, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem gifted him with a four-foot statue of the famous landmark with one notable addition.

Trumps face was added to it.

According to CNN, though, the President wants more.

It reported that a White House aide reached out to Noem last year to inquire about possibly adding Trumps face to the landmark.

Its not possible, according to Business Insider, because theres no stable surface left for carving a fifth face.

But, according to the reports, its a dream of Trumps and its something he has brought up more than once. In fact, Noem told South Dakotas Argus Leader, he mentioned it during their first meeting in the Oval Office.

He said, Kristi, come on over here. Shake my hand, she said. I shook his hand, and I said, Mr. President, you should come to South Dakota sometime. We have Mount Rushmore. And he goes, Do you know its my dream to have my face on Mount Rushmore?

Noem said she started laughing.

He wasnt laughing, she said. So, he was totally serious.

Original post:

Donald Trumps face on Mount Rushmore? Reports say White House inquired about the possibility - PennLive

Scott Morrison says he has pressed Donald Trump for help to prevent the release of an Afghan man who was convicted of murdering three Australian soldiers in Afghanistan.

The prime minister said the Australian government would continue to push as hard as we can for the continued detention of the former Afghan soldier known as Hekmatullah, after reports he could be released as a result of peace negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban.

Hekmatullah was convicted of murdering three Australian soldiers Corporal Stjepan Milosevic, Private Robert Poate and Sapper James Martin as they played cards at a patrol base north of Tarin Kowt in August 2012.

Australian defence officials contacted the families of the three Australians late last week to inform them Hekmatullah was likely to be one the 5,000 prisoners set to be released after prisoner swap negotiations, the ABC reported.

Morrison told reporters in Canberra on Monday that he had raised the issue directly with the US president. He said the defence minister, Linda Reynolds, and the foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne, had also raised the issue with their American counterparts at the Ausmin talks in Washington late last month.

This has been a matter of very regular and persistent petitioning on our behalf, the prime minister said.

It is a matter that Ive written to the president about. It is a matter of keen interest to Australia and weve reminded them of that.

Morrison said Hekmatullah was responsible for murdering three Australians and our position is that he should never be released. Morrison argued such a release would not contribute to regional peace.

That is the position that we will continue to maintain and well maintain it strongly, he said.

I cant promise you the outcome we all want here, but it is certainly the outcome we will continue to press for as hard as we can.

The families issued a joint statement to say the news came as a crushing blow and that they believed Hekmatullah should have been executed in line with the sentence issued by the court in Afghanistan, the Australian newspaper reported.

Poates father, Hugh, told the newspaper the news of the likely release was like deflating a balloon.

Hekmatullahs potential release stems from a peace agreement between the US and the Taliban that was reached in February this year.

The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, said last week that the release of prisoners was unpopular but it would lead to a reduction of violence and direct talks resulting in a peace agreement and an end to the war in Afghanistan.

Under the February agreement, the US committed to work with all relevant sides on a plan to expeditiously release combat and political prisoners as a confidence-building measure with the coordination and approval of all relevant sides.

It flagged the release of up to 5,000 Taliban fighters in return for the release of up to 1,000 government security forces. According to the text of the agreement, the Taliban committed that its released prisoners will be committed to the responsibilities mentioned in this agreement so that they will not pose a threat to the security of the United States and its allies.

The deal also included a commitment to withdraw from Afghanistan all military forces of the US, its allies, and coalition partners. There have been some difficulties and delays in implementing the prisoner release aspect of the deal.

Hekmatullah went on the run after the fatal attack on the Australian soldiers but was captured in Pakistan in February 2013 about six months later and then brought to trial in Afghanistan.

In 2013, an Australian Defence Force inquiry found there was a failure to provide appropriate force protection at the Wahab base where the soldiers were killed despite sufficient resources being available.

A Queensland coroner who also investigated the deaths found that an order from headquarters to increase security at patrol bases had not been passed down to troops on the ground.

The opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, said news of the potential release would be a source of great distress for the families of the victims.

This is a critical issue for the families but also for justice, Albanese said.

This man should not be released, and Australia needs to make the strongest possible representations to both the Afghan government and to the United States to ensure that this doesnt happen.

Follow this link:

Scott Morrison presses Trump for continued detention of ex-Afghan soldier who killed three Australians - The Guardian

BEDMINSTER, NEW JERSEY - President Donald Trump acted Saturday to extend an expired jobless benefit to tens of millions of Americans who have lost their jobs during the coronavirus pandemic and defer payroll taxes after negotiations with Congress on a new package of economic aid collapsed.

As the United States neared 5 million cases of the coronavirus and 162,000 deaths Saturday, Trump called for up to $400 extra in weekly unemployment payments, one-third less than the $600 people had been receiving. Congress allowed those payments to end August 1, and talks to extend them fell apart Friday, with the White House and Democrats far apart on relief aid.

"This is the money they need, this is the money they want, this gives them an incentive to go back to work," Trump said of the smaller jobless benefits during a news conference at his private country club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

He said 25 percent of it would be paid by states, whose budgets have been hard hit by the crisis. The president wants to set aside $44 billion in previously approved aid to help states pay the larger jobless benefits, but it would be up to states to decide how much, if any, to use, so the benefits could be smaller still. The previous unemployment benefit was fully funded by Washington.

"Donald Trump is trying to distract from his failure to extend the $600 federal boost for 30 million unemployed workers by issuing illegal executive orders," Oregons Sen. Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said. "This scheme is a classic Donald Trump con: playacting at leadership while robbing people of the support they desperately need."

Payroll taxes

The president is also suspending payroll taxes for workers who make less than $100,000 through the end of the year. Unemployed workers, who do not pay the tax because they arent collecting a paycheck, wont benefit. The taxes, 7 percent for employees, pay for Medicare and Social Security and will need to be paid eventually unless Congress acts, but there is bipartisan opposition to this on Capitol Hill.

"This fake tax cut would also be a big shock to workers who thought they were getting a tax cut when it was only a delay," Wyden said. "These workers would be hit with much bigger payments down the road."

Finally, the president said he was extending protections for tenants threatened with eviction and further delaying student loans payments and zero percent interest on federally financed loans.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden called the orders a "series of half-baked measures" and accused Trump of putting Social Security "at grave risk" by delaying the collection of payroll taxes that pay for the program.

However, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a statement Saturday, Struggling Americans need action now. Since Democrats have sabotaged backroom talks with absurd demands that would not help working people, I support President Trump exploring his options to get unemployment benefits and other relief to the people who need them the most.

At an impasse

Negotiations between top congressional Democrats and the White House reached an impasse after nearly two weeks with the two sides about $2 trillion apart.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer had offered to cut their $3.4 trillion aid package by almost one-third if the Republicans would double their $1 trillion counteroffer. That $1 trillion package faces opposition by about 20 of the Senates 54 Republicans.

Todays meager announcements by the President show President Trump still does not comprehend the seriousness or the urgency of the health and economic crises facing working families, Pelosi and Schumer said in a statement Saturday.

These policy announcements provide little real help to families. Furthermore, these announcements do nothing to increase testing, nothing to reopen schools, nothing to put food on the table for hungry families, nothing to prevent heroes being laid off across state and local government, nothing to protect the Postal Service or the integrity of our elections, nothing on many critical needs of the American people.

The breakdown in the negotiations between the White House and congressional Democrats is particularly distressing for schools, which have been counting on billions of dollars from Washington to help with the costs of reopening. But other priorities, not addressed in Trumps actions Saturday, are also languishing, including a fresh round of $1,200 direct payments to most people, a cash infusion for the struggling Postal Service and money to help states hold elections in November.

Four coronavirus rescue bills amounting to nearly $3 trillion all won bipartisan approval, but conservatives have recoiled at the prospect of another agreement with a whopping deficit-financed cost.

Originally posted here:

Trump Takes Executive Action on Economic Relief Package - Voice of America

Supporters and protesters lined the streets to greet President Trump during his visit to Long Branch for a fundrasier on Aug. 9, 2020. Asbury Park Press

LONG BRANCH President Donald Trump arrived here shortly before 5 p.m. for a private fundraising event on Ocean Avenue.

Marine One, the helicopter that transports the president, touched down at Elberon Park at 4:47 p.m. A motorcade then escorted Trump to a private home on Ocean Avenue in the city's Elberon section. The home belonged to the lateStanley Chera, a friend of Trump's who died in April due to complications of COVID-19.

Admission to the fundraiser cost supporters between $5,600 and $250,000, with perks including photo opportunities and a seat at a roundtable discussion with the president.Trump departed the event shortly after 7 p.m.

In a video tweeted out by Jewish Insider, Trump promises the sitting crowd of supporters some of whom rise to their feet that the White House will reach some sort of agreement with Iran within a month of Election Day if he wins re-election.

"If we win, we will have a deal with Iran within four weeks," he says in the video.

Tensions between the U.S. and Iran have gradually increased since Trump withdrew the United States from a 2015 nuclear deal and reimposed sanctions that restricted Iranian oil exports and brought the Iranian economy to a halt. In January, a U.S. drone strike killed Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad.

Iran responded by firing ballistic missiles at U.S. forces in Iraq.

On Friday, National Counterintelligence and Security Center director William Evanina said Iran "seeks to undermine U.S. democratic institutions, President Trump, and to divide the country in advance of the 2020 elections.

Other videos from the fundraiser show Trump and the crowd being blessed by a group of rabbis, as well as his introduction by Haim Chera son of Stanley Chera.

In one video tweeted by Jewish news website Belaaz, Haim Chera refers to Trump as "the greatest president in our country's history" and thanks him for his friendship after his father's death.

In the video, Haim Chera also propulgates a popular conspiracy theory that the COVID-19 may have been "maliciously released" by the Chinese government.

None of the fundraiser guests, who appear to be packed in under an outdoor tent, appear to be wearing face coverings in the video.

"You are fighting a war against an invisible enemy, recklessly or maliciously released onto our shores from China, and you still made time to offer your assistance to us," Haim Chera said in the video.

Opponents and supporters of Trump gathered on Ocean Avenue, about one block south of the Chera compound, where a pair of heavy-duty green and gray public works trucks served as a barricade.

At 2 p.m., hours before Trump's anticipated arrival, protesters for and against his administration squared offoneither side of South Lincoln Avenue, trading chants "Dump Trump!" and "Four more years!"

Supporters and protesters gathered in Elberon on Sunday, Aug. 9, and begun marching to Ocean Avenue where, sometime before 5 p.m., President Donald Trump is expected to arrivefor a fundraiser with New Jersey supporters.(Photo: Mike Davis/Asbury Park Press)

"They have their own fundraiserdown the road. What do they need us for," said Summitresident Jill LaZare, aDeal native and former Assembly candidate who organized the anti-Trump protest.

WHAT WE KNOW: President Trump schedules fundraiser in Elberon

"A lot of these people have been yelling 'we don't want you here,' and I want to make sure it's clear that there are a lot of people in this area who do not support Trump, and are outraged by his presidency on so many different levels," LaZare said.

LaZare and about 50 other protesters were gathered on a small field on one side of the street, flanked by the infamous "Baby Trump" balloon, a caricature of the president that has made appearances at various protests and events over the last few years.

Jack Gavin drove to the protest from his home in West Caldwell to help set up the Baby Trump balloon and pass out pocked-sized copies of the Constitution, a practice he said was inspired by Gold Star father Khizr Khan, who offered to lend Trump a copy at the 2016 Democratic National Convention.

Its an important thing to educate everyone I can about what the Constitution says and does not say and the importance of it especially when it comes to checks and balances, Gavin said. Donald Trump is walking all over checks and balances and the Republican Senate is doing nothing to stop it.

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At 4 p.m., police told protest organizers to take the balloon down at the order of the U.S. Secret Service, LaZare said.

On the other side of the street were about 25 counter-protesters, stacked two or three deep and waving an American flag, a "blue line" flag and a Trump 2020 campaign flag.

Rafi King, a police chaplain, spent the first half-hour chanting "Trump 2020" and "blue lives matter" into a megaphone before police instructed him to put it away. LaZare said her group wasn't allowed to use one, and asked police to enforce that rule on the counter-protesters.

Supporters and protesters gathered in Elberon on Sunday, Aug. 9, and begun marching to Ocean Avenue where, sometime before 5 p.m., President Donald Trump is expected to arrive for a fundraiser with New Jersey supporters.(Photo: Mike Davis/Asbury Park Press)

There were hints of outrage, but never violence. Anti-Trump protesters swarmed a luxury car, with New York plates, exchanging obscene hand gestures after unknown words were exchanged.

Vic Hara, 61, of Oakhurst said he voted for Trump in the last election and would do so again. Hara, who is Jewish, also supports the presidents pro-Israel actions.

He shows respect for the country, he said. We were losing ourrespect as a country.

My man Donald Trump, I supported him in the last election. Im supporting him in this election," said another Trump supporter, Ray Antoky, 73, of Long Branchs West End section. "He made America great again, and hes going to do it again.

Trump supporters Vic Hara, of the Oakhurst section of Ocean Township (left) with Ray Antoky , of Long Branchs West End, on Ocean Avenue in Long Branch ahead of the president's visit on Aug. 9, 2020.(Photo: Amanda Oglesby)

Antoky said he likes Trumps fight against the Deep State and fake press. The president cares about employment and people, he said. Antoky, who is Jewish, said he likes Trump for being pro-Israel.

And one anti-Trump protester made the mistake of arriving at the protest on the wrong side of the street. The crowd of pro-Trump protesters swarmed her, at one point ripping one of her homemade posters in half.

They ripped it up, said the woman, a local resident who declined to give her name. That was uncalled for. There was no reason for him to do that.

The anti-Trump protesters displayed hand-written signs while the pro-Trump group waved the American flag, along with a blue lives matter and Trump 2020 campaign flag.

Chera, 77, had relocated to his Elberon home in late March but was admitted to New York Presbyterian Hospital with the novel coronavirus a short while later. He died on April 11.

When you send a friend to the hospital, and you call up to find out how is he doing it happened to me, where he goes to the hospital, he says goodbye, Trump said during a March press briefing, referring to Chera. "And you call up the next day: 'How's he doing? And hes in a coma? This is not the flu.

In Elberon, barely any of the pro-Trump protesters was wearing a face mask, despite both doctors encouragingand state law requiring people to doo so in order to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Their unencumbered chants ofget a job and four more years" occasionally drowned out the "dump Trump" and "show me what democracy looks like" chants of the masked anti-Trump protesters, who instead displayed their hand-made posters.

"162,000+ dead," one sign read. "Are we winning?"

Mike Davis has spent the last decade covering New Jersey local news, marijuana legalization, transportation and basically whatever else is going on at any given moment. Contact him atmdavis@gannettnj.comor@byMikeDavison Twitter.

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Continued here:

Trump to Long Branch fundraiser crowd: 'Deal with Iran within four weeks' if-relected - Asbury Park Press

Nobody likes me.

Truth or Consequences is the name of a town in New Mexico, and of a game show dating from the 1940s. But its also one of the primal laws of existence. Where an important truth is denied, consequences follow.

So none of us can be surprised at the state of the union after seven months of Donald Trumps lies, alibis and magical thinking in the face of one of the worst public health crises in history. Almost 160,000 of us are dead, the U.S. economy just endured its worst quarter on record and there is no sign the disaster is going to abate any time soon. To the contrary, the federal government is adding to the list of red zone states i.e., states where the COVID-19 infection rate continues to climb. Twenty-one states nearly half the country now make the list, including Florida, Tennessee, Texas and Mississippi.

And it should be lost on none of us that the red zone states are also mostly red states. Nineteen of the 21 California and Nevada are the outliers went for Trump in 2016. Red states, not to put too fine a point on it, are those wed expect to be most susceptible to his lies, alibis and magical thinking and most resistant to masks and social distancing.

Again, this is no surprise. As has been noted repeatedly in this space, truth doesnt care about your feelings. Unfortunately, Trump doesnt care about truth, so on behalf of 330 million of us, he chose consequences instead. And this country will be years in recovering, if it ever does.

All of which lends to a sense of astonishment at the morose monologue quoted above. It came during a news conference, called ostensibly to provide an update on the nations fight against the coronavirus pandemic. But the briefing also offered a squirm-inducing glimpse into Trumps fragile psyche as he ruminated over the fact that Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the face of his coronavirus task force, is more popular than he is.

It sort of is curious, Trump said. A man works for us and yet theyre highly thought of and nobody likes me. It can only be my personality. And Lord, what to say about that?

It was pathetic, the miserableness of an unloved boy poking through the braggadocio of a 74-year-old man.

It was amazing, this most reality-resistant of men publicly conceding this most humiliating of facts.

It was sickening, almost 160,000 people dead, the nation in chaos, and yet, he cant see beyond his own envy.

And it was revealing, testament to a failure of self-awareness more epic than Greek tragedy.

Consider that shortly before the briefing, Trump retweeted the crackpot theories of some woman who claims, despite expert consensus to the contrary, that hydroxychloroquine can cure COVID-19. Mind you, she also believes doctors use alien DNA to treat patients, and researchers are creating a vaccine to stop people from being religious.

Called on his decision to amplify this woman, Trump insisted she is very respected. And also that I know nothing about her. Yet he muses that nobody likes him and it must be his personality?

Well, yeah. That, his imbecility and his utter inability to feel or even fake compassion for other human beings.

Nobody likes me. Boo hoo.

He denied the truth, and thats one of the consequences. Here are some of the others: People are sick, people are dying, people are losing their homes, people are losing their businesses, the country is unraveling. So Trumps operatic self-pity is a bridge way too far.

If anyone has compassion to spend, there are 330 million people who deserve it more.

Excerpt from:

Here are 160000 reasons why nobody likes Donald Trump - Lewiston Morning Tribune

This is the kind of stuff that confuses people.

What won't help is the major delay in results for some primary races in New York, people not receiving ballots for Tuesday's primary in Michigan and other snarls and hiccups we've seen through the primary season.

Colorado, Washington and Oregon have conducted vote-by-mail elections in the past. Hawaii and Utah had planned to hold a vote-by-mail election before the pandemic struck.

I talked to Elaine Kamarck, a senior fellow at Brookings and the founder of their Center on Effective Public Management.

Our conversation, conducted by phone and slightly edited for flow, is below.

Suppressing his own vote!

WHAT MATTERS: What's the first thing people need to know about the current debate over mail-in voting?

KAMARCK: People including the President until recently conflate what are called universal mail-in ballot states with absentee ballot systems.

There are only seven states in the United States that are going to use universal mail-in ballots for the November election.

They are Washington, Oregon, Utah, Colorado, California, Hawaii and the District of Columbia. All the ones we give As to.

First of all, the President has gotten into his head that somehow these states are corrupt and this system is corrupt. Not one of these states has had an allegation of corruption. Not one. Oregon has used this for 20 years and hasn't had a contested election, so I don't know where the hell he's getting that from.

The rest of the states in the union have absentee ballot provisions. Every state has absolutely valid provisions And as you saw from our map some are easier to access than others. That's why we graded them from A to F.

What he's doing is he's suppressing his own goddamn vote! It's just the stupidest thing I have ever seen in my life.

Be ready for election night to last a month

WHAT MATTERS: What's one thing everyone needs to be ready for as a result of all the mail-in voting?

KAMARCK: It sets us up for a very long election night or election week.

Because what's going to happen is the vote on election night may or may not -- probably will not -- be reflective of the total vote ...

Twenty states are now accepting absentee ballots that arrive as late as 10 days after Election Day.

So in other words, they have to be postmarked on Election Day. But if they arrive five days, six days, seven days later, they're going to be counted.

And this, this is a new wrinkle. Usually you have 1 to 5% of ballots are absentee ballots. Usually it doesn't make a difference in the outcome of the race. ... My guess is we're going to have 50% absentee ballots. That's my estimate from what happened in the primaries, is we're going to 50/50.

Can the states handle this?

WHAT MATTERS: Is the US able to handle a massive uptick in vote by mail?

KAMARCK: Yes it is. And the reason it is is that every state has had a practice run in the primary.

So they are working hard on this. Now, handling it now it may take longer to count these things, but they are able to handle it.

KAMARCK: We looked at a series of variables that all related to ease of voting absentee. And, for instance, there were some states that require you to have a notary notarize your absentee ballot. Well if there's no need to do that -- and obviously as you can imagine tracking down the notary is a big pain in the neck whenever you have to do it and that's very bad -- that definitely cuts down on absolutely valid use. Many states are moving away from that. There's only a handful of states that do that. But we took points off.

We had a point system, we took points off if you had to have a notary. And we gave points if all you needed was the signature of a registered voter.

Is the system safe?

WHAT MATTERS: How is the system secure if it simply requires a signature?

KAMARCK: States match signatures. They've got a signature on your voter registration, which they keep on file. Some states actually have technology that matches signatures ...

And this is another place where Trump is out of his mind. The ballots are usually printed county by county. They're on specific kinds of paper. They're in a specific format. Sometimes they've got barcodes on them. In other words, the notion that somebody could go out and massively create a bunch of fake ballots and send them to fake voters who weren't real people who didn't have signatures that matched their voter registration. That's really hard ...

So this whole notion that this is vulnerable to fraud just doesn't hold water.

Prior to the pandemic the biggest worry about our election apparatus was that Russians or other foreigners would hack into the election systems and alter the vote.

Ironically, before the election, 22 states had moved to adopt paper ballots so that there could be a verifiable paper trail in the case of a recount.

As we move now to all absentee ballots, essentially we have a really, really good paper trail because it's an absentee ballot with a signature, etcetera etcetera.

It's hard to hack into that. Absentee ballots are counted in large rooms, which are secured by guards in the state capital or the state election board headquarters. So Boris may find it easy to hack into the transmission of results. He's not going to find it very easy to get in the damn room where they're counting the ballots.

Who is allowed in that room? Election officials and a representative of each political party.

It's not like, you know, they're going to let the Republican in the room and keep the Democrat out, right?

Those representatives of political parties are usually lawyers and they are armed to the gills to run right to court. And they're gonna run right to court the minute anything funny shows up.

This will not be flawless

WHAT MATTERS: In Michigan, in New York, in Connecticut and elsewhere, vote by mail has not been flawless in the primary process. Should people be worried about those problems that we've seen with ballots not arriving on time, or should they just accept that as a part of the new system?

KAMARCK: Well I think the answer is yes and no. The bad news is that every state is going to be going through a volume of ballots that they've never had before. So for many, many states this is going to be all brand new and stuff is gonna happen, right? There will be ballots that are arriving late, etcetera ...

The good news is that the the primaries were a dry run. And states learned things in the primaries. One of the most important things they learned is that ... you have to have some sort of backup system.

Provisional ballots. In some states, the people realize you need to have more in-person voting places than they thought they needed. So say you apply for your absentee ballot and you don't get it by Election Day.

You need to be able to go to a polling place and vote, and one of the things that happened in so many states in the primaries was that they didn't have enough polling places because they saw the volume of absentee ballot requests and then they thought, 'Oh we don't need a lot of voting places.'

Well it turns out they maybe didn't need as many as they usually do. But they needed a heck of a lot more than they had because people ... who didn't get their ballots wanted to go vote in person.

Let's say Covid had just hit in August. Then we really wouldn't be very prepared for this. At least we're a little bit better prepared.

Can the US Postal Service handle this?

WHAT MATTERS: What's your assessment of whether the Postal Service can deal with this deluge of ballots?

KAMARCK: I think it will be slow. I think there will be -- it'll take time to get ballots in.

I think a lot of people who know who they're going to vote for are going to vote early to make sure that their ballot gets in.

The second thing we see states doing -- and we're up 20 states now -- they are accepting valid ballots after Election Day. And that is specifically to account for this problem. ... And we gave them good grades obviously for doing that.

So that's one adjustment. My expectation is that more states are gonna adopt that so that if the mail is slow, they'll still get their ballots counted.

Election Day starts in one month

KAMARCK: Well it's too late for North Carolina. But no, it's not too late for states to make changes. And one of the reasons we're updating our score card every Friday is because states are in fact making changes, you know, as we speak. I'd say there's probably another month or so for states to make changes and then it's pretty locked in.

The other thing that's going on by the way is there are a lot of court cases. So the Republican National Committee has been fighting this, trying to follow in Trump's footsteps, although they've not been very successful. ... I think the courts need to act expeditiously and make decisions here so that come around Labor Day everybody knows how to vote in their given state.

The media's special responsibility

WHAT MATTERS: Is there anything else you think people need to know?

KAMARCK: I'll tell you this one last thing.

I think it is very important that the media not set expectations that we're gonna have everything decided on election night.

Because frankly, if they try to call this too fast and then the absentee ballots change and the outcome changes in some state or the election is close, then it plays right into the hands of the conspiracy theorists, including the President, who is trying to argue that the election is going to be wrecked and incorrect.

And so the media plays a big role here ... the worst thing the media can do is jump to conclusions. If it's really clear, if it's a landslide, then they probably can call it on election night. But short of that, they've got to be really careful about calling the election.

Originally posted here:

Trump may finally realize he's suppressing his own vote - CNN