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Trump Finalizes Rule Defining Gender as a Person’s Biological Sex

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The Trump administration on Friday finalized a regulation that defines gender as a person’s biological sex, reversing an Obama-era rule aimed at protecting transgender people against sex discrimination in health care.

The Health and Human Services Department regulation says essentially that “gender identity” is not protected under federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in health care.

The policy shift was long sought by religious and social conservatives. The Obama administration’s regulation defined gender as a person’s internal sense of being male, female, neither or a combination.

Dr. Grazie Pozo Christie, policy adviser for The Catholic Association, praised the move. She said preventing “discrimination on the basis of sex” was intended “to ensure that women are treated on a par with men.”

“Changing the definition of sex to mean ‘gender identity’ and to include unfettered access to abortion would not have protected the vulnerable,” she said. “Instead, it would have made it impossible for doctors to decline to perform ethically problematic procedures (like late-term abortion) and experimental and dangerous ones (like the removal of healthy organs from young patients with gender dysphoria.) Getting the government out of the business of social engineering, and out of the way of sound medical ethics and patient care is a step forward.” (Read more from “Trump Finalizes Rule Defining Gender as a Person’s Biological Sex” HERE)

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Twitter Places Ban on Trump Campaign Account

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Twitter temporarily banned the Trump 2020 campaign from tweeting on their social media platform until they deleted a video about the coronavirus on Wednesday.

Liz Kelley, a spokesperson for Twitter, told the Washington Post that the video was “is in violation of the Twitter Rules on COVID-19 misinformation.” . . .

The Trump Team tweet contained a video of President Donald Trump from an interview with Fox News where he said that children were “almost immune” from the coronavirus.

Facebook also took down a post from the president about children contracting coronavirus on Wednesday.

“This video includes false claims that a group of people is immune from COVID-19 which is a violation of our policies around harmful COVID misinformation,” said Andy Stone, a spokesperson for Facebook. (Read more from “Twitter Places Ban on Trump Campaign Account” HERE)

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President Trump Is Encouraging This State to Vote by Mail; Trump, Democrats Both Hold Fears About U.S. Postal Service, Mail-In Ballots

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By Fox News. President Trump tweeted Tuesday afternoon that Florida voters should vote by mail this November, claiming that there is nothing to worry about in terms of security.

The president has generally railed against mail-in voting, claiming that Democrats are going to take advantage of the system to commit fraud and rig the election against him. At this point, however, he appears confident that this will not be the case in the Sunshine State. . .

Some states, like Maryland, are mailing absentee ballot applications to voters rather than the ballots themselves. A common practice, this process requires voters to provide personal information in order to get a ballot. What is new is states mailing ballots to voters unprompted, which has caused concerns over how states decide who to send them to. Trump on Monday threatened legal action against a universal mail-in voting plan in Nevada.

Trump and other Republicans have warned that mail-in voting could lead to ballot harvesting, ballots for dead people or ballots for people who no longer live at the residence where they are sent being fraudulently filled out. Additional concerns include ballots being lost in the mail and disenfranchising voters. (Read more from “President Trump Is Encouraging This State to Vote by Mail” HERE)

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Trump, Democrats Both Hold Fears About U.S. Postal Service, Mail-In Ballots

By The Hill. The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is under intense partisan scrutiny from both President Trump and Democratic lawmakers, who are warning the agency is ill-equipped to handle the tens of millions of mailed-in ballots expected to be sent for the November election.

Many states have moved to expand access to mail balloting in an effort to reduce in-person voting amid the coronavirus pandemic, leading to growing concerns that Postal Service delays could draw the vote count out for days or weeks past Election Day.

There are fears that ballots that are late, missing or disqualified for small irregularities will lead to lawsuits and questions about the integrity of the elections.

The coronavirus pandemic has hampered post office operations and led to delays in mail delivery. The Postal Service faces serious financial pressures, and Congress is at odds over whether to provide additional assistance, even as it handles more shipments. (Read more from “Trump, Democrats Both Hold Fears About U.S. Postal Service, Mail-In Ballots” HERE)

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Trump Appropriately Argues COVID Stat Pushed by Axios is Irrelevant: ‘You Can’t Do That’ (VIDEO)

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(See editor’s note, below)

By National Review. President Trump argued that the number of COVID deaths per capita is irrelevant and pointed to the number of deaths in proportion to cases as a sign that the U.S. is doing well in its battle against the virus during an interview with “Axios on HBO” Monday.

“I’m talking about death as a proportion of population,” Axios’ Jonathan Swan told the president. “That’s where the U.S. is really bad. Much worse than South Korea, Germany, etc.”

“You can’t do that,” Trump responded, adding that the data should “go by the cases.”

“It’s surely a relevant statistic to say if the U.S. has X population and X percentage of death of that population vs. South Korea,” Swan pushed back, citing reporting from Seoul showing 300 deaths out of the country’s population of 51 million. . .

“You don’t know that,” Trump said in response to South Korea’s numbers, leading Swan to ask the president if he believes the country is faking its statistics. (Read more from “Trump Argues Irrelevant COVID Stat: ‘You Can’t Do That'” HERE)

(Editor’s note: Trump got it right. The more COVID testing that is done, the more known COVID deaths a nation will have. If you don’t test, you don’t have reported COVID deaths. So comparing the U.S. per capita COVID death rate to countries that test far less is an absolutely unfair comparison)

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Trump Weighs Executive Action as Negotiations Progress on Next Coronavirus Stimulus Package

By USA Today. The president on Monday said he was weighing executive action as Congress and the White House struggle to break the impasse over another emergency relief package to counter the coronavirus’ impact on U.S. families and the economy.

Negotiators on Monday signaled they’d made progress hashing out differences between Republican and Democratic proposals for the next stimulus package, though a deal remains far out out of reach and millions of unemployed Americans remain in financial limbo after a $600 weekly unemployment benefit expired on Friday.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Congress’ top Democrats, met again Monday with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin for several hours, where they examined the competing proposals and went through specific dollar amounts in various areas in the two bills. . .

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump on Monday floated the possibility of taking unilateral action if a deal could not be made with Democrats, claiming he has the power to step in and curtail Congress should there be a need. The president specifically noted the moratorium on housing evictions that recently expired.

“A lot of people are going to be evicted but I’m going to stop it because I’ll do it myself if I have to,” Trump said at the White House. “I have a lot of powers with respect to executive orders and we’re looking at that very seriously right now.” (Read more from “Trump Weighs Executive Action as Negotiations Progress on Next Coronavirus Stimulus Package” HERE)

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On New Voter Registration in Key States, Trump Is Blowing Biden Out of the Water

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While polling continues to show President Trump behind Biden in key swing states, new voter registration numbers are telling a different story about his chances to win re-election in November.

According to Axios, the RNC continues to register more voters than the Democrat Party in places where it will matter most.

The Trump campaign and RNC have now registered 100,000 new voters in the 2020 cycle, more than doubling their numbers from 2016 and shrinking Democrats’ registration advantage in key swing states, according to new Trump Victory data provided exclusively to Axios.

The Trump campaign and RNC have now registered 100,000 new voters in the 2020 cycle, more than doubling their numbers from 2016 and shrinking Democrats’ registration advantage in key swing states, according to new Trump Victory data provided exclusively to Axios.

(Read more from “On New Voter Registration in Key States, Trump Is Blowing Biden Out of the Water” HERE)

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CNN Host Says He Doesn’t Believe the Polls After Previously Mocking Trump for Criticizing ‘Fake Polls’ (VIDEO)

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CNN anchor Chris Cuomo said in an interview that he didn’t trust the polling showing Joe Biden ahead of President Donald Trump after previously mocking the president for stating the identical opinion. . .

“Biden is up. Michigan was huge for the president, Trump, in terms of winning, uh has a large number of white working class people that is supposed to be his stronghold,” Cuomo said.

“We’ve seen in the polls, you know, you’re too busy you’re not doing poll analysis, he is losing those white voters,” he continued. “Biden is gaining there most of all. And now Trump has pulled the ads. What do you think is going on with the pandemic politics in Michigan?”

Whitmer said that Michigan was going to be a competitive race despite the sign from the Trump campaign that they were going to devote fewer resources to the key swing state.

“See, I’m with you! I don’t believe the polls!” Cuomo responded.

(Read more from “CNN Host Says He Doesn’t Believe the Polls After Previously Mocking Trump for Criticizing ‘Fake Polls'” HERE)

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FBI Officials Allegedly Hid Copies of ‘Key’ Documents After Trump Fired Comey

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FBI officials took pains to hide three copies of “key” documents in the days after President Trump fired Director James Comey, according to a forthcoming book.

CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin wrote about how Andrew McCabe, who had suddenly been thrust into the acting director role in May 2017, went about opening a criminal case into Trump for potential obstruction of justice.

“Given the wild pace of events, McCabe couldn’t be sure how long he’d last as director, so he wanted to lock down as much evidence as possible,” Toobin wrote in an excerpt of True Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Investigation of Donald Trump that was published by CNN on Thursday.

“Most important, he told the investigating agents to place Comey’s memos in SENTINEL, the FBI’s case management software,” Toobin wrote. “McCabe knew that once documents were inside the system, they were virtually impossible to remove. With Comey’s memos in the system, the investigators were certain to have access to them ⁠— even if McCabe himself would eventually be gone.” . . .

“Once McCabe became director, Bureau employees grew so concerned that Trump would try to shut down the investigation that they secreted at least three copies of key documents, including Comey’s memos, in remote locations around the Bureau. This was to make sure that in the event Trump directed an end to these inquiries, the documents could always be preserved, located, and shared,” Toobin wrote. (Read more from “FBI Officials Allegedly Hid Copies of ‘Key’ Documents After Trump Fired Comey” HERE)

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Clinton Aide to Biden: ‘Whatever You Do, Don’t Debate Trump’; Biden Campaign Claim He’s Agreed to Debates, Trump Hasn’t

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By News Thud. . .[Joe Lockhart] published an op-ed last week at CNN.com warning Biden that he should not debate Trump because the latter is prone to statement that fail the fact-checking test (original emphasis):

Whatever you do, don’t debate Trump. Trump has now made more than 20,000 misleading or false statements according to the Washington Post. It’s a fool’s errand to enter the ring with someone who can’t follow the rules or the truth. Biden will undoubtedly take heat from Republicans and the media for skipping the debates. But it’s worth the risk as trying to debate someone incapable of telling the truth is an impossible contest to win.

However, Biden has been criticized in past debate performances for his misstatements and outright fabrications. In a debate with Alaska Governor Sarah Palin in 2008, Biden made several false claims, including the odd claim that the United States and France had “kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon.” (Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed terrorist group with an associated political wing, is still very much there, and is a major part of Lebanon’s government.)

(Read more from “Clinton Aide to Biden: ‘Whatever You Do, Don’t Debate Trump'” HERE)

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Biden Campaign Says It Has Agreed to Debates Already, but Trump Camp Has Not

By Fox News. Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden is “very much looking forward to debating Donald Trump,” the former vice president’s campaign deputy manager and communications director Kate Bedingfield told “America’s Newsroom” on Monday.

She added that the Biden campaign has already agreed to the upcoming three presidential debates, while the Trump campaign has not. . .

Trump supporters have poked fun at the former vice president for conducting many of his interviews from home. Trump’s defenders have also speculated about Biden’s overall health and Biden’s refusal to debate could provide more cannon fodder.

When host Sandra Smith asked Bedingfield on Monday if it’s a consideration for Biden to skip the debates all together, she said, “We are very much looking forward to debating Donald Trump” and putting the candidates’ “contrasts on display.”

“I would say there is one candidate in this race who has agreed to three debates and that’s Joe Biden. The Trump campaign has actually not agreed yet to participate in the debates set by the presidential debate commission,” Bedingfield continued. (Read more from “Biden Campaign Says It Has Agreed to Debates Already, but Trump Camp Has Not” HERE)

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D.A. Is Investigating Trump Over Fraud Claims From Mainstream Media Reports

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The Manhattan district attorney’s office suggested on Monday that it had been investigating President Trump and his company for possible bank and insurance fraud, a significantly broader inquiry than the prosecutors have acknowledged in the past. . .

In the new filing, the prosecutors did not explicitly identify the matters under scrutiny in the grand jury inquiry, which by law is conducted in secret. But they said that “undisputed” assertions in earlier court papers and several news reports about Mr. Trump’s business practices showed that the office had a wide legal basis for the subpoena. . .

The prosecutors cited newspaper reports, including one that concluded the president may have illegally inflated his net worth and the value of his properties to lenders and insurers. They also included an article on the congressional testimony of his former lawyer and fixer, Michael D. Cohen, who told lawmakers last year that the president had committed insurance fraud. Lawyers for the president have denied wrongdoing. (Read more from “D.A. Is Investigating Trump Over Fraud Claims From Mainstream Media Reports” HERE)

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Trump Campaign: Election Will Not Be Delayed

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By Fox News. Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller on Sunday cleared up a major point of controversy regarding November’s presidential election, noted the significance of Joe Biden’s running mate, and rejected the notion of the campaign accepting foreign assistance.

After President Trump suggested in a recent tweet that perhaps the election should be delayed due to coronavirus because mail-in voting could expose the election to fraud, senior adviser Jason Miller assured the American public in a “Fox News Sunday” interview that this will not happen.

“The election is going to be on November 3. President Trump wants the election on November 3,” Miller said. Miller went on to say that it is Democratic governors who are trying to extend the election by pushing through mail-in voting and even extending the deadline for mailed ballots to after Election Day.

Meanwhile, Biden is expected to announce his running mate this month, and Miller noted that who he selects is of great importance, given speculation over how long Biden would remain in office if he wins in November.

“It is consequential in the fact that for Joe Biden, his VP pick is in many ways his political living will,” Miller said. “He’s already said he’s going to be a transition candidate on to the next generation. He’s refused to say that he would run for a second term, so it really does matter who is picked.” (Read more from “Trump Campaign: Election Will Not Be Delayed” HERE)

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Fox’s Wallace Presses Trump Adviser on Whether Campaign Would Accept Foreign Assistance

By The Hill. Fox News’s Chris Wallace pressed Jason Miller on Sunday about whether President Trump’s reelection campaign would accept foreign assistance in 2020, with the senior adviser ultimately declaring presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden would be beaten “fair and square.”

Miller, appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” initially called it a “silly question” and said that “the folks who have actually taken foreign assistance were the Clinton campaign,” pointing to the opposition dossier compiled by ex-British intelligence official Christopher Steele.

When Wallace pressed the matter, Miller responded, “We’re going to go beat Joe Biden fair and square here.”

“There is no foreign assistance that’s happening in this campaign,” Miller added, asking Wallace if he would ask the former vice president the same question.

“I promise if get an interview with Vice President Biden I will ask him exactly that same question,” said Wallace, who has repeatedly called for Biden to come on the show and said the Biden campaign has declined interview requests. (Read more from “Fox’s Wallace Presses Trump Adviser on Whether Campaign Would Accept Foreign Assistance” HERE)

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