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Trump escalates, breaks voting laws, and encourages others to as well; North Carolina officials outraged

North Carolina officials condemned President Trump for encouraging North Carolinians to try to vote twice, an attempt to “sow chaos” in the state’s election, according to the state attorney general.

On Wednesday, Trump told supporters in the state they should try to vote twice, once by mail and once in person, as a test of the security of the election process — and incidentally a way to have their vote counted twice if election officials mistakenly allow it.

Voting twice is illegal — as is encouraging others to do so.

“So let them [mail] it in and let them go vote, and if their system’s as good as they say it is, then obviously they won’t be able to vote. If it isn’t tabulated, they’ll be able to vote,” Trump said when asked about the mail-in system in the swing state, adding, “So that’s the way it is. And that’s what they should do.”

Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, issued a statement Thursday reminding residents that voting twice is a Class I felony.

“Attempting to vote twice in an election or soliciting someone to do so also is a violation of North Carolina law,” said Bell. “There are numerous checks in place in North Carolina that prevent people from double voting. Electronic pollbooks with information about who has already voted are used at every early voting site. If a voter tries to check in who has already voted, they will be prevented from voting a regular ballot.”

Trump’s comments Wednesday generated enough confusion that the N.C. Board of Elections issued a statement saying that it is a Class 1 felony to intentionally vote twice. The board also noted that it is illegal to solicit someone to vote twice.

In a statement, Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the board, also discouraged voters from coming to the polls on Election Day to verify that their mail-in ballots had been counted.

“The State Board office strongly discourages people from showing up at the polls on Election Day to check whether their absentee ballot was counted,” Bell said. “This is not necessary, and it would lead to longer lines and the possibility of spreading COVID-19.”

Separately, Facebook announced that it would delete a video of Trump’s original comments.

“This video violates our policies prohibiting voter fraud and we will remove it unless it is shared to correct the record,” the company said in a statement.

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Lincoln misquotes at the Republican National Convention

The Republican Convention needs non-stop fact checking. Of course there were incorrect statements at the Democratic Convention as well, but the GOP out-and-out made up statements, distortions, and lies are drowning the coverage. Fact checkers can’t keep up. They seem to just make things up as they go along.

Just a couple, about Lincoln.

Lara Trump:

“Abraham Lincoln once famously said ‘America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.’ While those words were spoken over 150 years ago, never have they been more relevant.”

Lincoln never said this. Historians agree it is an apocryphal quote. Snopes and PolitiFact have traced it to a Facebook meme that went viral last year.”

Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron:

“Lincoln said that ‘any nation that does not honor its heroes will not long endure,’” Cameron continued. “Sadly, there are some who don’t believe in this wisdom or in the better angels of our shared American history, as they tear down the statues of people like Ulysses S. Grant, Frederick Douglass and even Mr. Lincoln himself.”

Lincoln did not say that. The earliest occurrence is actually from a speech given about Lincoln in 1911 by Hugh Gordon Miller.

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Trump tries to delay election, Republicans and Democrats universally say no way

Trump is attempting to seed doubt on the democratic process itself because of his huge drop in the polls, increasingly unlikely chance at re-election, downturn in the economy, racist appeals which are backfiring, and severe mismanagement of the Covid-19 pandemic crisis.

On Thursday, Trump raised the prospect of delaying the November election because of the COVID-19 pandemic, though the president lacks the legal authority to delay elections on his own. He tweeted a complaint about potential problems with mail-in voting, a concern he has floated without citing specific evidence for months, and which Attorney General William Barr himself dismissed as baseless before Congress on Tuesday.

The U.S. Constitution requires congressional elections every two years. To hold congressional and presidential elections together, a delayed presidential election would still need to take place in 2020.

Delaying a presidential election would be unprecedented – the nation did not do so even during the Civil War and World War II.

But Trump’s tweet nevertheless drew criticism from Democrats and Republicans for again sowing doubt about the accuracy of elections.

Ari Fleischer, former spokesman for President George W. Bush, told Trump in a tweet: “Mr. President – please don’t even pretend to mess with this. It’s a harmful idea.”

Both Democrats and Republicans denounced the idea. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., tweeted the language of the U.S. Constitution at Trump: “The Congress may determine the Time of choosing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States.”

On the Republican side, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, cited the Constitution, and said “we’re a country based on a rule of law. No one is going to change anything until we change the law.” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said the Nov. 3 election should go forward. And Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said the election would be held on November 3 regardless of the situation.

Regardless, the four-year term of a president, in this case Trump, ends at noon on Jan. 20, according to the 20th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Therefore, if the presidential election were somehow not held, Trump would not continue to hold office. Instead, the new speaker of the House, or Nancy Pelosi if the Democrats maintain control, would be first in line to be acting president.

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Possible 2nd whistleblower. And what does Sanders’ hospitalization mean for the Democratic primary?

Whistleblower Update

A second intelligence official who was alarmed by Trump’s dealings with Ukraine is weighing whether to file his own formal whistle-blower complaint and testify to Congress, according to two people briefed on the matter.

The official has more direct information about the events than the first whistle-blower, whose complaint that Trump was using his power to get Ukraine to investigate his political rivals touched off an impeachment inquiry. The second official is among those interviewed by the intelligence community inspector general to corroborate the allegations of the original whistle-blower, one of the people said.

Things are spinning all over Washington at a dizzying rate.

Meanwhile with the Democrats…

With Elizabeth Warren either closing in on, or slightly passing, Joe Biden in the latest polls, what impact does Sanders’ sudden hospitalization for stent procedures have on the nomination process?

If Sanders were to withdraw, would his supporters flock to Warren? And if so, would she then become the clear leader for the candidacy?

And if Warren gets the nomination, does she have a better chance of beating Trump than Biden has? She still has yet to clarify her health insurance ideas, even though she is famous for “having a plan” for just about everything else.

There is some concern that if she sticks to the idea of abolishing private health insurance in favor of a mandatory Medicare for All that it will frighten away many voters who like the plans their unions fought for. That could be too much of a sudden upheaval for the complicated U.S. market. On the other hand, if she threads the needle too finely and supports a public option, what Buttigieg calls, “Medicare for all who want it,” and is supported by Biden, Harris, and Klobuchar, that Warren’s supporters might feel sold out. Warren apparently is still saying that she is looking at all options.

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About United News Reports

With the 2020 Election season upon us, this site has become even more important.

Previously “Trump Fact Book” this site was just about documenting Trump’s endless lies. That story has been told over and over again.

Now there is real movement away from Trump in key midwest battleground states which he barely won last time, such as Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. Those midwestern states had gone Democratic the previous 30 years, and could easily swing back again. Trump is losing among his previous supporters in those states. If even just those three states swing back, Trump will surely lose in 2020.

Thus United News Reports… We have to stick together. We have to be united. We have to end divisions and get people working together for a common cause. And we need to keep those vital midwest states in mind as we move forward and try to return decency and sanity to American politics. For everybody’s sake.

The Democratic candidate has not yet been chosen. There are some great contenders. We must unite behind the future nominee. This site will continue to shed light on the dangerous, ignorant, deranged, immature, and immoral nature of Trump as we go forward.

But more importantly, we will help unite people to defeat Trump in 2020.

And we’ll use truth, facts, and common humanity to do it!

Feel free to forward this on so we can get more subscribers. We’re just a small part of the upcoming campaign – but maybe we can make some difference. Thanks!

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Updating Trump Fact Book for the 2020 Election!

With the 2020 Election season upon us, this site has become even more important. I went back and forth in my mind what to do, because I feel it’s important to have say in what goes on during the election.

While I also created a FaceBook group, I think our own blog has its merits. People can search it. There is more social media exposure potential. People outside FaceBook can also easily participate. And who knows? We may become a “go to” site for facts about the upcoming election!

Previously, this site was just about documenting Trump’s endless lies. The records for those (11,000 lies tracked and counting) are universally available. While a core base of his supporters don’t seem to care, there is movement away from Trump in key battleground states which Trump barely won last time, such as Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. Those midwest states had gone Democratic the previous 30 years, and could easily swing again. Trump is losing badly among his previous supporters in those states right now. If even just those states swing back, Trump will surely lose.

The Democratic candidate has not yet been chosen. There are some great contenders. We must unite behind the future nominee. And this site will be here to shed light on the dangerous, ignorant, deranged, immature, feeble-minded, anti-democracy, and immoral nature of Trump as we go forward. But always with facts!

So thanks for participating going forward.