‘Existential Threat to Our Democracy’: Trump Refuses to Commit to Accepting 2020 Election Results

‘Existential Threat to Our Democracy’: Trump Refuses to Commit to Accepting 2020 Election Results

“A dangerous affront to our democratic system and a slide toward totalitarianism. We cannot take this lightly.”

by Jake Johnson

In a Fox News interview that aired Sunday, President Donald Trump repeatedly refused to commit to accepting the results of the 2020 presidential election and baselessly claimed mail-in voting is going to “rig” the contest—remarks one advocacy group condemned as an “insidious” attack on democracy.

“I have to see,” Trump said when asked by Fox News host Chris Wallace whether he intends to accept the election results. “No, I’m not gonna just say yes. I’m not gonna say it, and I didn’t last time either.”

Sean Eldridge, founder and president of Stand Up America, said in a statement that Trump’s comments show “he is an existential threat to our democracy and has no respect for the rule of law.”

“For five years, Trump has sought to undermine our elections again and again—from soliciting foreign interference to making baseless claims about voter fraud to lying about the results of the 2016 election,” said Eldridge. “Today’s comments are an escalation in these attacks on our democracy and show the insidious ways in which Trump is working to sow doubt about the outcome of this election before votes are even cast.”

“The American people must be prepared to mobilize if Trump refuses to concede,” Eldridge added.

Watch the president’s remarks:

Noah Bookbinder, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, tweeted that “it was not okay four years ago when Donald Trump said he might not accept the results of the election.”

“When he says that now as president, it is a dangerous affront to our democratic system and a slide toward totalitarianism,” Bookbinder wrote. “We cannot take this lightly.”

Last month, Stand Up America and Indivisible launched a grassroots campaign to prepare for the possibility of Trump rejecting the election results and refusing to leave office if he loses in November. The campaign is aiming to “build a network of millions of Americans who pledge to take action should Trump refuse to accept the results or if he attempts to declare victory while the actual outcome remains unclear.”

Ahead of the 2016 presidential contest, Trump told his supporters that he “will totally accept the results of this great and historic presidential election… if I win.” Since entering the White House in 2017, Trump has repeatedly floated the idea of remaining in office for more than eight years.

“We have no reason to believe he will leave willingly after losing reelection,” said Ezra Levin, co-founder and co-executive director of Indivisible. “Preparing for the possibility of Trump refusing to concede isn’t just reasonable, it’s the responsible thing to do.”

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Source: ‘Existential Threat to Our Democracy’: Trump Refuses to Commit to Accepting 2020 Election Results | Common Dreams News

White House Pushes ‘Pure Giveaway’ to Rich Investors While Urging Cut to Pandemic Unemployment Aid

White House Pushes ‘Pure Giveaway’ to Rich Investors While Urging Cut to Pandemic Unemployment Aid

Recipients of the enhanced unemployment benefit could see the aid slashed by more than 50% under a plan being discussed by the Trump administration and GOP

By Jake Johnson

The Trump White House is publicly advocating a massive tax cut for wealthy U.S. investors while simultaneously urging Congress to pare back the expanded unemployment benefits currently serving as a financial lifeline for more than 30 million—and counting—jobless Americans.

“Regarding the ‘capital gains holiday,’ remember this key stat: 82% of all capital gains tax is paid by the richest 1%. A capital gains tax holiday is a pure giveaway to the rich.”
—Michael Linden, Groundwork Collaborative

In an interview on Fox Business Monday, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said President Donald Trump wants included in the next Covid-19 stimulus package “a payroll tax holiday”—which critics warn is a stealth attack on Social Security—and a reduction in the capital gains tax.

A levy on profits from the sale of assets, the capital gains tax disproportionately affects the wealthy and most of the benefits of any cut would largely be enjoyed by rich investors.

Slashing the capital gains tax is a longtime goal of congressional Republicans and Trump, who last year considered but ultimately abandoned a legally dubious plan to lower the tax with an executive order.

While stressing that formal talks with Congress on the next stimulus package have not yet begun, Kudlow said the administration is also pushing for “reforms” to the $600-per-week boost in unemployment insurance (UI) payments, which he characterized as excessively generous “disincentives” to work.

The benefits are set to expire at the end of the month without action from Congress.

“So the White House position is that we have to cut the incomes of 30 million people who lost their jobs or who lost hours, while also giving a giant tax cut to the biggest corporations and the richest people in the world,” tweeted Michael Linden, executive director of the Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive think tank.

“Regarding the ‘capital gains holiday,’ remember this key stat: 82% of all capital gains tax is paid by the richest 1%,” Linden added. “A capital gains tax holiday is a pure giveaway to the rich.”

The Washington Post reported Tuesday that after previously urging complete expiration of the enhanced unemployment benefits, “Trump administration officials have begun opening the door to accepting a narrower version of what Congress previously approved.”

“One potential compromise discussed by Republican lawmakers would involve cutting the unemployment benefit from $600 per week to between $200 and $400 per week and making up at least part of the difference by sending another round of $1,200 stimulus payments,” the Post reported.

Trump spokesman Judd Deere told the Post that the White House is open to approving a reduction in the current weekly UI payments but remains opposed to extending the full $600-per-week.

“UI reform is a priority for this White House in any phase four package and we are in ongoing discussions with the Hill,” said Deere.

Julia Wolfe, state economic analyst with the Economic Policy Institute, warned in a blog post last week that if Congress fails to extend the enhanced unemployment benefits through next year, “it could cost us more than five million jobs and $500 million in personal income.”

“We should despair for the millions who have lost their jobs and for their families,” Wolfe wrote, “and our top priority as a country should be protecting the health and safety of workers and our broader communities by paying workers to stay home when possible, whether that means working from home some or all of the time, using paid leave, or claiming UI benefits.”

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Source: White House Pushes ‘Pure Giveaway’ to Rich Investors While Urging Cut to Pandemic Unemployment Aid | Common Dreams News

‘Alarming’: Some Small Businesses Received Just $1 in Covid-19 Relief Loans as Kushner Family, Wall Street Investors Raked in Millions

‘Alarming’: Some Small Businesses Received Just $1 in Covid-19 Relief Loans as Kushner Family, Wall Street Investors Raked in Millions

“Serious questions remain about whether PPP funds were equitably distributed to minority-owned businesses, and there is an alarming rate of small-dollar loans.”

By Jake Johnson

The Kushner family, large chains backed by private equity, Wall Street investors, Kanye West, members of Congress, and the law firm that represented President Donald Trump during the Mueller probe were among the thousands of beneficiaries of a Covid-19 relief program aimed at rescuing struggling small businesses and keeping workers employed, according to new federal data released Monday.

While the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) data disclosure reveals just a fraction of recipients of forgivable Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans, critics voiced concern that large, wealthy firms were able to readily access millions of dollars in relief funds as more vulnerable companies frequently received less money than they applied for—or nothing at all.

“We cannot allow those small businesses that were grossly underfunded or disadvantaged by the program to disappear and not have their stories told and rectified.”
—John Arensmeyer, Small Business Majority

“Serious questions remain about whether PPP funds were equitably distributed to minority-owned businesses, and there is an alarming rate of small-dollar loans,” John Arensmeyer, founder and CEO of advocacy group Small Business Majority, said in a statement. “Nationally, a total of more than 21,800 small businesses, many with multiple employees, received a loan for under $1,000.”

“To raise eyebrows even more,” Arensmeyer added, “more than 1,200 of those businesses received less than $100—with some receiving loans as low as $1.00! Underfunding has been a pervasive problem for borrowers since PPP launched.”

As the American Prospect‘s David Dayen pointed out on Twitter, it’s not as if the $660 billion program was not sufficiently funded to provide small businesses with the relief they requested. At the previous PPP loan application deadline on June 30, more than $130 billion in funding remained in the tank. Last month, Congress extended the application deadline to August 8.

“The problem, in other words, is the incompetent filtering of the program through private sector banks because we’ve hollowed out public sector benefit delivery,” wrote Dayen.

The SBA’s disclosure—which included only the names of beneficiaries who received at least $150,000 in PPP funding—came in response to widespread outrage over the Trump administration’s effort to keep information about loan recipients secret.

A searchable database of PPP beneficiaries can be viewed here.

As the Washington Post reported, “companies owned by the family of Jared Kushner… received several PPP loans. Princeton Forrestal LLC, a Kushner Cos. affiliate that bought the Princeton Marriott Hotel in 2018, received a loan of between $1 million and $2 million.”

“Companies that appear to match those associated with two Trump cabinet officials also received PPP loans,” according to the Post. “A company with a name matching one listed on the 2017 financial disclosure of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos received at least $6 million.”

Meanwhile, Arensmeyer of Small Business Majority said around 25% of the companies in his group’s network “have reported receiving a lower loan than what they requested.”

“While many business owners received no explanation for why they did not receive the full loan amount,” Arensmeyer added, “a number of other businesses have reported that lenders and the SBA either failed to catch and rectify errors on applications, or businesses were told to accept less than what they would qualify for to move things through the process quickly.”

“The survival of America’s small businesses depends on the full disclosure of PPP’s successes and failures,” said Arensmeyer. “Sunlight has always been the best disinfectant, and we cannot allow those small businesses that were grossly underfunded or disadvantaged by the program to disappear and not have their stories told and rectified.”

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Source: ‘Alarming’: Some Small Businesses Received Just $1 in Covid-19 Relief Loans as Kushner Family, Wall Street Investors Raked in Millions | Common Dreams News