Trump news: President to name Amy Coney Barrett for Supreme Court, reports say

President to make third SCOTUS appointment on Saturday as Joe Biden dismisses election threats as ‘distraction’ from administration failures

Donald Trump claims 'low-energy' Joe Biden will need injection for debate

Donald Trump has been accused with “flirting with treason” by Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren over his refusal to commit to a peaceful transition of power should he lose November’s election to Joe Biden.

The president has claimed he was the victim of a “political hit” on the issue, accusing the US Food and Drug Administration of deliberately making approval standards more stringent for drug companies in order to delay the release of a Covid-19 vaccine until after Election Day. 

Speaking to supporters at a “black economic empowerment” event on Friday, the president accused Black Lives Matter supporters of “hurting the black community” and touted his claims to improve the lives of black Americans during his term.

The president is expected to announce his nominee to the high court on Saturday. The White House has signalled that he will nominate Amy Coney Barrett for the role, what will be his third appointment since taking office.

Mr Biden and Jill Biden visited Washington DC on Friday to attend memorials for late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who is lying in state at the US Capitol. The president and top Republicans in Congress did not attend the service.

In an interview with MSNBC on Friday, Mr Biden refused to speculate on the doomsday scenarios that legal scholars and election analysts have considered following the president’s threats to the election, insisting that the president is using fear as a distraction from his administration’s failures.

The Democratic candidate instead suggested that the rule of law will prevail and American voters will have their voice heard at the polls.

“It’s always about distraction with him,” he said.

He called the president’s attempts to undermine the results of the election “irresponsible and outrageous" and he suggested that a massive voter turnout will overwhelm the president’s claims that the results will be disputed.

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Key points:

• Report: Trump’s SCOTUS pick revealed
• Trump repeats that election results could be in dispute
• White House attacks FBI director for contradicting voter fraud claims
• Trump ‘flirting with treason’ over White House exit, says Warren
• President says election result will determine ‘whether pandemic ends’
• Trump defends Supreme Court nomination in rambling address

[25 September 2020 15:30 · Joe Sommerlad]

Trump jabbing out retweets as Ruth Bader Ginsburg lies in state

As the nation watches the celebrated Supreme Court justice becoming the first woman in American history to lie in state at the US Capitol, the president - uninvited - is retweeting the mania of weirdo right-wing fringe hacks about Obama’s “persecution” of disgraced general Michael Flynn.

Having made a mockery of Ginsburg’s dying wish, he can’t even let this momentous occasion pass with grace.

[25 September 2020 15:50 · Joe Sommerlad]

Trump to buck local officials with ‘gargantuan’ rally they say poses ‘severe public health threat’

The president’s re-election campaign is planning to pack up to 4,000 people into an airport hangar at Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport in Virginia tonight, an idea that local officials are not keen on but which Covid-19 is said to be wildly enthusiastic about.

John T Bennett has the latest.

[25 September 2020 16:10 · Joe Sommerlad]

Tucker Carlson smears black victims of police brutality and says Democrats equate Catholicism with ‘gang rapists’

This is what Fox News’s star anchor had to say to his predominantly (exclusively?) Trump voting audience last night, that the Black Lives Matter movement’s outrage against white police violence is predicated on lies and that the opposition is invested in persecuting Supreme Court front-runner Amy Coney Barrett on the basis of her faith.

How this man sleeps at night I do not know.

[25 September 2020 17:18 · Alex Woodward]

White House slaps down FBI director for dismissing Trump election fraud claims

The White House came down on the director of the FBI on Friday after he testified there has been no evidence of widespread voter fraud in a major election.

In the Trump administration’s latest criticism of Christopher Wray, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said that the director may change his view if he got involved with the investigation of fraud allegations.

“With all due respect to Director Wray, he has a hard time finding emails in his own FBI let alone figuring out whether there is any kind of voter fraud,” Mr Meadows said during an interview with CBS This Morning.

His remarks followed Mr Wray's testimony before a Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee contradicted Donald Trump’s claims that widespread mail-in voting would result in widespread voter fraud.

“We have not seen, historically, any kind of coordinated national voter fraud effort in a major election, whether it’s by mail or otherwise,” Mr Wray testified.

[25 September 2020 18:00 · Alex Woodward]

‘People hate my guts’: GOP senator Lindsey Graham bemoans rival’s surge in donations following RBG’s death

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham has complained he is getting "killed financially" by his Democratic rival, Jaime Harrison, who has seen a surge in donations following death of the late Supreme Court Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Mr Gramham, whose role as Judiciary Committee chair puts him at the heart of GOP efforts to replace Ginsburg before November's election, bemoaned the reported improved financial muscle of his rival, saying that the donors "hate my guts".

"My opponent will raise $100 million in the state of South Carolina,” Mr Graham, 65, told Fox News on Thursday. “The most money ever spent in the history of the state on a Senate race in this state was by me in 2014 when I spent $13 million.”

[25 September 2020 19:02 · Alex Woodward]

Journalism groups rebuke Trump after he calls police violence against reporters ‘a beautiful sight’

Journalism groups have spoken out and slammed President Donald Trump’s latest controversial comments about the US media after he appeared to endorse police violence against reporters as a “beautiful site” at a rally this week.

Organisations and journalism school leaders across the country rebuked the president over his statements made at a speech in Montana, in which he attacked MSNBC’s Ali Velshi.

The reporter was thrown aside by police in Minneapolis while covering protests sparked by the police killing of George Floyd, Mr Trump explained to his crowd of supporters, saying Mr Velshi was tossed “like he was a little bag of popcorn”.

Mr Trump described the violent confrontation as “a beautiful sight”.

Chris Riotta reports:

[25 September 2020 19:42 · Alex Woodward]

Ron Paul: Former presidential candidate in hospital after suffering medical emergency during livestream

Ron Paul was hospitalized after appearing to suffer a medical emergency during a live stream on Friday, according to reports.

The former presidential candidate was broadcasting an episode of Liberty Report on his YouTube channel when his speech began to suggest signs of an emergency.

The Independent is not publishing video circulating online due to its sensitivity.

Mr Paul, 85, who was discussing federal stimulus money at the time, was taken to hospital in Texas for “precautionary” reasons, Fox News reported.

[25 September 2020 20:15 · Alex Woodward]

Trump claims to have improved the lives of Black people. The numbers say otherwise

Donald Trump is widely reviled as a racist. Some believe his administration is seeking to prevent many black Americans from voting in the upcoming presidential election through voter suppression.

Yet Trump himself insists his administration has delivered great things for Black Americans.

The President cites metrics like African American unemployment and poverty and legislative achievements such as the recent creation of “opportunity zones”, low-income areas where new investments are eligible for tax breaks.

Further, Trump points to criminal justice reforms and measures to boost social mobility such as funding for black educational facilities.

Trump himself characterises his style as “truthful hyperbole”. And his claims that his administration “has done more for the Black community than any President since Abraham Lincoln” is certainly hyperbolic, given Lyndon Johnson’s government delivered landmark civil right reforms for African Americans in the 1960s.

But how much – if any – truth is in Trump’s claims to have improved the lives of African Americans over the past four years?

[25 September 2020 20:30 · Alex Woodward]

'Bananas' and 'political gamery': DOJ under fire for touting evidence of election crime as Trump claims voter fraud

The US Department of Justice published, then removed, then re-issued a press release that announced an “inquiry” into nine “discarded” military ballots in Pennsylvania, an unprecedented and unusual move that has worried election analysts and legal scholars as Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr spread unfounded claims about vote-by-mail fraud.

Voting rights advocates also argue that the case could stem from a legal battle in which the GOP has sought to invalidate mail-in ballots cast without secrecy envelopes.

[25 September 2020 20:32 · Alex Woodward]

Trump ‘expects a dispute for a long time’ over election results

Donald Trump once again invoked his pitch to black Americans ("what the hell do you have to lose?") as he claimed that he expects a “dispute for a long time” over election results, following his suggestion that the decision could be left to the courts as he works to undermine vote-by-mail efforts and makes unfounded claims about voter fraud.

“With me we may end up in a dispute for a long time, because that’s the way they want it,” he said. “But we’re going to end up winning, that’s for sure."

Addressing a “Black Economic Empowerment” event in Atlanta, the president has pitched a “platinum plan” to boost African Americans, while claiming that his opponent Joe Biden “cares more about citizens of other countries.”