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U.S. Admits That Congressman Offered Pardon to Assange If He Covered Up Russia Links — Republican congressman Dana Rohrabacher offered Assange the deal in 2017, a year after the emails that damaged Hillary Clinton had been published. — LONDON—Lawyers representing the United States …
Discussion:
Associated Press and Raw Story
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Trump offered to pardon Assange if he provided source for Democratic emails, lawyer says — LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump offered to pardon Julian Assange if the WikiLeaks founder provided the source for the hacking of Democratic National Committee emails …
Discussion:
The Guardian, Bloomberg and Associated Press

Virus Pulls Down Trump, Poll Shows, and G.O.P. Senators Suffer With Him — A New York Times/Siena College survey showed Joe Biden leading President Trump by wide margins in Maine and Arizona, and effectively tied in North Carolina. Susan Collins trailed her Democratic rival in Maine's Senate race.
Discussion:
Washington Post, No More Mister Nice Blog and Political Wire
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Biden's lead has been stable, but there's still lots of uncertainty about the vote — WASHINGTON — Another day, another round of strong polls for Joe Biden and the Democrats. — Biden and Senate Democratic candidates are ahead in Arizona, Maine and North Carolina, according to a trio …
Discussion:
The Hill, CNBC, Bloomberg, Breitbart, POLITICUSUSA, Press Herald and Florida Politics

‘Talk about losers’: The top moments from CNN's kid-gloves town hall with Biden — On Tuesday, voters got in Trump's face for the first time. On Thursday, they practically gave Biden a hero's welcome in Scranton, Pa. — Democratic presidential nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden speaks …
Discussion:
The Hill, Fox News, CNN, ABC News, Quiz Category and Political Wire
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Biden Aced the Town Hall. Why Didn't Trump? — Taking questions from voters is a basic skill for politicians. The president still hasn't mastered it. — Donald Trump is lucky that presidential elections aren't decided by televised town-hall meetings.
Discussion:
The American Independent, Talking Points Memo, Daily Kos, The Guardian and Conservative Review

“It Was All About the Election”: The Ex-White House Aide Olivia Troye on Trump's Narcissistic Mishandling of COVID-19 — The first staffer on the coronavirus task force to go public tells The New Yorker that America's pandemic response was “derailed by the person at the very top.”
Discussion:
Washington Times, Daily Kos, ABC News, Mediaite, Bloomberg, Washington Post, Raw Story and Vanity Fair
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Former Pence aide says she will vote for Biden because of Trump's ‘flat-out disregard for human life’ during pandemic
Discussion:
CNN, Twitchy, Reuters, Bangor Daily News, NBC News, Breitbart, One America News Network, Politico, Raw Story, The Week, Fox News, Daily Kos, Forbes, ABC7, The Hill, Washington Times, New York Post, The Daily Caller, IJR, New York Times, Mother Jones, Axios, Mediaite, The Moderate Voice, Discourse.net, Talking Points Memo and Balloon Juice

Commerce Department Prohibits WeChat and TikTok Transactions to Protect the National Security of the United States — In response to President Trump's Executive Orders signed August 6, 2020, the Department of Commerce (Commerce) today announced prohibitions on transactions relating to mobile applications …
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Exclusive: Trump to block U.S. downloads of TikTok, WeChat on Sunday - officials
Discussion:
Townhall, National Review, Breitbart, ABC7, Deadline, The Root, Washington Times, Just The News, The Week, Variety, KXAN-TV, Associated Press, Raw Story, The Verge, New York Post and Seeking Alpha
Jeanne Whalen / Washington Post:
Trump administration bans WeChat, TikTok from app stores beginning on Sunday
Steve Kovach / CNBC:
Trump to block downloads of TikTok, WeChat on Sunday
Trump to block downloads of TikTok, WeChat on Sunday
Discussion:
Associated Press, TMZ.com, Denver Post, KNSD-TV and ABC News, more at Techmeme »

Rating Change: Republicans Sound Alarm, Riggleman's VA-05 Moves to Toss Up — Is it deja vu all over again? In 2008, Virginia's 5th District was the site of a gigantic upset when tireless 34-year-old Democrat Tom Perriello unseated GOP Rep. Virgil Goode by 727 votes.
Discussion:
Blue Virginia

The United States is backsliding into autocracy under Trump, scholars warn — The weakening of democratic values — a path that's difficult to reverse — has accelerated, according to hundreds of indicators assessed each year — Three years into the Trump administration …
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Trump downplays legacy of slavery in appeal to white voters
Discussion:
Spectator USA and The Hill
Mike Allen / Axios:
Michael Schmidt: Private eye rummaged Bolton's trash for book drafts
Michael Schmidt: Private eye rummaged Bolton's trash for book drafts
Discussion:
Political Wire

Book excerpt: An FBI sex crimes investigator helped trigger 2016's ‘October Surprise’ — This article is adapted from “October Surprise: How the FBI Tried to Save Itself and Crashed an Election,” which will be published Sept. 22 by PublicAffairs. The book is a comprehensive …
Discussion:
The Hill and Political Wire

The Falwells, the pool attendant and the double life that brought them all down — For 2½ years, Giancarlo Granda had been telling his family about the generosity of his business partners. The wealthy couple from out of town had taken him under their wing, he said …
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Roque Planas / HuffPost:
911 Call From Intoxicated Jerry Falwell Jr.'s House Last Month Describes ‘A Lot Of Blood’
911 Call From Intoxicated Jerry Falwell Jr.'s House Last Month Describes ‘A Lot Of Blood’
Discussion:
New York Post

Alabama Senate Candidate Tommy Tuberville Struggles To Discuss Voting Rights Act — The Republican and former college football coach stumbled when asked his position on the landmark 1965 civil rights law. — Alabama Republican Senate candidate Tommy Tuberville struggled to explain …
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Ian Millhiser / Vox:
Chief Justice Roberts's lifelong crusade against voting rights, explained
Chief Justice Roberts's lifelong crusade against voting rights, explained
Discussion:
Raw Story

AP Exclusive: More migrant women say they didn't OK surgery — HOUSTON (AP) — Sitting across from her lawyer at an immigration detention center in rural Georgia, Mileidy Cardentey Fernandez unbuttoned her jail jumpsuit to show the scars on her abdomen. There were three small, circular marks.
Discussion:
INDIVISIBLE VENTURA

An Idaho ‘no-masker’ pastor prayed against a mask mandate. He's now in intensive care for covid-19. — When coronavirus cases began increasing in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, in late July, Pastor Paul Van Noy prayed with his congregation that the city council would not pass a mask mandate.

Bill Barr's Prosecutorial Warning — The left distorts his important speech on political accountability. — By The Editorial Board — We live in a strange time when progressives say American law enforcement is racist, yet they'll also go to the mattresses to defend prosecutors from political accountability.
Discussion:
Raw Story, Washington Post, The Gateway Pundit and The Atlantic
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Donald Trump Is Losing On An Issue Voters Care A Lot About. Here's How He's Trying to Change That — With nearly 200,000 Americans dead from COVID-19 and millions more who lost their health insurance when they lost their jobs this year, President Donald Trump tried this week …
Discussion:
New York Times
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Catherine Rampell / Washington Post:
Trump says his terrific health-care plan is finally here. That would be news to his health advisers.
Trump says his terrific health-care plan is finally here. That would be news to his health advisers.
Discussion:
Raw Story

Housekeepers Face a Disaster Generations in the Making — Ghosted by their employers, members of the profession are facing “a full-blown humanitarian crisis — a Depression-level situation.” — The scariest day of Maria Del Carmen's life started with a phone call that initially cheered her up.

U.S. Generals are raising the alarm — Our military has leaned strongly Republican. By law, active military are constrained from political action. Most retired officers are highly politically aware but strive to be non-partisan, and are often not aligned with either party.

Senior Biden campaign cybersecurity expert participated in racist internet troll group — A senior cybersecurity adviser to Joe Biden's presidential campaign spent years affiliating with a hacking organization and boasted on a personal blog about breaking into her neighbor's computers.

How Trump Changed the World — On Sept. 16 the editorial board of the New York Times did the impossible. It said something nice about President Trump. “The normalization of relations between Israel and two Arab states, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, is, on the face of it …
Discussion:
Jewish Insider, The Dispatch, Redstate and New York Times

“That's Their Problem”: How Jared Kushner Let the Markets Decide America's COVID-19 Fate — First-person accounts of a tense meeting at the White House in late March suggest that President Trump's son-in-law resisted taking federal action to alleviate shortages and help Democratic-led New York.
Discussion:
Washington Post, Raw Story, Daily Kos, POLITICUSUSA and The Week

Michael Bloomberg unleashes $100 million “wall to wall” ad blitz to take down Trump in Florida — Mike Bloomberg's $100 million Florida blitz begins today and will continue “wall to wall” in all 10 TV markets through Election Day, advisers tell me. — Why it matters: Bloomberg thinks …
Discussion:
Washington Times and Florida Politics

Treasury Probes Claims of Racial Discrimination at U.S. Mint — Black employees ask Secretary Steven Mnuchin to address what they describe as ‘rampant racism’ in letter — The Treasury Department said it has opened an investigation into allegations of racial harassment and discrimination raised …
Discussion:
Raw Story

Judge blocks Michigan's ban on transporting voters to polls — LANSING, Mich. — A federal judge has blocked Michigan's longstanding ban on transporting voters to the polls, ruling it conflicts with U.S. election law. — District Judge Stephanie Dawkins Davis in Detroit issued …