October, 28 2020, 12:00am EDT

For Immediate Release
Contact:
Sanders Contact: Keane_Bhatt@sanders.senate.govÂ
Klobuchar Contact:Â Jonathan_Beeton@rules.senate.gov
Sanders, Klobuchar Issue Statement Correcting Misinformation from President Trump and Justice Kavanaugh on Voting Processes
U.S. Senators Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) released the statement below following President Trump's recent false statement that it is inappropriate and illegal to count ballots after Election Day, and the Supreme Court's ruling in Democratic National Committee v. Wisconsin Legislature, where Justice Kavanaugh's concurring opinion contains incorrect information regarding voting:
WASHINGTON
U.S. Senators Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) released the statement below following President Trump's recent false statement that it is inappropriate and illegal to count ballots after Election Day, and the Supreme Court's ruling in Democratic National Committee v. Wisconsin Legislature, where Justice Kavanaugh's concurring opinion contains incorrect information regarding voting:
"In America, we count the votes to determine who wins an election. Despite the incorrect assertions from President Trump and Justice Kavanaugh, election officials across the country accept ballots well after Election Day every year, and results are not certified until the votes are counted and a canvas to confirm the results is conducted. Absentee ballots counted after election day do not 'flip the results of an election,' as Justice Kavanaugh claimed. They are the results of the election.
"More than twenty states, including states like Mississippi, Kansas, and Utah, require ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted even if they are received after Election Day. This is critical to ensuring that those who may face hardships in voting, including members of our military serving abroad and those affected by COVID-19, are not disenfranchised by things like mail delays. These are not new rules and they do not serve any political party. It is on all of us to reject misinformation and to tell the truth. Our election systems span 50 states, five territories, and thousands of jurisdictions. State and local election officials are working around the clock, and experts have concluded that the integrity of our election system is strong. The best defense against those trying to undermine our democracy is the resolve of the American people, who are voting by the millions as we speak. Keep voting."
On October 18, Sanders and Klobuchar, along with Senators Schumer (D-N.Y.), Heinrich (D-N.M.), Murphy (D-Conn.), and Duckworth (D-Ill.), issued a report titled 2020 General Election: Counting Votes & What to Expect on Election Day, which offers a guide to voting procedures in key states.
The report can be found here.
LATEST NEWS
'Let Them Wallow in Their Pigsty': Unified Democrats Say They Won't Vote to Save McCarthy
"We are not voting in any way that will help Republicans," said Rep. Pramila Jayapal.
Oct 03, 2023
House Democrats made clear Tuesday that they will not help GOP Speaker Kevin McCarthy save his leadership job as the chamber prepares to vote shortly on far-right Rep. Matt Gaetz's motion to take the gavel from the California Republican.
"We are not voting in any way that will help Republicans," Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told reporters at the U.S. Capitol, pointing to McCarthy's actions in the wake of the January 6 insurrection and his continued support for former President Donald Trump, as well as his refusal to honor the bipartisan debt ceiling deal, which nearly sparked a government shutdown.
"There is reason after reason to just let Republicans deal with their own problems," said Jayapal. "Let them wallow in their pigsty of incompetence and inability to govern."
Confident in his ability to survive the Gaetz-led revolt, McCarthy is expected to call a vote Tuesday on the Florida Republican's motion to vacate. A majority of the House lawmakers present for the vote is required for the motion to succeed.
At least six House Republicans have said they will vote yes on the motion, which would be enough to oust McCarthy if all Democrats also vote yes—though absences could impact the threshold. If the motion succeeds, a temporary speaker will take McCarthy's spot—and it's not yet clear when a new election will be held.
In addition to Gaetz, the five other Republicans who have indicated they will vote to vacate are Reps. Eli Crane and Andy Biggs of Arizona, Bob Good of Virginia, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, and Matt Rosendale of Montana.
A vote is expected later Tuesday afternoon.
In a "Dear Colleague" letter on Tuesday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) signaled that Democrats are unified and "will vote yes on the pending Republican motion to vacate the chair."
"House Democrats remain willing to find common ground on an enlightened path forward," Jeffries wrote. "Unfortunately, our extreme Republican colleagues have shown no willingness to do the same. It is now the responsibility of the GOP members to end the House Republican Civil War."
Rank-and-file Democrats have thus far provided no indication that they will break from their leadership to rescue McCarthy, who agreed earlier this year to allow any single House member to bring a motion to vacate as part of his deal with far-right Republicans to secure the speakership.
Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) said in a statement Tuesday that "McCarthy voted to sell out our democracy to a mob of armed white supremacists to become speaker."
"He then sold his speakership to help MAGA extremists criminalize abortion, cut Social Security and Medicare, ban Black history, gut workers' rights and voting rights, and sell out our children's safety to the gun lobby and corporate polluters," Lee added. "If we didn't stop him, he would have sold out the entire country to keep his little gig as speaker of the chaos caucus. Why would I—or any Democrat—vote for a Republican speaker who supports Donald Trump and white supremacists? It's a NO from me."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Study: New York Flooding 'Mostly Strengthened' by Climate Crisis
"Human-driven climate change is the primary driver, underscoring the urgent need for climate mitigation and adaptation efforts," one scientist said.
Oct 03, 2023
The climate crisis made the record-breaking storm that flooded the streets of New York City on Friday as much as 20% wetter than it would have been without the burning of fossil fuels, a new study has found.
The rapid attribution study from European group ClimaMeter published Monday concluded that Friday's extreme precipitation was "mostly strengthened" by global heating.
"Human-driven climate change plays a dual role, both intensifying these storms and warming the atmosphere," study coauthor Davide Faranda of the Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace in France toldThe Guardian. "Deeper storms yield more intense phenomena, while a warmer atmosphere can accommodate a greater amount of rain."
New York City on Friday certainly saw a "great amount of rain" as around eight inches fell on JFK airport, the most in a single day since record-keeping began in 1948, the study authors observed. The deluge flooded streets with nearly five feet of water, disrupting both underground and above-ground train service and prompting Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul to declare a state of emergency.
"While no fatalities have been reported, scenes of chaos emerged as residents waded through knee-deep water in search for higher ground and drivers abandoned their vehicles on overwhelmed highways," the study authors wrote.
The immediate cause of Friday's storm was the meeting of cold air from Canada and warm air from the Gulf of Mexico, the study authors explained. While these types of events are part of regular weather patterns, the researchers used a peer-reviewed methodology to compare Friday's system to similar events between 1979 and 2000 and 2000 and 2022 in order to asses the influence of the climate crisis. In this case, they concluded that such low-pressure systems were not more intense, but are now producing more precipitation in the region and occurring later in the year.
Overall, they found that such storms now dump three to 15 millimeters of rain more per day than they did in the past, making them 10% to 20% wetter, according to The Guardian.
"Human-driven climate change is the primary driver, underscoring the urgent need for climate mitigation and adaptation efforts," study coauthor Tommaso Alberti of Italy’s Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia told The Guardian.
Climate scientist Michael Mann, who was not involved with the research, told The Guardian that rapid attribution studies could leave out some factors involved with major storms but also concluded the climate crisis was responsible for the severity of the New York floods.
"New York is experiencing a very clear increase in these extreme—more than two inches per hour—rainfall events, and that's clearly tied to a warming atmosphere," he said.
Friday's floods have led to calls from New Yorkers for improved infrastructure and emergency communications, as well as broader calls for climate action.
New York's sewers are only capable of managing 1.75 inches of water per hour, according to The City. But some parts of the city saw as much as 2.5 inches an hour Friday, CNBCreported. A Federal Emergency Management Agency report published this summer warned that most of the nation's urban drainage systems were not up to the increased rainfall brought by a warmer atmosphere, as Mother Jones pointed out.
"The sad reality is our changing climate is changing faster than our infrastructure can respond," city Chief Climate Officer Rit Aggarwala told The City.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Trump Campaign Already Claiming Democrats Trying to 'Steal the 2024 Election'
Republican Party politicians are so far "silent" about the lie, said MSNBC anchor Chris Hayes, "even though every last one knows how dangerous all this is."
Oct 03, 2023
With more than a year to go until the 2024 presidential election, top advisers to former U.S. President Donald Trump's campaign on Monday night claimed without evidence that the Democratic Party is trying to "steal" the election, echoing the lies spread before the 2020 election that fueled the violent January 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Trump campaign officials called on the Republican National Committee (RNC) to "immediately cancel" the third GOP debate, which is scheduled to take place in Miami on November 8 and which Trump has indicated he will not attend, just as he skipped the first two primary debates.
Senior advisers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita called on the RNC to essentially terminate the primary election and "end all future debates in order to refocus its manpower and money on preventing Democrats' efforts to steal the 2024 election."
Long before voters went to the polls in the 2020 election, Trump repeatedly claimed that the Democratic Party was trying to "steal" or "rig" the vote by expanding mail-in voting—which the former Republican president himself had long utilized and which was expanded to help people vote safely amid the coronavirus pandemic—and made false claims about "fake polls" and absentee ballots.
Few in the Republican Party spoke out against Trump's pre-election lies in 2020, and MSNBC anchor Chris Hayes said Monday that the party is again signaling that it will "stay silent" about the former president's baseless accusations—"even though every last one knows how dangerous all this is."
Wiles and LaCivita claimed the RNC's continuation of primary debates amounted to "an admission to the grassroots that their concerns about voter integrity are not taken seriously" and that Republicans will not work to ensure "a safe and secure election."
Liberal commentator Ryan Shead said the latest ramp-up of election disinformation from Trump is a consequence of the former president's acquittal by Republicans in the U.S. Congress when he was impeached for inciting the January 6 insurrection.
As Vanity Fair correspondent Molly Jong-Fast wrote in May, Trump's lies about "stolen" elections are a central part of his 2024 strategy.
"Trump's supporters, by ignoring the 'fake news' and simply taking his word—or that of his propagandists—are left in post-truth reality," wrote Jong-Fast. "Even Trump seems to acknowledge how essential the subject of 2020 'fraud' is in the 2024 primary, tellingThe Messenger this week how if he didn't talk about it, 'I would actually be rebuked by a large portion of the Republican Party.'"
Trump is currently polling far ahead of his opponents in the Republican primary race, beating Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis by 48 points in the latest Morning Consult poll. The national survey showed Trump is currently tied with Biden.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular
Independent, nonprofit journalism needs your help.
Please Pitch In
Today!
Today!