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In more than a dozen interviews with Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill, most members of Congress said they stand ready and willing to take any potential Food and Drug Administration-approved coronavirus vaccine. But Democrats insist that they will need more than a promise from Trump that it will work, and argue that the President does not have credibility on the issue at a time when his administration has stumbled to contain the pandemic and has made sweeping promises about the timeline for a vaccine and treatments.

"The person I trust is Dr. Fauci," Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii told CNN. "When people need to rely on the information we are getting from institutions that are supposed to be telling us the truth, and when they have to walk back certain things that they say, that does not help. The person I trust is Dr. Fauci."

Sen. Brian Schatz, another Hawaii Democrat, said that "if Anthony Fauci says it is safe to take, I will take it. If Donald Trump just announces a vaccine, I will want to understand what scientists say."

Some Democrats went as far as to say that FDA approval may not even be enough for them to know a vaccine works.

Asked specifically whether FDA approval was enough to know a vaccine was safe and effective, Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island said, "I would like to say FDA approved and CDC recommended, but given how those two agencies have gotten screwed up by President Trump, there is an asterisk by that. Unfortunately, they aren't the gold standard any longer, so you need to take a slightly closer look."

"If something was the gold standard and you damage it for political purposes, which Trump has done, it creates a harm. I think to point that out is not the problem. To do the harm is the problem," Whitehouse said.

Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut also said that questions about whether there was political interference from the Trump administration over the FDA were important to ask when it came to a vaccine.

"Assuming the FDA process is free of FDA interference, that is a big assumption that should be unnecessary even to state, but I have confidence that thorough clinical testing combined with objective and independent assessment by the FDA will yield a vaccine that is safe and effective," Blumenthal said.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said in a news conference on Tuesday that "the American people have overwhelming doubts" about the Trump administration's ability to facilitate the development and distribution of coronavirus vaccines.

"If the President had any modicum of fidelity to science, no one would have any doubts," Schumer said. "The American people have overwhelming doubts. ... We just want science to govern. No political interference one way or the other."

The way Democrats are responding to the potential release of a Covid-19 vaccine with Trump in office has become a flashpoint on the campaign trail in the run-up to the November elections.

Cal Cunningham, a Democrat running for the seat of GOP US Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, made headlines this week for saying during a debate that he would be "hesitant" to get a vaccine approved this year.

The comments came after the moderator raised the possibility that the pace of vaccine development "could mean condensing timelines from years to months," as well as "compromises and risks." Cunningham clarified to reporters after the debate that he would take a vaccine approved by the FDA.

Republicans, including Tillis, have been quick to criticize the Democratic candidate. "I think that's irresponsible," Tillis said during the debate, adding, "That statement puts lives at risk and makes it more difficult to manage the crisis."

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his running mate, Kamala Harris, have also faced scrutiny over their approach to the issue.

Biden has said that if he could get a vaccine tomorrow, he'd take it, but he has expressed concern that the President has undermined public confidence, saying earlier this month, "I'm worried if we do have a really good vaccine, people will be reluctant to take it."

Trump, meanwhile, has lashed out at Biden and Harris, saying at a Labor Day news conference that they should "immediately apologize for the reckless anti-vaccine rhetoric."

To some extent, Democrats expressing reluctance may be responding to public sentiment on the issue.

Facing one of the most critical moments in its tenure since it was founded more than 100 years ago, officials inside the FDA have said the tension is palpable. A number of sources familiar with the internal workings have told CNN the responsibility feels immense and the environment is akin to that of a pressure cooker.

For the most part, Republicans said they had confidence in taking a vaccine.

"I have confidence that the FDA will evaluate the vaccine and its safety and efficacy in a way that has provided health to me over my lifetime," said Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah.

Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas, said that "after the FDA has certified a vaccine is safe and effective," he will "of course" take it.

CNN's Jasmine Wright, Kevin Liptak, Shelby Lin Erdman and Alex Rogers contributed to this report.

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Democrats say they need to hear from scientists, not Trump, that vaccine is safe - CNN

WASHINGTON When allies of former President Barack Obama set up a super PAC to support his 2012 re-election, the White House disowned the group, The New York Times published a scathing editorial and former Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin gave a speech warning Democrats would "lose our soul" if they allowed big money into the party.

But fears of being outgunned trumped those principled objections and, less than a decade later, Democratic super PACs are spending more than Republican ones. Liberal "dark money" groups, which obscure the source of their funds, outspent conservative ones for the first time in 2018. Even reform hawks like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders had their own personal big-money groups supporting their presidential campaigns.

"Their mantra of not 'unilaterally disarming' was really their justification for learning how to master super PACs and dark money and all that, and they're doing a better job of it right now than the Republicans," said Craig Holman, a lobbyist for the good-government group Public Citizen.

Advocates are concerned with super PACs, which can accept donations of unlimited size but have to reveal the names of their donors and regularly disclose their activity. But they're more worried about dark money groups: nonprofit organizations that can't be as explicitly political as super PACs, but can keep their donors secret forever and don't have to reveal much about activities before elections.

While concerns about campaign finance reform that once animated Democratic voters have been eclipsed by the desire to oust President Donald Trump, advocates are left to wonder if the party can really be trusted to follow through on its promises to dismantle a system that may help them get elected.

"If Democrats were to win the Senate and the White House, there is reason to be concerned that they may not carry through with their commitments," Holman added. "I have no doubt that we are going to have to hold their word over their head."

The Democratic National Committee adopted a platform last month calling for a ban on dark money, and Joe Biden says one of his first priorities as president would be signing the sweeping reform bill House Democrats passed last year that would, among other things, match small donations 6-to-1 to encourage grassroots giving.

But his campaign also says they'll take all the help they can get for now and that bill, known as H.R.1, would have to compete for limited legislative bandwidth with efforts to address the coronavirus pandemic, the economy and much more.

Republicans, who generally oppose major campaign finance reform efforts, cry hypocrisy.

"It's just like everything else Biden stands for. He believes it until it's of political benefit to reverse himself," said Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh.

Democrats, however, argue that the only way they can rein in big money in politics is to first use big money in politics to win.

"We aren't going to unilaterally disarm against Donald Trump and right-wing conservatives, but look forward to the day when unlimited money and super PACs are a thing of the past, even if it means putting our own PAC out of business," said Guy Cecil, the chairman of Priorities USA, the super PAC first founded to support Obama's re-election.

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On principle, Democrats opposed Citizens United, the Supreme Court's landmark 2010 decision that opened the floodgates to virtually unlimited money in politics. But they also were against it because they were sure Republicans and their big-business allies would outspend them.

At first, Obama set the example for his party by trying to keep his hands clean of the super PAC game. "It was just this slog to try to get Democrats to think there was any benefit at all to giving to outside groups," said a Democrat involved in early efforts to raise money for a super PAC.

Quickly, though, party leaders concluded their position against unlimited donations and dark money wasn't tenable, and it turned out there was plenty of it flowing on the Democratic side, too. Obama eventually blessed Priorities USA, which helped kick off a proliferation of liberal big-money groups.

"If Democrats don't compete, it would be like preparing for a nuclear war by grabbing your fly swatter," said Jesse Ferguson, a Democratic operative who has worked for both campaigns and outside groups.

Democrats at first said they felt sick about doing it and vowed to hold themselves to a higher standard. They would support super PACs, which publicly disclose their donors, but railed against dark money groups, which don't. But that standard eventually eroded, the apologies grew more perfunctory and they ended up diving in head-first, looking for new loopholes to exploit. And Trump's election has supercharged the spending.

In 2016, conservative dark money dwarfed liberal dark money nearly 4-to-1: $143.7 million to $37.8 million. But two years later, in the 2018 midterms, the backlash against Trump helped liberal dark money groups outspend their counterparts for the first time, according to an analysis by Issue One, a bipartisan political reform organization. And they're on track to potentially do it again this year.

It's impossible to comprehensively track dark money spending in real-time, which is one of the most controversial parts about it. But the limited picture that has emerged so far in 2020 shows $14.2 million in dark money has been spent supporting Democrats or against Republicans versus $9.8 million to support Republicans or attack Democrats, according to Open Secrets.

"Campaign spending is frequently like an arms race. Once one side develops a new weapon, both sides want to have it in their arsenal," said Michael Beckel, research director for Issue One.

Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, which runs the campaign finance data warehouse OpenSecrets.org, said her group has tracked liberal groups "taking dark money in politics to a new level of opacity" and caught them trying new tricks, such as creating faux news sites to make their attack ads seem more credible.

While overall dark money spending is roughly even between the parties right now, Democrats have a clear edge in congressional races, Krumholz said. Around 65 percent of dark money TV ads in 2020 Senate races and 85 percent of dark money TV ads in House races are sponsored by liberal groups, according to Krumholz.

"Unfortunately, there has been comfort with this that has grown over time on both sides of the aisle," Krumholz said. "Nobody wants to be the sucker that is playing by the rules when someone is getting away with murder."

One large dark money group, the Sixteen Thirty Fund, has funneled millions of dollars to more than 100 liberal groups, accepting individual donations as large as $51.7 million and $26.7 million, all without having to reveal any information about who is behind those donations.

Amy Kurtz, the Sixteen Thirty Fund's executive director, said they're just playing by the rules.

"We support and have lobbied in favor of reform to the current campaign finance system (through H.R. 1), but we are equally committed to following the current laws to level the playing field for progressives in this election," Kurtz said in a statement.

Now, many super PACs, which disclose their donors, are routing money through allied nonprofits, which do not have to make their contributors' names public, further obscuring the ultimate source of the cash.

"For a voter who simply wants to know where the money is coming from and going to, you almost have to be a full-time researcher or investigative reporter to connect all the dots," Krumholz said.

Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., remains one of the fiercest opponents of campaign finance reform, not only blocking bills like H.R.1 and disclosure measures, but even intervening in legal battles to overturn state campaign finance rules.

He sees it as a free speech issue, hailing the Citizens United decision as "an important step in the direction of restoring First Amendment rights."

All this leaves campaign finance reform advocates dependent on Democrats winning in November even if it takes some dark money to get them there.

"We are on the cusp of having the best opportunity to repair the campaign finance system since the Watergate scandal of the 1970s," said Fred Wertheimer, a veteran good-government advocate and president of Democracy 21. "But that depends on how the elections come out."

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Democrats used to rail against 'dark money.' Now they're better at it than the GOP. - NBC News

By Natalie Andersonnatalie.anderson@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY Local Democrats on Wednesday night emphasized the need to turn the state blue and shared their reasons for being in the party during a virtual county office reopening event.

Rowan County Democrats hosted their office reopening event virtually this year. Rowan County Republicans hosted an in-person open house for their new office headquarters in June.

Alyssa Gilbert, who coordinated the reopening, is the campaign organizer for local Democratic candidates, who go from Biden all the way down to Alisha Byrd-Clark, she said. Byrd-Clark has served in the Salisbury area seat on the Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education since 2016.

Gilbert, the daughter of a single mother, grew up in a logging town in Oregon. There, she watched her mother work three part-time jobs to make ends meet. Gilbert credited the food stamps program with saving her family and the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, for allowing her mother to have health insurance for the first time in years.

She added that her mother was able to reach a point where food stamps were no longer needed, which Gilbert said is the goal.

She added that America can expect to see similar success stories with former Vice President Joe Biden in the White House and other Democratic candidates elected to office.

These programs are things we really can stand up for in the election, she said.

Jim Beard, a retired professor from Catawba College, said he was driven to the Democratic party due to his Christian beliefs, adding that he dislikes the idea pushed by Republicans that one must be a Republican if theyre a Christian.

I do think the Christian faith is most in line with Democrats principles, Beard said.

He emphasized the importance of the election and added, Trump likes autocrats, and given the chance, hell become one.

Salisbury resident Kimberly Kaufmann, who also works at UNC-Greensboro, said its important, especially in this election, to educate communities on the concepts of diversity, equity and inclusion.

This election has become about saving our democracy, she said. I want to move forward and not back.

Others who attended the virtual event included Keith Townsend, a Democrat from Mount Ulla whos challenging Rep. Julia Howard for the 77th District seat in the House, along with Shawn Rush, the third vice chairman of the Rowan County Democratic Party. Rush also leads the campaign for local Democrat Tarsha Ellis, whos challenging incumbent Sen. Carl Ford in the Senate District 33 race.

Rush echoed Beards remarks about his Christian faith drawing him to the Democratic party.

Rowan County Democratic Chair Geoffrey Hoy credited the local Board of Elections for its competence and success in navigating voting during the pandemic. He noted a new state initiative called BallotTrax, a free service where voters can track the status of their absentee ballots. The service can be found on the states Board of Elections website at ncsbe.gov.

From Biden-Harris to Alisha Byrd-Clark, Hoy said. Turn the state blue.

Gilbert encouraged local Democrats to sign up and spend at least one hour per week making calls ahead of the election, particularly as every day is Election Day from here on out. Additionally, locals can help put out door hangers to remind fellow Democrats and progressive Independents of the candidates on the ballot and encourage voters to formulate their plans for voting if they havent done so already.

She also said its important to check on voters as the nation grapples with multiple major crises.

Yard signs for both the Biden-Harris campaign and U.S. Senate candidate Cal Cunninghams campaign will be available at the Rowan County Democratic Party office on Saturday, from 10 a.m. to noon. The office is located at 1504 W Innes St. Party officials ask that everyone wear a mask and socially distance, as well as donate or sign up to volunteer with campaigning.

Contact reporter Natalie Anderson at 704-797-4246.

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Local Democrats call to 'turn the state blue' during virtual office reopening - Salisbury Post - Salisbury Post

Democrats are growing worried about Democratic nominee Joe BidenJoe BidenCast of 'Parks and Rec' reunite for virtual town hall to address Wisconsin voters Biden says Trump should step down over coronavirus response Biden tells CNN town hall that he has benefited from white privilege MOREs play-it-safe strategy with 50 days to go before the election.

They are specifically worried that as President TrumpDonald John TrumpHR McMaster says president's policy to withdraw troops from Afghanistan is 'unwise' Cast of 'Parks and Rec' reunite for virtual town hall to address Wisconsin voters Biden says Trump should step down over coronavirus response MOREs campaign reaches millions of votersthrough in-persondoor-knocking events and big rallies held in defiance of coronavirus restrictions, the Biden campaign is relying on digital organizing and phone outreach.

On a field training call over the weekend, several veterans of the Obama and Hillary ClintonHillary Diane Rodham ClintonHillicon Valley: FBI chief says Russia is trying to interfere in election to undermine Biden | Treasury Dept. sanctions Iranian government-backed hackers The Hill's Campaign Report: Arizona shifts towards Biden | Biden prepares for drive-in town hall | New Biden ad targets Latino voters FBI chief says Russia is trying to interfere in election to undermine Biden MORE presidential campaignsexpressed concerns to Caroline Grey, a Biden campaign aide who co-founded the Democratic digital firm Civis Analytics.

Ex-Obama aides also grumbledprivately following the Saturday Zoom call,which had been aimed specifically at getting Obama alumni more active in the final stretch of Bidens campaign.

After the call, one formerObama aidesaid that if Biden loses a close election, analysts will look back on the field operations in the same way they look back on Hillary Clintons decision to not visit Wisconsin in 2016.

If Biden loses, this will be his not-going-to-Wisconsin, the ex-official said.

Biden has wrapped his campaign around a follow-the-science approach to the coronavirus, ripping Trump for his handling of the pandemic. His campaign pivoted away from in-person contacts once the pandemic struck, while encouraging voters to mail in ballots.

Those wanting Biden to do more traditional campaign events understand the argument, they just worry it will backfire.

From a health perspective, refraining from in-person GOTV efforts is the right thing to do," said one of the Democratson the field organizing call, referring to get out the vote efforts.But the campaign is making a big bet that phone calls and texts can supplant hitting the pavement. The president is not making that bet.

"It goes against the grain of everything about a campaign in the final days," another attendee said.

Some Democrats brush off the criticism, arguing that Trumps flouting of masks and social distancing will end up hurting his campaign.

They also say Biden has effectively abandoned an outdated model of door-knocking for more meaningful and efficient forms of outreach.

The Biden campaign has invested $100 million into its ground game, which includes 2,500 staff in battleground states, a 500 percent increase since May 1. They say theyve had 2.6 million conversations with voters since August alone, and that in the past month theyve had 183,000 volunteers attend virtual events.

They say the campaign is leveraging next-generation organizing through phone banks and new tools, such as Slack, a VoteJoe app and the IWillVote.com website.

In this day and age, when a persons bullshitmeter is already very high, having a stranger knock on your door in the middle of a f------ pandemic to try and hold a meaningful conversation is total lunacy, said Michael Halle, a battlegrounds state organizer for the Obama and Clinton presidential campaigns.

Democrats have had high anxiety over the 2020 election throughout the cycle given Clintons upset loss to Trump in 2016.

Clinton, like Biden, was ahead of Trump in polls, and ended up winning the popular vote by more than 3 million. But she lost the Electoral College, along with Florida, North Carolina, and more surprisingly, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

Since when has a Democratic strategy of playing it safe every worked out for us? asked one Democratic fundraiser. We like to make fun of their boat parades or door knocking in a pandemic, but when voters see all this energy out there for Trump, they feel it gives them permission to join the party.

Trump is seeking to use Bidens approach against him, and the president has been hitting the road again and again.

By the end of this week, the president will have visited three states Clinton won in 2016 New Hampshire, Minnesota and Nevada as he seeks to expand the map. Biden will have visited the core battlegrounds of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Florida, as well as Minnesota, which hes expected to win, even as polls show him running close in states Trump is expected to win, such as Iowa, Ohio, Texas and Georgia.

The Trump campaign and Republican National Committee say they have contacted 100 million voters this cycle, triple their 2016 number, with the 100 millionth coming on a door knock in North Carolina.

In rural parts of battleground states, supporters have been organizing MAGA meetups and boat parades, while Democrats continue to shun large political gatherings because of the pandemic.

During the week of the GOP convention, the Republicans knocked on more than 2 million doors, bringing their total to more than 12 million door knocks since restarting field operations in mid-June.

Other Democrats dismiss the criticism.

This is not a campaign cycle that will be defined by big events or generating extreme energy and enthusiasm on the campaign trail, said Andrew Feldman, a Democratic strategist. Its about who the country trusts to put the pieces of a broken country back together. Weve seen in poll after poll that Joe Biden is that person, and that means the campaign has used him in effective ways to show how different he is from the current occupant in the White House.

A recent Axios-Ipsos survey found that 59 percent of voters said that door-to-door campaigning is a moderate or large risk, including 58 percent of independents and nearly 70 percentof Democrats.

Several recent media analyses have found Democrats building early vote-by-mail and party registration advantages in the battleground states.

The Democrat field programs are beating Republicans in key metrics like registration and vote by mail across the battleground states and were reaching out to voters in a way that is safe and effective, said David Bergstein, the Democratic National Committees director of battleground state communications. I think voters right now appreciate the seriousness in which our party is taking the coronavirus and weve shifted our tactics to allow us to continue to reach out to every voter we need to win.

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Democrats worry Biden playing it too safe | TheHill - The Hill

Remember when Congress came to a bipartisan agreement on coronavirus relief like a million years ago? Well, it doesnt look like thats gonna happen again anytime soon despite the tens of millions of Americans struggling right now.

Recent Orange County elections which showcased Democrats growing mastery of vote-by-mail absentee ballots amid the pandemic served as a warning sign to Republicans who worry that the county could run up the score so much that it puts Biden over the top in this closely fought state.

Theres a lot of nervousness from Republicans over the new wave of Democrats, their ability to turn out voters and their coordination. It should be an eye-opener for Republicans, said former Republican state Rep. Mike Miller, who lost one of the county commission races.

Miller noted that Florida Republicans have always dominated casting absentee ballots, but Trumps rhetoric against voting by mail led to a sharp dropoff in the practice in his and other races. At the same time, Democrats encouraged voting by mail and Millers opponent, freshman Democratic commissioner Emily Bonilla, essentially had the race won before Election Day on Aug. 18.

The primary was a dry run for what were going to do in November, said a Biden campaign official who was not authorized to speak on record about strategy. What Orange has is a new and emerging Democratic population Latinos, progressive whites, working-class voters that we could not turn out before. We can now. We have more tools in the toolbox.

Leading the way for Democrats is the Orlando-area congressional delegation. Theres Rep. Val Demings, who was on Bidens running-mate shortlist and whose husband, Jerry Demings, is the mayor of the county. Rep. Stephanie Murphy is the first Vietnamese-American woman elected to Congress; Rep. Darren Soto is the first person of Puerto Rican descent from Florida elected to the U.S. House.

The diversity of the Democratic delegation, and the spate of recent local wins, are a testament to the rapidly changing demographics of Orange County the fifth-most populous county in Florida with a population of 1.4 million.

Mercado, the state legislator who faces token opposition from a write-in in November to win the property appraisers office, said voters with Puerto Rican heritage like her are powering population growth in Orange County and neighboring Osceola County, which is home to Kissimmee.

The VPs visit today, to the heart of the Puerto Rican community, signals his understanding of the importance of this population and his continued work and advocacy for us, said Mercado, whose mother, Carmen Torres, helped organize Puerto Rican voters in Florida for Barack Obamas two successful presidential campaigns. Mercados father, Victor Torres, is a state senator.

As the population swells in Orange, its also exporting Democrats to neighboring communities, like once-red Seminole County.

If you told me four years ago that Seminole would go blue, I wouldve laughed in your face. But its changing, said Anthony Pedicini, a top Republican operative involved in state legislative races.

Its spreading from Orlando into the surrounding areas. Just look at the highway system, its like a heart pumping blue blood in every direction from Orlando, he said.

Pedicini noted that Hispanic voters are not the ones driving the change in Seminole. Its suburban whites. Were losing too many suburban women.

Pedicini says he has seen enough GOP polling in other districts to still feel relatively good about Trumps chances in Florida, where the president marginally trails Biden in polls. One reason for the GOP optimism is that other areas of the state from Pasco County in the west of the I-4 Corridor to Daytona Beach in the regions east have gotten more Republican as a counterbalance.

But while GOP energy is high in those Republican areas, Pedicini acknowledges the presidential race is going to be a dog fight and Orange County has a reservoir of Democrats who appear enthusiastic about voting.

Democratic enthusiasm in Orange is of particular concern because the county along with its Democrat-heavy neighbor, Osceola, and South Floridas Miami-Dade and Broward has often been plagued by lower turnout rates. Had those counties turned out at the statewide average, Democrats posit, Republicans would more than likely have lost the last two governors contests, the Senate race in 2018 and the presidential race in 2016.

Osceola is always a challenge. Its one of the counties with lowest turnout, said Marcos Vilar, one of the top Democratic operatives in Central Florida. His United for Progress political committee played a pivotal role in the just-ended primaries and plans to turn out voters in November.

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'A heart pumping blue blood:' How fast-growing Orlando threatens Trump's reelection - POLITICO