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The presidential race sure does seem like itll wind up coming down to Biden vs. Trump and a whole lot of people would rather have an alternative.

Heres an important early message: Even if you arent thrilled by the Republican and Democratic options come Election Day, dont vote for anybody else.

Were talking here about the attraction of third parties. So tempting. So disaster-inducing.

The lure is obvious. Donald Trumps terrible and Joe Bidens boring. Much more satisfying to go to the polls and announce youre too far above the status quo to vote for either.

The way so many people did in 2016, when Trump won the presidency thanks to the Electoral College votes of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. Which Hillary Clinton would probably have carried if the folks who were appalled by Trump had voted for her instead of the Libertarian or Green Party candidates.

OK, ticked-off swing staters, how did that work for you in the long run?

This brings us to No Labels, a new group thats warning it might launch a third-party candidacy if it isnt happy with the two major party nominees.

We care about this country more than the demands of any political party, No Labels announces on its website. Its founding chairman, Joe Lieberman, told interviewers that his group believes the American people are so dissatisfied with the choice of Presidents Trump or Biden that they want a third alternative.

Yeah. But lets stop here to recall that Lieberman is a former U.S. senator, Democrat of Connecticut. Who ran for vice president with Al Gore on the Democratic ticket in 2000, hurt Gores chances with a terrible performance in a debate with Dick Cheney, then made a totally disastrous attempt to run for president himself four years later.

Hard to think of him as a guy with big answers. And about that business of voters wanting a third choice: A lot of them do, until it turns out that option throws the race to the worse of the top two.

Remember all the chaos in the 2000 Florida vote count? The entire presidential election hinged on the result. In the end, Ralph Nader, the Green Party nominee, got more than 97,000 votes there. In a state that George W. Bush eventually won by 537.

Now Nader had a phenomenal career as a champion of consumer protection and the environment. But this was a terrible finale. His candidacy gave Floridians who felt that Gore was not very exciting a chance to declare their disaffection. It gave them a chance to feel superior. It gave the country a new President Bush. And a war in Iraq.

I talked with Nader about his role much later, and he basically said the outcome was Gores fault for being a bad candidate. This conversation took place when the country was bearing down on the 2016 election, and Nader vowed not to vote for either Trump or Clinton. Theyre not alike, he acknowledged, but added, theyre both terrible.

Think that was the last time I ever consulted Ralph Nader.

The third-party thingy also comes up in legislative races. Remember the 2018 Senate contest in Arizona? No? OK, thats fair. The Democratic candidate was Kyrsten Sinema, who seemed to be in danger of losing because the Green Party was on the ballot, capable of siphoning off a chunk of her supporters. Even though Sinema had a good environmental record! Well, a few days before the election the Green candidate have I mentioned her name was Angela Green? urged her supporters to vote for Sinema. Who did squeak out a win.

As senator, Sinema became an, um, unreliable Democratic vote. Who you might call either principled or egocentrically uncooperative. In any case, it didnt look like shed have much chance of being renominated. So now shes very likely to run as an independent.

Another senator who frequently drives Democratic leaders crazy is Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who hasnt announced his own plans. But hes started to flirt with a presidential run. On a No Labels ticket? I dont rule myself in and I dont rule myself out, he helpfully told an interviewer.

Sigh.

Politicians are perfectly well aware of what effect a third option can have on elections. Back in 2020, a group of Montanans whod signed petitions to put the Green Party on the ballot discovered that the Republicans had spent $100,000 to support the signature-gathering effort undoubtedly in hopes that the Green candidate would take votes away from former Democratic governor Steve Bullock when he ran for the Senate. The irate voters went to court and a judge finally ruled that they could remove their names.

Didnt help Bullock win, but it does leave another message about the way too many options can be used to screw up an election. Really, people, when it comes time to go to the polls, the smartest thing you can do is accept the depressing compromises that can come with a two-party democracy. Then straighten your back and fight for change anyhow.

Dont forget to vote! But feel free to go home after and have three or four drinks.

Read more from the original source:
Opinion | Repulsed by Joe Biden vs. Donald Trump? Tough. - The New York Times

Left: Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event in April. Right: Joe Biden shakes hands with then-Prince Charles in 2021.Alex Wong/Getty Images ; Jane Barlow/Pool via AP

Joe Biden will not be at King Charles' coronation, which Donald Trump called "very disrespectful."

No US president has ever attended a British coronation. Eisenhower skipped Queen Elizabeth's.

First lady Jill Biden will attend the coronation on Saturday and lead the US delegation.

Former president Donald Trump blasted President Joe Biden for not attending King Charles III's upcoming coronation, despite the fact that no US president has ever attended one.

"Certainly, he should be here as our representative of our country," Trump told British outlet GB Newsin an interview on May 3. "I was very surprised, I think it's very disrespectful for him not to be here."

Trump also appeared to reference Biden's age affecting his ability to travel, telling GB News, "I don't think he can do it physically."

Biden took 18 international trips during his first two years in office, according to the Pew Research Center. So far in 2023, he has traveled to Mexico, Poland, Canada, Ireland, and took a surprise trip to Ukraine.

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden attend Queen Elizabeth's state funeral on September 19, 2022.Geoff Pugh - WPA Pool/Getty Images

Biden's absence at the coronation keeps with historical precedent. President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent four representatives to Queen Elizabeth II's coronation in 1953, according to The New York Times. President Franklin D. Roosevelt skipped King George VI's in 1937 and sent a delegation led by General John J. Pershing, a World War I commander, Boston University history professor Arianne Chernock wrote for The Conversation. President William Howard Taft sent mining engineer John Hays Hammond in his stead to King George V's coronation in 1911, The New York Times reported.

While both the president and the first lady traveled to the UK to attend Queen Elizabeth II's funeral in September, only Jill Biden will attend the coronation on behalf of the United States, leading a delegation that has yet to be announced.

According to a White House readout of a phone call between Biden and Charles in April, the president "congratulated the King on his upcoming Coronation" and "conveyed his desire to meet with the King in the United Kingdom at a future date."

Read the original article on Insider

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Donald Trump called Joe Biden 'very disrespectful' for skipping King Charles' coronation, but no US president has ever attended one - Yahoo News

This creates a terrible dilemma for Trumps opponents: How do you run against a defeated president without noting the highly relevant fact that he was, ahem, defeated?

A new CBS Poll underlines the dynamic. The top-line numbers, with Trump ahead of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis by 58 to 22 percent nationally, arent all that different from the latest Fox News poll of the Democratic race, with President Joe Biden leading Democratic candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., 62 to 19 percent.

CBS also asked what attributes Republicans would like to see in a nominee. Sixty-one percent want a candidate who says Trump won in 2020. That desire among Republican voters inherently favors Trump, since no one is going to be as adamant and outlandish in maintaining that Trump won than Trump himself.

Among voters supporting Trump, three-quarters say a reason that they are backing him is that he actually won in 2020.

It wasnt crazy to think that this view would fade over time after the 2020 election, as passions cooled and as Republicans felt less defensive of the former president. Perhaps most Republicans dont think that there was honest-to-goodness fraud in 2020, and instead merely believe the rules and the press coverage were unfair in other words, their answers to pollsters should be taken seriously, not literally.

Even if this is so, it will still require finesse on part of Trumps opponents when addressing 2020. And it may well be that Republicans are simply being literal.

Insisting the election was stolen and convincing his party of this claim has worked for Trump on multiple levels first and foremost, as a salve to his ego; in the immediate aftermath of the 2020 election, as the rationale for trying to overturn the result; and ever since, as the necessary condition for his come-back (if thats the right word, since he never left).

Trump has ruled out of bounds one of the most telling critiques of him for Republican primary voters. Throwing at him that he lost a winnable election in 2020 should be the easiest criticism to make. It doesnt require departing with him on substance or attacking his character. It neednt involve condemning him for January 6. It should have, in theory, equal appeal to Trump fans and Trump skeptics, all of whom have a shared interest in defeating Biden. The argument can be swaddled in warm sentiments: You did so much good and were such a brave fighter as president, Donald, so its a real shame you lost. But you did. And we cant afford to lose again. Sorry.

Trumps contention that he actually won, and his intense bond with his supporters, creates the real possibility that making this case against him will boomerang, though.

On Trumps terms, which are widely accepted in the party, admitting the legitimacy of the 2020 election marks someone as a sell-out to the establishment, a political moderate and a weakling rather than a fighter. It also constitutes an affront to Trump, and therefore a kind of personal attack.

The broad feeling among Republicans is that they dont want to hear anything disparaging about Trump. In the same poll, CBS News asked what voters would want to see in the 2024 GOP nominee if he or she isnt Trump. Only 7 percent said they want someone who criticizes Trump. Another 56 percent said they want someone who doesnt talk about Trump, and 37 percent said they want someone who shows loyalty to him. A crushing total of more than 90 percent of Republicans want silence or acquiescence from a GOP nominee when it comes to his or her predecessor.

This makes trying to get by Trump in the GOP primaries not just a balancing act, but the political equivalent of performing Philippe Pettits walk between the Twin Towers while playing Yankee Doodle on a ukulele.

The presidential candidates opposing Trump have to choose whether to accept Trumps version of 2020, to avoid talking about the matter, to dodge by saying the election was rigged without calling it stolen or to tell the truth. The temptation to pull up somewhere short of the last option will be strong, but its hard to see how anyone defeats Trump without going there.

If its accepted that Trump supposedly beat Biden in 2020, well, then, hes basically owed another shot at it, and, as a two-time winner of presidential elections, theres not much of a case that he has an electability problem.

DeSantis has talked lately of the GOPs culture of losing, an oblique, if obvious reference to Trump. If the governor feels he has to pull his punches before he actually gets in the race, thats understandable. To deal with this issue only indirectly would be a mistake, though. Trump alienated swing voters, lost his last election and has grasped at any conspiracy theory to try to cover his tracks. DeSantis attracted swing voters, won his last election and doesnt have anything he needs to feel ashamed about. Thats an enormous difference, and it should figure prominently in the governors campaign.

Give Trump this: He doesnt necessarily accept public opinion as it is but tries to shape it. Although thered be widespread Republican doubts about the 2020 election no matter what he said, the belief that it was stolen wouldnt be as deep and pervasive without his persistent (and deceptive) advocacy. Hes changed the landscape in his favor, and his opponents simply accept it at their peril.

For Trump to lose the nomination, what should be his chief vulnerability needs to be a vulnerability and his Republican opponents must try to make it one.

Original post:
Opinion | Trump's Election Denialism Is Already Winning - POLITICO

US news

The network and Trump had a difficult relationship when he was in office, but the event could goose both of their ratings

The announcement that CNN will host a New Hampshire town hall event for Donald Trump was met with widespread criticism on Monday.

Angelo Carusone, chief executive of Media Matters for America, a progressive watchdog, said: The transparent attempt to goose their ratings does feel at least a little odious. But all the more reason that they need to get this right.

Judd Legum, author of the Popular Information newsletter, said: First, CNN systematically purged anyone on the network who was deemed too anti-Trump. Now this.

Keith Olbermann, a Trump critic and former MSNBC host, said: I think we can say Chris Lichts conversion of CNN into a political and journalistic whorehouse is complete.

Licht took over from Jeff Zucker as CNNs chief executive last year, with a mission to remodel.

Announcing the event to be held at St Anselm College on Wednesday 10 May, CNN said: The former president and 2024 Republican presidential candidate will take questions from [anchor Kaitlan] Collins and a live audience of New Hampshire Republican and undeclared voters who say they intend to vote in the New Hampshire Republican presidential primary.

Trump and CNN were at odds throughout Trumps run for the White House and his presidency, over what he deemed its hostile coverage and liberal slant. Collins, a morning show anchor, formerly worked for the Daily Caller, a website cofounded by Tucker Carlson, the far-right anchor fired by Fox News last week.

In polling regarding the Republican nomination next year, Trump enjoys commanding leads.

He continues to peddle the lie that Joe Bidens victory in 2020 was the result of electoral fraud. On 6 January 2021, he used that lie to incite an attack on Congress now linked to nine deaths and carried out by supporters seeking to block Bidens win.

More than 1,000 arrests have been made and hundreds of convictions secured, some for seditious conspiracy. Trump was impeached a second time but acquitted when Republican senators stayed loyal to him.

He now faces a federal investigation of his election subversion and incitement of the Capitol attack, as well as a state election subversion investigation, in Georgia, in which indictments are expected this summer.

In New York, Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony charges over a hush money payment to the porn star Stormy Daniels. In the same state, a civil rape case brought by the writer E Jean Carroll is at trial while a civil lawsuit brought by the state continues, over Trumps tax and business practices.

Jack Smith, a federal special counsel, is also investigating Trumps retention of classified materials.

CNN said it had a longstanding tradition of hosting leading presidential candidates for town halls and political events as a critical component of the networks robust campaign coverage.

It also said the Trump event would be the first of many in the coming months as CNN correspondents travel across the country to hear directly from voters.

Carusone said: Donald Trump is the frontrunner for Republican nomination; it benefits no one to pretend otherwise.

But this is risky business and CNN should go into this clear-eyed: Trump will lie and he will attack. Trump has been repeating the same torrent of lies in his speeches and interviews with rightwing media figures for months. Nothing he will say will be new.

So if CNN lets him get away with it unchallenged, they have no excuse. CNN isnt being graded on a curve here.

Carusone also pointed to cable networks struggles since Trump left office.

I cant help but notice that this comes just as Foxs ratings are in freefall and CNNs shift hasnt borne any fruit, he said.

David Rothkopf, a Daily Beast columnist and author of Traitor: A History of American Betrayal from Benedict Arnold to Donald Trump, called CNNs decision irresponsible.

The town hall, he said, would be a sham if it does not lead with the question, You lead an insurrection against the government of the US, why should any American voter support a candidate who sought to undermine the constitution, institutions and values he was sworn to uphold?

A CNN spokesperson said: There is certainly a lot of news to cover with him and well do that next Wednesday.

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CNNs planned town hall with Donald Trump faces pushback - The Guardian US

It was March and former presidentDonald Trump was aboard his plane with a gaggle of reporters following a campaign rally in Waco, Texas. He started off in good spirits. But then a line of questioning from NBC News reporterVaughn Hillyard, who suggested that Trump had in recent days seemed frustrated by Manhattan DAAlvin Braggs investigation, began irritating the former president. Dont ask me any more questions, Trump said. About 10 minutes later, as Hillyard continued to ask about the investigation, Trump snapped, grabbing the reporters two phones and chucking them to the side, according to a source familiar with the matter. Get him out of here, Trump told his aides, according to a recording obtained byVanity Fair.

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The incident occurred a few days before Trump would be indicted by a Manhattan grand jury for his role in hush-money payments made toStormy Daniels.Some of Trumpscomments on the plane have beenpreviouslyreported, such as when he responded to reporters questions about Braggs probe by attacking it as a fake case that theyve already dropped.The Guardiannoted how Trump lashed out at Hillyard when the NBC News reporter asked whether he was frustrated by the investigation. Trump denied the notion, insisting, We did nothing wrong, and saying, This is fake news, and NBC is one of the worst. Dont ask me any more questions. Hillyard himselfsaid Trump avoided specifics and called the press fake news. But the full scope of Trumps tirade, including his throwing the reporters phones, has not been previously reported. Hillyard declined to comment.

Axiosreported that Trumps 2024 team is running a more professional operation than that of his previous runs, with seasoned political operatives intending on running a disciplined campaign. Yet the incident demonstrates Trump's hostile relationship with the press remains unchanged. Trump was notorious forlashingout at reporters while in the White House. On the campaign trail, he regularly turned the ire of the crowd toward the press, famously coining fake news as a rallying cry.

Hillyards questions revolved around Trumps posts on Truth Social at the time; the former president hadwarned that there could be potential death and destruction if he was indicted. When Hillyard again tried to clarify Trumps version of events around the DAs investigation, the ex-president said, I dont want to talk to you. Hillyard tried to ask another question. Do you hear me? Youre not a nice guy, Trump said, turning to take a question from another reporter. When Hillyard tried a third time to get a response, Trump lost it. Alright, lets go, get him out of here, Trump said. Outta here. Outta here, Trump said, as Hillyard kept trying: The special counsel, sir. A deeper voice, apparently belonging to a Trump campaign aide, can be heard saying, Vaughn, were done.

Trump then picked up one of the phones recording the gaggle and asked, Whose is this? Hillyard replied that it was his. Trump picked up another phone and asked the same question. That ones mine too, Hillyard said. The former president tossed both phones out of his sight, onto the seat next to him; the thud of one of the phones hitting a surface can be heard in the recording. Someone then asked to talk about congressional support, but an aide said that the gaggle was over. Other members of the gaggle included AxiossSophia Cai, theDaily MailsRob Crilly, RSBNsBrian Glenn, and Associated Press photographer Evan Vucci.(At one point in the recording, Trump praised Vucci as handsome, telling the plane, look at the arms on him.)The GuardiansHugo Lowell had beenexpected to travel with the president for the Waco trip, but was bumped off the trip a day before due to a story hed written about Truth Social being under a money-laundering investigation.

The Trump campaign appears to have reduced mainstream press access as a result of what happened on the plane back from Waco. The only reporters on Trumps plane for last weeks trip to New Hampshire were from friendly conservative outlets:Henry Rodgers of The Daily Caller andDaniel Baldwin of OANN. Baldwin, in hiswrite-up of the trip, wrote of the warm and welcoming former president, Its clear Trump values the opinions of everyone he surrounds himself with, whether he agrees or disagrees. He even turned to me and said, You really know your sports. In a surprising turn, Trump isslated to participate in a town hall on CNN next week.

Trump campaign spokesmanSteven Cheung did not respond to a question about Trump tossing the phone, but did speak to the campaigns press availability.

We extended invites to four other mainstream reporters/outlets and they all said they could not due to either [White House Correspondents Dinner] events that week or because their editors refused, Cheung said in an email regarding the New Hampshire trip without specifying which outlets received those invites. But weve had a ton of media requests to ride on Trump Force One to the upcoming Iowa rally and we will do our due diligence on who to bring.

More here:
Get Him Out of Here: Donald Trump Tossed NBC Reporters Phones During Tirade Aboard Campaign Plane - Vanity Fair