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Miami resident Elisaul Herrera, who became a U.S. citizen along with his wife earlier this year, will cast his first presidential ballot this November for Donald Trump.

Elisa Mora, a high school counselor from Orlando who is a registered independent voter, says she'll support Joe Biden.

Neither sees the coronavirus crisis which has killed at least 1,700 people in the state and wreaked havoc on parts of the economy as a factor in their decision. Herrera said his choice would be motivated by the administrations policies toward his native Venezuela, while Mora said she was motivated by Bidens approach to immigration and his message of inclusiveness.

Interviews with Floridians as well as numerous current and former lawmakers, political strategists, politics watchers and academics in Florida paint a picture of a battleground state largely unmoved by the Trump administrations disjointed pandemic response and Bidens myriad proposals to handle things differently.

Unlike in Pennsylvania, a swing state where Trump's re-election hopes seem more closely tied to the fallout of the pandemic, the electoral picture in Florida heading into the fall appears to resemble any other presidential election year: a diverse, 50-50 state that will be won at the margins, driven largely by the economic picture and by how well each campaign is able to reach independent and undecided voters.

Because the economic toll in Florida, by some metrics, has not been as devastating as in other states and because the Biden campaign has struggled with its efforts to reach voters virtually the president may end up being spared from major pandemic-specific political consequences, sources told NBC News.

The election here, more than any one in recent memory, is going to be an us versus them on both sides," Alan Clendenin, the Southern caucus chair for the Democratic National Committee and a resident of Tampa, said. "I dont know whos left as a persuadable voter. Folks have their minds made up, regardless of what happens with the pandemic, and its going to be a get-out-the-vote campaign."

Rick Wilson, a Florida-based veteran Republican strategist, added, You might say that Trumps head is on the chopping block, but that hes nowhere near being executed.

Florida the country's third-most-populous state and, as of October, the president's official permanent residence has hardly been spared the devastation of the coronavirus. As of Saturday night, the state hadthe eighth-most confirmed cases of COVID-19 and the 10th-most deaths from the virus in the U.S.

But its COVID-19 per capita death rate of 8 people per 100,000 is better than about half of other states and is well below therates of other states its size. Statewide, the curve of new cases appears to have flattened in recent weeks, even as the state reopened its economy on Monday.

In addition, about 60 percent of all cases in the state have occurred in the solidly blue trifecta of southern Florida counties Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach a concentration that could blunt electoral damage for Trump, sources told NBC News.

Meanwhile, the economic data can tell different stories depending on the interpretation. Since March 14, about 1.7 million workers in the state have lost their jobs.

That total is the third-highest number in the country, behind only California and New York. But how the figures break down as a percentage of the states workforce who have filed for unemployment actually puts Florida squarely in the middle of the pack: 16.2 percent, or a little less than 1 in 6 workers, have sought unemployment.

Because the pandemic is more likely to be painted as an economic issue in Florida, and not a public health matter, Trump may actually have an easier time recalibrating his general election message, strategists said.

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He had a very simple message to run on before, which was that he created a great economy and that the country was booming under his leadership, said Alex Conant, a Republican strategist who worked on Florida GOP Sen. Marco Rubios 2016 presidential campaign.

Now, it's a nuanced message, which is that he grew the economy before and that he can do it again, he added. The question again becomes who do voters trust more to create jobs, which favors Trump.

On the other hand, Florida has been beset by extraordinary problems relating to its state unemployment benefits system, for which voters may end up assigning blame to Trump, strategists and lawmakers said.

They will punish Trump for that in the fall, said Florida Democratic state Rep. Shev Jones, a Biden surrogate. People will not forget how Florida Republicans treated them.

At the moment, polls reflect a close race in the state fueled by modestly negative approval ratings for Trump, who narrowly won Florida in 2016 by 1.2 percentage points.

The latest RealClearPolitics polling average shows Biden leading Trump 46.5 percent to 43.3 percent inside all the comprising polls margin of error. An April 22 Quinnipiac poll showed 51 percent of registered Florida voters disapprove of the way the president was handling his pandemic response, with 46 percent saying they approve. On the other hand, 45 percent of respondents said they approve of the overall job he is doing as president his highest-ever mark in a Quinnipiac survey.

Political strategists from both parties, however, said Florida polling has often underreported GOP enthusiasm on models in previous elections due to a robust state party that is particularly skilled at turning out voters late in the race.

If youre a Democrat in a Florida poll and youre ahead, it means youre tied. Im not bullish on Biden until I see him up eight, 10 points here in a poll, Wilson said.

Only twice since 1928 Bill Clinton in 1992 and John F. Kennedy in 1960 has the winner of the general election not carried Florida's crucial 29 electoral votes, making it, arguably, the most critical battleground state.

Subsequently, the Biden campaign, mired in a virtual campaign that has seen the apparent nominee forced to relyon television appearances from his home studio in Delaware, has made Florida the genesis of its first state-specific virtual campaign events. He held a virtual roundtable with local lawmakers Thursday afternoon in Jacksonville and a virtual rally later in the day in Tampa.

But if the events were designed to show that Biden meant business in Florida, they fell short.

The afternoon roundtable was not broadcast. The evening rally featured several long-winded and awkward introductions from Florida lawmakers and a 65-year-old DJ named Jack Henriquez plagued by technical glitches, including audio delays and a total blackout that lasted several minutes.

When Biden finally came on 35 minutes after the event began, he appeared unprepared, saying, Did they introduce me?

Biden only spoke for about 10 minutes, giving a brief spiel that included a nod to the shrinking economy as well as an apology for the events flaws and a closing message drowned out by loudly chirping birds.

The campaign, however, has recently held other Florida-specific virtual events, including a virtual climate roundtable geared toward the state and a virtual town hall with gun control activist Fred Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter was killed in the 2018 Parkland, Florida, high school shooting.

A campaign spokesperson told NBC News that Biden planned to hammer the economic troubles in Florida that have resulted from the pandemic and his campaign would continue, and expand, our aggressive outreach in Florida to turn that vision into votes."

Democratic lawmakers in south Florida, however, told NBC News they had, so far, not been satisfied with the Biden virtual campaigns outreach, especially to one key bloc of Florida voters: Latinos.

He is not reaching them at all at the moment, said Florida Democratic state Sen. Annette Taddeo, who represents a Miami-area district.

Meanwhile, Trump Victory, the joint operation between the Trump re-election campaign and the Republican National Committee, told NBC News since the campaign went digital-only on March 13, it has hosted at least 480 virtual trainings for campaign volunteers in Florida and made about 4 million voter contacts online in Florida.

Our campaign efforts in the state have not missed a beat, said Trump Victory spokesperson Rick Gorka.

Political strategists told NBC News that, assuming that Biden carries the reliably blue counties in the southeastern part of the state and Trump carries much of northern and central Florida, the likeliest path to victory in November would go through the so-called I-4 corridor, the area of the state running along the interstate between Tampa and Orlando that Floridians say is loaded with undecided and independent voters.

Among voters in those key counties is Christopher Talley, a 36-year-old resident of St. Petersburg, a city in Pinellas County, which Trump won in 2016 by 5,500 votes and Barack Obama won in 2012 by about 26,000.

Talley, a registered Democrat who has voted Republican in state races previously, said hell vote for Biden, citing the balance of the Supreme Court as his motivating issue.

Seeing how Trump can fill seats is terrifying, Talley said.

Not on his mind, however, is the pandemic. Talley didnt even mention it.

Adam Edelman reported from New York. Carmen Sesin reported from Miami.

Originally posted here:
Trump, Biden gear up for battle in Florida, where coronavirus isn't the only thing on voters' minds - NBCNews.com

Plenty, plenty of issues, James responded. Everything from cutting Great Lakes funding to shithole countries to speaking ill of the dead," apparently referring to Trump's disparagement of the late Sen. John McCain. "I mean, where do you want to start?

"And so yes, there's gonna be places that I disagree with the president and those are just a couple," he added.

James, a 38-year-old Iraq War veteran, also pushed back against what he described as a Democratic talking point that he was bankrolled by the president and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who hails from one of the states wealthiest political families.

I havent gotten any money from Donald Trump. I haven't gotten any money from Betsy DeVos. I havent gotten any money thats political talking points. Very little of that is true, James said during the appearance, a video of which was obtained by POLITICO.

(While James hasn't received funding from the education secretary, her family has contributed heavily to a super PAC supporting his candidacy.)

James faces the hurdle of running in Michigan, a swing state where the presidents popularity has ebbed. A recent Fox News poll showed Trump trailing Joe Biden by 8 percentage points and James lagging behind Democratic Sen. Gary Peters by 10 percentage points.

The candidate made the case that he is taking a balanced approach toward the president and wasnt afraid to disagree with him. He said he wasnt focusing his campaign on Trump, though he acknowledged that many would see the race through the prism of the president.

I do recognize that it's human to disagree with people and like I've said millions of times, I can agree with the president without worshiping him. I can disagree without attacking him, James said.

Trump, James said at one point, "has his own campaign to run."

While the presidents poll numbers are sagging across the country amid the coronavirus pandemic, Trump advisers regard Michigan as a particular trouble spot. Of all the states the president won in 2016, they say, Michigan will be the hardest to carry again. Republicans have also struggled to recruit candidates in a pair of Michigan congressional seats that Democrats flipped in the 2018 midterm elections.

James has made clear throughout the 2020 race that hes willing to distinguish himself from Trump in certain areas and has stressed that he intends to run on local, not national issues.

This race isnt about President Trump, James was quoted as saying during the Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference in September. This race is about people in the state of Michigan whove been failed by their leaders for generations. This race is about people who are hurting in this state, and Im going to make this race about Michigan.

Gail Gitcho, a James spokeswoman, said, John James is willing to have these tough conversations with voters. John James is his own man, and he will point out when he agrees with the president and respectfully point out when he disagrees with him.

"I do recognize that it's human to disagree with people and like I've said millions of times, I can agree with the president without worshiping him."

John James

Trump has heavily promoted James, tweeting last month that James will be a GREAT Senator for Michigan!

Trump also endorsed James in his unsuccessful 2018 Senate bid. At one point, he tweeted a picture of him with James in the Oval Office.

James has publicly touted his support from the White House and recently said that Trump has done everything that he has thought was best in his managing of the pandemic.

Democrats say they are eager to paint James as a Trump puppet and frequently highlight his comment during the 2018 race that he was "2,000 percent" with the president's agenda.

During the late April conference, James was peppered with an array of skeptical questions about the president. James, who is African American, was reminded reminded that many in the black community don't trust Trump. James was asked whether he would publicly speak out against the administration and advocate for the needs of African Americans.

James responded that his access to Trump as a Republican senator would be an asset to African Americans in the state.

Look, Donald Trump doesnt need less black folks around him, he needs more, said James.

He added: Hopefully youll see through my actions that I am for you, that I am for black people, and that we share the same destiny. And hopefully as the result of that, you give me the benefit of the doubt.

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James challenged Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) in 2018 and lost by 6 percentage points. Afterward, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pushed for James to run again. GOP leaders regard the Michigan seat as one of their top pickup opportunities, and the National Republican Senatorial Committee has booked nearly $3 million for ads this fall.

Trump's campaign advisers were less enthusiastic about his second bid. Last year, the presidents political team wrote a memo to the Senate GOP campaign arm making the case that a James statewide candidacy would further amp up Democratic energy and involvement and potentially hurt Trumps prospects in the battleground state. Trump advisers instead pushed for James to run for a House seat.

Trump aides, who are constantly on the lookout for signs of Republican dissent, are suspicious that James is trying to have it both ways.

They were rankled when James, after announcing his Senate bid in June, tweeted, We are heading in the wrong direction as a country and our leaders in Washington are failing to lead us toward a better and brighter future.

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The one Republican Senate candidate willing to call out Donald Trump - POLITICO

The Best Thing This Week

"There's no chance," says a scouting expert. Thank God somebody finally stood up for the integrity of our baseball team.

Did the Phillies scout Donald Trump? The presidents baseball prowess as a New York high-schooler appears to have been surprise! overstated. (Photo by Andrew Harrer-Pool/Getty Images)

Were not saying the President of the United States is a liar. We prefer the term embellisher, particularly when it comes to the truth. Hey, we understand how easy it can be to get carried away when youre chitchatting about, you know, your IQ,or your penchant for science, or your great good looks, or even your mental stability. Who among us doesnt do that every now and again, right? Right?

But when rumors get spread around that our very own Phillies were so impressed with your athletic ability that they scouted you when you were in high school, well, thats just a bridge too far. And back in 2013, Donald Trump proudly tweeted that he was said to be the best bball player in N.Y. State when he attended New York Military Academy in the 1960s. He was backed up by one of his former coaches there, the now, alas, deceased Theodore Dobias, who told both Rolling Stone and the Daily Mail that the Phils were interested in signing the schools supposed standout first baseman. The President has reminisced fondly about winning games with thunderous home runs but ultimately choosing a career in real estate because there just wasnt enough money in baseball back then.

Well, this week an enterprising reporter with the unlikely name of Leander Schaerlaeckens decided to look into the Presidents record on his high-school team. Slate published the result, and its delightful. Turns out Trumps memories of his prowess on the diamond are, oh, just a tad larger than life. His batting average, as Schaerlaecken determined by poring through regional newspaper accounts of NYMAs games, hovered at around .138. Dobias, according to the Washington Post, would say anything that his former protg told him to say. Schaerlaecken took the stats he found to the Athletics senior baseball writer, Keith Law, and asked point-blank: Would this guy have been recruited by the pros? Theres no chance, Law responded. You dont hit .138 for some podunk cold-weather high school playing the worst competition you can possibly imagine. You wouldnt even get recruited by Division I baseball programs, let alone by pro teams. Law declared the idea absolutely laughable. So, the evidence seems pretty conclusive. The Phillies, at least, have had their dignity restored.

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The Best Thing That Happened This Week: No, the Phillies Didnt Scout Donald Trump in High School - Philadelphia magazine

Photo illustration: Elise Swain/ The Intercept, Getty Images

Americas accountability problem is being laid bare. Once a global superpower, today jeers of failed state better describe our geriatric empire. Having survived impeachment, Americas acquitted president poorly navigates an unclear future as a pandemic rages and a recession looms, leaving hundreds of thousands dead in its global wake. An embattled population barrels toward a national election between two accused rapists and known liars: President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joseph Biden.

Biden, accused of sexual assault by one woman, has all but secured the Democratic nomination, gearing up for a general election against Trump, who faces at least 25 sexual misconduct allegations that range in criminal severity. Both men deny all the allegations.

Bidens accuser, Tara Reade, was one of eight women who registered complaints of inappropriate touching in April of last year before Biden ever jumped into the presidential race. As Biden appeared likely to be the Democratic nominee, Reade came forward in late March and told her story about her former boss. In an interview with podcast host Katie Halper, Reade said Biden penetrated her vagina with his fingers. She alleges the incident occurred in 1993, while she was an aide in his Senate office. What Reade describes is rape, according to the Department of Justices own definition. In an interview with Megyn Kelly, Reade has called on Biden to end his presidential bid and step forward and be held accountable.

Now Reade, not Biden, is on trial in the American media landscape. Democrats, the party of believe women, are changing their tune, terrified at the prospect of another four years of a Trump presidency. After all, 2016 proved that lugging a litany of sexual assault and harassment accusations does not guarantee an electoral loss. Before the election, at least four women were on record accusing Trump of sexual misconduct. American flags aloft, his fanatical base laughed along with the presidential candidate as he called his accusers liars and implied that they werent attractive enough for him to assault. When youre a star, they let you do it, Trump said on the infamous Access Hollywood recording. Grab em by the pussy. You can do anything.This unearthed admission did not cost him the election either.

If Democrats continue to do nothing, Reades accusation should prove that sexual misconduct allegations in either party are nothing more than a mild political inconvenience.

Protestors demonstrating against torture stand in front of the White House in Washington, D.C., February 18, 2015.

Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

The lack of impetus to replace Biden speaks to how Washington, D.C., has long neglected creating a culture of accountability. Some of the darkest chapters of U.S. history have been classified away. Our villainous past remains unprosecuted as bipartisan bombs continue falling. Americas lack of understanding wrongdoing enables figures who should have atoned in order for the country to progress to instead linger in political relevance.

If you supervised torture and destroyed evidence, like Gina Haspel, you can still get promoted. If youre a war criminal, like George W. Bush, you can be rehabilitated. If youre a judge, credibly accused of sexual conduct, like Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh, you, too, can become a Supreme Court justice.

Now, high-profile Democratic endorsements for Biden signal that a quest for the truth and a reckoning for the allegations against him will never come.

I think thats really whats corrosive about this moment, is this idea that you can try to shred Tara Reades credibility and stick up for Joe Biden and still say that you have any kind of commitment to ending sexual violence, that you have any kind of commitment to womens rights, Melissa Gira Grant, a staff writer at the New Republic, explained on Intercepted. I dont think you get to have it both ways.

The name Lucy Flores may be all but forgotten in an exhausting year of political reporting. Flores was the first to come forward and register publicly that an encounter with Biden made her deeply uncomfortable. In a viral essay, Flores described how, in 2015, then-Vice President Biden made her feel uneasy, gross, and confused as she campaigned for lieutenant governor in Nevada.

I feel him come up close behind me, and thats when he leans in and he lingers around my head, Flores recounted on Intercepted. I hear him kind of inhale. And then he proceeds to plant this low kiss on the top of my head. (Biden denied that he had acted inappropriately toward Flores.)

Seven more women came forward with similar stories of Bidens manner of unwanted, inappropriate touching. Descriptions told of how his hands intimately lingered on everything from the womens necks, shoulders, backs, or thighs. Some say his forehead pressed against theirs. Noses so close that they rubbed together. Breathing in the smell of hair. Kissing the back of the head.

The bottom line with that kind of behavior is entitlement.

The bottom line with that kind of behavior is entitlement, Gira Grant explained. Both entitlement to someones physical body, but then also entitlement to characterize what happened through whatever lens you have that allows you to continue that behavior.

Flores was precise in calling out the inequality inherent in how womens bodies were assumed to be touchable, especially by powerful men. Most people acknowledge that men dont usually kiss, smell, rub noses with, place their hands on the thighs of, or touch foreheads with random women they dont know, Flores opined in the New York Times. Yet some men do, especially powerful men, who are protected by privilege and a crew of self-interested enablers who dont want to lose their access to power by calling out the obvious.

Lucy Flores in the lobby of the office building where she works in downtown Los Angeles, on May 25, 2019.

Photo: Jenna Schoenefeld for The Washington Post via Getty Images

When allegations of inappropriate kissing and touching surfaced against Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., from seven accusers, dozens of his Democratic Senate colleagues quickly called for his resignation. With a professed zero-tolerance position for any sexual misconduct, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., led the charge. Within weeks, Franken took the incredibly rare step of resigning from his Senate seat.

Biden, apparently lacking a particularly damning enough photograph of misconduct, has been given a pass. And Gillibrand, despite Reades allegation, has maintained her support and endorsement of Biden. Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez has dismissed the accusations. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., also supports Biden. A day after Business Insiders investigation further corroborated Reades story, Hillary Clinton, too, threw in her high-profile endorsement of Biden.

For Flores, Bidens conduct that day was disqualifying. But, for the Democratic establishment, perhaps fearing both more years of Trump and a Bernie Sanders presidency, Bidens conduct has been accepted. His character has been troublingly defended by colleagues especially by women eyeing a vice presidential nomination.

As complaints from women mounted, Biden told reporterslast year, Im not sorry for any of my intentions. Im not sorry for anything that I have ever done. Ive never been disrespectful intentionally to a man or a woman. With this, Biden revealed an inability to comprehend culpability.

This is what hes known for, Flores told Intercepted. He is not known for voluntarily or willingly acknowledging that he has made mistakes in the past, whether its around his position on the Hyde Amendment, whether it was around how he mishandled the Clarence Thomas hearings, school busing and segregationist policies I mean, the list is pretty long.

Bidens record is long and troubling. Some voters, myself included, are struggling with a moral debate in response to the electoral options before us. We face an impossible choice and feel disgust at being put in this position.

Its a mind-fuck. Gira Grant said, about the inevitable choice between Trump and Biden. I want to appreciate how that feels and how uncomfortable that is. I think its just, like, ripping something back about our culture and our politics and revealing it to us. I dont think its necessarily new.

I think its just, like, ripping something back about our culture and our politics and revealing it to us. I dont think its necessarily new.

Yet it isnt surprising. Bidens inability to admit fault he has said, I am not sorry for anything I have ever done simply shows that he is a byproduct of an institution of impunity. America, too, doesnt do apologies. Reparations for black people and native people are nowhere in sight. We didnt prosecute torture and we wont prosecute war crimes. The cancer at the core of this nation is one of fundamental injustice, hidden beneath platitudes of freedom, liberty, and equality for all. To remove Biden would be to indict American exceptionalism itself.

Liberals like Biden, who believe that Americas divisions can be healed by a new president, dont see this country as built on exploitation. To understand how we heal, we have to view America through the painful lens of wrongs committed. Accountability must be viewed as a feminist issue, especially in a nationthatwove oppression into every fiber of its flag.

America should live in shame until we admit fault, recognize hurt, and ask for forgiveness. Joe Biden can go first.

Read more here:
How Donald Trump, Joe Biden, and America Get Away With It - The Intercept

Sessions said in a statement that he recused himself because he was abiding by the law.

"To not recuse myself from that investigation, of which I was a target as a senior campaign official and a witness, would have been breaking the law. I do not and will not break the law," Sessions. "I did the right thing for the country and for President Trump. If I, as a target of the investigation, had broken the law by not recusing myself, it would have been a catastrophe for the rule of law and for the President."

The President was asked during a Friday morning call to "Fox & Friends" if there would have been a Russia probe had Bill Barr, the current attorney general, been attorney general during the start of the Trump administration.

"No, there wouldn't be. He would have stopped it immediately. ... Jeff Sessions was a disaster. I made him -- I didn't want to make him attorney general but he was the first senator to endorse me so I felt a little bit of an obligation," Trump said.

Trump added that Sessions "came to see me four times, just begging me to be attorney general. He wasn't, you know, to me, equipped to be attorney general. But he wanted and wanted and wanted it."

Sessions said in his statement that he continues to support Trump and will vote for him in the fall, but he said he "never begged for the job of Attorney General, not 4 times, not 1 time, not ever."

On "Fox and Friends," Trump said of Sessions, "He goes in -- he was so bad in his nomination proceedings. I should have gotten rid of him there," adding that he "knew less about Russia than I did."

"But they got him standing on a line with Kislyak ... everyone in Washington knew Kislyak," he remarked.

While past US presidents have largely left the Justice Department and, within it, the FBI, to be independent, Trump has said he has seen himself as the country's "chief law enforcement officer" -- a title typically used to refer to the attorney general.

Barr's Justice Department has acted more as an arm of Trump's defense than an independent arbiter of justice.

"The fix is in," said Honig, a legal analyst for CNN.

"This is an absolute injustice. Michael Flynn lied to the FBI, he pled guilty under oath in federal court to doing that, he took a plea, and then what does Bill Barr do? He says of all the tens of thousands of cases he's been in charge of in the Department of Justice, look at that one," Honig said. "And now we see Bill Barr doing Donald Trump's dirty work."

CNN's Marshall Cohen, Joe Johns Kaitlan Collins and Stephen Collinson contributed to this report.

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Sessions responds to Trump attack: 'I do not and will not break the law' - CNN