Progressive News and Opinion Today, Lucy Warner, Progressive 1

Wednesday, May 27, 2020

TWEETSTORMS IN TRUMP TOWN

COMPILATION AND COMMENTARY

BY LUCY WARNER

MAY 28, 2020

THIS ARTICLE GIVES BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON THE LATEST TRUMP FALSEHOOD AND TWITTER’S PUBLICLY SLAPPING HIS HAND OVER IT, LIGHTLY. SEE THE DAILY BLOG OF MAY 26 AND 27 FOR MORE, AND FOR FOLLOWUP STORIES. THE YAHOO ARTICLE IS VERY LONG, 14 PAGES, SO I HAVE PLACED IT IN A POST OF ITS’ OWN. THE TEXT OF ALL THE TWEETS HAS BEEN BLANKED OUT EITHER BY YAHOO THEMSELVES OR BY THE POWERS ABOVE US. I SUGGEST THAT BECAUSE TRUMP DOESN’T LIKE CONTRADICTION OR CRITICISM, AND HAS THREATENED TO DISCIPLINE TWITTER WITH SOME RESTRAINTS FOR THEIR ACTION. HE WOULD HAVE TO DO THAT TO ALL RATHER THAN JUST ONE, I WOULD THINK THOUGH, AND THERE WILL BE A HUGE OUTCRY IF HE UNILATERALLY TRIES TO TACKLE THE INTERNET.

https://news.yahoo.com/wielding-twitter-weapon-heres-really-191815884.html

Wielding Twitter like a weapon: Here's what was really going on when Trump's most outrageous tweet storms took place

Business Insider

insider@insider.com (Jake Lahut,Rhea Mahbubani)

Business Insider • May 27, 2020

PHOTOGRAPH -- Trump's ability to drive news cycles from his Twitter account has remained a fixture of his presidency, but sometimes the sheer volume itself becomes the story. AP Photo/Evan Vucci

President Donald Trump's Twitter use has gotten to the point where the social media company has, for the first time, marked two of his tweets with a fact check for the public.

His use of the platform to communicate with his fans and detractors is unprecedented. Trump's tweets from the White House have the ability to not only drive news cycles but spark policy and force the hands of his opponents.

Back on Mother's Day, President Trump came close to breaking his all-time record for most tweets in a day.

The president's Twitter use is often understood as trying to create a distraction or push for a shift in messaging when he doesn't like his press coverage. He also tweets a lot about ratings.

Using a database logging all of Trump's tweets, Business Insider analyzed how Trump wields tweets in order to control the narrative.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Donald Trump was a prolific Twitter user well before entering politics.

Now that he's president, his tweets can move markets, force the hands of world leaders, and scramble his own administration into action.

Over the last week, Trump has used his influence on Twitter to hammer out false accusations that a cable news host murdered a former staffer and to call the legitimacy of mail-in voting into question. And for the first time, Twitter slapped a fact check on two of Trump's tweets that attempted to undermine public confidence in voting by mail. The president has since issued a "Clean up your act, NOW!!!!" directive to social media platforms.

—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 27, 2020

Trump is truly the first social media president, and it's hard to imagine what his time in office might look like if Twitter wasn't at his disposal. The platform allows him to shift the story, control the narrative, and speak directly to his constituents in an unfettered, unfiltered way that thrills fans and pains critics.

The volume — and volatility — of Trump's tweets tell a bigger story than the day-to-day controversy over their content. In Trump's world, you distract from one problem — impeachment, poor ratings, the Mueller Report — by creating another (on Twitter).

Here are Trump's record days on Twitter, and why he may have been running rampant over your timeline, according to the Factba.se database:

1. Peak 'Apprentice': 161 tweets on Jan. 5, 2015

Trump tweeted 161 times on a Monday when his final season of "Celebrity Apprentice" was coming out.

Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP

Trump's ability to flood the zone with tweets and retweets was on full display back in 2015.

With the 14th season of the "Celebrity Apprentice" premiering — his final one as the show's host — Trump went to town promoting the show on a Monday.

As expected, the show's ratings were a major focus.

—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2015

The bulk of these tweets would have benefited from the quote tweet function, which did not exist at the time.

So for most of these, Trump is just copy and pasting people praising him and tweeting that out instead of hitting the retweet button, which he still had fully at his disposal.

Despite all of the busy Twitter days that have come since he moved into the Oval Office, the record still stands.

2. Davos dreaming: 142 tweets on Jan. 22, 2020

When Trump was meeting with business leaders during the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, he managed to rattle out 142 tweets in a day.

Carlos Barria/Reuters

While overseas in Switzerland for the World Economic Forum, Trump's impeachment trial was set to get underway in the Senate.

The House had already impeached him on the counts of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress stemming from his efforts to get dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden's son in Ukraine

Trump was eager to change the subject, promoting his appearances on cable news, touting the "Very successful (for USA) trip" and quoting people defending him on Fox News.

He also weighed in on the Democratic primary, once again alleging the primary was "rigged" against Bernie Sanders.

—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 22, 2020

Adding those to a mix of retweeting Republican lawmakers and the Republican National Committee's campaign videos, Trump hit a clip of as many as 41 tweets per hour.

Some were also hard to make sense of, such as a nonsequitur "NO PRESSURE" tweet during the evening over in Davos.

—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 22, 2020

That day's total of 142 is his record so far as president.

3. The Mother's Day storm: 126 tweets on May 10, 2020

Trump's excessive Twitter use drew a lot of attention on Mother's Day when he fired off 126 tweets that Sunday.

AP Photo/Richard Drew

Not long after Trump tweeted an almost obligatory "HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!" at 8:10 a.m. on Sunday, May 10, he cleared 50 tweets and retweets combined by the bottom of the hour.

Outside of the president's Twitter account, the news was not good. The coronavirus death toll mounted and his approval ratings continued to sag as new polls showed former Vice President Joe Biden ahead in key swing states.

Trump's topics were a mix of old and new.

He re-litigated the Russia investigation, calling for Pulitzer Prizes for reporting on the probe to be revoked.

—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 10, 2020

In addition to retweeting a QAnon conspiracy theory account and a bunch of other regularly referenced people, Trump kept beating the drum on his newly formed "Obamagate" conspiracy — accusing the former president of a crime he can't quite explain.

—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 10, 2020

Trump kept up that blistering pace through the night, ending up with 142 tweets on the day and nearly breaking his presidential record.

4. More impeachment woes: 123 tweets on Dec. 12, 2019

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., walks to the House floor, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2019, on Capitol Hill in Washington

AP Photo/Patrick Semansky

When the House Judiciary Committee was debating what would become the two articles of impeachment against President Trump, he kicked his tweeting into high gear.

Although Trump was irritated — decrying the process as a "hoax" and retweeting his Republican defenders — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had been hesitant to begin the process at all, were it not for the scandal snowballing from an anonymous whistleblower complaint about Trump seeking leverage over the Ukrainian president to announce an investigation into Hunter Biden.

—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 12, 2019

As lawmakers parsed through the Ukraine scandal, Trump live-tweeted the cable news coverage by touting anyone who was willing to defend him.

Trump hit 58 tweets per hour, for an average of one tweet every 62 seconds, according to the Factba.se database.

5. 'Celebrity Apprentice' redux: 119 tweets on Jan. 6, 2015

Rounding out the top 5, Trump's drive to promote the "Celebrity Apprentice" brought him close to the record he set the previous day.

Virginia Sherwood/NBC

If Trump had somehow managed to shoehorn all of the promoting he was doing on Twitter for the "Celebrity Apprentice" into one day, he would have hit 280 tweets in 24 hours.

In total, he's tweeted about the show more than 1,000 times since creating his account, according to the Factba.se database, and continues to do so to this day.

But because there are only so many hours in the day, Trump picked up where he left off the day before and clocked in at 119 tweets the day after he set his all-time record.

Following another common pattern in his Twitter use, Trump shared articles mentioning him, such as a TMZ story involving comments he made about former NFL wide receiver Terrell "T.O." Owens, who was competing on the show that season.

—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2015

PHOTOGRAPH -- Rep. Eric Swalwell in a press conference on Capitol Hill.

AP Photo/Alex Brandon

6. Impeachment woes, Sunday shows edition: 105 tweets on Dec. 8, 2019

After a week of contentious Ukraine hearings on Capitol Hill, President Trump fired off on Twitter as big interviews on the major networks' Sunday shows aired.

Programs like "Meet The Press," "Face the Nation," and "Fox News Sunday" usually feature panels of reporters and political operatives recapping the news of the week and offering analysis. They also usually have a couple of news-making interviews with federal officials.

With the Ukraine scandal approaching formal articles of impeachment, Trump went into TV critic overdrive.

Trump was critical of "Fox News Sunday" for featuring guests — including Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell of California — who were not staunch supporters of the president, and touted Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas for defending him on NBC's "Meet the Press."

—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 8, 2019

Overall, Trump's high volume Sunday was another example of his propensity for using his executive time to watch TV and weigh-in in real-time, all day long.

7. "Vote for @realDonaldTrump & stop Hillary!" A preview of things to come: 102 tweets, April 12, 2015.

Trump's tweets about Hillary Clinton on the day she announced her candidacy were a harbinger of how he would campaign in 2016.

Saul Loeb-Pool/Getty Images

Again, in the era before the quote tweet function, Donald Trump did a lot of copy and pasting.

On the day Hillary Clinton announced her plans to run for president in 2016 — confirming what had been a foregone conclusion in the political press for years — Trump gave a shoutout to just about anyone who was tweeting at him to encourage the then-real estate mogul to take on HRC.

—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 12, 2015

A common theme among those whom Trump touted that day was an imagined debate between him and Clinton.

While it may have seemed like a distant fantasy then, even for Trump's most ardent fans, it would become a reality just over a year later.

8. More ratings, more 'Apprentice': 100 tweets on Feb. 27, 2013

Another season of 'Apprentice' brought a triple-digit tweet total for the day.

AP Photo/Carrie Antlfinger

Trump's last triple digit tweet day came on the heels of another new season of the Celebrity Apprentice.

Using Twitter to keep the publicity going, Trump tweeted heavily about his appearances on Jimmy Fallon, Howard Stern, "The Today Show," and "The Kelly and Michael Show," the latter of which also featured his daughter, Ivanka.

—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 27, 2013

Otherwise, Trump took some shots at his now-campaign adviser Karl Rove for his work on Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell's reelection race.

—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 27, 2013

9. "Carlos Danger" and Steve Jobs come back from the grave: 95 tweets on July 24, 2013.

PHOTOGRAPH -- Anthony Weiner, AP

Trump was not alone in tweeting about Anthony Weiner, whose online alias "Carlos Danger" had been making headlines.

The former congressman was waging a comeback campaign for mayor of New York City, only to have it all unravel again by being embroiled in a second sexting scandal.

As a longtime fixture of New York tabloids, Trump was quick to weigh in.

—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 24, 2013

Elsewhere, Trump tweeted about iPhone screens being too small, and quipped that Steve Jobs should come back from the grave.

—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 24, 2013

Otherwise, Trump was not tweeting as much about ratings, but he was still weighing in frequently about the biggest story on TV that day, rarely passing up an occasion to inject himself into the conversation.

10. More Chuck Todd: 92 tweets on Jan. 27, 2015

VIDEO -- Chuck Todd, host of NBC's "Meet the Press," once again found himself the focus of Trump's tweets in January 2015. YouTube

Although Trump would be running for president in a few months, something about Chuck Todd hosting "Meet the Press" made him think he could do a better job.

—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 27, 2015

Trump is a creature of TV, even watching up to seven hours of cable news in the White House residence before heading down to the West Wing to start the work day.

Otherwise, Trump spent the day tweeting about the Miss Univese pageant — a fixture of his celebity persona — and alleging that Hurricane Juno was not that bad, blaming President Obama for reasons that are unclear.

—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 27, 2015

There were also more Celebrity Apprentice retweets, of course.

These Twitter tears have relied heavily on retweets with original posts scattered throughout.

Here are five "honorary mentions" or days when Trump lashed out at those he disagreed with, in his own words with original tweets.

11. Trump's tirade targets some common enemies: 36 tweets on Nov. 17, 2019.

PHOTOGRAPH -- President Donald Trump greets Rep Steve Scalise (L) R-LA upon arrival at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

If it's Sunday, chances are Trump is live-tweeting "the shows."

The Commander-in-Tweet took aim at the "Fake News," "Fake Whistleblower," "Do Nothing Democrats," and "Never Trumpers" in a Ukraine investigation tirade.

—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 17, 2019

Catching up with those Sunday shows, Trump in the same tweet lauded Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana and condemned Fox News host Chris Wallace.

—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 17, 2019

He also heaped praise on Rep. Elise Stefanik and Florida attorney general Pam Bondi, and displayed somewhat uncharacteristic generosity toward former Vice President Joe Biden, saying he is not a "rabid dog. He is actually somewhat better than that."

—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 17, 2019

While the Sunday shows often seek to frame the important news stories for the coming week, this is a prime example of Trump trying to counterprogram them one tweet at a time.

12. A day for freewheeling and wide-ranging rancor: 36 tweets on July 11, 2019.

PHOTOGRAPH -- Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass, addresses people outside an organizing event at McCoy's Bar Patio and Grill in Council Bluffs, Iowa on Jan. 4, 2019. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)

Trump had a packed morning: He body-shamed Sen. Elizabeth Warren and resurrected her nickname of "Pocahantas"; compared former Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg to to cartoon character Alfred E. Neuman from "Mad" magazine and tagged an incorrect Twitter profile in the process (that's since been deleted); and joked about staying in the White House beyond a second term.

—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 11, 2019

While hyping a Social Media Summit geared toward protecting Americans' right to free speech, Trump ended up sowing confusion by referring to "that day in November, 2016, that I came down the escalator with the person who was to become your future First Lady." Seeing as the election happened in November 2016, however, he was likely referring to announcing his presidential campaign in June 2015.

—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 11, 2019

Trump also claimed that "didn't use many banks" because he didn't "need their money." However, The New York Times reported that he took $2 billion in loans from Deutsche Bank alone.

—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 11, 2019

13. Trump defends a 'congenial phone call' with the Ukrainian president: 35 tweets on Oct. 3, 2019.

PHOTOGRAPH -- Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee stands next to a photograph of President Donald Trump and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on May 17, 2017. More Alex Brandon/AP

Trump was in Florida, where he signed the "Executive Order on Protecting and Improving Medicare for Our Nation's Seniors."

But the actual workings of the government didn't stop him from doubling down on the Democratic party and its alleged partner-in-crime, the news media, and accusing them of conducting the "Greatest Witch Hunt" in American history based on a "congenial phone call."

—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 3, 2019

—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 4, 2019

Trump also continued slinging mud at Rep. Adam Schiff and renewed calls for his ouster.

This would only get more heated as the impeachment inquiry progressed.

—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 3, 2019

14. Trump rains down on Robert Mueller: 34 tweets on July 24, 2019.

PHOTOGRAPH -- Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller departs from the US Capitol following his testimonies before the House of Representatives in Washington, DC. Tom Brenner/Reuters

Trump clung tightly to the victim card, casting former Special Counsel Robert Mueller as Public Enemy No. 1 ahead of his highly-anticipated testimony at the conclusion of the Mueller Report into Trump's alleged collusion and obstruction.

He also blasted Democrats for "illegally" making up a crime and "pinning it on a very innocent President." Even "crooked" Hillary Clinton and "lying and leakin'" James Comey didn't escape the line of fire.

—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 24, 2019

But his tune changed as the day progressed, with The Times reporting that the White House was abuzz because Mueller's testimonial had been a disappointment, and Trump crowed over the left's "BIG" defeat.

—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 24, 2019

15. Democrats v. Trump: 34 tweets on Oct. 14, 2019.

PHOTOGRAPH -- House members vote as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., center, stands on the dais, during a vote on Article II of impeachment against President Donald Trump. AP Photo/Patrick Semansky

Decrying the "impeachment scam," Trump characterized Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan as a "despicable human being!" and then lashed out at Adam Schiff, who served as the lead impeachment manager, for protecting the identity of the whistleblower who sounded the alarm on the April 21 call between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Trump that triggered the ensuing impeachment trial.

—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 14, 2019

He shared segments by Mark Levin on "The Mark Levin Show" on Fox News that labeled the impeachment inquiry as a "coup" and described Pelosi as "the ring leader in this whole rogue operation."

—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 14, 2019

And he also issued a statement imposing "powerful" sanctions on Turkey and called on "anyone who wants to assist Syria in protecting the Kurds."

—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 14, 2019

Read the original article on Business Insider

**** **** **** ****

MAY 26 AND 27, 2020

PROGRESSIVE OPINION AND NEWS

TRUTH, OR FAUX NEWS?

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/cuomo-immunity-nursing-home-campaign-donation

ANDREW CUOMO Published 1 hour ago [MAY 27, 2020]

Cuomo granted immunity to nursing home executives, after big-money campaign donation: report

By Adam Shaw | Fox News

Video -- Tammy Bruce: Cuomo's nursing home order 'obscene,' and getting worse. Tammy Bruce discusses the criticism Governor Andrew Cuomo is facing over his nursing home guidance during the coronavirus crisis

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who signed legislation granting hospital and nursing home executives immunity from lawsuits related to the novel coronavirus last month, previously received a big-money boost from a powerful health care industry group, according to a new report.

The Guardian reports that the New York State Democratic Committee, then backing Cuomo’s primary run in 2018, received more than $1 million from the Greater New York Hospital Association (GNYHA) -- a lobbying group for hospital systems, some of which own nursing homes.

CUOMO ATTEMPTS TO DEFLECT BLAME OF DEADLY NURSING HOME CORONAVIRUS DEBACLE ON TO TRUMP

The donation made the group one of the state party’s largest contributors in that cycle. Three of the hospital association’s top officials separately gave more than $150,000 to Cuomo’s campaign between 2015 and 2018, the outlet reported.

That donation is now drawing scrutiny after Cuomo signed legislation last month that protects executives from lawsuits -- just as he is under continued criticism for his March 25 order (since deleted) requiring nursing homes to take in COVID-19 patients.

On May 10, and amid increasing criticism, Cuomo issued a new directive stating that hospitals cannot send patients back to nursing homes in the state unless they tested negative for the virus.

VIDEO -- Trump, Cuomo to meet in wake of New York's deadly nursing home situationVideo

The budget provision says that officials “shall have immunity from any liability, civil or criminal, for any harm or damages alleged to have been sustained as a result of an act or omission in the course of arranging for or providing healthcare services” to deal with the outbreak.

The Guardian reports that critics are now trying to repeal that provision amid concerns that it removed a deterrent against nursing homes and hospital corporations cutting corners in the treatment of coronavirus patients. But the measures were drafted and aggressively advocated for by the group, the outlet says.

Cuomo’s office responded to the report in a statement to The Guardian, saying that the measure was to protect health care workers during a national crisis. In Washington, Republicans similarly have sought to include broad liability protection for businesses in any future round of relief legislation.

“This pandemic remains an unprecedented public health crisis and we had to realign New York’s entire healthcare system, using every type of facility to prepare for the surge, and recruiting more than 96,000 volunteers – 25,000 from out of state, to help fight this virus,” said Cuomo’s senior adviser Rich Azzopardi. “These volunteers are good samaritans and what was passed by 111 members of the legislature was an expansion of the existing Good Samaritan Law to apply to the emergency that coronavirus created. If we had not done this, these volunteers wouldn’t have been accepted and we never would have had enough frontline healthcare workers.”

“This law was intended to increase capacity and provide quality care, and any suggestion otherwise is simply outrageous,” he said.

CUOMO FEELS HEAT AS NEW YORK'S NURSING HOME COVID-19 DEATH DATA REMAINS INCOMPLETE

The Guardian article, which was co-published on the socialist website The Jacobin, marks pressure not only from conservative critics but also those on Cuomo’s left -- even after he had initially received glowing praise for his performance in press conferences by media outlets.

A scathing Associated Press report out Friday was highly critical of the way in which Cuomo had handled the state’s nursing home coronavirus crisis. It found more than 4,300 coronavirus-infected elderly patients were sent to vulnerable nursing homes.

Cuomo and his administration have tried to deflect that criticism, saying it was following guidelines issued by the Trump administration.

The guidance says "nursing homes should admit any individuals that they would normally admit to their facility, including individuals from hospitals where a case of COVID-19 was/is present."

CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP

"Not could. Should," Melissa DeRosa, secretary to the governor and Cuomo's top aide, said at a Saturday press conference. "That is President Trump's CMS and CDC...There are over a dozen states that did the exact same thing."

Nursing care facilities, home to some of the most vulnerable citizens, have been coronavirus hotspots around the country. New York leads the nation with the most reported coronavirus nursing home deaths at more than 5,000 -- though the state changed how it counts deaths so the number of nursing home patient deaths could be even higher.

Fox News’ Marisa Schultz, Gregg Re and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Adam Shaw is a reporter covering U.S. and European politics for Fox News.. He can be reached here.

FOR THE UMPTEENTH TIME SINCE THE 2016 ELECTION, I DISAGREE WITH MARK ZUCKERBERG. THEY NEED TO DO IT IN ORDER TO POLICE THE BAD ACTORS. I PLACE IN THAT CATEGORY THE SEX ADS OF ALL KINDS, ESPECIALLY THOSE DEALING WITH CHILD ABUSE, RT, ALEX JONES ET AL., AND OTHERS WHO DO HARM WITH THEIR WORDS ON A DAILY BASIS. THE NET NEEDS TO BE A GOOD THING, AND NOT A JUNGLE. SEE ALSO TODAY’S INDEPENDENT POST, “TWEET STORM IN TRUMP TOWN” ON THIS SUBJECT. IT EXPLAINS TWITTER’S ACTION. PERSONALLY, I AGREE WITH THOSE WHO SAY THAT IT SHOULD HAVE REMOVED ALL OF HIS TWEETS AGAINST JOE SCARBOROUGH. THAT WON’T HAPPEN, OF COURSE. WHAT TWITTER HAS DONE IS A GESTURE MORE THAN AN ACTION. SEE THE ARTICLE BELOW ON TRUMP’S THREAT TO TAKE THE SOCIAL MEDIA OUT BEHIND THE WOODSHED. I’M SURE THAT WILL BE WATCHED CLOSELY IN THE NEWS.

https://news.yahoo.com/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-fact-check-020626141.html

Mark Zuckerberg Says Social Media Giants Shouldn't Be In Position To Fact-Check Users

HuffPost

Carla Herreria Russo

HuffPost • May 27, 2020

PHOTOGRAPH – Mark Zuckerberg Says Social Media Giants Shouldn't Be In Position To Fact-Check Users

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said his company’s policies differ from those of Twitter when it comes to fact-checking users.

For the first time, Twitter tagged two of President Donald Trump’s tweets on Tuesday with a fact-checking note indicating that his statements were misleading. Angered over the notes, Trump later accused Twitter of attempting to influence the upcoming 2020 presidential election.

During an interview with Fox News’ Dana Perino, Zuckerberg said he disagreed with Twitter’s policy and said he didn’t believe his own company, Facebook, should be “the arbiter of truth.”

“We have a different policy than Twitter on this,” Zuckerberg told Perino when asked about Twitter’s decision to fact-check Trump.

“I just believe strongly that Facebook shouldn’t be the arbiter of truth of everything that people say online,” he said. “I think in general, private companies probably shouldn’t be — especially these platform companies — shouldn’t be in the position of doing that.”

A preview of Zuckerberg’s interview was published Wednesday and is scheduled to air in full on Thursday.

....Twitter is completely stifling FREE SPEECH, and I, as President, will not allow it to happen!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2020

.@Twitter is now interfering in the 2020 Presidential Election. They are saying my statement on Mail-In Ballots, which will lead to massive corruption and fraud, is incorrect, based on fact-checking by Fake News CNN and the Amazon Washington Post....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2020

Trump’s tweets warned, without evidence, of “substantially fraudulent” voting in states that plan to use mail-in ballots this November.

Twitter added this note to Trump’s tweets:

“Trump falsely claimed that mail-in ballots would lead to ‘a Rigged Election.’ However, fact-checkers say there is no evidence that mail-in ballots are linked to voter fraud.”

A Twitter spokesperson told HuffPost that Twitter flagged Trump’s tweets because they contained “potentially misleading information about voting processes and have been labeled to provide additional context around mail-in ballots.”

The fact-checking is part of the company’s new policy of labeling false or misleading information about COVID-19. The company also explained that it may expand the fact-checking to topics beyond the pandemic.

In response to Twitter’s action, Trump threatened on Wednesday to use the power of the federal government to regulate social media companies. The office of the president cannot regulate tech companies without congressional approval or help with the Federal Communications Commission.

“We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen,” Trump said, accusing social media companies of intentionally suppressing conservative opinions.

“Big action to follow,” he added.

Zuckerberg appeared wary of Trump’s warning and said he didn’t believe further censorship was the appropriate action.

“I have to understand what they actually would intend to do,” Zuckerberg told Fox News. “But in general, I think a government choosing to censor a platform because they’re worried about censorship doesn’t exactly strike me as the right reflex there.”

BOTH BIDEN AND SANDERS WILL BE CRITICIZED FOR MOVING TOWARD EACH OTHER, EVEN AS THEY MUST IN ORDER TO UNITE THE DEMOCRATS INTO ANYTHING LIKE A FIGHTING FORCE AGAINST THE DARK POWER THAT DOMINATES THE COUNTRY NOW. THIS IS ANOTHER ONE OF THOSE ARTICLES OF DAMNING WITH FAINT PRAISE, AS THE WRITER TRIES TO SOUND FAIR AND BALANCED. I THINK HE'S CONSERVATIVE. CAN BIDEN BE TRUSTED TO HONOR PROGRESSIVE GOALS? HE SEEMS TO HAVE A DESIRE TO COURT PROGRESSIVE PEOPLE, SO IF THAT IS TRUE HE WILL PROBABLY TRY TO DO SOME OF THE THINGS WE WANT HIM TO DO. I HAVE A FEELING HE ISN’T AS FULL OF POLITICAL PRINCIPLES AS BERNIE SANDERS IS, AND MAYBE HIS RACIAL MISSTEPS WILL BE MINOR AND INFREQUENT.

https://www.wsls.com/news/politics/2020/05/25/biden-aims-to-move-left-without-abandoning-centrist-roots/

Biden aims to move left without abandoning centrist roots

Will Weissert And Bill Barrow

Associated Press

Published: May 25, 2020, 12:15 am

Updated: May 25, 2020, 5:43 am

PHOTOGRAPH -- FILE - In this Feb. 25, 2020, file photo from left, Democratic presidential candidates, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., former Vice President Joe Biden, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., participate in a Democratic presidential primary debate in Charleston, S.C. Calls for pragmatic centrism helped Joe Biden clinch the Democratic presidential nomination. But they left many of the partys strongest liberals worried that little progress would be made toward their sweeping goals. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

WASHINGTON – Joe Biden worked out deals with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell. He defended Vice President Mike Pence as a “decent guy” and eulogized Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain's “fairness, honesty, dignity, respect.”

When he launched his presidential campaign, such overtures to Republicans were central to Biden's promise to “unify the country” and “restore the soul of the nation” after defeating President Donald Trump.

Now that he's the presumptive Democratic nominee, Biden is sharpening his tone, still pitching consensus but touting a “bold agenda” aimed at mollifying progressives who remain skeptical he'll deliver enough on health care, student loan debts and the climate crisis.

The idea is to avoid repeating the party’s 2016 defeat, when Hillary Clinton struggled to unite her moderate supporters and backers of Bernie Sanders. The dynamics are different in 2020, with Democrats united in their antipathy toward Trump. But Biden's juggling of the left wing along with mainstream Democrats and independents and Republicans disgruntled with Trump could end up as an unsuccessful attempt to be all things to all people.

“It certainly seems like the approach that they’re taking right now is trying to have it both ways,” said Evan Weber, a co-founder of the Sunrise Movement, a climate action youth organization that is among the political groups working with the Biden campaign on policy proposals.

For younger voters, Weber added, “Going too far in the direction of trying to appeal to a moderate narrative or a bipartisan era that most people in our generation have never experienced ... is not going to inspire a lot of confidence.”

Republican pollster Whit Ayres countered that Biden’s “sweet spot” is the center-left.

“You’ve got to run on who you are,” Ayres said. “If he becomes a politician of the left, it’s going to hurt his ability to consolidate the 54% of Americans who voted for someone other than Donald Trump in 2016.”

Biden deflects the risks. Asked whether his recent moves mean he’ll govern as a “progressive,” Biden retorted on CNBC: “I’m going to be Joe Biden. Look at my record.”

Recent interviews and campaign events reveal the nuances Biden hopes can attract support in both directions. “I think health care is a right, not a privilege,” he said on CNBC, espousing an article of faith for the left. But, he added, “I do not support Medicare for All ” single-payer insurance.

Biden embraces some key principles of the Green New Deal sweeping climate plan as paths to “tens of millions of new jobs” but casts as impossible some progressives’ goal of zeroing out carbon pollution over a decade. He's reaffirmed that he wants Republicans’ 2017 tax cuts repealed for the wealthiest individuals and corporations. But he prefers a 28% corporate tax rate – still lower than what it was before the cuts – and he’s not embraced a “wealth tax" on the fortunes of the richest Americans. He opposes the Keystone XL pipeline while stopping short of backing an outright ban on fracking.

The coronavirus pandemic has influenced Biden's thinking, as well.

Once a senator who championed a balanced budget amendment, he’s aligned with congressional Democrats pushing trillions of dollars in aid for states, local governments, business and individuals. And, adopting the tenor of erstwhile rivals like Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, Biden has intensified his calls to rebuild the economy to reflect progressive values, including stamping out income inequalities baked into the pre-pandemic system.

Biden aides say he’s uniquely positioned for a wide “Biden coalition” because voters prioritize experience and temperament, along with policy. The campaign defines his coalition as young, African Americans and Latinos, as well as suburban, college-educated whites, women and those disaffected by Trump.

“We do not have to make a choice between one group or another group in terms of how we are going to win this,” Biden’s campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon said on a recent strategy call.

Campaign co-chairman Cedric Richmond said Biden can stitch together otherwise irreconcilable parts of the electorate for one reason: Trump.

“We have a president now with no discernible political philosophy other than what benefits him,” said Richmond, a Louisiana congressman. “Even people who are not as progressive (as Biden) and people who are more progressive at least like the consistency of knowing what a person believes in.”

Anti-Trump conservatives offer similar sentiments.

“We are living right now ... with the damage that can be done when a president is elected and thinks that he only has to answer to his base,” said Jennifer Horn of the Lincoln Project, which has produced online ads to help thwart Trump’s reelection.

Even if Biden prevails in November, governing might prove tougher.

Republicans who dislike Trump – the kind who cut deals with Sen. Biden or Vice President Biden – aren’t likely to back President Biden's proposed “public option” health insurance expansion when they’ve never embraced the Affordable Care Act.

The same goes for tax hikes and mega-spending energy packages the fossil fuel industry opposes. And within Biden’s personal base, labor unions whose jobs are anchored in existing energy markets haven’t embraced the sweeping alternatives.

During the primary, Biden told skeptics in his own party he’d work with Republicans “without compromising our values,” but work to “beat them” in the 2022 midterms if that failed.

Meanwhile, Weber, the Sunrise activist, argued that despite Biden's embrace of some progressive priorities, “It’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks."

Tim Miller, a former spokesman for Republican Jeb Bush’s 2016 presidential campaign and a steadfast member of the GOP’s “Never Trump” faction, said more 2016 voters in decisive battleground states shunned both Trump and Clinton for center-right alternatives in Libertarian Gary Johnson or Independent Evan McMullen than [for] Green Party candidate Jill Stein. Winning back just that cohort back [sic] could be enough to secure Biden to the presidency alone this cycle, he said.

“I do think that there’s a concern that if he oversteps, overemphasizes a pivot to the left that could turn off certain voters who are gettable for him,” Miller said. “That’s going to be a continued tightrope through November.”

Barrow reported from Atlanta.

THERE MAY INDEED BE A NEED TO REGULATE THE VERY POWERFUL SOCIAL MEDIA OUTLETS, AND THE SEARCH ENGINES AS WELL, JUST BECAUSE THE INTERNET IS LIKE A MANGROVE SWAMP IN THE DEEP SOUTH RIGHT NOW. I WANT TO SEE ALL KIDDIE PORN SITES REMOVED, AND THE ALEX JONESES, BECAUSE THEY AREN’T LEGITIMATE POLITICS AT ALL. THEY ARE MUD MONSTERS SWIMMING AROUND AT THE BOTTOM OF THE POND, WAITING FOR SOMEONE TO WADE INTO THE WATER. I DON’T THINK MODIFICATION OF INTERNET SERVICES SHOULD BE DONE BY FIAT, THOUGH, NOR BY ANY ONE PERSON ESPECIALLY AN ANGRY PRESIDENT AIMED AT ADMINISTERING RETRIBUTION.

https://us.cnn.com/2020/05/27/tech/trump-social-media-threat/index.html

Trump threatens to 'regulate' social media platforms. His options may be limited

By Brian Fung, CNN Business

Updated 4:19 PM ET, Wed May 27, 2020

VIDEO -- Twitter fact-checks Trump's tweets for the first time, CNN

(CNN Business)President Donald Trump threatened to "regulate" or even "close" down social media platforms in a series of tweets over the last day after Twitter added a fact-check label to some of his posts. But Trump's options for cracking down on Twitter and other platforms over how they moderate their platforms are somewhat limited, legal experts say.

The options at Trump's disposal could range from pushing for new legislation to pressuring US regulators to sue the companies, none of which are guaranteed to accomplish what the president is threatening to do.

The most "obvious" course of action would be for Trump to seek changes to the Communications Decency Act, which shields tech platforms from legal liability for a wide range of online content, according to Andrew Schwartzman, senior counselor at the Benton Institute for Broadband and Society.

There has been an ongoing push, led by the Justice Department and Republicans in Congress, to do just that. But changing the law would require building broad consensus in a deadlocked Congress. The Trump administration could not go it alone. And a new law that specifies how tech companies must police their platforms could raise questions about the law's constitutionality.

"This is just another example of Trump thinking that the Constitution makes him a king, but it doesn't," said David Vladeck, a Georgetown University law professor and former senior Federal Trade Commission official.

Trump could pressure agencies such as the FTC and the Federal Communications Commission to take action against social media companies. But the agencies have previously resisted efforts by the White House to transform them into arbiters of political speech, with officials privately voicing opposition to a draft executive order that experts at the time said tested the limits of agency jurisdiction. The FCC regulates phone and broadband infrastructure, said Schwartzman, and lacks much jurisdiction over Twitter (TWTR) and Facebook (FB) in the first place.

"I do think although [FCC Chairman Ajit] Pai has a good relationship with the president, and they have partnered on some things, I think he is still maintaining his independence," added one telecom industry official, speaking from his experience interacting regularly with the agency.

RELATED ARTICLE -- Twitter labeled Trump tweets with a fact check for the first time

Schwartzman said one way Trump could seek to "harass" social media companies would be to pressure the FCC to deny those companies licenses for unrelated experiments involving satellite internet or wireless spectrum. (Google and Facebook have both tinkered with beaming high-speed internet to consumers from drones, balloons or even from space.) But those types of actions would not substantially affect the companies' core businesses.

Meanwhile, the FTC is already scrutinizing the tech industry over antitrust concerns. Last year, Facebook disclosed that it is under active antitrust investigation by agency officials. But antitrust cases hinge on highly technical economic analyses, are subject to judicial review and take years to play out.

Trump could try to appoint allies to the FTC who might be willing to launch still more probes, experts said, but the laws governing independent bodies such as the FTC make them harder to politicize than a cabinet agency such as the Justice Department. The FTC is composed of five commissioners who serve staggered terms, and their decisions are also subject to judicial review.

Unlike the FTC, the Justice Department is led by one person, Attorney General William Barr, making it the most likely tool for going after the social media platforms, several experts said. The Justice Department is currently conducting a wide-ranging review of the tech industry, as well as a specific antitrust investigation of Google. The agency is widely expected to wrap up its tech review this summer.

Barr has alluded to complaints of anti-conservative bias on several occasions. In December, he told an audience of state attorneys general that the Communications Decency Act "has enabled platforms to absolve themselves completely of responsibility for policing their platforms, while blocking or removing third-party speech -- including political speech -- selectively, and with impunity."

Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump has considered establishing a White House commission to study allegations of conservative bias. But that only underscores the limits of Trump's direct influence on the matter.

Despite the limitations, growing tensions with the White House could still be perceived as a threat to the companies. Twitter and Facebook saw their shares dip on Wednesday on a day when the overall market was up.

ELECTION MEDDLING IS A NEW ONE, COMING FROM PRESIDENT TRUMP. SEVERAL COMMENTATORS HAVE POINTED OUT THE HE LIKES TO ACCUSE OTHERS OF CHARGES FORMERLY AIMED AT HIM. “AND YOU’RE ANOTHER!!”

https://us.cnn.com/2020/05/26/tech/twitter-trump-fact-check/index.html

Twitter labeled Trump tweets with a fact check for the first time

By Brian Fung, CNN Business

Updated 4:39 AM ET, Wed May 27, 2020

PHOTOGRAPH -- NOW PLAYING, Twitter fact-checks Trump's tweets for the first time, CNN

Washington (CNN Business)For the first time, Twitter called tweets from Donald Trump "potentially misleading" — a decision that prompted the president to accuse the social media platform of election meddling.

On Tuesday, Twitter highlighted two of Trump's tweets that falsely claimed mail-in ballots would lead to widespread voter fraud, appending a message the company has introduced to combat misinformation and disputed or unverified claims.

"Get the facts about mail-in ballots," read the message beneath each tweet. It linked to a curated fact-check page the platform had created filled with further links and summaries of news articles debunking the assertion.

Twitter said the move was aimed at providing "context" around Trump's remarks. But Twitter's unprecedented decision is likely to raise further questions about its willingness to consistently apply the label to other Trump tweets that have been deemed misleading by third parties, particularly as the president has lobbed baseless allegations against former Rep. Joe Scarborough regarding the death of a congressional staffer years ago.

RELATED ARTICLE -- He asked Twitter to remove Trump's false tweets about his dead wife. Twitter refused

Trump's allegations draw on a discredited conspiracy theory claiming, without evidence, that Scarborough played a role in the 2001 death of then-staffer Lori Klausutis. The reckless claims are undermined by the official autopsy, which found Klausutis had an undiagnosed heart condition. That history was painfully recounted in a letter written last week by Klausutis's husband, Timothy, to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. In the letter, which became public on Tuesday, Timothy Klausutis pleaded with Dorsey to remove Trump's tweets.

"I'm asking you to intervene in this instance because the President of the United States has taken something that does not belong to him — the memory of my dead wife — and perverted it for perceived political gain," Klausutis wrote.

When asked by CNN's Dana Bash on Tuesday about whether social media companies should take action against Trump for pushing conspiracy theories that a critic committed murder, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said: "I'm of the view that social media companies have to reexamine whether or not — for example, if you put something out saying that — that same outlandish thing that the president thinks ... they should say it's not true."

Shortly after the labels were applied, Trump took to Twitter to claim the company "is interfering in the 2020 Presidential Election" and "stifling FREE SPEECH." He added that he "will not allow it to happen!"

Twitter declined to comment on Trump's claims.

Twitter said Tuesday that Trump's tweets about mail-in voting did not violate the company's rules because they don't explicitly discourage people from voting. But, the company said, the label offers context surrounding Trump's claims.

"These Tweets (here and here) contain potentially misleading information about voting processes and have been labeled to provide additional context around mail-in ballots," Twitter spokesperson Katie Rosborough told CNN Business in an email. "This decision is in line with the approach we shared earlier this month."

Rosborough confirmed that this marks the first instances in which Twitter has labeled any Trump tweet as potentially misleading.

Twitter's actions quickly led to criticism from some of its users, however, who said the measures did not go far enough. Some faulted Twitter for not explicitly saying in the label that Trump's tweets contained false information; other users said the company should have used a larger font size.

The instant feedback highlights how Twitter, which has long grappled with how to address Trump's tweets, may now find itself under even greater pressure than before to act in a consistent and transparent manner.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Twitter did not immediately respond to questions about who assembled the fact-checking page or whether it was algorithmically generated.

https://us.cnn.com/2020/05/26/media/trump-joe-scarborough-conspiracy-theory/index.html

He asked Twitter to remove Trump's false tweets about his dead wife. Twitter refused

CNN Digital Expansion 2018, BRIAN STELTERDonie O'Sullivan

By Brian Stelter and Donie O'Sullivan, CNN Business

Updated 8:11 PM ET, Tue May 26, 2020

VIDEO -- NOW PLAYING, Trump pushes conspiracy theory about MSNBC host, CNN Business, 03:47 minutes duration

New York (CNN Business) -- Six times this month, in a vile attempt to punish a political rival, President Trump has tweeted about a decades-old conspiracy theory about MSNBC's Joe Scarborough.

Twitter (TWTR) has come under increasing pressure to remove the tweets, but the company is not bending, despite being called out by some of the people personally hurt by the posts.

Facebook, where many of Trump's tweets about the repugnant theory were cross-posted, also said Tuesday it would not take any action.

Trump's smears about Scarborough center on the 2001 death of Lori Klausutis, who worked in his Florida office when he served in Congress. Scarborough's opponents and a bevy of internet trolls have tried to blame him for her death, even though he was in Washington at the time.

RELATED ARTICLE -- Trump's Memorial Day weekend amid pandemic spent golfing, tweeting conspiracies and insults

Trump brought up the baseless theory once in 2017, causing a surge of newfound attention about Klausutis' death — and unwelcome phone calls to her family members.

Trump ratcheted it up on May 4 and said "Concast," his derogatory name for MSNBC's owner Comcast, "should open up a long overdue Florida Cold Case against Psycho Joe Scarborough." Since then, his tweets have become even more pointed, essentially accusing Scarborough of murder.

Family members and friends of Klausutis have watched, some of them in disgust, but have refrained from commenting publicly for fear that they'd just further the conspiracy theory.

Klausutis' widower, T.J. Klausutis, took action in private last week, writing to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and asking him to remove Trump's tweets.

"Nearly 19 years ago, my wife, who had an undiagnosed heart condition, fell and hit her head on her desk at work. She was found dead the next morning. Her name is Lori Kaye Klausutis and she was 28 years old when she died," he wrote in a letter to Dorsey dated May 21. "Her passing is the single most painful thing that I have ever had to deal with in my 52 years and continues to haunt her parents and sister."

T.J. said he has tried to honor his late wife by protecting her memory "as I would have protected her in life."

He said that's why he was writing to Dorsey.

"The President's tweet that suggests that Lori was murdered — without evidence (and contrary to the official autopsy) — is a violation of Twitter's community rules and terms of service," he wrote. "An ordinary user like me would be banished from the platform for such a tweet but I am only asking that these tweets be removed."

Scarborough's co-host and wife Mika Brzezinski has also applied pressure, including on their program "Morning Joe."

"You can keep tweeting about Joe, but you're just hurting other people," Brzezinski said to Trump on the air last week.

She publicly asked for a meeting with Dorsey and said, on Twitter, that "it's just crazy that Trump, the chief law enforcement officer of the US is using the power of the presidency to harass someone who is a critic." She said it's "nuts that this is accepted. Nuts."

On Sunday, when CNN Business asked Twitter if Trump's "cold case" tweets violated its rules and if any action would be taken, the company declined to comment.

On Tuesday morning, New York Times columnist Kara Swisher published the Klausutis letter and Brzezinski read it on the air.

Three hours later, Twitter told CNN Business that it would not be removing the tweets.

"We are deeply sorry about the pain these statements, and the attention they are drawing, are causing the family," a Twitter spokesperson said. "We've been working to expand existing product features and policies so we can more effectively address things like this going forward, and we hope to have those changes in place shortly."

RELATED ARTICLE -- Twitter remains silent about Trump's appalling attack against Joe Scarborough

The company did not provide any details on what "product features and policies" it has been working to expand. Klausutis declined to comment.

Last year, Twitter said it was instituting a policy that would make some exceptions for world leaders like Trump. The company said it planned to place a disclaimer on future tweets from world leaders who break its rules but which Twitter decides are in the "public interest." Twitter made good on that promise on Tuesday by labeling a pair of Trump's tweets as misleading because he falsely claimed that mail-in ballots would lead to widespread voter fraud. But the disputed tweets about Scarborough and Lori Klausutis have yet to be given this label.

In response to CNN's request for comment, Facebook said, "We do not remove political speech solely because people may find it offensive, as this content understandably is to the family of Lori Klausutis and others. Speech from candidates and heads of state is among the most scrutinized content on our platform, which helps ensure people are held accountable for their words."

This is not the first time conservatives have sought to enflame a conspiracy theory about the death of a political staffer in order to hurt a Democratic rival.

Fox News host Sean Hannity and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich helped peddle unfounded claims about Seth Rich, a Democratic National Committee staffer who was murdered in 2016.

Rich's brother later called on the likes of Hannity to "take responsibility for the unimaginable pain" they had caused in spreading baseless information about how Seth Rich died.

Observers have pointed out numerous similarities between the Rich and Klausutis cases.

On Tuesday morning, the President posted twice more about Scarborough, seemingly in response to news coverage of his behavior. He pointed out that the conspiracy theory was not a "Donald Trump original thought, this has been going on for years, long before I joined the chorus."

"This is much like what Trump did with birtherism," New York Times television critic James Poniewozik commented. "People may now believe he invented it, but there too he took a conspiracy theory already fermenting in the swamp and popularized it" when other politicians wouldn't. "Original thoughts have never been his thing -- shamelessness is."

At an afternoon press briefing, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany was questioned about the Scarborough controversy, and she tried to turn it back around on the MSNBC host.

"If we want to start talking about false accusations, we have quite a few we can go through," she said, and brought up comments by Scarborough and Brzezinski that she called false and "irresponsible." She urged reporters to ask Scarborough about a comment he made 17 years ago.

When asked if Trump had seen the letter from Klausutis, McEnany said, "I don't know if he's seen the letter, but I do know that our hearts are with Lori's family at this time."

Trump said later in the afternoon that he has seen the widower's letter, but signaled that he has no plans to stop tweeting about the subject.

"It's a very suspicious thing, and I hope that somebody gets to the bottom of it," he claimed, even though the case has been closed for nearly two decades.

Read the letter here:

THAT “HANGING CHAD” OF AN INSTRUCTION ABOVE IS BLANK BECAUSE THERE IS NOTHING THERE FOR ME TO PUT IN. IT’S A CLERICAL ERROR PROBABLY. THIS FOLLOWING STORY FROM AXIOS GIVES A CLOUD SITE WHICH WON’T OPEN FOR ME. I’M HAVING TROUBLE WITH ALL MY MOST USED NEWS SITES TONIGHT. THE INTERNET GODS CLAIM THAT I HAVE NO INTERNET ON THOSE SITES, WHILE I CLEARLY CAN GET CERTAIN THINGS, SO IT ISN’T THE INTERNET IN GENERAL. COULD IT BE GOOGLE? I DO HOPE NOT, BECAUSE THEY GENERALLY DO A REALLY GOOD JOB OF SEARCHING ALL KINDS OF SUBJECTS, AND I DEPEND ON THEM. I’LL TRY ANOTHER SEARCH ENGINE.

THE NYT HAS THE LETTER, ACCORDING TO ONE HEADLINE, BUT I HAVEN’T PAID THE NYT THE RANSOME THEY DEMAND, SO I CAN’T GET IT. MAYBE YOU CAN. TRY THIS AS WELL FROM THE AXIOS ARTICLE BELOW, WHICH SUMMARIZES THE CONTENT: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6927911-Twitter-letter.html .

https://www.axios.com/trump-tweets-scarborough-staffer-death-twitter-delete-936c7d26-6df7-4faf-a3ee-506c437864f4.html

Husband of deceased Scarborough staffer asks Twitter to delete baseless Trump claims

Jacob Knutson

Updated May 26, 2020 - Politics & Policy

PHOTOGRAPH – PRESIDENT TRUMP, Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images

The husband of Lori Klausutis, an aide to Joe Scarborough when he was a member of Congress who died in 2001, asked Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to take down President Trump's tweets baselessly accusing the MSNBC host of murdering her, according to a letter obtained by the New York Times' Kara Swisher.

The state of play: Timothy Klausutis asked Dorsey to delete the tweets because Trump "has taken something that does not belong him — the memory of my dead wife and perverted it for perceived political gain."

"Please delete those tweets," Klausutis wrote. "My wife deserves better."

Lori Klausutis died suddenly after hitting her head on a desk after losing consciousness from an abnormal heart rhythm. There were no signs of foul play, and her death was ruled an accident.

Trump continued to baselessly accuse Scarborough on Twitter Tuesday morning, stating that the conspiracy theory "was not a Donald Trump original thought."

The backdrop: Trump accused Scarborough without evidence of murdering Lori Klausutis in multiple tweets last week. He previously did the same in 2017.

The president called on his followers to "keep digging" and to "use forensic geniuses" to find out more about the death, which occurred at Scarborough’s congressional office in Fort Walton Beach, Fla.

Scarborough was in Washington at the time of her death.

The MSNBC host and his wife, Mika Brzezinski, have both pushed back on Trump's claims on air in recent days. Brzezinski called the president a "cruel, sick, disgusting person" for his tweets.

What they're saying: "The President's tweet that suggests that Lori was murdered without evidence (and contrary to the official autopsy) — is a violation of Twitter's community rules and terms of service," Timothy Klausutis wrote.

"An ordinary user like me would be banished from the platform for such a tweet but I am only asking that these tweets be removed."

"I am now angry as well as frustrated and grieved. I understand that Twitter's policies about content are designed to maintain the appearance that your hands are clean you provide the platform and the rest is up to users. However, in certain past cases, Twitter has removed content and accounts that are inconsistent with your terms of service."

Between the lines: Twitter has long struggled with how to confront misinformation originating from world leaders' accounts and has decided to leave their accounts untouched because "blocking a world leader from Twitter or removing their controversial tweets, would hide important information people should be able to see and debate."

Sources told Swisher that after initial hesitance in dealing with Trump’s tweets about Lori Klausutis, the company has accelerated work on how to label certain tweets as false and provide links to high-quality information and reporting that refute the misinformation.

Twitter demurred on removing Trump's tweets in a statement on Tuesday, saying that it was "deeply sorry about the pain these statements, and the attention they are drawing, are causing the family."

"We’ve been working to expand existing product features and policies so we can more effectively address things like this going forward, and we hope to have those changes in place shortly," the company added.

THIS SOUNDS LIKE A PLAUSIBLE IDEA TO ME, SOMETHING THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION MIGHT DO. WHETHER OR NOT IT WILL STOP THEM FROM BEHAVING AS THEY ALWAYS HAVE IS ANOTHER QUESTION, THOUGH. IF THE PEOPLE OF TAIWAN (AND DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT) ARE IMPORTANT TO US, WE SHOULD SPEAK UP FOR THEM. JUST AS LANGUAGES CAN DIE OUT DUE TO THE DWINDLING NUMBER OF SPEAKERS, SO CAN IDEAS. WE NEED TO TRY TO AVOID THAT, EVEN IF IT SEEMS FUTILE. MAYBE WE JUST AREN’T SPEAKING LOUDLY ENOUGH ON SOME OF THOSE ISSUES. WE MUST REMEMBER THAT AMERICA ITSELF IS AN IDEA.

https://news.yahoo.com/top-campaign-advisor-says-biden-010225880.html

Top campaign advisor says Biden would sanction China over Hong Kong

By Michael Martina

Reuters • May 27, 2020

DETROIT (Reuters) - Joe Biden would sanction China if president for its plan to impose new national security rules on Hong Kong, his campaign said on Wednesday, and accused President Donald Trump of having "enabled" Beijing's curbs on freedoms in the former British colony.

The United States had to "take a stand against China's crackdown in Hong Kong," said Tony Blinken, a senior foreign policy advisor for Biden, the likely Democratic nominee to take on Trump in November's election.

He said the former vice president would rally American allies to pressure China, leverage he said Trump had "forfeited," and criticized the Republican president for praising leader Xi Jinping in the face of pro-democracy protests that shook the territory last year.

A Biden administration would "fully enforce" the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, "including sanctions on officials, financial institutions, companies and individuals," Blinken said in a statement.

The act, approved by Trump last year, requires the State Department to certify at least annually that Hong Kong retains enough autonomy to justify the favorable U.S. trading terms that have helped it remain a world financial center.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Congress on Wednesday the proposed new legislation undermines Hong Kong's autonomy so fundamentally that he could not support recertification.

It now falls to President Donald Trump to decide to end some, all or none of the U.S. economic privileges the territory enjoys. He said on Tuesday Washington was working on a strong response that would be announced before the end of the week.

Beijing's security proposal, unveiled last week, sparked the first large street demonstrations in Hong Kong for months.

Pro-democracy demonstrators in Hong Kong have for years opposed the idea of national security laws, arguing they could erode the city's high degree of autonomy guaranteed under the "one country, two systems" formula in place for two decades.

"China shouldn't get the economic benefit of Hong Kong's free economy without the rule of law that underpins it," Blinken said.

(Reporting by Michael Martina; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

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