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Former vice president Joe Biden leads President Trump in the presidential contest by 12 points, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll released Monday. Biden’s lead has been durable over the past few months, and there’s an obvious reason: Americans remain broadly concerned about the coronavirus pandemic and also think that Trump’s response to the pandemic has been insufficient.

In fact, according to the poll, about half of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say they’re worried that they or their families might contract the coronavirus — and a fifth of that group say they plan to vote for Biden. Looking only at registered Republican voters, the figure is 1 in 6.

One in 6 Republicans worried about contracting the coronavirus plan to vote for Biden

Of course with Trump there's even a cum stained dress.

A New York judge has dismissed president Donald Trump’s attempt to delay a defamation lawsuit brought against him by a woman who accused him of rape.

The decision, released on Thursday, states that the presidency does not shield him from the case.

Writer E Jean Carroll is suing Mr Trump for defamation after he denied her allegations that he raped her in a New York department store in the mid-1990s and called her a liar.

...

Ms Carroll is seeking a sample of Mr Trump’s DNA as potential evidence to determine whether his genetic material is on the dress she wore during the encounter.

Trump rape allegation: Judge refuses president's request to delay defamation suit brought by E Jean Carroll

They can't even observe reality long enough to plot my death! Great idea, Republicans, letting a virus that kills old people run wild... That totally won't affect your voting base!

Inside the White House, over much of March and early April, Kushner’s handpicked group of young business associates, which included a former college roommate, teamed up with several top experts from the diagnostic-testing industry. Together, they hammered out the outline of a national testing strategy. The group—working night and day, using the encrypted platform WhatsApp—emerged with a detailed plan obtained by Vanity Fair.

Rather than have states fight each other for scarce diagnostic tests and limited lab capacity, the plan would have set up a system of national oversight and coordination to surge supplies, allocate test kits, lift regulatory and contractual roadblocks, and establish a widespread virus surveillance system by the fall, to help pinpoint subsequent outbreaks.

But no nationally coordinated testing strategy was ever announced. The plan, according to the participant, “just went poof into thin air.”

Most troubling of all, perhaps, was a sentiment the expert said a member of Kushner’s team expressed: that because the virus had hit blue states hardest, a national plan was unnecessary and would not make sense politically. “The political folks believed that because it was going to be relegated to Democratic states, that they could blame those governors, and that would be an effective political strategy,” said the expert.

That logic may have swayed Kushner. “It was very clear that Jared was ultimately the decision maker as to what [plan] was going to come out,” the expert said.

On April 27, Trump stepped to a podium in the Rose Garden, flanked by members of his coronavirus task force and leaders of America’s big commercial testing laboratories, Quest Diagnostics and LabCorp, and finally announced a testing plan: It bore almost no resemblance to the one that had been forged in late March, and shifted the problem of diagnostic testing almost entirely to individual states.

How Jared Kushner’s Secret Testing Plan “Went Poof Into Thin Air”

The former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain has died after being hospitalized for the novel coronavirus. He was 74 when he died.

Cain proudly not wearing a mask at the Tulsa Trump rally that gave him the COVID.

Cain hawking the Trump's Mt Rushmore event: ""Masks will not be mandatory for the event, which will be attended by President Trump. PEOPLE ARE FED UP!"

Riots in downtown Richmond over the weekend were instigated by white supremacists under the guise of Black Lives Matter, according to law enforcement officials.

Protesters tore down police tape and pushed forward toward Richmond police headquarters, where they set a city dump truck on fire.

Police declared the event an “unlawful assembly” and ordered people to leave, later deploying tear gas.

Six people were arrested. The mayor of Richmond thanked the Black Lives Matter protesters he said tried to stop the white supremacists from spearheading the violence.

Police: Richmond riots instigated by white supremacists disguised as Black Lives Matter

A hospital in Starr County, Texas, is so overrun with coronavirus cases that officials there said it would choose which patients to use its resources on and send those most likely to die back home to their families.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported that Dr. Jose Vasquez — the health authority for Starr County — said the county was creating guidelines to help health workers decide how to use resources on patients with the best chance of survival.

Vasquez added that a committee would decide which patients were most likely to die at Starr County Memorial Hospital — the only hospital in the county — and would send them home.

"The situation is desperate," he said Tuesday. "We cannot continue functioning in the Starr County Memorial Hospital nor in our county in the way that things are going. The numbers are staggering."

A Texas hospital is so overrun with coronavirus cases that officials say it will send the patients least likely to survive home to die

Donald Trump's well-wishes for Ghislaine Maxwell are an "odd statement," according to the Jeffrey Epstein victim who accused Prince Andrew.

The president was asked whether the British socialite was going to "turn in powerful men" at a press conference by a journalist who also mentioned the Duke of York.

He replied: "I don't know, I haven't really been following it too much. I just wish her well frankly. I have met her numerous times over the years, especially since I lived in Palm Beach and I guess they lived in Palm Beach. But I wish her well, whatever it is."

He added: "I don't know the situation with Prince Andrew. I just don't know. I am not aware of it."

Trump's Well-Wishes for Ghislaine Maxwell Are 'Odd,' Says Epstein Victim

Trump sends cease and desist letter to CNN after they released a poll that he 'felt' was 'fake'

And all the Free Speech Warriors on SN suddenly go silent...

Three far-right extremists arrested by an anti-terror unit at Las Vegas protests over the killing of an African-American man by police were charged Wednesday with inciting violence, officials said.

The men allegedly belong to the "Boogaloo" movement, which has adopted Hawaiian shirts as a uniform and which promotes "a coming civil war and/or collapse of society," said a Nevada federal prosecutor.

Stephen Parshall, 35, Andrew Lynam, 23, and William Loomis, 40, all live in Las Vegas where they were arrested on Saturday by an anti-terror unit headed by the FBI.

They were in possession of a Molotov cocktail when they were detained, Mr Trutanich said.

If convicted on federal charges the men face up to 30 years in prison. They were also indicted on terrorism conspiracy and other charges by state officials.

Far-right extremists charged with inciting violence as US protests enter a ninth straight evening

3 self-proclaimed members of the far-right 'boogaloo' movement were arrested on domestic terrorism charges for trying to spark violence during protests

“If the FISA Bill is passed tonight on the House floor, I will quickly VETO it,” the president tweeted just after debate on the measures began. “Our Country has just suffered through the greatest political crime in its history. The massive abuse of FISA was a big part of it!”

Studious critics pointed out that Trump himself signed into law the long-contentious spying authority he recently began railing against.

“He literally signed warrantless surveillance of Americans into law on January 19, 2018, with the reauthorization of FISA 702,” observed former Republican Rep. Justin Amash (I-Mich.).

“I’m sure you don’t remember this, didn’t really understand it when you did it, don’t understand it now, and lack the intellectual capacity ever to understand it, but you signed into law Public Law No. 115-118, the FISA Amendments Reauthorization Act of 2017,” post-2016 Election Trump critic George Conway noted via Twitter.

A presidential signing statement from 2018 reflects Trump’s prior view of FISA spying authority:

This intelligence is vital to keeping the Nation safe. As shown by the recent attacks in New York City and elsewhere around the globe, we face a constant threat from foreign terrorist networks and other foreign actors who would do us harm. In order to detect and prevent attacks before they happen, we must be able to intercept the communications of foreign targets who are reasonably believed to possess foreign intelligence information. Section 702 provides the necessary authority, and it has proven to be among the Nation’s most effective foreign intelligence tools. It has enabled our Intelligence Community to disrupt numerous plots against our citizens at home and our warfighters abroad, and it has unquestionably saved American lives. The Act I have signed today preserves and extends this critically important national security tool.

Reminder: Trump Signed into Law the Warrantless FISA Surveillance That He’s Railing Against