Here on the News Hour (beginning around the 11 minute mark). … Continue reading
Category Archives: campaigns
Politico: The head of the Federal Election Commission released a statement on Thursday evening reiterating, emphatically, that foreign assistance is illegal in U.S. elections.“Let me make something 100% clear to the American public and anyone running for public office: It … Continue reading
WaPo reports. … Continue reading
Watch the clip: EXCLUSIVE: Pres. Trump tells @GStephanopoulos he wouldn't necessarily alert the FBI if approached by foreign figures with information on his 2020 opponent: "It’s not an interference. They have information. I think I’d take it." https://t.co/7gvoAViw9r pic.twitter.com/k5Yqd9YxdC— Evan … Continue reading
NBC News: One likely piece of legislation would be framed as “Duty to Report,” requiring presidential campaign aides and entities to report foreign contacts and influence to law enforcement after Mueller identified numerous such interactions between Trump campaign aides and … Continue reading
The Intercept: CONSERVATIVE ACTIVIST VIRGINIA “Ginni” Thomas is launching yet another project to wage war on multiple fronts of America’s most heated cultural and political debates. This time, however, her plan will include a project to “protect President Trump” using at … Continue reading
Politico: Senate investigators have added yet another name to the constantly evolving cast of characters in the Russia investigation.On April 5, just 2 weeks after Special Counsel Robert Mueller submitted his final report on Russia’s election interference, the Senate Intelligence … Continue reading
Politico: Russia’s infamous troll farm conducted a campaign on Twitter before the 2016 elections that was larger, more coordinated and more effective than previously known, research from cybersecurity firm Symantec out Wednesday concluded.The Internet Research Agency campaign may not only have had … Continue reading
NYT reports. … Continue reading
Axios: The 2020 presidential campaigns appear to have done little to prepare for what experts predict could be a flood of fake videos depicting candidates doing or saying something incriminating or embarrassing.Driving the news: The recent manipulated video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi … Continue reading
Jonathan Allen for NBC News: On one level, Trump’s brash lobbying in foreign countries is just another case of norm-busting for a president who often rejects the niceties of both domestic and international politics. But at a deeper level, Trump’s … Continue reading
WaPo: Across the Democratic field, candidates are embracing the big donors they distanced themselves from early on — a sign of increasing doubt that the small, online donations the campaigns have been chasing will be sufficient to sustain two-dozen primary contenders.Many … Continue reading
Lots of interesting and perhaps surprising information at the OpenSecrets.org site on the occupation of the “groups” that gave the largest contributions in the 2018 congressional election cycle. A couple points that stood out to me: Those who list their … Continue reading
Politico: The nation’s largest super PAC devoted to grassroots Democratic turnout is launching its organizing efforts earlier than ever in seven swing states with a new campaign director and its largest budget to date: $80 million to $90 million. … Continue reading
NYT: The Democratic Party’s new directive that candidates must have at least 130,000 donors to qualify for the third primary debate in September arrived virtually without warning on Wednesday morning, and immediately sent shock waves through presidential campaigns worried that it would … Continue reading
Sacramento Bee: Just days before a state Senate special election Tuesday, a mysterious letter threatening to publicly expose voters who don’t cast ballots has begun appearing in mailboxes across Northern California, prompting a state inquiry into whether election laws have been … Continue reading
Tampa Bay Times: Andrew Gillum is a focal point of a recently issued federal grand jury subpoena that demands information on the former Democratic candidate for governor, his campaign, his political committee, a wealthy donor, a charity he worked for … Continue reading
The Fix reports. “But, of course, Trump doesn’t need to win black voters. There are two strategies that may prove just as useful: Doing a bit better with black voters than he did in 2016 or keeping black turnout down. … Continue reading
Fred Wertheimer for Just Security. … Continue reading
WaPo: Nearly a year after a gay freelance hairstylist living in Harlem posted a Facebook video repudiating the Democratic Party, Brandon Straka found himself in Trump Tower on Thursday speaking with Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law and a senior campaign … Continue reading
The Guardian: Facebook says it will continue to host a video of Nancy Pelosi that has been edited to give the impression that the Democratic House Speaker is drunk or unwell, in the latest incident highlighting its struggle to deal with disinformation.The … Continue reading
NYT: President Trump took extraordinary steps on Thursday to give Attorney General William P. Barr sweeping new authorities to conduct a review into how the 2016 Trump campaign’s ties to Russia were investigated, significantly escalating the administration’s efforts to place … Continue reading
WaPo: Distorted videos of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), altered to make her sound as if she’s drunkenly slurring her words, are spreading rapidly across social media, highlighting how political disinformation that clouds public understanding can now spread at the … Continue reading
WSJ: Facebook said it stopped paying commissions to employees who sell political ads, as the tech giant overhauls how it engages with campaigns ahead of elections in 2020.Once seen as a growth area, political ads are now viewed within Facebook as … Continue reading
Release: A new report today released by Issue One and Campaign Legal Center (CLC) shows that instead of doling out funds to political allies, members of Congress routinely use leadership PAC funds to pay for expensive meals, rounds of golf, and luxury hotel stays — often under … Continue reading
NYT reports. … Continue reading
Jim Rutenberg NYT column: The rules now in place just don’t match up with how certain groups influence voters via the internet. Thanks to savvy lobbying by tech companies, online election campaign speech remains almost entirely unregulated.The platforms won exemptions from many … Continue reading
WSJ: Facebook said it removed hundreds of fake accounts, pages and groups linked to a commercial entity based in Israel, a rare move against a private operation as the social network tries to stamp out misinformation around global elections.The company … Continue reading
Roll Call: Democrats have long touted the importance of raising small amounts of money from a large number of donors as a sign of political strength on the campaign trail and in Congress.But recent campaign finance disclosures show some lawmakers — from … Continue reading
Miles Park for NPR: Sen. James Lankford is worried about election apathy.Not that people will stop caring about politics, but as the weeks and months pass after the release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s redacted report on Russian interference, the Oklahoma Republican … Continue reading
NYT: The mystery surrounding a Russian intrusion into Florida’s voter registration systems during the 2016 election deepened on Tuesday when Gov. Ron DeSantis said that the F.B.I. had revealed to him which counties in the state had been targeted — then required … Continue reading
WSJ reports. … Continue reading
Roll Call: President Donald Trump on Monday vowed to reject any dirt on his 2020 opponents that originates in a foreign country, just a week after his personal attorney canceled a trip to Ukraine allegedly to search for just that.Trump … Continue reading
NYT: Facing withering attacks accusing him of seeking foreign assistance for President Trump’s re-election campaign, Rudolph W. Giuliani announced on Friday night that he had canceled a trip to Kiev in which he planned to push the incoming Ukrainian government … Continue reading
Politico: The FBI will hold a classified briefing with members of the Florida congressional delegation next week about suspected Russian hacking during the 2016 elections.The FBI is scheduled to meet with House members May 16. The agency will sit down … Continue reading
Release: Joel Crookston and Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson submitted a stipulated order to dismiss to Judge Janet T. Neff of the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan today, asking her to recognize settlement in a lawsuit brought by Crookston that … Continue reading
NYT: President Trump’s re-election campaign on Tuesday denounced “dishonest fund-raising groups” that use the president’s image to solicit money that several people close to Mr. Trump said was directed at a group run by David Bossie, one of his earliest … Continue reading
AP: A special prosecutor in Virginia said Monday that he’s presented two indictments of election fraud against someone who worked on a failed re-election campaign for a Republican congressman last year.Special prosecutor Donald Caldwell said his investigation into Scott Taylor’s … Continue reading
NYT: About 200 bundlers from across the country are expected to gather Tuesday at the Trump International Hotel for a series of meetings and workshops about the campaign’s new fund-raising program. Vice President Mike Pence will address the group. Brad … Continue reading
My former law school classmate and presidential candidate Kirsten Gillibrand has endorsed the concept of campaign finance vouchers. I wonder if she ever read my 1996 California Law Review article laying out the argument for them. … Continue reading
Aaron Rupar: Trump tires to dispel rumors he won't leave office "at the end of six years," calls the media "sick people" pic.twitter.com/57IQViqyBv— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 28, 2019 … Continue reading
NYT: The F.B.I. director warned anew on Friday about Russia’s continued meddling in American elections, calling it a “significant counterintelligence threat.” The bureau has shifted additional agents and analysts to shore up defenses against foreign interference, according to a senior … Continue reading
Jed Shugerman NYT oped: Even without knowing what is redacted, the report offers “substantial and credible information” of the Trump campaign conspiring or coordinating with the Russian government. Under federal criminal law, “conspiracy” does not require direct proof or explicit words … Continue reading
WaPo: The Federal Election Commission could decide today whether nonpartisan groups can offer political campaigns free cybersecurity services, an issue that has made bedfellows of Republicans and Democrats but divided cyber pros and campaign finance hawks.The proposal’s authors, Hillary Clinton’s 2016 … Continue reading
NBC News: The Mueller report’s narrative of secret meetings between members of Donald Trump’s orbit and Russian operatives — contacts that occurred both before and after the 2016 election — portrays a political campaign that left itself open to a … Continue reading
NYT: In the months before Kirstjen Nielsen was forced to resign, she tried to focus the White House on one of her highest priorities as homeland security secretary: preparing for new and different Russian forms of interference in the 2020 … Continue reading
NYT: Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, dismissed Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential campaign on Tuesday as a “couple of Facebook ads” and said the investigation of it was far more damaging to the country than the … Continue reading
You can watch here. … Continue reading
Trevor Potter oped: The openness of the Trump campaign to obtain help from the Russian government is most clearly illustrated by communications of Trump Jr. regarding the June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower. He was told a “Russian government attorney” … Continue reading
I have written this piece for Slate. It begins: Since the announcement of special counsel Robert Mueller’s decision to not indict President Donald Trump for obstruction of justice or any members of Trump’s family, critics of Trump who still feel … Continue reading