Next on the election calendar: September 29 for the first in a series of debates between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden. VOA’s Steve Redisch looks at the campaign road ahead
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U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday assailed U.S. news media accounts that in 2018 he belittled American World War I casualties while skipping a centenary commemoration of the end of the war on a rainy day at a cemetery outside Paris.“The Democrats, together with the corrupt Fake News Media, have launched a massive Disinformation Campaign the likes of which has never been seen before,” the U.S. leader claimed on Twitter. “They will say anything, like their recent lies about me and the Military, and hope that it sticks….” The Democrats, together with the corrupt Fake News Media, have launched a massive Disinformation Campaign the likes of which has never been seen before. They will say anything, like their recent lies about me and the Military, and hope that it sticks… But #MAGA gets it!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 6, 2020The Atlantic magazine reported late last week that the U.S. leader rejected going to the World War I cemetery at Aisne-Marne in part because he feared his hair would become disheveled in the rain. The account, based on four anonymous sources, said that Trump commented to senior staff aides on the morning of the November event, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.”  On the same trip, the magazine said, Trump referred to the more than 1,800 U.S. Marines who lost their lives during the Belleau Wood battle as “suckers” for getting killed.  The Republican Trump, facing a difficult re-election contest November 3 against his Democratic opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, immediately rejected the Atlantic’s account of his comments. But several other U.S. news outlets have subsequently confirmed from their own unnamed sources that Trump was uninterested in attending Aisne-Marne event. He did attend a separate commemoration of allied war dead the following day.The White House said at the time that Trump called off the visit to the Aisne-Marne cemetery because the foul weather would have made it dangerous for him to make a helicopter flight there. His chief of staff at the time, retired Marine Corps Gen. John Kelly, attended the ceremony after traveling there by motorcade. During a Friday news conference, Trump said he “called home, I spoke to my wife (first lady Melania Trump) and I said ‘I hate this. I came here to go to that ceremony.’ And to the one that was the following day which I did go to. I said I feel terribly. And that was the end of it.” Fact checkers, however, said Trump couldn’t have “called home” to Washington to talk to his wife because she was in Paris accompanying him on the trip and that night, they had dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron. After the Atlantic article appeared online, Biden attacked Trump. “If what is written in The Atlantic is true, it’s disgusting,” Biden said. “And it affirms what most of us believe to be true: that Donald Trump is not fit to do the job of president, to be the commander in chief.”  Robert Wilkie, Trump’s veterans affairs chief, told CNN on Sunday that he had never heard Trump belittle military service or the country’s war dead. “I’m looking at the Donald Trump I know,” Wilkie said. “I’ve watched this president sign letters of condolences” written to families of those killed in action. 
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Attorney General William Barr’s enthusiastic support for President Donald Trump’s law and order agenda during the final months of a presidential campaign is sparking debate about the appropriate role of his department in electoral politics. When Trump visited Kenosha, Wisconsin, last Tuesday to tour damaged businesses and to announce more than $40 million in emergency funding for public safety for Kenosha and Wisconsin, he brought Barr with him.     Echoing Trump’s campaign rhetoric about a militant takeover of the protests over racial injustice and police brutality, Barr told a gathering of local leaders that it was under Trump’s direction that he had only days before assembled a group of federal agents to dispatch to Kenosha.     FILE – Hundreds march at a rally against racial inequality and police accountability, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Aug. 29, 2020, following the police shooting of Jacob Blake.The city was badly scarred by several days of violent protest and riots after a police officer repeatedly shot African American Jacob Blake on Aug. 23, partially paralyzing him.   “The federal government is willing to use all our tools, all our laws to bring these people to justice,” Barr said.    Barr has been a frequent figure alongside Trump in recent months, as the president has focused on the protests to help shift attention away from the pandemic and economic crisis and offer himself to voters as a tough-on-crime candidate.     As the race for the White House between Trump and his Democratic rival, former vice president Joe Biden, has picked up steam, Barr has mobilized federal law enforcement  and rolled out a series of initiatives to promote Trump’s “law and order” reelection theme.   For instance, on July 8, Barr announced a crime-fighting initiative called Operation Legend, named after four-year-old LeGend Taliferro, who was shot and killed while he slept early on the morning of June 29 in Kansas City.    FILE – Attorney General William Barr talks to the media during a news conference about Operation Legend, a federal task force formed to fight violent crime in several cities, in Kansas City, Mo., Aug. 19, 2020.As part of the initiative, the Justice Department has sent agents to nine cities around the country to help local law enforcement combat a surge in shootings and homicides.    While Democrats have accused Trump of leveraging Operation Legend as a campaign prop, Barr said during a July congressional hearing that it was actually rolled out under a different name last December.  To date, the operation has netted about 1,500 arrests, with nearly 500 people charged with various federal crimes, according to the Justice Department.    FILE – Acting-Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf, center, arrives to join President Donald Trump at Andrews Air Force Base in Md., Aug. 18, 2020.More recently, the Justice Department started investigating the leaders and financial backers of violent protests around the country, Chad Wolf, the acting director of homeland security, said in a recent interview with Fox News.  The announcement followed assertions by Trump and top law enforcement officials that out-of-state extremists have organized the protests.     While the crackdown on rioters and violent criminals reflects Trump’s longstanding tough-on-crime policies, Democrats and other critics say Barr has directed the actions in an attempt to aid Trump’s election.     “This is not something that the Department of Justice should be doing,” said Nick Akerman, a former federal prosecutor and member of the Watergate prosecution team now a partner at the law firm of Dorsey & Whitney . “The idea that the attorney general is part and parcel of this is absolutely outrageous and puts him right in the middle of this presidential campaign.”   Barr, a conservative Republican who became Trump’s second attorney general last year, has consistently rejected such criticism. During a testy House Judiciary Committee hearing on July 28, Barr disputed Democrats’ claims that his department’s actions were aimed at supporting the president’s re-election campaign.   “I’ve made it clear that I’d like to pick cities based on law enforcement need and neutral criteria,” Barr said.     Had local authorities in Portland, Oregon been doing their job to protect an embattled federal courthouse in the city, there would be no need for additional federal agents, he said.    “We are on the defense. We’re not out looking for trouble,” Barr said.    FILE – Federal agents use crowd control munitions to disperse Black Lives Matter demonstrators during a protest at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse, July 24, 2020, in Portland, Oregon.Portland residents have held nightly protests since late May, when an interaction with Minneapolis police led to the death of a Black man, George Floyd.  Some of the protests have resulted in property damage and clashes with police. In modern times, the attorney general, while a member of the president’s cabinet, has often shunned involvement in electoral politics.  The Justice Department prohibits officials from taking actions that might influence the outcome of an election, a policy Barr says he’ll adhere to.     Paul Rosenzweig, a former Justice Department official now with the libertarian R Street Institute in Washington, said Barr has injected himself into the president’s re-election campaign.    “I don’t recall any attorney general in recent memory since [former president Richard Nixon’s attorney general] John Mitchell being so active in the campaign,” Rosenzweig said.    Barr’s spokeswoman, Kerri Kupec, did not respond to a VOA request for comment.  Even before nationwide protests broke out in May over Floyd’s death while in police custody in the city of Minneapolis, Barr was among Trump’s staunchest allies. In April, Barr praised Trump’s widely criticized handling of the COVID-19 pandemic as “statesmanlike.”    On June 1, Barr ordered federal agents and National Guard troops to clear out demonstrators gathered outside the White House so the president could walk across the street and pose for a photo outside a church.    Barr faced a firestorm of criticism over the move but defended his decision, saying the protesters had grown increasingly belligerent.  After Trump issued an executive order in late June directing enhanced security at federal monuments and buildings, Barr and Wolf sent armed agents to Portland and Seattle.    While most agents have since left those cities, the Justice Department continues to charge people in connection with the violent protests around the country.    As of Wednesday, 228 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the unrest, many of them in Portland, according to the Justice Department.  The charges range from assaulting a federal officer to arson.    Kimberly Wehle, a former federal prosecutor who is now a law professor at the University of Baltimore, said Barr has left an unmistakable mark in recent months while bolstering the president’s campaign strategy.    “Attorney General Barr is the top law enforcement official at federal level,” Wehle said in an interview. “So what he says and how he implements the policy is pretty much the bottom line when it comes to federal domestic law enforcement.”   
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A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Census Bureau for the time being to stop following a plan that would have had it winding down operations in order to finish the 2020 census at the end of September.The federal judge in San Jose late Saturday issued a temporary restraining order against the Census Bureau and the Commerce Department, which oversees the agency. The order stops the Census Bureau from winding down operations until a court hearing is held on Sept. 17.The once-a-decade head count of every U.S. resident helps determine how $1.5 trillion in federal funding is distributed and how many congressional seats each state gets in a process known as apportionment.The temporary restraining order was requested by a coalition of cities, counties and civil rights groups that had sued the Census Bureau, demanding it restore its previous plan for finishing the census at the end of October, instead of using a revised plan to end operations at the end of September. The coalition had argued the earlier deadline would cause the Census Bureau to overlook minority communities in the census, leading to an inaccurate count.In her order, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh wrote that previous court cases had concluded that it’s in the public interest that Congress be fairly apportioned and that the federal funds be distributed using an accurate census.”Thus, the balance of the hardships and public interest tip sharply in Plaintiffs’ favor,” Koh said.In a message emailed to regional offices and headquarters, the Census Bureau said the statistical agency and the Commerce Department “are obligated to comply with the Court’s Order and are taking immediate steps to do so.” Further guidance would be provided later, the bureau said. 
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More than 60 people were rescued from a California campground by military helicopter, including two who were severely injured in one of three fast-spreading wildfires that sent people fleeing as a brutal heat wave pushed temperatures into triple digits in many parts of the state.  The fire trapped campers Saturday at a reservoir in the Sierra National Forest. Of the 63 people rescued, two were severely injured, 10 were moderately injured and 51 others had minor or no injuries, according to a tweet by the Fresno Fire Department.“Aircraft are returning to continue rescue operations,” the agency posted. “Unknown how many more.”The wildfire burning near Shaver Lake exploded to 56 square miles (145 square kilometers), jumped a river and compromised the only road into the Mammoth Pool Campground, national forest spokesman Dan Tune said. At least 2,000 structures were threatened in the area about 290 miles (467 kilometers) north of Los Angeles, where temperatures in the city’s San Fernando Valley reached 117 degrees (47 degrees Celsius).The Madera County Sheriff’s Department said in a tweet earlier Saturday that about 150 people were at the campground’s boat launch, and 10 of them were injured. “All are safe at this time,” the department tweeted.Officers also were evacuating Beasore Meadows, a large ranch in the Sierra National Forest, on Saturday night, the department tweeted.Agencies were coordinating an aircraft rescue for crews to safely evacuate them, The Fresno Bee reported.Tune said the campers were told to shelter in place until fire crews, aided by water-dropping aircraft, could gain access to the site. Tune said he didn’t know how close the fire was burning to the campsite.“All our resources are working to make that escape route nice and safe for them,” he said.The lake 35 miles (56 kilometers) northeast of Fresno is surrounded by thick pine forests and is a popular destination for boating and fishing. Bone-dry conditions and the hot weather fueled the flames.“Once the fire gets going, it creates its own weather, adding wind to increase the spread,” Tune said.The fire broke out Friday evening. Crews worked through the night, but by Saturday morning authorities issued evacuation orders for lakeside communities and urged people seeking relief from the Labor Day weekend heat to stay away from the popular lake.“Adjust your Labor Day weekend plans. Access to Shaver Lake is completely closed to the public due to the #CreekFire,” the Fresno County sheriff’s office tweeted after announcing evacuation orders for campsites and communities by the lake.The California Highway Patrol shut State Route 168 to only allow access for emergency responders and evacuees.In Southern California, a fire in the foothills of Yucaipa east of Los Angeles prompted evacuation orders for eastern portions of the city of 54,000 along with several communities, including Oak Glen, Mountain Home Village and Forest Falls. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, also known as Cal Fire, said the fire scorched at least 1.5 square miles (3.9 square kilometers) and was burning at a “moderate to dangerous” rate of spread.A portion of the San Gorgonio Wilderness was closed, and hikers were urged to leave.In eastern San Diego County, fire officials warned a fire near Alpine was burning at a “dangerous rate of speed” after spreading to 400 acres (0.6 square miles) within an hour. A small community south of Alpine in the Cleveland National Forest was ordered to evacuate.Cal Fire said nearly 12,500 firefighters were battling 22 major fires in the state. Despite the heat, firefighters were able to contain two major fires in coastal Monterey County.California has seen 900 wildfires since Aug. 15, many of them started by an intense series of thousands of lightning strikes. The blazes have burned more than 1.5 million acres (2,343 square miles). There have been eight fire deaths and nearly 3,300 structures destroyed.The heat wave was expected to spread triple-digit temperatures over much of California through Monday. Officials urged people to conserve electricity to ease the strain on the state’s power grid.Pacific Gas & Electric, the state’s largest utility, warned customers Saturday that it might cut power starting Tuesday because of expected high winds and heat that could create even greater fire danger. Some of the state’s largest and deadliest fires in recent years have been sparked by downed power lines and other utility equipment. 
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Police in Portland, in the northwestern U.S. state of Oregon, declared a riot Saturday night after demonstrators threw several Molotov cocktails into the street.The police told the crowd of hundreds their demonstration was considered a riot and ordered the people to disperse immediately. In Oregon, a riot is defined as six or more people engaging in “tumultuous and violent conduct” that creates “a grave risk of causing public alarm.” It’s illegal for police in Oregon to use tear gas unless a gathering has been declared a riot.Police said protesters threw multiple “fire bombs” and that at least one person was injured. Twitter footage from protesters and members of the media showed a man who appeared to be a protester with his feet and lower legs ablaze.Police detain demonstrators on Sept. 5, 2020, the 100th consecutive night of protests against police violence and racial inequality, in Portland, Oregon.Other video clips showed clouds of what observers said was tear gas floating through a residential neighborhood.Activists in Portland have taken to the streets for 100 consecutive days to show support for the Black Lives Matter movement and to protest what they see as social injustices that have afflicted the United States for decades. Some of the protests have drawn thousands.The U.S. has been roiled by protests since the death earlier this year of George Floyd, a Black man who died while in police custody in Minneapolis, in the Midwestern state of Minnesota.Floyd had been stopped on suspicion of passing a counterfeit $20 bill.  His death has come to symbolize what many see as the “systemic racism” that they see as permeating American society.  
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Amazon.com Inc said it has banned foreign sales of seeds in the United States after thousands of Americans received unsolicited packages of seeds in their mailboxes, mostly postmarked from China.The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in July identified more than a dozen plant species ranging from morning glories to mustard in the bags of unsolicited seeds. It warned Americans not to plant the seeds.According to plant experts, seeds from other parts of the world could be non-native varieties that harm commodity crops.”Moving forward, we are only permitting the sale of seeds by sellers who are based in the U.S.,” Amazon said in an emailed statement on Saturday.The company changed its policy on seed sales on Wednesday. The policy change was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.The company added that sellers who do not follow its guidelines will be subject to action, including potential removal of their accounts.According to Amazon’s policy webpage, the ban extends to plants and plant products.The USDA in July said the packages were most likely part of a “brushing” scam, in which people receive unsolicited items from a seller who then posts false positive customer reviews to boost sales.In an update on August 11, Osama El-Lissy, a deputy administrator for the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), said the experts analyzing some of the seeds from China found very few problems. El-Lissy added that the two countries were working jointly on the investigation.  
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