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The morning after Donald Trump returned to frontline politics with a speech in North Carolina, a close adviser poured cold water on his reported belief that he will be reinstated in the White House when it is proved Joe Biden beat him thanks to electoral fraud.

Corey Lewandowski, Trumps first campaign manager in 2016 and a loyal sidekick since, told Fox News Sunday Trump lost the election.

Indeed he did, by more than 7m ballots in the popular vote and by 306-232 in the electoral college, a result Trump called a landslide when it was in his favour against Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Experts agree there was no mass voter fraud in 2020. Nonetheless, according to multiple reports Trump has told aides he believes he will be reinstated.

Lewandowski said he had spoke to the president dozens, if not more than 100 times since he has left the White House and I have never had that conversation about him being reinstated.

But, he added: I know of no provision under the constitution that allows it to occur, nor do I know of any provision under the constitution that allows an individual who lost an election to come back in if a recount is dubbed inaccurate.

On Friday, Facebook announced that it was suspending Trump for two years, over the nadir of his push to overturn his defeat: his incitement of the deadly attack on the US Capitol on 6 January.

In Greenville on Saturday, Trump said he was not too interested in returning to Facebook in 2023. Facebook is however a vital fundraising and communications resource for candidates for office, which Trump could yet be in 2024. He also called the decision to suspend him so unfair.

On Sunday Nick Clegg, the former British deputy prime minister who is now Facebooks vice-president for global affairs, told ABCs This Week: For Donald Trump, of course we dont expect him to welcome [our] decision. We do hope, though, that reasonable observers will believe that we are acting as reasonably and proportionately as we can in these very difficult circumstances.

In North Carolina, Trump also repeated his lies about the election, which he called the crime of the century, and referring to Republican attempts to restrict voting and overturn results, said: I am not the one who is trying to undermine American democracy, I am the one who is trying to save it.

Clegg was asked: If the president gave the speech he gave last night in January 2023, would the suspension be extended?

The Facebook executive declined to answer, saying he had not heard the whole speech, but did say he thought people did not want Facebook to be a sort of truth police and said inciting violence was more of a concern than telling lies.

It doesnt matter who you are, Clegg said, you can be the pope, the queen of England, the president of the United States, you cannot use our services to aid, abet, foment or praise acts of violence.

Trumps spoke for 90 minutes on Saturday, ranging over familiar subjects as he began a series of appearances some think presage another run for the presidential nomination in a party he still dominates.

Repeatedly hitting out at Biden, Trump touched on hot topics among conservatives. His successor, he said in one such jab, was pushing toxic critical race theory ... into our nations schools. Joe Biden and the socialist Democrats are the most radical Democrats in our nations history.

Trump also took sustained aim at Dr Anthony Fauci, the senior public health official with whom he was often at odds in his last year in office, as the coronavirus took hold.

Fauci, 80, has served seven presidents since 1984 and is now Bidens chief medical adviser. Trump said he was not a great doctor but hes a hell of a promoter, hes been wrong on almost every issue.

On Sunday, Lewandowski said: If were going to follow the science and listen to Dr Fauci, who has been lifted up by the media as the foremost expert on this matter in the world, listen to what Dr Fauci said.

Lewandowski mentioned Faucis initial advice against the need to wear masks, which Fauci has said was meant to preserve supplies for medical personnel; Faucis view of travel bans, which he said would prove irrelevant if a pandemic began; and a claim that through his government agency [Fauci] funded at least $800,000 of government taxpayer money to the Wuhan laboratory.

US funds were routinely allocated to laboratories in China.

Republicans have seized on new interest among US intelligence agencies in the theory that the coronavirus escaped a Chinese lab. Most public health experts still think it more likely the virus reached humans via the consumption of animals, but Fauci is among those who have said the lab leak theory could prove true.

Lewandowski suggested the formation of an unlikely investigatory commission, featuring two former secretaries of state.

Lets appoint Secretary Mike Pompeo and maybe Secretary Clinton to look into why 600,000 Americans have died because of this. Lets hold China accountable.

Repeating a line from Trumps speech, he also said the US should ask for the reparations which they owe not only us but probably the world, and I think $10tn.

Excerpt from:
Trump adviser Lewandowski: he lost the election and will not be reinstated - The Guardian

It seems letter-writer Tony Pittore (Real world vs. fantasy world, May 29, TribLIVE) has decided to elucidate the rest of us on the difference between the conservatives real world and the liberals fantasy world.

Im rather curious as to whether Mr. Pittores real world is the one where:

The Democratic Party is populated by pedophiles and cannibals

A child trafficking operation is run out of a D.C. pizza parlor

Hillary Clinton was personally responsible for the Benghazi massacre

Bill and Hillary Clinton are responsible for more murders than Tony Soprano

A previous POTUS was actually ineligible to hold the office

The coronavirus pandemic was a Democratic hoax (or alternately, that George Soros, Bill Gates and Dr. Anthony Fauci were responsible for intentionally loosing the virus on an unsuspecting world)

That willfully thumbing ones nose at public health mandates and protocols enacted to try to stem the pandemic was a patriotic act

That a nefarious coalition of neer-do-wells recruited, organized and bankrolled by Soros hijacked the 2020 presidential election

That the Capitol rioters of Jan. 6 were likewise merely a gathering of patriots engaging in peaceful protest.

Is this your real world, Mr. Pittore?

As Elvis Costello so elegantly wrote over 40 years ago, I used to be disgusted, now I try to be amused. Or, maybe as cartoonist Walt Kelly famously penned in his Pogo comic strip, We have met the enemy, and he is us.

Russ Schmidt

New Kensington

Read more:
Letter to the editor: 'Real world' of conservatives - TribLIVE

Democrats have to defy history to hold onto the House in the 2022 midterms. As I've noted before, the president's party almost always loses House seats in the midterms. History, though, is a guide, not a fortune teller.

This week's special election in New Mexico's 1st congressional district is part of a larger trend that shows us that if President Joe Biden remains as popular as he is now, Democrats have a fighting chance to maintain House control.

Democrat Melanie Stansbury beat Republican Mark Moores by 26 points in the special election to replace Deb Haaland, who represented the district until she joined the Biden administration as interior secretary earlier this year. She did so in a district that Biden won by 23 points in 2020, Haaland took it by 16 points that same year and Hillary Clinton won by 17 points in 2016. In other words, Stansbury didn't just match but slightly exceeded the baseline Democratic performance in the district.

Of course, this was just one special election. But there have been a slew of special elections, mostly on the state legislative level since Biden became president, that seem to indicate something similar. Look at these specials using the past two presidential elections (giving more weight to 2020) as a baseline.

Democrats seem to be doing 2 points to 5 points better than you'd expect in a neutral political environment, depending on whether you look at all special elections involving at least one Democrat and Republican or those taking place with only one Democrat and one Republican.

This 2 to 5 point Democratic advantage matches pretty much what we saw in the national congressional generic ballot. It is also pretty much identical to the results we witnessed in last year's election. Biden won by 4.5 points nationally, and Democrats were victorious in the national House vote by about 3 points.

The common thread through these special elections is that Biden is popular. His approval rating has been north of 50% throughout his entire presidency. When we limit ourselves to only polling that asked voters (i.e. not all adults), Biden's approval rating is still above 50%.

Presidential approval ratings aren't all that matter during midterm elections -- but they do matter. There have been six presidents who have lost House majorities during a midterm in the polling era. All but Dwight Eisenhower (a war hero who always seemed to do worse politically than his approval rating indicated) had an approval rating below 50%.

Put another way, the presidents whose parties lost the House in midterm elections were almost all more unpopular than Biden is right now.

Now, that may not save Democrats next fall because all but the most popular presidents have lost seats in midterms, even if their party didn't lose House control. The Democrats have almost no room to spare as they won a slim majority in the 2020 elections.

The potential saving grace for Democrats is the relationship between midterm voting patterns and approval of the president has only increased over time. Since 2006, the president's party has won at least 86% of those voters who approve of the job the president is doing. They have never lost more than 90% of voters who disapprove of the president's job during the same period.

The bottom line is that if you approve of the president, you're very likely to vote for his party, and if you disapprove, you're very likely to vote for the opposition in this polarized era.

In 2018, Republican House candidates won 88% of those who approved of Donald Trump's job performance and lost 90% who disapproved. Republicans lost the House because more voters disapproved of Trump (54%) than approved (45%).

Biden, at this point, is inverse of this with an approval rating in the mid 50s and a disapproval rating in the low 40s.

Again, history suggests that Biden and particularly the Democrats' position should fade. I have pointed out that the White House party's position on the generic ballot from this point to the election should get worse. Additionally, special election results sometimes can get worse for a party the further we get from the beginning of the presidential term.

But Biden has one thing going for him that acts as a counter to the normal cycle: an approval rating that is steadiest for any president since World War II through this point in his term. He didn't experience a big honeymoon in his approval rating after his inauguration, and he hasn't seen a decline either. Biden's current approval rating looks awfully similar to the 52% who held a favorable view of him in the 2020 exit polls.

If Biden doesn't lose ground going forward, the 2022 midterms may prove to be an ahistorical event.

Read this article:
Why Democrats may defy history and win the 2022 midterms - KCTV Kansas City

Have we no decency?

At long last sir, have you no decency?

These words were spoken to Sen.Joe McCarthy in 1954. He died three years later in disgrace, and his rabid movement died with him.

I can think of 15 to 25 people who should be asked this personally (actually hundreds), but tops is Yancey County's esteemed climate change denier. I wonder how the conversation went with the denier and all his Ph.Dfriends after 60 Minutes revealed that the sea ice in the Arctic has melted and the Russians are trying to confiscate the newly opened sea lanes. I know he would say if it is not Fox News, it is fake news. The aware know better! I just googled fascism, and whose name do you think popped into my head after Hitler and Mussolini, after reading the definition? You guessed right, Trump.

The informed know that Trump lost the election, lost the House, lost the Senate, was impeached twice and is the first president to have such charges brought against him. With a grand jury opened in Georgia and New York, I am hoping that justice will prevail. I have known for years that he was a delusional misfit who is inherently corrupt. He misled his followers with lies and deceit.

Now, the U.S. Senate is probably not going to form a 9/11-like commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Out of 50 Republican senators, only 15 agreed to meet with the mother of Brian Sicknick, the slain Capitol police officer. We only need 10 of these senators to vote with the Democrats; I bet it won't happen. They have something to fear! They did not fear, however, forming a commission to investigate Hillary Clinton and Benghazi.

After 33 hearings, $7.8 million and nearly four years, no evidence of wrongdoing was found. She did get beat in 2016 by a corrupt charlatan exactly the results they were seeking.

We had better straighten up. In recent news, Russia again hacked us. Putin is winning in his attempts to divide us and we are too ignorant or unaware to realize it.

Have we no decency?

Michael Perham, Clermont

I have been a resident of Leesburg and a Daily Commercial subscriber for the past several years. Each week Ive read with interest the Op-Ed section, noting that Russ Sloan was afforded a weekly byline to promote a decidedly right-wing point of view.

While perhaps expecting thoughtful, positive treatises on conservative principles and values, instead we received a weekly tirade, essentially telling us the Democratic Party was responsible for all of our problems, and the ultimate end of the republic as we know it.

It didnt seem to matter who was president, or which party had a congressional majority, Sloan told us that each and every problem in our country was the other guys fault. Over the years and through this unending weekly barrage of rhetoric, two absolutes have emerged: Sloan always told us the sky was falling and the sky never fell.

Tom Pierce, Leesburg

Excerpt from:
Today's letters: Readers comment on former President Trump and right-wing op-eds - Daily Commercial

Tell us again how advanced Canada is

For years, we have heard that Canada has a great health care system. When Hillary Clinton was first lady, she proposed we change our health care system to be similar to Canada. Fast forward to today. Our pharmaceutical industry has created and produced millions of doses of a COVID-19 vaccine. Yet Canada is still in the testing phase, and its pharmaceutical industry is not sure it has the capacity to produce enough vaccines for their population.

According to the latest reports, Canada was to start getting its first Pfizer vaccine doses from the U.S. in early May.

Tell me again how we should change to a national health care system. I am just thankful that Hillary and the Democrats have not nationalized our system although they continue to push the idea.

Kris Riefler

Postal service woes are piling up

Last Tuesday at 7 p.m., after eating at a local restaurant, I went to drop a couple pieces of mail in the outside mailbox at the post office. The box was totally full. I tried to push the letters down, but it was stuffed. What is going on? The mail is supposed to be taken in at the end of the day. I can't believe if it was emptied at 4:30 it could be that full, especially with two other boxes sitting next to it.

No wonder we receive late notices on bills that we have paid and put in the mail. People depend on this service. Not everyone has a computer to pay bills, nor do we all want to. Some people get their medicines through the mail.

You can't depend on this critical service anymore. The election cannot be blamed now. Something needs to be done.

Karen Dale

Hixson

Old Trump tweet epitome of irony

It's a sound slap across the face when an old tweet resurfaces to haunt the writer, especially when it's one you wrote after you became president.

The message Trump published shortly after he was elected president in 2016 ratified a comment made by Vladimir Putin about Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party.

It reads: "Vladimir Putin said today about Hillary and Dems: 'In my opinion, it is humiliating. One must be able to lose with dignity.' So true!"

Nationwide, Biden led Trump by 7 million votes out of a record 158 million cast.

Wielding a wrecking ball to American democracy, Trump trudged away leaving bounteous disgrace in his wake.

Rod Killian

Press needs to put numbers in context

Day after day, news reporters have been citing India's rising and "staggering" 300,000 deaths from COVID-19 as the third highest in the world. In comparison, deaths are 589,893 in the U.S. and 449,068 in Brazil. But what do these numbers mean? There's no context for them.

For context, consider per-capita death rates per 100,000 people. It's 212 in Brazil, 179 in the U.S. and only 22 in India. Thus, if the U.S. had as low a death rate as India, it would have only 77,000 COVID-19 deaths instead of 500,000. Or, if India's per-capita death were as high as that of the U.S., India would be facing a truly staggering 2,360,000 deaths, not 300,000. In light of the math, it is misleading to say that COVID-19 deaths in India are third highest in the world.

Facts have meaning only in context. Unfortunately, far too much reporting ignores context and inconvenient facts in order to create false impressions of conditions and events. If that's how freedom of the free press works, who needs it?

Bob Miller

Signal Mountain

Why would Georgians host Greene, Gaetz?

I saw that Matt Gaetz and and Marjorie Taylor Greene were in Dalton. One of these (Greene) is a person Georgia chose to represent it. So this is who Georgians are? Aren't they embarrassed and want to kick this person out of office?

I have been in the state of Georgia one time since I moved to Cleveland 15 years ago. I am not going to give that state any of my money. Why do normal Americans always have to fight against power-hungry, corrupt and mentally ill people who make laws in this country? It is very clear that both of these people have mental issues.

If Georgians are no better than [hosting] these two people, we have our own enemies in our backyards. Maybe we will have to have that second Civil War if there are people in Georgia supporting these sickos.

Penny Furman

Cleveland, Tennessee

Consistency needed on transgender issue

A much needed spotlight of rationality on the growing tragedy of the politically correct issue of child abuse as it relates to so-called transgender children: Gender dysphoria is a recognized psychological disorder and as such should be treated with psychotherapy, antidepressants and antipsychotics as are other types of mental illness. Why then are physician-ordered puberty blockers, lifelong hormonal therapy, irreversible bodily mutilation, and further, requiring society to participate in this delusional charade, the only acceptable ways of handling of this solution?

Conversely, [columnist Leonard] Pitts has, in the past, written quite eloquently concerning the harm that health care professional-provided conversation therapy does to children confused about their sexuality. A little consistency on these issues by Mr. Pitts would be appreciated.

Gene Stevens

Tunnel Hill, Georgia

Time to rethink public ed spending

Alabama's governor makes decisions about 3rd grade reading requirements. Really? Tennessee's governor signs a well-intentioned bill seeking to govern what is actually taught in public school classrooms about the history of present-day race relations in America.

Does anyone actually believe that state governments can control what happens behind closed classroom doors? Only those who have never managed a classroom of real, live human beings could believe such nonsense. All of which points to the often-obscured reality that parents are most responsible for their children's education, and should they object to mismanagement or indoctrination in the public schools, they should not be required to subject their children to an educational system which violates their values. They should be able to take to a school of their choosing those thousands of local, state and federal dollars allocated to their child's education.

How are these decisions not a matter of justice in education? And what evidence is there that current attempts to manage from state capitals and Washington, D.C., what happens in the dynamic relationship between teachers and students are actually effective?

It's long past time to re-evaluate how we spend hundreds of billions of dollars on the schooling of our children.

Gary Lindley

Lookout Mountain, Georgia

Read more:
Tell us again how advanced Canada is and more letters to the editors - Chattanooga Times Free Press