New poll: Biden beating Trump in Texas
This is the fifth poll showing a Democrat beating or tying Trump in the presidential race in Texas. We’ll say it until we’re blue in the face: Texas is a swing state. The poll was done by Emerson College with the Dallas Morning News before the El Paso attack.
White extremism growing in America
“White nationalism is the subtext and text text of the 2020 presidential race — as the reality of a shrinking white population sets in, and big states, including Texas, turn increasingly diverse — and blue…Racial resentment and anxiety have been a central appeal for Donald Trump. The FBI says homegrown violent extremists are now a top concern — ‘a persistent, pervasive threat,’ Director Christopher Wray called it in April. Two weeks ago, Wray said the bureau had made 100 arrests for domestic terrorism in the past nine months, with many tied to white supremacy. Right-wing extremists killed more people in 2018 than in any year since 1995, according to the Anti-Defamation League, per the N.Y. Times.”
–Axios this morning
Beto needles the press
The national mainstream press has done yeoman’s work in investigating and exposing the corruption and character of the Trump Administration. But it also helps perpetuate and give oxygen to Trump’s caustic message riddled with falsehoods. The amount of coverage Trump gets is extraordinary, in 2016 alone receiving $4.6 billion in free media by mainstream reporters.
On Monday Beto O’Rourke called out the warts on a political press corps that crassly thrives on conflict – as if there’s not enough of that already in politics — and adds fuel sometimes to an already burning fire. The fire here is Trump’s anti-immigrant (legal and undocumented) invective that characterizes his presidency.
A CNN reporter asked O’Rourke if there’s anything Trump can do to make things better following the gun deaths over the weekend. O’Rourke responded, “What do you think? You know the shit he’s been saying. He’s been calling Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals. I don’t know, like, members of the press, what the fuck? … I mean, connect the dots about what he’s been doing in this country.”
O’Rourke was being real, unguarded, and off the talking points. CNN was also poking the bear – asking a provocative question of a native of El Paso they already knew the answer to.
Tony Buzbee, candidate for Houston mayor
The election for Houston mayor is this November, and Buzbee, a conservative, is already spending eye-popping amounts of money —over $1.3 million on TV ads. No other candidate on either the conservative or progressive side comes close.
