3 Stories You Should Read 9/29/2020: Debate Fact or Fiction, Violent Domestic Extremists, Foreign Influence
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In the category of: Debate Drinking Games,
The 10 biggest whoppers you can expect to hear at the first debate
The first debate showdown between Donald Trump and Joe Biden will animate reporters and fact-checkers across the country, who have grown accustomed to prosecuting claims by a president known for questionable assertions and outright falsehoods.
And although Biden hews much more closely to facts than his Republican opponent, the former vice president has earned his own reputation for occasional hyperbole and frequent verbal gaffes.
In the category of: Swept Under the Rug
FBI and U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) memos say threats by domestic extremists to election-related targets will likely increase in the run-up to the Nov. 3 election.
Those warnings so far have largely remained internal. But New Jersey’s homeland security office took the unusual step of publicly highlighting the threat in a little-noticed report on its website last week.
In the category of: National Security Consequences
Trump Tax Returns Show President’s Exposure to Foreign Influence
Among the biggest questions about President Donald Trump’s foreign policy approach is why he lavishes praise upon — or often refuses to condemn — some of the world’s worst autocrats. A New York Times investigation into his tax returns sheds new light on how his investments raise conflict of interest concerns abroad.
According to a Times report this week, in the first two years of his presidency, Trump’s businesses continued to receive income from countries led by officials with an authoritarian bent or shoddy human rights records: $1 million from Turkey, $3 million from the Philippines and $2.3 million from India.
While those numbers are dwarfed by Trump’s other businesses, including the $427 million he earned from his star turn on NBC’s “The Apprentice,” they offer what experts say pose conflicts of interest which have national security consequences if the president decides to act more in his own interests rather than those of the country.
