Playing electoral defense, Trump says Biden is ‘against God’
CLEVELAND — President Donald Trump billed his trip to Ohio on Thursday as a chance to promote economic recovery, but he quickly pivoted to a deeply personal attack on Joe Biden, even questioning without foundation the former vice president’s faith in God.
Even for a president known for blunt criticism, Trump’s remarks stood out and they signaled how contentious the campaign may get over the coming months.
“He’s against God. He’s against guns. He’s against energy, our kind of energy. I don’t think he’s going to do too well in Ohio,” Trump said.
Trump also used his trip to talk trade, telling workers at a Whirlpool plant, “I will stand up to the foreign trade cheaters and violators that hate our country.”
Barely one month after a new North America trade agreement went into effect, Trump announced his intention to reimpose tariffs on aluminum produced in Canada, saying United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has advised him the step was necessary to defend the U.S. steel industry. But the move also sets up the possibility of retaliation against U.S. companies.
Trump also promoted the economic prosperity much of the nation enjoyed before the coronavirus pandemic and said that he is best suited to rebuild a crippled economy. But his handling of the outbreak has weakened his bid for a second term.
The U.S. has nearly 4.9 million coronavirus cases with almost 160,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins
University.
The virus already altered the trip even before Trump landed, with word that GOP Gov. Mike DeWine had tested positive for the coronavirus. DeWine had planned to meet with Trump and join the president on a visit to the Whirlpool Corp. plant. DeWine’s office said the 73-year-old governor had no symptoms and was returning to Columbus.
Biden campaign spokesman Andrew Bates responded to Trump’s comments by saying, “Joe Biden’s faith is at the core of who he is; he’s lived it with dignity his entire life, and it’s been a source of strength and comfort in times of extreme hardship.”
Clashes in Ore. continue: Police and protesters in Portland, Oregon, clashed again and the city’s police chief says the ongoing violence is harming the city’s image.
The high-profile clashes outside a U.S. courthouse have stopped since Democratic Gov. Kate Brown reached a deal that called for the drawdown of federal agents sent by the Trump administration to protect the building.
But the turmoil on the streets has continued miles from the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse, as demonstrators rallying to defund the local police force get into confrontations with officers late at night. Police respond by declaring the events riots — allowing them to use tear gas to disperse the crowds.
Officers Wednesday night clashed with protesters outside a precinct station six miles from the courthouse.
Postal inquiry: A Democratic senator said Thursday he is launching an investigation into changes at the U.S. Postal Service that are causing delays in mail deliveries just as big volume increases are expected for mail-in election voting.
A plan imposed by Louis DeJoy, a Republican fundraiser and Trump ally who took over the top job at the Postal Service in June, eliminates overtime for hundreds of thousands of postal workers and orders that mail be kept until the next day if distribution centers are running late.
Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, the top Democrat on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said DeJoy has failed to provide answers about service delays “that are preventing Americans from receiving critical mail on time, including prescription drugs, business mail and mail-in ballots.”
Peters is asking the public to provide their stories about delays or other problems with deliveries.
Hong Kong advocates charged: Two dozen democracy advocates in Hong Kong were charged Thursday with taking part in an annual vigil honoring the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, the latest sign of the aggressive clampdown on dissent in the semiautonomous Chinese territory.
The charges came on the heels of a politically fraught week as authorities in Beijing and Hong Kong invoked a sweeping new national security law to crack down on the opposition.
The June 4 Tiananmen vigil has been held for decades but was banned for the first time this year because of the coronavirus outbreak.
The charges, tied to an event before the imposition of the national security law, came a week after a dozen pro-democracy candidates, including sitting lawmakers, were barred from running in legislative elections in September.
In North Korea: North Korea is quarantining thousands of people and shipping food and other aid to a southern city locked down over coronavirus worries, officials said, as the country’s response to a suspected case reinforces doubt about its longstanding claim to be virus-free.
But amid outside skepticism and a stream of North Korean propaganda glorifying its virus efforts, an exchange between the country and the United Nations is providing new clarity — and actual numbers — about what might be happening in North Korea, which has closed its borders and cut travel by outside monitors and journalists.
In late July, North Korea said it had imposed its “maximum emergency system” to guard against the virus spreading after finding a person with COVID-19 symptoms in Kaesong city, near the border with rival South Korea.
Envoy to Iran resigns: The Trump administration’s top envoy for Iran is stepping down just as the United States tries to moves ahead with a major diplomatic effort that would extend a U.N. arms embargo against Tehran in the face of widespread international opposition.
Brian Hook announced his departure Thursday, a day after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the U.S. would call for a U.N. Security Council vote next week on a resolution to indefinitely extend the embargo, which is due to expire in October.
That resolution is expected to fail, setting the stage for a showdown between the U.S. and the other Security Council members over the reimposition of all international sanctions on Iran. President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal two years ago but his administration argues it retains the right to invoke the “snapback” of U.N. sanctions because it is a council member. Others disagree.
Hook did not give a reason for leaving.