THE BEST & WORST OF 2020
A LOOK BACK AT POLITICS, SHOWBIZ
Summing up the year in politics for 2020 takes a mere five words: Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump.
Whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat, conservative or liberal, a political die-hard or election year dilettante, there’s no disputing the undisputed No. 1 biggest political story of the past 12 months: President-elect Joe Biden’s victory over President Trump.
Wait, victory? Trump has yet to concede, and so the biggest story of 2020 is about to leak right into 2021 despite Biden’s victory by 7 million votes in the largest Election Day turnout in American history and five meticulous days of counting from coast-to-coast.
And that leads us to No. 2 ... Trump still claims he won.
“The United States had more votes than it had people voting, by a lot,” he tweeted yet again Friday. “This travesty cannot be allowed to stand. It was a Rigged Election, one not even fit for third world countries!”
3. The continuing COVID-19 pandemic landed at the White House, where the president was hospitalized with coronavirus on Oct. 1. First Lady Melania also tested positive for the virus after Trump hosted a Sept. 26 superspreader event in the Rose Garden for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, with few attendees wearing masks and most ignoring social distancing protocols.
4. The killing of George Floyd beneath a Minneapolis police officer’s knee ignited a political firestorm across the country, with riots intermingled with peaceful protests and calls to “Defund the Police.” Nightly demonstrations occurred from Portland, Ore., to downtown Brooklyn and most everywhere in between. In Minneapolis, officials estimated the cost of the damage at $55 million — and were rebuffed by the Trump administration after applying for financial aid.
5. Gov. Cuomo emerged as one of the faces of the pandemic with his daily updates after COVID-19 slammed the Westchester County city of New Rochelle in March, criticizing the federal response to the virus and becoming a regular on the nightly newscasts (including a CNN interview with his brother, Chris). But the state also suffered 950,000 positive tests and 37,000 deaths, and Cuomo — who wrote a book on the crisis — was criticized for the deaths of 6,500 people in state nursing homes.
6. The Democratic effort to impeach Trump ended with a thud in February when the GOP-controlled Senate voted to acquit him, 52 to 48, on charges of abuse of power, and 53 to 47 on obstruction of Congress, all stemming from alleged foreign interference in the 2016 election.
7. Biden’s 2020 campaign appeared doomed with a stumble in Iowa before he emerged from a crowded field of Democrats to capture the nomination on his way to the White House.
8. It was the year of unconventional political conventions: No balloons, no delegates, virtual speeches from the candidates. The typical convention touchstone of the nominees addressing the nation came with Trump and Biden delivering acceptances speeches to America’s living rooms rather than an arena packed with cheering partisans.
9. The widely panned first debate between Trump and Biden deteriorated into a shouting match, with moderator Chris Wallace unable to keep things civil. At one point, an exasperated Biden asked the president, “Will you shut up, Man?” Trump, asked if he would renounce white supremacists, invoked the name of a misogynist and anti-immigrant group: “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by.”
10. Kamala Harris shattered a number of barriers with her election as vice president on the Biden ticket. The California Democrat became the nation’s highest-ranking elected female official in history and the first Black woman and first South Asian woman to land in the job. She’s the daughter of two civil rights activists: mom Shyamala Gopalan, from India, and dad Donald Harris, from Jamaica.