| Ocasio-Cortez's progressive PAC makes first round of endorsements Posted: 21 Feb 2020 09:54 AM PST  The freshman congresswoman announced support of seven women challenging for legislative seats, including two opposing Democratic incumbents.
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| U.S. vs. Huawei: Is future of the internet at stake? Posted: 21 Feb 2020 08:39 AM PST  The U.S. government is trying to stop Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei from dominating the 5G market. The outcome of the dispute could change the future of the internet.
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| Girl, 11, gave birth to baby allegedly fathered by brother Posted: 22 Feb 2020 11:40 AM PST  The 17-year-old boy told police he had sex with his sister about 100 times but did not know she was pregnant, according to charging documents.
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| With information from China scarce, U.S. spies enlisted to track coronavirus Posted: 21 Feb 2020 09:36 AM PST  As Chinese officials face allegations of locking down information about the spread of the coronavirus, U.S. intelligence agencies have been helping in governmentwide efforts to gather information about the disease's global spread.
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| I Live in South Korea Where Coronavirus Cases are Rising. Not Much Has Changed Posted: 22 Feb 2020 05:28 AM PST  It is important to keep perspective. There are fifty-three million people in South Korea. Only four hundred thirty or so of them have corona, and only two have died. The sensationalism of disease outbreak coverage does not help. We have all seen too many movies, and overwrought invocations of Contagion or zombie apocalypse movies generate paranoia and unnecessary anxiety. South Korea is safe.
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| Charter bus rollover kills 3, injures 18 outside San Diego Posted: 22 Feb 2020 12:58 PM PST  A charter bus swerved on a rain-slicked Southern California highway and rolled down an embankment Saturday, killing three people and injuring 18 others, authorities said. Several passengers were thrown from the bus, and one of the dead was trapped under the vehicle after it landed on its roof shortly after 10 a.m. off Interstate 15 in Pala Mesa, an unincorporated community about 45 miles (72 kilometers) north of San Diego, North County Fire Protection District spokesman John Choi said. "There were no seat belts on this bus," Choi said.
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| First US patient has fully recovered from coronavirus in Washington state; nearly 800 still under watch Posted: 20 Feb 2020 08:28 PM PST  A Washington state man who was the nation's first confirmed case of the new, deadly coronavirus has made a full recovery and is no longer quarantined.
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| Mike Bloomberg's social media strategy is under fire as Twitter suspends 70 pro-Bloomberg accounts for platform manipulation Posted: 22 Feb 2020 09:08 AM PST  A Twitter spokesman said the identical posts violated its policy against manipulation and spam that was created in response to the 2016 election.
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| US accuses Russia of huge coronavirus disinformation campaign Posted: 22 Feb 2020 09:17 AM PST  US officials say thousands of social media accounts linked to Russia are part of a coordinated effort to spread disinformation about the new coronavirus.The campaign allegedly aims to damage the US's image and spread unfounded conspiracy theories that it is behind the outbreak which has infected nearly 78,000 globally and killed over 2,500 people.
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| Chris Matthews Likens Bernie’s Strong Nevada Showing to France Falling to Nazi Germany in WWII Posted: 22 Feb 2020 04:14 PM PST  Cable news personalities had a lot to say about Sen. Bernie Sanders' (D-VT) early lead in the Nevada caucuses Saturday, with MSNBC's Chris Matthews likening it to the shock of France falling to Germany during WWII."It looks like Bernie Sanders is hard to beat... I think it's a little late to stop him, and that's the problem," Matthews said during a panel segment. "It's pretty much over unless that changes."He then dropped the eyebrow-raising WWII reference, seemingly as a way to describe how Sanders has—in his view—clinched the Democratic nomination."I'm reading last night about the fall of France in the summer of 1940. And the general calls up Churchill and says, 'It's over,'" Matthews said. "And Churchill says, 'How can it be? You got the greatest army in Europe. How can it be over?' He said, 'It's over.'"Other pundits also marveled at Sanders' lead, with CNN's Van Jones claiming the jaws of the Democratic "establishment" were "hanging off their faces.""Nobody thought six months ago thought we would be sitting here with Bernie Sanders on his way to the nomination. He's on his way to the nomination," he said. "Something could happen to stop him. Somebody may have some marbles to throw at the stairs or banana peel, they better find it. Because this guy is off and running."Jones commented on the impressive Latino turnout for the Vermont senator, claiming that he was "running as if he's a Latino candidate now."He also pointed to younger voters who caucused for Sanders, claiming their support has been a "youthquake." "You got a new generation stepping up. They're not scared of any of these ideas and they're tired of hearing Republicans calling everything we say socialist. They ruined the word socialist," he said.Another MSNBC personality, Joy Reid, attributed Sanders' lead to the "sheer unadulterated rage"of young voters who she said were motivated to "throw the tables over" to vote for Sanders."They're turning the tables over and they don't care what the potential result is. They're the hungriest," she said. "No one is as hungry, angry, enraged and determined as Sanders voters. Democrats need to sober up and figure out what the hell they are going to do about that."Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Archaeologists unveil possible shrine to Rome's first king Posted: 21 Feb 2020 08:19 AM PST |
| Man wrongfully convicted of murder sues New York for $100 million Posted: 20 Feb 2020 06:21 PM PST  Christian Pacheco was released from prison last week.
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| 10 Amazing Facts About Polar Bears Posted: 22 Feb 2020 12:00 PM PST |
| Poll: Trump Expected to Double 2016 African American Support if He Draws Buttigieg Challenge Posted: 21 Feb 2020 11:46 AM PST  President Trump would double the support he received from African American voters in 2016 if he ends up facing former South Bend., Ind. mayor Pete Buttigieg in the upcoming election, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released Friday.Trump, who recorded eight percent of the African American vote against Hillary Clinton in 2016, hits 16 percent in the 2020 estimate against Buttigieg. Both men are tied with three percent of "enthusiastic" black voters — with Buttigieg having the lowest percentage of enthusiasm in the entire Democratic field.Bill McInturff, a Republican pollster who conducted the survey with Democrat Jeff Horwitt, told the Journal that Buttigieg has "simply not made a connection with African Americans," and added that he thought Buttigieg would struggle "anywhere where African Americans are a chunk of the vote."A further breakdown of the vote by gender shows that African American women support Buttigieg overwhelmingly by an 87-6 margin over Trump. Among African American men, however, the margin shrinks to 59-29 in favor of Buttigieg.Despite strong performances in Iowa and New Hampshire, Buttigieg has been dogged by weak support among minority voters.In November, Buttigieg's campaign made headlines for being "intentionally vague" in promoting endorsements from prominent black leaders in South Carolina as part of the rollout of Buttigieg's "Douglass Plan for Black America." ABC News reported on Tuesday that Buttigieg described how he had "proudly partnered" with two local restaurants in a South Carolina op-ed last week as part of investing in African American small businesses, only for one of the owners to say she had never agreed to be in a partnership.The president featured African Americans prominently in his State of the Union address earlier this month, prompting CNN commentator Van Jones to issue a "warning to Democrats" that Trump was making a play for black voters.
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| CDC is preparing for the 'likely' spread of coronavirus in the US, officials say Posted: 22 Feb 2020 05:44 AM PST  While coronavirus has not spread in the United States, CDC officials said they're preparing for the coronavirus to become a pandemic.
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| Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s progressive PAC makes first round of endorsements Posted: 21 Feb 2020 10:46 AM PST  Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez announced Friday her political action committee's first round of endorsements, which will include two progressive candidates challenging sitting Democratic members of Congress.
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| A New York lawmaker wants to treat white supremacists like foreign jihadists. Is this the solution, or a new war on terror? Posted: 21 Feb 2020 02:00 AM PST  Rep. Max Rose wants the federal government to recognize that white nationalists groups are as serious threats to American citizens as the Islamic State or al-Qaida. The FBI has also acknowledged that threat, recently deeming homegrown extremists a "national threat priority."
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| Man guilty of killing 2 who tried to stop his slurs on train Posted: 21 Feb 2020 03:37 PM PST |
| Trump's intelligence shakeup is reportedly tied to his loathing for Adam Schiff, bond with Devin Nunes Posted: 21 Feb 2020 04:37 PM PST  President Trump berated outgoing acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire on Valentine's Day because he was upset over an election security intelligence briefing for the House Intelligence Committee on Feb. 13, several major newspapers reported late Thursday. Trump was reportedly angry that Shelby Pierson, the election threat czar at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, had briefed lawmakers without his knowledge, and also that she had told them Russia is currently interfering in the 2020 election with the goal of helping Trump win re-election.Specifically, Trump was furious that Pierson had briefed House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), The Washington Post reports. "Trump erroneously believed that Pierson had given the assessment exclusively" to Schiff, and he "also believed that the information would be helpful to Democrats if it were released publicly." It isn't clear where Trump got the impression Schiff was the only person at the bipartisan briefing, but "Trump learned about Pierson's remarks from Rep. Devin Nunes (Calif.), the committee's ranking Republican and a staunch Trump ally," the Post reports. Nunes was at the briefing.Trump has "fixated on" Schiff, "pummeling him publicly with insults and unfounded accusations of corruption," since Schiff started leading Trump's impeachment, The New York Times reports. In October, Trump even "refused to invite lawmakers from the congressional intelligence committees to a White House briefing on Syria because he did not want Mr. Schiff there."Accounts differ on how much the election interference briefing weighed on Trump's decision to replace Maguire with Richard Grenell, a loyalist who is currently U.S. ambassador to Germany — the Post says the incident "ruined Maguire's chances of becoming the permanent intelligence chief," while two administration officials tell the Times the timing was coincidental and Maguire was never a contender — but "Trump's suspicions of the intelligence community have often been fueled by Nunes, who was with the president in California on Wednesday when he announced on Twitter that Grenell would become the acting director," the Post reports.Some of Maguire's top aides are leaving, too, including acting deputy DNI Andrew Hallman, the Times reports, paving the way for "Grenell to put in place his own management team." Kash Patel, the Nunes aide "who helmed efforts to push back against the FBI's Trump-Russia investigation, has just started working in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence," The Daily Beast reports.More stories from theweek.com Bernie Sanders' subtle warning to the Democratic Party How much will Medicare-for-all save Americans? A lot. Bloomberg says he'll release women from NDAs
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| Body of 2nd firefighter killed in California library blaze recovered Posted: 20 Feb 2020 09:33 PM PST  Fire Capt. Raymond Figueroa and firefighter Patrick Jones went into the burning building to make sure everyone was out.
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| Twitter Suspends 70 Accounts With Pro-Michael Bloomberg Tweets Posted: 22 Feb 2020 05:15 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Twitter Inc. on Friday said it had begun suspending 70 accounts that posted identical messages in support of Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg in a pattern that violates the social-media company's rules.A Twitter spokesman said in a statement that it had taken "enforcement action on a group of accounts for violating our rules against platform manipulation and spam."Some of the suspensions will be permanent, while in some cases account owners will have to verify they have control of their accounts, the Twitter statement said.(Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.)The campaign has reportedly hired hundreds of employees to pump out campaign messages on social media platforms. In accounts reviewed by the Los Angeles Times, which first reported the enforcement action, the organizers used identical texts, links and hashtags. Many of the accounts had been created in the last two months, after Bloomberg entered the presidential race on Nov. 24.Bloomberg campaign spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said staffers and volunteers use an app called Outvote to share content "and was not intended to mislead anyone." The campaign asks all deputy field organizers to identify themselves as working on behalf of the candidate on their social media accounts, she said.Twitter said it had determined that the posts were in violation of its "Platform Manipulation and Spam Policy."Twitter said the campaign violated its rules against "creating multiple accounts to post duplicative content," "posting identical or substantially similar Tweets or hashtags from multiple accounts you operate" and "coordinating with or compensating others to engage in artificial engagement or amplification, even if the people involved use only one account."(Updates with Bloomberg campaign response in sixth paragraph)\--With assistance from Natnicha Chuwiruch and Mark Niquette.To contact the reporter on this story: Jennifer Epstein in Manchester, New Hampshire at jepstein32@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, John HarneyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Family of man killed by Connecticut trooper seeks more than $10M in wrongful death damages Posted: 21 Feb 2020 07:24 AM PST  Relatives of a black Connecticut man killed by a state trooper are seeking more than $10 million in wrongful death damages from state and local police, according to legal notices filed Thursday.
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| Cases of the coronavirus are spiking outside of China and the World Health Organization warned 'the window of opportunity is narrowing' to contain it Posted: 22 Feb 2020 01:59 AM PST  South Korea admitted it failed to keep the virus out of the country as cases now surge, and many countries are reporting their first cases and deaths.
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| Nevada results live: track the votes as they come in Posted: 22 Feb 2020 09:22 AM PST  Get the latest numbers as Democrats back their candidates in the crucial early voting state * Follow the latest updates * Help us cover the critical issues of 2020. Consider making a contributionDemocrats in Nevada will caucus for their chosen candidates on Saturday, in the third and "first-in-the-west" primary contest. Nevada is the most diverse state to vote so far, so the results will be closely watched to determine how candidates perform in an electorate more representative of Democratic voters.Following the chaos surrounding the Iowa caucuses, Nevada Democratic party officials have decided to abandon the same app for a combination of Google forms and scannable paper ballots as a backup. Caucus proceedings will begin at noon PT, and results should arrive a few hours after that.default What is a caucus and how is it different from a primary?Most US states hold primary elections, in which voters go to a polling place, mail in their ballots or otherwise vote remotely. But a handful of states hold caucuses – complicated, hours-long meetings, which continue until one candidate emerges as victor. And the process is different for Democrats and Republicans. How do the Democratic caucuses work and why are they important?Democrats in Nevada caucus in much the same way as Democrats in Iowa. Nevadans aged 18 and over who are registered with the party will gather in caucus venues such as school gyms and churches in their designated precinct. They start voting publicly at 12pm PT (3pm ET) by splitting into groups based on their preferred candidate. Voters have to go and stand in the area where their candidate is represented. So Joe Biden supporters would be in one corner, Elizabeth Warren in another and Bernie Sanders supporters in another. Everyone is tallied.If a particular candidate does not attract 15% of total voters present, they are taken off the ballot, and their voters are free to throw their weight behind another candidate. Once voting is over at a caucus site, the support for viable candidates (those with more than 15% of the votes) is translated into a number of "state delegate equivalents". That result is used to calculate the number of national delegates each candidate receives. National delegates eventually choose the nominee at the Democratic convention in July. On the night of the caucuses, the candidate with the most SDEs is considered the winner.
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| U.S. charges ex-DEA agent with laundering millions in drug funds Posted: 21 Feb 2020 03:28 PM PST |
| India Should Buy the F-15EX from America. Here's Why. Posted: 21 Feb 2020 07:30 PM PST  A good idea? What about the F-35?
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| Judge dismisses Nunes lawsuit against Fusion GPS Posted: 21 Feb 2020 05:50 PM PST |
| Coronavirus: US flew infected Americans home against CDC instructions, report says Posted: 21 Feb 2020 12:29 AM PST  Despite the objections of US health officials, the US State Department ultimately decided to evacuate Americans infected with coronavirus on a plane with healthy people, putting them at risk of infection.The Washington Post reports that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention argued to keep 14 people infected with the flu-like respiratory illness in Japan, where they were docked with the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship, instead of sending them back to the US and susbsequently doubling the population of infected people in the US and potentially endangering others.
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| Two academics in their 70s who vanished from cottage are found alive Posted: 22 Feb 2020 03:54 PM PST  The pair survived by drinking water from a puddle, a sheriff's spokesman said.
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| Former Marine planks for over 8 hours, setting Guinness record Posted: 22 Feb 2020 03:12 PM PST  Guinness World Records certified 62-year-old George Hood's Feb. 15 planking record in Illinois. The official time: 8 hours, 15 minutes and 15 seconds.
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| Trump mocks 'Parasite' film at Colorado rally Posted: 21 Feb 2020 06:38 AM PST  President Trump took aim at "Parasite" and its historic Oscar wins at a Colorado rally on Thursday. "How bad were the Academy Awards this year?" he asked, prompting jeers from the crowd. "Did you see it?"
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| Pete Buttigieg Is Not Intersectional Enough Posted: 21 Feb 2020 01:06 PM PST  Last Friday, a group of disgruntled "queer activists" interrupted Pete Buttigieg's campaign event in San Francisco. One of the protesters, Adiel Pollydore, told the Guardian that she decided to protest in part because "Pete Buttigieg represents a very small percentage of the experiences of queer and trans people in this country, being white and being cisgender and being a man, being someone who is highly educated. We know queer and trans folks of color, especially black queer and trans folks, live at the intersection of so many systems of oppression in this country."We would not want the "highly educated" speaking on Ms. Pollydore's behalf.The protester's objection to Buttigieg's melanin count and intact genitalia — "Why aren't you a trans black woman, Mr. Mayor?" — highlights an ongoing debate on the left about the former mayor's sexuality, and whether he is, in the words of Masha Gessen of The New Yorker, "gay enough" to represent the LGBT community.One would think Buttigieg's gay bona fides are obvious. He is "married" to another man, and frequently drones on about how Mike Pence "hates" him for his sexual preferences. Buttigieg is nevertheless accused of lacking a metaphysical "gayness," one that obtains not by participation in certain sex acts but instead through the approval of the identity eunuchs in the commentariat and American sociology departments. The operative question, then, is not whether Pete Buttigieg is a homosexual — that much is beyond dispute — but instead whether he is gay, or "gay enough."Gessen attempted to explain the contempt "some queer people" hold for Mayor Pete, who they doubt "is gay enough" to represent their political interests. What the mayor's relative "gayness" has to do with his aptitude as a political vessel for the interests of "queer people" is unclear, as is her operative definition of "gay." Gessen nevertheless proceeds with an empiricist's certainty, picking apart moments in Buttigieg's life and asserting that "the notion that some of us think that Buttigieg is not gay enough has an identifiable relationship to the facts."Unlike those who are noticeably "queer," Gessen argues, Pete Buttigieg has always appeared relatively normal (he can "pass" as a straight man) and therefore could "choose the circumstances and timing of his coming out." This experience, in turn, led him to adopt a political platform that — in Gessen's telling — is "profoundly, essentially conservative." She concludes that Pete Buttigieg's life experience and ideological commitments make him "a straight politician in a gay man's body."It's difficult to think of a sense in which a candidate who supports unfettered abortion access, compelling religious business owners to violate their consciences, abolishing the Electoral College, reengineering the Supreme Court, decriminalizing illicit border crossings, granting amnesty to more than 11 million illegal aliens, and banning all new fracking ventures might be understood to be "profoundly, essentially conservative."("Facts.")Gessen defends characterizing Buttigieg as "conservative" by citing his aversion to "revolutionary change," a posture that signals to straight people that "we are just like you, and all we want is the right to have what you have: marriage, children, a house with a picket fence, and the right to serve in the military." His refusal to embrace "revolutionary change"— a pars pro toto of his rejection of the gay "separatist" politics described by Andrew Sullivan — makes Buttigieg, in Gessen's telling, "an easy and reassuring choice for these older, white, straight people, and a disturbing possibility for the queer people who seem to be criticizing him for not being gay enough."One is reminded of Anthony Kennedy's famous ex cathedra decree that one "would misunderstand" the Obergefell plaintiffs "to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves." Ultimately, he said, they "ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law." The Court was advancing a fundamentally progressive suggestion at the time of Obergefell -- at stake was the heretofore unchanged definition of a bimillennial institution — and within five years of Kennedy's paean, Masha Gessen considers the Obergefell "ask" a sign of dyed-in-the-wool conservatism.All of Gessen's argument could, in earnest, be reduced to "Pete Buttigieg isn't really gay because he doesn't agree with me about politics." That implication is clear enough in the "straight politician in a gay man's body" quip, suggesting that gay men are authentically gay only if they hew to the political program prescribed by Masha Gessen. I do not, for what it's worth, think much of "authentic gayness" — as moral lodestars go, I prefer the Pauline epistles to the fleeting approbation of a New Yorker columnist; chacun à son goût — but to the sort of person who suggests that Buttigieg is "not gay enough" to earn their vote, I echo the question recorded by the evangelist: What lackest he yet?
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| FYI, Democrats: New Hampshire and Nevada Are Very Different Posted: 22 Feb 2020 04:44 AM PST  It's not 2016 anymore.
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| Clint Eastwood Endorses Bloomberg, Citing ‘Ornery’ Politics Posted: 22 Feb 2020 02:14 PM PST |
| FBI agents search home, business of Tennessee state senator Posted: 21 Feb 2020 12:36 PM PST  Federal authorities in Tennessee conducted searches Friday at the home and business addresses of Democratic state Sen. Katrina Robinson, the FBI said. Federal Bureau of Investigation spokesman Joel Siskovic confirmed that agents executed search warrants at two locations in Memphis.
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| Wave of racist attacks against Asian Americans in wake of coronavirus outbreak Posted: 22 Feb 2020 08:12 AM PST  Misinformation and exaggeration about the coronavirus have led to a wave of racist attacks on Asian Americans across the US.The attacks are both physical and verbal, and there are also cases of people either from East Asia, or of East Asian descent, being turned away from businesses.
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| Joe Biden says he was arrested in South Africa on a visit to see Nelson Mandela. He has never mentioned the arrest before. Posted: 22 Feb 2020 11:58 AM PST  Former Vice President Joe Biden, 77, has mentioned at three campaign events about being arrested while trying to visit Nelson Mandela in the 1970s.
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| Germany's extreme right under pressure after attacks Posted: 22 Feb 2020 09:34 AM PST  The extreme political right in Germany is on the defensive and stands accused of inciting last week's racist attacks in Hanau and others with its anti-migrant diatribes. Some have even asked that the hard right be subjected to police surveillance. "We have known for a long time that words can be followed by action and the elected representatives of the people cannot shirk this responsibility," said the chairman of the chamber of deputies, Wolfgang Schauble, in an interview with the daily Handelsblatt on Saturday.
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| Tennessee executes man convicted in four killings Posted: 20 Feb 2020 06:37 PM PST  Tennessee death row inmate Nicholas Todd Sutton was executed Thursday night by the electric chair. Sutton was convicted of killing four people.
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| Coronavirus: Could It Takedown China's Communist Party? Posted: 22 Feb 2020 04:52 AM PST  It's up to Xi himself.
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| Donald Trump pounces on reports Russia is seeking to help Bernie Sanders Posted: 22 Feb 2020 09:47 AM PST  * President claims Democrats are rigging process * Trump calls Russian meddling on his behalf 'a rumor' * Nevada: Democrats prepare to vote in most diverse state yetAs Democrats in Nevada went to the polls on Saturday, Donald Trump gleefully stirred the pot over reports that US intelligence believes Russia is trying to aid Bernie Sanders, the frontrunner for the nomination to face the president in November.In a tweet, Trump said: "Democrats in the Great State of Nevada (Which, because of the Economy, Jobs, the Military & Vets, I will win …) be careful of Russia, Russia, Russia."According to Corrupt politician Adam 'Shifty' Schiff, they are pushing for Crazy Bernie Sanders to win. Vote!"US intelligence has determined that Russian interference in the 2016 US elections not only supported Trump but included efforts to boost Sanders in his bitter primary against the eventual Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton.On Thursday, the Washington Post reported that the House intelligence committee had been briefed that Russia was once again trying to interfere in favour of Trump.Schiff is the Democratic chair of that committee and as a leading figure in Trump's impeachment over his approaches to Ukraine has become a regular target for presidential vitriol.Reports about the briefing described a furious reaction from Trump which led to the departure of Joseph Maguire, the acting director of national intelligence, and his replacement by a Trump loyalist, the ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell. On Saturday, ABC News released an interview in which Robert O'Brien, Trump's fourth national security adviser, said he had not seen "any intelligence that Russia is doing anything to attempt to get President Trump reelected".On Friday, the Post reported that Sanders, Trump and "lawmakers on Capitol Hill" had been briefed about "Russian assistance to the Vermont senator" this year, but said it was not clear what the effort involved.In a statement, Sanders said: "I don't care, frankly, who [Russian president Vladimir] Putin wants to be president. My message to Putin is clear: Stay out of American elections, and as president I will make sure that you do."In 2016, Russia used internet propaganda to sow division in our country, and my understanding is that they are doing it again in 2020. Some of the ugly stuff on the internet attributed to our campaign may well not be coming from real supporters."In Nevada, "ugly stuff" attributed to Sanders supporters has included abuse aimed at female leaders of the Culinary Workers Union, an influential presence in the state which opposes the Vermont senator's plan for Medicare for All healthcare reform.Nonetheless, Sanders seems set to win. On Saturday morning the realclearpolitics.com polling average for Nevada put the progressive star 16.5 points up on two moderates, Pete Buttigieg and Joe Biden.Nationally, Sanders leads the same site's average by 11.4 points, over Biden and the former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg, who is not competing in Nevada.Some suggest Trump wants to face Sanders at the polls, rather than Biden or Bloomberg.Rick Wilson, a former Republican consultant turned author and ardent Trump critic, recently told the Guardian that Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist who sits in the Senate as an independent, would be "the easiest person in the world to turn into the comic opera villain Republicans love to hate, the Castro sympathiser, the socialist, the Marxist, the guy who wants to put the aristos in the tumbril as they cart them off to the guillotine".The special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election did not establish a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Moscow but did lay out extensive contacts and numerous instances in which the president seemed to seek to obstruct the course of justice.Trump has claimed vindication but the investigation remains a running sore and at a campaign rally in Las Vegas on Friday, he duly took aim at his political opponents."I see these phoneys, the do-nothing Democrats," Trump said. "They said today that Putin wants to be sure that Trump gets elected. Here we go again. Here we go again. Did you see it? ... Now I just see it again. I was told that was happening, I was told a week ago. They said you know they're trying to start a rumor. It's disinformation."In tweets and retweets after the event, the president loosed off shots at another favourite target, the media.Referring to MSNBC as "MSDNC (Comcast Slime)", he said that network and CNN "and others of the Fake Media, have now added Crazy Bernie to the list of Russian Sympathizers, along with Tulsi Gabbard [and] Jill Stein (of the Green Party), both agents of Russia, they say."Gabbard, a Hawaii congresswoman still in the running for the Democratic nomination but not registering significantly in the polls, has sued Hillary Clinton for allegedly calling her a "Russian asset".Stein was the Green nominee for president in 2016, taking nearly 1.5m votes nationally (while the Libertarian Gary Johnson took more than 4m) in a contest Clinton won by nearly 3m. Trump took the White House in the electoral college.Clinton beat Trump by two points in Nevada, a key swing state again this year.On Twitter, Trump claimed the reason for media reports that "President Putin wants Bernie (or me) to win … is that the Do Nothing Democrats, using disinformation Hoax number 7, don't want Bernie Sanders to get the Democrat Nomination, and they figure this would be very bad for his chances."It's all rigged, again, against Crazy Bernie Sanders!"
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