Welcome to Liberty Nation’s Daily Snapshot. All the top news of the day, the latest polls, and more.
What’s happening in the political sphere – the hot stories making the news today.
- The decision by the Department of Justice to abandon the case against Michael Flynn is another blow to Democrats’ hope of preserving the crumbling credibility of the investigation into alleged collusion between President Trump and the Russians. Desperate to maintain the illusion that, somehow, Trump rigged the 2016 election with Vladimir Putin’s help, two Democratic senators have penned a letter to the DOJ, demanding an immediate investigation into the demise of the Flynn prosecution.
- Republicans in the House of Representatives have introduced legislation to repeal the Logan Act, which the FBI in 2017 used as a last, desperate pretext for continuing to target Michael Flynn. The 1799 act was, in broad terms, intended to prevent American citizens from conducting unauthorized negotiations with foreign powers, potentially undermining – or even working against – official U.S. foreign policy. Nobody has ever been prosecuted under the act.
- FBI Director Christopher Wray is coming under increasing pressure from congressional Republicans to hand over documents related to the Justice Department inspector general’s review of possible abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Wray appears to be more concerned with protecting the Bureau from scrutiny than rooting out the culture of corruption at the highest levels that took hold during the Comey years.
The latest polls and trends impacting the United States.
- If a Coronavirus vaccine is produced and deemed safe and effective, 25% of U.S. adults say they are either “not so likely” or “not likely at all” to get it. 74% said they were somewhat or very likely to get inoculated against the virus.
- About two-thirds of Americans believe that the reported COVID-19 death toll is not an accurate reflection of reality. Whether they believe that the official number is too high or too low depends on their politics, though. 63% of Democrats think the number of deaths from the virus is higher than reported, while about 40% of Republicans believe the real tally is lower.
- The latest RealClearPolitics poll average gives Joe Biden a 46.8 to 42.4 lead over President Donald Trump. The betting odds, however, are still in Trump’s favor. He leads the former vice president in the race for, you know, the thing, by 50.3 to 41.6.
Something political to ponder as you enjoy your morning coffee.
There’s no debating that the establishment media has been lobbying hard for the COVID-19 restrictions to remain in force for a while longer – if not indefinitely. From the conservative perspective, it appears evident that their aim is simple; encourage the continuation of measures that are throttling Trump’s economy and, thus, damage the president’s chances of re-election. Is this really the case, though? Print newspapers are, for better or worse, heading toward extinction. The head honchos at CNN and MSNBC are obviously not unaware of the fact that their combined daily viewers could easily be corralled in a large barn. Perhaps the media elites, then, are thinking about how the stay-at-home orders are providing them, literally, with a captive audience. Maybe the media’s efforts to terrify Americans into not leaving their homes have less to do with the health of the general population and more to do with the survival of a struggling industry – print and TV news.
A thought for the day from history’s most interesting thinkers.
Being president is like being a jackass in a hailstorm. There’s nothing to do but to stand there and take it.
– Lyndon B. Johnson
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