USA Election

USA: Racist texts target black students, FBI Investigates

Racist text messages invoking slavery have raised alarms across the country this week after being sent to Black men, women, and students—including middle schoolers—prompting investigations by the FBI and other agencies. The anonymous messages, reported in multiple states including New York, Alabama, California, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee, generally shared a similar tone but varied in their wording. Some directed recipients to show up at a specific address with their belongings, while others did not include a location. Several of the messages also referenced the incoming presidential administration. It remains unclear who is behind the messages, and there is no comprehensive list of all the areas where they were sent, though high school and college students were among the recipients. The FBI has said it is coordinating with the Department of Justice on the matter, while the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced it is investigating the texts “alongside federal and state law enforcement.” The Ohio Attorney General’s office also confirmed it is looking into the issue. Fisk University, a historically Black university in Nashville, Tennessee, released a statement condemning the messages, which targeted some of its students, calling them “deeply unsettling.” The university urged students to remain calm, suggesting that the messages were likely the work of bots or malicious actors with “no real intentions or credibility.” In Missouri, Nimrod Chapel, president of the NAACP’s state chapter, reported that Black students in the organization’s Missouri State University chapter received messages citing Donald Trump’s 2020 election win, with some texts singling out students by name and making offensive references to slavery, including a message that told them they were “selected to pick cotton” the following Tuesday. Chapel stated that local police in Springfield, Missouri, where the university is located, have been notified and are investigating.

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Trump wins 2 key battleground states as vote counting continues

Republican nominee and former President Donald Trump won two key battleground states with vote counting underway and Democratic candidate and Vice President Kamala Harris hoping for a longshot victory early Wednesday morning. Trump is currently leading Harris in the race to reach 270 Electoral College votes 247-210 after he notched pivotal wins in Georgia and North Carolina, according to The Associated Press. Harris’ path to the White House has now become increasingly precarious with Trump expected to address supporters in the early morning hours. Either candidate needs to win 270 Electoral College votes to claim victory. Delegates are allocated to states based on their population, and most states give all of their representatives to whichever candidate wins the state in the general vote. The winner-take-all model is not followed in Nebraska and Maine, however, which instead allocate their votes based on the outcome in congressional districts, as well as the state’s popular vote winner. Polls have officially closed across all US states with vote counting underway, including in the five remaining swing states — Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Both candidates spent the final week before the election campaigning hard in swing states, with Harris visiting Pennsylvania for a series of rallies in multiple cities Monday. Trump spent the day there before a late-night rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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US heightens security measures for election safety

 US officials have implemented extensive security measures at polling and counting centers nationwide in a bid to ensure secure voting in Tuesday’s elections. Authorities have deployed surveillance drones around key sites, positioned snipers on rooftops, and installed security cameras surrounding voting locations, according to a Washington Post article. To further tighten security, additional police units have been dispatched to streets across the country. In Washington and Nevada, National Guard units are on standby to respond to any potential unrest. Voting booths are now equipped with “panic buttons,” adding an extra layer of protection for voters and staff. This increased vigilance comes after the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol, where far-right groups and supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed the building to contest the certification of the 2020 election results. The incident led to the deaths of five people, including a police officer. Trump faced impeachment charges for incitement of insurrection but was acquitted in the Senate in February 2021. On Tuesday, Americans will head to the ballot box to vote not only for the next US president, but also for Congress, state governors, and local government officials.

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Harris endorsement doesn’t seal Democratic nomination. What’s next...

When US President Joe Biden abruptly announced Sunday afternoon that he would be ending his bid to secure a second term in office, many were caught flat-footed. That included not only many voters around the nation, but White House staffers, senior Democrats and the Democratic National Committee, all of whom are now in what Biden’s former boss, ex-President Barack Obama, described as “uncharted waters.” Biden had long been unwavering in his determination to challenge Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump in November despite mounting Democratic calls for him to step aside after he badly flubbed a high-stakes debate with Trump in June. The performance heightened already significant concerns about Biden’s mental acumen and his ability to defeat Trump at the ballot box as many Democrats consider this year’s election a make-or-break contest for the soul of American democracy. Even as the chorus grew, Biden’s insistence that he would be the party’s nominee was echoed by many in his inner circle who continued to insist in the days and even minutes running up to his surprise announcement that Biden would be the party’s nominee. Andy Bates, a senior spokesperson in the president’s press shop, denied a report Friday that Biden’s family was discussing a potential end to the re-election campaign. “Wrong. Keep the faith,” Bates said on X in response to the NBC News article. That sentiment continued to be run publicly by many senior Democrats and the Biden campaign, which just 45 minutes before the president posted a note to X announcing that he would be stepping aside solicited campaign donations from Democrats. – Endorsement of Kamala Harris does not cement her role as Democratic nominee In announcing his decision to end his re-election bid, Biden threw his weight behind Vice President Kamala Harris, offering her his “full support and endorsement” ahead of next month’s nominating convention. That does not make her the Democratic nominee, however. The party’s blessing will only come with the support of the majority of Democratic delegates during the Aug. 19-22 Democratic National Convention (DNC), and it is unclear who will be competing for the nomination outside of Harris, much less when and how candidates will seek to garner delegates’ support. Committee Chair Jaime Harrison has maintained that there is no automatic successor to Biden, emphasizing that the party would pursue what he described as an “orderly process” to select a nominee. “The work that we must do now, while unprecedented, is clear. In the coming days, the Party will undertake a transparent and orderly process to move forward as a united Democratic Party with a candidate who can defeat Donald Trump in November. This process will be governed by established rules and procedures of the Party. Our delegates are prepared to take seriously their responsibility in swiftly delivering a candidate to the American people,” Harrison said in a statement. “In short order, the American people will hear from the Democratic Party on next steps and the path forward for the nomination process,” he added. Those “next steps” remain a mystery to many, not least of which are senior DNC officials, who are all in the same boat with just four weeks until the convention begins. While it is possible that individual delegates will cast their ballots in Chicago during what would be known as an open convention, the prospect has been raised that the decision could be made well before that during a previously floated virtual roll call to meet Ohio’s ballot eligibility requirements. The party had planned as recently as Friday to nominate Biden virtually at some point between Aug. 1-7 in order to ensure that the Democratic nominee met a key deadline and was on Ohio’s ballot. It is unclear if Democrats will attempt to choose their nominee via a virtual vote to ensure they conform to a deadline whose standing is now unclear for several reasons, or if the matter will be deferred for an open convention that is not slated to begin until more than a week and a half later. A convention is considered “open” when no candidate has the majority of the delegates’ support. That has not happened in decades. All of the delegates that Biden secured during the Democratic primary are now free to throw their support behind a candidate of their choosing. While the president may have sought to influence many with his endorsement of Harris, they are not obligated to support her. A later open convention would allow prospective candidates a bit more time to court delegates ahead of the convention. Amid the uncertainty, all eyes are slated to be fixed on this week’s expected meeting of the DNC’s rules committee. – Democrats face wild field for potential nominee with just 4 weeks until convention California Gov. Gavin Newsom, thought to be one of the leading Democrats for the nomination, dismissed any speculation that he would compete for the role, announcing his endorsement of Harris on Sunday night. “With our democracy at stake and our future on the line, no one is better to prosecute the case against Donald Trump’s dark vision and guide our country in a healthier direction than America’s Vice President, @KamalaHarris,” Newsom wrote on X. Other top-tier potential candidates have kept their cards close to their chest, not indicating one way or another how they will proceed. That includes billionaire Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, and California Representative Ro Khanna. Whoever wins the nomination will need the support of the majority of the Democrats’ roughly 3,900 pledged delegates. An additional group of about 700 superdelegates do not participate in a first roll call vote. They can take part in later rounds of balloting if no candidate secures a majority on the first vote. A lack of a clear nominee after a first-round vote would set up what would be known as a brokered convention, allowing the superdelegates to take part in successive balloting until one candidate emerges with a clear majority.

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