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TODAY'S HEADLINES:

The Trump campaign is grasping at straws. This weekend alone, it’s used Dr. Anthony Fauci’s words out of context in a campaign ad and pushed to resume the canceled October 15 debate after claiming the President is miraculously COVID-free.

Meanwhile, a strange shooting at a Denver protest leads the far-right to jump to conclusions about the shooter -- even as it turned out he was a private security guard, not a protester.

And lastly, confirmation hearings for Trump’s Supreme Court Nominee Amy Coney Barrett begin today. Barrett’s first up against the Senate Judiciary Committe, where VP candidate Kamala Harris will get her chance to rake Barrett over the coals.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Let’s check in with the Trump campaign. It is Monday, October 11, and will you look at that: they’re lying again.

This time, it’s in a campaign ad, where the Trump team used a quote from Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s foremost infectious disease expert, where he says quote: “I can’t imagine that anybody could be doing more.” Endquote. Fauci’s words are framed as if he’s talking about Trump’s response, as the ad sets Trump up as this hero who defeated COVID both personally and throughout the country.

But that’s clearly not how the original quote first appeared. The full quote, as the Washington Post noted, does not refer to Trump. Instead, it refers to the White House’s task force, and specifically to Dr. Fauci and a few of his colleagues’ own work load.

The campaign ad is just one little drop of misinformation after a weekend of lies. On Sunday, Trump also claimed that his doctors had pronounced him healthy and quote “immune” to the virus, as well as not contagious. The President’s personal physician issued a statement that said Trump isn’t contagious, but who knows how far we can trust them.

That claim was so outlandish that even notoriously permissive Twitter stuck it behind a misinformation banner, but the Trump administration is still using it to push for a resumption of the in-person October 15 debate with Biden.

The event was canceled last week, as Biden understandably didn’t want to be in a room with Typhoid Trump, and Trump refused to do the event virtually. Doesn’t seem like a smart move for Biden to back down now, but we’ll see what this week holds.

Deadly Shooting in Denver

Dueling Far-right and black lives matter demonstrations in Denver this weekend saw more violence, as a security guard shot and killed one protester who many assume was part of the right-wing camp.

Immediately after the incident, however, the right wing fever swamp kicked into high gear, claiming the shooter had ties to antifa movements. Tim Pool and other assorted alt-right social media dweebs initially blasted out the news that the shooter was connected to antifa, and then walked it back as facts started to come out.

What we know so far is still a bit unclear. The shooter is 30-year-old Matthew Dolloff, who was contracted as a security guard by a local news station, 9news. 9news says they hired him from the Pinkerton agency, which, yep, still exists. However, reps from the city of Denver say Dolloff has never held the requisite license to perform armed security work in the city.

In other words, it’s a chaotic, bad situation all round. The victim has not been identified, although video of the scene shows the victim in a confrontation with another protester wearing a Black Guns Matter shirt, and later spraying mace toward another armed individual before being shot by someone -- allegedly Dolloff -- off camera.

But what the early reaction to this shows is that any violence, particularly deadly shootings, that’s connected to protests is going to be immediately weaponized to fit someone’s narrative. And the faster those jumped-up conclusion spreads, the more certain we can be that the violence will continue.

Harris vs ACB, Round One

Despite, well, some effort by the Democrats to delay, confirmation hearings for Trump’s Supreme Court candidate Amy Coney Barrett begin tomorrow.

Barret will first go up against the Senate Judiciary Committee, the body in charge of pre-vetting judicial nominees before they go to a full confirmation vote. The hearings start at 9am with Lindsey Graham, the ranking GOP member, and Dianne Feinstein, the ranking Democrat, stating their cases.

But what may surely take center stage is Kamala Harris’s involvement. Harris announced that she would attend the hearings remotely from her office, rather than going into the room herself, as the GOP has flagrantly refused to comply with the Democrats asks that they submit to basic Coronavirus protocols.

Still, it’ll be a chance for the potential next VP to go head to head with Trump’s best shot at completely controlling the supreme court for years after he’s out of power.

Two GOP members of the Judiciary Committe are still locked down with COVID diagnoses, as is one other Senator, so the votes still aren’t quite there for Majority leader Mitch McConnell. But if Trump’s quick Quote “recovery” is any indication, the GOP won’t let a pesky deadly disease keep them from doing as much fascism as possible in the time they have left.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

According to an Axios report on Sunday night, the Biden camp is considering New York Governor Andrew Cuomo for Attorney General if they win the election. On the bright side, he won’t be able to botch New York’s pandemic response again, but he will be able to go soft and mushy on any white collar crime he encounters! Can’t wait for everything to be back to normal.

Jamie Harrison, the Democrat challenging long-time GOP ghoul Lindsay Graham, blew Senate fundraising records out of the water, raising a staggering $57 million in the third quarter of 2020. That’s a good thing for the Democrats as much as it is a depressing sign of how much big money rules our political system.

A new report by the Intercept shows that federal agents in Portland used smoke grenades containing hexachloroethane [hexa chloro ethane] during protests this summer. The chemical reportedly is highly toxic, and can cause nausea, vomiting, central nervous system depression, and kidney and liver damage.

The White House is still flailing about in regards to a new stimulus bill, pivoting once again on Sunday evening to try to push Congress for immediate action on a narrow measure that would take unused funding from the PPP program and divert it to small businesses, as the country may be catching on that it’s Trump and the GOP who are willfully destroying them in the name of politics.

That’s all for the Majority Report’s AM Quickie today. Stay tuned for the full show with Sam this afternoon.

Oct 12, 2020 - AM Quickie

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Jack Crosbie

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn