Trump speech: Fox refuses to air official address as ex-president demands ‘reparations’ from China

Joe Biden turned to his old boss, Barack Obama, on Saturday to help him encourage Americans to sign up for “Obamacare” health care coverage during an expanded special enrollment period in the pandemic.

Mr Biden used his weekly address for a brief Zoom chat with Mr Obama to draw attention to the six-month expanded enrollment period that closes on 15 August.

Meanwhile the government released a report that claims that nearly 31 million Americans — a record — now have health coverage through the Affordable Care Act.

“We did this together,” said Mr Obama, whose administration established the health insurance marketplace. “We always talked about how, if we could get the principle of universal coverage established, we could then build on it.”

The White House effort to spotlight the expanded enrollment and claim strong numbers for the health law comes as the political world and the health care system await a Supreme Court ruling on the law's constitutionality. The Zoom call was recorded on Friday afternoon and released Saturday as Mr Biden's weekly address.

The Health and Human Services Department said in a report that nearly 31 million have obtained coverage in 2021 as a result of the law. That's considerably higher than the more than 20 million estimate that's commonly cited.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers made it official Saturday, announcing his bid for a second term in the battleground state where he stands as a Democratic check on the Republican-controlled state Legislature

Evers, 69, told The Associated Press in a Friday interview that he decided to run again because he has unfinished business and needs to remain able to stop Republicans through his veto powers, especially as they advocate for election law changes that would make it harder to vote absentee.

Here is the story:

Fox News and CNN were both reported to have declined to air Donald Trump’s speech on Saturday in North Carolina.

MSNBC was said to have shown some of the former president’s address, but a correspondent spoke over his remarks.

Mr Trump fell out with Fox News over their reporting during the election count following November’s presidential vote. However it was not immediately clear why the networks did not air his speech.

Hours after Trump amplified his “stolen election” myth and praised states that passed restrictive voting bills, Joe Manchin – a centrist whose vote is critical to passing a Democratic agenda in the Senate – said he will not support a sweeping voting rights and elections ethics bill coming up for a vote.

“I believe that partisan voting legislation will destroy the already weakening binds of our democracy, and for that reason, I will vote against the For the People Act,” the West Virginia Democrat said. “The truth, I would argue, is that voting and election reform that is done in a partisan manner will all but ensure partisan divisions continue to deepen.”

In stead, he is supporting a separate bill, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would update key provisions in the landmark civil rights law undermined by the Supreme Court in 2013.

MSNBC contributor Kimberly Atkins Stohr argues that the Republican Party is not necessarily being held hostage by Trump, who continues to command a base of support on the American right; The party has “adopted the views of that person”.

“This is a party not just of Trump but of Trumpism,” she told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday. “They believe that the big lie is advantageous to them politically, that trying to restrict voting is advantageous for them politically. ... The party has already made that decision and has become the party of Trumpism.”

In his remarks on 5 June, Trump called the 2020 presidential election “by far the most corrupt election in the history of our country” and a “hoax,” amplified the baseless conspiracy that “they” used “mail-in ballots to steal an election,” and claimed that an election that saw record turnout was “a third-world country election like we’ve never seen before.”

Then he said he’s trying to “save” democracy.

Along with fellow Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema, Joe Manchin has emerged in recent months as a major hurdle for Democrats eager to pass whatever parts of Biden’s agenda can be salvaged in the Senate, where the party is 10 votes shy of the threshold needed to pass most legislation.

The Independent’s Washington correspondent John Bowden has the latest:

In documents obtained by members of Congress and reviewed by The New York Times and CNN, Mark Meadows reportedly sent five emails in late December and early January to then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen to investigate election fraud claims in Georgia and New Mexicos.

He also pressed Mr Rosen to investigate several debunked allegations, including a “theory” that Italian officials in coordination with Barack Obama and the CIA used military technology to manipulate US voting machines, a claim that circulated among QAnon-linked conspiracy theorists as a pro-Trump mob fuelled by the “stolen election” narrative breached the US Capitol.

Here’s a look at how cable news outlets covered Trump’s remarks from North Carolina:

Following his op-ed opposing the For The People Act, Joe Manchin appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation to promote bipartisan support for renewing the Voting Rights Act – which appears just as doomed as the sweeping voting rights and ethics legislation that Mr Manchin opposes, with Republicans backing restrictive elections bills in GOP-dominated state legislatures that have sought to undermine the Democratic proposals awaiting approval in Congress.

Asked why Republicans would support legislation that would combat their attacks on voting rights, Mr Manchin said if lawmakers can’t “come to an agreement” on voting rights, “then God help us” – not appearing to acknowledge his own obstruction.

“I think the Republicans will fight for this,” he said.