At White House briefings on the coronavirus, health experts Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx are getting less attention as the administration shifts focus instead to corporate leaders touting their contributions to combating the coronavirus and restarting the economy. Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who generally stays out of range of television cameras, went on TV twice this week to declare that the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic was “a great success story.” When a reporter asked why it has taken so long to get testing underway, Kushner answered that the true question should be “how did we do this so quickly?” “What’s really happened, it’s really extraordinary,” he said
Fucking loser family. Everything they touch turns to shit. Everything. Ask Scotland
Fucking loser family. Everything they touch turns to shit. Everything. Ask Scotland
In America, we elect our lawmakers, and the winners are supposed to be supported by a majority of voters. Once elected, leaders from different parties are supposed to come to agreements about policy through informed debate. That system sometimes frustrates people who hold extreme views that they think should be at the heart of our laws. They can’t get what they want through the democratic process, because most people disagree with them. So they try to get their way by threats.
This is exactly what happened today in Michigan, where armed protesters stormed the statehouse. Legislators there were discussing whether to extend Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s stay-at-home orders past their expiration date at midnight tonight. To stop debate and get their way, men with guns paced the balcony above the lawmakers, some of whom had donned bullet-proof vests. Others, held back by the capitol police, tried to break into the legislative chamber.
Later in the day, Trump tried a more genteel version of the same intimidation. Republican leaders are angry that Democratic states have social welfare systems paid for by taxes, a system they insist hurts the country by redistributing wealth from those at the top of society—the “makers,” who are the ones that truly understand how an economy functions best—to the “takers,” who simply fritter money away. Until the coronavirus, there was little Republicans at the national level could do to bring Democratic state governments like those of New York, Massachusetts, and California to heel.
Now, though, states are reeling as the cratering economy has sapped the tax dollars that make up their main stream of revenue. They estimate they need $500 billion to tide them over until the economy picks back up. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has suggested they should be forced into bankruptcy, which would permit federal judges, many of whom share the same ideology as Republican leaders, to choose which parts of their debt the states would be able to honor. According to former George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum, they have made it clear that they would not accept any new taxes under such a reordering, and that the first things on the chopping block would be social welfare programs.
Today, Trump tried a new tactic. He told reporters that he would be willing to consider funding for the states—he defines them as “Democrat states”-- but “if we do that we’re going to have to get something for it.”
This is, of course, the same sort of quid pro quo (I hate that term: it just means “something for something, as in, “I do something for you; you do something for me.”) Trump demanded from Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. In that case, his effort to use the power of the federal government to force an ally to manufacture dirt on his opponent led to his impeachment for abuse of power.
The Senate acquitted him, but in a remarkably prescient moment, Stanford Law Professor Pamela Karlan said to the House Judiciary Committee: “Imagine living in a part of Louisiana or Texas that’s prone to devastating hurricanes and flooding. What would you think if you lived there and your governor asked for a meeting with the president to discuss getting disaster aid that Congress has provided for? What would you think if that president said, ‘I would like you do to us a favor?’…. Wouldn’t you know in your gut that such a president has abused his office? That he’d betrayed the national interest, and that he was trying to corrupt the electoral process?”
Indeed, Trump is willing to use any means he can to ensure his reelection as polling shows him underwater pretty much everywhere. Big in the news today is that he has asked intelligence agencies to assess whether the coronavirus began in an ill-managed Chinese lab, although scientists say the genetics of the virus indicate it began in bats.
Trump has blamed the World Health Organization for America’s dire straits, and now is blaming China (which certainly was too secretive about whether or not the disease could be transmitted from person to person). He insists he has seen evidence that the coronavirus originated in a Chinese lab—although US intelligence services deny it—and his administration is talking about demanding reparations from China, a move that can only be seen as propaganda for the upcoming election. (China would never consider such payments, and pushing the issue will likely hurt our ability to figure out how to combat the virus.)
The other big story today is Trump’s attacks on presumptive Democratic presidential nominee former Vice President Joe Biden, designed to inoculate Trump against similar attacks. Trump insists that Biden has mental impairments that make him unsuitable for the presidency, an echo of the many stories of Trump’s own mental impairment. Neither are young men, but Biden’s stuttering is well-known, and likely behind some of his problems speaking. This attack on Biden’s health is similar to the attacks the Trump campaign made on Hillary Clinton in 2016, arguing that she was too ill to serve as president.
Second, Trump and his supporters are hammering on Tara Reade’s accusations that Biden raped her. This accusation would inoculate Trump from the sixteen credible accusations made against him, and is harder for Democrats to address, especially as supporters of Vermont Independent Senator Bernie Sanders have joined in the chorus for Biden to resign in favor of their candidate.
Democrats are torn between their support for the #MeToo Movement in which myriad women related their experiences with sexual harassment and assault, and their concern that Reade’s vague accusation is related to the 2020 campaign, especially since her story has been inconsistent in ways that are unlike the usual inconsistencies in traumatized rape victims. There are a number of smart explications of the Reade accusation that I will link in the notes, most of which suggest there are serious problems with her account, but I thought the smartest approach to these accusations came from women’s health journalist Lindsay Beyerstein.
The problem with the way we approach cases of sexual assault, she says, is that we treat them as if they are uncommon. In fact, they are quite common, and women are as unlikely to lie about them as they are about any other common crime. We should start from a presumption that they are telling the truth, as you would if someone told you they had been mugged. But those claims of a common crime should still be evaluated if they are questioned. If I tell you I was mugged, and you say, “But you were with me the whole time and no one bothered us,” my claims need to be investigated. I am not entitled to be believed automatically.
The Biden camp has been quiet on the issue, determined not to let Trump shape the issues of the 2020 election as he did that of 2016, but as Trump continues to harp on it, it might well weaken support for Biden on the left.
Still, Trump’s narrative is not gaining the traction it might have before the pandemic. Today, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican, told reporters that he had the plane with 500,000 coronavirus tests his wife procured from South Korea land at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI), rather than Dulles international Airport in Virginia, to make sure the federal government would not seize the shipment. He went on to say the National Guard was protecting the tests at an undisclosed location out of fear that the federal government would swoop in to take them after all. Such a public accusation, based as it is in verifiable other cases of feds taking state shipments, suggest that Republicans so distrust the president they are willing to break with him.
Perhaps even more of a bellwether than Hogan was that one of South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham’s big donors has decided to support Graham’s challenger, Democrat Jaime Harrison, in the 2020 contest. The former chairman and president of Michelin in North America, Richard Wilkerson, said of Harrison on Tuesday that “I am confident that as our next U.S. Senator he will be a tireless advocate for creating well-paying jobs, improving our state’s healthcare system, and training the next generation for the jobs of tomorrow. Jaime is the perfect candidate to bring together South Carolinians from all walks of life. I am proud to endorse Jaime today, and I know first hand he is the change South Carolina needs.” While the Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan election observer, says that Graham has his victory locked up, Wilkerson’s public shift suggests that Wilkerson thinks the state might flip, and wants to be covered if it does.
A final note: on this date in 1789, George Washington was sworn in as American’s first president. He later wrote to a friend about the new system: “That the Government, though not absolutely perfect, is one of the best in the World, I have little doubt.”
-Heather Cox Richardson- 5/1
This is exactly what happened today in Michigan, where armed protesters stormed the statehouse. Legislators there were discussing whether to extend Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s stay-at-home orders past their expiration date at midnight tonight. To stop debate and get their way, men with guns paced the balcony above the lawmakers, some of whom had donned bullet-proof vests. Others, held back by the capitol police, tried to break into the legislative chamber.
Later in the day, Trump tried a more genteel version of the same intimidation. Republican leaders are angry that Democratic states have social welfare systems paid for by taxes, a system they insist hurts the country by redistributing wealth from those at the top of society—the “makers,” who are the ones that truly understand how an economy functions best—to the “takers,” who simply fritter money away. Until the coronavirus, there was little Republicans at the national level could do to bring Democratic state governments like those of New York, Massachusetts, and California to heel.
Now, though, states are reeling as the cratering economy has sapped the tax dollars that make up their main stream of revenue. They estimate they need $500 billion to tide them over until the economy picks back up. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has suggested they should be forced into bankruptcy, which would permit federal judges, many of whom share the same ideology as Republican leaders, to choose which parts of their debt the states would be able to honor. According to former George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum, they have made it clear that they would not accept any new taxes under such a reordering, and that the first things on the chopping block would be social welfare programs.
Today, Trump tried a new tactic. He told reporters that he would be willing to consider funding for the states—he defines them as “Democrat states”-- but “if we do that we’re going to have to get something for it.”
This is, of course, the same sort of quid pro quo (I hate that term: it just means “something for something, as in, “I do something for you; you do something for me.”) Trump demanded from Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. In that case, his effort to use the power of the federal government to force an ally to manufacture dirt on his opponent led to his impeachment for abuse of power.
The Senate acquitted him, but in a remarkably prescient moment, Stanford Law Professor Pamela Karlan said to the House Judiciary Committee: “Imagine living in a part of Louisiana or Texas that’s prone to devastating hurricanes and flooding. What would you think if you lived there and your governor asked for a meeting with the president to discuss getting disaster aid that Congress has provided for? What would you think if that president said, ‘I would like you do to us a favor?’…. Wouldn’t you know in your gut that such a president has abused his office? That he’d betrayed the national interest, and that he was trying to corrupt the electoral process?”
Indeed, Trump is willing to use any means he can to ensure his reelection as polling shows him underwater pretty much everywhere. Big in the news today is that he has asked intelligence agencies to assess whether the coronavirus began in an ill-managed Chinese lab, although scientists say the genetics of the virus indicate it began in bats.
Trump has blamed the World Health Organization for America’s dire straits, and now is blaming China (which certainly was too secretive about whether or not the disease could be transmitted from person to person). He insists he has seen evidence that the coronavirus originated in a Chinese lab—although US intelligence services deny it—and his administration is talking about demanding reparations from China, a move that can only be seen as propaganda for the upcoming election. (China would never consider such payments, and pushing the issue will likely hurt our ability to figure out how to combat the virus.)
The other big story today is Trump’s attacks on presumptive Democratic presidential nominee former Vice President Joe Biden, designed to inoculate Trump against similar attacks. Trump insists that Biden has mental impairments that make him unsuitable for the presidency, an echo of the many stories of Trump’s own mental impairment. Neither are young men, but Biden’s stuttering is well-known, and likely behind some of his problems speaking. This attack on Biden’s health is similar to the attacks the Trump campaign made on Hillary Clinton in 2016, arguing that she was too ill to serve as president.
Second, Trump and his supporters are hammering on Tara Reade’s accusations that Biden raped her. This accusation would inoculate Trump from the sixteen credible accusations made against him, and is harder for Democrats to address, especially as supporters of Vermont Independent Senator Bernie Sanders have joined in the chorus for Biden to resign in favor of their candidate.
Democrats are torn between their support for the #MeToo Movement in which myriad women related their experiences with sexual harassment and assault, and their concern that Reade’s vague accusation is related to the 2020 campaign, especially since her story has been inconsistent in ways that are unlike the usual inconsistencies in traumatized rape victims. There are a number of smart explications of the Reade accusation that I will link in the notes, most of which suggest there are serious problems with her account, but I thought the smartest approach to these accusations came from women’s health journalist Lindsay Beyerstein.
The problem with the way we approach cases of sexual assault, she says, is that we treat them as if they are uncommon. In fact, they are quite common, and women are as unlikely to lie about them as they are about any other common crime. We should start from a presumption that they are telling the truth, as you would if someone told you they had been mugged. But those claims of a common crime should still be evaluated if they are questioned. If I tell you I was mugged, and you say, “But you were with me the whole time and no one bothered us,” my claims need to be investigated. I am not entitled to be believed automatically.
The Biden camp has been quiet on the issue, determined not to let Trump shape the issues of the 2020 election as he did that of 2016, but as Trump continues to harp on it, it might well weaken support for Biden on the left.
Still, Trump’s narrative is not gaining the traction it might have before the pandemic. Today, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican, told reporters that he had the plane with 500,000 coronavirus tests his wife procured from South Korea land at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI), rather than Dulles international Airport in Virginia, to make sure the federal government would not seize the shipment. He went on to say the National Guard was protecting the tests at an undisclosed location out of fear that the federal government would swoop in to take them after all. Such a public accusation, based as it is in verifiable other cases of feds taking state shipments, suggest that Republicans so distrust the president they are willing to break with him.
Perhaps even more of a bellwether than Hogan was that one of South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham’s big donors has decided to support Graham’s challenger, Democrat Jaime Harrison, in the 2020 contest. The former chairman and president of Michelin in North America, Richard Wilkerson, said of Harrison on Tuesday that “I am confident that as our next U.S. Senator he will be a tireless advocate for creating well-paying jobs, improving our state’s healthcare system, and training the next generation for the jobs of tomorrow. Jaime is the perfect candidate to bring together South Carolinians from all walks of life. I am proud to endorse Jaime today, and I know first hand he is the change South Carolina needs.” While the Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan election observer, says that Graham has his victory locked up, Wilkerson’s public shift suggests that Wilkerson thinks the state might flip, and wants to be covered if it does.
A final note: on this date in 1789, George Washington was sworn in as American’s first president. He later wrote to a friend about the new system: “That the Government, though not absolutely perfect, is one of the best in the World, I have little doubt.”
-Heather Cox Richardson- 5/1
The United States is in the midst of a pandemic that has, so far, claimed more than 65,000 lives and infected more than 1 million people.
We have officially lost more people in four months than we did in the entire eight years of the Vietnam War, and there is good reason to believe the official counts are low. This is a disaster of unimaginable proportions.
More. Than. 65,000. Americans. Have. Died. In. An. Epidemic. That. Was. Largely. Preventable.
And yet, news media is beginning to turn to other topics. After suffering ridicule last week for suggesting that doctors should investigate whether injecting disinfectants into patients could kill coronavirus, the president decided this week to drive the news cycle away from the pandemic. It is working beautifully.
Although officially the White House has released guidelines for reopening states that suggest none is yet ready, Trump has encouraged states to go ahead and end their stay-at-home orders. Some have already begun, and more than 30 states will begin to ease social distancing restrictions this weekend, although by large majorities, Americans want restrictions to stay in place until the spread of the virus has slowed.
Right-wing political groups have organized protests of governors who are not opening the states fast enough for their liking. It is, of course, possible to save both lives and the economy with social welfare legislation, as other developed nations have done, but that strikes to the heart of their ideology.
Yesterday, armed men stormed the Michigan statehouse to protest restrictions imposed by Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer. They shouted “Lock her up!” while the Republican legislature offered by email to cut her a deal. “The following is what we propose:,” Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey’s chief of staff wrote, “two one-week extensions in exchange for a public agreement that all future stay-at-home-type orders (and only those) be enacted through bipartisan legislation and the democratic process rather than executive order.”
Whitmer replied: “While I welcome partnership, information sharing and robust discussion with the legislature, I cannot abrogate my duty to act in an emergency to protect the lives of Michiganders…. We are in the midst of a global pandemic that has already killed 3,670 people and COVID 19 numbers continue to climb in parts of our state. Michigan remains in a state of emergency regardless of the actions you decide to take or not take.” With 40,399 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Michigan and at least 3,670 dead, Whitmer said, “This is not a political problem, it’s a public health crisis…. We’ve already lost over 3,700 Michiganders — that’s more than we lost in Vietnam.”
Whitmer extended the state’s state of emergency orders. Today, Trump tweeted: “The Governor of Michigan should give a little, and put out the fire. These are very good people, but they are angry. They want their lives back again, safely! See them, talk to them, make a deal.” In Orange County, California, where local health officials announced a new spike in cases, thousands gathered in Huntington Beach to flout Governor Gavin Newsom’s closure of all beaches and parks in the county.
Infectious disease specialists warn that reopening the country is a “big mistake” that will “cost lives.” Juliette Kayyem, CNN’s national security analyst, said today: “There will be more dead people. Just say it. It’s an experiment we’re living in real time.” Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the administration’s leading infectious disease specialists, warned that reopening was “a really significant risk.” Trump today revised estimates of dead upward, saying “hopefully” we will lose fewer than 100,000 people.
Indeed, infections are increasing in the reopening states. Today, Iowa reopened 77 counties on the same day the governor reported 740 new infections, a one-day high, and warned that a backlog on test data would likely mean higher numbers over the weekend. She then began to talk of reopening of churches. In Georgia, where Governor Brian Kemp was among the first to reopen his state, there were 618 new cases Thursday, and 1,228 new cases Friday.
The Governor of New Mexico, Michelle Lujan Grisham, has locked down the city of Gallup at the request of its mayor, restricting business hours and ordering residents to shelter in place except for health, safety, or medical emergency. “The spread of [Covid-19] in McKinley County is frightful,” she tweeted. “Physical distancing has not occurred & is not occurring. Stricter measures are necessary to stop the virus. A problem in one part of our state, with a virus this dangerous & contagious, is a problem for our entire state.” A twitter user responded: “Good luck, fascist.”
News photos from the White House indicate a nation gone back to normal. This week Vice President Mike Pence refused to don a mask when he visited the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, despite being alerted to the hospital’s policy that all visitors must wear masks, sending a clear signal that coronavirus safety rules are optional. In explanation, he said: “As vice president of the United States, I'm tested for the coronavirus on a regular basis, and everyone who is around me is tested for the coronavirus." Indeed, Pence, Trump, and their aides all get tested regularly, and anyone coming to meet them has to have an on-site rapid test that yields results in 15 minutes.
We all need such widespread testing to reach the sort of confidence in returning to our normal lives administration officials enjoy. But tests remain out of reach. The White House promised 27 million test kits by the end of March; by that point we had a million. As of today, the US has completed about 6.5 million tests. There are not even enough tests for the country’s 100 Senators when they go back to work on Monday approving Trump’s judges. (Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told radio host Hugh Hewitt: “Of course we will go back to judges…. My motto for the rest of the years is to leave no vacancy behind.”)
On April 19, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican, told CNN’s Jake Tapper “Every governor in America has been pushing and fighting and clawing to get more tests.” And yet, when he secured tests for Maryland himself, through the help of his Korean-born wife Yumi Hogan, Trump was furious. Remembering Trump’s initial refusal to let passengers from a cruise ship land in America because “I like the numbers being where they are,” reporter for Politico Dan Diamond told NPR’s Terry Gross that Trump doesn’t want aggressive testing because he’s “made clear the lower the numbers on coronavirus… the better for his potential reelection this fall.” Similar political concerns were likely at work in Florida, where Governor Ron DeSantis’s administration today finally released information about deaths at long-term care facilities only to have observers quickly note the numbers were lower than previous numbers already public. “Questions received,” a spokesperson told a reporter. “We are looking into this.”
In the White House, anyway, it appears all eyes are on reelection. The president yesterday claimed “a high degree of confidence” that a Chinese lab created the coronavirus—an accusation that the chair of the House Intelligence Committee Adam Schiff (D-CA) quickly contradicted. Today the White House has blocked Dr. Fauci, who has been critical of reopenings, from testifying before the House. White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere said: "While the Trump Administration continues its whole-of-government response to COVID-19, including safely opening up America again and expediting vaccine development, it is counter-productive to have the very individuals involved in those efforts appearing at Congressional hearings…. We are committed to working with Congress to offer testimony at the appropriate time.”
Tonight, in a spectacular Friday night news dump, Trump moved to get rid of Christi A. Grimm, the inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services who had documented the lack of supplies and testing delays during the coronavirus pandemic. Trump intends to replace her with a loyalist.
Antietam, bloodiest day of Civil War: 2100 Americans dead. Battle of the Bulge, the bloodiest single battle the US fought in WWII: 19,000 Americans dead. Vietnam War: 58,000 Americans dead. September 11: 2,977 Americans dead.
Coronavirus 2020: 65,000 Americans dead… so far.
-Heather Cox Richardson -5/1
Damn. She literally is lapping a lot of people here.
We have officially lost more people in four months than we did in the entire eight years of the Vietnam War, and there is good reason to believe the official counts are low. This is a disaster of unimaginable proportions.
More. Than. 65,000. Americans. Have. Died. In. An. Epidemic. That. Was. Largely. Preventable.
And yet, news media is beginning to turn to other topics. After suffering ridicule last week for suggesting that doctors should investigate whether injecting disinfectants into patients could kill coronavirus, the president decided this week to drive the news cycle away from the pandemic. It is working beautifully.
Although officially the White House has released guidelines for reopening states that suggest none is yet ready, Trump has encouraged states to go ahead and end their stay-at-home orders. Some have already begun, and more than 30 states will begin to ease social distancing restrictions this weekend, although by large majorities, Americans want restrictions to stay in place until the spread of the virus has slowed.
Right-wing political groups have organized protests of governors who are not opening the states fast enough for their liking. It is, of course, possible to save both lives and the economy with social welfare legislation, as other developed nations have done, but that strikes to the heart of their ideology.
Yesterday, armed men stormed the Michigan statehouse to protest restrictions imposed by Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer. They shouted “Lock her up!” while the Republican legislature offered by email to cut her a deal. “The following is what we propose:,” Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey’s chief of staff wrote, “two one-week extensions in exchange for a public agreement that all future stay-at-home-type orders (and only those) be enacted through bipartisan legislation and the democratic process rather than executive order.”
Whitmer replied: “While I welcome partnership, information sharing and robust discussion with the legislature, I cannot abrogate my duty to act in an emergency to protect the lives of Michiganders…. We are in the midst of a global pandemic that has already killed 3,670 people and COVID 19 numbers continue to climb in parts of our state. Michigan remains in a state of emergency regardless of the actions you decide to take or not take.” With 40,399 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Michigan and at least 3,670 dead, Whitmer said, “This is not a political problem, it’s a public health crisis…. We’ve already lost over 3,700 Michiganders — that’s more than we lost in Vietnam.”
Whitmer extended the state’s state of emergency orders. Today, Trump tweeted: “The Governor of Michigan should give a little, and put out the fire. These are very good people, but they are angry. They want their lives back again, safely! See them, talk to them, make a deal.” In Orange County, California, where local health officials announced a new spike in cases, thousands gathered in Huntington Beach to flout Governor Gavin Newsom’s closure of all beaches and parks in the county.
Infectious disease specialists warn that reopening the country is a “big mistake” that will “cost lives.” Juliette Kayyem, CNN’s national security analyst, said today: “There will be more dead people. Just say it. It’s an experiment we’re living in real time.” Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the administration’s leading infectious disease specialists, warned that reopening was “a really significant risk.” Trump today revised estimates of dead upward, saying “hopefully” we will lose fewer than 100,000 people.
Indeed, infections are increasing in the reopening states. Today, Iowa reopened 77 counties on the same day the governor reported 740 new infections, a one-day high, and warned that a backlog on test data would likely mean higher numbers over the weekend. She then began to talk of reopening of churches. In Georgia, where Governor Brian Kemp was among the first to reopen his state, there were 618 new cases Thursday, and 1,228 new cases Friday.
The Governor of New Mexico, Michelle Lujan Grisham, has locked down the city of Gallup at the request of its mayor, restricting business hours and ordering residents to shelter in place except for health, safety, or medical emergency. “The spread of [Covid-19] in McKinley County is frightful,” she tweeted. “Physical distancing has not occurred & is not occurring. Stricter measures are necessary to stop the virus. A problem in one part of our state, with a virus this dangerous & contagious, is a problem for our entire state.” A twitter user responded: “Good luck, fascist.”
News photos from the White House indicate a nation gone back to normal. This week Vice President Mike Pence refused to don a mask when he visited the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, despite being alerted to the hospital’s policy that all visitors must wear masks, sending a clear signal that coronavirus safety rules are optional. In explanation, he said: “As vice president of the United States, I'm tested for the coronavirus on a regular basis, and everyone who is around me is tested for the coronavirus." Indeed, Pence, Trump, and their aides all get tested regularly, and anyone coming to meet them has to have an on-site rapid test that yields results in 15 minutes.
We all need such widespread testing to reach the sort of confidence in returning to our normal lives administration officials enjoy. But tests remain out of reach. The White House promised 27 million test kits by the end of March; by that point we had a million. As of today, the US has completed about 6.5 million tests. There are not even enough tests for the country’s 100 Senators when they go back to work on Monday approving Trump’s judges. (Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told radio host Hugh Hewitt: “Of course we will go back to judges…. My motto for the rest of the years is to leave no vacancy behind.”)
On April 19, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican, told CNN’s Jake Tapper “Every governor in America has been pushing and fighting and clawing to get more tests.” And yet, when he secured tests for Maryland himself, through the help of his Korean-born wife Yumi Hogan, Trump was furious. Remembering Trump’s initial refusal to let passengers from a cruise ship land in America because “I like the numbers being where they are,” reporter for Politico Dan Diamond told NPR’s Terry Gross that Trump doesn’t want aggressive testing because he’s “made clear the lower the numbers on coronavirus… the better for his potential reelection this fall.” Similar political concerns were likely at work in Florida, where Governor Ron DeSantis’s administration today finally released information about deaths at long-term care facilities only to have observers quickly note the numbers were lower than previous numbers already public. “Questions received,” a spokesperson told a reporter. “We are looking into this.”
In the White House, anyway, it appears all eyes are on reelection. The president yesterday claimed “a high degree of confidence” that a Chinese lab created the coronavirus—an accusation that the chair of the House Intelligence Committee Adam Schiff (D-CA) quickly contradicted. Today the White House has blocked Dr. Fauci, who has been critical of reopenings, from testifying before the House. White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere said: "While the Trump Administration continues its whole-of-government response to COVID-19, including safely opening up America again and expediting vaccine development, it is counter-productive to have the very individuals involved in those efforts appearing at Congressional hearings…. We are committed to working with Congress to offer testimony at the appropriate time.”
Tonight, in a spectacular Friday night news dump, Trump moved to get rid of Christi A. Grimm, the inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services who had documented the lack of supplies and testing delays during the coronavirus pandemic. Trump intends to replace her with a loyalist.
Antietam, bloodiest day of Civil War: 2100 Americans dead. Battle of the Bulge, the bloodiest single battle the US fought in WWII: 19,000 Americans dead. Vietnam War: 58,000 Americans dead. September 11: 2,977 Americans dead.
Coronavirus 2020: 65,000 Americans dead… so far.
-Heather Cox Richardson -5/1
Damn. She literally is lapping a lot of people here.
Real world facts haha.
"Right-wing political groups have organized protests of governors who are not opening the states fast enough for their liking. It is, of course, possible to save both lives and the economy with social welfare legislation, as other developed nations have done, but that strikes to the heart of their ideology."
"Right-wing political groups have organized protests of governors who are not opening the states fast enough for their liking. It is, of course, possible to save both lives and the economy with social welfare legislation, as other developed nations have done, but that strikes to the heart of their ideology."
Every author has to write to get out the information. Not many are historians like she is who can put context around history.
Historian. Author. Professor. Budding Curmudgeon. I study the contrast between image and reality in America, especially in politics.
I’m sorry, but it doesn’t really matter what you say. Very well educated. She studies the contrast between image and reality in America.
Image vs reality.
You guys cry all day this is doom and gloom and shit. This is realism
We had someone come in here and say it was the best piece of non biased reporting they have seen in a long time.
I would have to agree. Seems like you right wing extremists have a problem with a historian putting context around factual events.
You want lies. This isn’t the thread for lies. These are the facts and how it is.
There is a reason this lady gets 800 comment responses in 11 minutes of posting her write ups.
Let's take this section for example. Nothing but an opinion. If you can't tell the difference between this being a fact vs. opinion, you are lost and nobody can help you.
"We all need such widespread testing to reach the sort of confidence in returning to our normal lives administration officials enjoy. But tests remain out of reach. The White House promised 27 million test kits by the end of March; by that point we had a million. As of today, the US has completed about 6.5 million tests. There are not even enough tests for the country’s 100 Senators when they go back to work on Monday approving Trump’s judges. (Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told radio host Hugh Hewitt: “Of course we will go back to judges…. My motto for the rest of the years is to leave no vacancy behind.”)"
face)(*^% Where is Patsfans at? Lmaoooo
We need ample testing you moron. Everyone who knows anything about this situation and how to conquer it is talking about TESTING. Honestly, if you aren’t talking about testing you aren’t talking about shit. I don’t even give a fuck what someone has to say if they aren’t mentioning testing.
How do you possibly think we will be able to play sports?
Ample testing. Sectoring teams off into groups of five and if that group comes down with it you X them out and move on.
We need ample testing you moron. Everyone who knows anything about this situation and how to conquer it is talking about TESTING. Honestly, if you aren’t talking about testing you aren’t talking about shit. I don’t even give a fuck what someone has to say if they aren’t mentioning testing.
How do you possibly think we will be able to play sports?
Ample testing. Sectoring teams off into groups of five and if that group comes down with it you X them out and move on.
