The Commentariat -- May 21, 2020

Afternoon Update:

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Thursday are here. The Washington Post's live updates for Thursday are here.

MOOM Goes Maskless. Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump on Thursday did not wear a mask during a tour of a Ford factory in Michigan being used to produce ventilators, despite the company's policy requiring everyone to wear personal protective equipment to prevent the spread of coronavirus. The president walked around the factory floor without a face covering, even as Ford executives who joined him wore masks."

Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Do As We Say, Not As We Do. Tommy Christopher of Mediaite: "The denizens of Fox & Friends urged New York businesses to reopen en masse despite lockdown orders and a still-deadly coronavirus pandemic, but they did so from the safety of their own homes and secure locations. On Thursday morning, the trio of regular hosts were joined by legal analyst Andrew Napolitano to discuss Thursday's New York Post cover, which features a photograph of the city's skyline and a giant headline that blares 'IT NEEDS TO END. NOW.'"

David Sanger of the New York Times: "President Trump has decided to withdraw from another major arms control accord, according to senior administration officials, and will inform Russia on Friday that the United States is pulling out of the Open Skies Treaty, negotiated three decades ago to allow nations to fly over each other's territory with elaborate sensor equipment to assure that they are not preparing for military action. Mr. Trump's decision may be viewed as more evidence that he is preparing to exit the one major arms treaty remaining with Russia: New START, which limits the United States and Russia to 1,550 deployed nuclear missiles each. It expires in February, weeks after the next presidential inauguration, and Mr. Trump has insisted that China must join what is now a U.S.-Russia limit on nuclear arsenals." A Hill summary report is here.

Martin Matishak of Politico: "The Senate on Thursday confirmed Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas) as ... Donald Trump's top intelligence official, in a move aimed at ending nine months of reshuffling at the top of the nation's spying establishment. Lawmakers voted 49-44 in a party-line vote to confirm Ratcliffe as the sixth director of national intelligence since the office was created in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.... Trump had originally picked Ratcliffe for the job in July, after the Texas Republican had put on an aggressive public display in his grilling of former special counsel Robert Mueller. But ... [Ratcliffe] soon withdrew his name amid questions about whether he had inflated his resume."

Keith Bradsher, et al., of the New York Times: "China is moving to impose new national security laws that would give the Communist Party more control over Hong Kong, threatening to erode the freedoms that distinguish the global, commercial city from the rest of the country. The proposal, announced on Thursday, reignited the fear, anger and protests over the creeping influence of China's authoritarian government in the semiautonomous region. It also inflamed worries that Beijing is trying to dismantle the distinct political and cultural identity that has defined the former British colony since it was reclaimed by China in 1997."

Kate Taylor & Sarah Mervosh of the New York Times: "The actress Lori Loughlin and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, a fashion designer, have agreed to plead guilty to charges that they conspired to get their daughters admitted to the University of Southern California as crew recruits, prosecutors announced on Thursday, a reversal for the couple after months of maintaining their innocence in the nation's largest-ever admissions prosecution. Under the terms of the agreement, which still needs approval by a judge, Ms. Loughlin, 55, agreed to serve two months in prison, pay a $150,000 fine and serve two years of supervised release with 100 hours of community service. If the deal is approved, Mr. Giannulli, 56, is expected to serve five months in prison, pay a $250,000 fine and serve two years of supervised release with 250 hours of community service." An ABC News story is here.

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Jeff Cox of CNBC: "First-time filings for unemployment insurance totaled 2.44 million last week as the tail effects of the coronavirus shutdown continued to impact the U.S. jobs market.... The seasonally adjusted total, while still well above anything the nation had seen in pre-coronavirus America, represents the seventh straight week of a declining pace following the record peak of 6.9 million in late March. In addition, a review from last week brought the number down substantially, from 2.98 million to 2.69 million. In the nine weeks since the coronavirus-induced lockdown has shut down large parts of the U.S. economy, some 38.6 million workers have filed claims."

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Wednesday are here. The Washington Post's live updates for Wednesday are here.

If you're having trouble getting your head around all the statistics & charts related to coronavirus testing, the Dear Leader is here to help:

When you see 'per capita,' there's many per capitas. Is it's like, 'Per capita relative to what?' But you could look at just about any category, and we're really at the top. Meaning positive on a per capita basis, too. They've done a great job. -- Donald Trump, during a meeting with the governors of Arkansas & Kansas ~~~

~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Strangely, Trump's garbled "explanation" is accidentally half-right. If you're trying to understand rates of infection, the CDC seems to be going out of its way to misinform you AND state decision-makers: ~~~

~~~ ** Alexis C. Madrigal & Robinson Meyer of the Atlantic: "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is conflating the results of two different types of coronavirus tests, distorting several important metrics and providing the country with an inaccurate picture of the state of the pandemic.... The CDC is making, a best, a debilitating mistake: combining test results that diagnose current coronavirus infections with test results that measure whether someone has ever had the virus. The upshot is that the government's disease-fighting agency is overstating the country's ability to test people who are sick with COVID-19. The agency confirmed to The Atlantic on Wednesday that it is mixing the results of viral and antibody tests.... This is not merely a technical error. States have set quantitative guidelines for reopening their economies based on these flawed data points.... A negative test result means something different for each test. If somebody tests negative on a viral test, a doctor can be relatively confident that they are not sick right now; if somebody tests negative on an antibody test, they have probably never been infected with or exposed to the coronavirus.... The problem is that the CDC is clumping negative results from both tests together in its public reporting.... 'You've got to be kidding me,' Ashish Jha ... of the Harvard Global Health Institute told us when we described what the CDC was doing. 'How could the CDC make that mistake? This is a mess.'" ~~~

~~~ Confused by the CDC's mixed-up stats? How about the CDC's mixed-up health advice? ~~~

~~~ Jessica Flores of USA Today: "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has always warned that 'it may be possible' to become infected with coronavirus by touching contaminated surfaces or objects. It just 'does not spread easily' in that manner, the agency now says, nor by animal-to-human contact, or vice versa. 'COVID-19 is a new disease and we are still learning about how it spreads,' says the CDC's recently updated guidelines. 'It may be possible for COVID-19 to spread in other ways, but these are not thought to be the main ways the virus spreads.' Dr. John Whyte, chief medical officer for the healthcare website WebMD, told Fox News that the CDC's slight update brings clarity and helps to reduce fears. 'Many people were concerned that by simply touching an object they may get coronavirus and that's simply not the case. Even when a virus may stay on a surface, it doesn't mean that it's actually infectious,' Whyte was quoted." Mrs. McC: I'm sticking with my possibly nutso system of disinfecting my grocery containers.

~~~ The CDC Is Tired of Trying to Reason with You White House People. Nick Valencia & Caroline Kelly of CNN: "The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has posted 60 pages of detailed guidelines on how to reopen the United States from coronavirus pandemic stay-at-home orders on the agency's website. The guidance was a slightly shorter version of a 68-page document shelved by the White House last week after concerns it was too specific. Still, the latest CDC document was very descriptive, providing a detailed road map for schools, restaurants, transit and child care facilities on the categories to consider before reopening. The guidance was posted without fanfare amid reported tensions between the agency and the White House. CNN previously reported one of the main hold ups for publishing the CDC documents was the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Civil Rights Division felt that faith-based organizations were being unfairly targeted." ~~~

     ~~~ Lena Sun, et al., of the Washington Post: "Guidance for reopening houses of worship amid the coronavirus pandemic has been put on hold after a battle between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the White House, which was resistant to putting limits on religious institutions, according to administration officials.... There are currently no plans [for the CDC] to issue guidance for religious institutions, according to three administration officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity...."

James Glanz & Campbell Robertson of the New York Times: "If the United States had begun imposing social distancing measures one week earlier than it did in March, about 36,000 fewer people would have died in the coronavirus outbreak, according to new estimates from Columbia University disease modelers. And if the country had begun locking down cities and limiting social contact on March 1, two weeks earlier than most people started staying home, the vast majority of the nation-s deaths -- about 83 percent -- would have been avoided, the researchers estimated. Under that scenario, about 54,000 fewer people would have died by early May. The enormous cost of waiting to take action reflects the unforgiving dynamics of the outbreak that swept through American cities in early March.... After Italy and South Korea had started aggressively responding to the virus, President Trump resisted canceling campaign rallies or telling people to stay home or avoid crowds. The risk of the virus to most Americans was very low, he said. 'Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on,' Mr. Trump tweeted on March 9.... 'At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!' In fact, tens of thousands of people had already been infected by that point, researchers later estimated." MSN has republished the NYT report here.

Carl Zimmer, et al., of the New York Times: "In labs around the world, there is now cautious optimism that a coronavirus vaccine, and perhaps more than one, will be ready sometime next year. Scientists are exploring not just one approach to creating the vaccine, but at least four. So great is the urgency that they are combining trial phases and shortening a process that usually takes years, sometimes more than a decade. The coronavirus itself has turned out to be clumsy prey, a stable pathogen unlikely to mutate significantly and dodge a vaccine." Mrs. McC: This last bit -- if correct -- is good news. A few weeks ago, I linked a story suggesting the coronavirus was mutating rapidly & therefore would be hard to stop with a vaccine as vaccines could not "keep up" to protect against the latest mutations.

Trump to Stop Taking Meds He Probably Wasn't Taking. CBS News: "President Trump will soon be ending his course of hydroxychloroquine, he told reporters Wednesday. 'I think the regimen finishes in a day or two -- yeah, I think it's two days, two days,' he said during a meeting with Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson and Kansas Governor Laura Kelly."

Sheila Kaplan, et al., of the New York Times: "The chief scientist brought on to lead the Trump administration's vaccine efforts has spent the last several days trying to disentangle pieces of his stock portfolio and his intricate ties to big pharmaceutical interests, as critics point to the potential for significant conflicts of interest. The scientist, Moncef Slaoui, is a venture capitalist and a former longtime executive at GlaxoSmithKline. Most recently, he sat on the board of Moderna, a Cambridge, Mass., biotechnology firm with a $30 billion valuation that is pursuing a coronavirus vaccine. He resigned when President Trump named him last Thursday to the new post as chief adviser for Operation Warp Speed, the federal drive for coronavirus vaccines and treatments.... In agreeing to accept the position, Dr. Slaoui did not come on board as a government employee. Instead, he is on a contract, receiving $1 for his service. That leaves him exempt from federal disclosure rules that would require him to list his outside positions, stock holdings and other potential conflicts. And the contract position is not subject to the same conflict-of-interest laws and regulations that executive branch employees must follow."

Where's Tony? Oliver Darcy of CNN: "The nation's top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, has been conspicuously absent from national television interviews over the last two weeks, as the White House moves ahead with reopening the economy. Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, last gave a television interview when he spoke to CNN anchor Chris Cuomo on May 4th. Prior to his recent absence from the airwaves, Fauci was regularly appearing on national news programs to update the American people on the country's fight against the coronavirus. While Fauci has been on 'modified quarantine' after possible exposure to the virus, he has still been present at the White House and testified remotely before the Senate last week. Fauci's absence was particularly noteworthy this week, given the positive early results regarding a vaccine developed by the biotech company Moderna in partnership with the National Institutes of Health, which Fauci's NIAID falls under."

Aris Folley of the Hill: "Wilson Roosevelt Jerman, who served as a White House butler for more than five decades, has died of COVID-19 at the age of 91, local media report. Granddaughter Jamila Garrett said in an interview with FOX 5 DC that that Jerman first began working at the White House as a cleaner under the Eisenhower administration in 1957. She said it wasn't until former President John F. Kennedy came into office in the 1960s that her grandfather was promoted to butler after building a rapport with the first couple."

The Kleptocracy, Ctd. Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "A North Dakota construction firm that has received backing from President Trump has now secured the largest border wall contract ever awarded, a $1.3 billion deal to build 42 miles of black-painted fencing through the rugged mountains of southern Arizona. The company that won the contract, Fisher Sand and Gravel, has been repeatedly lauded by the president in White House meetings with border officials and military commanders, the result of a long and personalized marketing pitch to Trump and ardent supporters of his barrier project. After its initial bids for border contracts were passed over, the company and its CEO, Tommy Fisher, cut a direct path to the president by praising him on cable news, donating to his Republican allies and cultivating ties to former Trump adviser Stephen K. Bannon, GOP Senate candidate Kris Kobach and other conservative figures in Trump's orbit. Fisher's first and only other major border contract, for $400 million, is under review by the Defense Department inspector general after Democratic lawmakers raised concerns about improper White House influence on the procurement process."

Josh Rogin of the Washington Post: "On Friday, President Trump announced the firing of State Department Inspector General Steve Linick, based on the recommendation of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a move that surprised official Washington and infuriated Democrats. Now, there is additional concern about Linick's replacement, Stephen Akard, who is already on the job -- and is also keeping his existing State Department position, setting up a clear conflict of interest. According to the law, the administration must notify Congress 30 days in advance before firing an inspector general. But multiple sources told me that Linick's last day was Friday, the same day Congress learned about his ouster. Akard showed up at the office on Monday morning and immediately assumed the boss's role. Yet Akard is keeping his job as the head of the State Department's Office of Foreign Missions.... Adding the inspector general's job to his duties essentially means he will be overseeing himself.... Last May, the State Department Inspector General's office issued a report after inspecting ... the Office of Foreign Missions. This was before Akard took over, but the report was scathing.... OFM had spent $48 million over the years to build an information system that didn't work and warranted urgent management attention, the OIG reported." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Of course Trump & the Trumpettes see nothing wrong with a Trump-appointed IG's inspecting himself. This is akin to Trump's declaration "I'll be the oversight" of his distribution of half-a-trillion dollars of coronavirus relief monies. MEANWHILE, Trump has named "the real criminals" in what he describes as "the biggest crime in American history." ~~~

~~~ ** "Obamagate" Unmasked. Ellen Nakamura of the Washington Post: "A Republican effort to determine who may have leaked the name of Michael Flynn in connection to his 2016 contact with the Russian ambassador has centered on the question of which Obama administration officials requested his identity be 'unmasked' in intelligence documents. But in the FBI report about the communications between the two men, Flynn's name was never redacted, former U.S. officials said. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) announced this week that he wants to subpoena witnesses over the unmasking of Flynn.... 'When the FBI circulated [the report (on the Flynn-Kislyak conversations], they included Flynn's name from the beginning' because it was essential to understanding its significance, said a former senior U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.... 'There were therefore no requests for the unmasking of that information.'... [Acting DNI Richard Grenell] ... declassified [a list of Obama-era officials (including Joe Biden) who had requested the 'unmasking' of Flynn] and provided [it] to GOP senators.... The list, prepared at Grenell's request by the National Security Agency, covered requests made between Nov. 30, 2016 and Jan. 12, 2017. The majority of requests occurred before Flynn's communications with Kislyak on Dec. 29. It was the FBI, not the NSA, that wiretapped Kislyak's calls and created the summary and transcript, the former officials said....

"The unmasking issue appears to be part of an effort by the president and his allies to tar former president Barack Obama with what Trump says was an unfounded criminal investigation into potential conspiracy between Russia and Trump associates -- or what he now calls 'Obamagate.'... The president's allies are casting the unmasking requests as evidence of a malign effort to damage Trump through leaks to the media.... Grenell’s move amounts to 'selective declassification' for political purposes, said Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) in a letter to the DNI on Wednesday." The Week has a summary report here.

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: This report is extraordinary. If correct, it means that Trump, GOP lawmakers & Trump allies made up out of whole cloth the "controversy" over the "unmasking" of the hapless Flynn. What Trump called "the biggest crime in American history" not only was not a crime; it never happened. ~~~

~~~ Natasha Bertrand of Politico: "The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee has requested that the acting director of national intelligence hand over the underlying intelligence reports at the center of the so-called unmasking controversy. In a letter sent Wednesday and obtained by Politico, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) raised concerns with Richard Grenell about the intel chief's decision last week to declassify the names of Obama administration officials involved in unmasking the name in intelligence reports of a U.S. person later determined to be Michael Flynn.... As the committee's top Democrat, Warner has no power to compel Grenell to comply.... The declassified list, which was provided by the National Security Agency, appears to have nothing to do with the Flynn-Kislyak calls, which were discovered by the FBI.... Grenell has been on a declassification tear in recent days as he prepares to hand the office over to his successor.... Now, Warner is asking that Grenell 'declassify and make publicly available any intelligence report concerning conversations between Lt. Gen. Flynn (ret.) and Russian Ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak.'..."

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Wednesday temporarily blocked the release of parts of the report prepared by Robert S. Mueller III.... The court's order, concerning a request by the House Judiciary Committee for grand jury materials that the Justice Department had blacked out from the report provided to Congress, could mean that the full report would not be made available before the 2020 election.The Supreme Court's brief order gave no reasons for blocking an appeals court ruling ordering the release of the full report while the justices considered whether to hear the case. It ordered the Justice Department to file a petition seeking review by June 1. There were no noted dissents." A Hill report is here, and an NBC News story is here.

Benjamin Weiser, et al., of the New York Times: "Michael D. Cohen, President Trump's former personal lawyer and fixer, will be released from a federal prison on Thursday on furlough, a Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman said on Wednesday. He had asked to be released over health concerns tied to the coronavirus.... Mr. Cohen's projected release date was November 2021, according to the bureau's website, but he had sought to be released sooner because of medical issues and the risk that they would be exacerbated by the virus's spread at the prison. One law enforcement official briefed on the matter said it was expected that Mr. Cohen would serve the balance of his sentence under home confinement, but it was unclear on Wednesday whether a final decision had been made with regard to that." ~~~

~~~ David Shortell & Paul LeBlanc of CNN: Michael Cohen "is expected to serve out the remainder of his sentence at home as coronavirus continues to spread behind bars, according to a person familiar with the matter. Cohen will be released on furlough while he completes the process of being moved to home confinement...."

David L. Stern & Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post: "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on his law enforcement agencies Wednesday to investigate leaked audio of private phone calls several years ago between Vice President Joe Biden and Ukraine's then-president, Petro Poroshenko, and said that the conversations 'might be perceived, qualified as high treason.'... The recordings, which were first played at a news conference Tuesday in Kyiv, shed relatively little new light on Biden's role in ousting Ukraine's prosecutor general four years ago.... The recordings showed that Biden, as he has previously said publicly, linked loan guarantees for Ukraine in 2015 to the ouster of Viktor Shokin, then the country's prosecutor general.... But Zelensky's comments Wednesday could have been aimed at appeasing Trump, discrediting a rival in Poroshenko and deflecting to investigators all in one swipe.... Hours before Zelensky's news conference, he wrote in a New York Times op-ed that 'the impeachment story was not comfortable for me.... It took American and international attention away from the issues that mattered most to Ukraine and turned our country into a story about President Trump.'..."

Elections 2020

Michigan. Zach Montellaro & Quint Forgey of Politico: "... Donald Trump mischaracterized Michigan's mail-in ballot policies on Wednesday while threatening federal funding to the state if election officials there do not retreat from measures meant to facilitate mail-in voting.... 'Breaking: Michigan sends absentee ballots to 7.7 million people ahead of Primaries and the General Election,' Trump tweeted. 'This was done illegally and without authorization by a rogue Secretary of State. I will ask to hold up funding to Michigan if they want to go down this Voter Fraud path!' He then followed up with another message mentioning the official Twitter accounts for acting White House budget director Russ Vought, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and the Treasury Department. The president's tweets mischaracterized a recent policy change in Michigan. On Tuesday, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, announced that all of the state's 7.7 million registered voters would be mailed absentee ballot applications for the August down-ballot primaries and November general election, not a ballot directly. Responding to the president, the secretary tweeted that 'I also have a name, it's Jocelyn Benson,' and noted that her office was sending applications 'like my GOP colleagues in Iowa, Georgia, Nebraska and West Virginia.'" ~~~

State of Nevada 'thinks' that they can send out illegal vote by mail ballots, creating a great Voter Fraud scenario for the State and the U.S. They can't! If they do, 'I think' I can hold up funds to the State. Sorry, but you must not cheat in elections. @RussVought45 @USTreasury -- Donald Trump, in a tweet Wednesday morning ~~~

~~~ Nevada. Jon Ralston of the Nevada Independent: Trump's "tweet early Wednesday morning alleging illegalities that are not illegal and threatening an unlawful withholding of federal funds unless Nevada officials bend the knee would have been comical if it were not so insidious. It has become de rigueur to dismiss Trump's tweets as a distraction, the online maundering of a pathological liar designed to distract from real issues."

~~~ Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "We ... know Trump fears vote-by-mail can hurt his []re-election chances. Trump explicitly admitted that with such Democratic voting rights measures, 'you'd never have a Republican elected in this country again.' And so, in lodging this threat, Trump is saying the corrupt part out loud -- with a bullhorn.... As a threshold matter, what Trump is threatening is illegal, according to Stephen Vladeck, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin. 'The federal government does not have the power to withhold funding from states because the president disagrees with something the states are doing,' Vladeck told me. 'There's no legal mechanism by which he can do that.'... Trump could try to instruct the Treasury Department not to dole out [coronavirus relief] money. Note that Trump actually cc'd the Treasury Department in his tweet-threat, an act that becomes a lot more disgusting when you understand that this is how the mechanism actually does work.... This episode shows Trump functioning as a pathetic wannabe autocrat who can't even get his corrupt threats right in another sense as well." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Sure puts the "I'll be the oversight" of coronavirus relief distribution in perspective, doesn't it?

Lachlan Markay of the Daily Beast: "Embattled Sen. Kelly Loeffler's (R-GA) husband made his largest-ever federal political contribution last month with a seven-figure donation to a super PAC supporting ... Donald Trump's re-election, according to Federal Election Commission records released on Wednesday. A filing from the pro-Trump group America First Action shows that Jeff Sprecher, the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, donated $1 million to the group in late April, as Loeffler sought to beat back allegations of insider trading after she and Sprecher unloaded millions of dollars in stock in the wake of a closed-door Senate briefing on the novel coronavirus."

Meet Your Official, Party-Approved GOP Candidates:

California Congressional Race. Not a Bigoted Bone in His Body. Ally Mutnick of Politico: "Republican congressional candidate Ted Howze said earlier this month he had nothing to do with social media posts from his personal accounts that demeaned Muslims, accused prominent Democrats of murder and mocked a survivor of the Parkland school shooting. The 'negative and ugly ideas,' he asserted, were penned by others whom he'd given access to his accounts, but he declined to name them. In the weeks since his denial, new questions have emerged about that explanation. At least a dozen additional posts from Howze's account over a two-year period espouse conspiracy theories, suggest Hillary Clinton and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) are responsible for murder, or denigrate Dreamers, Islam and the Black Lives Matter movement. As of Tuesday afternoon, they were accessible on his personal Facebook account. Howze, his party's nominee in a competitive central California district, is endorsed by the National Republican Congressional Committee and House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy. He explicitly signed his name to one of these posts and tags family members in others."

Oregon Senate Race. Mike Baker of the New York Times: "Republicans in Oregon have selected a Senate candidate who promotes the QAnon conspiracy theory, the latest sign that conservatives are increasingly willing to embrace a movement built on a baseless series of plotlines about President Trump battling a shadowy globalist cabal. Jo Rae Perkins was carrying about 50 percent of the vote in Oregon's primary as of Wednesday afternoon, vanquishing three other Republican candidates to become the party's nominee for the seat currently held by Senator Jeff Merkley, a Democrat. While the incumbent is considered a strong favorite, and Ms. Perkins's embrace of fringe ideas could alienate mainstream voters, she has th backing of party leaders for a seat Republicans held as recently as 2009." ~~~

~~~ Kate Riga of TPM: "Republican Jo Rae Perkins, now the official challenger to Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) in November, acknowledged her Tuesday night primary win with a proclamation of her solidarity with acolytes of the QAnon conspiracy theory. 'Where we go one, we go all,' she says in a Twitter video, brandishing a '#WWG1WG' sticker with the group's motto in hashtag form. 'I stand with President Trump, I stand with Q and the team,' she continues. 'Thank you anons and thank you patriots. And together, we can save our republic.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Will Sommer of the Daily Beast: "Perkins deleted the video on Wednesday afternoon, amid press coverage of her primary win.... In a May 5 video with QAnon promoters 'ShadyGrooove' and 'InTheMatrixxx' -- two prominent QAnon figures who have teamed up with an alleged cult leader to push their theories -- Perkins said she was initially convinced that the coronavirus lockdown was actually cover for Trump to arrest top Democrats.... QAnon supporters ... are ... convinced that Trump will soon imprison or execute top Democrats, including Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.... Perkins added that the coronavirus is a 'fake virus' and described herself as 'red-pilled' -- QAnon code meaning she's been 'awakened' by the conspiracy theory. When Obama failed to be arrested and tried at Guantanamo, however, Perkins ... claimed on the YouTube show that the arrests had failed to happen because of some unspecified failing of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY, adding that 'the judges aren't in place.'"

The Commentariat -- May 20, 2020

Late Morning/Afternoon Updates:

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Wednesday temporarily blocked the release of parts of the report prepared by Robert S. Mueller III.... The court's order, concerning a request by the House Judiciary Committee for grand jury materials that the Justice Department had blacked out from the report provided to Congress, could mean that the full report would not be made available before the 2020 election. The Supreme Court's brief order gave no reasons for blocking an appeals court ruling ordering the release of the full report while the justices considered whether to hear the case. It ordered the Justice Department to file a petition seeking review by June 1. There were no noted dissents." A Hill report is here.

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Wednesday are here. The Washington Post's live updates for Wednesday are here.

Zach Montellaro & Quint Forgey of Politico: "... Donald Trump mischaracterized Michigan's mail-in ballot policies on Wednesday while threatening federal funding to the state if election officials there do not retreat from measures meant to facilitate mail-in voting.... 'Breaking: Michigan sends absentee ballots to 7.7 million people ahead of Primaries and the General Election,' Trump tweeted. 'This was done illegally and without authorization by a rogue Secretary of State. I will ask to hold up funding to Michigan if they want to go down this Voter Fraud path!' He then followed up with another message mentioning the official Twitter accounts for acting White House budget director Russ Vought, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and the Treasury Department. The president's tweets mischaracterized a recent policy change in Michigan. On Tuesday, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, announced that all of the state's 7.7 million registered voters would be mailed absentee ballot applications for the August down-ballot primaries and November general election, not a ballot directly. Responding to the president, the secretary tweeted that 'I also have a name, it's Jocelyn Benson,' and noted that her office was sending applications 'like my GOP colleagues in Iowa, Georgia, Nebraska and West Virginia.'"

The CDC Is Tired of Trying to Reason with You White House People. Nick Valencia & Caroline Kelly of CNN: "The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has posted 60 pages of detailed guidelines on how to reopen the United States from coronavirus pandemic stay-at-home orders on the agency's website. The guidance was a slightly shorter version of a 68-page document shelved by the White House last week after concerns it was too specific. Still, the latest CDC document was very descriptive, providing a detailed road map for schools, restaurants, transit and child care facilities on the categories to consider before reopening. The guidance was posted without fanfare amid reported tensions between the agency and the White House. CNN previously reported one of the main hold ups for publishing the CDC documents was the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Civil Rights Division felt that faith-based organizations were being unfairly targeted."

The Kleptocracy, Ctd. Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "A North Dakota construction firm that has received backing from President Trump has now secured the largest border wall contract ever awarded, a $1.3 billion deal to build 42 miles of black-painted fencing through the rugged mountains of southern Arizona. The company that won the contract, Fisher Sand and Gravel, has been repeatedly lauded by the president in White House meetings with border officials and military commanders, the result of a long and personalized marketing pitch to Trump and ardent supporters of his barrier project. After its initial bids for border contracts were passed over, the company and its CEO, Tommy Fisher, cut a direct path to the president by praising him on cable news, donating to his Republican allies and cultivating ties to former Trump adviser Stephen K. Bannon, GOP Senate candidate Kris Kobach and other conservative figures in Trump's orbit. Fisher's first and only other major border contract, for $400 million, is under review by the Defense Department inspector general after Democratic lawmakers raised concerns about improper White House influence on the procurement process."

>David L. Stern & Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post: "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on his law enforcement agencies Wednesday to investigate leaked audio of private phone calls several years ago between Vice President Joe Biden and Ukraine's then-president, Petro Poroshenko, and said that the conversations 'might be perceived, qualified as high treason.'... The recordings, which were first played at a news conference Tuesday in Kyiv, shed relatively little new light on Biden's role in ousting Ukraine's prosecutor general four years ago.... The recordings showed that Biden, as he has previously said publicly, linked loan guarantees for Ukraine in 2015 to the ouster of Viktor Shokin, then the country's prosecutor general.... But Zelensky's comments Wednesday could have been aimed at appeasing Trump, discrediting a rival in Poroshenko and deflecting to investigators all in one swipe.... Hours before Zelensky's news conference, he wrote in a New York Times op-ed that 'the impeachment story was not comfortable for me.... It took American and international attention away from the issues that mattered most to Ukraine and turned our country into a story about President Trump.'...<"

California Congressional Race. Not a Bigoted Bone in His Body. Ally Mutnick of Politico: "Republican congressional candidate Ted Howze said earlier this month he had nothing to do with social media posts from his personal accounts that demeaned Muslims, accused prominent Democrats of murder and mocked a survivor of the Parkland school shooting. The 'negative and ugly ideas,' he asserted, were penned by others whom he'd given access to his accounts, but he declined to name them. In the weeks since his denial, new questions have emerged about that explanation. At least a dozen additional posts from Howze's account over a two-year period espouse conspiracy theories, suggest Hillary Clinton and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) are responsible for murder, or denigrate Dreamers, Islam and the Black Lives Matter movement. As of Tuesday afternoon, they were accessible on his personal Facebook account. Howze, his party's nominee in a competitive central California district, is endorsed by the National Republican Congressional Committee and House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy. He explicitly signed his name to one of these posts and tags family members in others."

~~~~~~~~~~

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Tuesday are here. The Washington Post's live updates for Tuesday are here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Doctor Trump, Medicine Man. Kevin Liptak of CNN: "Members of ... Donald Trump's Cabinet reinforced his decision to ingest an unproven treatment to prevent coronavirus on Tuesday, insisting the drug was safe even as none volunteered they were taking it themselves.... Even for an administration known for fealty, the declarations of support for a drug the US Food and Drug Administration has warned might be dangerous were notable. Trump was hosting his Cabinet at the White House for the first time in months.... No officials wore masks, though they were spaced several feet apart and spoke into microphones. As they went around the table, the Cabinet members uniformly praised Trump's handling of the pandemic and tried to insist the worst may be over.... When Trump was questioned why he decided to take hydroxychloroquine to prevent coming down with Covid-19 -- a disclosure he'd made a day earlier -- he dismissed his own government's warnings against using the drug for coronavirus, including from the FDA, which has said the drug should only be used in hospitals or clinical trials because they can kill or cause serious side effects.... He went on to bash a study of Veterans Affairs patients who received the drug, calling it false because it was administered to sick people who 'were ready to die.'... When pressed later how his administration was planning to return more than 35 million unemployed Americans to work, Trump lashed out. 'I think we've announced a plan. We're opening up our country. Just a rude person, you are,' he said." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump called on both DHHS secretary Alex Azar & VA secretary Robert Wilkie to back up his hydroxychloroquine claims. Azar deflected a little, but Wilkie was all in, agreeing with Trump that a huge study of VA patients was a "phony study" & saying the study was not a VA study, that some outside researchers merely used VA data. What Wilkie didn't say is that it was still a "government study" inasmuch as the NIH partially funded it. So here the POTUS* and his Cabinet, none of them wearing masks, going out of their way to prop up Trump's dangerous "medical advice" but not promoting various steps people must take to avoid getting or spreading the virus. ~~~

~~~ Meredith McGraw & Nancy Cook of Politico: "White House aides were as surprised as everyone else when ... Donald Trump mentioned he was taking a controversial drug to help ward off the coronavirus. Quickly, the administration assumed its typical posture for unexpected presidential proclamations -- in this case, that the president had been using the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine. Officials defended the president's decision while artfully addressing whether it is wise for the country's leader take an unproven coronavirus treatment that some research has shown could have serious side effects.... Throughout the day, Trump simply defended his use of the drug, saying he believed hydroxychloroquine 'gives you an additional level of safety' and 'doesn't hurt people,' and said 'people are going to have to make up their own mind' regarding the drug's efficacy. The White House declined to comment beyond Trump's remarks.... Trump even dismissed one downbeat study about hydroxychloroquine as a 'Trump enemy statement.'... When asked on Monday whether anyone else in his administration or family was taking the drug, Trump said 'no.'" ~~~

~~~ Here's the memo, via CNN, from Sean Conley, Trump's White House physician, regarding Trump's claim that he's taking hydroxychloroquine. Nowhere does he say he has prescribed hydroxychloroquine for Trump. Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post has some thoughts on that. (Also linked yesterday.) Mrs. McC: It seems to me that while Conley may have carefully-worded his letter to help perpetrate another Trump lie, many Trumpbots will follow the apparent "advice" of Trump's doctor and try this at home. For a public servant (Conley is a Navy commander), he should apply "first, do no harm" to all Americans, not just Trump. It's occurred to me that there's another possibility that no one seems to have mentioned: Trump is taking "the hydroxy," but Conley refused to prescribe it, so Trump found another source. ~~~

~~~ In case you think no one is stupid enough to follow Trump's "medical advice" ~~~

~~~ Will Sommer of the Daily Beast: "Donald Trump's allies are seeking out hydroxychloroquine and even trying risky substitutes for the anti-malaria drug as it has become an emblem of the president's unorthodox approach to fighting coronavirus." Sommer cites examples. Mrs. McC: I liked the tonic water one because I do drink tonic water, and that is probably the onliest reason I don't have the Covid-19. ~~~

** Trump Shows the Military How Much He Loves Them. Alice Ollstein of Politico: "More than 40,000 National Guard members currently helping states test residents for the coronavirus and trace the spread of infections will face a 'hard stop' on their deployments on June 24 -- just one day shy of many members becoming eligible for key federal benefits, according to a senior FEMA official. The official outlined the Trump administration's plans on an interagency call on May 12, an audio version of which was obtained by Politico. The official also acknowledged during the call that the June 24 deadline means that thousands of members who first deployed in late March will find themselves with only 89 days of duty credit, one short of the 90-day threshold for qualifying for early retirement and education benefits under the Post-9/11 GI bill." Mrs. McC: They put their lives on hold -- and on the line -- to serve their country, and this is the thanks Trump gives them, even as he touts his love for the military.

Trump Shows Working Americans How Much He Loves Them. Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Tuesday privately expressed opposition to extending a weekly $600 boost in unemployment insurance for laid-off workers affected by the coronavirus pandemic, according to three officials familiar with his remarks during a closed-door lunch with Republican senators on Capitol Hill. The increased unemployment benefits -- paid by the federal government but administered through individual states -- were enacted this year as part of a broader $2 trillion relief package passed by Congress. The boost expires this summer, and House Democrats have proposed extending the aid through January 2021." Mrs. McC: There's no reason for people to get unemployment insurance in summer; they can go out in the forest & forage for nuts & berries. And go fishing! It's fun to be unemployed!

Isaac Arnsdorf of ProPublica: "A food relief program championed by ... Donald Trump and his daughter Ivanka is relying on some contractors who lack food distribution experience and aren't licensed to deal in fresh fruits and vegetables.... Forty-nine out of the 159 contractors picked by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to deliver boxes containing produce don't have a requisite license from the same agency.... The awards to firms for which no licenses could be found amount to $105.3 million, about 15% of the total for produce boxes.... When the program was announced, the nonprofit organization Feeding America surveyed its nationwide network of 200 food banks about their needs and worked with seven national distributors on how to implement the program. But none of those distributors received contracts." --s ~~~

~~~ Ed Mazza of the Huffington Post: "... Donald Trump offered an unusual warning to Virginia farmers on Tuesday, suggesting that their potatoes might be at risk and they will need to be armed to protect those spuds. [According to a tweet from the Hill, Trump said,] 'We're going after Virginia, with your crazy governor, we're going after Virginia. They want to take your Second Amendment. You know that, right? You'll have nobody guarding your potatoes.' Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) fired back on Twitter with a warning about the anti-malaria drug Trump is taking to prevent coronavirus infection despite the fact that it's not approved for the disease: 'I grew up on a Virginia farm, Mr. President -- our potatoes are fine. And as the only medical doctor among our nation's governors, I suggest you stop taking hydroxychloroquine....'" Thanks to P.D. Pepe for the link. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: This story puts me in mind of Great Depression-era stories -- real & fictional -- I've heard or read of indigent people asking farmers for food or just stealing potatoes & other foods off the vine. Trump may realize that's where we are, and he thinks the answer is to shoot the starving gleaners to save a potato.

Erica Werner, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump's drive to swiftly reopen the economy came under fire Tuesday from Democratic senators who pointedly questioned the administration's strategy, forcing Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to insist the White House would not sacrifice workers' lives for economic gain. But the growing insistence by Trump and Republican lawmakers to push for reopening while halting any new talks about aid has created a stark divide in the government's approach. As Trump has largely shut down negotiations for more emergency assistance, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell warned Tuesday that much more may be needed." This story is an update of one linked yesterday." The New York Times live-updated the hearing here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Chad Livengood of Crain's Detroit: "When Ford Motor Co. hosts ... Donald Trump on Thursday for a tour of its Rawsonville Components Plant in Ypsilanti, the automaker will be doing so in technical violation of an executive order from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer prohibiting 'nonessential' plant tours. Her office signaled it would not stand in the way of the visit. Ford says it will require the president to wear a mask, something he has not done on other recent plant tours. Whitmer's new coronavirus pandemic workplace regulations for businesses laid out in Executive Order No. 2020-91 states that 'manufacturing facilities must ... suspend all non-essential in-person visits, including tours.'"

Michael Biesecker & Jason Dearen of the AP: "Republican political operatives are recruiting 'extremely pro-Trump' doctors to go on television to prescribe reviving the U.S. economy as quickly as possible, without waiting to meet safety benchmarks proposed by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to slow the spread of the new coronavirus. The plan was discussed in a May 11 conference call with a senior staffer for the Trump reelection campaign organized by CNP Action, an affiliate of the GOP-aligned Council for National Policy. A leaked recording of the hourlong call was provided to The Associated Press.... CNP Action is part of the Save Our Country Coalition, an alliance of conservative think tanks and political committees formed in late April to end state lockdowns implemented in response to the pandemic.... A resurgent economy is seen as critical to boosting ... Donald Trump's reelection hopes and has become a growing focus of the White House coronavirus task force led by Vice President Mike Pence." Mrs. McC: Wait, mike, I thought your task force was focused on saving all Americans from the coronavirus; now we find out it's more about your re-election? I'm so disillusioned.

Michelle Smith, et al., of the AP: "Public health officials in some states are accused of bungling coronavirus infection statistics or even using a little sleight of hand to deliberately make things look better than they are. The risk is that politicians, business owners and ordinary Americans who are making decisions about lockdowns, reopenings and other day-to-day matters could be left with the impression that the virus is under more control than it actually is.... In Florida, the data scientist who developed the state's coronavirus dashboard, Rebekah Jones, said this week that she was fired for refusing to manipulate data 'to drum up support for the plan to reopen.' Calls to health officials for comment were not immediately returned Tuesday. In Georgia, one of the earliest states to ease up on lockdowns and assure the public it was safe to go out again, the Department of Public Health published a graph around May 11 that showed new COVID-19 cases declining over time in the most severely affected counties. The daily entries, however, were not arranged in chronological order but in descending order.... A quick look at the graph made it appear as if the decline was smoother than it really was."

Natasha Turak of CNBC: "Experiments by a team in Hong Kong found that the coronavirus' transmission rate via respiratory droplets or airborne particles dropped by as much as 75% when surgical masks were used. 'The findings implied to the world and the public is that the effectiveness of mask-wearing against the coronavirus pandemic is huge,' Dr. Yuen Kwok-yung, a leadingmicrobiologist from Hong Kong University who helped discover the SARS virus in 2003, said Sunday."

If you're wondering about Elon Musk and "the red pill," Nellie Bowles of the New York Times has a primer.

Neil Genzlinger of the New York Times: "Annie Glenn, who in a high-profile life as the wife of John Glenn, the astronaut and senator, became an inspiration to many who, like her, stuttered severely, advocating on behalf of people with communication disorders of all kinds, died on Tuesday at a nursing home near St. Paul, Minn. She was 100. Hank Wilson ... of the John Glenn College of Public Affairs at the Ohio State University, said the cause was complications of the Covid-19 virus."

Edward Wong & David Sanger of the New York Times: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declined an interview request for the State Department inspector general's inquiry into whether the Trump administration acted illegally in declaring an 'emergency' to bypass a congressional freeze on arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, according to three people with knowledge of his actions. Mr. Pompeo chose instead to answer written questions from investigators working for the inspector general, Steve A. Linick, who was fired by President Trump on Friday. That indicates that the secretary of state was aware of Mr. Linick's investigation and the specific lines of questioning about Mr. Pompeo's decision last year to resume the sales of bombs and other weapons...." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: That's ever so surprising because Pompeo told Carol Morello of the Washington Post that "... the decision [to recommend Linick's firing] was not an act of political retaliation, because he did not know beforehand that ... Linick was investigating allegations that he had an aide run personal errands for him." Okay, let's say that's a little misdirection. Mike says he didn't know about the personal-errands investigation, but he doesn't say anything about the Saudi-Arabia arms investigation. But then he denies that, too. According to Morello, "He [Pompeo] said he recalled only one case, involving a national security matter, in which he knew of an investigation until shortly before a report was released to the public." That "national security matter" can't be the Saudi Arabia arms case, because Linick has not released that report. So then, Pompeo concluded, "It is not possible that this decision [to fire Linick], or my recommendation rather, to the president rather, was based on any effort to retaliate for any investigation that was going on or is currently going on. Because I simply don't know. I'm not briefed on it. I usually see these investigations in final draft form 24 hours, 48 hours before the IG is prepared to release them. So it's simply not possible for this to be an act of retaliation. End of story." No, Mike, it's not the end of the story. When you decline to be interviewed for an investigation, it's safe to say you know about the investigation. I'm shocked that Mike Pompeo, the old boy who keeps a Bible open on his desk, would dissemble like that, would tell a Big Fat Lie. ~~~

~~~ Update. See also the last sentence of this synopsis of a new NBC News report. Turns out Mike also was lying about not knowing of Linick's investigation of Pompeo's personal abuses of office. ~~~

Josh Lederman, et al., of NBC News: "Until the coronavirus shut them down in March, [Mike Pompeo held] gatherings ... known as 'Madison Dinners' -- elaborate, unpublicized affairs that Pompeo and his wife, Susan Pompeo, began in 2018 and held regularly in the historic Diplomatic Reception Rooms [in the State Department's Harry S. Truman Building] on the government's dime. State Department officials involved in the dinners said they had raised concerns internally that the events were essentially using federal resources to cultivate a donor and supporter base for Pompeo's political ambitions -- complete with extensive contact information that gets sent back to Susan Pompeo's personal email address.... Pompeo held about two dozen Madison dinners since taking over in 2018 ... [at a cost of several hundred dollars per plate]. The records show that about 29 percent of the invitees came from the corporate world, while about a quarter of them hailed from the media or entertainment industries, with conservative media members heavily represented. About 30 percent work in politics or government, and just 14 percent were diplomats or foreign officials. Every single member of the House or the Senate who has been invited is a Republican.... The Madison dinners ... aren't disclosed on Pompeo's public schedule.... Two administration officials told NBC News that [State Department inspector general Steve] Linick made some type of inquiry last week, before he was fired, to the protocol office. One of the officials said Pompeo's office was then notified." Emphasis added. ~~~

~~~ Alexander Bolton & Laura Kelly of the Hill: "Senate Republicans are demanding a fuller explanation from President Trump about his firing of State Department Inspector General Steve Linick, the fourth inspector general to be removed or targeted for removal by the president in the past three months." Among those requiring more answers are John Thune, Lisa Murkowski, Rob Portman, & John Risch, along with Chuck Grassley. (Also linked yesterday.)

Ian Duncan & Michael Laris of the Washington Post: "Three leading House Democrats said Tuesday that they plan to open an investigation into the replacement of the Transportation Department's acting inspector general, concerned that the move was tied to an ongoing investigation of Secretary Elaine Chao's dealings with the state of Kentucky. Chao is married to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and has faced questions about whether her department has given preferential treatment to projects in the state. On Friday [the same day he announced he was firing State Department IG Steve Linick], President Trump named Howard 'Skip' Elliott, the head of a pipeline safety agency, as acting DOT inspector general.... In the letter to Elliott, the lawmakers said they viewed his appointment as part of a broader attack by Trump on inspectors general across the government." ~~~

~~~ Sam Mintz of Politico: "Rep. Peter DeFazio and two other senior House Democrats on Tuesday demanded that the Trump administration reinstate Mitchell Behm, who had been the acting Transportation Department inspector general until he was ousted from the position over the weekend and replaced with the head of another agency."

This Is Awkward. Issac Arnsdorf of ProPublica (Feb 21): "President Donald Trump's new acting intelligence director, Richard Grenell, used to do consulting work on behalf of an Eastern European oligarch.... Vladimir Plahotniuc, but did not disclose that he was being paid, according to records and interviews. Grenell also did not register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which generally requires people to disclose work in the U.S. on behalf of foreign politicians." --s ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Why is it awkward? Well, besides the little failure-to-disclose matter, check out what Plahotniuc has been up to, linked under Way Beyond the Beltway. All the best people, etc., etc. ~~~

~~~ Well, that's okay because Grenell is about to lose his "acting" job & go back to Germany, where he is the unpopular U.S. ambassador. ~~~

~~~ Shane Harris of the Washington Post: "Texas congressman John Ratcliffe (R) took a step closer to becoming President Trump's top intelligence adviser on Tuesday, after the Senate Intelligence Committee voted along party lines to move his nomination to the full Senate. Committee members voted 8 to 7 in favor of Ratcliffe as the next director of national intelligence, following an extraordinary hearing earlier this month held under social distancing guidelines. Ratcliffe sat far back from masked senators who questioned him on his credentials and whether he was capable of acting independently of his political allegiance to the president. The committee vote was held behind closed doors in a secure facility in the Capitol. Ratcliffe is expected to be confirmed by the full Senate in a vote likely to be held after Memorial Day, according to congressional aides." A Hill story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

A Day That Will Live in Infamy -- But Not Because of Susan Rice. Betsy Swan of Politico: "On the day of ... Donald Trump's inauguration, outgoing national security adviser Susan Rice sent herself an email that has since drawn intense scrutiny from Republicans. Now the full text of the email has been declassified.... It says that then-FBI Director James Comey worried about sharing classified information with the Trump team because of incoming national security adviser Michael Flynn's frequent conversations with the Russian ambassador but that Comey had no knowledge of Flynn sharing classified information with the envoy. Republicans have seized on the document as potential evidence that the outgoing president had ordered the FBI to spy on the new administration, as Trump has alleged. And they have ... suggest[ed] that in warning Comey to proceed 'by the book,' [President] Obama was implying that top law enforcement officials had done the opposite. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Rice said it shows the Obama administration handled the Flynn situation appropriately." A facsimile of the declassified memo is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs McCrabbie: Wingers were very excited about the "explosive" declassification (no links). Alas, as Rachel Maddow pointed out, the Trump administration's big "exposé" of the nefarious Susan Rice backfired: the memo to file was completely appropriate & shows no hint of wrongdoing. The reason Republicans assume that President Obama & other Democrats are always up to no good is classic projection: Republicans are always up to no good, and they think others must be just as underhanded as they are.

Cassie Da Costa of the Daily Beast: "In the final third of director Nick Sweeney's 79-minute documentary, ['AKA Jane Roe'] featuring many end-of-life reflections from [Norma] McCorvey -- who grew up queer, poor, and was sexually abused by a family member her mother sent her to live with after leaving reform school -- the former Jane Roe admits that her later turn to the anti-abortion camp as a born-again Christian was 'all an act.'... '... I took their money and they took me out in front of the cameras and told me what to say....' [The] Reverend [Rob] Schenck confirms that she was 'coached on what to say' in her anti-abortion speeches.... Reverend Flip Benham (of the infamous Operation Rescue) ... denies McCorvey was paid; Schenck insists she was, saying that 'at a few points, she was actually on the payroll, as it were.' AKA Jane Roe finds documents disclosing at least $456,911 in 'benevolent gifts' from the anti-abortion movement to McCorvey." Thanks to Ken W. for the link. ~~~

~~~ A Day That Will Live in Infamy. Kenya Evelyn of the Guardian: "Included in the documentary also are scenes from the presidential election night in 2016, depicting McCorvey's disappointment as Democrat Hillary Clinton lost to Donald Trump. 'I wish I knew how many abortions Donald Trump was responsible for,' she quipped in the scene. 'I'm sure he's lost count, if he can count that high.'" ~~~

~~~ Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "It's a little better now, but elite punditry in the 90s and early aughts was saturated with arguments that even if one was pro-choice one should concede that American pro-lifers were acting according to Deep Moral Principles that merited not merely respect but accommodation, when in fact the movement was a total legal, moral, and ethical shambles. Remember the McCorvey Purchase if you see such arguments again, which you surely will."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Moldova. Reuters: "Moldova's Prosecutor General said on Monday that one of the country's richest people, Vladimir Plahotniuc, had been charged with involvement in the theft of $1 billion from Moldovan banks in 2014-2015.... The scandal triggered street protests, the International Monetary Fund and the European Union froze aid, the leu currency plunged to record lows and inflation climbed into double digits." --s

Spain. Chloé Farand of Climate Home News: "The Spanish government is due to present an ambitious draft law to cut the country's carbon emissions to net zero by 2050 to Parliament on Tuesday. Spain joins a handful of countries to have set out a legal binding strategy to end their contribution to global heating in the next 30 years." --s

The Commentariat -- May 19, 2020

Late Morning Update:

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Tuesday are here. The Washington Post's live updates for Tuesday are here.

Here's the memo, via CNN, from Sean Conley, Trump's White House physician, regarding Trump's claim that he's taking hydroxychloroquine. Nowhere does he say he has prescribed hydroxychloroquine for Trump. Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post has some thoughts on that. Mrs. McC: While Conley may have carefully-worded his letter to help perpetrate another Trump lie, many Trumpbots will follow the apparent "advice" of Trump's doctor and try this at home. For a public servant (Conley is a Navy commander), he should apply "first, do no harm" to all Americans, not just Trump. It's occurred to me that there's another possibility that no one seems to have mentioned: Trump is taking "the hydroxy," but Conley refused to prescribe it, so Trump found another source.

Erica Werner & Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin defended the Trump administration's response to the coronavirus outbreak Tuesday at a hearing where senators pressed him to move faster on hundreds of billions in lending to businesses, cities and states and others.... Also testifying along with Mnuchin was Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome H. Powell." The New York Times is live-updating the hearing here.

Shane Harris of the Washington Post: "Texas congressman John Ratcliffe (R) took a step closer to becoming President Trump's top intelligence adviser on Tuesday, after the Senate Intelligence Committee voted along party lines to move his nomination to the full Senate. Committee members voted 8 to 7 in favor of Ratcliffe as the next director of national intelligence, following an extraordinary hearing earlier this month held under social distancing guidelines. Ratcliffe sat far back from masked senators who questioned him on his credentials and whether he was capable of acting independently of his political allegiance to the president. The committee vote was held behind closed doors in a secure facility in the Capitol. Ratcliffe is expected to be confirmed by the full Senate in a vote likely to be held after Memorial Day, according to congressional aides." A Hill story is here.

Alexander Bolton & Laura Kelly of the Hill: "Senate Republicans are demanding a fuller explanation from President Trump about his firing of State Department Inspector General Steve Linick, the fourth inspector general to be removed or targeted for removal by the president in the past three months." Among those requiring more answers are John Thune, Lisa Murkowski, Rob Portman, & John Risch, along with Chuck Grassley.

~~~~~~~~~~

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Monday are here. The Washington Post's live updates for Monday are here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

** Jane Timm of NBC News: "... Donald Trump on Monday said he has been taking hydroxychloroquine, an unproven treatment for COVID-19 that he has vigorously promoted. 'A lot of good things have come out about the hydroxy.... You'd be surprised at how many people are taking it,' Trump said at the White House. ... I'm taking it hydroxychloroquine, right now.' The president said he has been taking the drug for 'a couple weeks' and that it was prescribed by the White House doctor. The FDA has warned against its use for COVID-19 outside of a hospital setting due to a risk of serious heart problems." Mrs. McC: He also is imbibing prodigious gulps of bleach, doctor-presribed, of course. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

~~~ Zeke Miller, et al., of the AP: "The White House physician, Dr. Sean Conley, said in a statement released through the White House press office that, after 'numerous discussions' with Trump about the evidence for and against using hydroxychloroquine, 'we concluded the potential benefit from treatment outweighed the relative risks.'" ~~~

~~~ Justin Baragona & Adam Rawnsley of the Daily Beast: "Trump claimed he received a letter the other day from a New York doctor who alleged he has successfully treated hundreds of COVID-19 patients with a combo of the drug and azithromycin. He also complained about 'phony reports' that showed the lack of efficacy of the drug in treating the coronavirus.... Immediately after Trump made his stunning disclosure, Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto [said on-air,] 'The fact of the matter is, though, when Trump said what do you got to lose, in a number of studies the vulnerable population have one thing to lose, their lives,' Cavuto somberly said during his Fox News broadcast. 'I cannot stress enough: This will kill you!'" ~~~

He's our president, and I would rather he not be taking something that has not been approved by the scientists, especially in his age group and his, shall we say, weight group ... morbidly obese, they say. -- Nancy Pelosi, on CNN Monday night

~~~ First, Do No Harm. Steve M. has a few theories about this, all of them reasonable: "Washington is talking about Mike Pompeo and the inspector general who was fired for investigating him, so President Trump decided to regain control of the news cycle[.]... Trump might simply be lying about this -- he knows that the announcement will be headline-grabbing, and he knows that advocating hydroxychloroquine is an effective way of needling the libs." Also, hydroxychloroquine is popular with Foxbots.... Trump's doctors haven't been honest and forthcoming about his health, but it was revealed in 2018 that he has cardiovascular issues.... Under those circumstances, if you were one of the president's doctors, would you give him a drug that can disturb heart rhythms? I think you'd give him a placebo and let him think it's hydroxychloroquine."

Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump on Monday threatened to permanently halt U.S. funding for the World Health Organization (WHO) if the body does not commit to 'major substantive improvements' in the next 30 days. The president, in a letter to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, levied a series of allegations that the global health entity overlooked or ignored various warning signs about the coronavirus and criticized its stance toward China during the pandemic." ~~~

~~~ Andrew Jacobs, et al., of the New York Times: "A meeting of the World Health Organization that was supposed to chart a path for the world to combat the coronavirus pandemic instead on Monday turned into a showcase for the escalating tensions between China and the United States over the virus. President Xi Jinping of China announced at the start of the forum that Beijing would donate $2 billion toward fighting the coronavirus and dispatch doctors and medical supplies to Africa and other countries in the developing world. The contribution, to be spent over two years, amounts to more than twice what the United States had been giving the global health agency before President Trump cut off American funding last month.... Mr. Trump declined to address the two-day gathering, providing the Chinese president an opening to be one of the first world leaders to address the 194 member states.... In videotaped remarks to the assembly after Mr. Xi spoke, Alex M. Azar II, the U.S. secretary of health and human services, countered wit sharp criticism of both the W.H.O. and China, saying their handling of the coronavirus outbreak led to unnecessary deaths." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I didn't bother to read this piece in Sunday's Washington Post by Ashley Parker & Phil Rucker, but I should have. I might think Rucker took my criticism to heart: "President Trump has proclaimed the latest phase of pandemic response the 'transition to greatness.' But Trump appears poised to preside over the eventual transition more as a salesman and marketer than a decider. The United States under Trump has also retreated from its historic position of global leadership, declining, for instance, to participate in a coronavirus summit with other nations earlier this month. Amid a once-in-a-century deadly pandemic, Trump has inserted his ego squarely into the U.S. response while simultaneously minimizing his own role -- deferring critical decisions to others, undermining his credibility with confusion and misinformation, and shirking responsibility in what some see as a shrinking of the America presidency." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Trump Is So Corrupt He Doesn't Know He's Corrupt. Timothy Bella of the Washington Post: "After former top vaccine official Rick Bright maintained Sunday that the federal government's response to the coronavirus pandemic has been slow and chaotic, President Trump responded in a late-night tweetstorm, saying that whistleblowers like Bright are 'causing great injustice and harm' to the nation. In an interview with '60 Minutes,' Bright, the former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, criticized the government for failing to have a clear plan in place to address the totality of the American outbreak.... Shortly after the program aired, Trump took to Twitter to again describe the concerns of Bright, who led BARDA for four years, as complaints from a 'disgruntled employee,' and he reiterated his long-standing call to undo protections for whistleblowers." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: That is, when someone points to wrongdoing and/or incompetence in the Trump administration, it causes "great harm to the nation." That doesn't even make any sense. Most taxpayers want their tax dollars to be used effectively, and if someone is screwing up, they expect others to call attention to it & correct the errors. But Trump thinks the malfeasance is not the corruption or incompetence but the act of reporting corruption or malfeasance.

** Erica Werner of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Monday intensified his push for businesses to reopen as quickly as possible, but companies and cities continued to wait for the disbursement of unspent bailout funds and remain unsure what to expect as rules and programs continue to shift.... The Congressional Oversight Commission, a new body, released a report on Monday finding that the Treasury Department had spent very little from a $500 billion fund created by the Cares Act in March to help businesses and local governments, even though many of these entities have asked for immediate help. Senators are expected to press Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell about this during a hearing Tuesday morning."

Nick Valencia of CNN: "A senior official from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Sunday offered a pointed rebuke of White House trade adviser Peter Navarro's scathing criticism of the top health agency in the latest sign of growing tension between the CDC and the White House. 'We should remind Mr. Navarro that the CDC is a federal agency part of the administration. The CDC director is an appointed position, and Dr. (Robert) Redfield was appointed by President (Donald) Trump,' the official told CNN. 'If there is criticism of the CDC, ultimately Mr. Navarro is being critical of the President and the man who President Trump placed to lead the agency.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Jeff Cox of CNBC: "The U.S. economy could shrink by upwards of 30% in the second quarter but will avoid a Depression-like economic plunge over the longer term, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told '60 Minutes in an interview aired Sunday. The central bank chief also conceded that jobless numbers will look a lot like they did during the 1930s, when the rate peaked out at close to 25%[.]" The full transcript & a video of Powell's "60 Minutes" appearance is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "President Trump's abrupt decision to remove the inspector general of the State Department [Steven Linick] constitutes the latest in a string of corrupt efforts to remove public servants who prioritize real oversight and accountability over protecting Trump at all costs.... House Democrats have discovered that the fired IG had mostly completed an investigation into Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's widely criticized decision to skirt Congress with an emergency declaration to approve billions of dollars in arms sales to Saudi Arabia last year, aides on the Foreign Affairs Committee tell me.... 'We don't have the full picture yet, but it's troubling that Secretary Pompeo wanted Mr. Linick pushed out before this work could be completed,' [Rep. Eliot] Engel [D-N.Y.] said in the statement to me.... The [arms sale to Saudis] was condemned by lawmakers in both parties who have increasingly been turning on continued U.S. support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen, which stretches back to the last administration and has unleashed a humanitarian catastrophe. Congress subsequently voted to block the arms sales, with some Republican support, but Trump vetoed the effort." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ A related CNN report, by Zachary Cohen, is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Trump Says the Dog Ate Mike's Homework or Something. John Bowdon of the Hill: "Speaking with reporters at the White House, Trump defended Pompeo as a 'high-quality person' and a 'brilliant guy,' while suggesting that the nation's top diplomat had assigned government employees to perform household tasks because his wife or children were not around. '[N]ow I have you telling me about dog walking, washing dishes and you know what, I'd rather have him on the phone with some world leader than have him wash dishes because maybe his wife isn't there or his kids aren't ... you know,' Trump said. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Needless to say, there's nothing wrong with Pompeo & his family's hiring help to wash the dishes & walk the dog. What's wrong, and against the law, is asking or ordering federal employees -- who have other jobs -- to carry out his & his wife's personal errands. As for Pompeo's being a "brilliant guy," for a brilliant guy, he sure is clueless -- or claims to be -- about what's going on under his nose. ~~~

     ~~~ Carol Morello of the Washington Post: "In a telephone interview, Pompeo said the decision was not an act of political retaliation, because he did not know beforehand that the official, Steve Linick, was investigating allegations that he had an aide run personal errands for him." ~~~

~~~ John Hudson & Carol Morello of the Washington Post: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his top aides blasted the State Department's ousted internal watchdog on Monday, accusing him of mishandling leaks to the media and failing to promote Pompeo's mission statement to employees. The remarks attempted to fill in the gaps in the mysterious firing of Steve Linick by President Trump late Friday night, but they also raised new questions about the dismissal and exposed a sharp divide among State Department employees.... Pompeo told The Washington Post that he advised Trump to fire Linick because he was not 'performing a function' that was 'additive for the State Department.' One of Pompeo's top aides, Brian Bulatao..., said the secretary was frustrated with Linick's indifference to an 'ethos statement' Pompeo formulated for employees last year that includes mottos such as 'I am a champion of American diplomacy.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: It sounds as if Pompeo was upset because Linick wouldn't join all the other girls & boys in raising their right hands & pledging in unison, "I am a champion of American diplomacy," like a troop of Cub Scouts. ~~~

~~~ Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, the most senior Republican in the Senate, is pressing President Trump to explain why he fired the State Department inspector general, noting that Trump's notice on Friday that he would remove Steve Linick after 30 days did not include an explanation as required by law. Grassley in a letter to Trump Monday warned inspectors general 'should be free from partisan political interference, from either the Executive or Legislative branch.' He is asking Trump to 'provide a detailed reasonin' for the removal of Linick no later than June 1.'" Mrs. McC: June 1? Really?

Morgant Chalfant of the Hill: "Attorney General William Barr said Monday that he does not expect a criminal investigation of former President Obama or former Vice President Joe Biden to result from the probe undertaken by U.S Attorney John Durham. 'Based on the information I have today, I don't expect Mr. Durham's work will lead to a criminal investigation of either man,' Barr told reporters at the Justice Department. 'Our concern over potential criminality is focused on others.' Barr was asked about President Trump's recent remarks encouraging investigations into Obama and other officials from the previous administration. The president suggested they were involved in criminal wrongdoing in connection with the FBI's investigation into Russian interference.... 'What happened to the president [Trump] in the 2016 election and throughout the first two years of his administration was abhorrent,' Barr told reporters Monday. 'It was a grave injustice and it was unprecedented in American history.'" A Washington Post report is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: So, at least so far, Barr has decided fake "Obamagate' is a bridge too far. We'll see if he changes his mind in the weeks before the November election.

** Bill Barr Exonerates Russia. Sonam Sheth of Business Insider: "The Justice Department on Monday moved to drop its case against 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities who were indicted as part of the former special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 US election.... Notably, the filing continued to say that based on consideration of these circumstances, 'and particularly in light of recent events and a change in the balance of the government's proof due to a classification determination,' and other details outlined in a classified addendum to the filing, the Justice Department decided to drop its case." (Emphasis mine) --safari: How did this go under the radar in MSM? ~~~

~~~ Mary Ilyushina and Marshall Cohen of CNN: "Russian oligarch Yevegeny Prigozhin, who bankrolled the troll farm that meddled in the 2016 presidential election, took a victory lap on Tuesday after the US Justice Department dropped charges against two of his companies, weeks before a scheduled trial.... President Donald Trump also trumpeted the development, even though it was a setback for his own Justice Department.... One of the tweets read, 'How embarrassing for Team Mueller.' The criminal case against Prigozhin and his companies, including Concord Management and Consulting, was initiated by Mueller in 2018 and was slated to go to trial next month. But prosecutors abruptly announced Monday that they were scrapping the charges." --s

Lindsey Will Have His Witch Hunt Anyway. Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham is preparing to ask his colleagues on the panel for blanket permission to subpoena dozens of Obama and Trump administration officials connected to the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election -- and contacts between ... Donald Trump's team and Russians. His proposal would permit the South Carolina Republican to demand testimony and documents from figures involved in the intelligence associated with the launch of the Russia investigation, including Attorney General Loretta Lynch, former national intelligence director James Clapper, former CIA Director John Brennan and former FBI Director James Comey." Mrs. McC: They should all refuse to show up until Trump releases every person Congressional Democrats have called to testify on everything.

Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "A retired federal judge [John Gleeson] appointed to oppose the Justice Department's bid to dismiss former national security adviser Michael Flynn's guilty plea to lying to the FBI requested on Monday a hearing for oral arguments after he briefs the court. The request for a hearing sets the stage for a pitched legal and political battle triggered by Attorney General William P. Barr's April 30 move to undo the conviction of the highest-ranking adviser to President Trump convicted in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's Russia investigation.... Also Monday, in one of the first publicly released draft filings to advise the court, more than 960 former Justice Department prosecutors accused Barr of appearing to serve the president's personal political interests. The prosecutors ... said in the filing that Barr violated his oath to faithfully execute the law and helped Trump undermine the Constitution by giving an aide impunity to lie to government investigators." ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE. Rebecca Klar of the Hill: "Fifteen Republican state attorneys general are urging the judge ruling over the case to dismiss it, showing support for the Trump administration's move to drop the charges against the president's first national security adviser. In a briefing filed Monday, the attorneys general said the court has created a problem of 'inserting itself into the Justice Department's exercise of prosecutorial discretion.'"

Katie Benner & Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "Federal investigators found cellphone evidence that links Al Qaeda to last year's deadly shooting at a United States military base in Pensacola, Fla., according to two American officials briefed on the investigation. The F.B.I. found that the gunman, Second Lt. Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, a Saudi Air Force cadet training with the American military, had communicated with a Qaeda operative who had encouraged the attacks, according to the two officials, who were not authorized to speak about it publicly ahead of an 11 a.m. news conference by Attorney General William P. Barr. The F.B.I. uncovered the links after recently bypassing the security features on at least one of Mr. Alshamrani's two iPhones without help from Apple, according to the officials." A CNN report is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Donna Cassata of the Washington Post: "Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) will serve as the acting chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, replacing Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), who stepped aside last week after FBI agents seized his cellphone, seeking evidence related to stock sales he made before the coronavirus pandemic crashed global markets..., Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said...."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Eric Boehlert of Press Run: "When CBS News last year hired a Fox News reporter [Catherine Herridge] who had been aggressively wrong about the Benghazi story for three straight years, it was not a good sign.... She basically ran an ongoing misinformation campaign on behalf of the GOP. (Her Twitter feed still serves as one.)... Herridge has emerged in recent days as a media point person as the White House tries frantically to smear former President Barack Obama with the hollow claims of a 'Obamagate' scandal.... Herridge recently treated Attorney General Bill Barr to a softball interview after he ... dropped charges against ... Michael Flynn.... Then Herridge was handed a Republicans 'scoop,' which peddled the absurd claim that Obama and Vice President Biden were part of this vast, left-wing, Deep State conspiracy to ensnare the Trump presidency.... Somehow, CBS looked at her resume and decided they needed Herridge on their team." --s