The Commentariat -- August 3, 2020

Afternoon Update:

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Monday are here. The Washington Post's live updates for Monday are here: @11:35 am "White House staffers received an email Monday notifying them of a new mandatory system of random coronavirus testing for those working throughout the executive complex, according to senior administration officials. In addition to the stepped-up testing, those expected to come into contact with President Trump and Vice President Pence will continue to be tested beforehand.... Another official said that random testing has been occurring for several months, but until now it had been voluntary. The new move comes a week after the White House announced that Robert C. O'Brien, Trump's national security adviser, had tested positive for the coronavirus." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McC: Mind you, Trump is still complaining that there's too much testing going on in the U.S.

Max Cohen of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Monday slammed White House coronavirus task force coordinator Deborah Birx after the public health official said the pandemic was 'extraordinarily widespread.' Trump's attack comes shortly after top White House officials admonished House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for undermining trust in Birx. 'So Crazy Nancy Pelosi said horrible things about Dr. Deborah Birx, going after her because she was too positive on the very good job we are doing on combatting the China Virus, including Vaccines & Therapeutics,' Trump wrote on Twitter. 'In order to counter Nancy, Deborah took the bait & hit us. Pathetic!' Politico reported last week that Pelosi tore into Birx in closed-door negotiations with administration officials, saying the White House was in 'horrible hands' with the public health expert leading the coronavirus taskforce. Pelosi continued her criticism of Birx on Sunday during an appearance on ABC. Past reporting by The New York Times presented Birx as a coronavirus optimist who told Trump that the United States was on its way to flattening its curve like Italy and that outbreaks were easing." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Birx complained on CNN yesterday that the Times did not contact her for comment when the paper's reporters wrote weeks back that in mid-April, "Dr. Birx was the chief evangelist for the idea that the threat from the virus was fading." But according to Maggie Haberman, who was one of the story's five writers and who spoke today on CNN, the Times did contact Birx before publication, and Brix declined to comment. In fact, in the story, dated July 18, the authors wrote, "Dr. Birx declined to be interviewed." So besides being Dr. Pollyanna, Birx is a liar. As Trump says, "Pathetic!" ~~~

~~~ Betsy Klein of CNN: "While Trump and other top White House officials have publicly attacked Dr. Anthony Fauci, the tweet marked the first time Birx ... publicly drew Trump's ire. The dust-up comes as the country continues to be ravaged by coronavirus, with more than 150,000 US citizens dead and more than 4 million cases. Trump has consistently lied and misled mostly in attempts to downplay concerns about the virus as he presses for schools and businesses to reopen." Mrs. McC: Worth noting, too, that Trump demeaned two older women in one tweet, calling one "crazy" and the other "pathetic." Trump believes women should "know their place" and not criticize or even disagree with a big, strong boy like him.

Mrs. McCrabbie: This morning when I posted the story about Trump's "signing a healthcare plan," I thought he probably had given some hapless junior G-man the job of coming up with a plan -- in two weeks' time! -- that would provide healthcare benefits only to white people in Trump country. Well, congrats to that junior G-man! Dan Diamond, et al., of Politico: "... Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order Monday aimed at boosting health care in rural areas, where struggling hospitals have faced worsening economic conditions during the pandemic." Now, it's true that people of every ethnic persuasion live in rural areas, but maybe the junior G-man figured out a way to direct funds to the "right" rural areas. Ah, yes: "Under the new plan, the federal Medicare agency will leverage its authority to test new pilot projects...." Whaddaya bet the "new pilot projects" are initiated in rural Iowa, not in the Mississippi Delta?

Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "If you spend much of your tenure openly subverting the nation's interests to your own -- while manipulating the levers of government in service of unabashedly corrupt and megalomaniacal ends -- then voters will ultimately grow wise to the scam. We are now learning, via an extraordinary new report in the New York Times, that many scientists fear that Trump will attempt the ultimate 'October surprise.' These scientists -- which include some inside the government -- worry that Trump will thoroughly corrupt the process designed to ensure the safety and efficacy of any new vaccine against the coronavirus." Sargent elaborates on why the scientists are right to be concerned, citing examples of how Trump has done similar things numerous times before.

Russia. Vladimir Soldatkin of Reuters (August 1): "Russia's health minister is preparing a mass vaccination campaign against the novel coronavirus for October, local news agencies reported on Saturday, after a vaccine completed clinical trials. Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said the Gamaleya Institute, a state research facility in Moscow, had completed clinical trials of the vaccine and paperwork is being prepared to register it, Interfax news agency reported. He said doctors and teachers would be the first to be vaccinated. 'We plan wider vaccinations for October,' Murashko was quoted as saying."

Quint Forgey of Politico: "... Donald Trump threatened legal action Monday after Nevada's Legislature passed a bill to mail ballots to all active voters, suggesting the measure would make it impossible for Republicans to win there in November's general election. 'In an illegal late night coup, Nevada's clubhouse Governor made it impossible for Republicans to win the state,' Trump wrote on Twitter. 'Post Office could never handle the Traffic of Mail-In Votes without preparation. Using Covid to steal the state. See you in Court!'" ~~~

~~~ Amy Gardner & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "President Trump's unfounded attacks on mail balloting are discouraging his own supporters from embracing the practice, according to polls and Republican leaders across the country, prompting growing alarm that one of the central strategies of his campaign is threatening GOP prospects in November. Multiple public surveys show a growing divide between Democrats and Republicans about the security of voting by mail, with Republicans saying they are far less likely to trust it in November. In addition, party leaders in several states said they are encountering resistance among GOP voters who are being encouraged to vote absentee while also seeing the president describe mail voting as 'rigged' and 'fraudulent.'"

William Rahbaum & Benjamin Weiser of the New York Times: "The Manhattan district attorney's office suggested on Monday that it has been investigating President Trump and his company for possible bank and insurance fraud, a significantly broader inquiry than the prosecutors have acknowledged in the past. The office of the district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., made the disclosure in a new federal court filing arguing Mr. Trump's accountants should have to comply with its subpoena seeking eight years of his personal and corporate tax returns. Mr. Trump has asked a judge to declare the subpoena invalid. The prosecutors did not directly identify the focus of their inquiry but said that 'undisputed' news reports last year about Mr. Trump's business practices make it clear that the office had a legal basis for the subpoena.... The clash over the subpoena comes less than a month after the Supreme Court, in a major ruling on the limits of presidential power, cleared the way for Mr. Vance's prosecutors to seek Mr. Trump's financial records."

Elizabeth Drew, in a New York Times op-ed, argues that the presidential debates should be scrapped: "The debates have never made sense as a test for presidential leadership."

~~~~~~~~~~

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Sunday are here.

Erica Werner & Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration is looking at options for unilateral actions it can take to try to address some of the economic fallout caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic if no relief deal is reached with Congress, according to two people with knowledge of the deliberations. The discussions are a reflection of officials' increasingly pessimistic outlook for the talks on Capitol Hill. The White House remains in close contact with Democratic leaders, but a wide gulf remains and deadlines have already been missed." ~~~

~~~ Erica Werner & Eli Rosenberg of the Washington Post: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows made clear in separate interviews Sunday that they remain far apart on a coronavirus relief deal that would restore expired unemployment benefits for millions of Americans. The three spoke a day after a rare weekend meeting at the Capitol yielded some signs of progress. They plan to meet again on Monday, but pointed to multiple areas of disagreement that suggest consensus remains elusive, even while saying they would continue to work toward a deal." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: It was so heartening to see Steve Mnuchin, a multimillionaire, on the teevee expressing deep concern that a few Americans might receive more money in unemployment benefits than they earned in their crap jobs, knowing that multimillionaire Mitch McConnell would not bring a bill to the Senate floor that displeased Mnuchin & his self-proclaimed billionaire boss Donald Trump, who was taking another day off to play golf at a cost to taxpayers of about $600,000. (It would take someone earning even a $15/hour wage almost 20 years to earn as much as it's cost us for each of Trump's regular weekend golf outings.)

Veronica Stracqualursi of CNN: "Dr. Deborah Birx on Sunday said the US is in a new phase in its fight against the coronavirus pandemic, saying that the deadly virus is more widespread than when it first took hold in the US earlier this year. 'What we are seeing today is different from March and April. It is extraordinarily widespread. It's into the rural as equal urban areas,' Birx, the White House coronavirus task force coordinator, told CNN's Dana Bash on 'State of the Union.'... Asked if it was time to reset the federal government response to the pandemic, Birx said, 'I think the federal government reset about five to six weeks ago when we saw this starting to happen across the south.' But roughly six weeks ago, Vice President Mike Pence, who heads the coronavirus task force, declared in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that the US is 'winning the fight' and there 'isn't a "second wave.'" Birx did not address those claims on Sunday." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Doina Chiacu & Christopher Bing of Reuters: "U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Sunday she does not have confidence in White House coronavirus task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx, linking her to disinformation about the virus spread by ... Donald Trump. 'I think the president has been spreading disinformation about the virus and she is his appointee so, I don't have confidence there, no,' Speaker Pelosi told ABC's 'This Week' when asked if she has confidence in Birx. Birx, asked about Pelosi's comment during an interview with CNN's 'State of the Union,' said she had great respect for Pelosi and attributed the criticism to a New York Times article on the White House pandemic response that described Birx as having embraced overly optimistic assessments on the virus." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Anne Gearan, et al., of the Washington Post: "'We're signing a health-care plan within two weeks, a full and complete health-care plan,' Trump pledged in a July 19 interview with 'Fox News Sunday' anchor Chris Wallace. Now, with the two weeks expiring Sunday, there is no evidence that the administration has designed a replacement for the 2010 health-care law. Instead, there is a sense of familiarity. Repeatedly and starting before he took office, Trump has vowed that he is on the cusp of delivering a full-fledged plan to reshape the health-care system along conservative lines and replace the central domestic achievement of Barack Obama's presidency. No total revamp has ever emerged." A related HuffPost story is here. Mrs. McC: What does "signing a plan" even mean? ~~~

     ~~~ Thanks to PD Pepe for the link to the HuffPost story & video.

** Daniel Villarreal of the New Civil Rights Movement, republished in the Raw Story: "A new report from the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform found that the Trump Administration repeatedly delayed an Obama-era order from the health-technology company Philips for 10,000 ventilators, wasting half-a-billion dollars for machines that won't even arrive until September 2022. According to the report, in 2014, the Obama Administration signed a contract with Philips to add 10,000 ventilators to the nation's stockpile by June 2019. Though Philips delayed the fulfillment until November 2019, had they been held to that deadline, the nation would have had plenty of ventilators for when the coronavirus epidemic started in March 2020." The story gets worse. The House Oversight Committee report is here. ~~~~

      ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: And let's not forget that Trump claimed repeatedly that "We had a ventilator problem that was caused by the fact that we weren't left ventilators by a previous administration. The cupboards were bare, as I say often." It turns out that in addition to the 10,000 the Trumpies paid 5 times as much for as Obama's contract provided, there was an additional 16,000+ stockpiled units.

Sapna Maheshwari of the New York Times: "Lord & Taylor, the floundering department store company that traces its roots to 1826, on Sunday became the latest retailer to file for bankruptcy protection as the coronavirus outbreak accelerates the demise of chains that were already teetering. The chain was acquired last year by the clothing rental start-up Le Tote in an unusual $100 million deal. Now Le Tote and Lord & Taylor are both seeking Chapter 11 protection from their creditors in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia."

Michigan. Craig Mauger of the Detroit News: "A Michigan senator who has been a vocal critic of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's handling of COVID-19 says he tested positive for the virus after going through a screening process because of his service in the Army National Guard. Sen. Tom Barrett, R-Charlotte, who is viewed as a rising star in the Republican Party, sponsored a bill in April to repeal one of the two state laws that allow the governor to declare emergencies. He becomes the third Michigan lawmaker to test positive for the coronavirus after Democratic State Reps. Tyrone Carter and Karen Whitsett of Detroit got infected early in the pandemic and recovered.... The Senate Business Office plans to contact individuals with whom Barrett had "close and/or sustained" contact, according to the notice.... The Senate plans to take 'special steps to disinfect any Senate spaces that Sen. Barrett may have visited or been present in.'" Mrs. McC: Of course Barrett is "a rising star in the Republican Party." He rejects science, he's unreasonable and he's irresponsible. Also too, he's white.

Jesse Drucker & David Enrich of the New York Times: "Deutsche Bank has opened an internal investigation into the longtime personal banker of President Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, over a 2013 real estate transaction between the banker and a company part-owned by Mr. Kushner. In June 2013, the banker, Rosemary Vrablic, and two of her Deutsche Bank colleagues purchased a Park Avenue apartment for about $1.5 million from a company called Bergel 715 Associates.... Mr. Kushner ... disclosed in an annual personal financial report late Friday that he and his wife, Ivanka Trump, had received $1 million to $5 million last year from Bergel 715.... Mr. Kushner ... held an ownership stake in the entity at the time of the transaction with Ms. Vrablic. When Ms. Vrablic and her colleagues bought the apartment..., Mr. Trump and Mr. Kushner were her clients at Deutsche Bank. They had received roughly $190 million in loans from the bank and would seek hundreds of millions of dollars more. Typically banks restrict employees from doing personal business with clients because of the potential for conflicts between the employees' interests and those of the bank. Deutsche Bank said it had not been aware that Ms. Vrablic and her colleagues had done business with a company part-owned by Mr. Kushner until being contacted by The New York Times."

Ryan Browne of CNN: "A controversial Trump administration pick for a top Pentagon post [to become the Department of Defense's undersecretary of defense for policy], retired Army Brig. Gen. Anthony Tata, has been placed into a senior role [as the official Performing the Duties of the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Policy] days after his nomination hearing was canceled amid bipartisan opposition to his nomination.... When the nomination hearing for Tata was canceled Thursday..., Donald Trump told aides the plan was to put him in a position he could have without a confirmation hearing.... The role he'll be in now is essentially the deputy of the role he had been nominated for. It was previously reported that Trump had a call with Senate Armed Services Chairman Jim Inhofe the evening prior and that the Oklahoma Republican bluntly told the President his nominee was in trouble. Tata was expected to face a tough nomination hearing on Thursday before the committee after CNN's KFile reported that he made numerous Islamophobic and offensive comments and promoted conspiracy theories." --safari

Presidential Race

Zachary Warmbrodt of Politico: "Rep. Karen Bass on Sunday walked back 2016 comments praising Cuban leader Fidel Castro, as scrutiny of her views toward the Communist government threatened her potential selection as former Vice President Joe Biden's running mate." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Evan Semones of Politico: "Rep. Karen Bass, a top-tier contender to be Joe Biden's running mate, on Saturday sought to clarify remarks she made in 2010 praising the Church of Scientology.... In her remarks, Bass called on treating humans with respect and fighting oppression, but also spoke highly of the controversial group and its founder, L. Ron Hubbard." (Also linked yesterday.)

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I wish to clarify or walk back every damned thing I ever said prior to August 2020. One or more of the following applies: "I never said that." "I was misquoted." "Obviously, I was just kidding." "I said 'was' when I meant 'wasn't.'" "My views have evolved." "Since that time, new information has come to light." "I don't recall." "I'll have to get back to you on that." "Fake news." "That's a nasty question." Update: "I have different brain cells now." (See Patrick's comment near the end of yesterday's thread for context.)

Chris D'Angelo & Alexander Kaufman of Mother Jones: "Ken Salazar, the Obama administration's first-term interior secretary, took a job at an industry law and lobbying firm just months after leaving office. There, he refashioned himself as an oil champion and avoided disclosing the companies that paid him to lobby. Now Salazar has a new role: adviser to Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.... [A]s Biden seeks to draw stark contrasts with President Donald Trump, government watchdogs say Salazar threatens to undermine the campaign's promises to bring ethics back to Washington, and could help Republicans obscure the Trump administration's uniquely egregious record of self -- dealing and pandering to polluters." --s

Isaac Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post: "The apparent convergence of Trump's inner circle with an ever-widening cohort of QAnon believers is alarming to scholars of extremism and digital communications.... [Most] worrisome, these observers say, is that the president's messaging is increasingly indistinguishable from some key elements of the conspiracy theory.... As the election has drawn closer, actions by the president and his associates have brought [QAnon cultists] more directly into the fold. The Trump campaign's director of press communications, for example, went on a QAnon program and urged listeners to 'sign up and attend a Trump Victory Leadership Initiative training.' QAnon iconography has appeared in official campaign advertisements targeting battleground states. And the White House's director of social media and deputy chief of staff for communications, Dan Scavino, has gone from endorsing praise from QAnon accounts to posting their memes himself. The president has repeatedly elevated its digital foot soldiers, sharing their tweets more than a dozen times on the Fourth of July alone. His middle son, Eric, who is 36 and a campaign surrogate, recently posted, and then deleted, an image drumming up support for his father's Tulsa rally that included a giant 'Q' and the [QAnon motto] text, 'Where we go one, we go all.'" ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: How crazy is Trump? So crazy that a story about his adopting insane conspiracy theories barely makes a blip. His endorsement of a woman who preaches demon sperm & space alien DNA is so last week. Clorox cocktails? I barely remember that.

"We Don't Know WTF We're Doing" -- RNC Officials. Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "The Republican National Committee says no final decision has been made about whether President Trump's renomination will be held in private at the GOP convention, contradicting previous reports that restrictions on crowd size during the coronavirus pandemic would prevent members of the press from attending. Two RNC officials insisted Sunday that they are still working through the logistics and press coverage options, a break with a statement reportedly made by a GOP convention spokesperson the previous day." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Senate Races

Kansas. James Arkin of Politico: "During [a] presentation [to GOP operatives by the] National Republican Senatorial Committee executive director Kevin McLaughlin, McLaughlin warned that if hardline conservative Kris Kobach wins next Tuesday's Kansas Senate primary, it could doom the GOP Senate majority -- and perhaps even hurt ... Donald Trump in a state that hasn't voted Democratic since 1964.... Democrats haven't won a Senate race in Kansas since the 1930s, but with Kobach on the ballot, Republicans would be forced to sink millions into trying to defend a seat party officials believe should have stayed safely in their column.... Democrat Barbara Bollier, a state senator and former Republican, faces only nominal opposition in her primary and has outraised all of her potential GOP foes."

Tennessee. Dave Weigel & Paul Kane of the Washington Post: Tennessee GOP Senate candidate"... Bill Hagerty, most recently ambassador to Japan, has the full backing of President Trump and appeared to be cruising to a victory in the primary, which would make him the prohibitive favorite to win the general election.... But Manny Sethi, a trauma surgeon who runs a health-care nonprofit, has caught a late burst of momentum in the race that drew the attention of Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.), both of whom endorsed Sethi. Cruz and Paul are backing candidates that they believe embody the more true version of Trumpism, more ideologically rooted as anti-immigration.... With the president focused on his own teetering reelection campaign these forces have felt more freedom to challenge candidates that Trump has endorsed or other establishment figures are supporting."

Nevada. Sam Metz of the AP: "State lawmakers passed a bill Sunday that would add Nevada to a growing list of states that will mail all active voters ballots ahead of the November election amid the coronavirus pandemic. The bill now heads to Gov. Steve Sisolak [D]. If he signs it as expected, Nevada will join seven states that plan on automatically sending voters mail ballots, including California and Vermont, which moved earlier this summer to adopt automatic mail ballot policies."

Mark Sherman of the AP: "Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is perhaps the most forthcoming member of the Supreme Court when it comes to telling the public about her many health issues. But she waited more than four months to reveal that her cancer had returned and that she was undergoing chemotherapy."

Kenneth Chang of the New York Times: "The first astronaut trip to orbit by a private company parachuted to a safe conclusion in the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday. It was the first water landing by NASA astronauts since 1975, when the agency's crews were still flying to and from orbit in the Apollo modules used for the historic American moon missions. Riding in a capsule built and operated by SpaceX, the rocket company founded by Elon Musk, two NASA astronauts -- Robert L. Behnken and Douglas G. Hurley -- splashed down near Pensacola, Fla., on Sunday afternoon. The Crew Dragon capsule, suspended under four giant billowing orange-and-white parachutes, settled upright into the water at a gentle pace of 15 miles per hour at 2:48 p.m. Eastern time.... More than an hour later, after Mr. Behnken and Mr. Hurley were helped out of the spacecraft, Mr. Hurley thanked the employees of NASA and SpaceX who helped make the mission a success." ~~~

~~~ The Washington Post has a livefeed on its front page of the SpaceX splashdown. The Post liveblogged the SpaceX landing here, and the New York Times liveblog is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Mike Isaac, et al., of the New York Times: "Microsoft said on Sunday that it would continue to pursue the purchase of TikTok in the United States after consulting with President Trump, clearing the way for a potential blockbuster deal between the software giant and the viral social media phenomenon. The announcement came as Mr. Trump has expressed repeated concerns about TikTok and national security in recent weeks because of the app's Chinese origins and backing; on Friday, Mr. Trump threatened to ban the app entirely within the United States, saying any decision could come as soon as Saturday. Those plans appeared to change after several of Mr. Trump's allies and Satya Nadella, the chief executive of Microsoft, spoke over the weekend with the president." Mrs. McC: Nadella probably promised Trump TikTok would ban Sarah Cooper.

Earth

Harry Cockburn of The Independent (UK): "The scientists who were among the first to declare the world's sixth mass extinction event was already underway in a 2015 study, have published new research revealing the rate at which wildlife is being destroyed is accelerating and is a direct threat to human civilisation. Stanford biologist Paul Ehrlich and colleagues at other institutions report in the new paper that the extinction rate is likely much higher than previously thought and is eroding nature's ability to provide vital services to people.... The huge increase in extinctions and rate of wildlife destruction will have a disastrous impact on humans too.... 'What we do to deal with the current extinction crisis in the next two decades will define the fate of millions of species,' said study lead author Gerardo Ceballos, a senior researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico's Institute of Ecology. 'We are facing our final opportunity to ensure that the many services nature provides us do not get irretrievably sabotaged.'" --s

News Ledes

Weather Channel: "Tropical Storm Isaias (ees-ah-EE-ahs) is expected to regain hurricane strength before it pushes ashore into the Carolinas later Monday with strong winds, flooding rainfall and storm surge flooding. The storm will then spread its impacts up the East Coast as far north as New England through Tuesday night. A hurricane warning has been issued for a portion of the upper South Carolina and lower North Carolina coasts since Isaias is forecast to make landfall as a Category 1 hurricane tonight. The hurricane warning includes Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and Wilmington, North Carolina. Tropical storm warnings extend as far north as Watch Hill, Rhode Island. Tropical storm watches extend as far north as Maine." ~~~

     ~~~ New Lede: "Hurricane Isaias (ees-ah-EE-ahs) is expected to push ashore into the Carolinas late Monday or early Tuesday with life-threatening storm surge flooding, damaging winds and flooding rainfall. Some additional strengthening is possible before landfall and Isaias will only slowly weaken as it spreads those impacts up the East Coast as far north as New England through early Wednesday."

New York Times: "John Hume, a moderate Roman Catholic politician who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his dogged and ultimately successful campaign to end decades of bloodshed in his native Northern Ireland, died on Monday, the Social Democratic and Labour Party said. He was 83."

The Commentariat -- August 2, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Veronica Stracqualursi of CNN: "Dr. Deborah Birx on Sunday said the US is in a new phase in its fight against the coronavirus pandemic, saying that the deadly virus is more widespread than when it first took hold in the US earlier this year. 'What we are seeing today is different from March and April. It is extraordinarily widespread. It's into the rural as equal urban areas,' Birx, the White House coronavirus task force coordinator, told CNN's Dana Bash on 'State of the Union.'... Asked if it was time to reset the federal government response to the pandemic, Birx said, 'I think the federal government reset about five to six weeks ago when we saw this starting to happen across the south.' But roughly six weeks ago, Vice President Mike Pence ... declared in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that the US is 'winning the fight' and there 'isn't a "second wave."' Birx did not address those claims on Sunday." ~~~

~~~ Doina Chiacu & Christopher Bing of Reuters: "U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Sunday she does not have confidence in White House coronavirus task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx, linking her to disinformation about the virus spread by ... Donald Trump. 'I think the president has been spreading disinformation about the virus and she is his appointee so, I don't have confidence there, no,' Speaker Pelosi told ABC's 'This Week' when asked if she has confidence in Birx. Birx, asked about Pelosi's comment during an interview with CNN's 'State of the Union,' said she had great respect for Pelosi and attributed the criticism to a New York Times article on the White House pandemic response that described Birx as having embraced overly optimistic assessments on the virus."

The Washington Post has a livefeed on its front page of the SpaceX splashdown. The Post is liveblogging events here, and the New York Times is liveblogging developments here.

"We Don't Know WTF We're Doing" -- RNC Officials. Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "The Republican National Committee says no final decision has been made about whether President Trump's renomination will be held in private at the GOP convention, contradicting previous reports that restrictions on crowd size during the coronavirus pandemic would prevent members of the press from attending. Two RNC officials insisted Sunday that they are still working through the logistics and press coverage options, a break with a statement reportedly made by a GOP convention spokesperson the previous day."

Zachary Warmbrodt of Politico: "Rep. Karen Bass on Sunday walked back 2016 comments praising Cuban leader Fidel Castro, as scrutiny of her views toward the Communist government threatened her potential selection as former Vice President Joe Biden's running mate." ~~~

~~~ Evan Semones of Politico: "Rep. Karen Bass, a top-tier contender to be Joe Biden's running mate, on Saturday sought to clarify remarks she made in 2010 praising the Church of Scientology.... In her remarks, Bass called on treating humans with respect and fighting oppression, but also spoke highly of the controversial group and its founder, L. Ron Hubbard." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I wish to clarify or walk back every damned thing I ever said prior to August 2020. One or more of the following applies: "I never said that." "I was misquoted." "Obviously, I was just kidding." "I said 'was' when I meant 'wasn't.'" "My views have evolved." "Since that time, new information has come to light." "I don't recall." "I'll have to get back to you on that." "Fake news." "That's a nasty question."

~~~~~~~~~~

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Saturday are here: "Hours after unemployment benefits for tens of millions of Americans lapsed, administration officials arrived on Capitol Hill on Saturday morning for a rare meeting with top congressional Democrats to discuss a coronavirus relief package and work to break an impasse over new aid as the American economy continues to shudder. Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, who hosted the meeting with Senator Chuck Schumer of New York in her Capitol Hill suite, emerged from the three-hour meeting -- the longest meeting held over the last six days -- and said the discussion 'was productive in terms of moving us forward,' but they remained far apart on a number of issues. They declined to offer specifics. Also in attendance were Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, and Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ AND what was the fake author of The Art of the Deal doing while Nancy & the boys were trying in vain to make a deal as millions of Americans were out of work and out of money? Maybe getting sick or evicted from their homes? Why, golfing at one of his clubs, of course. ~~~

~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Saturday are here: "July's infection total was more than double that of June and represents about 42 percent of the 4.5 million cases the country has logged since the outbreak started, according to tracking by The Washington Post.... 'July was definitely a disaster, and even though there was a lot more testing, the percent positivity was quite high in many areas, indicating that the rise in cases wasn't attributable solely to increased detection,' Ellie Murray, an epidemiologist at Boston University, told The Post. 'The U.S. has failed to take the opportunity that the summer could have presented to control this virus and is instead entering the fall in a disastrously bad position.'"

Julie Bosman, et al., of the New York Times: "First, the Pacific Northwest and the Northeast were hit hardest as the coronavirus tore through the nation. Then it surged across the South. Now the virus is again picking up dangerous speed in much of the Midwest -- and in cities from Mississippi to Florida to California that thought they had already seen the worst of it. As the United States rides what amounts to a second wave of cases, with daily new infections leveling off at an alarming higher mark, there is a deepening national sense that the progress made in fighting the pandemic is coming undone and no patch of America is safe. In Missouri, Wisconsin and Illinois, distressed government officials are retightening restrictions on residents and businesses, and sounding warnings about a surge in coronavirus-related hospitalizations. In the South and the West, several states are reporting their highest levels of new coronavirus cases, with outbreaks overwhelming urban and rural areas alike." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ ** Joel Achenbach, et al., of the Washington Post: "The coronavirus is spreading at dangerous levels across much of the United States, and public health experts are demanding a dramatic reset in the national response, one that recognizes that the crisis is intensifying and that current piecemeal strategies aren't working. This is a new phase of the pandemic, one no longer built around local or regional clusters and hot spots. It comes at an unnerving moment in which the economy suffered its worst collapse since the Great Depression, schools are rapidly canceling plans for in-person instruction and Congress has failed to pass a new emergency relief package. President Trump continues to promote fringe science, the daily death toll keeps climbing and the human cost of the virus in America has just passed 150,000 lives." (Also linked yesterday.)

Evan Semones of Politico: "... Donald Trump publicly rebuked Dr. Anthony Fauci on Saturday, forcefully rejecting the nation's top infectious disease expert's testimony on why the U.S. has experienced a renewed surge in coronavirus cases. 'Wrong!' Trump wrote in a retweet of a video where Fauci explained to a House subcommittee that the U.S. has seen more cases than European countries because it only shut down a fraction of its economy amid the pandemic. 'We have more cases because we have tested far more than any other country, 60,000,000. If we tested less, there would be less cases,' the president added."

Kate Bennett of CNN: "As ... Donald Trump continues to demand a return to in-person classes for schools around the country despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the school attended by his youngest son has received an order prohibiting on-campus learning for the start of the school year. Montgomery County, Maryland, on Friday issued a directive demanding that private schools not conduct in-person learning until October 1. Barron Trump, who is slated to enter 9th grade in the fall, attends St. Andrew's Episcopal School, a private school in Potomac, Maryland, part of Montgomery County."

Lauren Egan of NBC News: "Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., said Saturday he tested positive for the coronavirus, becoming the second lawmaker this week to announce they had contracted the virus. Grijalva said in a statement that he did not have any symptoms and felt fine. The congressman said he would self-quarantine at the recommendation of the Capitol's attending physician.... Grijalva had attended a a hearing of the Natural Resources Committee with [Rep. Louis] Gohmert [R-Texas] on Tuesday. During the hearing Gohmert [who has refused to wear a mask & tested positive this week] was at times seen without a face covering, sitting in close proximity to other lawmakers including Grijalva. 'While I cannot blame anyone directly for this, this week has shown that there are some Members of Congress who fail to take this crisis seriously,' Grijalva said in his statement, which did not mention Gohmert by name." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

William Saletan of Slate cites statistics that show Republican voters are not only becoming pro-mask, but also favoring mask mandates: "In a Yahoo News poll released on Friday, 57 percent of Republicans said it should be 'mandatory to wear a mask in public,' and 65 percent said it should be mandatory to do so in 'states with large numbers of new COVID-19 cases.'"

Germany. Not All Dummkopfs Are Americans. Loveday Morris & Miriam Berger of the Washington Post: "Thousands of largely mask-less demonstrators marched through central Berlin on Saturday chanting 'We are free people' to the beat of Queen's 'We Will Rock You' in a coronavirus restrictions protest that was also riddled with virus-related conspiracy theories. The demonstration took place despite recent warnings from German health officials about a new rise in infections.... Those present on Saturday included a hodgepodge of science skeptics, libertarians, Germany's far-right and constitutional loyalists, Reuters reported."

Alexander Vindman in a Washington Post op-ed: "At no point in my career or life have I felt our nation's values under greater threat and in more peril than at this moment. Our national government during the past few years has been more reminiscent of the authoritarian regime my family fled more than 40 years ago than the country I have devoted my life to serving. Our citizens are being subjected to the same kinds of attacks tyrants launch against their critics and political opponents. Those who choose loyalty to American values and allegiance to the Constitution over devotion to a mendacious president and his enablers are punished. The president recklessly downplayed the threat of the pandemic even as it swept through our country. The economic collapse that followed highlighted the growing income disparities in our society. Millions are grieving the loss of loved ones and many more have lost their livelihoods while the president publicly bemoans his approval ratings." Thanks to unwashed for the link. Mother Jones has a summary here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Maureen Dowd compares Donald Trump to Shakespeare's MacBeth. She cites liteary historian Stephen Greenblatt: "The tyrant, Macbeth and other plays suggest, is driven by a range of sexual anxieties: a compulsive need to prove his manhood, dread of impotence, a nagging apprehension that he will not be found sufficiently attractive or powerful, a fear of failure. Hence the penchant for bullying, the vicious misogyny, and the explosive violence. Hence, too, the vulnerability to taunts. Especially those bearing a latent or explicit sexual charge." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: I've sort of quit blaming Trump for the situation we're in. He's too stupid & crazy to be taken seriously. I blame Republicans who didn't stand up to him when it became clear early on that he could not lead a team to manage the pandemic. mike pence can't be fired; Trump put him in charge of the task force. pence should have actually taken charge. CDC director Robert Redfield should have gone on the teevee & showed some leadership, urging American to pay no attention to Trump. Mitch McConnell should have formed a coalition with Nancy Pelosi to take charge. ~~~

Victoria Vasseti & Norm Eisen in a Politico Magazine opinion piece: "... Attorney General William Barr has pivoted from establishment D.C. attorney -- sworn to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States == into Trump's family lawyer.... Is Election Day set by law? 'I've never looked into it,' Barr demurred in his testimony this week. Is it appropriate for the president to solicit or accept foreign assistance in an election? Barr's first answer: 'It depends what kind of assistance.' These are the answers of a man who has turned the once-proud Department of Justice into the president's personal law firm. That is contrary to every tradition of the Justice Department, but consistent with how Trump has operated for his entire professional life.... Barr has tried to muzzle Trump's critics, protect his friends, hide information from Congress and investigate those who investigated the president." ~~~

~~~ Bill Barr Is Preparing to Lie to You Again. Joshua Geltzer & Ryan Goodman in a Washington Post opinion piece: "... there's every reason to suspect [William] Barr will soon try again to mislead [the public] -- this time regarding one of his most important initiatives to date, an investigation by his handpicked U.S. attorney, John Durham -- in an effort to skew the 2020 elections.... Based on Barr's track record, it's important for the public to realize now that they can't take Barr's word on what Durham actually has found.... Barr has a history of mischaracterizing and even lying about the results of investigations before their details are public. That's what Barr did to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's investigation... [and when he falsely claimed SDNY U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman had resigned]. The urgency of bracing people to disbelieve the attorney general increased dramatically on Tuesday, as Barr was asked whether he'd apply long-standing Justice Department policy not to announce politically sensitive new cases before an election by holding Durham's findings until after Nov. 3. Barr's answer was, for him, a rarity in its clarity: He said no." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: IOW, Barr is getting ready to tell you that Durham found extensive evidence that Joe Biden is a criminal.

Shane Harris of the Washington Post: "A senior Department of Homeland Security official whose office compiled 'intelligence reports' about journalists and protesters in Portland, Ore., has been removed from his job, according to three people familiar with the matter. Brian Murphy, the acting undersecretary for intelligence and analysis, was reassigned to a new position elsewhere in the department, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity.... Acting homeland security secretary Chad Wolf made the decision on Friday, one person said." A Politico story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ It's Cooch's Fault! Betsy Swan of Politico: "Before the Department of Homeland Security's intelligence arm put together intelligence reports about journalists, its leaders advocated for less internal oversight of the office. Several months ago, the leadership of the Office of Intelligence and Analysis asked DHS's second-in-command, Ken Cuccinelli, to limit a department watchdog from regularly reviewing the intelligence products it produces and distributes. Cuccinelli signed off on the move, according to two sources..., which constrained the role of the department's Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties in approving the intelligence office's work. Before the policy change, I&A had to get the civil liberties watchdog's signoff to distribute its intelligence products to law enforcement partners.... In the months since the change, I&A's work has drawn withering criticism."

Elections 2020

GOP Bans Reporters. Frank Lockwood of Arkansas Online: "When Republicans renominate Donald Trump for president in Charlotte, N.C., on Aug. 24, journalists won't be on hand to witness it, a convention spokesperson told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette this week. Reporters also will be kept from the room when the Republican National Committee meets to conduct official party business. The spokesperson couldn't say whether C-SPAN, the nonprofit public service network, would be allowed to air the proceedings." ~~~

~~~ Kevin Freking of the AP: "The vote to renominate ... Donald Trump is set to be conducted in private later this month, without members of the press present, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Convention, citing the coronavirus. While Trump called off the public components of the convention in Florida last month, citing spiking cases of the virus across the country, 336 delegates are scheduled to gather in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Aug. 24 to formally vote to make Trump the GOP standard-bearer once more.... If the GOP decision stands, it will mark the first party nominating convention in modern history to be closed to reporters." Mrs. McC: Wolf Blitzer is exercised about this because freedom of the press, but I see it as just weird. Besides, if there's something crooked about Trump's nomination, it will leak fastly.

Georgia Senate Race. Tia Mitchell & Chris Joyner of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler [R-Ga.] granted an interview to a TV pundit associated with white supremacy and Nazism. The interview aired on One America News Network on Thursday and Loeffler promoted it heavily on her Facebook and Twitter accounts Friday.... Jewish groups and media observers pointed out that [interviewer Jack] Posobiec promotes conspiracy theories and once associated with white supremacists including Richard Spencer.... Posobiec has been criticized in the past for posting anti-Semitic tweets.... Loeffler's team would not say whether she was aware of Posobiec's ties to Nazism and anti-Semitism, and they condemned the AJC for asking about it....[When] she spoke to Posobiec..., [she] focused on her ongoing clash with the WNBA over its 'Black lives matter' campaign.... She is co-owner of the Atlanta Dream WNBA team. She has spent about a month criticizing players' decision to wear shirts saying 'Black lives matter' or other social justice slogans and those who walk off the court during the national anthem.... A Monmouth University poll released Wednesday shown Loeffler leading U.S. Rep. Doug Collins [R-Obnoxious] in the November special election with 26% of support compared to his 20%. That free-for-all race also includes Democrats and third-party candidates."

Brian Fung of CNN: "... Donald Trump said Friday night that he will ban the popular short-form video app TikTok from operating in the United States, rejecting a potential deal for Microsoft to buy the app from its Chinese-owned parent company. 'As far as TikTok is concerned, we're banning them from the United States,' Trump said to reporters while aboard Air Force One. Trump said he could use emergency economic powers or an executive order. It was not immediately clear what such an order would look like and what legal challenges it might face. 'Well, I have that authority,' he said. Earlier on Friday, people working on the issue within the Trump administration expected the President to sign an order to force ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns the social media platform, to sell the US operations of TikTok, according to a person familiar with the matter. The move was aimed at resolving policymakers' concerns that the foreign-owned TikTok may be a national security risk." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Tommy Christopher of Mediaite: "President Donald Trump rocked the social media world when he blurted out that he will be banning TikTok on Saturday, prompting a flood of reactions that pegged his decision to the dual humiliations of comedian Sarah Cooper and the pack of users who sabotaged his Tulsa rally." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Update. Dan Primack of Axios: "President Trump 'has a deal on his desk,' whereby Microsoft would lead an acquisition of 100% of the U.S. operations of TikTok, according to a source familiar with the negotiations.... Trump Friday night said he plans to ban TikTok, as India has done, over concerns that the app could be sharing U.S. user data with the Chinese government.... U.S. presidents don't typically have approval or veto power over merger agreements. But this situation is different because of the involvement of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS), which has been reviewing ByteDance's 2017 acquisition of U.S. app Musical.ly and eventually merged with TikTok."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Germany. Katrin Bennhold of the New York Times: "Germany has belatedly begun dealing with far-right networks that officials now say are far more extensive than they ever understood. The reach of far-right extremists into its armed forces is particularly alarming in a country that has worked to cleanse itself of its Nazi past and the horrors of the Holocaust. In July the government disbanded an entire company infiltrated by extremists in the nation's special forces.... But ... the problem of far-right infiltration is neither new nor confined to to ... Germany's elite special forces..., the KSK, or even the military. Far-right extremism penetrated multiple layers of German society in the years when the authorities underestimated the threat or were reluctant to countenance it fully, officials and lawmakers acknowledge. Now they are struggling to uproot it." Mrs. McC: Are we paying more attention to German extremism now because the country has become the leader of the free world?

News Ledes

Weather Channel: "Isaias (ees-ah-EE-ahs) is moving on its way to Florida's East Coast, now as a tropical storm, before tracking up the East Coast as far north as New England in the first half of the week ahead. Winds have decreased slightly in Isaias since Saturday afternoon as the storm fights with dry air and wind shear, and tries to recover from interaction with the Bahamas' Andros Island. A hurricane warning is in effect from Boca Raton to the Flagler/Volusia County Line in Florida. A hurricane warning means that hurricane conditions are expected within the warning area within 36 hours." ~~~

~~~ On its front page, the Miami Herald says it is providing unlimited access to Hurricane Isaias stories. It's not clear from the blurb whether or not you have to sign up for access. ~~~

~~~ Update. Washington Post: "Tropica Storm Isaias is skirting along Florida's east coast and, through Sunday night, will unleash scattered areas of strong winds, heavy rain, and, along the shore, rough surf. But the storm, which has spared the Sunshine State from its most severe weather, is ... set to charge up the entire East Coast, crashing ashore in the Carolinas Monday night, before surging up the rest of the Eastern Seaboard from Virginia to Maine and exiting late Wednesday. Tropical storm warnings and watches stretch from the Florida coast to Long Island, including Norfolk, Va., the Chesapeake Bay and Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, coastal New Jersey, and New York City. Heavy rains are predicted to drench large areas of the Southeast, Mid-Atlantic, as well as New England regions."

Washington Post: "The launch two months ago went about as smoothly as possible, flying American astronauts into orbit from U.S. soil for the first time since 2011. And SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft docked so gracefully with the International Space Station that NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley didn't even feel it. Now they are coming home.... [Behnken and Hurley] boarded their Endeavour spacecraft and undocked from the station at 7:35 p.m. Eastern time Saturday. [They are] aiming [to splash down at] a site in the Gulf of Mexico near Pensacola in the Florida Panhandle.... Splashdown Sunday is scheduled for 2:48 p.m."

New York Times: "Wilford Brimley, a portly actor with a walrus mustache who found his niche playing cantankerous coots in 'Absence of Malice,' 'The Natural,' 'Cocoon' and other films, died on Saturday at age 85.:

The Commentariat -- August 1, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Lauren Egan of NBC News: "Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., said Saturday he tested positive for the coronavirus, becoming the second lawmaker this week to announce they had contracted the virus. Grijalva said in a statement that he did not have any symptoms and felt fine. The congressman said he would self-quarantine at the recommendation of the Capitol's attending physician.... Grijalva had attended a a hearing of the Natural Resources Committee with [Rep. Louis] Gohmert [R-Texas] on Tuesday. During the hearing Gohmert [who has refused to wear a mask & tested positive this week] was at times seen without a face covering, sitting in close proximity to other lawmakers including Grijalva. 'While I cannot blame anyone directly for this, this week has shown that there are some Members of Congress who fail to take this crisis seriously,' Grijalva said in his statement, which did not mention Gohmert by name."

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Saturday are here: "Hours after unemployment benefits for tens of millions of Americans lapsed, administration officials arrived on Capitol Hill on Saturday morning for a rare meeting with top congressional Democrats to discuss a coronavirus relief package and work to break an impasse over new aid as the American economy continues to shudder. Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, who hosted the meeting with Senator Chuck Schumer of New York in her Capitol Hill suite, emerged from the three-hour meeting -- the longest meeting held over the last six days -- and said the discussion 'was productive in terms of moving us forward,' but they remained far apart on a number of issues. They declined to offer specifics. Also in attendance were Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, and Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary."

Julie Bosman, et al., of the New York Times: "First, the Pacific Northwest and the Northeast were hit hardest as the coronavirus tore through the nation. Then it surged across the South. Now the virus is again picking up dangerous speed in much of the Midwest -- and in cities from Mississippi to Florida to California that thought they had already seen the worst of it. As the United States rides what amounts to a second wave of cases, with daily new infections leveling off at an alarming higher mark, there is a deepening national sense that the progress made in fighting the pandemic is coming undone and no patch of America is safe. In Missouri, Wisconsin and Illinois, distressed government officials are retightening restrictions on residents and businesses, and sounding warnings about a surge in coronavirus-related hospitalizations. In the South and the West, several states are reporting their highest levels of new coronavirus cases, with outbreaks overwhelming urban and rural areas alike." ~~~

~~~ Joel Achenbach, et al., of the Washington Post: "The coronavirus is spreading at dangerous levels across much of the United States, and public health experts are demanding a dramatic reset in the national response, one that recognizes that the crisis is intensifying and that current piecemeal strategies aren't working. This is a new phase of the pandemic, one no longer built around local or regional clusters and hot spots. It comes at an unnerving moment in which the economy suffered its worst collapse since the Great Depression, schools are rapidly canceling plans for in-person instruction and Congress has failed to pass a new emergency relief package. President Trump continues to promote fringe science, the daily death toll keeps climbing and the human cost of the virus in America has just passed 150,000 lives."

Alexander Vindman in a Washington Post op-ed: "At no point in my career or life have I felt our nation's values under greater threat and in more peril than at this moment. Our national government during the past few years has been more reminiscent of the authoritarian regime my family fled more than 40 years ago than the country I have devoted my life to serving. Our citizens are being subjected to the same kinds of attacks tyrants launch against their critics and political opponents. Those who choose loyalty to American values and allegiance to the Constitution over devotion to a mendacious president and his enablers are punished. The president recklessly downplayed the threat of the pandemic even as it swept through our country. The economic collapse that followed highlighted the growing income disparities in our society. Millions are grieving the loss of loved ones and many more have lost their livelihoods while the president publicly bemoans his approval ratings." Thanks to unwashed for the link. Mother Jones has a summary here.

Shane Harris of the Washington Post: "A senior Department of Homeland Security official whose office compiled 'intelligence reports' about journalists and protesters in Portland, Ore., has been removed from his job, according to three people familiar with the matter. Brian Murphy, the acting undersecretary for intelligence and analysis, was reassigned to a new position elsewhere in the department, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel matter. Acting homeland security secretary Chad Wolf made the decision on Friday, one person said." A Politico story is here.

Brian Fung of CNN: "... Donald Trump said Friday night that he will ban the popular short-form video app TikTok from operating in the United States, rejecting a potential deal for Microsoft to buy the app from its Chinese-owned parent company. 'As far as TikTok is concerned, we're banning them from the United States,' Trump said to reporters while aboard Air Force One. Trump said he could use emergency economic powers or an executive order. It was not immediately clear what such an order would look like and what legal challenges it might face. 'Well, I have that authority,' he said. Earlier on Friday, people working on the issue within the Trump administration expected the President to sign an order to force ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns the social media platform, to sell the US operations of TikTok, according to a person familiar with the matter. The move was aimed at resolving policymakers' concerns that the foreign-owned TikTok may be a national security risk." ~~~

~~~ Tommy Christopher of Mediaite: "President Donald Trump rocked the social media world when he blurted out that he will be banning TikTok on Saturday, prompting a flood of reactions that pegged his decision to the dual humiliations of comedian Sarah Cooper and the pack of users who sabotaged his Tulsa rally."

~~~~~~~~~~

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar & Matthew Perrone of the AP: "Dr. Anthony Fauci said Friday that he remains confident that a coronavirus vaccine will be ready by early next year, telling lawmakers that a quarter-million Americans already have volunteered to take part in clinical trials.... Don't look for a mass nationwide vaccination right away, Fauci told lawmakers. There will be a priority list based on recommendations from scientific advisers. Topping the list could be critical workers, such as as medical personnel, or vulnerable groups of people such as older adults with other underlying health problems.... Officials testifying with Fauci at a contentious House hearing acknowledged that the U.S. remains unable to deliver all COVID-19 test results within two or three days, and they jointly pleaded with Americans to comply with basic precautions such as wearing masks, avoiding crowds, and washing their hands frequently." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Carol Morello of the Washington Post: "The failure of the United States to stem the ferocious spread of the coronavirus was on stark display Friday as top administration health officials appearing before a House panel acknowledged lengthy testing delays and a hodgepodge of state policies that protected no more than half the country with restrictions aimed at stopping more infections.... Anthony S. Fauci ... told the panel that a 'diversity of response' from states had hampered efforts to bring down the number of new infections. In contrast, he said, many European nations went into near-total lockdowns." MEANWHILE, Donald Trump was hanging out in the White House trash-treating Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) with disinformation about Clyburn's accurate data. The article is free to nonsubscribers. ~~~

~~~ So, why exactly, was no national testing plan developed? Well, actually there was. But the White House dropped it. And for such good reasons: ~~~

~~~ Katherine Eban in Vanity Fair: "This spring, a team working under [Jared Kushner] produced a plan for an aggressive, coordinated national COVID-19 response that could have brought the pandemic under control.... Kushner then appears to have decided, for reasons that remain murky, to scrap its proposal.... The plan would have set up a system of national oversight and coordination to surge supplies, allocate test kits, lift regulatory and contractual roadblocks, and establish a widespread virus surveillance system by the fall, to help pinpoint subsequent outbreaks.... Kushner then appears to have decided, for reasons that remain murky, to scrap its proposal." Both Donald Trump & Deborah Birx were predicting the virus would all but disappear. And Trump was afraid more testing would reveal more Covid cases. But more troubling perhaps, "was a sentiment [a public health] expert said a member of Kushner's team expressed: that because the virus had hit blue states hardest, a national plan was unnecessary and would not make sense politically. 'The political folks believed that because it was going to be relegated to Democratic states, that they could blame those governors, and that would be an effective political strategy,' said the expert." Emphasis added. Firewalled. This is a longish article that contains some rather striking details, like how Jared & the Wonder Boys bought $52MM worth of diagnostic kits without following any federal procurement procedure. You know, they just bought 'em. Oh, and the kits didn't work.

Georgia. 3/4ths of Young Campers Test Positive. Scott Trubey of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "Some 260 cases of the coronavirus have been tied to attendees and staff at a North Georgia YMCA children's camp in June, according to a report released Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one of the largest known superspreading events in the state.... Three-quarters of the 344 attendees and staff for whom the CDC was able to obtain test results tested positive for the virus.... The report details how COVID-19 spread rapidly among children and teens within the camp and raises questions about the effectiveness of safety protocols as school districts and colleges contemplate reopening for in-person instruction this fall.... The CDC study of 597 campers and staff from Georgia found the camp did not follow its guidance to require campers wear masks, though staff did." A New York Times story is here.

Where the Goverment Treats the Press and the People As "Adversaries"

Yesterday we learned from Shane Harris the Washington Post that "the Department of Homeland Security has compiled 'intelligence reports' about the work of American journalists covering protests in Portland, Ore., in what current and former officials called an alarming use of a government system meant to share information about suspected terrorists and violent actors." DHS's targets were Mike Baker of the New York Times & Ben Wittes, editor-in-chief of the blog Lawfare (and, probably not coincidentally, the guy who first released one of the Comey memos). Mrs. McC: But I missed this story from July 29: ~~~

~~~ Lara Seligman of Politico: "A mandatory Pentagon training course newly sent to the entire force and aimed at preventing leaks refers to protesters and journalists as 'adversaries' in a fictional scenario designed to teach Defense Department personnel how to better protect sensitive information. The course, which was created originally for a select group of officials in 2010, is part of Defense Secretary Mark Esper's force-wide effort to improve 'operational security,' or OPSEC, and clamp down on leaks." Mrs. McC: If you don't think the press, as well as citizens exercising their First-Amendment rights, are essential to democracy, here's the follow-up to Seligman's 7/29 story: ~~~

~~~ Lara Seligman: "Defense Secretary Mark Esper has directed the Pentagon to adjust the wording in a mandatory training course that identifies protesters and journalists as 'adversaries,' a day after Politico first reported on the materials. The training material has been in use since 2010 and was last updated in 2015, but it was shared with a wider audience following Esper's new guidance aimed at clamping down on leaks released this month...." Mrs. McC: Just because Seligman embarrassed the Pentagon into changing the words, doesn't mean the military brass have changed their attitudes about protesters & journalists.

Spying and Lying. Now this from Shane Harris of the Post: "A senior Department of Homeland Security official [Brian Murphy] told a Senate committee earlier this month that the department had not collected, exploited or analyzed information from the electronic devices or accounts of protesters in Portland, Ore. But an internal DHS document obtained by The Washington Post shows the department did have access to protesters' electronic messages and that their conversations were written up in an 'intelligence report' that was disseminated to federal law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, as well as state and local governments.... The [protesters'] messages don't show the protesters planning to harass or target police or damage property. A significant portion of their discussion is about how to avoid encounters with police, particularly federal officers, who they knew had detained protesters. In a letter sent Friday, Democratic members of the Senate Intelligence Committee asked Brian Murphy, acting DHS undersecretary for intelligence and analysis, about statements he made to committee staff on July 23 regarding the department's intelligence activities in Portland."

Trump Brought Violence to Portland. Adam Taylor of the Washington Post: "After President Trump ordered federal law enforcement officers into Portland, Ore., earlier this month, the protests largely ended the same way for days: with tear gas, rubber bullets and arrests. On Thursday, the first protest held since the federal agencies agreed to pull back their officers was a markedly more peaceful affair. As the Black Lives Matter-inspired vigil wound down early Friday morning, there was virtually no sign of the Oregon State Police officers who had taken over protection of the federal buildings at the center of the protests. Instead of being forcibly removed from downtown's Lownsdale Square and the adjacent Chapman Square, which lie opposite the barricaded Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse, the crowd thinned out on its own, with many protesters heading home of their own accord." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Update. Adam Taylor, et al., of the Washington Post: Portland, Oregon's, "battle-scarred downtown was calm much of Friday after federal agents withdrew from the streets where thy had faced off with protesters for days, though dozens remained stationed downtown to respond to any further violence.... The Department of Homeland Security is keeping more than 130 federal agents stationed near the courthouse as a 'quick reaction force,' in case protests turn violent again, according to an internal DHS document reviewed by The Washington Post."

Ariane de Vogue of CNN: "A divided Supreme Court on Friday allowed continued construction of a portion of ... Donald Trump's border wall while legal challenges play out. The 5-4 order represents a loss for environmental groups represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, which had asked the justices to lift an order from a year ago that allowed the government to continue building the wall pending appeals. It is a win for Trump, who has made the construction of the wall a cornerstone of his presidency."

Rosalind Helderman & Marc Fisher of the Washington Post: "For at least 15 years ... [beginning in 1989 when they met], Ghislaine Maxwell and [Donald] Trump continued to mingle in the same gilded circles, attending the same parties in Florida and New York, sharing meals and flying together at least once on [Jeffrey] Epstein's private plane, according to documents, interviews and media accounts. They were captured together in photographs and videos several times in that period, and Maxwell got to know two of Trump's wives.... When asked last week if he thought Maxwell would give prosecutors information about powerful men who may have been involved in the exploitation of minors, the president simply said, 'I wish her well, frankly.'... Trump's kind words toward Maxwell are a reminder of his long-standing tendency to extend sympathy to friends or social peers who have been accused of serious wrongdoing -- a sharp contrast to the rhetoric he often deploys against political enemies he accuses of 'treason' and 'corruption.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

The Trump Crime Family, Ctd. William Bredderman of the Daily Beast: "Disclosures obtained by a watchdog group show that White House Senior Advisor and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner raked in as much as $3 million from projects benefiting from Trump administration initiatives in 2019, plus up to $1 million more in rent money from firms which later received COVID-related small business loans from the government. The documents, released by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, show that the Kushner windfall includes revenues from a Jersey Shore luxury development that benefited from a real estate tax break publicly pushed by First Daughter Ivanka Trump -- Kushner's wife -- in 2017."

Elections 2020

An Embarrassment of Riches? Annie Linskey of the Washington Post: "Joe Biden will most likely announce his running mate in the second week of August, again breaking a self-imposed deadline for unveiling the choice, according to two people familiar with his plans. Biden ... initially said he'd select his running mate by Aug. 1. Then on Tuesday, he told reporters that he intended to make up his mind by the end of the first week of August, which would be Aug. 8."

Nick Corasaniti, et al., of the New York Times:"On Tuesday, the messaging behemoth that has been the Trump campaign ground to a halt, as it temporarily suspended all television advertising nationwide in order to review its strategy under its new campaign manager, Bill Stepien. While the pause will likely be short-lived -- in a tweet on Friday afternoon, the president said that they would be launching 'a new ad campaign' on Monday -- the sudden decision is yet another sign that the campaign is reckoning with a yawning deficit in battleground state polling and an inability to find a defining message against [Joe] Biden." ~~~

~~~ Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: The Trump campaign's new attack ad against Joe Biden is just like its old campaign ad against Biden. "Notably, this ad doesn't just recapitulate previous attack lines. It also does so by recycling the same distortions used in previous ads." Mrs. McC: I wouldn't call the example Sargent cites a "distortion." I'd call it a "lie." The reason the Trumpies can't mount an "honest" campaign against Biden is that the places where voters don't like him tend to be the places where conservatives do like him: support for police and tough sentencing laws, for instance. (They could get Biden for his support for the Iraq war, I guess, but that would sweep in a lot of down-ticket GOP candidates.)

John Wagner of the Washington Post: "The White House on Friday condemned Hong Kong's decision to postpone September legislative elections by a year because of the coronavirus, denouncing the action a day after President Trump floated the idea of delaying the U.S. presidential election in November. 'We condemn the Hong Kong government's decision to postpone for one year its legislative council elections and to disqualify opposition candidates,' White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said at a news briefing. Reading from a prepared statement, she characterized the move as part of an effort by China to deny 'promised autonomy and freedom to the Hong Kong people.' On Thursday, Trump drew immediate rebukes from across the political spectrum after proposing to delay the Nov. 3 election and claiming without evidence that widespread mail balloting would be a 'catastrophic disaster' leading to fraudulent results -- an assertion he repeated later Friday when speaking to reporters."

Far from undermining public confidence in the democracy over which he presides, it is the obligation of every president to cultivate that confidence by guaranteeing voting rights, by condemning foreign interference in American political campaigns, by promoting free, safe and secure elections, and by abiding by their outcome. -- Jill Lepore, historian ~~~

~~~ Peter Baker, the very sober NYT White House correspondent (or his headline writer), has gone radical: "More Than Just a Tweet: Trump's Campaign to Undercut Democracy.": That's the headline. "Never before has a sitting president of the United States sought to undermine public faith in the election system the way Mr. Trump has. He has refused to commit to respecting the results and, even after his election-delay trial balloon was panned by Republican allies, he raised the specter on Thursday evening of months of lawsuits challenging the outcome.... Even some of Mr. Trump's own current and former advisers see his attacks on the election system as a reflection of fear that he may lose and as a transparent effort to create a narrative to explain that away." ~~~

~~~ Michael Shear, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump's yearslong assault on the Postal Service and his increasingly dire warnings about the dangers of voting by mail are colliding as the presidential campaign enters its final months. The result has been to generate new concerns about how he could influence an election conducted during a pandemic in which greater-than-ever numbers of voters will submit their ballots by mail.... Members of Congress and state officials ... are warning that a huge wave of ballots could overwhelm mail carriers unless the Postal Service, in financial difficulty for years, receives emergency funding that Republicans are blocking during negotiations over another pandemic relief bill. At the same time, the mail system is being undercut in ways set in motion by Mr. Trump.... In recent weeks, at the direction of a Trump campaign megadonor who was recently named the postmaster general, the service has stopped paying mail carriers and clerks the overtime necessary to ensure that deliveries can be completed each day. That and other changes have led to reports of letters and packages being delayed by as many as several days." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ David Siders of Politico: "... Democrats are already bracing for Republican challenges to absentee ballots and at vote counting on Election Day. They have good cause to be prepared: the president has repeatedly raised the prospect of a 'rigged election' and recently declined to say if he'll accept the results. Trump's rhetoric points increasingly to the possibility that he will dispute the outcome in a year marked by primary election administration meltdowns -- a prospect that is heightened by his absolute control of state and national party machinery and an attorney general who has amplified Trump's unsubstantiated claims about mail-in voting fraud.... [Joe] Biden and the Democratic National Committee, in coordination with state parties and advocacy groups, have lawyers and political operatives working across the battleground map and have hired voter protection directors in 20 states." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ The Trump Plot to Toss Your Vote. Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "According to the Brennan Center for Justice and the Democratic-run Democracy Docket, swing states that currently do not accept ballots that are postmarked before but arrive after Election Day include: Arizona, Florida, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio and Georgia. Those states will decide the election.... Democrats will use vote-by-mail in far higher numbers than Republicans -- due to Trump's nonstop attacks on it -- yet absentee ballots get rejected at disproportionate rates, due to procedural complexities.... In very close races, the impact could be serious.... Top Democratic lawyer Marc Elias tells me Democrats are litigating against these laws in every swing state, with an eye toward getting ballots counted that are postmarked before but arrive after Election Day." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: That is, the Trump plan is not only to "undermine public faith in the election system," as Peter Baker writes, but also to significantly undermine the election system itself. And we haven't even talked about backing other GOP voter suppression measures or inviting foreign interference or engaging the DOJ to interfere in vote counts or or or. ~~~

~~~ Like This. Natasha Bertrand & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other top House Democrats admonished the country's top counterintelligence official during a classified election security briefing Friday, accusing him of keeping Americans in the dark about the details of Russia's continued interference in the 2020 campaign. Pelosi hinted at the conflict upon emerging from the briefing Friday morning, saying she thought the administration was 'withholding' evidence of foreign election meddling. Multiple sources who attended the briefing told Politico that both Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) chastised William Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, for issuing a statement last week warning the public of election interference by China, Russia and Iran. Democrats have described the statement as so vague as to be 'almost meaningless.'... Evanina ultimately acknowledged that Russia is again trying to boost President Donald Trump's reelection and denigrate ... Joe Biden, sources who attended the briefing said. But that didn't satisfy Democrats, who urged him to say as much publicly -- and to be specific." ~~~

~~~ AND This. Ernesto Londoño, et al., of the New York Times: "Members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee said Friday they were 'extremely alarmed' by assertions that the American ambassador in Brazil had signaled to Brazilian officials they could help get President Trump re-elected by changing their trade policies. In a letter sent Friday afternoon, Committee Chairman Eliot L. Engel demanded that the ambassador, Todd Chapman, produce 'any and all documents referring or related to any discussions' he has held with Brazilian officials in recent weeks about their nation's tariffs on ethanol, an important agricultural export for Iowa, a potential swing state in the American presidential election. The committee's letter was sent in response to reports in the Brazilian news media this week saying that Mr. Chapman, a career diplomat, made it clear to Brazilian officials they could bolster Mr. Trump's electoral chances in Iowa if Brazil lifted its ethanol tariffs.... Promoting favorable terms for American industries abroad is a core priority for American ambassadors. But American diplomats are reminded in election years to steer clear of any actions that might reasonably be construed as partisan." ~~~

~~~ AND This. Pompeo (Probably) Smears Biden. Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Rep. Eliot Engel, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, subpoenaed the State Department on Friday demanding copies of documents that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has already provided to Senate Republicans investigating Joe Biden. Engel indicated he subpoenaed the documents because the department had ignored his initial request to share copies of any material being provided to the Senate. Democrats view the Senate GOP investigation, led by Sen. Ron Johnson's Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, as an effort to smear Biden on false corruption allegations related to his diplomacy in Ukraine. 'After trying to stonewall virtually every oversight effort by the Foreign Affairs Committee in the last two years, Mr. Pompeo is more than happy to help Senate Republicans advance their conspiracy theories about the Bidens,' Engel said in a statement. 'I want to see the full record of what the department has sent to the Senate and I want the American people to see it too.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Eliot Engel may be about to lose his job (he lost to a primary challenger), but he sure isn't acting like a short-timer.

"Access Hollywood" Keeps on Giving. Paul LeBlanc of CNN: "Video of then-businessman Donald Trump struggling to vote in-person before declaring he would fill out an absentee ballot in 2004 has resurfaced this week amid a new round of unfounded attacks on mail-in voting from the President. The 'Access Hollywood' segment, filmed as Trump was attempting to vote in the 2004 election, shows Trump alongside TV host Billy Bush visiting multiple New York City polling locations. Trump, however, is blocked from voting at each location because he is not on any of the voter rolls at each stop. Trump can be seen becoming increasingly frustrated before declaring, 'I'm going to fill out the absentee ballot.' The segment ends with Trump filling out what Bush describes as a provisional ballot in his car." ~~~

Indiana. Casey Smith of the AP: "U.S. Rep. Greg Pence [R-Ind.] is coming under criticism for allowing the sale of objects with racist depictions of African Americans at a sprawling antiques mall he co-owns -- and the issue has taken on particular significance as the Republican defends his congressional seat in Indiana amid a national reckoning on race. The Exit 76 Antique Mall in Edinburgh, Indiana, has more than 4 million items for sale by the merchants who rent booths from Pence, the vice president's older brother, and his wife.... Jeannine Lee Lake, Pence's Democratic challenger, drew attention to the objects recently on social media, but customers say they have complained to management at the mall about the items as far back as 2008.... Lake, who is one of three Black candidates for federal office in Indiana this fall, said the issue was brought to her attention by a woman who used to live near the mall who sent photos of 'awful objects degrading and dehumanizing Black people' for sale." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Pennsylvania. Marc Levy of the AP: "Pennsylvania will foot the cost of postage for voters to mail in ballots in November's general election, officials said Friday, a move that Gov. Tom Wolf [D] has made a priority as the coronavirus pandemic unexpectedly fueled high interest in voting by mail under a new state law. The administration plans to use money from federal emergency coronavirus aid to foot the bill, which could run to several million dollars to cover 55 cents for millions of ballots."

Alanna Richer of the AP: "A federal appeals court Friday threw out Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's death sentence in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, saying the judge who oversaw the case did not adequately screen jurors for potential biases. A three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a new penalty-phase trial on whether the 27-year-old Tsarnaev should be executed for the attack that killed three people and wounded more than 260 others. 'But make no mistake: Dzhokhar will spend his remaining days locked up in prison, with the only matter remaining being whether he will die by execution,' the judges said, more than six months after arguments were heard in the case." Donald Trump called the ruling ridiculous. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Michael Grynbaum & Edmund Lee of the New York Times: "Once considered a potential successor to Rupert Murdoch, [James] Murdoch on Friday resigned from the board of the newspaper publisher News Corp, severing his last corporate tie to his father's global media empire. 'My resignation is due to disagreements over certain editorial content published by the Company's news outlets and certain other strategic decisions,' Mr. Murdoch, 47, wrote in his resignation letter, which News Corp disclosed in a filing shortly after the close of business on Friday.... A political outlier in his conservative-leaning family, James Murdoch has sought to reinvent himself as an independent investor with a focus on causes more closely associated with liberals, like environmentalism, which he and his wife, Kathryn Murdoch, have long championed. He has also taken public stands against President Trump, who has counted Fox News, a prime Murdoch asset, among his closest media allies. Weeks ago, James and his wife jointly contributed more than $1 million to a fund-raising committee for former Vice President Joseph R. Biden...." A Hollywood Reporter story is here.

Jacob Bogage & Eugene Scott of the Washington Post: "Avowed white supremacist David Duke was permanently banned from Twitter for repeated violations of the social media platform's rules on hate speech. The former Ku Klux Klan leader and one-time Louisiana legislator's most recent tweets included a link to an interview he conducted with Holocaust denier Germar Rudolf. Other posts promised to expose the 'systemic racism lie,' as well as the 'incitement of violence against white people' by Jewish-owned media. He also shared misinformation about the danger and spread of the coronavirus." (Also linked yesterday.)

Kate Conger & Nathaniel Popper of the New York Times: "One by one, the celebrity Twitter accounts posted the same strange message: Send Bitcoin and they would send back double your money. Elon Musk. Bill Gates. Kanye West. Joseph R. Biden Jr. Former President Barack Obama. They, and dozens of otherswere being hacked, and Twitter appeared powerless to stop it. While some initially thought the hack was the work of professionals, it turns out the 'mastermind' of one of the most high-profile hacks in recent years was a 17-year-old recent high school graduate from Florida, the authorities said on Friday. Graham Ivan Clark was arrested in his Tampa apartment, where he lived by himself, early Friday, state officials said. He faces 30 felony charges in the hack, including fraud, and is being charged as an adult. Two other people, Mason John Sheppard, 19, of the United Kingdom, and Nima Fazeli, 22, of Orlando, Fla., were accused of helping Mr. Clark during the takeover."

News Lede

AP: "Hurricane Isaias ripped shingles off roofs and blew over trees as it carved its way through the Bahamas early Saturday and headed toward the Florida coast, where officials in Miami said they were closing beaches, marinas and parks. Miami-Dad Mayor Carlos Giménez said Friday that 20 evacuation centers were on standby that could be set up with COVID-19 safety measures. 'We still don't think there is a need to open shelters for this storm, but they are ready,' he said. Authorities in North Carolina ordered the evacuation of Ocracoke Island, which was slammed by last year's Hurricane Dorian, starting Saturday evening. Meanwhile, officials in the Bahamas evacuated people on Abaco island, who have been living in temporary structures since Dorian. People living in the eastern end of Grand Bahama were also being moved."