;)
The Commentariat -- July 15, 2020
Afternoon Update:
The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Wednesday are here.
KFOR-TV Oklahoma City: "One day after the Sooner State saw it's largest spike in COVID-19 cases, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt ... announced he was tested for COVID-19 on Tuesday and his results came back positive. He is currently quarantining at home." Mrs. McC: Oddly, that part about Stitt's testing positive is the last part of the story, at least as it's currently written. ~~~
~~~ Update. Nicholas Wu & Courtney Subramanian of USA Today: "Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt announced Wednesday he had tested positive for the coronavirus weeks after attending ... Donald Trump's rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he sat, bare-faced, among top state officials in a crowd of thousands."
Kevin Drum of Mother Jones debunks Peter Navarro's diatribe/op-ed against Anthony Fauci. Drum zeroes in on Navarro's "proofs" that Fauci got everything wrong: "... it turns out to be just the latest in an increasingly common conservative genre: a piece that links to articles that literally make the opposite of the point the author is claiming." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Gee, when the New York Times published a hateful, error-dotted op-ed by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), the newsroom revolted & the editorial page editor resigned. But when USA Today publishes a hateful, error-filled op-ed by a top administration official -- well, crickets.
~~~ Summer Concepcion of TPM: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Wednesday threw his support behind Dr. Anthony Fauci as the White House continues its efforts to discredit the top official in its coronavirus task force. When McConnell was asked during a press conference on Wednesday about his level of confidence in Fauci, after the Senate leader argued that Fauci has been the best source of advice since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, McConnell replied 'total.'" Mrs. McC: Obvious follow-up question: "What's you level of confidence in Donald Trump?"
Amber Phillips of the Washington Post on the lessons Jeff Sessions' humiliation teach other elected Republicans.
Annie Karni of the New York Times: "Dr. Ronny L. Jackson, the former White House physician with no political experience who ran a campaign based on his close relationship with President Trump, won a Republican runoff election for a House seat in Texas on Tuesday night, effectively stamping his ticket to Congress next year." Jackson, who ran in a crowded primary field, got a good deal of help from the Trump campaign. ~~~
~~~ And Jackson Is Still the Great Doctor He Always Was. Quint Forgey of Politico: "Ronny Jackson ... said Wednesday that Americans should not be required to wear masks to slow the spread of the coronavirus. 'I think that wearing a mask is a personal choice, and I don't particularly want my government telling me that I have to wear a mask. And so I think that's a choice that I can make,' Jackson told 'Fox & Friends.' The remarks from Jackson, a retired Navy rear admiral who served as the personal doctor for Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, not only contradict the universal guidance of public health experts, but also undermine Texas Gov. Greg Abbott -- who has mandated that most of his state's residents wear a mask."
** Mitch Prothero of Business Insider: "Russia routinely exploited a US policy of increased information sharing to target Chechen dissidents, according to three law-enforcement and intelligence officials in Europe. The practice emerged after the Trump administration backed a policy of sharing more secret information with Russia, in hope of strengthening relations. Sources told Insider Russia routinely sought information on its targets of choice -- dissidents who fled the rule of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. The US appears to have received little in return.... The officials Insider spoke with confirmed the existence of the modern-day US-Russian arrangement after a former US intelligence official described it on the JustSecurity blog." --s
Timothy Floyd of Reuters: "The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation believes firms in the nearly $10-trillion private investment funds industry are being used as vehicles for laundering money at scale, according to a leaked intelligence bulletin prepared by the agency in May.... It also said the industry lacks adequate anti-money laundering programs and called for greater scrutiny by regulators, which have yet to issue rules for the industry.... The FBI bulletin cites four cases of planned or reported laundering operations, involving hundreds of millions of dollars, using private funds. One of those cases led to a criminal conviction.... The bulletin was contained among a cache of law enforcement documents, dubbed 'BlueLeaks', which were obtained through a security breach at a web development firm." --s
Archie Bland of the Guardian: "The statue of slave trader Edward Colston was replaced in Bristol on Wednesday morning -- with a sculpture of one of the protesters whose anger brought him down. The figure of Jen Reid, who was photographed standing on the plinth with her fist raised after the 17th century merchant was toppled by Black Lives Matter demonstrators last month, was erected at dawn by a team directed by the artist Marc Quinn.... After meticulous planning to ensure the statue could be erected quickly enough to have it in place before officials arrived, the vehicles left the scene about 15 minutes after they got there.... The ambush sculpture is likely to reignite the debate over public statuary in the UK that began with the toppling of the Colston figure five weeks ago." --s
~~~~~~~~~~
Primary Election Results
Alabama. Re-Elect Doug Jones! Jane Coaston of Vox: "Former Auburn University football coach Tommy Tuberville defeated former Attorney General Jeff Sessions in Alabama's Republican primary runoff election on Tuesday, setting up a November match against current Democratic Sen. Doug Jones, who became the first Democrat to win a Senate seat in the state since 1992 when he defeated Roy Moore, who has been accused of child molestation, in a 2017 special election. In a state Donald Trump won handily in 2016, Tuberville is favored to win in November. Tuberville has never served in elected office (and moved to Alabama only two years ago), and his campaign against Sessions was largely based on his support for the president. Trump endorsed Tuberville in March.... On a Monday call with Alabama voters, Trump said of Tuberville, 'He's going to have a cold, direct line into my office....'" The New York Times has runoff results here. Update: The New York Times story on the likely end of Sessions' political career is here. Mrs. McC: Do you suppose JeffBo finally has figured out he backed the wrong horse in 2016?
Maine. Elect Sara Gideon! Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Sara Gideon, the speaker of the Maine House of Representatives, on Tuesday formally became the Democratic nominee to challenge Senator Susan Collins of Maine, wielding a formidable war chest in a race that could determine whether Republicans retain control of the Senate in November. Ms. Gideon, backed by the Senate Democratic campaign arm and a number of outside political groups, had long been the favorite to challenge Ms. Collins, the sole remaining New England Republican in Congress. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report has rated the race a tossup, and the election has already become the most expensive in Maine history."
The Trumpidemic, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Tuesday are here: "On Monday, California, Florida and Texas recorded at least 30,000 new cases, 18 percent of the global total. France celebrated public health workers as heroes during Bastille Day, a day after granting them pay raises.... After months of equivocation over mandating face coverings to stop the spread of the coronavirus, the government of Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain announced on Tuesday that people in England would be required to wear masks inside shops and supermarkets." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Lily Altavena of the Arizona Republic: "In a news conference Monday..., Donald Trump was asked about Kimberly Lopez Chavez Byrd, an Arizona teacher who died after teaching a summer school class. Trump responded by saying schools should reopen. Byrd's summer school class was virtual, but she and two other teachers in the Hayden-Winkelman School District shared a classroom while they taught. All three teachers contracted COVID-19. Byrd died after she was admitted to the hospital. In Monday's briefing, a reporter asked Trump 'What do you tell parents, who look at this, who look at Arizona where a school teacher recently died teaching summer school, parents who are worried about the safety of their children in public schools?'... He responded, 'Schools should be opened. Schools should be opened. Those kids want to go to school. You're losing a lot of lives by keeping things closed. We saved millions of lives while we did the initial closure.'" Mrs. McC: I wonder if Melanie's "I Really Don't Care" jacket comes in extra-large? (Also linked yesterday.)
Sahil Kapur & Julia Ainsley of NBC News: "Facing blowback and lawsuits, the Trump administration is rescinding its directive blocking international students from staying in the United States while taking online-only classes. U.S. District Court Judge Allison Dale Burroughs in Massachusetts announced Tuesday that the government and plaintiffs had reached a resolution in a lawsuit brought by Harvard University and MIT. The government was to rescind its July 6 rule that said foreign students on F-1 and M-1 visas would need to take at least some courses in person in order to legally remain in the U.S. in the fall semester amid the coronavirus pandemic." At 3:40 pm ET Tuesday, this was a developing story. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) Update: A New York Times story is here.
DHHS Preps for Major Evidence Tampering Caper. Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "The Trump administration has ordered hospitals to bypass the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and send all Covid-19 patient information to a central database in Washington beginning on Wednesday. The move has alarmed health experts who fear the data will be politicized or withheld from the public. The new instructions were posted recently in a little-noticed document on the Department of Health and Human Services website. From now on, the department -- not the C.D.C. -- will collect daily reports about the patients that each hospital is treating, the number of available beds and ventilators, and other information vital to tracking the pandemic.... News of the change came as a shock at the C.D.C.... Public health experts have long expressed concerns that the Trump administration is politicizing science and undermining its health experts, in particular the C.D.C.; four of the agency's former directors, spanning both Republican and Democratic administrations, said as much in an opinion piece published Tuesday in The Washington Post. The data collection shift reinforced those fears." ~~~
~~~ Former CDC Directors Tom Frieden, Jeffrey Koplan, David Satcher & Richard Besser in a Washington Post op-ed: "The four of us led the CDC over a period of more than 15 years, spanning Republican and Democratic administrations alike. We cannot recall over our collective tenure a single time when political pressure led to a change in the interpretation of scientific evidence.... Through last week, and into Monday, the administration continued to cast public doubt on the agency's recommendations and role in informing and guiding the nation's pandemic response. On Sunday, Education Secretary characterized the CDC guidelines as an impediment to reopening schools quickly rather than what they are: the path to doing so safely.... Unfortunately..., sound science is being challenged with partisan potshots, sowing confusion and mistrust at a time when the American people need leadership, expertise and clarity. These efforts have even fueled a backlash against public health officials across the country: Public servants have been harassed, threatened and forced to resign when we need them most." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Do Not Listen to Donald Trump! -- Fauci. Ramsey Touchberry of Newsweek: "The nation's top infectious disease expert has advice for America's next generation of college graduates: Listen to the health experts when it comes to a pandemic, not politicians. 'You can trust respected medical authorities. I believe I'm one of them. So, I think you can trust me,' Dr. Anthony Fauci said. 'I would stick with respected medical authorities who have a track record of telling the truth, who have a track record of giving information and policy and recommendations based on scientific evidence and good data.'... 'Don't get involved in any of the political nonsense,' he said of the politicized rhetoric that so is so often aired from elected officials unqualified to be speaking about medical issues." ~~~
~~~ MEANWHILE, Peter Navarro, Trump's trade advisor hydroxychloroquine advocate and not-a-medical-doctor or health scientist, has an enlightening op-ed in USA Today. Here's how it starts: "Dr. Anthony Fauci has a good bedside manner with the public, but he has been wrong about everything I have interacted with him on." ~~~
~~~ Update. Brett Samuels of the Hill: "The White House on Wednesday distanced itself from an op-ed by trade adviser Peter Navarro questioning the credibility of Anthony Fauci, the government's top infectious diseases expert. 'The Peter Navarro op-ed didn't go through normal White House clearance processes and is the opinion of Peter alone,' White House director of strategic communications Alyssa Farah tweeted. '@realDonaldTrump values the expertise of the medical professionals advising his Administration.'" Mrs. McC: Gee, I'll bet Peter is going to get in a lot of trouble for writing an op-ed that says what Trump wanted to say. ~~~
~~~ It's Not a Miracle. It's Democracy. ~~~
Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "Former White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney on Monday criticized the U.S. coronavirus testing process, calling his family's difficulties in obtaining tests and delays in the results 'inexcusable' in the seventh month of the pandemic, splitting from his former boss' repeated boasts about testing. 'I know it isn't popular to talk about in some Republican circles, but we still have a testing problem in this country,' Mulvaney wrote in an op-ed for CNBC. Mulvaney ... said his son had recently been tested for the virus and had to wait up to a week for the results, and that his daughter was turned away from getting a test before she went to visit her grandparents." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Missouri. David Edwards of RawStory: "A school district in Missouri is requiring parents to sign a waiver in case children become infected with COVID-19 and die. The 'waiver of liability' from Hazelwood School District was shared on Tuesday by attorney Natasha Scruggs. 'I feel sick reading it,' Scruggs said. The document asks parents to acknowledge that COVID-19 is a public health crisis and to relinquish their rights to hold the district responsible even if a student's death is 'caused by the negligence of carelessness' of school staff." --s (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Today in Bubonic Plague News. Jon Haworth of ABC News: "Public health officials have announced that a squirrel in Colorado has tested positive for the bubonic plague. The town of Morrison, Colorado, in Jefferson County, which is just west of Denver, made the startling announcement saying that the squirrel is the first case of plague in the county.... It is possible for humans to be infected with the bubonic plague through bites from infected fleas and by direct contact with blood or tissues of infected animals such as a cough or a bite." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Joe Biden has a multi-faceted jobs plan. Here's Trump's "plan." It's a DIY thing: ~~~
~~~ Hamza Shaban of the Washington Post: "Ivanka Trump urged out-of-work Americans to 'find something new' Tuesday as part of a new jobs initiative designed to tout the benefits of skills training and career paths that don't require a college degree. But the effort -- complete with website, advertising campaign and virtual roundtable featuring Apple CEO Tim Cook and IBM chair Ginni Rometty -- was swiftly derided on social media as 'clueless' and 'tone-deaf' given the pandemic, recession and Trump's own familial employment history." ~~~
~~~ Esther Wang of Jezebel: "Ivanka Trump, who has coasted through life largely on the coattails of her tarnished family name, has some advice for struggling workers in the U.S. right now -- just 'find something new!'" ~~~
~~~ Inae Oh of Mother Jones: "In the midst of this economic crisis facing millions of Americans, enter Ivanka Trump with advice for the unemployed: Embrace the chaos, she urges, and 'Find Something New.' The initiative comes as her most recent diamond-encrusted middle finger to American families since the pandemic hit."
Trump Sticks up for White People, Part 1. Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "President Trump on Tuesday asserted that 'more' white Americans die at the hands of police than Black Americans and criticized a reporter for asking why African Americans are still dying in law enforcement custody. 'So are white people. So are white people. What a terrible question to ask,' Trump told CBS News' Catherine Herridge when asked about the deaths of Black Americans at the hands of police. 'So are white people. More white people, by the way. More white people.' Police departments are not mandated to report statistics on police killings, however studies have shown that police killings disproportionately impact Black Americans. A Washington Post analysis updated earlier this year found that the rate at which black Americans are killed by law enforcement officers is over twice as high as the rate for their white counterparts. White Americans, who make up a larger share of the U.S. population, account for more deaths at the hands of police overall." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Grace Segers of CBS News: "One study published in 2018 found that Black men are roughly 3.5 times more likely to be killed by law enforcement than White men." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Trump Sticks up for White People, Part 2. Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump on Tuesday defended a St. Louis couple that went viral after they stood outside their home brandishing weapons as a group of protesters marched by their house. 'They were going to be beat up badly, if they were lucky. OK? If they were lucky,' Trump asserted in an interview at the White House with the conservative outlet Townhall. 'They were going to be beat up badly, and the house was going to be totally ransacked and probably burned down like they tried to burn down churches,' the president continued. 'These people were standing there, never used it, and they were legal, the weapons,' Trump said. 'And now I understand somebody local they want to prosecute these people. It's a disgrace.' Mark and Patricia McCloskey made headlines late last month after video footage surfacedof them pointing guns at an informal Black Lives Matter protest that passed through their neighborhood en route to the home of Mayor Lyda Krewson (D)." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump's weird reverie is a textbook example of white racist fantasy. The racist sees some black people walk by, and he immediately imagines the black people are going to beat him up -- or worse -- then ransack & burn down his house. I don't need to tell you this is insane. The St. Louis protesters, some of whom were white, showed no indication they planned to pay any attention to the McCloseys; they were on their way to yell at the mayor. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Trump Sticks up for White People*, Part 3. CBS News: "In an interview with CBS News' Catherine Herridge, President Trump said he considers flying the Confederate flag a 'freedom of speech' issue. (Video.) *Assuming here that 99.9% of confederate flag lovers are white. (Also linked yesterday.)
New York. Allison McCann, et al., of the New York Times: "... the New York Times found more than 60 videos that show the [NYPD] using force on protesters during the first 10 days of demonstrations in the city after the death of George Floyd. A review of the videos, shot by protesters and journalists, suggests that many of the police attacks, often led by high-ranking officers, were not warranted.... In instance after instance, the police are seen using force on people who do not appear to be resisting arrest or posing an immediate threat to anyone.... They hit people who were walking away from them.... They grabbed people from behind.... And they repeatedly pummeled people who were already on the ground." This is a long report that includes the sickening videos.
Tim Elfrink of the Washington Post (July 13): In Portland, Oregon, federal agents shot a protester "in the head [with] a less-than-lethal munition" even though he apparently posed no threat to people or property. The young man "suffered a fractured skull and required facial reconstruction surgery" and is in serious condition. The agents "have been dispatched to Portland as part of President Trump's crackdown on destructive protests, a fact that has become a flashpoint for local officials already bristling over the feds being sent without their consent. On Sunday, many blamed Trump's policies for the bloodshed. 'The consequences of Donald Trump unilaterally dispatching fed'l law enforcement into U.S. cities played out in Portland w/a peaceful protester shot in the head,' Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) tweeted. 'Trump & Homeland Security must now answer why fed'l officers are acting like an occupying army.' Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler (D) demanded federal agents in Portland start following local rules, which prohibit police from firing tear gas or less-than-lethal rounds unless lives are in danger."
Texas. Des Bieler of the Washington Post: "The president of the University of Texas said Monday that the school song, 'The Eyes of Texas,' would continue to be sung at football games and other events despite a request from some Longhorns players that it be replaced with 'a new song without racist undertones.'... 'The Eyes of Texas,' the school song since the early 1900s and a staple at Longhorns games, has roots in blackface minstrel shows, according to historians. Going back even further, the words to the song were inspired in part by Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, who after the Civil War was a teacher at what would become Washington and Lee University, where he made an impression on future UT president William Prather by repeatedly telling students that 'the eyes of the South are upon you.'"
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Tucker Carlson Stands up for White Supremacist, Misogynist. Erik Wemple of the Washington Post: "Tucker Carlson took out the old Fox News playbook on Monday night: When bad news surfaces, attack the people who broke it, and brush aside the unflattering substance.... Instead of detailing what Neff had posted on AutoAdmit, Carlson euphemized those postings...: 'What Blake wrote anonymously was wrong. We don't endorse those words. They have no connection to the show....'... The notion that, somehow, the innermost thoughts of the show's top writer have 'no connection to the show' is like saying that pizza sauce has no connection to pizza.... The prevailing emotion from Carlson isn't regret or remorse. It's anger -- anger that he has lost his top writer to a mob of 'ghouls.'... Carlson has spent his entire career as a Fox News prime-time host -- nearly four years -- skewering those who call out President Trump for being, well, racist, sexist and other offensive things.... There was no way that he was going to use his own show to call out racism by its name." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Hailey Fuchs of the New York Times: "Hours after the Supreme Court rejected a last-minute legal-challenge on a 5-4 vote, the Justice Department put a 47-year-old man to death for his role in the 1996 murder of a family of three, the first federal execution in more than 17 years. The death row prisoner, Daniel Lewis Lee, 47, a former white supremacist who renounced his ties to that movement, was executed by lethal injection at the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind., the Bureau of Prisons said. He is the first of three federal death row inmates scheduled for execution this week." A CNN story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
John Bresnahan & Ally Mutnick of Politico: "Kansas GOP Rep. Steve Watkins was charged with three felony counts of voter fraud [and one misdemeanor] related to the 2019 municipal elections, according to court records.... Watkins has acknowledged that he used a UPS store in Topeka for his home address for a 2019 municipal election, according to the Topeka Capitol-Journal. The newspaper first reported that Watkins had signed the allegedly improper address on voter-registration documents.... In addition to his legal troubles, Watkins could lose his committee assignments. GOP Conference rules require anyone who is indicted on felony charges carrying a potential prison sentence of two or more years to give up their committee posts.... Watkins downplayed the allegations during a previously scheduled debate appearance [with a primary challenger] on Tuesday night.... [Watkins'] father, Steve Watkins, Sr., told Politico in March that the Federal Election Commission is investigating him for giving thousands of dollars to his daughters, a home-building contractor and the contractor's wife, which they then used to max out to his son's campaign. Those types of donations violate campaign finance laws."
Elections 2020
When Donald Trump thinks about climate change, the only word he can muster is 'hoax.' When I think about climate change, the word I think of is 'jobs.' -- Joe Biden, in a speech Tuesday ~~~
~~ Katie Glueck & Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "Joseph R. Biden Jr. announced on Tuesday a new plan to spend $2 trillion over four years to significantly escalate the use of clean energy in the transportation, electricity and building sectors, part of a suite of sweeping proposals designed to create economic opportunities and build infrastructure while also tackling climate change. In a speech in Wilmington, Del., Mr. Biden built on his plans, released last week, for reviving the economy in the wake of the coronavirus crisis, with a new focus on enhancing the nation's infrastructure and emphasizing the importance of putting the United States on a path to significantly cut fossil fuel emissions." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Monica Alba & Carol Lee of NBC News: "... Donald Trump and Republican officials are preparing for the possibility of a fully outdoor convention in Jacksonville, Florida, next month as coronavirus cases in the state shatter records, according to two GOP officials involved in the planning. The president met with his top political advisers at the White House on Monday to discuss how several events, scheduled for six weeks from now, could move from an indoor venue to several outside ones. The Republican National Committee, or RNC, has already contracted with several open-air arenas, stadiums and amphitheaters to more safely bring together attendees and delegates, but it's unclear how many people total will be allowed to gather." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Should be fun. Huge crowds of old white folks yelling & sharing their infected spit on hot, humid August nights with thunderstorms (or hurricanes!) in the forecast.
David Nakamura, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Tuesday held a Rose Garden event under the guise of punishing China over its crackdown on Hong Kong, delivering a lengthy diatribe against ... Joe Biden in a display that resembled a campaign speech at the White House. The president began his rambling 54-minute opening statement by announcing that he had signed congressional legislation that authorizes his administration to enact sanctions on banks that do business with Chinese officials and an executive order to revoke Hong Kong's special economic trading status. But he glossed over the specifics and said nothing about the pro-democracy protests in the city as he pivoted swiftly to his attacks on Biden.... [It was] a stunning display of partisanship in an exquisitely manicured setting that presidents have traditionally considered off-limits for direct and extended political attacks.... Trump dumped almost an hour's worth of opposition research against his Democratic rival with less than four months to go before the election, hitting him over immigration, energy policy and the environment." Mrs. McC: The speech was laced with lies; as the reporters write, "Much of Trump's summary of Biden's policy proposals was false or misleading." ~~~
If anyone else said that shit yesterday in the Rose Garden, the next thing you'd see are two big guys dressed in scrubs carrying one of those Pierre Cardin canvas wrap-around blazers with the buckle in the back, taking him off for a real cognitive assessment test. -- unwashed, in today's Comments thread
~~~ Reed Richardson of Mediaite: "After spending the initial minutes of his speech bashing China's actions in Hong Kong, the president quickly pivoted to transforming the event into a nearly hour-long, often circular, stream-of-consciousness political rant that mimicked his performances at his trademark rallies. Though the Rose Garden is traditionally considered a partisan-free zone, Trump cast aside decorum to go through a long list of political opponents. But without the energy of an adoring fan base cheering him on, Trump seemed enervated during his diatribe, his demeanor noticeably dour, his voice consistently flat." ~~~
~~~ The Gray Lady Reports the Meltdown. Peter Baker of the New York Times: Yesterday, reporters hastily summoned to the Rose Garden were treated to "an hour of presidential stream of consciousness as Mr. Trump drifted seemingly at random from one topic to another, often in the same run-on sentence. Even for a president who rarely sticks to the script and wanders from thought to thought, it was one of the most rambling performances of his presidency.... 'We could go on for days,' he said at one point, and it sounded plausible. At times, it was hard to understand what he meant. He seemed to suggest that ... former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., would get rid of windows if elected and later said that Mr. Biden would 'abolish the suburbs.' He complained that Mr. Biden had 'gone so far right.' (He meant left.)" Baker goes on and provides one extended example of Trump's stream-of-unconsciousness, where he is apparently trying to explain how well his administration is curbing immigration:
We have great agreements where when Biden and Obama used to bring killers out, they would say don't bring them back to our country, we don't want them. Well, we have to, we don't want them. They wouldn't take them. Now with us, they take them. Someday, I'll tell you why. Someday, I'll tell you why. But they take them and they take them very gladly. They used to bring them out and they wouldn't even let the airplanes land if they brought them back by airplanes. They wouldn't let the buses into their country. They said we don't want them. Said no, but they entered our country illegally and they're murderers, they're killers in some cases.
Joe Biden's supporters are fighting to defund police departments. Violent crime has exploded. You won't be safe in Joe Biden's America. -- Text of a Trump campaign ad, "Abolished," over images of violence and a recording of a police answering machine, released July 2, 2020
Biden, to the dismay of activists on the left, has refused to back proposals to defund police and, in fact, has called for increased federal spending to bolster the number of police. So the Trump campaign uses slippery language of how 'Biden supporters' back defunding and the result will be unchecked violence in 'Biden's America' that would leave Americans unsafe. We think most viewers of this ad ... would come away believing he supports defunding the police. -- Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post ~~~
~~~ David Ignatius of the Washington Post: "It's laughable, really, that President Trump is presenting himself as the candidate of 'law and order' in the 2020 presidential campaign. His record in office has been one of illegality and disorder. Trump's presidency has been a sustained attack on our traditional conception of the rule of law in America.... He defies Congress and the courts almost on a weekly basis. Trump's contempt for the law was obvious in his granting of clemency last week to his campaign crony Roger Stone.... Since the beginning of June, he has tweeted or retweeted the phrase 'law and order' 33 times.... [Joe] Biden ... shouldn't cede this ground. He should make the case that real law and order are impossible without social justice.... The next time you hear Trump talk about law and order, remember that it's a code for maintaining his personal power."
Trump Fundraising Emails Like "Mob Collections." Charlie Nash of Mediaite: "... Donald Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign is coming under fire over campaign fundraising emails which some supporters are calling 'gross' and 'scary.' Most of the emails -- which typically claimed to be from the president himself or one of his children -- attempted to shame Trump supporters for not donating enough money, and used manipulative language to guilt recipients into giving more, prompting social media users to make comparisons to 'mob collections' and 'slumlord' eviction notices. 'I hate to be the one to tell you, but according to our records, your Trump 100 Club offer has been RESCINDED,' read one email, which was posted on Twitter. 'You've received multiple emails from Team Trump, including my father, inviting you to join this BRAND NEW, prestigious club, and you've ignored every single one of them.'... Other emails put 'FINAL NOTICE' in red at the top, giving them the appearance of an overdue bill...."
Trump, GOP Welcome Crazy Terrorists. Matthew Rosenberg & Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "More than two years after QAnon, which the F.B.I. has labeled a potential domestic terrorism threat, emerged from the troll-infested corners of the internet, the movement's supporters are morphing from keyboard warriors into political candidates. They have been urged on by Mr. Trump, whose own espousal of conspiracy theories and continual railing against the political establishment have cleared a path for QAnon candidates. And even as party leaders publicly distance themselves from the movement, they are quietly supporting some QAnon-linked candidates -- demonstrating the thin line they are trying to walk between radical elements among their base and the moderate voters they need to win over.... t is a development that threatens to further alienate the kinds of traditional Republican voters who typically care about lowering taxes, not chasing imaginary Satanists from the government." (Also linked yesterday.)
New York Congressional Race. Dana Rubinstein of the New York Times: "Mondaire Jones, a progressive candidate supported by the institutional left, was declared the victor in a crowded Democratic House primary in the suburbs north of New York City, all but ensuring that he will join Congress next year as among its first openly gay African-American members. The race was not called by The Associated Press until Tuesday, three weeks after the primary, even though Mr. Jones had a commanding advantage after the machine ballot count: He had twice as many votes as his closest competitor, Adam Schleifer. Mr. Jones's support grew as Primary Day drew closer, as Black Lives Matters protests galvanized voters across the district and allowed candidates, for the first time since the pandemic, to campaign in the open air." A Hill story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
John Kruzel of the Hill: "Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was hospitalized on Tuesday for treatment for a possible infection after experiencing fever and chills, according to a Supreme Court spokeswoman. The 87-year-old justice also underwent a procedure Tuesday 'to clean out a bile duct stent that was placed last August,' spokeswoman Kathleen Arberg added. 'The Justice is resting comfortably and will stay in the hospital for a few days to receive intravenous antibiotic treatment'" Arberg said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
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