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."
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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."
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