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solarbirdI've been wondering for a while if Donkeyballs Donald has been semi-sidelined, and it's looking like other people are picking up on that feeling too - that it's in no small part Jared Kushner really running things.
I didn't have to stack these news articles to make that possibility clear, it's just what presented itself today.
----- 1 -----
Jared Kushner’s ‘princely arrogance’ set back the coronavirus response by weeks: report
29 April 2020
Igor Derysh, Salon
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/04/jared-kushners-princely-arrogance-set-back-the-coronavirus-response-by-weeks-report/
President Donald Trump’s obsession with settling scores in the wake of his impeachment and the “princely arrogance” of his son-in-law Jared Kushner delayed the response from the White House in the critical early days of the coronavirus outbreak, numerous Republicans and administration officials told Vanity Fair’s Gabe Sherman.
As the number of coronavirus cases in New York reached 4,000, Trump continued to fume about impeachment while dismissing concerns about the outbreak, a Republican in frequent contact with the administration told Sherman.
“Trump was obsessed with Pelosi, Schiff, the media — just obsessed,” the source said of the president. “He would say, ‘They’re using it against me!’ It was unhinged.”
When Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar tried to warn Trump about the virus, the president repeatedly interrupted him to lament his decision to ban certain vaping products, according to the report. Kushner also dismissed concerns from Azar and other officials.
“Jared kept saying the stock market would go down, and Trump wouldn’t get re-elected,” a Republican familiar with the situation told Sherman. A source close to Kushner denied the claim.
----- 2 -----
Inside Donald Trump and Jared Kushner’s Two Months of Magical Thinking
Obsessed with impeachment and their enemies and worried about the stock market, the president and his son-in-law scapegoated HHS Secretary Alex Azar, and treated the coronavirus as mostly a political problem as it moved through the country.
By Gabriel Sherman
April 28, 2020
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/04/donald-trump-jared-kushners-two-months-of-magical-thinking
On the afternoon of Thursday, March 19, Donald Trump sat in the Oval Office obsessing over the beaches in Florida. CNN footage of shirtless spring breakers packed onto the sand while the coronavirus pandemic raged sparked national outrage—and pressure on Trump to act. The next morning, New York governor Andrew Cuomo would announce strict stay-at-home orders for residents, but Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis refused to close his state’s beaches, a position even Florida’s Republican senator Rick Scott called reckless. “Lots of people were telling Trump to lean on Ron,” a Trump adviser said.
Trump’s view of the situation was complicated, though. For weeks, his top medical advisers, Dr. Deborah Birx and Dr. Anthony Fauci, had been hectoring him about the seriousness of the crisis and the necessity of swift action, testing, lockdowns. “We knew from the beginning...we were going to get cases in the United States,” Fauci told me.
“We knew we were in for a very serious problem.”
Sometimes, Trump listened. The disease was coming closer to his own circle—chief of staff Mark Meadows and communications director Stephanie Grisham were self-quarantining—and the number of cases in New York City had reached 4,000. But the substrate of his thinking hadn’t evolved, and it kept reappearing. He worried about the economy, which was crucial to his reelection. He vented to friends that the doctors were alarmist, and that the crisis was something Democrats and the media were doing to him. “Trump was obsessed with Pelosi, Schiff, the media, just obsessed. He would say, ‘They’re using it against me!’ recalled a Republican in frequent contact with the White House. “It was unhinged.”
Florida was a test case of his magical thinking about the novel coronavirus: That it was temporary, that warm weather would make it disappear. But eight Florida residents had already died from COVID-19 and more than 400 had been diagnosed. “Given the elderly population, if that took off, it would be a nightmare,” a person close to Trump told me. At an adviser’s urging, Trump called DeSantis to tell him to shut down the beaches.
“Ron, what are you doing down there?” Trump said, according to a person briefed on the call.
“I can’t ban people from going on the beach,” DeSantis snapped, surprising Trump.
“These pictures look really bad to the rest of the country,” Trump said.
“Listen, we’re doing it the right way,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis’s intransigence backed Trump into a corner. The 41-year-old governor was a Trump protégé and a crucial ally in a must-win state. “Trump is worried about Florida, electorally,” said a Republican who spoke with Trump around this time. Trump did something he rarely does: He caved. He told DeSantis the beaches could stay open.
“I understand what you’re saying,” Trump said, and hung up.
----- 3 -----
Jared Kushner Says Trump is Focused on Response to China, Will Take Whatever Actions Are Necessary to Hold Them Accountable
By Andrew Feinberg On 4/29/20
https://www.newsweek.com/jared-kushner-says-trump-focused-response-china-will-take-whatever-actions-are-necessary-hold-1500916
White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner told Fox & Friends Wednesday that President Donald Trump "will take whatever actions are necessary" against whoever is responsible for the outbreak of the novel coronavirus that triggered a global pandemic and wreaked havoc on the U.S. economy.
Co-host Brian Kilmeade asked Kushner about two things: the Australian government's independent investigation into the origins of the virus, and German newspaper Bilds' invoice to China for $160 billion for losses related to Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus.
"Do you believe that they owe us a check, and will there be an invoice handed to them shortly?" Kilmeade asked Kusher about China.
"Is there going to be an offensive move on them to replenish our resources, as we've been brought to our knees economically?"
Kushner said that Trump is focused on the country's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"But," he added, "he has asked the team to look into very carefully what happened how this got here, and to make sure that he will take whatever actions are necessary to make sure that the people who cause the problems are held accountable for it."
"So, yes," Kushner said.
Trump has said that the U.S. would demand "substantial" compensation from Beijing for what he has characterized as China's mishandling of the initial outbreak of the coronavirus.
----- 4 -----
Aaron Rupar
twitter.com/atrupar
29 April 2020
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1255486821489954817
"I'm very confident we have all the testing we need to start reopening the country" -- Jared Kushner went on Fox & Friends today and claimed states have "excess capacity" for testing (the country right now is not doing even half as much testing as experts think is necessary)
[EMBEDDED VIDEO]
----- 5 -----
Manu Raju
twitter.com/mkraju
28 April 2020
https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1255256656079982600
McConnell made case to his colleagues today about including in any package provisions to shield businesses from lawsuits, saying that liability reform is "the thing that relates the most to regular people,” per sources on call. Later on Fox, he reiterated that as his “redline”
----- 6 -----
Shannon Watts
twitter.com/shannonrwatts
28 April 2020
https://twitter.com/shannonrwatts/status/1255202705955360768
Referring to his state’s large population of senior citizens, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called Florida “God’s waiting room” during a press conference today. #flapol
----- 7 -----
Aaron Rupar
twitter.com/atrupar
28 April 2020
https://twitter.com/i/status/1255216787349819394
Trump on why he thinks it's a good idea for states to reopen economies without a coronavirus vaccine or even effective treatments available: "I think what happens is it's going to go away."
----- 8 -----
Fact check: Trump falsely suggests he was right when he predicted 'close to zero' virus cases in February
By Tara Subramaniam, Daniel Dale, Marshall Cohen and Nathan McDermott, CNN
Updated 11:54 PM ET, Tue April 28, 2020
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/28/politics/fact-check-trump-remarks-april-28/index.html
Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump claimed Tuesday that Dr. Anthony Fauci, a key member of the White House coronavirus task force, said in late February that the coronavirus was "no problem."
Fauci didn't say that.
Trump also suggested Tuesday that he was correct when he said in February that the US would go down from 15 coronavirus cases to nearly zero -- even though he was wildly inaccurate, since the US now has more than a million cases.
And the President repeated his false claims that he "inherited" a "broken test" for the virus, though there was no inherited test for a virus only identified during his presidency. He also said that Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden had apologized to him for previous comments about Trump's travel restrictions on China, though there was no apology.
Here are some fact checks of statements Trump made at his two Tuesday media events, during an Oval Office meeting with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and an East Room event about the Paycheck Protection Program for small businesses.
----- 9 -----
Florida is now blocking medical examiners from releasing COVID-19 death totals
April 29, 2020
By Brad Reed
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/04/florida-is-now-blocking-medical-examiners-from-releasing-covid-19-death-totals/
The state of Florida has now stopped its medical examiners from releasing numbers about people who have died from COVID-19.
The Tampa Bay Times reports that Florida’s state health department intervened earlier this month to suppress the medical examiners’ reports, which regularly showed death totals that were 10 percent higher than the official tallies put out by the state.
For the past nine days, no reports from the medical examiners have been made available to the public, and there’s no indication of when they will be released in the future.
Dr. Stephen Nelson, the chairman of the state Medical Examiners Commission, tells the Tampa Bay Times that state officials have told him they’re planning to remove probable causes of death from the examiners’ report, which would make it impossible to tell how many people the examiners believe have died from coronavirus.
----- 10 -----
Sen. Richard Burr Is Not Just a Friend to the Health Care Industry. He’s Also a Stockholder.
The Republican of North Carolina, who is under investigation for his stock trading, regularly flips health care stocks even as he pushes for legislation to help the industry.
by Robert Faturechi and Derek Willis
April 27, 2020
https://www.propublica.org/article/sen-richard-burr-is-not-just-a-friend-to-the-health-care-industry-hes-also-a-stockholder
In his 15 years in the Senate, Richard Burr, a North Carolina Republican, has been one of the health care industry’s staunchest friends.
Serving on the health care and finance committees, Burr advocated to end the tax on medical device makers, one of the industry’s most-detested aspects of the 2010 Affordable Care Act. He pushed the Food and Drug Administration to speed up its approval process. As one of the most prominent Republican health care policy thinkers, he has sponsored or co-sponsored dozens of health-related bills, including a proposal to replace “Obamacare.” He oversaw the implementation of major legislation to pump taxpayer money into private sector initiatives to address public health threats. “The industry feels very positive about Sen. Burr,” the president of North Carolina’s bioscience trade group said during Burr’s last reelection campaign. “He’s done a stellar job.”
Burr also trades in and out of the industry’s stocks.
Since 2013, Burr and his wife bought and sold between $639,500 and $1.1 million of stock in companies that make medical devices, equipment, supplies and drugs, according to a ProPublica analysis of his financial disclosures.
With weak laws and little oversight, such trading rarely trips any wires. There is no evidence Burr has acted illegally or violated Senate rules.
Senators are prohibited from pushing legislation in order to directly further their own financial interest, but they can own stocks in industries overseen by committees on which they sit and trade in and out of individual stocks.
----- 11 -----
Republican lawmaker launches new legal challenge against Pritzker’s stay-at-home order, wants General Assembly to meet
State Rep. John Cabello’s lawsuit could potentially free more Illinoisans from the governor’s order.
By Jon Seidel and Tina Sfondeles
Apr 29, 2020
https://chicago.suntimes.com/coronavirus/2020/4/29/21241189/republican-lawmaker-launches-new-legal-attack-illinois-governor-jb-pritzker-stay-at-home-order
The most serious legal threat to Gov. J.B. Pritkzer’s stay-at-home order emerged Wednesday as a Republican lawmaker filed a lawsuit designed to potentially free all Illinoisans from the governor’s restrictions amid the coronavirus pandemic.
For now, state Rep. John Cabello said he won’t seek a temporary restraining order as long as he sees an effort begin to put the General Assembly back to work. A fellow Republican, state Rep. Darren Bailey, secured such an order earlier this week. But it applied only to Bailey, while Cabello’s could apply more broadly.
“The governor said that this is a political stunt — it’s partisan politics,” Cabello told the Chicago Sun-Times. “And I’m trying to show him that no, sir, this is not.”
Pritzker on Wednesday called the lawsuit “irresponsible” and “another attempt at grandstanding” by a state lawmaker. The state is also appealing the order secured by Bailey, who along with Cabello is a supporter of President Donald Trump. Both men are represented by downstate attorney Tom DeVore.
----- 12 -----
States tell workers they'll lose unemployment benefits if they refuse to return to jobs
By Marty Johnson
04/28/20
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/495050-states-telling-workers-theyll-lose-unemployment-benefits-if-they-refuse
Some states that are reopening parts of their economies have warned employees that they'll lose their unemployment benefits if they refuse to go back to work for their employers, even if they're worried about contracting the coronavirus.
"If you're an employer and you offer to bring your employee back to work and they decide not to, that's a voluntary quit," Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) said Friday. "Therefore, they would not be eligible for the unemployment money."
Reynolds also said employers who have workers that refuse to return should file a report with Iowa Workforce Development.
On Monday, the governor announced that she was loosening social distancing restrictions in 77 of Iowa's 99 counties, effective May 1.
"In the 77 counties, the proclamation permits restaurants, fitness centers, malls, libraries, race tracks, and certain other retail establishments to reopen in a limited fashion with public health measures in place," the governor's office said in a statement.
Reynolds said the 77 counties have either seen a steady decline in new cases or no new cases at all for the past two weeks, one of the main benchmarks the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention set for states wanting to reopen their economies.
The only exception for workers getting unemployment after not returning to work is if they are ill with the virus or taking care of a family member who has the deadly disease.
----- 13 -----
Rick Wiles Says It’s Possible ‘The Entire Wuhan Pandemic Was Staged’
By Kyle Mantyla
April 29, 2020 10:33 am https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/rick-wiles-says-its-possible-the-entire-wuhan-pandemic-was-stages/
From the very start of the COVID-19 pandemic, End Times broadcaster Rick Wiles began warning that the virus was a plague sent by God to purge the world of sin as the Last Days approach. Wiles repeatedly declared that a “death angel” was sweeping across the globe and dedicated just about every episode of his nightly “TruNews” program for the last several months to warning that life as we have known was about to change forever.
But Wiles has suddenly changed his tune and has now returned to what he has always done best, which is to spin baseless conspiracy theories. Wiles used his Monday program to assert that the threat from the virus was wildly overblown and to speculate that China never really had a coronavirus outbreak at all but had faked it as cover to unleash the virus on the rest of the world.
“What if they made us believe Wuhan had massive death, that the entire city had to be fumigated?” Wiles said. “What if it was all a propaganda campaign to introduce a virus in America to bring down the U.S. economy?”
“It’s also possible the entire Wuhan pandemic was staged,” he continued. “For what purpose? To destroy the American economy. And I’m not saying that there’s no virus here—I believe that absolutely there’s a virus here. Fifty-five thousand people are dead. What I’m saying is maybe it never happened in Wuhan. Maybe the entire thing has been a calculated, well planned, well choreographed, well executed attack on the USA because nothing has ever shut us down like this … [This] is the first time in the history of America that churches have been closed from coast to coast.”
----- 14 -----
It’s starting to feel like Republicans want to have a ‘chickenpox party’ for coronavirus in the whole of Washington state
By Danny Westneat
Seattle Times columnist
April 29, 2020
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/its-starting-to-feel-like-republicans-want-to-have-a-chickenpox-party-for-coronavirus-in-the-whole-state/
The tale of two cities told in a national magazine this week was summed up well in the headline: “Seattle’s leaders let scientists take the lead. New York’s did not.”
The article, in The New Yorker, heaped praise on our region’s spotlight-loving politicians and corporate leaders for doing an unusual thing when the coronavirus outbreak first hit two months ago. They got out of the way.
The coherent, science-based messaging that resulted may explain why our per capita death rate from COVID-19 is, so far, one-tenth that of New York’s.
King County Executive Dow Constantine recalled it in a bucolic-sounding quote: “Everyone, Republicans and Democrats, came together behind one message and agreed to let the scientists take the lead.”
It rings pretty true to the spirit of what was going on here back in February and early March. But alas, those halcyon days definitely are over.
Increasingly, local Republicans seem to be concluding that, science be damned, it’s time we man up and let the virus run.
It’s “not necessarily a bad thing” for more people to be exposed to the virus, Washington state Sen. John Braun, R-Centralia, told The Columbian newspaper this week. “It will speed our path, frankly, toward herd immunity.”
----- 15 -----
Elon Musk tweets protest against US coronavirus lockdown
Tesla founder says ‘FREE AMERICA NOW’ in outburst against economic impact
Rupert Neate
29 April 2020
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/apr/29/elon-musk-tweets-protest-against-us-coronavirus-lockdown
Elon Musk, the multibillionaire founder and chief executive of electric car company Tesla, has joined those protesting against the coronavirus lockdown of the US economy, tweeting: “FREE AMERICA NOW”.
His outburst came as he was close to securing a $750m (£585m) payout from a bonus scheme linked to Tesla’s share price.
Musk, the world’s 22nd-richest person with an estimated $38.5bn (£30.5bn) fortune, on Wednesday tweeted: “Give people their freedom back!” with a link to a Wall Street Journal article suggesting that the lockdowns have not saved that many lives but have shattered local economies.
He also tweeted: “Bravo Texas!” with a link to a local newspaper story about the Texas governor Greg Abbott’s plans to allow shops, restaurants and movie theatres to reopen from Friday.
----- 16 -----
David Barton Claims Non-Christians’ Fear of Death Led to Public Policy ‘Panic’ on COVID-19
By Peter Montgomery
April 28, 2020
https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/david-barton-claims-non-christians-fear-of-death-led-to-public-policy-panic-on-covid-19/
Religious-right “historian” and Republican political activist David Barton said last week that governors have shut down the country out of fear and panic because America has become so secularized that people fear death because they don’t have confidence that death will bring them an eternity in Heaven. Barton is an influential conservative activist who has helped write recent Republican Party platforms.
Barton made his comments during an appearance last week on “Stand in the Gap,” a radio program produced by the American Pastors Network. During the show Barton, true to form, mangled historical facts and used actual facts to promote dubious narratives.
----- 17 -----
Laurence Tribe
twitter.com/tribelaw
28 April 2020
https://twitter.com/tribelaw/status/1255189463925501953
We have 57,000 of the world’s 213,000 deaths: around 27%. But we’re under 4% of the world’s population. That’s a ratio of ~ 7:1. So Trump’s roughly 7 times as inept as the average world leader. What else do those entrusting their lives to this narcissistic moron need to know?
----- 18 -----
It just got easier in Georgia for new drivers to get a license... for now
By Denise Dillon
28 April 2020
https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/it-just-got-easier-in-georgia-for-new-drivers-to-get-a-license-for-now
KENNESAW, Ga. - We all remember how nervous we were taking our driving test. But as of right now, teens getting a license in Georgia don't have to worry about that.
Under Governor Kemp's latest executive order, teens still have to fulfill all driving requirements, but the behind the wheel road test has been suspended. While the Department of Driver Services practices social distancing during this pandemic, it's impossible for an employee to conduct a road test in the same vehicle with an applicant and still keep their distance.
"During these unprecedented times, the Department of Driver Services is trying to make it as easy as a process for people to get their license and to lessen the burden on people right now," says Stormi Kenney who owns Kennesaw Driving School.
Kenney has been working with new drivers for 25 years. She says while there is no road test, new drivers must still meet all other requirements, including 40 hours of supervised driving.
"I'm hoping most parents won't just sign off on those 40 hours, I'm hoping most will take the time and drive with their kids before they let them obtain their driver's license," said Kenney.
Ultimately this means it's up to parents to decide if their child is ready to get behind the wheel.
----- 19 -----
U.S. coronavirus death toll is far higher than reported, CDC data suggests
By MARGOT SANGER-KATZ, Josh Katz, and Denise Lu
April 29, 2020
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/u-s-coronavirus-death-toll-is-far-higher-than-reported-cdc-data-suggests/
Total deaths in seven states that have been hard-hit by the coronavirus pandemic are nearly 50% higher than normal for the five weeks from March 8 through April 11, according to new death statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That is 9,000 more deaths than were reported as of April 11 in official counts of deaths from the coronavirus.
The new data is partial and most likely undercounts the recent death toll significantly. But it still illustrates how the coronavirus is causing a surge in deaths in the places it has struck, probably killing more people than the reported statistics capture. These increases belie arguments that the virus is only killing people who would have died anyway from other causes. Instead, the virus has brought a pattern of deaths unlike anything seen in recent years.
If you look at the provisional deaths from all causes, death counts in New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Massachusetts, Illinois, Maryland and Colorado have spiked far above their normal levels for the period. In New York City, the home of the biggest outbreak, the number of deaths over this period is more than three times the normal number. (Recent data suggests it could have reached six times higher than normal.)
----- 20 -----
Weijia Jiang
twitter.com/weijia
29 April 2020
https://twitter.com/weijia/status/1255683106490716160
Today the President said he was anxious to get out of the White House before announcing trips to Arizona and Ohio:
“And we're going to start to move around. And hopefully, in the not-too-distant future, we'll have some massive rallies.”
I didn't have to stack these news articles to make that possibility clear, it's just what presented itself today.
- Jared Kushner’s ‘princely arrogance’ set back the coronavirus response by weeks: report
- Inside Donald Trump and Jared Kushner’s Two Months of Magical Thinking
- Jared Kushner Says Trump is Focused on Response to China, Will Take Whatever Actions Are Necessary to Hold Them Accountable
- Jared Kushner went on Fox & Friends today and claimed states have "excess capacity" for testing (this is a lie)
- McConnell made case to his colleagues today about including in any package provisions to shield businesses from lawsuits, saying that liability reform is "the thing that relates the most to regular people”
- Florida Governor: Florida is "God's waiting room"
- Trump, again: coronavirus will just "go away" [EDITOR YES HE'S BACK ON THAT TODAY]
- Trump falsely suggests he was right when he predicted 'close to zero' virus cases in February
- Florida is now blocking medical examiners from releasing COVID-19 death totals
- Sen. Richard Burr Is Not Just a Friend to the Health Care Industry. He’s Also a Stockholder.
- Republican lawmaker launches new legal challenge against Pritzker’s stay-at-home order, wants General Assembly to meet
- States tell workers they'll lose unemployment benefits if they refuse to return to jobs
- Rick Wiles Says It’s Possible ‘The Entire Wuhan Pandemic Was Staged’
- Elon Musk tweets protest against US coronavirus lockdown
- It’s starting to feel like Republicans want to have a ‘chickenpox party’ for coronavirus in the whole of Washington state
- David Barton Claims Non-Christians’ Fear of Death Led to Public Policy ‘Panic’ on COVID-19
- So Trump’s roughly 7 times as inept as the average world leader.
- It just got easier in Georgia for new drivers to get a license... for now
- U.S. coronavirus death toll is far higher than reported, CDC data suggests
- Trump starts talking about "massive rallies" soon.
----- 1 -----
Jared Kushner’s ‘princely arrogance’ set back the coronavirus response by weeks: report
29 April 2020
Igor Derysh, Salon
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/04/jared-kushners-princely-arrogance-set-back-the-coronavirus-response-by-weeks-report/
President Donald Trump’s obsession with settling scores in the wake of his impeachment and the “princely arrogance” of his son-in-law Jared Kushner delayed the response from the White House in the critical early days of the coronavirus outbreak, numerous Republicans and administration officials told Vanity Fair’s Gabe Sherman.
As the number of coronavirus cases in New York reached 4,000, Trump continued to fume about impeachment while dismissing concerns about the outbreak, a Republican in frequent contact with the administration told Sherman.
“Trump was obsessed with Pelosi, Schiff, the media — just obsessed,” the source said of the president. “He would say, ‘They’re using it against me!’ It was unhinged.”
When Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar tried to warn Trump about the virus, the president repeatedly interrupted him to lament his decision to ban certain vaping products, according to the report. Kushner also dismissed concerns from Azar and other officials.
“Jared kept saying the stock market would go down, and Trump wouldn’t get re-elected,” a Republican familiar with the situation told Sherman. A source close to Kushner denied the claim.
----- 2 -----
Inside Donald Trump and Jared Kushner’s Two Months of Magical Thinking
Obsessed with impeachment and their enemies and worried about the stock market, the president and his son-in-law scapegoated HHS Secretary Alex Azar, and treated the coronavirus as mostly a political problem as it moved through the country.
By Gabriel Sherman
April 28, 2020
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/04/donald-trump-jared-kushners-two-months-of-magical-thinking
On the afternoon of Thursday, March 19, Donald Trump sat in the Oval Office obsessing over the beaches in Florida. CNN footage of shirtless spring breakers packed onto the sand while the coronavirus pandemic raged sparked national outrage—and pressure on Trump to act. The next morning, New York governor Andrew Cuomo would announce strict stay-at-home orders for residents, but Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis refused to close his state’s beaches, a position even Florida’s Republican senator Rick Scott called reckless. “Lots of people were telling Trump to lean on Ron,” a Trump adviser said.
Trump’s view of the situation was complicated, though. For weeks, his top medical advisers, Dr. Deborah Birx and Dr. Anthony Fauci, had been hectoring him about the seriousness of the crisis and the necessity of swift action, testing, lockdowns. “We knew from the beginning...we were going to get cases in the United States,” Fauci told me.
“We knew we were in for a very serious problem.”
Sometimes, Trump listened. The disease was coming closer to his own circle—chief of staff Mark Meadows and communications director Stephanie Grisham were self-quarantining—and the number of cases in New York City had reached 4,000. But the substrate of his thinking hadn’t evolved, and it kept reappearing. He worried about the economy, which was crucial to his reelection. He vented to friends that the doctors were alarmist, and that the crisis was something Democrats and the media were doing to him. “Trump was obsessed with Pelosi, Schiff, the media, just obsessed. He would say, ‘They’re using it against me!’ recalled a Republican in frequent contact with the White House. “It was unhinged.”
Florida was a test case of his magical thinking about the novel coronavirus: That it was temporary, that warm weather would make it disappear. But eight Florida residents had already died from COVID-19 and more than 400 had been diagnosed. “Given the elderly population, if that took off, it would be a nightmare,” a person close to Trump told me. At an adviser’s urging, Trump called DeSantis to tell him to shut down the beaches.
“Ron, what are you doing down there?” Trump said, according to a person briefed on the call.
“I can’t ban people from going on the beach,” DeSantis snapped, surprising Trump.
“These pictures look really bad to the rest of the country,” Trump said.
“Listen, we’re doing it the right way,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis’s intransigence backed Trump into a corner. The 41-year-old governor was a Trump protégé and a crucial ally in a must-win state. “Trump is worried about Florida, electorally,” said a Republican who spoke with Trump around this time. Trump did something he rarely does: He caved. He told DeSantis the beaches could stay open.
“I understand what you’re saying,” Trump said, and hung up.
----- 3 -----
Jared Kushner Says Trump is Focused on Response to China, Will Take Whatever Actions Are Necessary to Hold Them Accountable
By Andrew Feinberg On 4/29/20
https://www.newsweek.com/jared-kushner-says-trump-focused-response-china-will-take-whatever-actions-are-necessary-hold-1500916
White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner told Fox & Friends Wednesday that President Donald Trump "will take whatever actions are necessary" against whoever is responsible for the outbreak of the novel coronavirus that triggered a global pandemic and wreaked havoc on the U.S. economy.
Co-host Brian Kilmeade asked Kushner about two things: the Australian government's independent investigation into the origins of the virus, and German newspaper Bilds' invoice to China for $160 billion for losses related to Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus.
"Do you believe that they owe us a check, and will there be an invoice handed to them shortly?" Kilmeade asked Kusher about China.
"Is there going to be an offensive move on them to replenish our resources, as we've been brought to our knees economically?"
Kushner said that Trump is focused on the country's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"But," he added, "he has asked the team to look into very carefully what happened how this got here, and to make sure that he will take whatever actions are necessary to make sure that the people who cause the problems are held accountable for it."
"So, yes," Kushner said.
Trump has said that the U.S. would demand "substantial" compensation from Beijing for what he has characterized as China's mishandling of the initial outbreak of the coronavirus.
----- 4 -----
Aaron Rupar
twitter.com/atrupar
29 April 2020
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1255486821489954817
"I'm very confident we have all the testing we need to start reopening the country" -- Jared Kushner went on Fox & Friends today and claimed states have "excess capacity" for testing (the country right now is not doing even half as much testing as experts think is necessary)
[EMBEDDED VIDEO]
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Manu Raju
twitter.com/mkraju
28 April 2020
https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1255256656079982600
McConnell made case to his colleagues today about including in any package provisions to shield businesses from lawsuits, saying that liability reform is "the thing that relates the most to regular people,” per sources on call. Later on Fox, he reiterated that as his “redline”
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Shannon Watts
twitter.com/shannonrwatts
28 April 2020
https://twitter.com/shannonrwatts/status/1255202705955360768
Referring to his state’s large population of senior citizens, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called Florida “God’s waiting room” during a press conference today. #flapol
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Aaron Rupar
twitter.com/atrupar
28 April 2020
https://twitter.com/i/status/1255216787349819394
Trump on why he thinks it's a good idea for states to reopen economies without a coronavirus vaccine or even effective treatments available: "I think what happens is it's going to go away."
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Fact check: Trump falsely suggests he was right when he predicted 'close to zero' virus cases in February
By Tara Subramaniam, Daniel Dale, Marshall Cohen and Nathan McDermott, CNN
Updated 11:54 PM ET, Tue April 28, 2020
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/28/politics/fact-check-trump-remarks-april-28/index.html
Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump claimed Tuesday that Dr. Anthony Fauci, a key member of the White House coronavirus task force, said in late February that the coronavirus was "no problem."
Fauci didn't say that.
Trump also suggested Tuesday that he was correct when he said in February that the US would go down from 15 coronavirus cases to nearly zero -- even though he was wildly inaccurate, since the US now has more than a million cases.
And the President repeated his false claims that he "inherited" a "broken test" for the virus, though there was no inherited test for a virus only identified during his presidency. He also said that Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden had apologized to him for previous comments about Trump's travel restrictions on China, though there was no apology.
Here are some fact checks of statements Trump made at his two Tuesday media events, during an Oval Office meeting with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and an East Room event about the Paycheck Protection Program for small businesses.
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Florida is now blocking medical examiners from releasing COVID-19 death totals
April 29, 2020
By Brad Reed
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/04/florida-is-now-blocking-medical-examiners-from-releasing-covid-19-death-totals/
The state of Florida has now stopped its medical examiners from releasing numbers about people who have died from COVID-19.
The Tampa Bay Times reports that Florida’s state health department intervened earlier this month to suppress the medical examiners’ reports, which regularly showed death totals that were 10 percent higher than the official tallies put out by the state.
For the past nine days, no reports from the medical examiners have been made available to the public, and there’s no indication of when they will be released in the future.
Dr. Stephen Nelson, the chairman of the state Medical Examiners Commission, tells the Tampa Bay Times that state officials have told him they’re planning to remove probable causes of death from the examiners’ report, which would make it impossible to tell how many people the examiners believe have died from coronavirus.
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Sen. Richard Burr Is Not Just a Friend to the Health Care Industry. He’s Also a Stockholder.
The Republican of North Carolina, who is under investigation for his stock trading, regularly flips health care stocks even as he pushes for legislation to help the industry.
by Robert Faturechi and Derek Willis
April 27, 2020
https://www.propublica.org/article/sen-richard-burr-is-not-just-a-friend-to-the-health-care-industry-hes-also-a-stockholder
In his 15 years in the Senate, Richard Burr, a North Carolina Republican, has been one of the health care industry’s staunchest friends.
Serving on the health care and finance committees, Burr advocated to end the tax on medical device makers, one of the industry’s most-detested aspects of the 2010 Affordable Care Act. He pushed the Food and Drug Administration to speed up its approval process. As one of the most prominent Republican health care policy thinkers, he has sponsored or co-sponsored dozens of health-related bills, including a proposal to replace “Obamacare.” He oversaw the implementation of major legislation to pump taxpayer money into private sector initiatives to address public health threats. “The industry feels very positive about Sen. Burr,” the president of North Carolina’s bioscience trade group said during Burr’s last reelection campaign. “He’s done a stellar job.”
Burr also trades in and out of the industry’s stocks.
Since 2013, Burr and his wife bought and sold between $639,500 and $1.1 million of stock in companies that make medical devices, equipment, supplies and drugs, according to a ProPublica analysis of his financial disclosures.
With weak laws and little oversight, such trading rarely trips any wires. There is no evidence Burr has acted illegally or violated Senate rules.
Senators are prohibited from pushing legislation in order to directly further their own financial interest, but they can own stocks in industries overseen by committees on which they sit and trade in and out of individual stocks.
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Republican lawmaker launches new legal challenge against Pritzker’s stay-at-home order, wants General Assembly to meet
State Rep. John Cabello’s lawsuit could potentially free more Illinoisans from the governor’s order.
By Jon Seidel and Tina Sfondeles
Apr 29, 2020
https://chicago.suntimes.com/coronavirus/2020/4/29/21241189/republican-lawmaker-launches-new-legal-attack-illinois-governor-jb-pritzker-stay-at-home-order
The most serious legal threat to Gov. J.B. Pritkzer’s stay-at-home order emerged Wednesday as a Republican lawmaker filed a lawsuit designed to potentially free all Illinoisans from the governor’s restrictions amid the coronavirus pandemic.
For now, state Rep. John Cabello said he won’t seek a temporary restraining order as long as he sees an effort begin to put the General Assembly back to work. A fellow Republican, state Rep. Darren Bailey, secured such an order earlier this week. But it applied only to Bailey, while Cabello’s could apply more broadly.
“The governor said that this is a political stunt — it’s partisan politics,” Cabello told the Chicago Sun-Times. “And I’m trying to show him that no, sir, this is not.”
Pritzker on Wednesday called the lawsuit “irresponsible” and “another attempt at grandstanding” by a state lawmaker. The state is also appealing the order secured by Bailey, who along with Cabello is a supporter of President Donald Trump. Both men are represented by downstate attorney Tom DeVore.
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States tell workers they'll lose unemployment benefits if they refuse to return to jobs
By Marty Johnson
04/28/20
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/495050-states-telling-workers-theyll-lose-unemployment-benefits-if-they-refuse
Some states that are reopening parts of their economies have warned employees that they'll lose their unemployment benefits if they refuse to go back to work for their employers, even if they're worried about contracting the coronavirus.
"If you're an employer and you offer to bring your employee back to work and they decide not to, that's a voluntary quit," Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) said Friday. "Therefore, they would not be eligible for the unemployment money."
Reynolds also said employers who have workers that refuse to return should file a report with Iowa Workforce Development.
On Monday, the governor announced that she was loosening social distancing restrictions in 77 of Iowa's 99 counties, effective May 1.
"In the 77 counties, the proclamation permits restaurants, fitness centers, malls, libraries, race tracks, and certain other retail establishments to reopen in a limited fashion with public health measures in place," the governor's office said in a statement.
Reynolds said the 77 counties have either seen a steady decline in new cases or no new cases at all for the past two weeks, one of the main benchmarks the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention set for states wanting to reopen their economies.
The only exception for workers getting unemployment after not returning to work is if they are ill with the virus or taking care of a family member who has the deadly disease.
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Rick Wiles Says It’s Possible ‘The Entire Wuhan Pandemic Was Staged’
By Kyle Mantyla
April 29, 2020 10:33 am https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/rick-wiles-says-its-possible-the-entire-wuhan-pandemic-was-stages/
From the very start of the COVID-19 pandemic, End Times broadcaster Rick Wiles began warning that the virus was a plague sent by God to purge the world of sin as the Last Days approach. Wiles repeatedly declared that a “death angel” was sweeping across the globe and dedicated just about every episode of his nightly “TruNews” program for the last several months to warning that life as we have known was about to change forever.
But Wiles has suddenly changed his tune and has now returned to what he has always done best, which is to spin baseless conspiracy theories. Wiles used his Monday program to assert that the threat from the virus was wildly overblown and to speculate that China never really had a coronavirus outbreak at all but had faked it as cover to unleash the virus on the rest of the world.
“What if they made us believe Wuhan had massive death, that the entire city had to be fumigated?” Wiles said. “What if it was all a propaganda campaign to introduce a virus in America to bring down the U.S. economy?”
“It’s also possible the entire Wuhan pandemic was staged,” he continued. “For what purpose? To destroy the American economy. And I’m not saying that there’s no virus here—I believe that absolutely there’s a virus here. Fifty-five thousand people are dead. What I’m saying is maybe it never happened in Wuhan. Maybe the entire thing has been a calculated, well planned, well choreographed, well executed attack on the USA because nothing has ever shut us down like this … [This] is the first time in the history of America that churches have been closed from coast to coast.”
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It’s starting to feel like Republicans want to have a ‘chickenpox party’ for coronavirus in the whole of Washington state
By Danny Westneat
Seattle Times columnist
April 29, 2020
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/its-starting-to-feel-like-republicans-want-to-have-a-chickenpox-party-for-coronavirus-in-the-whole-state/
The tale of two cities told in a national magazine this week was summed up well in the headline: “Seattle’s leaders let scientists take the lead. New York’s did not.”
The article, in The New Yorker, heaped praise on our region’s spotlight-loving politicians and corporate leaders for doing an unusual thing when the coronavirus outbreak first hit two months ago. They got out of the way.
The coherent, science-based messaging that resulted may explain why our per capita death rate from COVID-19 is, so far, one-tenth that of New York’s.
King County Executive Dow Constantine recalled it in a bucolic-sounding quote: “Everyone, Republicans and Democrats, came together behind one message and agreed to let the scientists take the lead.”
It rings pretty true to the spirit of what was going on here back in February and early March. But alas, those halcyon days definitely are over.
Increasingly, local Republicans seem to be concluding that, science be damned, it’s time we man up and let the virus run.
It’s “not necessarily a bad thing” for more people to be exposed to the virus, Washington state Sen. John Braun, R-Centralia, told The Columbian newspaper this week. “It will speed our path, frankly, toward herd immunity.”
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Elon Musk tweets protest against US coronavirus lockdown
Tesla founder says ‘FREE AMERICA NOW’ in outburst against economic impact
Rupert Neate
29 April 2020
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/apr/29/elon-musk-tweets-protest-against-us-coronavirus-lockdown
Elon Musk, the multibillionaire founder and chief executive of electric car company Tesla, has joined those protesting against the coronavirus lockdown of the US economy, tweeting: “FREE AMERICA NOW”.
His outburst came as he was close to securing a $750m (£585m) payout from a bonus scheme linked to Tesla’s share price.
Musk, the world’s 22nd-richest person with an estimated $38.5bn (£30.5bn) fortune, on Wednesday tweeted: “Give people their freedom back!” with a link to a Wall Street Journal article suggesting that the lockdowns have not saved that many lives but have shattered local economies.
He also tweeted: “Bravo Texas!” with a link to a local newspaper story about the Texas governor Greg Abbott’s plans to allow shops, restaurants and movie theatres to reopen from Friday.
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David Barton Claims Non-Christians’ Fear of Death Led to Public Policy ‘Panic’ on COVID-19
By Peter Montgomery
April 28, 2020
https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/david-barton-claims-non-christians-fear-of-death-led-to-public-policy-panic-on-covid-19/
Religious-right “historian” and Republican political activist David Barton said last week that governors have shut down the country out of fear and panic because America has become so secularized that people fear death because they don’t have confidence that death will bring them an eternity in Heaven. Barton is an influential conservative activist who has helped write recent Republican Party platforms.
Barton made his comments during an appearance last week on “Stand in the Gap,” a radio program produced by the American Pastors Network. During the show Barton, true to form, mangled historical facts and used actual facts to promote dubious narratives.
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Laurence Tribe
twitter.com/tribelaw
28 April 2020
https://twitter.com/tribelaw/status/1255189463925501953
We have 57,000 of the world’s 213,000 deaths: around 27%. But we’re under 4% of the world’s population. That’s a ratio of ~ 7:1. So Trump’s roughly 7 times as inept as the average world leader. What else do those entrusting their lives to this narcissistic moron need to know?
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It just got easier in Georgia for new drivers to get a license... for now
By Denise Dillon
28 April 2020
https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/it-just-got-easier-in-georgia-for-new-drivers-to-get-a-license-for-now
KENNESAW, Ga. - We all remember how nervous we were taking our driving test. But as of right now, teens getting a license in Georgia don't have to worry about that.
Under Governor Kemp's latest executive order, teens still have to fulfill all driving requirements, but the behind the wheel road test has been suspended. While the Department of Driver Services practices social distancing during this pandemic, it's impossible for an employee to conduct a road test in the same vehicle with an applicant and still keep their distance.
"During these unprecedented times, the Department of Driver Services is trying to make it as easy as a process for people to get their license and to lessen the burden on people right now," says Stormi Kenney who owns Kennesaw Driving School.
Kenney has been working with new drivers for 25 years. She says while there is no road test, new drivers must still meet all other requirements, including 40 hours of supervised driving.
"I'm hoping most parents won't just sign off on those 40 hours, I'm hoping most will take the time and drive with their kids before they let them obtain their driver's license," said Kenney.
Ultimately this means it's up to parents to decide if their child is ready to get behind the wheel.
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U.S. coronavirus death toll is far higher than reported, CDC data suggests
By MARGOT SANGER-KATZ, Josh Katz, and Denise Lu
April 29, 2020
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/u-s-coronavirus-death-toll-is-far-higher-than-reported-cdc-data-suggests/
Total deaths in seven states that have been hard-hit by the coronavirus pandemic are nearly 50% higher than normal for the five weeks from March 8 through April 11, according to new death statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That is 9,000 more deaths than were reported as of April 11 in official counts of deaths from the coronavirus.
The new data is partial and most likely undercounts the recent death toll significantly. But it still illustrates how the coronavirus is causing a surge in deaths in the places it has struck, probably killing more people than the reported statistics capture. These increases belie arguments that the virus is only killing people who would have died anyway from other causes. Instead, the virus has brought a pattern of deaths unlike anything seen in recent years.
If you look at the provisional deaths from all causes, death counts in New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Massachusetts, Illinois, Maryland and Colorado have spiked far above their normal levels for the period. In New York City, the home of the biggest outbreak, the number of deaths over this period is more than three times the normal number. (Recent data suggests it could have reached six times higher than normal.)
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Weijia Jiang
twitter.com/weijia
29 April 2020
https://twitter.com/weijia/status/1255683106490716160
Today the President said he was anxious to get out of the White House before announcing trips to Arizona and Ohio:
“And we're going to start to move around. And hopefully, in the not-too-distant future, we'll have some massive rallies.”
no subject
Date: 2020-04-30 01:17 pm (UTC)I wonder if Putin thinks it was worth it now that there are consequences biting him in his political hindquarters.
no subject
Date: 2020-05-02 06:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-05-02 05:43 pm (UTC)Didja see where one of his responses to polling saying he would lose to Joe Biden right now was like, "The American people are smart, they won't elect someone incompetent"?
no subject
Date: 2020-05-02 06:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-05-02 06:11 pm (UTC)