Washington Post: “Poorer nations throughout Latin America, the Middle East, South Asia and Africa are bearing a growing share of the caseload, even as wealthier countries in Western Europe and East Asia enjoy a relative respite after having beaten back the worst effects through rigorously enforced lockdowns.”
“And then there’s the United States, which leads the world in new cases and, as with many nations that possess far fewer resources, has shown no sign of being able to regain control.”
“In theory, President Trump summoned television cameras to the heat-baked Rose Garden early Tuesday evening to announce new measures against China to punish it for its oppression of Hong Kong. But that did not last long,” the New York Times reports.
“What followed instead was 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.”
“At times, it was hard to understand what he meant.”
Trending on the political dictionary: Rose Garden campaign.
White House adviser Peter Navarro attacks Dr. Anthony Fauci in a remarkable USA Today op-ed:
“Dr. Anthony Fauci has a good bedside manner with the public, but he has been wrong about everything I have interacted with him on.”
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) is standing by a recent Facebook post calling anyone who refuses to wear a mask to help mitigate the spread of coronavirus a “selfish bastard,” The Hill reports.
Said Polis: “The emerging scientific data is clear: wearing a mask doesn’t only protect others, it also significantly reduces your own risk of getting Coronavirus. So if you’re a selfish bastard and wearing a mask to protect others isn’t enough of a reason to do so, then maybe protecting yourself is?”
Former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville (R) defeated former Attorney General Jeff Sessions (R) in Alabama’s Republican primary runoff election on Tuesday, setting up a November match up with current Sen. Doug Jones (D), the AP reports.
“Rep. Steve Watkins (R-KS) was charged Tuesday with three felonies and a misdemeanor related to an investigation into whether he illegally voted in a 2019 municipal election,” the Kansas City Star reports.
“The felony charges are interference with law enforcement by providing false information, voting without being qualified and unlawful advance voting. Watkins also faces a misdemeanor charge for failing to the notify the DMV of his change of address.”
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been taken to the hospital and treated for a possible infection, CNN reports.
“Biden has had a lot of personal tragedy, so I will never say a bad word about Joe Biden as a person, I just don’t think he’s the right guy to be president.He’s, in my view, a figurehead of the most radical movement in American history that’s coming from AOC and that crowd. And so my differences with Joe Biden are political, and they’re real, they’re wide and they’re deep, but he’s a fine man.”
— Sen. Lindsey Graham, quoted by NBC News.
“I do think the fall and the winter of 2020 and 2021 are going to be the probably one of the most difficult times that we experienced in American public health.”
— CDC director Robert Redfield, quoted by CNN.
“Millions of dollars are pouring into the primary race for Minnesota’s Fifth Congressional District, where opposition to Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) is fueling an unprecedented surge in donations to her top Democratic opponent, political newcomer Antone Melton-Meaux (D),” the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.
President Trump told CBS News the killing of George Floyd was “terrible” but appeared to bristle when asked why Black Americans are “still dying at the hands of law enforcement in this country.”
Said Trump: “So are White people. So are White people. What a terrible question to ask. So are White people. More White people, by the way. More White people.”
He also said the Confederate flag was a freedom of speech issue: “All I say is freedom of speech. It’s very simple. My attitude is freedom of speech. Very strong views on the Confederate flag. With me, it’s freedom of speech. Very simple. Like it, don’t like it, it’s freedom of speech.”
“The Trump administration has ordered hospitals to bypass the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and, beginning on Wednesday, send all coronavirus patient information to a central database in Washington — a move that has alarmed public health experts who fear the data will be distorted for political gain,” the New York Times reports.
“From now on, HHS, and not the CDC, will collect daily reports about the patients that each hospital is treating, how many beds and ventilators are available, and other information vital to tracking the pandemic.”
“The U.S. backed down from a high-profile confrontation with Harvard and MIT over visas for foreign students who take online-only classes, ending a tense standoff that could have sent thousands of students back to their home countries and left colleges scrambling to plan for the fall,” Bloomberg reports.
“Retired Gen. Joseph Dunford, former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, has withdrawn from consideration to lead a congressional commission tasked with overseeing the Trump administration’s implementation of a $500 billion coronavirus relief fund,” Politico reports.
It’s now gone four months without a permanent chair.
Illinois House Republican leader Jim Durkin said he’s skipping the GOP’s national convention celebration in Jacksonville, Florida, next month over concerns about the coronavirus, the Chicago Tribune reports.
Said Durkin: “It’s not going to be a safe environment.”
CDC director Robert Redfield said that if everyone in the U.S. wore a mask, the coronavirus pandemic could be “under control” within four-to-eight weeks, Axios reports.
Said Redfield: “If we could get everybody to wear a mask right now I think in four, six, eight weeks we could bring this epidemic under control.”
“The public spat unfolding this week between the White House and the nation’s respected top infectious disease specialist has vexed some allies of President Trump, whose visions for a highly focused reelection season have instead been replaced with unpopular fights and obscure fixations,” CNN reports.
“After outcry, the White House appeared to be recalibrating its approach to Dr. Anthony Fauci, who sat for a lengthy meeting with chief of staff Mark Meadows on Monday after White House officials questioned his record in a statement to reporters.”
“But with a little more than 100 days until November 3, the fight with Fauci illustrated what, to many supporters of Trump, has been a disturbing pattern: ill-timed battles with little evident public support that do nothing to define the presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden, articulate a rationale for another term in office or contain a pandemic that is both crippling the nation and dooming his reelection chances.”
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will visit Iowa on Friday, following months of speculation over his possible future political aspirations, The Hill reports.
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
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