“President Biden will address the nation on Thursday, the White House said, laying out a ‘six-pronged strategy’ to combat the coronavirus pandemic throughout the fall,” Yahoo News reports.
“The speech will likely mark a stark departure from the upbeat announcements of last spring, as vaccination rates rose and infection rates declined.”
Washington Post: “President Biden on Tuesday warned of a ‘code red’ moment on climate change as he toured two northeastern states ravaged by the remnants of Hurricane Ida, while his administration prepared to ask Congress for billions in federal aid to respond to last week’s storm and other natural disasters.”
“Attorney General Merrick Garland’s vow to protect women’s right to choose abortion while officials explore challenging a Texas law that severely restricts the procedure offers more bark than bite, legal analysts say, with abortion rights proponents pressing for more aggressive steps,” the Washington Post reports.
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A new Gallup poll finds just 32% of Americans think that the CDC has communicated a clear plan of action in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Brian Stelter: “An unvaccinated minority that doesn’t watch the news or trust the news is putting the vaccinated majority at undue risk. There’s no way around that reality.”
Said Dr. Paul Offit: “It’s the unvaccinated that’s spreading the virus in this country that’s infecting others. And that should be what we take on — and we should talk about it every minute of every hour of every day — because we are never going to get on top of this pandemic until we do that.”
Dr. Nicole Saphier: “The best path forward that will bring the most amount of happiness and health is if vaccinated adults stop overestimating their Covid risk and unvaccinated adults stop underestimating theirs.”
“Former President Trump will barnstorm Iowa and Georgia in the coming weeks as he looks to maintain his tight grip on the GOP base,” The Hill reports.
“The GOP’s House campaign arm is shuffling its winter fundraising schedule, putting Donald Trump in front of its top financial backers for its annual dinner,” Axios reports.
“Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) has privately warned the White House and congressional leaders that he has specific policy concerns with President Biden’s $3.5 trillion social spending dream — and he’ll support as little as $1 trillion of it,” Axios reports.
“At most, he’s open to supporting $1.5 trillion.”
“Manchin also has committed to paying for any new spending with new revenue, which will limit the ultimate size of any final package.”
Milwaukee City Councilwoman Chantia Lewis (D), who is running for the Senate seat held by Ron Johnson (R-WI), was charged with four felonies for allegedly stealing $21,000 from her own campaign and lying about it, The Hill reports.
“Gov. Kristi Noem (R) is using an executive order to tighten up restrictions around abortion in South Dakota,” the Sioux Falls Argus Leader reports.
“The first-term Republican governor Tuesday signed a directive ordering the South Dakota Department of Health to create rules prohibiting the use of telemedicine in the process of terminating a pregnancy within the state and restricting when and how chemical abortion drugs are prescribed or provided.”
“A prominent Minnesota GOP donor who is charged with multiple counts of sex trafficking is now being sued by an underage girl who says he used her for sex acts, then offered her money to keep her from talking about it,” ABC News reports.
“The lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court alleges that Anton Lazzaro’s attorneys offered $1,000 in hush money to the girl and her parents to keep them quiet and asked them to sign a non-disclosure agreement. The girl’s father refused and instead went to law enforcement, said their attorney, Jeff Anderson.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) “directed lawmakers back to Austin for an anticipated third special legislative session of the year, scheduled to start Sept. 20,” the Austin American-Statesman reports.
“In addition to redrawing the state’s political boundaries — a decennial responsibility of the Legislature — Abbott tasked lawmakers with allocating $16 billion in federal coronavirus relief funds and revisiting two priority measures that were unsuccessful this summer: limiting participation of transgender student athletes in school sports and prohibiting vaccine mandates.”
Texas Tribune: “The bills about transgender student athletes and COVID-19 mandates will likely turn up the heat on an already contentious 30-day session.”
“At a time when the delta variant’s summer surge has renewed the nation’s divisions over coronavirus vaccines, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) on Monday said mandates enforcing vaccination do not reflect what it means to be American,” the Washington Post reports.
Tweeted Jordan: “Vaccine mandates are un-American.”
“But critics panned Jordan’s Labor Day message as being off — way off — by nearly 2½ centuries. George Washington, the commander in chief of the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War, made the bold decision in 1777 to require that his troops be immunized after a smallpox outbreak devastated the nation.”
Fred Lowry (R), a councilman for Florida’s Volusia County and a vocal coronavirus denier, is in the hospital with a severe case of Covid-19, the Daytona Beach News-Journal reports.
Lowry attracted controversy this summer for promoting conspiracy theories, including saying the coronavirus pandemic was a lie.
After California’s recall race was a dead-heat just a month ago, the FiveThirtyEight polling average shows Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) opening up a double-digit lead against the effort, 53% to 42.6%.
When asked why women who are raped and get pregnant must carry the babies to term under the new Texas law, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) pushed back saying the women still have six weeks to get abortion.
Then he further justified the law saying he was going to eliminate rape in Texas by arresting all rapists.
Former President Donald Trump hammered Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) on Tuesday, calling him a “terrible representative for both Pennsylvania and the United States” while doubling down on his support for Republican Sean Parnell in the race to replace Toomey next year, The Hill reports.
“Mexico’s supreme court voted unanimously on Tuesday to decriminalize abortion, a striking step in a country with one of the world’s largest Catholic populations and a move that contrasts sharply with tighter restrictions introduced across the border in Texas,” the Washington Post reports.
“The vote comes as a powerful women’s movement is transforming Mexico, where female politicians now make up half of Congress. While abortion remains illegal in most of Latin America, there has been a surge in demonstrations demanding more rights for women, particularly focused on rising violence.”
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.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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