“The US Secret Service on Monday evening told members of the White House press corps to immediately leave the White House grounds, a highly unusual decision that did not immediately come with an explanation,” CNN reports.
University of Michigan Withdraws from Hosting Debate
The University of Michigan is withdrawing from hosting a presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, sources told the Detroit Free Press.
U-M is making the move because of concerns of bringing the campaigns, media and supporters of both candidates to Ann Arbor and campus during a pandemic.
Corey Lewandowski Takes Aim at Brad Parscale
With Trump campaign manager Brad Parcasle’s job on the rocks, 2016 Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski — who also is a current adviser to the president’s re-election campaign — took a rare shot at the president’s current political team, calling the execution of the Tulsa rally a “fundamental mistake,” ABC News reports.
Said Lewandowski: “I think a fundamental mistake was made. Over promising and under-delivering is the biggest mistake you can make in politics.”
Democrats Signal They’ll Block GOP Police Reform Bill
“Democratic senators on Monday gave their strongest indications yet they may block the Republican police reform bill from coming to the floor, a risky move that could prevent any overhaul measure from being enacted this year over their party’s concerns that the GOP bill is too weak,” CNN reports.
House Judiciary to Subpoena William Barr
House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) is preparing to subpoena Attorney General Bill Barr for his testimony on July 2, Axios reports.
The expected subpoena comes after the firing of Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York who had been investigating President Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani.
Parscale and Kushner at Top of Trump’s Hit List
Gabriel Sherman: “The blame game has shifted into high gear. Trump insiders told me Trump was presented with five options of where to hold his rally. ‘The president chose Tulsa,’ a source said. Sources also told me that if Parscale is forced out, he likely won’t be the only casualty of the rally fiasco. Trump is debating revoking his son-in-law Jared Kushner’s control over the campaign, sources said. As I previously reported, Trump has been frustrated with Kushner’s oversight of the campaign in light of polling that consistently shows Trump losing to Joe Biden. Another source of friction has been campaign spending and reports Trump has gotten that Parscale is making millions of dollars.”
“One way to measure Kushner’s diminished influence will be found in whom Trump would choose to replace Parscale. Top candidates include 2016 veterans Jason Miller, David Bossie, and Corey Lewandowski, all of whom Kushner successfully kept on the outer fringe of Trumpworld.”
Said Trump to his advisers: “We can’t allow Jared’s stupid disagreements to get in the way.”
Washington Post: “Trump’s anger over Tulsa rally underscores growing problems within his campaign.”
Trump Preoccupied with His Mental Health
Washington Post: “Trump had taken a cognitive screening test as part of his 2018 physical, and now, more than two years later, he brought up the 10-minute exam. He waxed on about how he’d dazzled the proctors with his stellar performance… He walked the room of roughly two dozen White House and reelection officials through some of the questions he said he’d aced, such as being able to repeat five words in order.”
“The seeming non sequitur was part of Trump’s growing preoccupation in recent weeks over perceptions of his mental and physical health, at a time when critics have mocked him for episodes in which they say he has appeared frail or confused.”
Election Night Result Not Likely In Close Race
Washington Post: “If voters remain reluctant to cast ballots in person, November is likely to bring an even more massive wave of voting by mail than what has swept across the country during primary season. That, in turn, means a close race between President Trump and former vice president Joe Biden in a pivotal state could take days, even weeks, to resolve, election officials across the country are warning.”
“Barring a landslide for either candidate, that scenario could invite an unprecedented test of the country’s faith in its elections: an extended period without a declared winner. Amid that uncertainty, few expect Trump, who has said repeatedly that he thinks mail voting could cost him the election, to soothe voter anxieties.”
State Department Mutes Line of Reporter
“The State Department’s top spokeswoman on Monday muted the line of a reporter asking about John Bolton’s book during a briefing extolling press freedom,” Politico reports.
“The Department convened a telephone briefing ahead of its designation of four additional Chinese news outlets as foreign missions. But when David Brunnstrom, a journalist from Reuters, asked whether U.S. allies had reached out to the assistant secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs in the wake of Bolton’s book, his line was muted.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“I believe the president is a racist. The statement has to be made.”
— Retired Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, quoted by The Atlantic.
What Fiona Hill Learned in the White House
Adam Entous: “Hill’s tenure was, in many ways, an extended exercise in futility. Ultimately, she will be remembered not for safeguarding the country but for the unvarnished testimony that she delivered in the impeachment proceedings against Trump, in October and November of 2019, which revealed how U.S. foreign policy was subverted for domestic political purposes.”
“In her conversations with me, she offered a unique look at the dysfunction, the misogyny, and the corruption that have proliferated in Trump’s White House.”
Texas Governor Sounds Warning About Spread of Virus
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott struck a newly urgent tone about rising coronavirus numbers in Texas but said “closing down Texas again will always be the last option,” the Texas Tribune reports.
Said Abbot: “To state the obvious, COVID-19 is now spreading at an unacceptable rate in Texas and it must be corralled.”
“However, he stopped short of introducing any new policies or pulling back on the reopening of Texas businesses.”
New York Special Election Gives Democrats Hope
New York Times: “The 27th Congressional District is about as Republican as New York, a deep blue state, can get… But Chris Collins’s (R) tenure came to a screeching halt last fall, when he resigned and pleaded guilty, creating a vacancy that will be filled by a special election on Tuesday.”
“Nate McMurray (D) is back to try again — and will face state senator Chris Jacobs (R) in a race that is potentially a harbinger of the electoral mood…”
“In a peculiar wrinkle, Mr. Jacobs is not only running against Mr. McMurray in the special election; he is also simultaneously running in the Republican primary against two challengers… It is theoretically possible for Mr. Jacobs to defeat Mr. McMurray but lose in the Republican primary.”
Two More Trump Staffers Test Positive
After another round of testing for Trump campaign staff in Tulsa, two additional members of the campaign advance team tested positive for the coronavirus, MSNBC reports.
Unlike the previous six staffers who tested positive, these two staff members attended the Saturday night rally.
Trump Orders New Limits on Foreign Workers
“President Trump issued an executive order Monday barring many categories of foreign workers and curbing immigration visas through the end of the year, moves the administration characterized as necessary to protect U.S. workers following steep job losses amid the coronavirus pandemic,” the Washington Post reports.
“The freeze will apply to work visas that many companies use, especially in the technology sector, landscaping services and the forestry industry. It excludes agricultural laborers and some health care workers and includes a special exemption for the approximately 20,000 child-care providers who come to the United States as ‘au pairs.'”
Democrats to Weaponize Trump Comments on Testing
“A series of Democratic super PACs, led by Priorities USA, and former Vice President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign have begun to weaponize President Trump’s comment that he urged his staff to slow coronavirus testing,” CNN reports.
“Trump, during a rally on Saturday in Tulsa, Oklahoma, said that in an effort to keep the known number of Americans infected with the coronavirus down, he urged his staff to ‘slow the testing down.’ The comment immediately drew the attention of Democrats, who believe the best way to attack Trump ahead of the November election is to cast his response to the coronavirus as a failure.”
“Priorities USA will begin on Tuesday airing a television ad featuring the comment in Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, four key battleground states.”
Politico: White House delivers mixed explanations on Trump’s vow to slow down testing.
Pence Voted by Mail from Four-Year Old Address
“Vice President Mike Pence and Second Lady Karen Pence voted by mail for this month’s Indiana Republican primary using a home address that they haven’t lived in for nearly four years,” Business Insider reports.
Pandemic Getting Worse Despite Pence’s Claims
Philip Bump: “On Tuesday, Vice President Pence triumphantly rejected the idea that the country was seeing a second spike in coronavirus cases as the pandemic continued. Writing for the Wall Street Journal, he outlined the data which made him confident that things were improving…”
“A week later, nearly all of the verifiable claims made by Pence are incorrect or have eroded significantly.”