“Despite almost daily disclosures of new coronavirus infections among President Trump’s close associates, the White House is making little effort to investigate the scope and source of its outbreak,” the New York Times reports.
“The White House has decided not to trace the contacts of guests and staff members at the Rose Garden celebration 10 days ago for Judge Amy Coney Barrett, where at least eight people, including the president, may have become infected.”
A new Auburn University poll in Alabama finds Tommy Tuberville (R) leading Sen. Doug Jones (D) in the U.S. Senate race by 12 points, 54% to 42%.
“I wake up some mornings feeling we are in the grips of a mad man.”
— David Gergen, on CNN.
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“The Commission on Presidential Debates has approved plans for plexiglass to be used in Wednesday’s vice presidential debate amid mounting concerns about coronavirus transmission,” Politico reports.
“Plexiglass is expected to be used as a barrier between Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Kamala Harris, as well as between the two candidates and moderator Susan Page.”
Nate Silver: “The debate provides a clear enough line in the sand… that it’s worth doing a before-and-after comparison of the polls. One way to discern this is via our national polling average, where Biden’s lead has inched up to 8.1 points from 7.1 points before the debate.”
“Another way to see this is by comparing post-debate polls to the last, pre-debate version of both national polls and polls of the same states by the same polling firms… And on average, Biden gained 1.5 percentage points from the pre-debate to the post-debate versions of these polls.”
“In some cases, the pre-debate poll was conducted months before the debate. But even if we only focus on the polls that released results at some point in September, the top line is similar: Biden’s gain is 1.4 percentage points, on average. And for what it’s worth, a swing of 1 or 2 points toward Biden is consistent with the effects that first debates have had for challengers in the past.”
A new CNN poll finds 63% of Americans say President Trump handled the risk of coronavirus infection to others around him irresponsibly.
“Disapproval of the President’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak stands at a new high in the survey, with 60% saying they disapprove. Additionally, 63% say his own infection is unlikely to change anything about the way that he handles the pandemic.”
So far, ABC News has confirmed 17 individuals who have been on the White House grounds or in contact with President Trump have tested positive for the coronavirus.
Washington Post: “In a tumultuous year marked by a pandemic that has killed nearly 210,000 Americans and civil unrest, Republicans saw the fight over a Supreme Court vacancy as a chance to boost their political fortunes. Court fights typically rally the GOP base, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) encouraged Trump to move quickly to select a conservative nominee to galvanize voters.”
“But the GOP’s predicted Supreme Court bump has yet to materialize. And the party is now facing down a new level of uncertainty as the coronavirus spreads in GOP circles in Washington, with Sens. Thom Tillis (NC), Mike Lee (UT) and Ron Johnson (WI) testing positive.”
Dr. Sean Conley confirmed that President Trump will be leaving Walter Reed Medical Center later today even though “he may not be entirely out of the woods yet.”
He added: “If we can get through to Monday…then we will all take that deep sigh of relief.”
“The Internal Revenue Service is investigating longtime National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre for possible criminal tax fraud related to his personal taxes,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
The CDC finally acknowledged that people “can sometimes be infected with the coronavirus through airborne transmission, especially in enclosed spaces with inadequate ventilation,” the Washington Post reports.
“The long-awaited update to the agency Web page explaining how the virus spreads represents an official acknowledgment of growing evidence that under certain conditions, people farther than six feet apart can become infected by tiny droplets and particles that float in the air for minutes and hours, and that they play a role in the pandemic.”
David Brooks: “Levels of trust in this country—in our institutions, in our politics, and in one another—are in precipitous decline. And when social trust collapses, nations fail. Can we get it back before it’s too late?”
President Trump tweets:
“I will be leaving the great Walter Reed Medical Center today at 6:30 P.M. Feeling really good! Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life. We have developed, under the Trump Administration, some really great drugs & knowledge. I feel better than I did 20 years ago!”
Hollywood Reporter: “6:30 PM is timed to be live on the evening newscasts. Not as big as they used to be, but they still had 20 million viewers combined last week.“
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) told KHOW that he’ll vote to confirm Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett even if he’s still testing positive for the coronavirus.
Said Johnson: “If we have to go in and vote, I’ve already told leadership I’ll go in a moon suit.”
A source familiar with President Trump’s phone calls from the hospital today tells CNN that he said “I need to get out of here.”
Trump is being warned that if he rushes to leave the hospital and has a setback it would be bad for not just his health, but his re-election campaign.
A new Public Policy Polling survey finds Cal Cunningham (D) leading Sen. Thom Tillis (R) in North Carolina’s U.S. Senate race, 48% to 42%.
The news that Cunningham was sending sexually explicit texts to a woman who was not his wife is having somewhat of an impact on Cunningham’s favorability rating, with 37% saying they have a positive opinion of him to 39% with a negative one. But that -2 net favorability rating is still 21 points better than Tillis’ — he’s at -23 with 31% of voters having a favorable opinion of him to 54% with an unfavorable one.
Sen. John Cornyn told the Houston Chronicle that President Trump “let his guard down” on the coronavirus and that his rhetoric has created “confusion” as the country has struggled to get the pandemic under control.
Said Cornyn: “I think he let his guard down, and I think in his desire to try to demonstrate that we are somehow coming out of this and that the danger is not still with us — I think he got out over his skis and frankly, I think it’s a lesson to all of us that we need to exercise self discipline.”
New Yorker: “The Project, which was founded by eight people, now employs about thirty-five paid staffers. For the first months, everybody worked remotely—in Tallahassee, Denver, East Hampton, Sacramento. Once the war room was ready, more than a dozen employees began arriving at their assigned housing with luggage and pets, prepared to stay until November. The selection of a secret temporary headquarters had been complicated by the pandemic, but security was also a factor.”
“The Project was on track to take in some seventy million dollars by Election Day—not as much as many established pacs, but far more than the founders anticipated.”
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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