Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) has warned devout Christians that anyone attending Easter Sunday services will be forced to quarantine for 14 days after giving state police the mandate to take down attendees’ license plate numbers, CNN reports.
The state says around six churches are planning to hold in-person services despite a stay-at-home order.
“A vaccine against coronavirus could be ready as soon as September, the British scientist leading one of the world’s most advanced efforts has said,” the Times of London reports.
“Sarah Gilbert, professor of vaccinology at Oxford University, told The Times she was ’80 per cent confident’ that the vaccine being developed by her team would work, with human trials due to begin in the next fortnight.”
The HuffPost notes President Trump came up with an unusual greeting Friday to those commemorating the day Christ was nailed to a cross: “HAPPY GOOD FRIDAY TO ALL!”
He later wished everyone a “great” Good Friday at his press briefing.
“The jarring greeting referred to the most somber day of the Christian calendar. It marks the torture of Jesus and his death upon a cross. Easter, on Sunday, marks the celebration of Jesus’s resurrection.”
As U.S. health officials anticipated an imminent peak in daily deaths from the novel coronavirus, the number of people confirmed dead in a single day topped 2,000 for the first time Friday, the Washington Post reports.
About 60 percent of the fatalities reported Friday were from three states: New York (777), New Jersey (232) and Michigan (205).
A Louisiana pastor says his church near Baton Rouge is expecting a crowd of 2,000 or more despite federal coronavirus guidance advising social distancing, Reuters reports.
Said Rev. Tony Spell: “Satan and a virus will not stop us. God will shield us from all harm and sickness. We are not afraid. We are called by God to stand against the Antichrist creeping into America’s borders. We will spread the Gospel.”
“The news media business was shaky before the coronavirus started spreading across the country last month. Since then, the economic downturn that put nearly 17 million Americans out of work has led to pay cuts, layoffs and shutdowns at many news outlets,” the New York Times reports.
“Finding a sizable audience has not been a problem for publishers. Hunger for news in a time of crisis has sent droves of readers to many publications. But with businesses paused or closed — and no longer willing or able to pay for advertisements — a crucial part of the industry’s support system has cracked.”
Wired: “Biden’s victory is, on one level, entirely unsurprising. He is the immediate past vice president, reminding Democratic voters of a time that they would very much like to return to. He led in national polls throughout the race. He performed poorly in Iowa and New Hampshire, but it took only one victory in South Carolina for him to consolidate the support of party leadership and build real momentum. But that’s too simple of an explanation. It conflates the Biden candidacy with the Biden campaign. Joe Biden’s candidacy was strong. His campaign wasn’t.”
“There are a few measurable activities that we generally associate with strong campaigns. They identify supporters, raise money, make headlines, frame the debate, knock on doors, make phone calls, and turn people out to vote. Biden’s did virtually none of those things.”
“The Bloomberg-owned firm Hawkfish, which ran the presidential campaign of Mike Bloomberg, is in serious talks to serve the presidential campaign of Joe Biden,” The Intercept reports.
“Along with Biden’s campaign, the firm is courting a wide swath of other progressive and Democratic organizations, opening up the possibility of Bloomberg gaining significant control over the party’s technology and data infrastructure.”
“Hundreds of absentee ballots mailed back to the City of Madison for Tuesday’s election may not be counted, thanks to a missing postmark,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
“The problem is one that is emerging in communities across Wisconsin as election officials prepare to tally the results of an election conducted during the coronavirus pandemic. Results for the state Supreme Court and other races are to be released Monday.”
“A national plan to fight the coronavirus pandemic in the United States and return Americans to jobs and classrooms is emerging — but not from the White House,” the Washington Post reports.
“Instead, a collection of governors, former government officials, disease specialists and nonprofits are pursuing a strategy that relies on the three pillars of disease control: ramp up testing to identify people who are infected. Find everyone they interact with by deploying contact tracing on a scale America has never attempted before. And focus restrictions more narrowly on the infected and their contacts so the rest of society doesn’t have to stay in permanent lockdown.”
“But there is no evidence yet the White House will pursue such a strategy.”
President Trump sent out a jubilant tweet celebrating four good days for the stock market while the reported coronavirus death toll in the United States overtook Spain’s to become the second highest in the world.
New York Times: Everything is awful. Why is the stock market booming?
New federal government projections obtained by the New York Times find stay-at-home orders, school closures and social distancing greatly reduce infections of the coronavirus, but lifting those restrictions after just 30 days will lead to a dramatic infection spike this summer and death tolls that would rival doing nothing.
The risk they show of easing shelter-in-place orders currently in effect in most of the country undercut recent statements by President Trump that the United States could be ready to reopen “very, very soon.”
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin followed internal protocols when he refused to give President Trump’s tax returns to Congress, Treasury’s office of inspector general found in a report obtained by the Washington Post.
A Utah Policy/KUTV poll find Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox (R) leading the GOP gubernatorial primary at 40%, followed by former Gov. Jon Huntsman (R) at 33% and former state House Speaker Greg Hughes (R) at 16%.
All other candidates received 5% or less.
“White House trade adviser Peter Navarro publicly said Americans had ‘nothing to worry about’ while he privately warned the White House that the coronavirus pandemic could cost trillions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of American lives,” CNN reports.
“Navarro circulated two memos at the White House in late January and February warning that a full-blown coronavirus outbreak would leave American lives and the economy vulnerable. But Navarro, a frequent surrogate for President Trump and his administration on television, continued to present a far more optimistic message in public.”
Definitely worth your time: The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History by John M. Barry.
“The final lesson of 1918, a simple one yet one most difficult to execute, is that… those in authority must retain the public’s trust. The way to do that is to distort nothing, to put the best face on nothing, to try to manipulate no one.”
“The next 4-8 weeks is really going to decide whether Trump gets reelected.”
— Trump confidant Stephen Moore, quoted by Axios, noting that if the administration mishandles its economic recovery efforts, Trump is “in big trouble.”
Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) wore a face mask and gloves while presiding over this morning’s House pro forma session during the coronavirus pandemic.
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.
