The White House announced it will now be testing all reporters who attend the daily briefing for the coronavirus, CNN reports.
Trump Super PAC Bought Campaign’s Email List
“By law, President Trump’s campaign is not allowed to coordinate with a super PAC supporting it,” the Daily Beast reports.
“But in recent months, one such ostensibly independent group has purchased access to one of the campaign’s most valuable possessions: the massive email list that it has built over the last five years.”
Trump Underperforming His Approval Rate
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Melania Trump Models a Face Mask
Melania Trump shared a photo of herself wearing what appears to be a surgical mask, touting the CDC’s recommendation “to wear cloth face coverings.”
President Trump announced last week that he would not be wearing a mask.
Trump Has Expelled 10K Migrants Since Crisis Began
“The Trump administration has carried out nearly 10,000 summary deportations or ‘expulsions’ since March 21, using emergency public health measures that have given U.S. Customs and Border Protection broad authority to bypass immigration laws,” the Washington Post reports.
“The measures have allowed the agency to quickly turn away most unauthorized migrants — sending them back across the U.S.-Mexico border. The moves have dramatically slashed the number of detainees held in border stations, where they fear the coronavirus could spread, the officials said. CBP has fewer than 100 detainees in custody, down from nearly 20,000 at this time last year during the border crisis.”
Boris Johnson Out of Intensive Care
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been moved out of intensive care but remains hospitalized, the Guardian reports.
It’s a sign of improvement after Johnson spent three nights in intensive care for coronavirus.
The World Is In Its Steepest Freefall Ever
Foreign Policy: “As the coronavirus lockdown began, the first impulse was to search for historical analogies—1914, 1929, 1941? As the weeks have ground on, what has come ever more to the fore is the historical novelty of the shock that we are living through. As a result of the coronavirus pandemic, America’s economy is now widely expected to shrink by a quarter. That is as much as during the Great Depression. But whereas the contraction after 1929 stretched over a four-year period, the coronavirus implosion will happen over the next three months. There has never been a crash landing like this before. There is something new under the sun. And it is horrifying.”
“As recently as five weeks ago, at the beginning of March, U.S. unemployment was at record lows. By the end of March, it had surged to somewhere around 13 percent. That is the highest number recorded since World War II. We don’t know the precise figure because our system of unemployment registration was not built to track an increase at this speed.”
Mail-In-Voting Is Part of Florida GOP’s Strategy
“President Trump this week condemned absentee voting as ‘corrupt,’ but mail-in ballots are a central Republican get-out-the-vote strategy in Florida, a state the president will need to win in November if he wants to return to the White House,” Politico reports.
“The Republican Party of Florida has spent tens of millions of dollars in recent election cycles to boost by-mail balloting, turning out more mail-in votes than Democrats in both 2016 and 2018 — a success it plans to repeat this year.”
Virus Could Reinforce Liberal Politics of Generation Z
“As the pandemic and its economic havoc exacerbate disparities, some Gen Zers see grim validation of their support for the government-run programs and social-welfare policies less popular with their parents and grandparents,” the Washington Post reports.
“Seventy percent of them believe the government should be doing more to solve problems, compared with 53% of Gen Xers and 49% of baby boomers.”
Falwell’s ‘Arrest Warrants’ Were Issued by Campus Police
The arrest warrants that Jerry Falwell Jr. said were issued for misdemeanor trespassing for a New York Times photographer and ProPublica reporter were actually issued by a member of Liberty University’s campus police and do not appear to have legal weight, Business Insider reports.
Quote of the Day
“You know what? I’ll tell you, it does amaze me that President Obama hasn’t supported Sleepy Joe. It just hasn’t happened. When is it going to happen? When is it going to happen? Why isn’t he? He knows something that you don’t know, that I think I know, but you don’t know. So it’ll be interesting.”
— President Trump, quoted by CNN.
Two States Where Trump’s Response Could Hurt Him
Ron Brownstein: “A handful of swing states will almost certainly decide the winner of November’s presidential election. And in two of them, Michigan and Florida, Donald Trump’s complicated relationship with their governors could expose him to greater political risk as the economic and social price of the coronavirus pandemic mounts.”
“Trump faces mirror-image threats. Michigan voters could interpret Trump’s animosity toward Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer as punishing the state. By contrast, in Florida, Trump’s liability could be his close relationship with Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, which is seen by many as one reason DeSantis was slow to impose a statewide stay-at-home order.”
“In each place, voters may be even more likely than those in other states to blame or credit the president for how the outbreak unfolds there. And in both cases, Trump’s posture toward the states is now inextricably interwoven with the larger story of their struggle to contain the disease.”
Publisher Dismisses Own Study of Drug Touted by Trump
“President Trump has been a cheerleader for the drug hydroxychloroquine, pointing in a tweet and in person to a French study as evidence that one particular drug combination might be ‘one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine,'” CNN reports.
“But now the medical society that published that French research has issued a statement saying the study ‘does not meet the Society’s expected standard.'”
Georgia Absentee Ballot Request Lists Wrong Address
“About 60,000 Georgia voters recently received absentee ballot request forms with the wrong return mailing or email address,” the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
Biden’s Three Big Challenges
First Read says Joe Biden has three challenges between now and Democratic party’s convention in August:
- He’s got to bring Sanders and Elizabeth Warren into the fold; both still haven’t endorsed him.
- He’s got to raise a lot of money to compete with President Trump’s money machine, and it’s got to be primary dollars before August (since he can’t tap general election funds until after the convention).
- And he’s got to build a top-notch organization in the battleground states, and organization wasn’t a strong suit for Biden during the primaries (though he’s made a start by tapping Obama vet Jennifer O’Malley Dillon as his new campaign manager).
“The good news for Biden is that he appears to be tailor-made for the current news environment. He doesn’t need to build his name ID; his lack of exposure right now is probably more of a blessing rather than a curse (fewer gaffes); and the political conversation is more about competency and effective bureaucracy than it was a month ago – both of which are Biden strengths.”
Nebraska Governor Encourages Vote-by-Mail
“In a rare divergence of opinion from the views expressed by President Trump, Gov. Pete Ricketts (R) urged Nebraskans to take advantage of the opportunity to vote by mail in the May 12 primary election,” the Lincoln Journal Star reports.
Said Ricketts: “It’s a great way for people to be able to vote… I’d encourage people to take advantage of that.”
Biden Maintains Lead Over Trump
A new CNN poll finds Joe Biden leading President Trump, 53% to 42%, among registered voters nationally.
“The nationwide picture shows Biden starts with an edge among voters generally, but national polling cannot address the state-by-state electoral college race which ultimately determines the presidency.”
Biden also leads on the consensus electoral map, which shows five states as Toss Ups.
Pandemic Sets Air Travel Back Decades
“The number of Americans getting on airplanes has sunk to a level not seen in more than 60 years as people shelter in their homes to avoid catching or spreading the new coronavirus,” the AP reports.
“The Transportation Security Administration screened fewer than 100,000 people on Tuesday, a drop of 95% from a year ago.”
“The official tally of 97,130 people who passed through TSA checkpoints exaggerates the number of travelers — if that is possible — because it includes some airline crew members and people still working at shops inside airport security perimeters. Historical daily numbers only go back so far, but the nation averaged 97,000 passengers a day in 1954… It was the dawn of the jet age.”
