A San Francisco bus driver was assaulted with a bat after he asked three passengers to comply with the city’s health orders and wear a mask, the AP reports.
The assault occurred Wednesday when three passengers boarded a bus and refused the driver’s request to don a face covering. The driver then pulled over.
“As the victim was escorting the males off the bus one of the males pulled out a wooden bat and struck the victim several times, which caused the victim to be injured,” San Francisco police said.
Public transit workers have faced significant risks during the pandemic. Many transit agencies were slow to provide basic protections, such as face masks and paid sick leave. Dozens of transit workers in New York City died of Covid-19.
As mask orders have been enacted around the world, transit workers are often faced with the difficult choice of enforcing the orders themselves or allowing scofflaws to risk their own and others’ safety.
In early July, a French bus driver died following an assault by passengers who refused to wear masks.
Updated
Visitors to Washington DC from coronavirus “hot spots” will be required to self-quarantine for 14 days, mayor Muriel Bowser said today.
Beginning Monday, July 27, anyone coming into Washington, DC from a high-risk area who was not traveling for essential activities will be required to self-quarantine for 14 days.
— Mayor Muriel Bowser (@MayorBowser) July 24, 2020
The order excludes Maryland and Virginia.
Read the full order: https://t.co/mGCbO7MHcP pic.twitter.com/rcSliTBNuO
In her order, Bowser notes that “after a promising period of decline, new daily cases exceeded one hundred” in the District on 22 July. The order also encourages residents to take “staycations” and avoid travel to areas with high rates of Covid-19 transmission.
The self-quarantine order excludes people who travel to DC from nearby Maryland or Virginia, as well as those whose travel is considered essential, such as members of Congress who travel back and forth to their districts.
Earlier this week, Bowser also signed an order expanding the requirements for residents to wear face masks.
A federal judge has ruled against the Oregon attorney general’s office demand that federal law enforcement agents in Portland identify themselves, BuzzFeed News reports.
Attorney general Ellen Rosenblum had filed suit in federal court challenging the presence and activities of officers from the Department of Homeland Security in Portland. Rosenblum had asked that the court bar the officers from making arrests or detaining people without probably cause, and to require them to identify themselves and explain the reason for an arrest or detention.
Per BuzzFeedNews:
US District Judge Michael Mosman found that state Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum lacked standing to bring a lawsuit on behalf of Oregon residents because her office hadn’t articulated any specific state interest beyond the constitutional rights of individuals.
There are several other lawsuits over the DHS forces presence in Portland pending. On Thursday, a different federal judge issued a temporary restraining order against the DHS agents barring them from arresting or using force against journalists and legal observers without probably cause of a crime.
He may be a world-renowned immunologist and the nation’s foremost expert in infectious diseases, but Anthony Fauci’s throwing arm left much to be desired when he threw out the first pitch at the Nationals-Yankees game last night.
Dr. Anthony Fauci threw out the first pitch before the Nationals-Yankees game. pic.twitter.com/04Tbkh7Voa
— ESPN (@espn) July 23, 2020
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Fauci agreed with the critics that his pitch was less a “pitch” and more of a “line drive toward first base” (although this critic might quibble by calling it a “bloop toward first base”). He also explained how a one-time high school shortstop and longtime Yankees-turned-Nationals fan came to look so unfamiliar with the basic premise of throwing a ball toward home plate: he was sore.
“I completely destroyed my arm!” Fauci told the Journal. The 79-year-old decided to throw some practice pitches two nights before his big moment, overdid it, and woke up in pain. Then, when he got out onto the field Thursday night, he made a split-second decision and attempted a fastball.
“When I saw he was so far away, I said I better try to throw a bullet,” he said. “And that was a mistake ... Instead of doing my normal motion of just lobbing the ball, which would’ve been the best thing to do, I thought: Oh, baby, I better put a lot of different oomph into it.
“And I did. And you saw what happened.”
Pelosi rejects temporary extension of unemployment benefits, wants full deal
As negotiations over a new coronavirus relief bill continue, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has rejected the idea of a temporary extension of the enhanced unemployment benefits that are set to expire 31 July, Reuters reports.
“I would be very much averse to separating this [unemployment benefits] out and lose all leverage [on Republicans] for ... meeting all of the other needs,” Pelosi told reporters.
The enhanced unemployment benefits provide an extra $600 per week to state unemployment payments. The Democratic-controlled House passed a $3 trillion dollar relief bill in May that would, among other things, extend the benefits through January.
The Republican-controlled Senate has declined to debate or pass the House bill, nor has it produced a plan of its own. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said Republicans will introduce a new proposal next week, and has indicated it would take a few weeks to negotiate an agreement, leaving a gap for millions of unemployed workers.
Pelosi also revealed that actor Rob Reiner, the son of the recently deceased comedian Carl Reiner, is among the people who has urged her for extending the benefits.
“I called Rob. ‘Rob, Rob darling, this is Nancy Pelosi, I’m calling to wish you and Michele my condolences. I’m so sad, your father was so funny and so wonderful,’” she said, according to Reuters.
“This man says, ‘I think you have the wrong number.’ And he says, ‘But I’m so glad you called me. I have one question for you ... am I going to get my $600?’”
Donald Trump signed four executive orders related to prescription drug pricing at a White House event with HHS secretary Alex Azar and Florida governor Rod DeSantis, among others. Most attendees at the event wore masks, but Trump did not.
The executive orders come as Trump appears to have all but given up on controlling the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 145,000 people in the US – by far the most of any country.
The orders are aimed at allowing the legal importation of prescription drugs from Canada, lowering the cost of insulin, addressing “kickbacks to middlemen” in the pharmaceutical industry, lowering the price of drugs purchased by Medicare.
Hello everyone, this is Julia Carrie Wong in Oakland, California, picking up the live blog for the rest of your Friday afternoon.
Yesterday, a judge in King County, Washington ordered five Seattle news outlets to comply with a subpoena and turn over unpublished video and photos from a 30 May protest.
It’s a troubling ruling and many journalists and publications are already speaking out. From our story:
Michele Matassa Flores, the Seattle Times’ executive editor, said the paper strongly opposed the subpoena and “believes it puts our independence, and even our staff’s physical safety, at risk.
“The media exist in large part to hold governments, including law enforcement agencies, accountable to the public,” Matassa Flores said. “We don’t work in concert with government, and it’s important to our credibility and effectiveness to retain our independence from those we cover.”
Seattle protesters seek recompense for injury and death linked to police actionRead more
The lawyer representing the media companies, Eric Stahl, argued on Thursday that police were casting too wide a net and could not show that the images would identify the suspects. The media companies had not decided if they would appeal, Stahl said.
Here’s the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press:
This ruling enforcing the subpoena is beyond disappointing. The right to protect sources and material exists so the press isn't used as an arm of law enforcement.
— Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (@rcfp) July 24, 2020
Journalists' work is protected, which is why we supported the challenge to this subpoena.https://t.co/OQEVLENdXz
And another explanation of why this is concerning to working reporters, from the LA Times’s Matt Pearce:
This turns journalists into an arm of the government. We are not here to do surveillance for police. https://t.co/wlu4XAEgo3
— Matt Pearce 🦅 (@mattdpearce) July 24, 2020
At her White House briefing earlier today, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany claimed: “Under President Trump, violent-crime rates in America finally began to fall.”
Not, as so often is the case at such briefings, so.
The Washington Post’s Philip Bump explains:
So here’s a graph of the violent-crime rate in the United States. You see that apex, indicated with a question mark? Based on McEnany’s statement, you might assume that it indicates the month of January 2017, when Trump took office. After all, from that point on, there was an almost uninterrupted downward trend in the rate of violent crimes.
But that is not January 2017. It is, instead, the year 1991, when the violent-crime rate was 758 violent crimes per 100,000 people. By 2017, that figure had fallen to 395. It did decline further in 2018, the most recent year for which full data is available, to 381. But it’s not as though this was a sharp reversal; when Barack Obama took office in 2009, the rate was 432 per 100,000.
McEnany, remember, started her briefing by showing a selectively edited video of scenes in Portland, Oregon, from which even Fox News averted its eyes.
Portnoy complaints: Barstool founder feels Twitter's wrath
Being a fan of the late novelist Philip Roth, I couldn’t resist the heading to this block, which concerns the response to Trump’s interview with Dave Portnoy, in this case from the Washington Post reporter David Nakamura.
The interview was released online this afternoon and the Barstool Sports’ founder’s behaviour therein is attracting widespread criticism:
In his interview with Trump, Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy shook Potus's hand, didn't wear a mask, jokingly said he doesn't like Fauci because his public pronouncements tank the stock market, got shoulder-to-shoulder with Potus to Facetime his dad and tried to shake again.
— David Nakamura (@DavidNakamura) July 24, 2020
Portnoy has also commented.
“I did not expect to interview @realDonaldTrump at the White House yesterday but here we are,” he wrote, releasing footage on Twitter and adding, true to form:
My biggest question I forgot to ask Trump but asked after the interview is why doesn’t he advise Roger Stone to stop dressing like a super villain pic.twitter.com/bB7bdZA5ku
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) July 24, 2020
California sets daily deaths record
A short dispatch from our west coast office in Oakland…
California has reached another grim coronavirus milestone, recording the highest number of virus-related deaths in a day on Friday.
It was a record previously set on Thursday, when public health officials reported 157 deaths. That mark was broken within 24 hours, when the state reported 159.
Today, CA reached a somber milestone: 157 deaths. Our highest
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) July 23, 2020
reported in a single day.
We cannot afford to ignore #COVID19, or simply hope it goes away. We have to take action. TOGETHER.
Wear a mask. Physically distance. Wash your hands.
Your actions can literally save lives.
California surpassed New York for most total cases in the US this week, with the 9,718 reported in the last 24 hours bringing the total to 435,334. The state’s seven-day positivity rate has risen to 7.9%, with 34 of 58 counties remaining on the state’s monitoring list for at least three days.
Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, has moved to halt the reopening of the state’s economy, rolling back some efforts as infection rates continue to rise.
Updated
New York state attorney general Letitia James is leading a coalition of states, cities and counties suing the Trump administration over its attempt to leave undocumented migrants out of the census, the basis for the apportionment of seats in the US House of Representatives.
Sam Levine’s report on that attempt follows at the bottom of this block and here’s an excerpt from it:
Republicans in recent years have been pushing to exclude non-citizens and other people ineligible to vote from the tally used to draw electoral districts. In 2015, Thomas Hofeller, a top Republican redistricting expert, explicitly wrote that such a change “would be advantageous to Republicans and non-Hispanic whites”.
James, meanwhile, said on Friday afternoon: “President Trump’s proclamation is the latest in a long list of anti-immigrant actions and statements he has made since the beginning of his first campaign.
“It’s another election-year tactic to fire up his base by dehumanizing immigrants and using them as scapegoats for his failures as a leader.
“No one ceases to be a person because they lack documentation, which is why we filed this lawsuit. Instead of fearmongering, now is the time to be engaging in a robust education and outreach campaign to ensure each person in this country is counted. We beat the president before in court, and we will beat him again.”
According to James’s statement, the suit has been “filed against President Trump, the US Department of Commerce, the US Census Bureau, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, and Census Director Steven Dillingham”.
The attorneys general of Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and the District of Columbia have signed on.
So have the cities of Central Falls, Rhode Island; Chicago; Columbus; New York; Philadelphia; Phoenix; Pittsburgh; Providence; Seattle; the city and county of San Francisco; and Cameron, El Paso, and Hidalgo counties in Texas and Monterey county in California.
Today so far
That’s it from me today. My Guardian colleagues will take over the blog for the next few hours.
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- The White House defended Trump’s push to reopen schools, saying schools are “essential places of business.” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said, “It is our firm belief that our schools are essential places of business, if you will, that our teachers are essential personnel.” That comment will likely be a bit jarring for parents trying to decide whether or not to send their young children back to school amid concerns about the spread of coronavirus in the classroom.
- Trump said he “often” regrets sending controversial tweets. When the president was asked during an interview yesterday whether he ever regrets his tweets, he replied, “Too often.” Trump added, “It’s not the tweets; it’s the retweets that get you in trouble.”
- Democrats indicated they would not allow Trump to quash a proposal on renaming military bases named after Confederate generals. The president said senator Jim Inhofe, the Republican chairman of the Senate armed services committee, would move to strip the provision out of the national defense authorization bill in committee. But the Democratic chairman of the House armed services committee said the proposal “remains an important priority for me and many of my colleagues.”
- Joe Biden warned Trump would “try to indirectly steal” the election. During a virtual fundraiser last night, Biden said, “This president is going to try to indirectly steal the election by arguing that mail-in ballots don’t work.” The president has repeatedly made false claims that mail-in ballots are extremely vulnerable to voter fraud, even though voter fraud is actually very rare.
- New York governor Andrew Cuomo suggested that senior DHS leaders should be charged for making false statements about blocking New Yorkers from the Global Entry program and related travel programs. Cuomo’s comments came one day after federal lawyers acknowledged in a court filing that DHS officials made false statements about the policy.
The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
The Democratic chairman of the House armed services committee voiced opposition to Trump’s effort to quash the proposal to rename military bases named after Confederate generals.
The president said this morning that senator Jim Inhofe, the Republican chairman of the Senate armed services committee, would move to strip the provision out of the national defense authorization bill in committee.
“That’s just not how this works,” Democratic commitee chairman Adam Smith said in a tweet.
The renaming of military bases and installations remains an important priority for me and many of my colleagues in the House.
— Rep. Adam Smith (@RepAdamSmith) July 24, 2020
I look forward to the conference process, where we will discuss the issue.
Smith noted that both the House and Senate versions of the national defense authorization act, which passed the two chambers with veto-proof majorities, included the proposal to rename the bases.
“The renaming of military bases and installations remains an important priority for me and many of my colleagues in the House,” Smith said.
“I look forward to the conference process, where we will discuss the issue.”
In his interview with Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, the president also appeared nostalgic for his pre-White House life.
(PART 3) - @realDonaldTrump @WhiteHouse pic.twitter.com/Rx74t5OUyh
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) July 24, 2020
“The best day in my life in terms of business and life and everything was the day before I announced I’m running for president,” Trump said. “Everything was good.”
The president added he was “really glad” he decided to run, but he lamented how he was treated “very unfairly with fake Russia.” (The US intelligence community has concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election to aid Trump’s campaign.)
“It’s a very vicious business,” Trump said.
The president said he found it harder to deal with his own country than dealing with the leaders of foreign countries like Russia, China and North Korea.
“The toughest is the United States,” Trump said. “It’s the toughest to deal with.”
Trump says he 'often' regrets his tweets
During an interview at the White House yesterday, Trump said he “often” regrets the tweets he sends out.
(PART 2) - @realDonaldTrump @WhiteHouse pic.twitter.com/O8G9JPwGR3
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) July 24, 2020
Dave Portnoy, the highly controversial founder of the blog Barstool Sports, just shared his interview with Trump. In it, Portnoy asked the president if he ever regrets sending certain tweets.
“Too often,” the president replied. “It used to be in the old days, before this, you’d write a letter, and you’d say, ‘This letter’s really bad.’ You’d put it in your desk, and then you’d go back tomorrow and you’d say, ‘Oh, I’m glad I didn’t send it,’ right? But we don’t do that with Twitter, right?
“We put it out instantaneously,” Trump continued. “We feel great, and then you start getting phone calls, ‘Did you really say this?’ I say, ‘What’s wrong with that?’ And you find a lot of things.”
The president added, “It’s not the tweets; it’s the retweets that get you in trouble.” He warned of the trouble that arises when “you see something that looks good and you don’t investigate it.”
Of course, it’s unclear how the medium of Twitter prevents Trump from investigating the source of his information before sharing it with his 84 million followers.
Virginia has removed monuments honoring Confederate generals and officials from its state capitol.
The AP reports:
Virginia House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn, a Democrat, quietly ordered the Lee statue and busts of generals J.E.B. Stuart, Stonewall Jackson, Confederate President Jefferson Davis, and others removed from the historic Old House Chamber. A moving crew worked through the night Thursday — carefully removing the monuments and their plaques and loading them into a truck and taking them to an undisclosed location.
The stealth approach avoids the possibility of protests or a lawsuit to keep the monuments in place, but may prompt criticism that the monuments were moved without public discussion.
‘Virginia has a story to tell that extends far beyond glorifying the Confederacy and its participants,’ Filler-Corn said in a statement. ‘Now is the time to provide context to our Capitol to truly tell the commonwealth’s whole history.’
A number of Confederate monuments have been taken down since the police killing of George Floyd, which kicked off nationwide protests against racism and police brutality.
Earlier this week, the House of Representatives similarly passed a bill calling on states to replace any Confederate statues they still have in the US Capitol.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany has now concluded today’s briefing.
During the briefing, McEnany claimed Trump has been consistent in his messaging on coronavirus. “He hasn’t changed his tone,” McEnany told reporters.
That comment came one day after the president announced he was canceling the Jacksonville portion of the Republican convention out of safety concerns, even though Trump originally moved the convention to the Florida city in order to have a large, indoor event.
Trump also strongly urged Americans to wear masks for the first time this week, more than three months after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention initially recommended the use of face coverings to limit the spread of coronavirus.
White House says 'schools are essential places of business'
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany once again defended Trump’s push to reopen schools, despite concerns about the spread of coronavirus in the classroom.
“It is our firm belief that our schools are essential places of business, if you will, that our teachers are essential personnel,” McEnany said.
"It is our firm belief that our schools are essential places of business" -- a revealing comment from McEnany pic.twitter.com/Asx5hyHFsh
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 24, 2020
That comment might be jarring for parents wrestling with the difficult decision of whether to send their young children back to school in the middle of a global pandemic.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany repeated Trump’s claim that the Republican chairman of the Senate armed services committee will work to quash a proposal on renaming military bases named after Confederate generals.
“The president was assured by Senator Inhofe that would be changing and that Republicans stand with the president,” McEnany said.
However, it seems extremely difficult for Inhofe to kill the proposal in committee because it has already been included in two versions of the national defense authorization bill that have passed the House and the Senate.
“I’ll leave that to Senator Inhofe on how that works, legislatively speaking,” McEnany said.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany was asked whether Trump brought up reports of Russian bounties on American troops when he spoke to Vladimir Putin yesterday.
“I won’t get into a private discussion with a foreign leader,” McEnany said. “As you know, that intelligence is unverified still to this day.”
McEnany repeated her claim that there are “dissenting opinions” within the intelligence community about the reports, although that shouldn’t prevent Trump from discussing it with Putin.
Fox News pulled away from the White House briefing as press secretary Kayleigh McEnany played a video of scenes from the Portland protests.
Fox News cuts out of White House briefing after @pressec starts playing video from Portland: "All right, we were not expecting that video, and our management here at Fox News has decided we will pull away from that at this time." pic.twitter.com/0UfSdDUJ1p
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) July 24, 2020
“We were not expecting that video, and our management here at Fox News has decided we will pull away from that at this time,” anchor Harris Faulkner said.
The video included images of fires in Portland and clips of violent language, as McEnany condemned protesters’ behavior.
The network returned to the briefing shortly after the video concluded.
Updated
McEnany holds White House briefing
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany is now holding a briefing, and she started it by criticizing protesters in Portland.
McEnany condemned the “lawlessness, anarchy and destruction” in Portland, amid widespread criticism of the administration’s decision to send federal agents to the city to crack down on protests against racism.
The press secretary claimed Democrats and the media “continue to ignore reality” when it comes to Portland, and she said Democratic leaders’ rhetoric “undermines our justice system.”
She then played a video of protests to argue that the demonstrations have turned violent.
Michael Cohen has officially left prison again, after a federal judge ruled yesterday that Trump’s former lawyer was unfairly retaliated against because he intended to write a book about the president.
The AP reports:
Cohen walked out of a federal prison in New York on Friday afternoon, a day after U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein ruled that his First Amendment rights were violated when he was ordered back to prison on July 9. Probation authorities said Cohen was sent back to prison because he refused to sign a form banning him from publishing the book or communicating with the media or public, Hellerstein said during a telephone conference.
Cohen will return to home confinement. The former Trump associate was first released to home confinement in May out of concerns about the spread of coronavirus in prisons.
Today so far
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- Joe Biden warned Trump would “try to indirectly steal” the election. During a virtual fundraiser last night, Biden said, “This president is going to try to indirectly steal the election by arguing that mail-in ballots don’t work.” The president has repeatedly made false claims that mail-in ballots are extremely vulnerable to voter fraud, even though voter fraud is actually very rare.
- Trump claimed a top Senate Republican would seek to quash a proposal on renaming military bases named after Confederate generals. The president said senator Jim Inhofe, the Republican chairman of the Senate armed services committee, would move to strip the provision out of the national defense authorization bill in committee. However, that will be extremely difficult because the House and the Senate have both already passed versions of the defense bill that include the proposal with veto-proof majorities.
- New York governor Andrew Cuomo suggested that senior DHS leaders should be charged for making false statements about blocking New Yorkers from the Global Entry program and related travel programs. Cuomo’s comments came one day after federal lawyers acknowledged in a court filing that DHS officials made false statements about the policy.
The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
Updated
Cuomo suggests DHS leaders should be charged for making false statements
New York governor Andrew Cuomo suggested that acting secretary of homeland security Chad Wolf and acting deputy secretary Ken Cuccinelli should be charged for making false statements about blocking New Yorkers from the Global Entry program and related travel programs.
Federal lawyers admitted in a filing yesterday that senior DHS officials made false statements to justify blocking New Yorkers from the travel programs shortly after the state passed a law allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses.
The filing said the inaccuracies “undermine a central argument” for the policy and thus the department would be abandoning the effort.
#BREAKING: Gov. Andrew Cuomo says that Chad Wolf, Ken Cuccinelli violated oath of office and should be charged: "I believe Mr. Wolf and Mr. Cuccinelli have possible criminal liability." pic.twitter.com/Vl81POG5i1
— The Hill (@thehill) July 24, 2020
Cuomo lambasted Wolf and Cuccinelli during a press conference today, saying, “You are the department of homeland security. Is it plausible that you didn’t know what the laws were in this nation? No. They got caught. It was all politics, all the time.”
The Democratic governor added, “I believe Mr. Wolf and Mr. Cuccinelli have possible criminal liability. I believe there is civil liability.”
In a separate interview with CNN, Cuomo also said Congress “should be all over this” to investigate the department’s mishandling of the issue.
Updated
At least 81 frontline workers on the Capitol complex have tested positive or are presumed positive for coronavirus, according to Roll Call.
Roll Call reports:
That number marks an increase of 15 cases since June 19.
At least 24 Capitol Police employees have tested positive.
At least 24 Architect of the Capitol employees have tested positive or are presumed. Five are presumed positive.
And 33 workers assigned to the Cannon House Office Building renovation project have tested positive or are presumed positive for the coronavirus. Three are presumed positive.
The pandemic is also hitting home for more lawmakers. Republican congressman Vern Buchanan announced today that one of his longtime staffers had died of the virus.
— Rep. Vern Buchanan (@VernBuchanan) July 24, 2020
Florida governor Ron DeSantis will be at the White House today for Trump’s event on lowering drug prices.
According to DeSantis’ schedule, the Republican governor will also meet with White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.
DeSantis’ White House visit comes one day after the president announced he was canceling the portion of the Republican convention that was scheduled to take place in Jacksonville, Florida.
The day after the Jacksonville convention is cancelled and Florida grapples with coronavirus, @GovRonDeSantis will be at the @WhiteHouse this PM pic.twitter.com/EEH862HoDP
— Elizabeth Landers (@ElizLanders) July 24, 2020
DeSantis’ approval rating has been plummeting in recent weeks, as Florida grapples with a surge in new cases of coronavirus.
State health officials reported 12,444 additional cases today, bringing Florida’s total number of cases since the start of the pandemic to 402,312.
Quinnipiac University released a poll yesterday showing DeSantis currently has a negative 41%-52% approval rating, representing a 31-point net drop since April.
Trump has just awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Jim Ryun, a former Olympian and former Republican congressman.
“Despite being cut from every athletic team in junior high, Ryun made the track team at Wichita East High School, where he went on to break the world record for the mile and compete in the 1964 Olympic Games,” the White House said of Ryun in a statement about the ceremony.
“Following his outstanding athletic career, Ryun honorably served his home State of Kansas in the United States Congress from 1996 to 2006. He has since written three books and currently gives motivational speeches around the country.”
The president described Ryun as a “a legendary running Olympian” and “an American patriot,” adding that he wished he was in Congress now.
Just before Trump left the ceremony, Ryun told him, “You’re doing a great job, keep it up. We need four more years.”
House speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer sharply criticized congressional Republicans for delaying the release of their coronavirus relief bill.
“This weekend, millions of Americans will lose their Unemployment Insurance, will be at risk of being evicted from their homes, and could be laid off by state and local government, and there is only one reason: Republicans have been dithering for months while America’s crisis deepens,” Pelosi and Schumer said in a new statement.
This weekend, millions of Americans will lose their Unemployment Insurance, will be at risk of being evicted from their homes, and could be laid off by state and local government
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) July 24, 2020
There is only one reason:
Republicans have been dithering for months while America’s crisis deepens
The critical statement comes one day after Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell announced Republicans would not be able to release their proposal until next week, days before additional unemployment benefits are set to expire.
“We had expected to be working throughout this weekend to find common ground on the next COVID response package,” Pelosi and Schumer said. “It is simply unacceptable that Republicans have had this entire time to reach consensus among themselves and continue to flail. Time is of the essence and lives are being lost.”
A spokesperson for Jim Inhofe, the Republican chairman of the Senate armed services committee, responded to questions about Trump’s tweet on the proposal to rename military bases named after Confederal generals.
“The tweet speaks for itself,” Inhofe’s spokesperson told NBC News.
"The tweet speaks for itself," a spox for @JimInhofe tells NBC. https://t.co/a0HSdnSY2O
— Julie Tsirkin (@JulieNBCNews) July 24, 2020
Again, it will be very difficult for Inhofe to remove the provision from the national defense authorization act in committee because the proposal has widespread support, and the House and the Senate have already passed versions of the bill with veto-proof majorities.
Trump targets proposal to rename military bases named after Confederate generals
Trump claimed senator Jim Inhofe, the Republican chairman of the Senate armed services committee, would move to strip a provision on renaming military bases named after Confederate generals out of the national defense authorization bill.
“I spoke to highly respected (Chairman) Senator @JimInhofe, who has informed me that he WILL NOT be changing the names of our great Military Bases and Forts, places from which we won two World Wars (and more!),” Trump said in a tweet. “Like me, Jim is not a believer in ‘Cancel Culture’.”
I spoke to highly respected (Chairman) Senator @JimInhofe, who has informed me that he WILL NOT be changing the names of our great Military Bases and Forts, places from which we won two World Wars (and more!). Like me, Jim is not a believer in “Cancel Culture”.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 24, 2020
However, it will be difficult for Inhofe to amend the bill, which passed the Senate with a veto-proof majority yesterday. The House approved its own version of the bill with similarly overwhelming support earlier this week.
Both the House and Senate bills include provisions on allowing the Pentagon to change the names of military bases named after Confederate generals, which Trump has expressed opposition to. The president even threatened to veto the legislation over the matter.
The only way for the proposal to be stripped out of the bill now would be for Inhofe to try to amend the legislation in committee, but a Democratic member of the House armed services committee indicated that effort would go nowhere.
The Defense Budget passed with Veto proof majorities in both House and Senate. Senator Inhofe is one of many conferees to the Conference Committee he doesn’t have magic powers to get rid of it. The Confederate Generals lose....again. https://t.co/L1DjPI8iIs
— Ruben Gallego (@RubenGallego) July 24, 2020
Nearly half of Americans who suffered a job loss in their families during the pandemic do not think those positions will come back, a new poll found.
According to the AP/NORC poll, 47% of those in households with job losses believe those lost jobs are definitely or probably not coming back.
That figure marks a steep decline in optimism since April, when 78% of such Americans said they thought their job losses were temporary.
The dropping numbers signal Americans are losing hope in the possibility of a quick economic recovery, as coronavirus cases surge in dozens of US states.
The poll was released one day after the labor department announced 1.4 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, ending four months of declines in weekly claims.
Coronavirus cases are surging in Texas, and one county is being forced to make devastating choices about which patients to care for, as many hospitals in the state near full capacity.
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports on Starr County near the US-Mexican border:
Starr County is at a dangerous ‘tipping point,’ reporting an alarming number of new cases each day, data show. Starr County Memorial Hospital — the county’s only hospital — is overflowing with COVID-19 patients.
The county has been forced to form what is being compared to a so-called ‘death panel.’ A county health board – which governs Starr Memorial – is set to authorize critical care guidelines Thursday that will help medical workers determine ways to allocate scarce medical resources on patients with the best chance to survive. ...
‘Unfortunately, Starr County Memorial Hospital has limited resources and our doctors are going to have to decide who receives treatment, and who is sent home to die by their loved ones,’ [Starr County Judge Eloy Vera] said in a Wednesday news release. ‘This is what we did not want our community to experience.’
Texas has now confirmed 361,125 cases of coronavirus, and the state has lost 4,521 residents to the virus.
Mark Meadows will sit down for a Sunday show interview this weekend, marking his first such interview since becoming White House chief of staff.
ABC News’ “This Week” announced anchor George Stephanopoulos will interview Meadows, a former Republican congressman, on Sunday.
SUNDAY EXCLUSIVE: @GStephanopoulos goes one-on-one with Mark Meadows in his first Sunday show interview since becoming White House Chief of Staff. See it on @ThisWeekABC. pic.twitter.com/KuTdn1iIMK
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) July 24, 2020
The interview comes as Meadows, treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell have struggled to craft a Republican proposal for the next coronavirus relief bill.
McConnell was supposed to release the bill yesterday, but he instead announced the legislation would be unveiled next week.
That schedule leaves little time for Congress to pass the bill, considering additional unemployment benefits expire next Friday.
The Guardian’s Daniel Strauss reports:
The former acting director of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, which works under the Department of Homeland Security, has condemned the Trump administration’s handling of protests in Portland by deploying federal agents into the city.
John Sandweg, the former acting director of Ice, who also served as general counsel for the DHS, said Donald Trump was using the agency as his own “goon squad” by sending federal law enforcement agents to Oregon’s biggest city and vowing to send more to other cities around the country, including Chicago and Albuquerque.
Sandweg, in a wide-ranging interview with the Guardian, called the administration’s policy a “failure of leadership in the Trump administration”.
He added: “I think it’s an abuse of DHS. I mean really the president’s trying to use DHS as his goon squad. That’s really what’s going on here.”
Sandweg went on to offer scathing criticism of the administration’s handling of the protests, calling it a “manufactured crisis” driven by politics from the president.
“In my experience, this is not coming from the workforce. I think there’s a lot of misconceptions out there that I hope that I can at least clear up,” Sandweg said. “DHS has not so much been unleashed as pushed to do these kinds of things. In my experience the folks that I’ve worked with want to protect national security and public safety.”
The Cook Political Report has changed the electoral college ratings of four states -- all in Democrats’ favor.
Most notably, the perennial swing state of Florida has been moved from “toss up” to “lean Democrat.”
Cook’s Amy Walter explains the rating change:
In Florida, as COVID-19 cases started to rise this summer, Trump has seen his vote margin and his job approval rating drop. ...
[A] July Quinnipiac poll found Biden leading Trump by 20 points on who is best able to handle the coronavirus, including an eight-point lead with those 65 and older. For months, Trump has questioned the severity of this crisis. But in Florida, 83 percent of voters see coronavirus as a serious problem, and 66 percent are very, or somewhat worried that they will get this virus. The only group not taking coronavirus seriously are Republican voters; 52 percent say they think the virus is under control. ...
More important than any polling, however, is the fact that Trump announced on Thursday that the RNC was cancelling their convention in Jacksonville. This is about all the proof you need that he and the campaign realize how big of a hole he’s currently sitting in.
The Cook Report also moved three “solid Republican” states -- Missouri, Kansas and Indiana -- to “likely Republican.” Here is the full list of Cook’s electoral college ratings.
Biden predicts Trump will 'try to indirectly steal the election'
Good morning, live blog readers, and greetings from Washington.
The US is about 100 days out from its presidential election, and things are not looking good for Donald Trump.
The RealClearPolitics average of national polls shows Joe Biden leading the president by nearly 9 points, and several surveys released this week found the Democrat has a similar advantage in key battleground states like Florida, Pennsylvania and Michigan.
But Biden is warning his supporters that Trump will not go down without a long, drawn-out fight.
During a virtual fundraiser last night, Biden said, “This president is going to try to indirectly steal the election by arguing that mail-in ballots don’t work.”
The former vice president predicted Trump would try to show mail-in ballots are “not real” or “not fair” in order to contest the results of the election if he loses.
Trump has already sought to question the integrity of mail-in voting, which has become even more important this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. Last month, the president pushed the false claim that the election could be rigged by foreign countries printing and mailing ballots to US voters.
In reality, voter fraud is very rare, and the country has relied on mail-in voting as a key part of its election system for decades.
On top of that, if the president ends up losing some of these battleground states by double digits, as recent polls suggest he might, it’ll be harder for him to contest the result. But that doesn’t mean Trump won’t try.
Here’s what else the blog is watching:
- Trump will present the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Olympian and former Republican congressman Jim Ryun at 11 am ET. He will deliver remarks and sign executive orders on lowering drug prices at 3 pm ET. He will then leave Washington to spend the weekend at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.
- Biden is attending a virtual fundraiser.
- The opening ceremonies of the 2020 Olympics would have been held today in Tokyo, but the games have obviously been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
