Summary
That’s all for today, thanks for following along on this busy day. Here’s a recap and highlights:
- The Secret Service abruptly rushed Trump out of his press conference due to reports of a shooting outside the White House.
- Trump spread false and unsubstantiated claims about mail-in voting.
- Trump is reportedly considering new travel restrictions that would allow the US to temporarily block American citizens or legal permanent residents from returning to the US if authorities believe the individual could have coronavirus.
- The president said he would delay the G7 summit until after the election.
- Shortages of personal protective equipment and medical supplies could persist for years without strategic government intervention, officials from healthcare and manufacturing industries have said.
- Trump said he is considering accepting the Republican presidential nomination later this month with a speech at the civil war battlefield of Gettysburg, one of the most hallowed spots in American history.
- The US has passed 5m coronavirus cases.
Updated
So far very few details have emerged about the person the Secret Service shot outside the White House. According to the AP:
The shooting took place near 17th street and Pennsylvania avenue just blocks from the White House, according to two sources with knowledge of the situation. Law enforcement officials were still trying to determine the suspect’s motive.
The suspect was transferred to a local hospital, and the District of Columbia fire department said the man suffered serious or possibly critical injuries. Authorities were investigating whether the individual has a history of mental illness.
Trump considers blocking American citizens from re-entering US
Trump is reportedly considering new immigration restrictions that would allow the US to temporarily block American citizens or legal permanent residents from returning to the US if authorities believe the individual could have coronavirus, according to the New York Times.
The president’s previous Covid travel restrictions have exempted American and legal permanent residents. A draft of the proposal reviewed by the newspaper says that that the government could block a citizen or legal resident from crossing the border if an official “reasonably believes that the individual either may have been exposed to or is infected with the communicable disease”. It’s unclear how long the ban could extend.
Omar Jadwat, of the ACLU, responded:
Barring American citizens from the United States is unconstitutional. The Trump administration has rolled out one border ban after another — most recently on children and asylum seekers — using Covid-19 as an excuse, while failing abysmally to get the virus under control in the United States. The rumored order would be another grave error in a year that has already seen far too many.”
We were less than three minutes in with the president holding court on one of his favourite subjects – mail-in voting – when pandemonium broke out.
A Secret Service agent – grey suit, shaved head, earpiece with squiggly wire – leaned in and spoke quietly to Donald Trump, asking to step outside.
“Excuse me?” asked the president.
Surprised, he turned, stopped, looked askance for a moment, then followed the agent out of the White House briefing room at a leisurely pace.
But he left behind a storm of clicking cameras, reporters speaking into phones in different languages and general uproar. The doors of the briefing room were locked. Outside, a police officer wearing body armour held a firearm. Others walked purposefully on the driveway.
In this year of unbearable drama and trauma, what now?
There were few answers amid the commotion. Then, after about 10 minutes that felt like an eternity, with TV reporters still in full flow, Trump returned to the podium.
He explained that the Secret Service had shot a suspect outside the White House grounds, and the suspect had been taken to hospital. “You were surprised,” he said. “I was surprised also. I think it’s pretty unusual.”
The typical structure of the press briefing broke down as questions were hurled from all sides and one correspondent carried on loudly reporting into a phone.
“Are you rattled?” someone asked.
Trump replied: “I don’t know. Do I seem rattled? The world’s always been a dangerous place. You look back on the centuries, it’s always been a dangerous place.”
In a sedate, sometimes hard-to-hear monotone, he was soon back to business as usual, which included insulting “Sleepy Joe Biden” and accusing Barack Obama of treason.
Which was reassuring. Almost.
Trump’s press conference has ended after a series of falsehoods and misleading claims. At one point he compared the Covid-19 crisis to the “the great pandemic” of 1917, saying it was a “terrible thing” that “probably ended the Second World War, all the soldiers were sick”.
The pandemic occurred in 1918, and World War II ended in 1945.
Trump says the pandemic of 1918 which he says occurred in 1917 ended the Second World War, which ended in 1945.
— Philip Bump (@pbump) August 10, 2020
The Guardian’s David Smith asked the president: “If 160,000 people had died on President Obama’s watch, do you think you would have called for his resignation?”
Trump responded, “No I wouldn’t have done that. I think it’s been amazing what we’ve been able to do. If we didn’t close up our country, we’d have 1.5 to 2m people already dead. We’ve called it right. Now we don’t have to close it ... If I would’ve listened to a lot of people, we would’ve kept it open.” The president insisted the US has done an “extraordinary job”.
Fact check: The US government’s own public health expert has admitted that more lives would have been saved if the US had adopted social distancing restrictions earlier. Throughout the pandemic, Trump has strongly resisted efforts to put in place federal restrictions to slow the spread of the virus, has pushed states to reopen and has expressed sympathy to rightwing protests against lockdowns.
Additionally, the US is the only affluent nation, to have suffered a sustained and severe outbreak for more than four months, as the New York Times recently noted.
From the Guardian’s recent coverage, the US is also failing to report vital information on Covid-19 that could help track the spread of the disease and prevent the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans, according to one analysis:
Secret Service has confirmed there was a shooting, but has not provided any more information:
The Secret Service can confirm there has been an officer involved shooting at 17th Street and Pennsylvania Ave. Law enforcement officials are on the scene. More information to follow.
— U.S. Secret Service (@SecretService) August 10, 2020
During the press conference, Trump noted that when he was forced to leave the podium earlier, he saw a Fox News report saying there were “two shots in rapid succession”:
John Roberts of Fox News tells Trump: "I heard two shots in rapid succession just after you took the podium."
— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) August 10, 2020
Trump has once again made confusing and contradictory remarks about healthcare coverage for people with pre-existing conditions. He said he would be pushing an “executive order” to protect people with pre-existing conditions, even though they are already covered under Obamacare, which the Trump administration is trying to dismantle.
Asked why an “executive order” is needed for a protection already in place (which he is trying to remove), Trump responded that it’s “just a double safety net”. He said he wanted Republicans to be known as protecting people with pre-existing conditions: “It’s a signal to people.”
Trump is now saying he would likely delay the G7 summit until “after the election ... we we have a little bit more time to think about it”.
He also says he would “certainly” invite Vladimir Putin to G7:
"I certainly would invite him to the meeting" -- Trump says he would invite Vladimir Putin to to a G7 meeting in the US pic.twitter.com/uLwTw8qBBc
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 10, 2020
The president dodged a question asking him to explain his previous remark that his opponent, Joe Biden, would “hurt God”. The president responded with a reference to Bernie Sanders and generic criticisms of Biden on taxes.
Trump then segues to alleging that Biden will do too much regulating and taxing.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) August 10, 2020
Asked for more information on the possible shooting incident outside the White House, Trump said he didn’t have any details to share about a possible suspect, adding, “I don’t think anything was breached. They were relatively far away.”
Fact check: Trump's falsehoods on Covid-19 testing
The press conference is back on, with Trump spreading blatant falsehoods about the state of the Covid-19 crisis in the US, while repeatedly using his racist “China virus” label.
He continues to downplay the crisis here, saying the reason the US is seeing major surges is due to the fact that “We are so far ahead of testing ... If we have much smaller testing, we’d have fewer [cases]. ... It’s a great record to have. No other country is close.”
In reality, the increases in cases in the US are outpacing the test increases. When Trump was called out on this in a viral interview recently, he stumbled to respond to questions about rising deaths and hospitalizations. The president also just shared false information about India’s testing, downplaying the nation’s capacity.
Fact check: Trump spreads unsubstantiated claims on mail-in voting
Before he abruptly left his press conference, Trump made numerous misleading and unsubstantiated claims attacking mail-in voting.
Donald Trump on mail-in voting: “It’s a disaster all over Virginia... A rigged election... People should vote like they did in World War One and World War Two.” pic.twitter.com/H6i7ExVZet
— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) August 10, 2020
Trump was citing reports about absentee ballot applications that had inaccurate information in Virginia, but those applications were not ballots and they were sent by a private organization, not the government. Trump was falsely suggesting that this was a reflection of the dangers of mail-in voting, adding, “We don’t want to have a rigged election.
He also said, “When you have this mail-in voting, it’s something that can be easily attacked by foreign countries and by frankly Democrats and Republicans. It’s something to think about seriously.”
As AP noted in a recent fact check, it’s false to suggest that measures aren’t in place to confirm a voter’s identity or prevent fraud with mail ballots. Ballots typically require voters to provide identifying information such as a birth date or Social Security or driver’s license number. In most states, voters also sign the back of the envelope, which is then verified with the signature on their registrations.
Washington’s secretary of state, Kim Wyman, a Republican, recently told NPR: “Election officials spend a great deal of our time building in security measures. The idea that people could print millions of ballots either within the country or external to the country, just on its face, is not going to pass muster with an election official.”
Trump says there was a 'shooting' outside White House
More details on the president’s sudden departure.
The president said: “It was a shooting outside of the White House... I’d like to thank the Secret Service for doing their always quick and very effective work... Somebody’s been taken to the hospital.” He added, “You were surprised. I was surprised also. I think it’s pretty unusual.”
He said he understands the suspect was armed. “It might not have had anything to do with me.” Asked about the location, Trump said: “It was outside of the premises.”
BREAKING: Returning to the White House briefing room, President Trump says that there was a shooting outside the White House.https://t.co/vZakCoaJES
— NBC News (@NBCNews) August 10, 2020
Trump is back at the podium
The president has returned to the podium after his sudden exit. He said he was taken to the Oval Office after an incident outside the White House. The details of what happened are unclear.
It appears that Secret Service escorted Trump out of the briefing room just minutes after starting his news conference. The president said nothing as he walked out and did not answer a reporter’s question about why he was leaving.
While Trump has previously stormed out of press conferences in the face of critical questions, this appears to be a highly unusual exit at the beginning of his remarks. Here’s the moment that happened:
Video: Trump escorted out of briefing room pic.twitter.com/5qaJQlKszI
— David Nakamura (@DavidNakamura) August 10, 2020
Updated
Trump abruptly leaves press conference
Just minutes into his press conference, Trump abruptly exited after a staffer said something to him and pulled him out.
His sudden exit is highly unusual, and reporters on the scene are trying to get more information about what’s going on. The live-stream was shortly cut off afterward.
California governor addresses test backlog
Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, held his first news briefing after his administration admitted last week that failures with the state database had led to a backlog of tests and an undercounting of Covid-19 cases.
On Sunday night, Newsom’s top health official, Sonia Angell, resigned. The governor refused to disclose the reason why, even after reporters pressed him multiple times at Monday’s briefing.
“She resigned. She wrote a resignation letter. And I accepted her resignation,” Newsom said. He added: “We’re all accountable in our respective roles for what happens underneath us. I don’t want to air any more than that.”
The backlog would have skewed the positivity rates - the rate at which administered tests come back positive - which impacts if counties remain on the state monitoring list. Counties can only reopen certain businesses once they’re off the monitoring list for a certain amount of time.
On Friday, Mark Ghaly, director of the state’s health and human services department, announced that a 25 July server outage, among other errors, caused a backlog of 250,000 to 300,000 records. At Monday’s briefing, Ghaly said that the state was able to process the backlog over the weekend after it “nearly quadrupled” its capacity to process data.
Newsom put much of the blame on “large-scale information technology systems here in California that are decades and decades old”. He promised that his administration would begin to fix not just the technological issues when it came to pandemic data collection, but “across the spectrum” in California.
There were 7,751 new cases in the state, Newsom said, an “accurate” number unaffected by the backlog.
Trump administration to roll back controls on methane
The US Environmental Protection Agency is reversing Obama-era controls on methane, citing the global downturn as justification for lifting regulations of the powerful greenhouse gas.
The new EPA rule will be made public this week, according to the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, which reported that the new rules would end requirements that oil and gas producers have systems and procedures in place to detect methane leaks.
Estimates used by the EPA say that methane accounts for roughly 10% of US greenhouse-gas emissions, and that methane is about 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide in trapping the earth’s heat, the Journal said. Citing senior administration officials, the paper said that the rule changes would apply to wells drilled starting in 2016, and would allow the largest pipelines to avoid EPA oversight.
Protections that Obama adopted in 2016 in his final months in office were aimed at reducing methane emissions from the US by 40% to 45% over 2012 levels by 2025 by requiring companies to capture gas from oil wells, and find and plug pipeline leaks. More from our coverage at the time:
Hi all - Sam Levin in Los Angeles here, taking over our live coverage for the rest of the day. Here in California, a judge has just issued a preliminary injunction that will block Uber and Lyft from classifying their drivers as independent contractors rather than employees.
The move came in response to a May lawsuit filed by the state of California against the companies, which alleged they are misclassifying their drivers under the state’s new labor law. The lawsuit, and Monday’s injunction, are the most significant challenges to the ride-hailing companies’ business model thus far.
More from my colleague Kari Paul here:
Time for another recap
It’s a whirlwind of news but we’re keeping you in the know. Here’s what we covered in the latter half:
- Confusion and controversy rise as fallout over the president’s “executive orders” continue
- The GOP nomination will either be at the White House or Gettysburg, at least one of which a violation of the Hatch Act
- Public health officials have had enough of this pandemic
- John Bolton is voting neither Biden nor Trump
- And Guam’s governor is the latest state/territory leader to test positive for coronavirus
Keep it locked as my colleague Sam Levin keeps you in the loop.
The latest coronavirus totals are bad
For every 4 person in the world with coronavirus, one is an American. That’s a not-so-fun fact.
According to he US recorded a total of 5,079,453 confirmed coronavirus cases as of 2pm ET Monday, amounting to with 163,854 deaths. States experiencing highest percentage increase of cases over past 14 days?
- Hawaii: 313%
- New Jersey: 81%
- Rhode Island: 66%
- South Dakota: 35%
- Massachusetts: 34%
We’ll see how those numbers evolved as an estimated 250,000 unmasked and unbothered bikers descend on a small town in South Dakota this week.
Guam Governor tests positive for Covid-19
According to the Pacific Daily News, Guam governor Lourdes “Lou” Leon Guerrero has tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
Guerrero, along with health officials in the US territory, confirmed the governor’s condition Monday. She had tested negative for the virus shortly after being exposed 5 Aug.
“On August 8th, I began to exhibit some symptoms. I was tested again this afternoon and received a positive result this evening. I have been in home quarantine since this weekend and will be isolated pending my recovery. I remain in good health despite exhibiting moderate symptoms of the virus.”
Guerrero insisted she followed all recommended health protocols, including wearing a mask and socially distancing. She implored others to “use [her] experience as a reminder of just how serious and contagious this virus is”.
“Help our island protect our loved ones,” Leon Guerrero said in a statement.
Guam, a small island of nearly 168,000 residents, is located in the north Pacific ocean. Its total coronavirus cases have risen sharply since the start of the pandemic, confirming 6 new cases Monday for a total of 416.
John Bolton: ‘Not voting for Biden for philosophical reasons’
Sonam Sheth, Business Insider’s political correspondent, talked with former ambassador John Bolton Monday. In the interview, they discuss everything from this year’s impeachment trial (which feels like a decade ago), the coronavirus pandemic and the upcoming election.
Key takeaways?
- When it comes to Trump, “substance was not so important as politics”
- Donald Trumps gets an ‘F’ grade for his coronavirus response
- Bolton’s “not voting for Biden for philosophical reasons,” but also not for Trump “because he’s not competent”
- He found it “very troubling that the president would even talk about” delaying the election
Apparently Bolton weighed resigning several times before nobly choosing to withhold information essential to the president’s impeachment for a literary payday instead. Check out more of Bolton’s talk with Business Insider here.
Ted Cruz has thoughts on Americans’ spending amid the pandemic
Why be so cheap? Give everyone $1 million a day, every day, forever. And three soy lattes a day. And a foot massage.
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) August 10, 2020
We have a magic money tree — we should use it! https://t.co/0ODgPBhc4O
It’s worth noting that, last week, Cruz was among those in Congress to pass a US $740bn defense policy bill - or an estimated $2bn daily.
Updated
No sports? No spa? Critics want you to #BlameTrump
Online sports fans aren’t thrilled that the coronavirus will likely mean the cancellation of a fall favorite: college football. Led by The Lincoln Project, a group of defected Republicans now campaigning against the Donald Trump, users are responding with what they’ve missed most since the outbreak, and what they’re not looking forward to going without this fall.
We won’t be cheering on Wisconsin. #BlameTrump
— The Lincoln Project 🏴☠️ (@ProjectLincoln) August 10, 2020
cc: @BadgerFootball pic.twitter.com/wp4s5BQzbZ
The public rebuke comes as Trump has been active on the platform throughout the day, tweeting attacks against house speaker Nancy Pelosi, senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, as well as Republican senator Ben Sasse.
Haven’t had a haircut for 6 months. #BlameTrump @ProjectLincoln
— Republicans for Joe Biden (@RepsForBiden) August 10, 2020
As far as sports? The president seems to be taking it all in stride. Even as the country’s largest college football conferences discuss canceling the season, the president called on schools to allow student athletes to play.
The student-athletes have been working too hard for their season to be cancelled. #WeWantToPlay https://t.co/lI3CCKZ4ID
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 10, 2020
According to the CDC, young people (including college students) are one of the fastest growing age groups from contracting the coronavirus.
More on the worrying issue of public health officials leaving, across the US.
Some health officials said they were leaving for family reasons, others had planned to retire, and some left for jobs at other health agencies, such as the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Still, many left amid threats and a pressure-cooker environment, The Associated Press further reports.
After West Virginia Governor Jim Justice demanded the resignation of Dr. Cathy Slemp in June over what he said were discrepancies in the data, the move was criticized by public health experts at Johns Hopkins University.
Slemp said the department’s work had been hurt by outdated technology like fax machines and slow computer networks.
“We are driving a great aunt’s Pinto when what you need is to be driving a Ferrari,” Slemp said.
Since 2010, spending on state public health departments has dropped 16% per capita, and the amount devoted to local health departments has fallen 18%, according to a KHN and AP analysis.
At least 38,000 state and local public health jobs have disappeared since the 2008 recession, leaving a skeletal workforce for what was once viewed as one of the world’s top public health systems.
In Oklahoma, both the state health commissioner and state epidemiologist have been replaced since the outbreak began in March. The governor’s first pick for health commissioner was forced out in May because lawmakers were concerned he wasn’t qualified.
In rural Colorado, Emily Brown was fired in late May as director of the Rio Grande County Public Health Department after clashing with county commissioners over reopening recommendations. The person who replaced her resigned July 9.
She said she knows many public health department leaders who are considering resigning or retiring because of the strain.
“I think there’s a leadership gap. Our elected officials in positions of power, whether presidents, governors or mayors, they aren’t supporting staff better or aligning messages,” forcing public health officials to bear the political pressure, Brown said. “It’s really hard to hear that we could be losing that expertise.”
Updated
Public health officials leaving in alarming numbers amid pandemic
Vilified, threatened with violence and in some cases burned out, dozens of state and local public health officials around the country have resigned or have been fired amid the coronavirus outbreak, a testament to how politically combustible issues such as masks, lockdowns and infection data have become.
The latest departure came Sunday, when California’s public health director, Dr. Sonia Angell, quit without explanation following a technical glitch that caused a delay in reporting virus test results information that was used to make decisions about reopening businesses and schools, the Associated Press reports.
Last week, New York City’s health commissioner was replaced after months of tension with the Police Department and City Hall.
A review by the Kaiser Health News service and AP finds at least 48 state and local health leaders have resigned, retired or been fired since April across 23 states. The list has grown by more than 20 people since the AP and KHN began tracking departures in June.
As of Monday, confirmed infections in the United States stood at over 5 million, with deaths topping 163,000, the highest in the world.
The departures of so many top leaders around the country make a bad situation worse, at a time when the US needs good public health leadership the most, said Lori Tremmel Freeman, CEO of the National Association of County and City Health Officials.
“We’re moving at breakneck speed here to stop a pandemic, and you can’t afford to hit the pause button and say, ‘We’re going to change the leadership around here and we’ll get back to you after we hire somebody,’” Freeman said.
Many of the firings and resignations have to do with conflicts over mask orders or social distancing shutdowns, she said. Many politicians and ordinary Americans have argued that such measures are not needed, contrary to the scientific evidence and the advice of public health experts.
“It’s not a health divide; it’s a political divide,” Freeman said.
Trump tweets about locations for accepting GOP nomination
The president is trying to decide which controversial location to use to accept his party’s official nomination for the presidency, at the end of the not-in-person Republican convention.
We have narrowed the Presidential Nomination Acceptance Speech, to be delivered on the final night of the Convention (Thursday), to two locations - The Great Battlefield of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and the White House, Washington, D.C. We will announce the decision soon!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 10, 2020
This is where some Republicans are with the deadlocked negotiations on Capitol Hill over more coronavirus relief, and what some Democrats think of that.
Fiscal conservative of Texas Ted Cruz, who’s in the thick of the Republican infighting over the size of a new relief package, with comment from Democratic Senator from Massachusetts Ed Markey, who’s facing a challenge from Joe Kennedy.
It's not a goddamn joke Ted. Millions of families are facing hunger, the threat of eviction, and the loss of their health care during a pandemic that is worsening every day. Get real. https://t.co/z6ygY8lSxc
— Ed Markey (@EdMarkey) August 10, 2020
Confusion and controversy rise over coronavirus relief aid
That’s clear then. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany was asked how soon America’s unemployed will see the $400 a week of federal enhanced unemployment benefit that Donald Trump outlined via executive order at the weekend - down from the $600 a week they were getting before it expired in July amid a partisan impasse on Capitol Hill about further aid.
“We hope to see it quickly. Close to immediately,” McEnany just said at a briefing at the White House.
She then noted that, actually, it will depend on states - whom the president has specified must pony up $100 of the $400 out of existing funds he says they have access to (which New York governor Andrew Cuomo said yesterday was “laughable”).
“A lot will depend on states applying,” McEnany said, noting that they had funds already distributed by Congress, but adding: “It will require an application process”. Which does not sound like close to immediately.
“We will be working around the clock and look to make sure there is no delay,” she added.
However there has already been a delay as it is more than a week since the last $600 was received, with no sign of a solid plan.
She blamed any delay on the Democrats.
This followed Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin earlier today saying the Trump administration and Congress could reach a coronavirus aid deal as soon as this week, while Democrats said the two sides have not spoken since talks collapsed last Friday, Reuters reported.
Eviction protections and enhanced unemployment assistance both expired at the end of July, slashing aid for more than 30 million people.
On Friday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the Dems would reduce their ask for a new relief bill from three trillion dollars to two trillion, if the Republicans would meet halfway by rising from one trillion to two trillion. Talks at that point ended.
Updated
It's a busy Monday, let's recap.
Here’s what we’ve been following throughout the day:
- A study found a sharp rise in coronavirus cases in children
- Chicago is reeling from a night of unrest
- Puerto Rico ran out of ballots during its primary, exposing election risks
- Mnuchin says congressional chaos is avoidable if Democrats play nice
- Lebanon is set to dissolve its government
- Black men to Biden: bet on Black women
Be sure to stay up-to-date on all that’s happening throughout the day right here on the politics live blog.
Updated
Black leaders to Biden: choose a Black woman VP
More than 100 Black male leaders have signed an open letter calling on Joe Biden to pick a Black woman as his vice president, saying “for too long, Black women have been asked to do everything” for the Democratic party.
Failing to select a Black woman in 2020 means YOU will the election. Black women are defining the future of politics, so it’s time you let one define the future of your campaign.”
Some notable figures include a diverse array of industry professionals, including civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, Democratic strategist Bakari Sellers and athlete Chris Paul. Entertainment mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs leads the list with his signature.
Who signed onto the letter: pic.twitter.com/lI3ORs0csV
— Kat Stafford (@kat__stafford) August 10, 2020
Some readers noted that although Barack Obama became the first Black person to win the presidency in 2007, and inaugurated in 2008, it was a Black woman who was first to run.
That woman? Shirley Chisholm, Already the first Black women elected to Congress, in 1972 Chisholm ran a monumental campaign on anti-racism, anti-sexism and initiatives to combat poverty.
“I am not the candidate for Black America, although I am Black and proud. I am not the candidate of the women’s movement of this country, although I am a woman and I’m equally proud of that. I am not the candidate of any political bosses or fat cats or special interests. I stand here now without endorsement from many big name politicians or celebrities or any other kind of prop. I do not intend to offer you the tired and glib cliches that have too long been an accepted part of our political life. I am the candidate of the people of America
Fun Fact: Current frontrunner, California senator Kamala Harris’ logo during her own bid for president was in tribute to Chisholm.
Updated
Bill Gates rebukes US’s coronavirus ‘testing insanity’
Tech guru and philanthropist Bill Gates continued his charge against the Trump administration’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak, insisting “no other country has the testing insanity, because [US officials] won’t talk about fixing it”.
A variety of early missteps by the US and the political atmosphere meant that we didn’t get our testing going. We are paying a pretty dramatic price, and not just in deaths. We also pay it in terms of the economic toll, which is up in the trillions.
Check out more from Gates’ interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria here.
Breaking: Lebanon PM to announce government's resignation
Lebanon’s prime minister Hassan Diab will announce his government’s resignation, according to Reuters. Diab is due to announce the dissolution of his government over last week’s devastating explosion in Beirut which uncovered more than 2000 tonnes of explosives that had been stored at the city’s port for 6 years.
Meanwhile in Washington, the Trump administration has yet to respond to criticism for the president’s debunked claim that the explosion, which has killed more than 160 people, was an attack.
Donald Trump first blamed the gaffe on senior intelligence officials, who then contradicted him.
Mnuchin: Chaos in Congress avoidable if Dems were 'reasonable'
On Capitol Hill, US treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Monday said the Trump administration and Congress could reach a deal as soon as this week if Democrats are more “reasonable.”
Mnuchin on CNBC:
I think there is a compromise if the Democrats are willing to be reasonable. There is still a lot of things we need to do and that we’ve agreed on. If we can get a fair deal, we’ll do it this week.”
Mnuchin added that he had heard House speaker Nancy Pelosi and senate minority leader Chuck Schumer’s comments over the weekend and thinks “they’re willing to compromise”. He declined to say when talks could resume, however.
On Sunday, Schumer called on top Republicans to come to the table on the next phase of coronavirus aid after Donald Trump signing three memorandums and one executive order. Critics have noted they will do little to immediately relieve unemployed Americans.
Via MSNBC’s Morning Joe:
I hope saner voices in the Republican Party will prevail and say: ‘Sit down with Pelosi and sit down with Schumer’. We are not going to settle for some skimpy thing that doesn’t work.
Meanwhile, the president is letting his thoughts on the negotiations be known, as usual, on Twitter:
So now Schumer and Pelosi want to meet to make a deal. Amazing how it all works, isn’t it. Where have they been for the last 4 weeks when they were “hardliners”, and only wanted BAILOUT MONEY for Democrat run states and cities that are failing badly? They know my phone number!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 10, 2020
Updated
Trump responds to Ben Sasse’s anti-EO statement
Donald Trump is responding to a statement released Sunday by Republican senator, Ben Sasse, who excoriated the president for his attempt to use executive orders to combat the worsening coronavirus outbreak.
RINO Ben Sasse, who needed my support and endorsement in order to get the Republican nomination for Senate from the GREAT State of Nebraska, has, now that he’s got it (Thank you President T), gone rogue, again. This foolishness plays right into the hands of the Radical Left Dems!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 10, 2020
Sasse, a former Trump all now foe, called the president’s executive lawmaking “unconstitutional slop”.
President Obama did not have the power to unilaterally rewrite immigration law with DACA, and President Trump does not have the power to unilaterally rewrite the payroll tax law. Under the Constitution, that power belongs to the American people acting through their members of Congress.
Meanwhile Democrats in Sasse’s home state of Nebraska have announced a new endorsement. The party will support newcomer Alisha Shelton to challenge Sasse’s seat, after rescinding its endorsement of Chris Janicek, who withdrew earlier this year after reports surfaced that he sent sexually offensive text messages to a campaign staffer.
Updated
Chicago Mayor takes swipe at AG following night of unrest.
In a press conference Monday, following a night of unrest and looting, Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot appeared to criticize Cook County’s state’s attorney Kim Foxx, whom she previously endorsed.
People believe there is no accountability in our criminal justice system. We need the prosecutors and courts to step up”.
Chicago police superintendent David Brown further characterized looting as people who “feel emboldened” after being arrested during the unrest triggered by the death of George Floyd but not facing charges. Lightfoot later told reporters they should not pit her and Foxx, both Black women, against each other.
“Don’t bait us,” she said.
The remarks comes as a Chicago Tribune analysis found that Foxx is drops felony cases involving charges of murder and other serious offenses at a higher rate than her predecessor.
New group will confront gender bias in VP coverage
A group of female, Democratic lawmakers are challenging the news industry to check its sexist and racist stereotypes while covering Joe Biden’s soon-to-be announced vice presidential pick.
In an open letter, signed by roughly a dozen women including leaders at the National Women’s Law Center, Planned Parenthood and TimesUp, the women want newsrooms to “actively work to be anti-racist and anti-sexist in [their] coverage.”
From Hilary Rosen, a Democratic strategist involved in the group:
“We’ve seen so many disappointing things: a mocking of Kamala Harris’ ambition, as if every politician running for president is not ambitious. Whether or not candidates are likable, there were just so many examples that kind of nauseated us.”
Check out more of Rosen’s interview with CNN’s Brian Stelter here.
Puerto Rico ballot shortage exposes voting risks
Puerto Ricans are calling on the island’s president of elections commission to resign. On Sunday, the US territory was forced to partially suspend its scheduled primary due to some districts lacking ballots. The shortage couldn’t be rectified before afternoon, forcing officials to postpone some areas’ voting until next week.
#FOMBStatement: The FOMB is deeply concerned about the dysfunctional voting process in today’s primary elections in PR. The disruptions today are the result of inefficient organization. This is not an issue of funding.
— Financial Oversight & Mgmt Board for Puerto Rico (@FOMBPR) August 9, 2020
📝 | https://t.co/iTsE041agB pic.twitter.com/2IhmgYqbd1
Voting is only set to be rescheduled for centers that didn’t receive ballots. The federally-appointed fiscal board in Puerto Rico said it was “deeply concerned” about the voting process and blamed “inefficient organization.”
The elections commission president has vowed not to step down.
President of the Elections Commission says he will not step down, amid primaries fiasco and calls for his resignation. He blames today's delays partly on backlogs in printing at the only ballot printing facility on the island. https://t.co/sUuTjjTT22
— Bianca Padró Ocasio (@BiancaJoanie) August 9, 2020
California paper lines front page with coffins from coronavirus
The Sacramento Bee offers a somber and stark look at the extent of the pandemic in California, revealing 10,000 coffins on its front page.
According to the paper, each coffin represents “one California life lost to the coronavirus”.
Good Day - It's morning in the US, here's what's on tap
It’s a busy Monday. I’m Kenya Evelyn in Washington taking over for the live blog. Here’s what we’re following:
- Unrest and looting in Chicago following a police involved shooting
- Another day to debate Joe Biden’s vice presidential pick
- The continued fall out of Donald’s Trumps executive orders aimed at combating the coronavirus outbreak. Are they legal?
Stay tuned for more throughout the day.
Updated
In a move that anybody wearing a face mask and trying to pay for things with their phone will empathise with, New York’s mass transit agency has written to Apple CEO Tim Cook asking for the company to come up with a better way for iPhone users to unlock their phones without taking off their masks.
In the letter, seen by the Associated Press, Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Patrick Foye said riders have been seen removing their masks to unlock their phones using face-recognition technology, despite a recent update by Apple that simplifies the unlock process for people wearing masks.
“We understand Apple is working to address the issue and know that Apple has a range of technologies at its disposal as a global leader among tech companies,” Foye wrote in the letter sent Sunday. “We urge Apple to accelerate the deployment of new technologies and solutions that further protect customers in the era of Covid-19.”
Foye added that the MTA would be willing to collaborate with Apple on messaging to make sure users know about the recent iPhone modification.
In response to the pandemic, Apple’s iOS 13.5, released in May, automatically presents the passcode field after a user swipes up from the bottom of the lock screen, but it seems like not everybody on the subway appreciates this.
That’s it from me today, I am handing over to my colleague Kenya Evelyn now. I’ll be back tomorrow.
NBC News have what looks like an amazing piece of exclusive access this morning – to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the lab that has been at the centre of so many of the conspiracy theories surrounding the origins of the coronavirus.
You may recall that previously Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, said: “I can tell you that there is a significant amount of evidence that this came from that laboratory in Wuhan” and president Donald Trump has also alluded it to it being the source of Covid-19.
During the roughly five-hour visit (by NBC News), which included a tour of the BSL-4 lab, where technicians clad in bubblelike protective suits handled small vials and other equipment while sealed inside a thick-walled glass enclosure, Wang Yanyi, director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, said she and others felt unfairly targeted. She urged that politics not cloud investigations into how the coronavirus spilled over into humans.
“It is unfortunate that we have been targeted as a scapegoat for the origin of the virus,” she said. “Any person would inevitably feel very angry or misunderstood being subject to unwarranted or malicious accusations while carrying out research and related work in the fight against the virus.”
Read it here: NBC News – Inside the Wuhan lab at the center of the coronavirus storm
If you fancy a long read laying out just how dismal the federal response has been to the coronavirus crisis that has claimed over 160,000 American lives and spread to over 5 million people in the nation, then William Saletan has you covered over at Slate.
Last night they published this compelling, lengthy and exhaustive timeline of Donald Trump’s statements and reactions to events. It’s incredibly densely linked, to corroborate the sequence of events described. Saletan does not hold back in finding the president negligent.
The story the president now tells—that he “built the greatest economy in history,” that China blindsided him by unleashing the virus, and that Trump saved millions of lives by mobilizing America to defeat it—is a lie. Trump collaborated with Xi, concealed the threat, impeded the U.S. government’s response, silenced those who sought to warn the public, and pushed states to take risks that escalated the tragedy. He’s personally responsible for tens of thousands of deaths.
It’s full of nuggets like this, on how questioned by Sean Hannity on 1 February about rising cases:
The president brushed him off. “We pretty much shut it down coming in from China,” said Trump. That was false: Thanks to loopholes in the ban, the coronavirus strain that would engulf Washington state arrived from China about two weeks later. But at the time of the interview, the ban hadn’t even taken effect. The important thing, to Trump, was that he had announced the ban. He was less interested in solving the problem than in looking as though he had solved it.
There’s much, much more here: Slate – The Trump Pandemic: A blow-by-blow account of how the president killed thousands of Americans
Jessica Glenza reports for us on the disheartening news that experts are warning that America’s PPE shortage could last years without strategic plan
For the past two decades, personal protective equipment was supplied to healthcare institutions in lean supply chains in the same way toilet paper was to grocery stores. Chains between major manufacturers and end-users were so efficient there was no need to stockpile goods.
But in March, the supply chain broke when major Asian PPE exporters embargoed materials or shut down just as demand increased exponentially. Thus, healthcare institutions were in much the same position as regular grocery shoppers, who were trying to buy great quantities of a product they never needed to stockpile before.
“I am very concerned about long-term PPE [personal protective equipment] shortages for the foreseeable future,” said Dr Susan R Bailey, the president of the American Medical Association. “There’s no question the situation is better than it was a couple of months ago,” said Bailey, but she cautioned “The supply chain needs to be strengthened dramatically, and we need less dependence on foreign goods to manufacture our own PPE in the US.”
Read more here: America’s PPE shortage could last years without strategic plan, experts warn
Steve Peoples and Alexandra Jaffe at the Associated Press have been looking at how most times around, the vice presidential nominee pick doesn’t make a huge different to an election or swing an outcome. This time, though, they posit that the stakes are much higher for Joe Biden and the Democratic Party.
They quote Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, who served as Hillary Clinton’s vice presidential nominee in 2016, who said Biden’s decision “may be the most closely held and personally driven vice presidential pick ever. Nobody knows this job better than Joe Biden and nobody did the job better than Biden, so he’s gonna really control this one on his own.”
As Peoples and Jaffe stress, at a minimum, the decision will at least for a while shift the force of the campaign away from Trump’s turbulent presidency onto Biden himself. That’s not a place everybody in the Democratic Party is happy to be given Biden’s proclivity for gaffes and a persistent lack of excitement behind his candidacy.
But the choice also offers Biden an unusual opportunity to unify a party still reeling from Trump’s 2016 win and solidify its future. He’s already committed to selecting a woman and is considering several Black women. And since the 77-year-old Biden has not committed to seeking a second term, his running mate could be strongly positioned to become the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee in 2024 and shape national politics for the next decade.
Within the party, there is some tension about how soon before the Democratic National Convention Biden should unveil his decision. While finalists and their allies believe the process has already gone on too long, experienced Democratic operatives want Biden to wait as long as possible before the convention’s 17 August start date, to limit the vice presidential nominee’s exposure to the attacks expected no matter whom he picks.
Inside the campaign, some are privately skeptical that even a history-making pick would have a significant impact. There is a strong belief that after only a brief focus on Biden’s running mate, the election would quickly return to being a referendum on Trump’s presidency, which may be all the motivation Democrats need to drive massive turnout in November.
Yet Biden risks a real backlash from his base if he doesn’t pick a woman of color, according to some activists.
“It would be a reckless choice to pick a white running mate with a party that’s as dependent on black and brown voters as it is,” said Aimee Allison of She the People, a political advocacy network for women of color. “A Black woman as VP is a healing link that our country needs right now to navigate this historic moment.”
Benjamin Dixon has written for us this morning on what seems to be an recurring motif of the Joe Biden campaign – the Democratic party candidate making comments that alienate the Black community whose votes he needs to oust Donald Trump from the White House.
Black Americans who are not dutiful members of the political establishment – whose job it is to explain away every bumbling and insulting thing the Democratic party’s forced pick spits up – are rightly upset at the fact that Joe’s own words are making Trump’s re-election more likely.
If anyone on team Joe is under the impression that 2020 is a slam dunk, one only needs to look at the recent polling to understand this isn’t true. White America has a commitment to Trump that is unmoved by the fact that 160,000+ Americans have died as a result of his absurd and criminally pathetic response to Covid-19.
The bottom line is, Biden is by no means a shoo-in. And to that end, it would be best for his campaign to level with Joe about the Black vote: don’t let the Black Democratic Establishment types like Jim Clyburn and Keisha Lance Bottoms fool you: the Black voters you need are not excited about your candidacy.
Read it here: Benjamin Dixon – Joe Biden needs Black voters. So why does he keep insulting us?
Chicago mayor and police chief to hold press conference after night of unrest in city
Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot and police superintendent David Brown are planning to give a press conference later this morning after a night of unrest in the city. Reports say that hundreds of people smashed windows, stole from stores and clashed with police in Chicago’s Magnificent Mile shopping district and other parts of the city’s downtown.
At one point, shots were fired at police and officers returned fire, police spokesman Tom Ahern said on Twitter. No officers were injured in the shooting.
MEDIA ADVISORY #ChicagoPolice pic.twitter.com/aa0eq4RrgR
— Tom Ahern (@TomAhernCPD) August 10, 2020
It isn’t immediately clear what led to the unrest, which began shortly after midnight, though the Chicago Tribune reports that “in at least two spots graffiti against the police was seen.”
The paper says, of the events, that:
Shots were fired at Michigan Avenue and Lake Street around 4:30am, nearly five hours into the widespread vandalism. Officers were not hit and returned fire, according to the department, which said it was not known if anyone else was hit.
Earlier, an officer was seen slumped against a building by Grand and Wabash avenues as other other cops tended to him. It was unclear what had happened to him. Down the block, police in camouflage gear and shields briefly stood outside at a shop at Rush Street and Grand Avenue.
Read more here: Chicago Tribune – Chicago police return fire as looters hit Mag Mile, smashing windows and confronting officers
Trump denies wanting to add face to Mount Rushmore but says it "sounds like a good idea"
Donald Trump has denied that his team ever approached South Dakota’s governor about adding his face to the iconic monument depicting four presidents at Mount Rushmore.
However, he added that it “sounds like a good idea to me!”
This is Fake News by the failing @nytimes & bad ratings @CNN. Never suggested it although, based on all of the many things accomplished during the first 3 1/2 years, perhaps more than any other Presidency, sounds like a good idea to me! https://t.co/EHrA9yUsAw
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 10, 2020
Over the weekend the New York Times had reported a Republican party official source stating that a White House aide reached out to Kristi Noem’s office with the question: “What’s the process to add additional presidents to Mount Rushmore?”
Thanks to the angle of some of the photographs taken when Trump visited the memorial in July, it isn’t necessary to PhotoShop what it might look like. Trump posed in such a way that he effectively added himself as a fifth figure on the controversial monument.
According to reports, the governor had greeted Trump on his recent visit to South Dakota with a four-foot replica of the monument that already included his face as a fifth element.
In a 2018 interview, Noam stated that the two had struck up a conversation about the sculpture in the Oval Office the first time they had met. She claims that she said to him: “Mr President, you should come to South Dakota sometime. We have Mount Rushmore,” and that he replied “Do you know it’s my dream to have my face on Mount Rushmore?”
“I started laughing,” she said in the interview. “He wasn’t laughing, so he was totally serious.”
The president had used the sculpture earlier this year as the backdrop for a showy Independence Day display, which drew protests from Native American activists, who view the monument as a desecration of land violently stolen from them and used to pay homage to leaders hostile to native people. On the night he gave a divisive speech claiming that the US was under siege from “far-left fascism”.
The four presidents depicted on Mount Rushmore were chosen in the 1920s by sculptor Gutzon Borglum for their leadership during what were seen then as the four phases of America: George Washington leading the birth of the nation; Thomas Jefferson sparking its westward expansion; Abraham Lincoln preserving the union and emancipating slaves; Teddy Roosevelt championing industrial innovation.
Construction ended in 1941 when funds ran out – originally the presidents were designed to be depicted head-to-waist.
Trump has previously joked about adding his face to the monument during an Ohio rally in 2017, using it as the basis for an attack on the media.
“Now here’s what I’d do,” Trump said at the time. “I’d ask whether or not you someday think I will be on Mount Rushmore. If I did it joking — totally joking, having fun — the fake news media will say, ‘He believes he should be on Mount Rushmore’. So I won’t say it.”
Updated
Frida Garza has been in New York for us looking at the phenomenon of the community fridge. There’s at least 15 of them that have been set up in New York and New Jersey.
She’s spoken to four people involved in the project, including someone who at one point relied on it. It’s an uplifting tale of a community looking after itself through kindness and generosity.
Read it here: ‘No one should go hungry’: street fridges of free food help Americans survive Covid pandemic
Head of California’s public health department resign
The head of California’s public health department resigned late Sunday, the Associated Press reports, just days after the state announced a fix for a glitch that caused a lag in collecting coronavirus test information that’s used to make decisions about reopening businesses and schools.
Dr. Sonia Angell said she was departing from her role as director and state public health officer at the California Department of Public Health in a letter to staff released by the California Health and Human Services Agency. Angell did not give a specific reason for her departure.
Angell’s announcement comes after California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly said the glitch caused up to 300,000 records to be backlogged, though not all of them were coronavirus cases and some could be duplicates. The problem affected the California Reportable Disease Information Exchange, also known as CalREDIE.
“I am grateful to Dr. Angell for her service to the people of California,” Ghaly said in the statement late Sunday. “Her leadership was instrumental as Californians flattened the curve once and in setting us on a path to do so again.”
Sandra Shewry, vice president of external engagement for California Health Care Foundation, will fill the role of acting health director, the health and human services department said. Dr. Erica Pan, who was recently appointed state epidemiologist, will be the acting state public health officer.
California has had over 563,000 cases of the coronavirus. If it was a county, it would be the sixth most affected in the world, with only the US as whole, Brazil, India, Russia and South Africa having more.
Study: 97,000 US children test positive for Covid-19 in last two weeks of July, a sharp rise
The Washington Post overnight have had more details of this study by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association, which claims that 97,000 US children tested positive for the coronavirus in the last two weeks of July. That is more than a quarter of the total number of children diagnosed nationwide since March
There’s a slight caveat here, that the word children can conjure up images of the very young, but the data is from 49 states, many of whom defined children as younger than 19 years old.
It remains a small fraction of the number of cases recorded nationally - at around 8.8%. A reminder that it was Donald Trump’s false claim that kids were ‘almost immune’ from the illness that prompted Twitter to temporarily ban the president’s re-election campaign account and Facebook to take down one of his posts.
Chelsea Janes reports for the Post that:
The jump in pediatric cases comes as children are entering close quarters for the first time in months as some schools open their doors to students again. For months, teachers, parents and politicians have argued over whether the risks that the novel coronavirus pose to children outweigh the benefits of in-person learning.
Many school districts have chosen to operate entirely remotely until case numbers drop. Some have opted for hybrid learning systems in which children attend school in-person only a few days a week to limit crowding. But even schools with measures limiting crowds have suffered outbreaks already.
The push to reopen schools has sparked demonstrations by educators, students and parents. 70% of the new cases in children were reported in southern and western states. Pediatric deaths from Covid-19 remain mercifully rare, accounting for just 1% of the national total.
You can read more here: Washington Post – Coronavirus cases in children rise sharply in the second half of July, with more than 97,000 infections
Good morning. Welcome to our live coverage of US politics after a weekend when Donald Trump tried to unilaterally seize the initiative on coronavirus relief as the number of recorded cases in the country topped five million. Here’s a quick catch-up on where we are, and what we might expect today
- There were 48,354 new coronavirus cases and 539 more deaths reported in the US yesterday – Sunday figures often dip due to some jurisdictions not reporting any data
- Data from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association shows that more than 97,000 US children tested positive for the coronavirus in the last two weeks of July. That’s more than a quarter of the total number of children diagnosed nationwide since March. The study arrives as schools across the country deal with reopening
- There’s still confusion over the relief measures that Donald Trump announced at the weekend. His plan encroaches on Congress’s control of federal spending, drawing claims it is illegal, and New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, described the idea that states could afford to pay 25% of the increased unemployment payments as “laughable”
- The head of California’s public health department Dr. Sonia Angell resigned late on Sunday. The state has had more cases of Covid-19 than any other, and also has experience problems with collecting test data
- US health secretary Alex Azar praised Taiwan’s Covid-19 response during a rare high-level visit
- Apple imported clothes from a company facing US sanctions over its use of forced labour at a subsidiary firm in China’s Xinjiang region
- In a retaliatory move over US sanctions applied to officials about Hong Kong, China’s foreign ministry said it would apply new sanctions against 11 US officials including Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio
- A fire lit inside a police union building in Portland overnight led the authorities to declare the situation a riot and then use flashbang munitions and smoke canisters to force hundreds away from the area
- There’s nothing in the president’s public diary today. White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany holds a briefing at 1pm. Joe Biden is attending a private fundraiser. Both both houses are on recess until Labor Day, but some senators may be around to discuss the next steps towards a coronavirus relief package
I’m Martin Belam and I’ll be with you for a couple of hours - you can get me at martin.belam@theguardian.com
