From me and Joan E Greve:
- The number of coronavirus deaths in the US approached 150,000. Florida marked a record-breaking spike in the death toll, while Los Angeles and Maricopa, Arizona have marked the highest number of cases in the US.
- Donald Trump once again delivered a coronavirus briefing alone, without his leading public health officers. The president complained that top infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci had a higher approval rating, and defended his promotion of a disinformation video.
- Trump and his son Donald Trump Jr both promoted a video featuring misinformation about the coronavirus. Twitter suspended rump Jr’s account for spreading false claims after he shared the video of a doctor falsely claiming that the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine is a “cure” for coronavirus.
- Trump also discussed his administration’s $765m loan to Eastman Kodak - the camera company - so it can manufacture pharmaceutical ingredients. The move leverages the Defense Production Act, which allows the government to direct the production of certain supplies in the interest of national security.
- Attorney general William Barr testified before the House judiciary committee. During the hearing, Barr struggled over a question about whether presidents should be allowed to solicit or accept foreign assistance in elections, and he said he did not believe that there is systemic racism in US police departments.
- Seattle’s mayor Jenny Durkan confirmed that federal forces have left the city she represents. The mayor denounced the Trump administration for sending federal law enforcement to act against US citizens, saying in an MSNBC interview that the president had conducted a “dress rehearsal for martial law.”
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Joe Biden criticized Trump for sending federal agents to crack down on anti-racism protests in Portland, Oregon. “This isn’t about law and order. It’s about a political strategy to revive a failing campaign,” the Democratic presidential candidate said in Wilmington, Delaware. “Every instinct Trump has is to add fuel to the fire. And it’s the last thing, the last thing we need.”
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The Trump administration will allow “dreamers” to renew deportation protections for a year, after the supreme court blocked the administration’s effort to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. However, the acting homeland security secretary also announced that the department would not accpet new DACA applications.
- The American Federation of Teachers has authorized “safety strikes” if necessary to protect teachers from coronavirus. The announcement comes as number of school districts in coronavirus hot spots are pushing to reopen schools, despite concerns about the spread of the virus in classrooms.
Updated
Seattle mayor says federal forces have left the city
Mayor Jenny Durkan said that federal law enforcement sent to Seattle have left, less than a week after being deployed. In an interview with MSNBC, Durkan said that Trump was “doing a dress rehearsal for martial law” in her city.
.@DHSgov notified me that federal forces deployed to Seattle have demobilized & left. The President’s actions to target Democratic cities with federal forces is chilling and increased violence in Portland, Seattle & other cities - exactly what the President intended.
— Mayor Jenny Durkan (@MayorJenny) July 28, 2020
Governor Jay Inslee noted that the departure of federal officers “means Washingtonians no longer have to worry about the White House’s aim to provoke confrontation and undermine peaceful protests”.
Updated
The president has given key diplomatic roles to big donors – who have stood out for their lack of qualifications or aptitude
The US ambassador to Iceland, a dermatologist and major Republican donor, reportedly became so paranoid about his security he asked to carry a gun and to be taken everywhere in an armored car.
Despite the absence of particular security concerns, the embassy in Reykjavik advertised in the local press for bodyguards, to placate the ambassador, Jeffrey Ross Gunter.
Gunter’s alleged antics are not an isolated case. A record share of Donald Trump’s ambassadorial appointments have been political, mostly rewards for big-money donors, and his nominees have frequently stood out for their lack of qualifications or aptitude.
A report to be published on Tuesday by Senate Democrats on the current situation at the state department, titled Diplomacy in Crisis, said: “While it is true that every administration has its share of questionable appointments, the Trump administration’s choices have gone beyond the pale, jeopardizing the department’s ability to safeguard our nation’s interests.”
A San Francisco bus driver who was assaulted last week said that both he and his Asian passengers have faced racist abuse when they have asked other riders to wear their face masks during the pandemic.
The driver said he was hit in the face and struck with a miniature baseball bat last Wednesday after asking a group of teenagers to put on their face masks.
Before he was assaulted, the driver said, one of the young men told him that because he was Asian, he was the one who was likely to have coronavirus.
“It’s hard right now being a bus driver, especially being an Asian driver,” he told the Guardian, asking that his name not be published to protect his privacy.
Since the early weeks of the pandemic, bus drivers across the United States have spoken out about anger and assaults from passengers, particularly when they try to enforce public health rules about social distancing and mask-wearing.
Just in the past month, bus drivers have been beaten after asking passengers to wear masks in San Francisco, New York City and in Lubbock, Texas, where a bus driver was hit with a large wooden board and left bloody. A New York City driver reportedly left with a broken bone near his eye in July was one of dozens of Covid-related violent incidents involving bus drivers in New York, according to the City, a local news outlet. In France, a bus driver died after a brutal beating in early July, prompted once again by asking a group of passengers to put on their masks.
Florida has reported another record one-day rise in coronavirus numbers, marking 191 deaths from the virus over the past 24 hours.
The state’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis, who had been pushing schools to reopen, has backed off in recent days, now saying he wants parents to have “the choice between in-person and distance learning” for their kids.
Two hundred and fifty years after they were stripped of their ancestral homeland, the Esselen tribe of northern California is landless no more.
Mario Koran reports:
This week, the Esselen tribe finalized the purchase of a 1,200-acre ranch near Big Sur, along California’s north central coast, as part of a $4.5m acquisition that involved the state and an Oregon-based environmental group.
The deal will conserve old-growth redwoods and endangered wildlife such as the California condor and red-legged frog, as well as protect the Little Sur River, an important spawning stream for the imperiled steelhead trout.
Tribal leaders say they’ll use the land for educational and cultural purposes, building a sweat lodge and traditional village in view of Pico Blanco peak, the center of the tribe’s origin story.
Updated
Asked about the absence of Dr Fauci, Trump comments: 'Nobody likes me'
Asked about the persistent absence of Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, at Donald Trump’s briefings, the president mused about his health official’s approval rating.
Fauci has “got a very good approval rating and I like that”, Trump told reporters. And Fauci was working with the administration, “so why don’t I have a very high approval rating?” the president wondered out loud.
“But nobody likes me,” Trump said. “It can only be my personality, that’s all.”
This morning, Fauci was asked about the coronavirus disinformation that Trump has promoted on social media during an interview with ABC. “I don’t tweet, I don’t even read them. I don’t really want to go there,” he told Good Morning America. “I just will continue to do my job, no matter what comes out, because I think it’s very important.”
Updated
More than 149,000 people have died of coronavirus in the US, according to the tally by Johns Hopkins University. More than 4.3m cases of the virus have been recorded in the country.
Los Angeles county has the highest number of cases (176,028), followed by Maricopa county in Arizona, and Miami-Dade in Florida.
“I thought she was very impressive,” Trump said of the woman in the disinformation video he promoted.
Here’s more background from colleagues Joan E Greve and Martin Pengelly:
The video in question featured Dr Stella Immanuel, a physician from Houston, Texas, speaking on the steps of the US Capitol in Washington, surrounded by members of a rightwing doctors’ group.
Immanuel made baseless claims about coronavirus, including hailing hydroxychloroquine as a “cure”, even though the drug, which has been repeatedly touted by the president, has not been found to be an effective treatment.
The Houston doctor has also dismissed mounting evidence that face masks substantially help limit the spread of coronavirus.
Trump abruptly ended the conference after sustained question from CNN’s Kaitlan Collins. Before he walked off, he said he did not know why Twitter and Facebook removed the hydroxychloroquine video he promoted.
“I’ve read a lot about hydroxy,” Trump said, and repeated an old refrain that there was no harm in taking the antimalarial drug to treat coronavirus. “I think it could have a very positive impact in the early stages and I don’t think you lose anything by doing it.,” he said.
Although hydroxychloroquine is used as a treatment for some conditions, including lupus, studies have not found that the drug can help treat or prevent coronavirus. The US Food and Drug Administration revoked an emergency approval that had allowed doctors to prescribe hydroxychloroquine as an untested treatment for Covid-19.
Updated
Fact check: Protests and coronavirus
The president criticized “anarchists” and “agitators” in Portland and pinning the blame for increasing case numbers on protestors.
A couple of important points here:
1) The protests in Portland have been mostly peaceful. Journalists have documented demonstrators throwing rocks, water bottles and fireworks at officers, and setting small fires near a federal courthouse. Officers have been documented brutalizing protestors, and five have filed civil lawsuits seeking damages for injuries.
2) Epidemiologists have not conclusively linked the protests following the police killing of George Floyd to the huge spike in cases. The virus is less likely to spread outdoors, especially when people wear masks. The surge in cases across the US came as cities reopened businesses and indoor venues, where the coronavirus transmits more effectively. Doctors have warned that certain police crowd control tactics, including the use of teargas and pepper spray, would exacerbate the spread of disease.
Updated
Trump discussed his administration’s $765m loan to Eastman Kodak - the camera company - so it can manufacture pharmaceutical ingredients.
This is the first investment made by the US International Development Finance Corporation, a foreign investment agency that Trump has assigned to work with the Defense Department to build up the national stockpile of medical supplies.
This is the first step in “creating the greatest medical arsenal in history” the president said. He said the Kodak will create 360 new jobs in Rochester, New York.
In May, Trump signed an executive order that gave the DFC the authority to provide loans from funds that Congress’ CARES Act allocated to prop up the Defense Production Act. The House appropriations committee has asked the Government Accountability Office to review the impact of the DFC’s new powers. The agency’s mission has traditionally been to invest in economic development projects aboard, but Trump’s order has redirected the DFC boost manufacturing in the US.
“It’s a breakthrough in bringing pharmaceutical manufacturing back to the United States,” Trump said.
Donald Trump has begun his coronavirus briefing.
Per usual, he has started off by invoking a racist phrase to describe the coronavirus. We’re watching, and will blog any important updates, with context.
Updated
Russian operatives have been spreading disinformation about coronavirus, government officials told the AP:
Russian intelligence operatives are using a trio of English-language websites to spread disinformation about the coronavirus pandemic, seeking to exploit a crisis that America is struggling to contain ahead of the presidential election in November, U.S. officials said Tuesday.
Two Russians who have held senior roles in Moscow’s military intelligence service known as the GRU have been identified as responsible for a disinformation effort directed at American and Western audiences, U.S. government officials said. They spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
The information had previously been classified, but officials said it had been downgraded so they could more freely discuss it. Officials said they were doing so now to sound the alarm about the particular websites and to expose a connection between the sites and Russian intelligence.
Between late May and early July, one of the officials said, a trio of websites published about 150 articles about the pandemic response, including coverage aimed at propping up Russia and denigrating the U.S.
Among the headlines that caught the attention of U.S. officials are “Russia’s Counter COVID-19 Aid to America Advances Case for Détente,” which suggested that Russia had given urgent and substantial aid to the U.S. to fight the pandemic, and “Beijing Believes COVID-19 is a Biological Weapon.”
The disclosure comes as the spread of disinformation, including by Russia, is an urgent concern heading into November’s presidential election as U.S. officials look to avoid a repeat of the 2016 contest, when Russia launched a covert social media campaign to divide American public opinion to favor then-candidate Donald Trump. The country’s chief counterintelligence official warned in a public statement Friday about Russia’s continued use of internet trolls to advance their goals.
Even apart from politics, the twin crises buffeting the country and much of the world — the pandemic and race relations and protests — have offered fertile territory for misinformation or outfight falsehoods.
Officials described the disinformation as part of an ongoing and persistent Russian effort to cause confusion. They did not say whether the effort was directly related to the November election, though some of the coverage on the websites appeared to denigrate Trump’s Democratic challenger, Joe Biden. The stories call to mind Russian efforts from 2016 to exacerbate race relations in America and drive corruption allegations against U.S. political figures.
Brady Pac: Poll shows growing support for gun safety in battleground states
A new survey of four battleground states has found that more voters support stricter gun laws than maintaining the status quo, and majorities in each state support specific proposals.
The Brady Pac, the political arm of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, polled the issue in Iowa, North Carolina, Texas and Colorado, all states with competitive Senate races and a strong culture of gun ownership. The polling, shared first with The Guardian, found that roughly half of voters in these states believe gun laws should be “more strict”. In all states, more voters prioritize “reducing gun violence” over “protecting the rights of gun owners.”
Gun sales have spiked since the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic, amid widespread economic and political uncertainty.
The survey found that suburban women, a critical constituency that helped Democrats take the control of the House in 2018, strongly support stronger gun laws. In North Carolina, a state Democrats haven’t captured since the 2008 presidential election, 71% of suburban women said they supported stricter gun laws. Gun control was a top issue for suburban women in 2018.
The results match similar surveys that have found growing support for gun control broadly, a concept that once polled at lower levels than individual gun safety proposals, such as requiring safe storage and banning high-capacity ammunition.
This also follows a survey commissioned by Everytown for Gun Safety that found messaging around gun-safety was among the most effective in persuading swing voters to support the Democratic nominee Joe Biden in 13 battleground states.
Taken together, the polling suggest gun control may not only be an important issue in 2020, but that it could be a decisive issue for a number of swing voters in battleground states that will decide control of the Senate and the White House.
Whether or not Donald Trump wins re-election in November, Maryland’s governor, Larry Hogan, predicts the Republican party will finally do some soul searching.
That’s the core of the thinking behind Hogan, a popular two-term Republican governor in a reliably Democratic state, strongly floating the idea of running for president himself.
“A big part of what I’ve been focusing on for six years is a kind of a bigger tent message and avoiding the divisive rhetoric and avoiding the extremes of either party,” Hogan told the Guardian.
“That’s why I’ve been so successful as a Republican in one of the bluest states in the country and have had the ability to reach a lot of swing voters and constituencies that Republicans have had a [hard] time reaching.”
Today so far
That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Maanvi Singh, will take over the blog for the next few hours.
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- Attorney general William Barr testified before the House judiciary committee. During the hearing, Barr struggled over a question about whether presidents should be allowed to solicit or accept foreign assistance in elections, and he said he did not believe that there is systemic racism in US police departments.
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Joe Biden criticized Trump for sending federal agents to crack down on anti-racism protests in Portland, Oregon. “This isn’t about law and order. It’s about a political strategy to revive a failing campaign,” the Democratic presidential candidate said in Wilmington, Delaware. “Every instinct Trump has is to add fuel to the fire. And it’s the last thing, the last thing we need.”
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The Trump administration will allow “dreamers” to renew deportation protections for a year, after the supreme court blocked the administration’s effort to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. However, the acting homeland security secretary also announced that the department would not accpet new DACA applications.
- The American Federation of Teachers has authorized “safety strikes” if necessary to protect teachers from coronavirus. The announcement comes as number of school districts in coronavirus hot spots are pushing to reopen schools, despite concerns about the spread of the virus in classrooms.
- Twitter temporarily restricted Donald Trump Jr’s account for spreading false claims about coronavirus. The president’s son shared a video of a doctor falsely claiming that the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine is a “cure” for coronavirus.
Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
A CBS News reporter asked Joe Biden if he is running for president specifically to defeat Trump or to enact his own policy agenda.
“I’m running because Trump is the president, and I think our democracy’s at stake, for real,” Biden replied.
The Democratic candidate acknowledged that many American voters consider him to be “the antithesis of Trump,” and he agrees with that assessment.
A number of polls indicate a substantial portion of Biden’s supporters view their votes for the Democrat to be more so votes against Trump, but as Biden’s answer indicates, that is also how he has structured much of his campaign pitch.
Joe Biden criticized the Trump campaign’s efforts to instill fear in Americans about the alleged dangers of a Democratic administration.
The Trump campaign has run anti-Biden ads featuring a 911 call going unanswered, as the president falsely accuses his Democratic opponent of supporting the movement to defund the police.
Biden said Trump was trying to craft a “bizarre law and order” campaign message in order to “try to scare the devil out of the American people.”
Joe Biden is taking reporters’ questions in Wilmington, and the first question was unsurprisingly about his vice presidential selection process.
A CNN reporter asked Biden whether he still intended to announce his choice of running mate in early August, as he previously indicated.
“I’m going to have a choice in the first week in August,” Biden said. “And I promise, I’ll let you know when I do.” When asked whether he would be able to meet with his running mate in person considering concerns about coronavirus, Biden said, “We’ll see.”
Biden has pledged to choose a woman as his running mate, and California senator Kamala Harris is widely considered the frontrunner at the moment.
But the former vice president is also hosting a virtual fundraiser with senator Elizabeth Warren on Friday, and he was seen speaking to congresswoman Karen Bass yesterday.
Updated
Biden says Trump's divisiveness is 'the last thing we need'
Joe Biden is now delivering remarks about the fourth plank of his “Build Back Better” economic recovery plan in Wilmington, Delaware.
The Democratic presidential candidate opened his remarks by noting he spoke to John Lewis in the final days of the civil rights icon’s life.
Biden called on the Senate to pass the Voting Rights Act in order to honor the legacy of Lewis, who is lying in state at the US Capitol today.
The Senate and this President should pass the bill to restore the Voting Rights Act — renamed yesterday in memory of John Lewis.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 28, 2020
If they don’t, it will be one of the first things I do as president.
Biden then moved on to sharply criticizing Trump for his decision to send federal agents to Portland, Oregon, to crack down on recent protests against racism and police brutality.
“This isn’t about law and order,” Biden said, referencing the catchphrase Trump frequently uses to condemn the protesters. “It’s about a political strategy to revive a failing campaign.”
Biden added, “Every instinct Trump has is to add fuel to the fire. And it’s the last thing, the last thing we need.”
Moments ago at the House judiciary committee hearing, Democratic congresswoman Pramila Jayapal accused attorney general William Barr of setting a double standard for protesters based on political ideology.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal says Barr targets Black Lives Matter protesters: "When White men with swastikas storm a government building with guns, there is no need for the president to activate you, because they're getting the president's personal agenda done" https://t.co/QNv3edq3dI pic.twitter.com/Q8oUwwPkHi
— CBS News (@CBSNews) July 28, 2020
Jayapal noted Trump previously threatened to “activate” Barr to “dominate” the protesters who have marched against racism and police brutality since the killing of George Floyd.
Yet the president did not pledge similar action when Democratic governor Gretchen Whitmer was facing threats over her coronavirus shutdown order, Jayapal noted. Some of those anti-shutdown protesters swarmed the Michigan capitol with guns.
“When white men with swastikas storm a government building with guns, there is no need for the president to ‘activate’ you, because they’re getting the president’s personal agenda done,” Jayapal said.
“But when black people and people of color protest police brutality, systemic racism and the president’s very own lack of response to those critical issues, then you forcibly remove them with armed federal officers [and] pepper bombs because they are considered terrorists by the president.”
Barr indicated he was not aware of the threats against Whitmer. “There are a lot of protests around the United States,” Barr said.
But Jayapal noted Barr was “very aware” of certain protests in the country, such as those taking place in Portland, Oregon. Barr has defended the actions of federal agents in Portland by arguing they are protecting a federal courthouse in the city.
However, it’s worth noting the anti-shutdown protests in Michigan that Jayapal mentioned took place across the street from the Charles E Chamberlain federal building, raising questions about why those demonstrations didn’t cause similar concern for Barr.
According to the Washington Post, the White House insisted on the money for the new FBI headquarters being included in the next coronavirus relief bill.
The Post reports:
When the White House first proposed inserting money on the FBI building in the legislation and conditioning it on keeping the headquarters in Washington, Republican lawmakers blocked it from being in the bill, people familiar with the discussions said. But White House officials persisted in demanding the money and it ended up back in the legislation.
Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has now said he would move to strip the provision out of the relief bill after Democratic senators speculated that the proposal was meant to benefit the president’s business.
Over in the Senate, majority leader Mitch McConnell said he is opposed to including money for the new FBI headquarters in the next coronavirus relief bill.
A draft of the Republican relief bill includes $1.75 billion for a new FBI headquarters in Washington, which has been a priority for Trump since he took office.
Before the president’s inauguration, the FBI planned to move its headquarters to the DC suburbs, which would open up a large piece of real estate near Trump’s Washington hotel.
Democrats have accused Trump of trying to block the FBI from moving its headquarters in order to prevent other hotel companies from buying the property and thus creating competition for his company.
The GOP bill cuts unemployment checks & doesn’t extend the eviction moratorium, but it does spend $1.75B to conveniently help stop a new hotel from being built a block away from the Trump Hotel.
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) July 28, 2020
This bill doesn’t help struggling families. It helps Trump. https://t.co/SckYRrbRN2
Republicans expressed surprise that the unrelated proposal was included in the coronavirus relief bill. “That smells like a kind of strange addition,” Republican senator Ron Johnson said.
McConnell has now said he wants extraneous items, including the money for the FBI headquarters, stripped from the bill.
After attorney general William Barr stumbled over a question about soliciting foreign election assistance, a commissioner of the Federal Election Commission weighed in on the issue.
I would not have thought that I would need to keep saying this. pic.twitter.com/T743CsXq79
— Ellen L 😷 Weintraub (@EllenLWeintraub) July 28, 2020
FEC commissioner Ellen Weintraub reshared a memo from June of last year condemning foreign assistance, saying of the memo, “I would not have thought that I would need to keep saying this.”
Weintraub’s memo reads in part, “Let me make something 100% clear to the American public and anyone running for public office: It is illegal for any person to solicit, accept, or receive anything of value from a foreign national in connection with a U.S. election.”
Barr acknowledges it's not appropriate for president to accept foreign election assistance
Over at the House judiciary committee hearing, attorney general William Barr had another tense exchange with a Democratic member of the panel.
Congressman David Cicilline noted that the Republican-led Senate intelligence committee concluded Russia interfered in the 2016 US elections, and Barr said he agreed with that conclusion.
.@davidcicilline: Is it ever appropriate for a president to accept foreign assistance in an election?
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 28, 2020
BARR: ... it depends on the assistance pic.twitter.com/6SvFmfUazB
Cicilline then asked Barr, “Is it ever appropriate, sir, for the president to solicit or accept foreign assistance in an election?”
After a pause, Barr responded, “It depends what kind of assistance.”
That answer was notable considering Trump was impeached by the House over allegations that he attempted to pressure Ukraine to intervene in the 2020 presidential race to benefit his reelection bid.
Cicilline repeated, “Is it ever appropriate for the president or presidential candidate to accept or solicit foreign assistance of any kind in his or her election?”
Barr then acknowledged, “No, it’s not appropriate.”
Acting homeland security secretary Chad Wolf confirmed in a statement that DACA recipients would be allowed to renew deportation protections for one year.
“As the Department continues looking at the policy and considers future action, the fact remains that Congress should act on this matter,” Wolf said. “There are important policy reasons that may warrant the full rescission of the DACA policy.”
The statement said the department would not consider new DACA applications but would “limit the period of renewed deferred action granted pursuant to the DACA policy after the issuance of this memorandum to one year.”
The policy guarantees DACA will remain in place until after the presidential election in November.
Trump administration to allow 'dreamers' to extend deportation protections for a year - report
The Trump administration reportedly plans to allow “dreamers” to extend deportation protections for a year as the federal government seeks to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
The news comes a month after the supreme court blocked the administration’s effort to end the Obama-era program.
Reuters reports:
The administration is preparing a fresh attempt to end the program that shields from deportation hundreds of thousands of immigrants living in the United States illegally after entering as children - a group often called ‘Dreamers.’ ...
The administration plans to continue its existing policy of not accepting new DACA applicants, a policy in place since 2017, [a senior administration official] told Reuters. But the administration will extend the eligibility by a year for those DACA immigrants whose protection from deportation was due to expire, as long as they do not have a criminal record, the official said.
‘For anyone who refiles, if they are eligible and were set to expire, we will renew them on a case by case basis into the next year for an extension,’ the official said.
That policy would allow DACA to remain in place until after the November election. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has vowed to make the program permanent if he is elected.
Attorney general William Barr claimed he does not read the president’s tweets, during a tense exchange about Trump’s commutation of Roger Stone’s sentence.
Democratic congressman Eric Swalwell asked Barr if he was investigating the commutation. When Barr said no, Swalwell asked, “Why not?”
Barr replied, “Why should I?”
After Barr says he doesn't read Trump's incriminating tweets, @RepSwalwell tells him, "there's a lot of evidence in the president's tweets ... you should read them." pic.twitter.com/wRGe1wF3sl
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 28, 2020
Swalwell went on to recount some of the events surrounding Stone’s conviction and eventual commutation. The congressman quoted a Trump tweet from December 2018, in which the president said Stone had “shown guts” by not testifying against him.
Barr said he was not familiar with the tweet.
“You don’t read the president’s tweets?” Swalwell asked.
“No,” Barr responded.
Swalwell replied, “Well, there’s a lot of evidence in the president’s tweets, Mr Attorney General. I think you should start reading them.”
Barr is clearly familiar with at least some of Trump’s tweets because he said earlier this year that the president should stop tweeting about the justice department because it makes it “impossible for me to do my job.”
Florida reports highest single-day Covid death toll
Florida has reported its highest single-day death toll from Covid-19 since the pandemic began, with 186 deaths reported, bringing total deaths in the state to 6,117. The state health department has also confirmed 9,230 new cases, bringing the state’s known total to 441,977.
The way Florida collects statistics means the 186 deaths reported on Tuesday did not necessarily all happen on Monday.
According to Johns Hopkins University, more than 4.3m cases and more than 148,000 deaths have been recorded in the US as a whole. That source puts Florida second in total cases confirmed, behind California, an early hotspot now experiencing a resurgence.
Under Governor Ron DeSantis, known to some as “mini Trump”, Florida is among largely Republican-led southern and western states which sought to reopen their economies over the Memorial Day weekend in late May and which are now struggling to cope.
Late last week Dr Mark Supino of Jackson Memorial Hospital’s emergency department, in Miami, told the Guardian: “The last three weeks have been some of the busiest shifts in my entire life. We’ve seen some of the sickest patients we’ve ever seen.”
Florida has lost the Republican national convention but its governor has insisted it remains open for business:
“We’re not going to restrict the businesses,” DeSantis said last Thursday.
As the presidential election approaches, most national and battleground state polling has shown growing disapproval for Donald Trump’s handling of the pandemic. Polling averages for Florida show Joe Biden with a healthy lead.
Updated
Today so far
The House judiciary committee hearing with attorney general William Barr has now resumed after a very brief recess.
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- Barr said he does not generally believe there is systemic racism in US police departments. Under questioning from Democratic congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, Barr said, “I don’t agree there is systemic racism in police departments generally in this country.”
- The American Federation of Teachers has authorized “safety strikes” if necessary to protect teachers from coronavirus. The announcement comes as number of school districts in coronavirus hot spots are pushing to reopen schools, despite concerns about the spread of the virus in classrooms.
- Twitter temporarily restricted Donald Trump Jr’s account for spreading false claims about coronavirus. The president’s son shared a video of a doctor falsely claiming that the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine is a “cure” for coronavirus.
The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
Updated
The Guardian’s Sam Levine reports:
Senate Republicans did not allocate any money in the latest Covid-19 relief bill to support election officials as they prepare to run an unprecedented election this fall.
States need at least $4bn to upgrade their systems, according to an estimate to the Brennan Center for Justice. Congress has allocated just $400m, so far.
There have been widespread and bipartisan calls for federal assistance to local election officials, who are grappling with how they can accommodate expected high turnout in the presidential election.
More Americans are expected to vote by mail this year because of the coronavirus pandemic, and election officials in states that typically do not see widespread absentee voting are figuring out how they can scale up their systems to process ballot requests as well as ballots themselves.
During the primaries, voters in many states have seen severe delays in getting their ballots as local election offices, in some cases staffed by just a few full-time employees, have been crushed by the surge of requests.
“The Senate proposal is an insult to the lives we have lost to this global pandemic and to those who continue to suffer. It is a morally deficient response that does not support our most marginalized communities and protect our democratic institutions,” Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, which has lobbied for more support for mail-in voting, said in a statement.
Covid-19 is also forcing election officials to find poll workers and places for polling stations as the people who usually serve - and tend to skew older - and locations drop out because of the virus. Tina Barton, an election official in Rochester Hills, Michigan, told the Guardian last week she was “begging” people to work the polls and had recently spent $2,000 on an advertisement encouraging people to sign up to be poll workers.
Senator Amy Klobuchar, who has led a push for expansion of vote by mail in recent weeks, also criticized the Republican proposal, describing it as an “outrage.”
Alert: Proposed Republican alternative to Heroes Act has NO $ to help states w/huge influx of mail-in ballots & early voting. There’s bipartisan support & Republican Govs & Election officials support funding. Call Republican senators. This is an outrage.
— Amy Klobuchar (@amyklobuchar) July 28, 2020
Moments ago, attorney general William Barr defended his widely criticized handling of criminal cases involving the president’s former associates, such as Michael Flynn and Roger Stone.
“I agree the president’s friends don’t deserve special breaks, but they also don’t deserve to be treated more harshly than other people,” Barr said.
However, as a Washington Post reporter noted, it would be difficult if not impossible to think of another instance when the justice department moved to dismiss charges against someone who had twice pleaded guilty, as happened in the case of Flynn.
Barr said he believes President's friends "don't deserve special breaks, but they also don't deserve to be treated more harshly."
— Greg Miller (@gregpmiller) July 28, 2020
If so, he ought to be able to point to other cases besides Flynn where DOJ moved to abandon prosecution of someone who twice pleaded guilty.
Barr: 'I don’t agree there is systemic racism in police departments'
Attorney general Wiliam Barr said he does not generally believe there is systemic racism in US police departments.
Democratic congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas questioned Barr on whether he considered the killing of George Floyd to be indicative of a systemic problem in policing.
Amid crosstalk between Lee and Barr, the attorney general said, “I don’t agree there is systemic racism in police departments generally in this country.”
Barr also noted he is opposed to eliminating qualified immunity, which protects police officers from being held legally liable in civil court for misconduct.
AFT authorizes 'safety strikes' if necessary to protect teachers
The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) has authorized local teachers unions to conduct “safety strikes” as a last resort, if local officials do not meet safety criteria to protect teachers from coronavirus.
School districts are being pushed to open, even in areas where the coronavirus outbreak is severe, such as Florida.
The authorization will give local unions another bargaining chip as school districts across the Sun Belt – where Covid-19 is spreading widely – are scheduled to open in early to mid-August.
“Let’s be clear,” president of the AFT Randi Weingarten told delegates at the union’s annual conference, which is being held online this year. “Just as we have done with our healthcare workers, we will fight on all fronts for the safety of our students and their educators. But if the authorities don’t get it right, and they don’t protect the safety and health of those we represent and those we serve, nothing is off the table — not advocacy or protests, negotiations, grievances or lawsuits, or, if necessary as a last resort, safety strikes.”
The 1.7 million-member union represents both teachers and nurses across the country, and it is the nation’s second-largest union for educators.
This month, in an exclusive interview with the Guardian, Weingarten said, “It’s as if Trump and [education secretary Betsy] DeVos want to create chaos and want to jeopardize reopening. ... There’s no other reason why they would be this reckless, this callous, this cruel”.
The union has pushed Congress to fund billions in safety upgrades for schools to improve ventilations and provide personal protective equipment, among other safeguards. Among the union’s demands: mandatory masks for teachers and students, enhanced cleaning regiments, and smaller class sizes to enforce social distancing measures.
House judiciary committee chairman Jerry Nadler pressed attorney general William Barr on whether he had ever discussed the presidential election with Trump or one of his advisers.
An evasive Bill Barr admits he's discussed Trump's reelection campaign with the president pic.twitter.com/2HkCfxMzsR
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 28, 2020
“I’m not going to get into my discussions with the president,” Barr replied. The attorney general noted he and Trump had not discussed the election in relation to the justice department program that Barr was focused on during today’s hearing.
When asked whether he has discussed the election generally with the president or one of his advisers, Barr said, “I’m a member of the cabinet, and there’s an election going on. Obviously the topic comes up.”
He added, “The topic comes up in cabinet meetings and other things. It shouldn’t be a surprise that the topic of the election comes up.”
Nadler responded, “I didn’t say I was surprised. I just asked if you’d done that.”
The Democratic chairman succeeded in getting Barr to admit he had discussed the election, but Daniel Goldman, the former impeachment counsel for House Democrats, said Nadler’s line of questioning was “ineffective.”
Ineffective opening line of questioning by @RepJerryNadler.
— Daniel Goldman (@danielsgoldman) July 28, 2020
Barr bemoans the 'demonization of police' following Floyd's killing
In his opening statement, attorney general William Barr acknowledged incidents of racism against African Americans but declined to characterize such events as the consequence of systemic raicsm.
Barr said the death of George Floyd, who was killed after a white police officer kept his knee on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes, had “understandably jarred the whole country and forced us to reflect on longstanding issues in our nation.”
But the attorney general added, “At the same time, I think it would be an oversimplification to treat the problem as rooted in some deep-seated racism generally infecting our police departments. It seems far more likely that the problem stems from a complex mix of factors, which can be addressed with focused attention over time.”
Barr went on to criticize the “violent rioters and anarchists [who] have hijacked legitimate protests to wreak senseless havoc and destruction on innocent victims,” echoing Trump’s words about the protesters who have been marching against racism and police brutality since the killing of Floyd.
“The demonization of police is not only unfair and inconsistent with the principle that all people should be treated as individuals, but gravely injurious to our inner city communities,” Barr said. “There is no harder job in America today than being a police officer.”
Interestingly, Barr skipped a section of his prepared remarks released last night, which bemoaned “the grave abuses involved in the bogus ‘Russiagate’ scandal.”
After Republican congressman Jim Jordan’s lengthy video of recent protests concluded, Democratic chairman Jerry Nadler quipped, “Well, I hope that Mr Jordan will never complain about the length of my opening statement.”
Nadler then noted Jordan did not give the committee the required 48-hour notice about audiovisual aids used during hearings.
With that, Nadler swore in attorney general William Barr, about 35 minutes after the start of the hearing.
Congressman Jim Jordan, the top Republican on the House judiciary committee, used his opening statement to criticize the origins of the justice department’s Russia investigation.
“Spying. That one word, that’s why they’re after you, Mr Attorney General,” Jordan said to William Barr.
He went on to go through a now-familiar list of complaints about the justice department’s handling of the investigation.
Jordan then played a lengthy video of recent protests against racism and police brutality, meant to justify the deployment of federal troops to Democratic-controlled cities.
Updated
Nadler accuses Barr of having 'aided and abetted the worst failings' of Trump
House judiciary committee chairman Jerry Nadler used his opening statement to thoroughly rebuke attorney general William Barr for his leadership of the justice department.
“Your tenure has been marked by a persistent war against the department’s professional core in an apparent attempt to secure favors for the president,” Nadler said.
The Democratic chairman outlined several examples of this “war,” specifically criticizing Barr for “actively seeking out conflict with American citizens” who are protesting for civil rights.
The hearing comes as Trump’s administration continues to receive criticism for sending federal troops to crack down on anti-racism protests in Portland, Oregon.
“In your time at the department, you have aided and abetted the worst failings of this president,” Nadler said.
Updated
House judiciary committee hearing with Barr begins
The House judiciary committee hearing featuring testimony from attorney general William Barr has now started.
House judiciary committee chairman Jerry Nadler gaveled in the hearing and confirmed the event was slightly delayed because of his “minor car accident” this morning.
“Everyone is fine, except perhaps the car, but it did cause significant delay,” Nadler joked.
Nadler noted this marks Barr’s first House testimony since becoming Trump’s attorney general early last year.
The hearing on oversight of the justice department is expected to include Democrats grilling Barr on the forcible removal of peaceful protesters from Lafayette Square last month and last month’s firing of the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan.
Barr arrives on Capitol Hill to testify
Attorney general William Barr has arrived on Capitol Hill to testify before the House judiciary committee.
AG Barr has arrived pic.twitter.com/i0Nw3s7Tdx
— Olivia Beavers (@Olivia_Beavers) July 28, 2020
The hearing was originally scheduled to begin at 10am ET, but it was slightly delayed after judiciary committee chairman Jerry Nadler was in a minor car accident. (Nadler was not driving and not injured, his spokesperson said.)
Barr’s opening remarks, which were released last night, indicate he intends to come out swinging against Democrats, who are expected to press him on the forcible removal of peaceful protesters from Lafayette Square near the White House last month.
Democratic members of the committee are also likely to ask Barr about last month’s firing of the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan.
In his prepared opening remarks, Barr says, “Ever since I made it clear that I was going to do everything I could to get to the bottom of the grave abuses involved in the bogus ‘Russiagate’ scandal, many of the Democrats on this Committee have attempted to discredit me by conjuring up a narrative that I am simply the President’s factotum who disposes of criminal cases according to his instructions.”
This hearing marks Barr’s first appearance before the House judicary committee since becoming Trump’s attorney general in February of last year.
Updated
Twitter’s communications team reiterated that it has not permanently suspended Donald Trump Jr’s account after the president’s son shared false information about coronavirus.
The Twitter team said in a tweet, “This account has not been permanently suspended. Per the screenshot, the Tweet requires deletion because it violates our rules (sharing misinformation on COVID-19), and the account will have limited functionality for 12 hours.”
This account has not been permanently suspended. Per the screenshot, the Tweet requires deletion because it violates our rules (sharing misinformation on COVID-19), and the account will have limited functionality for 12 hours. More in our rules: https://t.co/0wHWVV5QS4 https://t.co/0gq7rlaNw7
— Twitter Comms (@TwitterComms) July 28, 2020
Donald Trump Jr’s Twitter account was restricted after he reshared a video of Dr Stella Immanuel, who has made a number of baseless claims about coronavirus.
Immanuel has hailed hydroxychloroquine as a “cure” for coronavirus, even though the anti-malaria drug has not been found to be an effective treatment against the virus.
The Houston doctor has also dismissed mounting evidence that face masks substantially help to limit the spread of coronavirus.
The Daily Beast has more on Immanuel:
Immanuel, a pediatrician and a religious minister, has a history of making bizarre claims about medical topics and other issues. She has often claimed that gynecological problems like cysts and endometriosis are in fact caused by people having sex in their dreams with demons and witches.
She alleges alien DNA is currently used in medical treatments, and that scientists are cooking up a vaccine to prevent people from being religious. And, despite appearing in Washington, D.C. to lobby Congress on Monday, she has said that the government is run in part not by humans but by ‘reptilians’ and other aliens.
According to a New York Times reporter, Twitter quibbled with the characterization that it had “suspended” Donald Trump Jr’s account.
The social media giant said it had only required the president’s son to delete a tweet with false claims about coronavirus and limited some account features for 12 hours.
Twitter disputed that it has "suspended" @DonaldJTrumpJr's account. Twitter says it just required his tweet with hydroxychloroquine misinformation to be deleted and would limit some account functionality for 12 hours. pic.twitter.com/QAcIHdxYat
— Davey Alba (@daveyalba) July 28, 2020
Twitter limits some of Donald Trump Jr's account features
Twitter limited some of Donald Trump Jr’s account features after the president’s son reshared false claims about the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as a coronavirus treatment.
According to a screenshot shared by an adviser to Trump, Twitter concluded that he had violated its policy on spreading “misleading and potentially harmful” information about coronavirus.
BREAKING: @Twitter & @jack have suspended @DonaldJTrumpJr for posting a viral video of medical doctors talking about Hydroxychloroquine.
— Andrew Surabian (@Surabees) July 28, 2020
Big Tech is the biggest threat to free expression in America today & they're continuing to engage in open election interference - full stop. pic.twitter.com/7dJbauq43O
The news comes after Trump shared a video of a doctor falsely touting hydroxychloroquine as a “cure” for coronavirus. The viral video, which was also retweeted by the president, was taken down by Twitter.
Hydroxychloroquine is not considered an effective treatment against coronavirus, and the Food and Drug Administration revoked its emergency use authorization as a potential treatment last month.
Dr Anthony Fauci said of the drug in an interview this morning, “The overwhelming prevailing clinical trials that have looked at the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine have indicated that it is not effective in coronavirus disease.”
Barr hearing slightly delayed due to Nadler's minor car accident - reports
Today’s House hearing with attorney general William Barr has reportedly been slightly delayed because judiciary committee chairman Jerry Nadler was in a minor car accident on his way from New York.
A spokesperson for Nadler told CNN the Democratic congressman was not driving and was not injured in the accident.
NEWS: Jerry Nadler was involved in a car accident this morning on his way to Washington, a Nadler spokesman said.
— Jeremy Herb (@jeremyherb) July 28, 2020
Nadler was not driving and was not hurt in the accident, the spox said. But the start of today's hearing with AG Barr is delayed as a result.
However, the incident has slightly delayed the hearing on justice department oversight, which was set to start in about 15 minutes at 10 am ET.
The hearing is now expected to begin at 10:45 am ET.
Updated
Trump to hold coronavirus briefing today
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany just announced Trump will hold a coronavirus briefing today at 5 pm ET.
🚨 President @realDonaldTrump will hold a briefing at 5PM today❗️
— Karoline Leavitt (@KLeavitt45) July 28, 2020
The president resumed the briefings last week, nearly three months after he suspended the daily events.
The initial decision to suspend the briefings came shortly after Trump dangerously suggested that Americans could protect themselves from coronavirus by ingesting disinfectants, prompting warnings from some state health officials not to do so.
In last week’s briefings, the president did not reiterate that false claim, and he strongly urged Americans to wear face masks after months of refusing to do so.
However, the president went on a Twitter spree last night that reshared false claims about the use of hydroxychloroquine as a coronavirus treatment.
Trump will almost certainly be asked about those claims today, so it should be a rather interesting briefing.
The Black Lives Matter mural painted outside Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan has been vandalized for at least the fourth time.
In the latest incident, Mark David Hutt, a 32-year-old resident of Rochester, New York, tossed white paint over part of the stencil and smeared it with his hands, according to the New York Police Department. Hutt was arrested and charged with criminal mischief.
Whilst the NYPD doesn’t track the number of times the mural has been defaced, three separate incidents have previously been reported. The mural, which lies outside the Trump Organization’s headquarters, was first vandalized about four days after it was painted on July 9. In that incident, red paint was used paint over V in “Lives.”
Donald Trump has called the words “Black Lives Matter” a “symbol of hate”. In a tweet before the sign was approved by New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, Trump said a “big, expensive, yellow Black Lives Matter sign” would be “denigrating [to] this luxury Avenue.”
The mayor responded: “Here’s what you don’t understand: Black people BUILT 5th Ave and so much of this nation. Your ‘luxury’ came from THEIR labor, for which they have never been justly compensated. We are honoring them. The fact that you see it as denigrating your street is the definition of racism.”
In his “Good Morning America” interview today, Dr Anthony Fauci also corrected false claims reshared by the president that the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine is a “cure” for coronavirus.
Dr. Anthony Fauci to @GStephanopoulos: “The overwhelming prevailing clinical trials that have looked at the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine have indicated that it is not effective in coronavirus disease.” https://t.co/JgCvhTifYS pic.twitter.com/bajYTh2kHW
— Good Morning America (@GMA) July 28, 2020
GMA host George Stephanopoulos noted the Food and Drug Administration revoked its emergency use authorization for hydroxychloroquine as a coronavirus treatment last month.
“I go along with the FDA,” Fauci said. “The overwhelming prevailing clinical trials that have looked at the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine have indicated that it is not effective in coronavirus disease.”
The infectious disease expert also made clear he does not pay too much attention to Trump’s Twitter feed, which was particularly active last night.
One tweet reshared by the president accused Fauci, the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, of having “misled the American public.”
Asked about the tweets this morning, Fauci said, “I don’t tweet. I don’t even read them, so I don’t really want to go there. I just will continue to do my job no matter what comes out because I think it’s very important.”
He later added, “I have not been misleading the American public under any circumstances.”
Trump launches defensive Twitter spree as coronavirus death toll approaches 150,000
Good morning, live blog readers, and greetings from Washington.
Donald Trump sent a flurry of tweets last night, resharing messages accusing Dr Anthony Fauci of misleading the country on coronavirus treatments and videos of a doctor falsely claiming that hydroxychloroquine is a “cure” for the virus.
“Dr. Fauci has misled the American public on many issues, but in particular, on dismissing #hydroxychloroquine and calling Remdesivir the new gold standard,” the retweet said.
Twitter later took down the videos of the doctor making false claims about hyroxychloroquine, citing their rules on spreading misinformation.
Trump’s defensive Twitter spree came as the US coronavirus death toll approaches 150,000. The country’s daily death toll has also recently been on the rise because of many states’ surges in new cases.
But public health experts, including Fauci, say they remain committed to educating the public about mitigating the spread of the virus, even as the president seems determined to downplay the severity of the threat.
When asked this morning by ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos how he can continue to do his job while the president undermines his credibility, Fauci replied, “You know, George, I don’t know how to address that. I’m just going to certainly continue doing my job.”
.@ABC NEWS EXCLUSIVE: Dr. Anthony Fauci speaks to @GStephanopoulos about his response to Pres. Trump’s tweets, how states can avoid COVID-19 surges and why he is “cautiously optimistic” about a vaccine. https://t.co/JgCvhTifYS pic.twitter.com/BOcoCbyrqa
— Good Morning America (@GMA) July 28, 2020
Here’s what else is happening today:
- Trump has no events on his public schedule, which should give him plenty more time to tweet.
- Joe Biden will speak in Wilmington, Delaware, about the fourth plank of his “Build Back Better” economic recovery plan for working families and how it will address systemic racism at 2.30 pm ET.
- Attorney general William Barr will testify at a House judiciary committee hearing on justice department oversight at 10 am ET.
The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
