Summary
Here’s a recap of the day, from me and Joan E Greve:
- Joe Biden had a 15-point lead over Donald Trump in the latest Quinnipiac national poll. Biden’s lead over Trump has widened since last month. As coronavirus cases surge across the state, voters were more likely to trust Biden to handle the pandemic and racial inequities.
- The Twitter accounts of Biden, Barack Obama, Bill Gates and other prominent public figures were compromised. The hacked accounts, promoted a classic bitcoin scam, asking followers to transfer cryptocurrency to a bitcoin wallet in exchange for double the money in return.
- Ruth Bader Ginsburg was discharged from Johns Hopkins hospital. The liberal supreme court justice was admitted to the hospital yesterday for treatment of a possible infection.
- Dr Anthony Fauci said the White House’s “bizarre” attacks on him only hurt the president. Fauci’s comments were published in the Atlantic a day after Trump’s senior trade adviser, Peter Navarro, wrote a USA Today op-ed raising doubts about the infectious disease expert’s credibility. Maryland’s Republican governor Larry Hogan called the efforts to discredit Fauci,
- The governor of Oklahoma announced he has tested positive for coronavirus. Despite his positive test result and the climbing number of cases in Oklahoma, Republican governor Kevin Stitt said he does not currently plan to roll back the state’s reopening or institute a statewide mask requirement.
-
The US once again saw a record number of new coronavirus cases in a single day. According to data compiled by Johns Hopkins, more than 67,000 new cases were reported yesterday. Since the start of the crisis, the US has confirmed 3,465,031 cases and recorded 136,940 deaths from the virus.
- Walmart announced it would require masks at all of its stores. The CEO of Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, said the new policy would take effect on Monday.
Maryland’s Republican governor, Larry Hogan, said the White House campaign to discredit Anthony Fauci is “absolutely outrageous”.
In an interview with ABC, Hogan said:
It’s one of the biggest mistakes, I think, that the administration has made throughout this entire coronavirus response, because Dr Fauci is, in my opinion, the most respected guy in the administration, and the voice of truth and reason throughout this pandemic.And there’s a number of mistakes that have been made, but I think sidelining him and trying to run this campaign to attack his credibility is one of their biggest mistakes so far.
Here’s Fauci defending himself against criticism from Trump and his allies:
Updated
Twitter issued a statement approximately 90 minutes after scam messages began being sent out by Elon Musk and Bill Gates’ accounts, as the attack was ongoing.
“We are aware of a security incident impacting accounts on Twitter,” the company said on Twitter. “We are investigating and taking steps to fix it. We will update everyone shortly.”
The hack likely targeted a vulnerability on Twitter’s end rather than by the individual account holders, said John Ozbay, the chief executive of privacy and security tool Cryptee. Most high-profile users likely engage two-factor authentication, Ozbay said, and the hackers appeared to have enough control over the compromised accounts to “pin” a tweet. That would not have been possible if a hacked account were being controlled by SMS, as occurred when the Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s own account was hijacked in 2019.
Schmidt said that the attacks could be related to the fact that Twitter, like much of the rest of the tech industry, has transitioned to remote work during the coronavirus pandemic.
“The likelihood of attacks like this increase when people are working remotely it is much easier for bad actors to impersonate someone through an email and gain access to their accounts,” said Schmidt. “Assuming this wasn’t someone inside Twitter trying to take revenge, it appears to be a spear phishing attack – someone who has access to admin privileges that can override two-factor authentication and strong passwords fell victim to a hack”.
Candace Valenzuela has won the Democratic primary in the Dallas suburbs, setting her up to become the first Afro-Latina member of the US Congress if she wins in November.
Valenzuela will face off against the Republican Beth Van Duyne in November, competing for a seat vacated by Kenny Marchant, a staunch conservative and founding member of the House Tea Party Caucus.
The district that Valenzuela wants to represent has been a Republican stronghold that progressives are hoping to flip this year. Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren and Georgia representative John Lewis, a civil rights icon, both backed her in the primaries.
Updated
Biden is leading by 15 points over Trump in new poll
Registered voters are backing Biden over Trump 52% to 37%, per a Quinnipiac national poll. Biden’s lead has increased since last month – in a poll released on 18 June, 49% backed Biden and 41% supported Trump.
Voters trusted Biden over Trump to handle a number of key issues, including the coronavirus crisis and racial inequality. Their disapproval of Trump is also growing. The economy was the only issue on which Trump had a positive rating in Quinnipiac polling but in this most recent tally, only 44% approved of Trump’s handling of the economy – last month that figure was 52%.
Updated
Barack Obama’s account also seems to have been affected.
They got the former president... pic.twitter.com/1KKkcoSWYE
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) July 15, 2020
From The Guardian’s Julia Carrie Wong:
The scam messages included the address of a bitcoin wallet whose balance grew rapidly to more than 11 BTC (more than $100,000) as the scam spread. Tweets with similar messages were repeatedly deleted and re-posted by some of the compromised accounts over the course of Wednesday afternoon
Updated
Twitter accounts of Biden and other prominent figures appear to have been hacked
The Twitter accounts of major public figures and corporations, including Joe Biden, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Apple appear to have been hacked as part of a bitcoin scam Wednesday. Twitter said it was looking into the situation.
The apparently compromised accounts, which count tens of millions of followers, sent a series of tweets proposing a classic scam: followers were told that if they transferred cryptocurrency to a specific bitcoin wallet, they would receive double the money in return.
Other compromised accounts include those of Kanye West, Michael Bloomberg, Uber, and a number of cryptocurrency exchanges or organizations
My colleague Vivian Ho reports from San Francisco:
California recorded its largest number of coronavirus infections in a single day on Tuesday, amid efforts to halt reopening statewide.
The state tallied 11,126 cases, the highest number since the pandemic began, according to the Los Angeles Times’ coronavirus data tracker. With testing throughout the state more readily available, an uptick in cases would be expected, but the positivity rates among test results has also been steadily increasing to 7.3% over the last seven days.
The number of positive cases has increased 3.3% in the past seven days and 47.2% in the past 14 days, according to state data. In total, the state has reported 347,634 cases since the pandemic started and seen 7,227 deaths. In the past 24 hours, there have been 140 new coronavirus-related deaths.
Hi there, it’s Maanvi Singh, reporting from the West Coast.
Donald Trump has wrapped up in Atlanta, where he announced changes to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), to speed the approval of federal projects like highways, mines and gas pipelines.
“Today’s action is part of my administration’s fierce commitment to slashing the web of needless bureaucracy that was holding back our citizens,” Trump said. He also used another opportunity to criticize Joe Biden, deriding what he painted as progressive Democratic environmental policies.
NEPA was signed into law by Richard Nixon in 1970. Trump’s rollback “drastically curtails environmental reviews for thousands of federal agency projects nationwide, a move that will weaken safeguards for air, water, wildlife and public lands,” the Center for Biological Diversity said, in reaction to the news.
Today so far
That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Maanvi Singh, will take over for the next few hours.
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- Ruth Bader Ginsburg was discharged from Johns Hopkins hospital. The liberal supreme court justice was admitted to the hospital yesterday for treatment of a possible infection.
- Dr Anthony Fauci said the White House’s “bizarre” attacks on him only hurt the president. Fauci’s comments were published in the Atlantic a day after Trump’s senior trade adviser, Peter Navarro, wrote a USA Today op-ed raising doubts about the infectious disease expert’s credibility.
- The governor of Oklahoma announced he has tested positive for coronavirus. Despite his positive test result and the climbing number of cases in Oklahoma, Republican governor Kevin Stitt said he does not currently plan to roll back the state’s reopening or institute a statewide mask requirement.
-
The US once again saw a record number of new coronavirus cases in a single day. According to data compiled by Johns Hopkins, more than 67,000 new cases were reported yesterday. Since the start of the crisis, the US has confirmed 3,465,031 cases and recorded 136,940 deaths from the virus.
- Walmart announced it would require masks at all of its stores. The CEO of Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, said the new policy would take effect on Monday.
Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
The vice president tweeted a photo of Dr Anthony Fauci, as the infectious disease expert weathers criticism from some of Trump’s advisers.
Mike Pence, who leads the White House coronavirus task force, shared a picture of the team meeting, with Fauci at the center of the photo.
“Productive meeting of the @WhiteHouse Coronavirus Task Force today,” Pence wrote in the tweet. “As we continue to put the health and well-being of the American people first, we are working closely with states to move forward, safely reopening our Nation and get Americans back to work.”
Productive meeting of the @WhiteHouse Coronavirus Task Force today. As we continue to put the health and well-being of the American people first, we are working closely with states to move forward, safely reopening our Nation and get Americans back to work. pic.twitter.com/WxsZwd8kiM
— Mike Pence (@Mike_Pence) July 15, 2020
The tweet comes a day after senior trade adviser Peter Navarro published an op-ed raising doubts about the credibility of Fauci, who has led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984.
Pence doubled down on his praise of Fauci in a call with reporters this afternoon, describing him as a “valued” member of the task force. “We couldn’t be more grateful for his steady counsel,” Pence said.
Ginsburg discharged from hospital
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been discharged from Johns Hopkins Hospital, a day after being admitted for treatment of a possible infection.
“Justice Ginsburg has been discharged from the hospital. She is home and doing well,” a spokesperson for the court said in a statement.
The court previously said Ginsburg was admitted to the hospital after experiencing a fever and chills and underwent a procedure to clean out a bile duct stent that was placed last year.
The 87-year-old liberal justice has had a number of medical issues in recent years, sparking concern that she may step down from the court and give Trump another seat to fill.
Asked yesterday about Ginsburg’s admission to the hospital, Trump said, “I wish her the best, I hope she’s better. ... She’s actually giving me some good rulings.”
Donald Trump did not wear a mask when he arrived in Atlanta earlier.
The president is in Georgia to talk about a further rollback in environmental regulations.
He was met by a group of greeters on the tarmac, only some of whom wore masks, reporters with the president reported.
After all the public health experts have said, and even leading Republicans in recent weeks, about the importance of wearing masks to prevent the spread of coronavirus, Trump and Republican governor Brian Kemp were very publicly not wearing masks.
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, third from left, greets Donald Trump at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta this afternoon. Photograph: Evan Vucci/AP
US representative Doug Collins and Senator Kelly Loeffler, both Republicans, wore masks. Loeffler and Collins are rivals for her Senate seat this November. Masks: his red, hers black. Again, no mask for Trump.
Updated
Oklahoma governor stands firm against mask mandate despite his own illness
More on Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt’s infection with coronavirus. These are his words earlier today after announcing that he had tested positive for Covid-19, the first US state governor to do so.
“I just want to take a minute to remind Oklahomans, Covid-19 is still in the United States, it’s still in Oklahoma,” Stitt said. “We need to take this virus very seriously. We need to come together and make sure each one of us is doing the best we can to slow the spread.”
But he said he’s “not thinking about a mask mandate at all,” and referred to “plenty of runway” in terms of hospital beds available and medical equipment resources.
Stitt doesn’t believe he became infected at Donald Trump’s indoor rally in Tulsa on June 20, where he sat among leading state officials in a crowd of more than 6,000 at an arena in the city, without wearing a mask and with no suggestion of social distancing.
He thinks the event was “too long ago” for it to have been the source of his case and he didn’t think the virus could be dormant for that long “based on the science.”
“It’s too long ago. It wasn’t that,” said Oklahoma Commissioner of Health Lance Frye, adding it was “unknown” where the governor was infected, according to a local media report.
Earlier this month Tulsa’s top health department official said that it was “more than likely” the large gatherings in the last few weeks – including Trump’s rally and protests – added to a record number of cases in Oklahoma.
Fauci says US needs to "stop nonsense" of federal response to pandemic
Anthony Fauci, the senior public health expert on the White House coronavirus task force, says that the US needs to focus from the federal level on getting the virus now surging in the south and west under control “rather than these games people are playing.”
Fauci has been speaking out every day this week in prestigious online settings, in the face of opposition from the White House and reportedly being kept from doing TV interviews.
“We’ve got to almost reset this and say, ‘Okay, let’s stop this nonsense,’ ” he said in an interview with the Atlantic today when he was asked to describe “the truth about the federal response to the pandemic”.
Fauci added, in his very common sense way: “We’ve got to figure out, ‘How can we get our control over this now, and, looking forward, how can we make sure that next month, we don’t have another example of California, Texas, Florida, and Arizona?’”
The US currently has a total of 3.4 million confirmed coronavirus cases and is about to cross the threshold of 137,000 deaths.
The country his another record with 67,000 new cases in a day yesterday. Florida alone had another 10k day.
Trump is now showing his support for Goya Foods on Instagram, as the company faces a boycott after its CEO praised the president at a recent White House event.
Trump shared a picture of himself in the Oval Office, flashing two thumbs up while displaying several Goya products on the Resolute Desk.
Earlier today, the president claimed in a tweet that Goya, the largest Hispanic-owned food company in the US, was financially benefitting from the boycott.
That tweet came a day after Trump’s daughter and senior adviser, Ivanka Trump, showed her support for the company by tweeting a photo of herself with a can of Goya beans. She captioned the photo with Goya’s slogan in English and Spanish: “If it’s Goya, it has to be good. Si es Goya, tiene que ser bueno.”
If it’s Goya, it has to be good.
— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) July 15, 2020
Si es Goya, tiene que ser bueno. pic.twitter.com/9tjVrfmo9z
Ethics experts said Ivanka Trump’s photo violated government rules prohibiting officials from using their public office to endorse products or advance their personal financial interests.
The White House angrily dismissed those accusations, with a spokesperson blaming the uproar on “the media & the cancel culture movement.”
Ivanka is proud of this strong, Hispanic-owned business with deep roots in the U.S. and has every right to express her personal support.
— Carolina Hurley (@CLH45) July 15, 2020
Trump in Atlanta this afternoon will announce a weakening of regulations that require environmental reviews and community consultations for major projects -- like pipelines and highways.
Trump plans to visit UPS Inc.’s airport hub, where he will back the widening of commercial truck lanes on Interstate Highway 75. The White House said projects like the expansion would have taken seven years to permit and now should take less than two years.
The White House Council on Environmental Quality is finalizing the changes to reviews under the landmark National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which Republican President Richard Nixon signed into law in 1970. The new rules are expected to reduce the number of projects subject to review, narrow the scope of reviews and exclude effects related to climate change from being considered significant.
Greenpeace USA senior climate campaigner Lisa Ramsden said “the Trump administration’s anti-environment agenda is a racist agenda,” and “dismantling NEPA is a blatant attempt to silence the working class communities of color who are resisting the expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure into their communities.”
The American Petroleum Institute, the trade group for oil and gas companies, said the changes will “jumpstart not only the modernized pipeline infrastructure we need to deliver cleaner fuels but highways, bridges and renewable energy.”
CDC director urges younger people to wear face coverings
Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), last night warned that this fall and winter will be ‘one of the most difficult times we’ve experienced in American public health’, as the coronavirus pandemic continues out of control in the US.
Federal public health experts are trying mightily get their warnings and advice out to the public in the face of counter-briefing by White House insiders and the misinformation that is spread by Donald Trump.
Here is today’s plain message from Redfield.
I believe if everyone, including #Millenials and #GenZ, wear a cloth face covering for the next 4 to 6 weeks, we can get the #COVID19 epidemic under control. https://t.co/UDB7FWsIrK
— Dr. Robert R. Redfield (@CDCDirector) July 15, 2020
Top public health expert on the White House coronavirus task force, Anthony Fauci, also gave a special warning to younger people yesterday about the risks they pose to themselves and others by being in any way blasé about Covid-19.
Fauci is battling his own side, ie his boss, as well as the virus.
Trump chastised his trade adviser, Peter Navarro, for writing an op-ed criticizing Dr Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert.
However, according to the LA Times, the president actively encouraged Navarro to write the op-ed, which raised doubts about Fauci’s credibility.
The LA Times reports:
[T]here’s little doubt that Navarro’s broadside reflected — and appealed to — the president’s own frustration with Fauci, who has not been invited to the Oval Office to brief Trump since early June and whose proposed television appearances often have been blocked by the White House.
According to one administration official, who was not authorized to speak on the record, Navarro had the president’s permission to write the column.
‘Not only was he authorized by Trump, he was encouraged,’ the official said.
Updated
Answering reporters’ questions at the White House, Trump once again sought to distance himself from trade adviser Peter Navarro’s op-ed criticizing Dr Anthony Fauci.
“We’re all on the same team, including Dr Fauci,” the president told reporters before leaving for Atlanta, Georgia.
Specifically asked about Navarro, Trump said, “Well, he made a statement representing himself. He shouldn’t be doing that. No, I have a very good relationship with Anthony.”
The president’s comments came as the Atlantic published a series of interviews with Fauci, in which the infectious disease expert said Navarro is “in a world by himself.”
Fauci: Trump hurts himself with efforts to discredit me
Dr Anthony Fauci criticized the White House’s “bizarre” efforts to discredit him in a newly published series of interviews with the Atlantic.
“Ultimately, it hurts the president to do that,” Fauci said. “When the staff lets out something like that and the entire scientific and press community push back on it, it ultimately hurts the president.”
The White House recently sent an unsigned memo casting Fauci’s past comments about coronavirus in a negative light, and trade adviser Peter Navarro wrote an op-ed yesterday raising doubts about the infectious disease expert’s credibility.
“I can’t explain Peter Navarro. He’s in a world by himself. So I don’t even want to go there,” Fauci told the Atlantic.
Asked about the White House’s efforts to undermine his credibility in the middle of a pandemic, Fauci said, “Well, that is a bit bizarre. I sit here and just shrug my shoulders and say, ‘Well, you know, that’s life in the fast lane.’”
Fauci said he stood by his past comments on coronavirus, which were highlighted in the White House memo.
“I stand by everything I said. Contextually, at the time I said it, it was absolutely true,” Fauci said. “[The White House document] is totally wrong. It’s nonsense. It’s completely wrong. The whole thing is wrong. The whole thing is incorrect.”
George Floyd’s family has filed a civil lawsuit against the city of Minneapolis and the police officers charged with his murder.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who has been representing the family, announced the lawsuit today, expressing hope that the action would help prevent future death’s like Floyd’s.
Attorney @AttorneyCrump files civil lawsuit against Minneapolis PD on behalf of #GeorgeFloyd’s family in hopes “police won’t kill marginalized people, especially black people in the future” calls police brutality against Black people a public health pandemic @MPRnews pic.twitter.com/oMq0Oexb0W
— Nina Moini (@ninamoini) July 15, 2020
Crump said in a statement announcing the news that the federal lawsuit was filed in the US District Court for the District of Minnesota.
“This complaint shows what we have said all along, that Mr. Floyd died because the weight of the entire Minneapolis Police Department was on his neck,” Crump said in the statement.
“The City of Minneapolis has a history of policies, procedures and deliberate indifference that violates the rights of arrestees, particularly Black men, and highlights the need for officer training and discipline.
“This is an unprecedented case, and with this lawsuit we seek to set a precedent that makes it financially prohibitive for police to wrongfully kill marginalized people -- especially Black people -- in the future.”
Poll shows Biden leading Trump by 13 points in Pennsylvania
A new poll shows Joe Biden leading Trump by double digits in Pennsylvania, which narrowly voted for the president in the 2016 election.
According to the new poll from Monmouth University, Biden has a 13-point lead over Trump with Pennsylvania’s registered voters.
PENNSYLVANIA VOTER POLL: #GeneralElection matchup
— MonmouthPoll (@MonmouthPoll) July 15, 2020
All registered voter:
53% @JoeBiden
40% @realDonaldTrump
Likely voters, high turnout:
52% Biden
42% Trump
Likely voters, low turnout:
51% Biden
44% Trumphttps://t.co/FxhQh9LjVP pic.twitter.com/HTGtCMlYyP
Among Pennsylvania’s likely voters, Biden is ahead by 7 to 10 points, depending on the level of voter turnout in the state.
Trump carried Pennsylvania by 0.7% in 2016, and Democrats have considered it a key pick-up state for Biden, who was born in Scranton.
With its 20 electoral votes, Pennsylvania is not nearly enough to singlehandedly determine the election, but the size of Biden’s margin in the swing state spells trouble for Trump’s overall standing in the race.
Today so far
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt tested positive for coronavirus, making him the first governor to contract the virus. That announcement came after the US set another record for new coronavirus cases in a single day, with more than 67,000 cases reported yesterday.
- The White House is distancing itself from Peter Navarro’s op-ed criticizing Dr Anthony Fauci. The president was asked moments ago about Navarro’s op-ed, which raised doubts about the credibility of Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert. “Well, that’s Peter Navarro,” Trump said of his trade adviser. “But I have a very good relationship with Dr Fauci.”
- Walmart announced it would require masks at all of its stores. The CEO of Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, said the new policy would take effect on Monday.
The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
Updated
New footage shows Floyd's last words were 'I can't breathe' - report
New body camera footage viewed by CNN shows George Floyd’s last words, said while a police officer kept his knee on Floyd’s neck, were, “I can’t breathe.”
CNN reports:
Floyd sobbed as officers initially began pulling him from the vehicle he was in, and at one point officer Derek Chauvin appears to lean into pressure applied to Floyd’s neck. Floyd’s last words, which were not seen in a previously released transcript, were, ‘I can’t breathe.’
The two videos viewed by CNN Wednesday begin as Minneapolis police officers Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng are seen responding to a call over a ‘fake bill’ being used at a local market.
Within 36 seconds after speaking with a store employee, the officers are at the door of the car George Floyd was in, yelling, ‘Put your f**king hands up right now!’ after an initial knock with a flashlight. Floyd pleads with officers while sobbing, at one point putting his head on the steering wheel.
Previously released transcripts of Floyd’s final moments showed he said “I can’t breathe” more than 20 times as Chauvin kept his knew on Floyd’s neck. Floyd also called out for his mother and his children before dying.
During the Oval Office event, Trump also said he would make an announcement next week on cities like Seattle and Chicago that are “out of control.”
Flanked by AG Barr, Pres says he's planning announcement next week on Federal action to quell violence in cities, citing Seattle, Minneapolis, Chicago. He says some cities "are like war zones," and makes it partisan, saying they're run by "liberal, left-wing Democrats." pic.twitter.com/MEPVVrk1Dq
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) July 15, 2020
“They’re like war zones,” Trump said of the cities, criticizing “liberal, left-wing Democrats” for failing to crack down on violence.
“We’re not going to put up with that. We’re not going to put up with that. So that’s for our next discussion,” Trump said.
However, as the president saw at the start of the George Floyd protests, he has limited power to send federal law enforcement officers to specific cities unless governors in those states request them.
If Trump tried to overrule local leaders, the policy would almost certainly be immediately challenged in court, making it unclear how the president plans to act against these “out of control” cities.
Trump distances himself from Navarro op-ed
Meanwhille, at the White House, Trump called reporters in to the Oval Office to make an announcement with attorney general William Barr on MS-13.
In the Oval pic.twitter.com/Ie3Yc42xvo
— Steve Holland (@steveholland1) July 15, 2020
During the Oval Office event, Trump took a question on his relationship with Dr Anthony Fauci, as some administration officials raise doubts about the infectious disease expert’s credibility.
“I get along very well with Dr Fauci,” the president told reporters.
Trump was then specifically asked about an op-ed by White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, which was entitled, “Fauci has been wrong about everything I have interacted with him on.”
The president said, “Well, that’s Peter Navarro. But I have a very good relationship with Dr Fauci.”
However, Trump has expressed similar doubts about Fauci in recent days. For example, he said in an interview last week that he disagreed with Fauci’s assessment of how the country is weathering the coronavirus crisis.
“Dr Fauci said don’t wear masks and now he says wear them. And he said numerous things. Don’t close off China. Don’t ban China. I did it anyway,” Trump said at the time.
“I didn’t listen to my experts and I banned China. We would have been in much worse shape. You wouldn’t believe the number of deaths more we would have had if we didn’t do the ban.”
Updated
Kevin Stitt has celebrated the steps Oklahoma has taken to reopen its economy as other states have started to roll back their reopenings because of the recent surge in cases.
In March, as many states started to shut down because of the virus, Stitt tweeted and then deleted a picture of himself and his sons in a crowded Oklahoma City food hall, and his spokesperson urged residents to “keep living life.”
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) has coronavirus.
— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) July 15, 2020
In March, he posted a pic of his family in a crowded restaurant. "It’s packed tonight!" he said.
He deleted it, but a spox assured he would continue to dine out "without living in fear, and encourages Oklahomans to do the same." pic.twitter.com/jSwMBlE520
After announcing his positive coronavirus test result, Stitt was asked if he was considering reclosing some businesses, but the Republican governor said it was “way, way premature” to discuss such measures.
Infections have recently been on the rise in Oklahoma, and the state reported a new daily record yesterday, with 993 new cases confirmed.
Updated
Kevin Stitt attended an in-person meeting of Oklahoma’s Commissioners of the Land office yesterday and did not wear a mask.
I asked whether the other people who attended this meeting yesterday will have to quarantine and why the Governor didn't wear a mask the entire time. No direct answer on either, although Frye said contact tracing is underway https://t.co/7xsBVTw5rI
— Dillon Richards (@KOCODillon) July 15, 2020
The Republican governor’s attendance at the meeting raises concerns about the possible spread of the virus to other officials who were present.
Stitt dodged a question about whether the other attendees were quarantining, but Oklahoma health commissioner Lance Frye noted contact tracing is already underway to warn those who may have been exposed.
Kevin Stitt appears to be the first governor to test positive for coronavirus, although several members of Congress have contracted the virus.
Stitt’s announcement comes about a month after Trump held a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which was criticized for ignoring public health guidance on large events.
The Republican governor, who is a close ally of the president’s, stood by Trump’s decision to move ahead with the rally.
A Tulsa health official has since said the event “likely contributed” to the city’s recent rise in cases, although Stitt would have contracted the virus elsewhere because of the time frame.
Oklahoma governor tests positive for coronavirus
Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt announced he has tested positive for coronavirus, making him the latest lawmaker to contract the virus.
BREAKING: Governor Kevin Stitt just announced that he has tested positive for the #coronavirus @koconews pic.twitter.com/ZEBIiONLjy
— Jason Hackett (@KOCOJason) July 15, 2020
Stitt said he is periodically tested for the virus, and the test he took yesterday afternoon came back positive.
The Republican governor said he was overall well, but he noted he felt “a little bit achy” yesterday.
Stitt said he was isolating at home and would continue to work remotely until it was safe to return to his office.
The Trump campaign’s ad warning Americans will not be safe in Joe Biden’s America includes images from recent news stories involving gun violence and protests against police brutality.
But as an ABC News noted, the campaign’s message about the dangers of a Biden presidency seemed contradictory, considering those events shown in the ad are taking place right now with Trump as president.
What's striking about this ad titled "You won't be safe in Joe Biden's America" is that many of the images and news stories used showing protesters, "violence," and "innocent children fatally shot"—is all happening right now in Trump's America after over 3 years in office https://t.co/uIubC8FYAP pic.twitter.com/Za0zJy7fr4
— Will Steakin (@wsteaks) July 15, 2020
The Trump campaign is doubling down on its strategy to accuse Joe Biden of being soft on crime, with a new ad warning Americans would not be safe if the Democrat becomes president.
The ad, similar to others recently released by the president’s campaign, features an emergency phone call going unanswered. “Who will be there to answer the call when your children aren’t safe?” the ad’s narrator says.
The ad seeks to directly tie Biden to the defund the police movement, even though the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee has said he does not support defunding police departments.
The Trump campaign’s strategy to paint Biden as soft on crime does not appear to paying off yet. A poll taken last month showed 61% of American voters say Biden would do a better job of handling issues related to race and policing, compared to 39% who said the same of Trump.
Fox News announced it will air an interview with Trump on Sunday. The interview will be conducted by Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace.
THIS SUNDAY: Chris Wallace will sit down with President Donald Trump in a must-see interview only on FOX News Sunday. Check your local listings. #FNS #FOXNews pic.twitter.com/SsW6XO9uoJ
— FoxNewsSunday (@FoxNewsSunday) July 15, 2020
Trump has participated in several one-on-one interviews in recent weeks, as he weathers criticism on his responses to the coronavirus pandemic and the protests over the police killing of George Floyd.
Some of the interviews have caused trouble for Trump because of his controversial answers. In a CBS News interview that aired yesterday, Trump sparked outrage when he responded to a question about Floyd’s death by emphasizing that white people are also killed by police, even though studies have shown black Americans are more likely to be killed by law enforcment.
Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell expressed “total” faith in Dr Anthony Fauci while speaking to reporters in his home state of Kentucky.
.@senatemajldr is in Shelby County. Among other things, he discussed a fourth and final stimulus package that could come together later this month. He urged people to wear masks. And when asked about his level of faith in Dr. Anthony Fauci, he responded, “total”. @wave3news pic.twitter.com/j339Z3BrGt
— Sean Baute (@sbauteWAVE3) July 15, 2020
McConnell cited Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, as a crucial source of information and advice on the pandemic.
When asked what his current level of confidence in Fauci is, McConnell replied, “Total.”
That answer from the Republican Senate leader comes as the White House seeks to distance itself from an op-ed written by trade adviser Peter Navarro, which raises doubts about Fauci’s credibility.
The White House also recently circulated an unsigned memo casting Fauci’s past comments about coronavirus in a negative light.
Walmart to require masks at all stores
Walmart has announced it will require all customers to wear masks while shopping, becoming the latest company to mandate face coverings amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Walmart, which is the world’s largest retailer, said the requirement would go into effect on Monday to allow time to inform customers of the change.
The company noted in a statement announcing the new policy that about two-thirds of its stores are in areas with existing mask requirements. The company-wide mandate will set the same standard for all stores.
The CEOs of Walmart and Sam’s Club, which is operated by Walmart, said in the statement, “While we’re certainly not the first business to require face coverings, we know this is a simple step everyone can take for their safety and the safety of others in our facilities.”
Updated
US again sees record-high number of new coronavirus cases
The US has once again broken its record for the highest number of new coronavirus cases reported in a single day, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The university’s data indicates 67,417 new cases were confirmed yesterday, breaking the record of 66,627 cases set on Friday.
The US sees a record-high number of new coronavirus cases in a single day, with more than 67,000 cases confirmed in the past 24 hours, per Johns Hopkins. pic.twitter.com/f8zvF2ZWNK
— Joan Greve (@joanegreve) July 15, 2020
Since the start of the crisis, the US has confirmed 3,432,307 cases of coronavirus and recorded 136,463 deaths linked to the virus.
The US accounts for about a quarter of all coronavirus cases reported around the world, as many states struggle to get their caseloads under control.
Joe Biden is likely sighing in relief at this news: Kanye West has reportedly scrapped plans to enter the 2020 presidential race.
New York magazine reported yeterday that West’s short-lived plans to get on the ballot in a handful of states had come to an end:
I talked to Steve Kramer. He is a get-out-the-vote specialist who runs a firm that also helps candidates get on the ballot. Kramer, who has worked mostly for Democratic candidates but has also had some Republican clients, told me that he had been hired to help West get on the ballot in Florida and South Carolina. ...
This all seemed real enough, and I reached out to West’s publicist for a response. The initial response was to loop in another spokesperson on the email. West’s team then went dark. As I waited for a response, I followed up with Kramer who told me, ‘He’s out.’
The news brings an end to about a week and a half of speculation over whether West would actually try to launch a presidential bid, which started when the celebrity tweeted about his intent to do so.
We must now realize the promise of America by trusting God, unifying our vision and building our future. I am running for president of the United States 🇺🇸! #2020VISION
— ye (@kanyewest) July 5, 2020
This is Joan Greve in Washington, taking over for Martin Belam.
The White House is trying to distance itself from a op-ed written by trade adviser Peter Navarro, which raises questions about the credibility of Dr Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert.
However, it’s worth noting that Donald Trump has shared views quite similar to those expressed in Navarro’s op-ed in recent days.
When asked last week about Fauci’s comment that the status of the US coronavirus crisis is “really not good,” Trump said, “I disagree with him. Dr. Fauci said don’t wear masks and now he says wear them. And he said numerous things. Don’t close off China. Don’t ban China. I did it anyway.
“I didn’t listen to my experts and I banned China. We would have been in much worse shape. You wouldn’t believe the number of deaths more we would have had if we didn’t do the ban.”
White House: Navarro op-ed attack on Fauci didn’t go through normal clearance processes
You may have seen that USA Today published an op-ed from Peter Navarro which appeared to continue the Trump administration’s attacks on Dr Anthony Fauci. Titled ‘Fauci has been wrong about everything I have interacted with him on’, in it Navarro, one of Trump’s trade advisers, said:
When you ask me whether I listen to Dr. Fauci’s advice, my answer is: only with skepticism and caution.
However, this morning the administration appears to have made a conscious effort to dissociate itself from his comments. Alyssa Farah, White House director of strategic communications has tweeted that the piece “didn’t go through normal White House clearance processes and is the opinion of Peter alone.”
The Peter Navarro op-ed didn’t go through normal White House clearance processes and is the opinion of Peter alone. @realDonaldTrump values the expertise of the medical professionals advising his Administration.
— Alyssa Farah (@Alyssafarah) July 15, 2020
She added that: “Donald Trump values the expertise of the medical professionals advising his administration.”
Speaking of the reopening of the Florida economy, Jessica Glenza has been reporting for us on the stop-start nature of the economic reopening plans across the states as coronavirus numbers have continued to rise.
America’s Sun Belt has been particularly hard-hit, and now further flung and less populous states are joining the ranks rolling back reopenings. New Mexico again banned indoor dining. Nevada closed bars in counties with major outbreaks. And Oregon, in the Pacific north-west, banned private indoor gatherings of more than 10 people. Arizona and Texas reimposed restrictions on indoor dining and bars in early July. California, the most populous state, dramatically expanded restrictions.
As Miami mayor Francis X Suarez put it to the Republican Florida governor Ron DeSantis at a public roundtable on Tuesday: “The reopening plan was great if everything went well. But I think the fact is things have not gone according to plan.”
Florida nurses to stage protest over Covid-19 working conditions
Florida nurses from three hospitals are planning a protest tonight about what they claim are “an explosion of unsafe conditions at their hospitals”.
The nurses will gather in a socially-distanced demonstration at St. Petersburg General hospital to warn that conditions are rapidly deteriorating with multiple safety problems since Florida’s economy re-opened.
“Protecting our patients is our priority. But rushing from patient to patient because of inadequate staffing is a recipe for disaster which doesn’t allow us to properly monitor our patients when they are at their most vulnerable,” said Barbara Murray, a former union nurse representative at St. Petersburg General Hospital in a statement. “It also increases the danger of mistakes, including the spread of virus to other patients.”
Their concerns include claims that there is short staffing with nurses having to care for more patients than is safe, inadequate personal protective equipment (PPE) for nurses, improper isolation of patients who are confirmed or suspected of being infected with Covid-19, and a failure to inform nurses who may have been exposed to positive infected patients.
The protest comes as Florida’s coronavirus situation worsens. According to figures produced by Nephron Research, of the top twenty metropolitan areas in the US seeing the highest growth in daily new coronavirus cases, nine of them are in Florida, with Miami the worst affected.
Lilian Abbo, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Miami, earlier this week described scenes in the state as like “Wuhan five or six months ago”.
Wesley Ira Purkey federal execution halted by judge
US District Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington, DC, has imposed two injunctions this morning prohibiting the federal Bureau of Prisons from moving forward with the execution Wesley Ira Purkey. The Justice Department filed immediate appeals in both cases. A separate temporary stay was already in place from the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Purkey, who is next on the list to be executed by the federal government after a nearly 20-year hiatus, may have a better chance of avoiding lethal injection because he suffers from dementia and so, his lawyers say, can no longer grasp why he is slated to die.
He was convicted of a 1998 kidnapping and killing, and had been scheduled for execution today at the US Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, where Daniel Lewis Lee was put to death Tuesday after late legal bids failed to prevent the first federal execution since 2003.
Purkey, 68, of Lansing, Kansas, would be the second, but his lawyers were still expected to press for a ruling from the supreme court on his competency.
This competency issue is a very strong issue on paper, said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. The supreme court has halted executions on this issue in the past. At a minimum, the question of whether Purkey dies is going to go down to the last minute, report Michael Balsamo and Michael Tarm for the Associated Press.
The issue of Purkeys mental health arose in the run-up to his 2003 trial and when, after the verdict, jurors had to decide whether he should be put to death in the killing of 16-year-old Jennifer Long in Kansas City, Missouri.
Prosecutors alleged that he raped and stabbed her, dismembered her with a chainsaw, burned her, then dumped her ashes 200 miles (320 kilometers) away in a septic pond in Kansas. Purkey was separately convicted and sentenced to life in the beating death of 80-year-old Mary Ruth Bales, of Kansas City, Kansas.
But the legal questions of whether he was mentally fit to stand trial or to be sentenced to die are different from the question of whether he is mentally fit enough now, in the hours before his scheduled execution, to be put to death.
Purkey’s lawyers argue he clearly is not, saying in recent filings that he suffers from advancing Alzheimers disease.
He has long accepted responsibility for the crime that put him on death row, one of this lawyers, Rebecca Woodman, said. But as his dementia has progressed, he no longer has a rational understanding of why the government plans to execute him. Purkey believes his planned execution is part of a vast conspiracy involving his own attorneys.
While various legal issues in Purkey’s case have been hashed, rehashed and settled by courts over nearly two decades, the issue of mental fitness for execution can only be addressed once a date is set, according to Dunham, who also teaches law school courses on capital punishment. A date was only set last year.
In a landmark 1986 decision, the US supreme court ruled that the Constitution prohibits putting someone to death who lacks a reasonable understanding of why he is being executed. It involved the case of Alvin Ford, who was convicted of murder but whose mental health deteriorated behind bars to the point where, according to his lawyer, he believed he was pope.
The mother of the teen Purkey killed, Glenda Lamont, told the Kansas City Star last year she planned to attend the execution.
“I don’t want to say that I’m happy,” Lamont said. “At the same time, he is a crazy mad man that doesn’t deserve, in my opinion, to be breathing anymore.”
Updated
Trump’s niece says president is dangerous and calls on him to resign
With the gagging order on promoting her explosive book lifted, Donald Trump’s niece has been free to speak to the media again. She has not minced her words, telling ABC:
He is utterly incapable of leading this country and it’s dangerous to allow him to do so. This country is on a precipice and we have a decision to make about who we want to be and where we want to go as a country. It’s hard for me to process just how many awful things are going on simultaneously on a daily basis.
Read more here: Donald Trump’s niece says president is dangerous and calls on him to resign
There’s a good piece over on the Hill website this morning looking at how ‘progressive populist’ Jamaal Bowman appears to have won out over long-time House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel.
With about 40,000 absentee ballots left to count, Bowman, a first-time candidate, led Engel by 23 percentage points, or just over 10,000 votes. Engel has not conceded the race, though New York Democrats believe his odds of a comeback are almost hopelessly long. Engel’s campaign has filed suit against elections officials in the Bronx and Westchester County seeking permission to observe absentee ballot counts.
If Bowman’s lead holds out, the piece argues, it will be just the latest sign of an ascendent progressive movement that has knocked off long-serving incumbents in New York, Massachusetts, California and Illinois.
Read it here: The Hill – How a progressive populist appears to have toppled Engel
Al Gore to launch new tool for tracking climate emissions
Former US vice president Al Gore has partnered with a San Francisco company and coalition of environmental groups to roll out a new tool for tracking climate emissions from power plants, ships and even whole countries in real-time.
Designed by WattTime, the project combines satellite imagery with artificial intelligence, machine learning and other remote sensing technologies.
“What we’re creating is in some ways a massively distributed body cam for the earth,” Gore said.
Emissions reporting has long been based on bottom-up--and largely unverifiable--reporting from countries and companies. In 2015, for example, Gore recalled when China announced just ahead of the Paris agreement negotiations that it had been burning 17% more coal than previously reported.
The group hopes to release a global sector-by-sector emissions report in the summer of 2021, ahead of climate negotiations later that year.
“We ignored the warnings from epidemiologists and virologists about the need to prepare for a pandemic almost exactly identical to the one that we’re now dealing with,” Gore said. “So it’s not a big leap from that realization to an understanding that when the climate scientists have been warning us for even longer and in ever more dire terms that we need to pay attention to them as well.”
There’s been a lot of action around the China-US relationship in the last few hours.
The UK announced that it would be stripping Huawei technology out of the country’s 5G network by 2027 yesterday, a move which last night Donald Trump appeared to claim credit for, saying:
We confronted untrustworthy Chinese technology and telecom providers. We convinced many countries – many countries – and I did this myself, for the most part – not to use Huawei because we think it’s an unsafe security risk. It’s a big security risk. I talked many countries out of using it. If they want to do business with us, they can’t use it. Just today, I believe that UK announced that they’re not going to be using it. And that was up in the air for a long time, but they’ve decided.
That view hasn’t been universally welcomed in the UK. Asked about the president’s comments, the British health secretary Matt Hancock told the Sky News television channel: “Well, we all know Donald Trump don’t we.”
China has also reacted harshly to the move, with state media foreshadowing “public and painful” retaliation against the UK over its ban of Huawei.
The sabre-rattling over the disputed South China sea has also continued. Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said today that the US threat of sanctions was just its latest attempt to stir up trouble and destabilise the region.
“The US arbitrarily talks about sanctions ... this is very pathetic,” she told reporters during a daily briefing in Beijing. “We are not afraid of sanctions.”
Amid all of this, the New York Times has announced that it will move its staff out of Hong Kong, due to press freedom fears after China bought in sweeping changes to Hong Kong’s legislation.
Lloyd Green has written for us this morning, looking at how the emergence of the Covid-19 has destabilised Trump’s plans for healthcare, and how he finds himself at odds with some of his base in trying to end Obamacare in the midst of a pandemic.
The fact that 5.4 million people have already lost their health insurance amid the pandemic does not even register as a blip on the administration’s radar. Trump’s stance appears to be more about keeping the Republican donor-base happy than winning votes. When rocked-ribbed Oklahomans recently backed Medicaid expansion, it is time for Trump and his minions to rethink things. In other words, conservative America is not exactly craving Republican economic orthodoxy. But the Republican party’s big-ticket contributors still do.
Read it here: Lloyd Green – Healthcare is Trump’s Achilles heel. Republicans don’t get it
Ivanka Trump may have broken government ethics rules with a tweet late last night promoting Goya Foods.
If it’s Goya, it has to be good.
— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) July 15, 2020
Si es Goya, tiene que ser bueno. pic.twitter.com/9tjVrfmo9z
The company has been facing calls for a boycott after chief executive Robert Unanue praised Donald Trump while appearing with him at the White House last week for the signing of an executive order creating an advisory panel aimed at spurring Hispanic prosperity.
The hashtags #Goyaway and #BoycottGoya trended on social networks afterwards, and Unanue later criticised the proposal of a boycott as “suppression of speech”
Ivanka Trump’s tweet though could violate government ethics rules, which prohibit the use of public office to endorse products or advance personal business gains. In 2017 Kellyanne Conway was castigated after she appeared to break similar federal ethics rules when she said on television that Americans should “go buy Ivanka’s stuff.”
Whatever the outcome, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of the leading politicians calling for the boycott, was unimpressed with Ivanka Trump’s tweet - replying “Si es Trump, tiene que ser corrupto”.
Si es Trump, tiene que ser corrupto 💸 https://t.co/Ti3oxFO6oY
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 15, 2020
Key results from Alabama, Maine, Texas primaries
Although the top of the card is settled as Donald Trump v Joe Biden for November, there’s plenty of down-ballot interest still in the primaries. Yesterday Alabama, Maine and Texas were voting.
In Alabama, former US Attorney General Jeff Sessions lost the Republican nomination for his old Senate seat in Alabama to former college football coach Tommy Tuberville on Tuesday. It likely ends a long political career with a bitter defeat that was being egged on by the president who endorsed his opponent.
Tuberville won about 60% of the vote, according to unofficial returns, and is now positioned for a robust challenge against Democratic US Sen. Doug Jones, considered one of the Republican’s best chances to flip a Senate seat in November.
Former Republican Rep. Pete Sessions, ousted from his longtime Dallas district in 2018, won the nomination for a rural seat in Waco.
Trump’s former White House physician Dr Ronny Jackson won the Republican nomination for a US House seat in Texas, defeating Josh Winegarner in a primary runoff in the deeply red Texas Panhandle. Jackson was also the White House physician to presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, and Trump’s endorsement for his former doctor carried him to victory in his first run for office.
Maine House Speaker Sara Gideon beat two other Democrats on Tuesday for the right to challenge Republican Sen. Susan Collins in a race that’s critical to the battle for control of the Senate. Gideon, who’s raised a staggering $23 million in her Senate bid, easily beat activist Betsy Sweet and attorney Bre Kidman.
Speaking live online, Gideon attacked Collins, saying “If we’re going to come together and make real progress to improve the lives of people here in Maine and across the country, then we need new leadership. Because after 24 years in Washington, Sen. Collins has become part of that broken system, putting special interests and her political party first. And Mainers know it and feel it.”
The elections didn’t go flawlessly. Voting advocates said sporadic reports of last-minute poll closures and polling places opening late was indicative of a failure by election officials to plan adequately and expand absentee voting.
“Texas has established itself as one of the most hostile states in the nation when it comes to acknowledging the effect of the pandemic on the election,” Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, told Associated Press.
Floyd’s family to announce civil lawsuit against Minneapolis
Attorneys for George Floyd’s family are set to announce a civil lawsuit Wednesday against the city of Minneapolis and the police officers involved in his death.
According to Associated Press reports, Attorney Ben Crump is planning a late-morning news conference in Minneapolis to detail the lawsuit, which is expected to target Derek Chauvin, Tou Thao, Thomas Lane and J. Kueng.
Last night Minneapolis’ elected officials first budget hearing of the year was dominated by calls to cut the funding of the police department.
The Star Tribune reported that the majority of speakers who called in to the budget committee hearing asked for $45 million to be cut from the police department’s annual $193 million budget.
The paper quotes Hunta Williams, a member of the city’s Transgender Equity Council, saying “I don’t know why we would continue to fund the Police Department the way we have, as they continue to murder our Black and brown brothers and sisters. We’re watching. We have our eyes on you.”
The Minneapolis police department said yesterday that it is changing its use-of-force policy to encourage officers to try to de-escalate intense situations and hold them accountable when force or weapons are used.
New bodycam footage of death of George Floyd to be made available
Video from the body cameras of two officers charged in George Floyd’s death is being made available for public viewing by appointment on Wednesday, but a judge has so far declined to allow news organizations to publish the footage for wider distribution, reports the Associated Press.
Footage from the body cameras of Thomas Lane and J. Kueng was filed with the court last week by Lane’s attorney, but only the written transcripts were made public. A coalition of news media organizations and attorneys for Lane and Kueng have said making the videos public would provide a more complete picture of what happened when Floyd was taken into custody.
Members of the news media and the public are viewing the video Wednesday by appointment at the courthouse. The media coalition has said this arrangement is the equivalent of keeping the videos under seal, and the coalition is asking Judge Peter Cahill to allow the media to copy the videos and publish them.
Media attorney Leita Walker said in a court filing that the footage should be made widely available to “all members of the public concerned about the administration of justice in one of the most important, and most-watched, cases this State perhaps this country has ever seen.”
She also said allowing journalists to copy the footage, watch it multiple times, transcribe it and compare it to the transcripts and to time stamps from widely seen bystander video will help reporters piece together a more complete story.
“As the days of unrest in the Twin Cities showed, it is vitally important that the public have full confidence in the process and outcome of this criminal prosecution,” she said.
Derek Chauvin who pressed his knee against Floyd’s neck for nearly eight minutes is charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter. Tou Thao, Lane and Kueng are charged with aiding and abetting both second-degree murder and manslaughter. All four officers were fired.
The body camera videos and transcripts were filed in court last week by Lane’s attorney, Earl Gray, as part of a motion to have Lane’s case dismissed. Gray said at the time that he wanted the videos to be made public, telling the Star Tribune that they would show the “whole picture.” Gray said the bystander video shows just the last piece of what happened and “is not fair.”
Gray’s motion highlighted portions of the body-camera video that show Floyd “actively resisting and acting erratic” with officers. It also noted Floyd’s “request” to be put on the ground. Gray also argued that Lane didn’t have a clear view of what Chauvin was doing.
Updated
Good morning, here is our live coverage of US politics and the coronavirus crisis in the country for today. Here’s a quick run-through of some of the key points from yesterday and overnight, and a little of what we can look forward to today.
- More than 65,500 new cases of coronavirus were announced across the US, the second-highest daily total since the crisis began. California, Texas, Missouri, Nevada and Oklahoma all set single-day case records. Florida set a new record number of 132 daily deaths
- Video from the body cameras of two officers charged in George Floyd’s death is being made available for public viewing by appointment on Wednesday, but a judge has so far declined to allow news organizations to publish the footage for wider distribution
- Donald Trump once again stoked racial grievances, inaccurately telling an interviewer who asked about George Floyd that white Americans are dying more often at the hands of police than Black Americans
- The president also signed an executive order ending special status for Hong Kong. “Hong Kong will now be treated the same as mainland China. No special privileges, no special economic treatment and no export of sensitive technologies,” he said at a Rose Garden press conference that resembled a campaign speech. China has promised a ‘firm response’ to the move
- Dr Anthony Fauci, America’s top infectious diseases expert, has pushed back at a concerted campaign by Trump and his allies to discredit his response to the coronavirus pandemic
- In a u-turn, the Trump administration said it would no longer require international students to attend in-person classes in order to stay in the US. The ruling was already subject to a legal fight
- Jeff Sessions lost the Republican nomination for his old Alabama Senate seat to Trump-endorsed Tommy Tuberville. Sessions was first elected to the Senate in 1996. His hardline anti-immigration views, racist policies and conduct have made him a controversial figure
- US supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been admitted to hospital for treatment for a possible infection. According to a statement, she is resting comfortably and will stay in hospital for a few days for antibiotic treatment
- Joe Biden is holding fundraising events in the morning, and will virtually address the Coalition of black trade unionists convention in the evening
- Donald Trump will be giving a speech in Atlanta this afternoon on ‘Rebuilding of America’s Infrastructure: Faster, Better, Stronger’. He also gets a law enforcement briefing in the morning
I’m Martin Belam and I’ll be with you for the next few hours. You can get in touch with me at martin.belam@theguardian.com
