The Commentariat -- April 25, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Maybe Trump was upset by that tweet -- which went viral -- highlighting Dr. Deborah Birx' horrified reactions to his outlandish remarks (embedded below). So ~~~

Was just informed that the Fake News from the Thursday White House Press Conference had me speaking & asking questions of Dr. Deborah Birx. Wrong, I was speaking to our Laboratory expert, not Deborah, about sunlight etc. & the CoronaVirus. The Lamestream Media is corrupt & sick! -- Donald Trump in a tweet Saturday afternoon

Although not the only time Trump spoke to Birx during that briefing, here's a significant one, from the transcript:

You know what. Deborah, have you ever heard of that? The heat and the light relative to certain viruses, yes, but relative to this virus? -- Donald Trump, Thursday's Trump Show

Mrs. McCrabbie: As far as I know, there was only one "Deborah" on the dais. In any event, Dr. Birx was the "Deborah" who responded -- in the negative but oh, so diplomatically -- to this idiotic question. Who's "corrupt & sick"?

Thanks to Elizabeth & Hattie for the links & to Randy for the laughs:

     ~~~ As Randy says, "Do not actually drink cleaning fluids."

The New York Times' live updates for coronavirus developments Saturday are here. The Washington Post's live updates are here.

Republicans Make People Sick. Teran Powell of WUWM Radio (NPR): "Forty people in Milwaukee County may have become infected with the coronavirus as a result of participating in Wisconsin elections on April 7. Milwaukee Health Commissioner Jeanette Kowalik says data is still being analyzed to show the connection between more people that may have contracted COVID-19 due to election activities, like being a poll worker or voting in person, earlier this month. Kowalik hopes the data will be finalized by May 1."

Rosalind Helderman, et al., of the Washington Post: "... scores of [cruise] ships ... continued voyages even after early outbreaks on other vessels, carrying thousands of international passengers to far-flung ports and helping seed the virus around the globe, health officials say. A Post review of cruise line statements, government announcements and media reports found that the coronavirus infected passengers and crew on at least 55 ships that sailed in the waters off nearly every continent, about a fifth of the total global fleet. The industry's decision to keep sailing for weeks after the coronavirus was first detected in early February on a cruise ship off the coast of Japan, despite the efforts by top U.S. health officials to curtail voyages, was among a number of decisions that health experts and passengers say contributed to the mounting toll. At least 65 people who traveled or worked on the ships have since died, according to The Post tally, although the full scope of deaths is unknown."

~~~~~~~~~~

The New York Times' live updates for coronavirus developments Friday are here. The Washington Post's live updates are here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Adam Cancryn of Politico: "As coronavirus cases climbed daily by the thousands and the nation entered its second month of an economic standstill..., Donald Trump latched onto a sign of hope: A pandemic model ... projected the virus would kill as few as 60,000 Americans, a figure far below what officials previously feared. The new April forecast signaled the worst would soon be over, with some states effectively ending their bout with coronavirus as early as the end of the month.... Trump swiftly adopted the projection from the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation as his newest measure of success -- while top administration health officials including infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci and coronavirus response coordinator Deborah Birx touted the lower figure as a clear indication the U.S. was winning its fight with the disease. 'It looks like we'll be at about a 60,000 mark, which is 40,000 less than the lowest number thought of,' Trump said during a news briefing on Sunday, April 19, adding the next day that 'the low number was supposed to be 100,000 people. We could end up at 50 to 60.'... The U.S. is now expected to blow past the 60,000 mark around the beginning of May, earlier than the IHME model had projected and with less of the dramatic leveling-off that its forecast had initially baked in."

Ben Casselman of the New York Times: "The economy shut down almost overnight. It won't start back up that way.... Because the restart will be gradual, with certain places and industries opening earlier than others, it will by definition be complicated.... And it isn't clear what, exactly, it means to gradually restart a system with as many interlocking pieces as the U.S. economy. How can one factory reopen when its suppliers remain shuttered?... The White House released a plan this month for a phased reopening of the economy, with restrictions easing as states meet public health benchmarks.... But those proposals are mostly rough schematics, leaving unanswered crucial questions about how the process will play out at the ground level.... Under the ... plan, many businesses will be allowed to open in the first phase. Schools and day care centers will need to wait for the next phase. That means that millions of working parents could be asked to return to their jobs before they have any way to take care of their children." ~~~

~~~ Sarah Mervosh & Jasmine Lee of the New York Times have created an interactive U.S. map that gives you a rough idea of what states are doing to reopen -- or not. Mrs. McC: But you'll probably have to consult your own state's Website or local newspapers to figure out what you can and can't do in your state and in states you may want to visit. And you'll also have to check with individual businesses, government offices, etc., to see if, when and how you can do business there. I responded Monday to a letter from a state agency that thought I might owe the state money (I didn't). It was several days before anyone called me back, but I did get a call back from a very pleasant tax agent who was working from home without access to a computer.

Philip Rucker, et al., of the Washington Post: "The federal government scrambled Friday to stave off a potential wave of public health emergencies sparked by President Trump's dangerous suggestion that injecting bleach or other household disinfectants into the body might cure people of the novel coronavirus. It was only the latest dubious medical tip from a president struggling to contain a pandemic that has claimed the lives of more than 50,000 Americans.... Trump's latest fantasy cure mushroomed into a potential crisis for public health officials. In Maryland alone, the state government's emergency hotline received more than 100 calls from residents inquiring whether injecting a disinfectant really was a cure.... The extraordinary uproar over ingesting disinfectants underscored what public health experts say is the danger when the president -- who has no training in medicine, a proud aversion to studying details and a supreme confidence in his own expertise -- speculates about science during a pandemic. Compounding the situation is the timidity and at times reluctance with which the physicians advising Trump intervene to correct the president or refute his theories, said Jack Chow..., a former World Health Organization assistant director general.... [Dr. Deborah] Birx was present [at Thursday's Trump show], sitting silently and visibly straining to control her facial expressions as Trump talked up the possibility of disinfectant injections to cure covid-19." ~~~

~~~ Contributor Patrick linked to this amusing evidence of Birx' discomfort, which Daniel Lewis, a CNN digital producer, edited from the regular briefing room feed:

Here is Dr. Birx's reaction when President Trump asks his science advisor to study using UV light on the human body and injecting disinfectant to fight the coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/MVno5X7JMA

— Daniel Lewis (@Daniel_Lewis3) April 24, 2020

I can't believe I have to say this, but please don't drink bleach. -- Joe Biden, in a tweet Friday

A reminder to all Americans- PLEASE always talk to your health provider first before administering any treatment/ medication to yourself or a loved one. -- Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams, in a tweet Friday ~~~

~~~ Katie Rogers, et al., of the New York Times: "As he listened to [a presentation by DHS official Bill] Bryan, the president became increasingly excited, and also felt the need to demonstrate his own understanding of science, according to three of [his] advisers. So Mr. Trump went ahead with his theories about the chemicals.... Mr. Trump's remarks [about ingesting bleach & disinfectant & zapping patients with 'heat and light'] caused an immediate uproar, and the White House spent much of Friday trying to walk them back.... But the president later undermined [their] arguments by insisting that his question to Mr. Bryan in fact had been an elaborate prank that he had engineered to trick reporters. 'I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen,' Mr. Trump said on Friday to journalists gathered in the Oval Office. The president said he had posed his theory on cleaning the body with disinfectant 'in the form of a sarcastic question to a reporter,' which also was not true -- he had said it unprompted to Mr. Bryan. With more questions likely at the Friday briefing, Vice President Mike Pence ... abruptly ended it shortly after it began." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: As Anderson Cooper said, "You just witnessed the President* lying about something we all saw & heard him say only yesterday.... He must think we're all morons." This is a slight paraphrase. Here's a clip of Trump's supposed "sarcastic" remarks. He's querying Bill Bryan & Dr. Deborah Birx: ~~~

     ~~~ The full transcript of Thursday's "press briefing" is here. Mrs. McCrabbie: It's clear that Trump is dead serious in asking Bryan and Birx about injecting disinfectants & light rays into bodies to cure the coronavirus. The clip does show Trump making one sarcastic remark to Phil Rucker of the WashPo after Rucker asks about all the people dying of Covid-19 in warm climates like Florida & Singapore: "... Here we go.," Trump says. "The new headline is 'Trump asks people to go outside. That's dangerous.'" A few moment later (according to the transcript), Trump disses Rucker personally for asking a related question, "Hey, Phil. I'm the President and you're fake news. And you know what I'll say to you, I'll say very nicely... I know you well. I know you well because I know the guy, I see what he writes. He's a total faker...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Oh, and Bill Bryan has not had a career quite as bland as I presumed: according to the NYT report by Rogers, et al., linked above, "Mr. Bryan served 17 years in the Army, followed by yearslong stints as a civil servant at the Defense and Energy Departments. The latter role led to a whistle-blower complaint accusing him, in part, of manipulating government policy to further his personal financial interests, and then lying to Congress about those interests. The United States Office of Special Counsel ... asked the Energy Department last year to investigate the accusations against Mr. Bryan. In January, the Senate returned his nomination to the White House. Mr. Pence's advisers wanted Mr. Bryan to brief the news media on his findings, but several West Wing staff members objected, partly because they were concerned the information had not been verified. Before Mr. Bryan took the lectern in the White House Briefing Room, Dr. Birx and Dr. ... Fauci ... made a few revisions to his presentation, officials said." ~~~

~~~ Carol Lee, et al., of NBC News: "Members of ... Donald Trump's coronavirus task force and aides in the West Wing were shocked on Thursday when he promoted the use of light and disinfectant to treat the deadly respiratory illness, according to administration officials. As Trump went off script to suggest people with the virus could be cured by UV rays or disinfectants 'by injection inside,' White House officials began texting one another to ask where he got that idea because they thought, as one adviser put it, 'this was going to be bad.'... It appears Trump conflated and misinterpreted scientific information discussed with him in the Oval Office before Thursday's daily briefing, according to the officials." ~~~

~~~ Maybe This Is What Confused Trump. Ed Pilkington of the Guardian: “The leader of the most prominent group in the US peddling potentially lethal industrial bleach as a 'miracle cure' for coronavirus wrote to Donald Trump at the White House this week. In his letter, Mark Grenon told Trump that chlorine dioxide -- a powerful bleach used in industrial processes such as textile manufacturing that can have fatal side-effects when drunk -- is 'a wonderful detox that can kill 99% of the pathogens in the body'. He added that it 'can rid the body of Covid-19'.... Grenon styles himself as 'archbishop' of Genesis II -- a Florida-based outfit that claims to be a church but which in fact is the largest producer and distributor of chlorine dioxide bleach as a 'miracle cure' in the US. He brands the chemical as MMS, 'miracle mineral solution', and claims fraudulently that it can cure 99% of all illnesses including cancer, malaria, HIV/Aids as well as autism.... Last week the US Food and Drug Administration obtained a federal court order barring Genesis II from selling what was described as 'an unproven and potentially harmful treatment for Covid-19'." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: It seems highly unlikely that Trump received and read Grenon's letter, but it is likely that Trump's travels around nutty right-wing media has familiarized him with Grenon's "miracle mineral solution" or some similar elixir. For instance, Will Sommer & others of the Daily Beast report, "Jordan Sather, a prominent QAnon conspiracy theorist who promotes MMS, tweeted that Trump's comments proved that MMS was safe to consume. 'How AWESOME would it be if he starts openly looking at Chlorine Dioxide for COVID!' Sather tweeted, adding that it was a good 'lung cleaner.'"

~~~ But What Are They Saying on Fox "News?" Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: "The morning after President Trump mused at a nationally televised briefing that injecting disinfectant could be a treatment for Covid-19 patients, [Steve] Doocy, a co-host of 'Fox & Friends,' issued a warning.... Injecting disinfectants 'is poisonous,' Mr. Doocy said, holding up his hands for emphasis, during an otherwise upbeat segment that praised Mr. Trump for his other health tip: Get more sunlight.... 'Please don't try this at home,' said the Fox Business anchor Stuart Varney, one of Mr. Trump's favorite hosts. The anchor Chris Wallace -- not a Trump favorite -- felt the need to clarify on-air: 'The answer is no, it's not safe. A lot of the major manufacturers say it isn't.' When Mr. Trump made an effort to walk back his remarks on Friday, claiming ... that he had made the comment 'sarcastically,' John Roberts, Fox News's chief White House correspondent, did not sound convinced. 'I was watching very closely,' Mr. Roberts, who attended the briefing, said on the air. 'At no time did I seem to think that the president was sarcastically asking the question.'... Still, Mr. Trump's defenders in Fox News prime time, the channel's most closely watched portion of day, sidestepped the matter entirely on Thursday." Meanwhile, Rush Limbaugh & Breitbart 'News' defended Trump. And Laura Ingraham continued to back Trump's enthusiasm for hydroxychloroquine. "On Friday, after the F.D.A. issued its warning [against using the drug to treat Covid-19], Ms. Ingraham retweeted several online articles extolling the use of hydroxychloroquine as an effective treatment."

FDA Issues Trump Warning. Nathaniel Weixel of the Hill: "Two anti-malaria medications highly touted by President Trump should not be taken outside a hospital or clinical trial because of the risk of severe heart problems, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned Friday. The FDA said it issued the warning because of numerous reports about serious cardiac events and death in patients with COVID-19 receiving hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, either alone or combined with the antibiotic azithromycin." Mrs. McC: This may be a first: a developed country issues a formal warning against advice their leader gives. Thanks, Republicans, for leaving us with this schmuck! (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Berkeley Lovelace of CNBC: "Citing a 'primary outcome' of death, researchers cut short a study testing anti-malaria drug chloroquine as a potential treatment for Covid-19 after some patients developed irregular heart beats and nearly two dozen died after taking doses daily. Scientists say the findings, published Friday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, should prompt some degree of skepticism from the public toward enthusiastic claims and perhaps 'serve to curb the exuberant use' of the drug, which has been touted by ... Donald Trump as a potential 'game changer' in the fight against the coronavirus." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ In the meantime, of course, doctors are running around with their hair on fire warning everyone off Trump's disinfectant smoothie: ~~~

~~~ Allyson Chiu of the Washington Post: Trump's musings "spurred doctors, lawmakers and the makers of Lysol to respond with incredulity and warnings against injecting or otherwise ingesting disinfectants, which are highly toxic.... White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany ... accused the media of taking Trump's words out of context." The article is free to nonsubscribers. Of course it is; the story is a life-saving public service announcement. Mrs. McC: Since Republicans in the Senate wouldn't convict him, they should at least agree to pass a law requiring Trump to wear a large skull-and-crossbones Danger! sign on his chest every time he speaks in public. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Mrs. McCrabbie: Postal workers throughout the nation are putting their lives on the line to do their jobs during a pandemic. As Brian Williams of NBC News pointed out, about 100,000 of them are military veterans. When I go to the Post Office, which I do fairly often since I have a PO box, I thank them profusely for being there for us. Donald Trump has a different idea: ~~~

~~~ Lisa Rein & Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Friday threatened to block an emergency loan to shore up the U.S. Postal Service unless it dramatically raised shipping prices on online retailers, an unprecedented move to seize control of the agency that analysts said could plunge its finances into a deeper hole. 'The Postal Service is a joke,' Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. To obtain a $10 billion line of credit Congress approved this month, 'The post office should raise the price of a package by approximately four times,' he said. Trump for years has alleged the Postal Service has charged too little for packages and personally pushed the head of the agency to charge far more to ship goods for big online retailers. Several administration officials..., have said Trump's criticism of Postal Service rates is rooted in a desire to hurt Amazon in particular. They have said that he fumes publicly and privately at Amazon's founder Jeff Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post, for news coverage that Trump believes is unfair." ~~~

This is about as catastrophically stupid an idea that anyone could ever imagine. As if anyone from Amazon to the local mom and pop delivery businesses would ever put up with a rate increase like that when they have alternatives. -- Mark Cohen, director of retail studies at Columbia University Business School

C'mon, Mark. It's not as stupid as injecting yourself with Clorox & Lysol. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie 

Jonathan Swan of Axios: "President Trump plans to pare back his coronavirus press conferences, according to four sources familiar with the internal deliberations. He may stop appearing daily and make shorter appearances when he does, the sources said -- a practice that may have started with Friday's unusually short briefing.... Trump's daily press conferences -- televised to a largely homebound population -- have dominated the public discourse about the coronavirus.... A number of Trump's most trusted advisers -- both inside and outside the White House -- have urged him to stop doing marathon televised briefings. They've told him he's overexposed and these appearances are part of the reason polls aren't looking good for him right now against Joe Biden. 'I told him it's not helping him,' said one adviser to the president. 'Seniors are scared. And the spectacle of him fighting with the press isn't what people want to see.'" ~~~

~~~ Jonathan Lemire & Jill Colvin of the AP later fleshed out Swan's report: "For the first time..., Donald Trump cut off his daily coronavirus task force briefing on Friday without taking any questions from reporters. It may not be the last time. There have been discussions within the White House about changing the format of the briefings to curtail the president's role, according to four White House officials and Republicans close to the White House who spoke on condition of anonymity.... Trump was angry after a day of punishing headlines Friday.... For weeks, advisers have been urging the president to scale back his appearances at the briefings, saying that he should come before the cameras only when there is major news or a positive development to discuss, according to the officials. Otherwise, they suggested, he should leave it to ... Mike Pence and health officials to take the lead.... Advisers have argued that while the briefings may appeal to his most loyal base of supporters, they could be alienating some viewers, including senior citizens worried about their health." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: As we all know, "Trump plans" is an internallly inconsistent clause. The AP's & Swan's reports might be "Trump's plan" today, but it won't necessarily last long past, say, Monday. 

Lauren Egan of NBC News: "... Donald Trump signed a nearly $500 billion interim coronavirus bill on Friday that includes additional money for the small-business loan program, as well as more funding for hospitals and testing. The bill passed the Senate earlier this week by voice vote and was approved by the House on Thursday on a 388-5-1 bipartisan vote." (Also linked yesterday.)

** Arlana Cha of the Washington Post: "Reports of strokes in the young and middle-aged ... in many ... hospitals in communities hit hard by the novel coronavirus -- are the latest twist in our evolving understanding of its connected disease, covid-19.... Three large U.S. medical centers are preparing to publish data on the stroke phenomenon.... Even as the virus has infected nearly 2.8 million people worldwide and killed about 195,000 as of Friday, its biological mechanisms continue to elude top scientific minds. Once thought to be a pathogen that primarily attacks the lungs, it has turned out to be a much more formidable foe -- impacting nearly every major organ system in the body." The story is free to nonsubscribers. Mrs. McC: The anecdote at the top of the story includes a science-fiction-scary element; unfortunately, it is not fiction. If you're a young or youngish person who thinks it might be safe for you to be a bit cavalier about precautionary measures, this story could make you think twice. ~~~

~~~ AND There's This. Morgan Gstalter of the Hill: "The World Health Organization (WHO) says there is currently 'no evidence' showing that people who have recovered from the coronavirus are not at risk of becoming infected again. Several countries, including the United States, have considered the idea of written documentation proving the holder is either immune or no longer infected with the coronavirus so they can return to the workforce.... Anthony Fauci ... said earlier this month that such a system has been discussed by the Trump administration's coronavirus task force." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Here I go with an ignorant Trump-style observation. The WHO's warning seems to be consistent with a report I linked several days back that cited virologists who were unsure that an effective vaccine could be developed against Covid-19. If the presence of antibodies don't prevent re-infection, then a vaccine containing antibodies might not protect against infection. In a way, Trump's Clorox shot is a more effective than a vaccine: sure, the shot will kill you, but as you go, so goes the virus!

Florida. Ben Cornarck & Daniel Chang of the Miami Herald: "About 6 percent of Miami-Dade's population -- about 165,000 residents -- have antibodies indicating a past infection by the novel coronavirus, dwarfing the state health department's tally of about 10,600 cases, according to preliminary study results announced by University of Miami researchers Friday. The study, spurred by Miami-Dade County officials, will be an ongoing weekly survey based on antibody testing -- randomly selecting county residents to volunteer pinpricks of their blood to be screened for signs of a past COVID-19 infection, whether they had tested positive for the virus in the past or not. The goal is to measure the extent of infection in the community. Friday's results, based on two weeks of countywide antibody testing and about 1,400 participants, found that about half of the people who tested positive for antibodies reported no symptoms in the 14-17 days before being tested."

The Diabolical Mr. Miller Has a Plan. Nick Miroff & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "Trump senior policy adviser Stephen Miller told White House supporters in a private call this week that the president's new executive order curbing immigration will usher in the kind of broader long-term changes to American society he has advocated for years, even though the 60-day measures were publicly characterized as a 'pause' during the coronavirus pandemic. Miller, the chief architect of the president's immigration agenda and one of his longest-serving and most trusted advisers, spoke to a group of Trump surrogates Thursday in an off-the-record call about the new executive order, which had been signed the night before.... Miller told the group that subsequent measures were under consideration that would restrict guest worker programs, but the 'the most important thing is to turn off the faucet of new immigrant labor,' he said, according to a recording obtained by The Washington Post. Miller indicated that the strategy is part of a long-term vision and not seen only as a stopgap." A New York Times report, by Michael Shear & Maggie Haberman, is here.

Helene Cooper, et al., of the New York Times: "Capt. Brett E. Crozier should be restored to command of the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, the Navy's top officials recommended on Friday. But Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper, who was briefed on the recommendations, has asked for more time to consider whether to sign off on reinstating the captain of the nuclear-powered carrier. Mr. Esper received the recommendation from the chief of naval operations, Adm. Michael M. Gilday, and the acting Navy secretary, James McPherson. Defense Department officials said earlier that they expected to announce the results of the Navy's investigation into the matter on Friday afternoon. Mr. Esper's decision to hold up the investigation has surprised Navy officials, who believed that the defense secretary would leave the process in the hands of the military chain of command."

Jonathan O'Connell of the Washington Post: "AutoNation, a national network of auto sellers, received more than $77 million in federal small-business funds despite being a company worth billions that employed more than 26,000 people before the pandemic. In response to questions from The Washington Post, AutoNation Executive Vice President Marc Cannon said that the company's board voted Thursday to return the funds even though the company had acquired them under the rules created by Congress and intended to use the money only to pay employees.... Documents show the company may have received even more money, a total of $95 million, spread across dozens of locations, an amount that would be more than triple the amount any company is known to have received through the fund. AutoNation disputes the $95 million figure.... AutoNation used separate tax identification numbers assigned to dozens of its more than 300 locations to apply for at least $266 million in funds for separate dealerships.... Because the [SBA] has refused to release data on which companies received loans and the amount of those loans, it's impossible to know whether even larger companies received funding from the program." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: It appears the Post learned of these loans only because of a tip or tips from Auto Nation employees. I don't know why Congress is allowing the SBA to keep the loans secret. Public money is funding these loans/grants. Maybe it's because it was Congress that structured the law so as to allow so many big, publicly-held companies to grab up the majority of the funds.

Chait IDs Donald Trump's "Sophisticated" Friend. Jonathan Chait: "In his remarks to reporters [Friday], before preposterously asserting that his proposals for wild new coronavirus treatments were an elaborate deadpan practical joke on the media, President Trump revealed a conversation with an unidentified friend. This friend 'a very sophisticated man,' Trump noted -- was unaware that there are more than 184 countries in the world, and thought there are far fewer[.] Chait does a little sleuthing of past remarks by Trump and concludes that this "anonymous, geographically ignorant man" is none other than Donald Trump himself. Mrs. McC: The U.N. recognizes 195 countries; it's 197 if you include the Vatican & Palestine.

Bill Barr Promotes Still-Secret Investigation to Help Trump. Adam Goldman, et al., of the New York Times: "Investigators for John H. Durham, the U.S. attorney in Connecticut leading the investigation [into FBI actions re: the Trump campaign's ties to Russia], have asked witnesses about news articles published in early 2017 that former administration officials blame for prompting the chaos that dominated the early days of the Trump presidency, according to three people familiar with the inquiry. Among them was a Washington Post column [by David Ignatius] about Michael T. Flynn, the president's first national security adviser, one of the people said.... New details show that Mr. Durham's inquiry is broader than previously known.... Attorney General William P. Barr has promoted the investigation in recent days [on Laura Ingraham's Fox 'News' show], saying that Mr. Durham has uncovered 'troubling' problems and indicating that some results could [be] made public before the general election in November." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Apparently Barr is unfamiliar with irony. He's leaking tidbits of an investigation into leaks.

Presidential Race

Ryan Grim of the Intercept: "A new piece of evidence has emerged buttressing the credibility of Tara Reade's claim that she told her mother about allegations of sexual harassment and assault related to her former boss, then-Sen. Joe Biden. Biden, through a spokesperson, has denied the allegations. Reade has claimed ... that she told her mother, a close friend, and her brother about both the harassment and, to varying degrees of detail, the assault at the time. Her brother, Collin Moulton, and her friend, who has asked to remain anonymous, both confirmed that they heard about the allegations from Reade at the time. Reade's mother died in 2016.... In interviews with The Intercept, Reade also mentioned that her mother had made a phone call to 'Larry King Live' on CNN, during which she made reference to her daughter's experience on Capitol Hill.... A listener [to a podcast on which Grim spoke] managed to find the call and sent it to The Intercept." Video of the call to Larry King is included in the report.

Way Beyond the Beltway

Hyonhee Shin, et al., of Reuters: "China has dispatched a team to North Korea including medical experts to advise on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to three people familiar with the situation.... Reuters was unable to immediately determine what the trip by the Chinese team signaled in terms of Kim's health."

The Commentariat -- April 24, 2020

Afternoon Update:

The New York Times' live updates for coronavirus developments Friday are here. The Washington Post's live updates are here.

Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump on Friday said he was being sarcastic when he suggested multiple times a day earlier that scientists should consider exposing the body to light, heat and disinfectants as a potential treatment for coronavirus. 'I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen,' Trump told reporters at an Oval Office bill signing. The president's explanation drew skepticism among those who watched the briefing, where Trump directly turned to other government officials to ask about the idea." Mrs. McC: As Anderson Cooper of CNN said, "You just witnessed the President* lying about something we all saw & heard him say only yesterday.... He must think we're all morons." This is a slight paraphrase. Here's a clip of Trump's supposed "sarcastic" remarks. He's querying Bill Bryan & Dr. Deborah Birx:

     ~~~ The full transcript of the "press briefing" is here. It's clear that Trump is dead serious in asking Bryan and Birx about injecting disinfectants & light rays into bodies to cure the coronavirus. The clip does show Trump making one sarcastic remark to Phil Rucker of the WashPo after Rucker asks about all the people dying of Covid-19 in warm climates like Florida & Singapore: "... Here we go.," Trump says. "The new headline is 'Trump asks people to go outside. That's dangerous.'" A few moment later (according to the transcript), Trump disses Rucker personally for asking a related question, "Hey, Phil. I'm the President and you're fake news. And you know what I'll say to you, I'll say very nicely... I know you well. I know you well because I know the guy, I see what he writes. He's a total faker...."

FDA Issues Trump Warning. Nathaniel Weixel of the Hill: "Two anti-malaria medications highly touted by President Trump should not be taken outside a hospital or clinical trial because of the risk of severe heart problems, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned Friday. The FDA said it issued the warning because of numerous reports about serious cardiac events and death in patients with COVID-19 receiving hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, either alone or combined with the antibiotic azithromycin." Mrs. McC: This may be a first: a developed country issues a formal warning against advice their leader gives. Thanks, GOP, for leaving us with this schmuck! ~~~

~~~ Berkeley Lovelace of CNBC: "Citing a 'primary outcome' of death, researchers cut short a study testing anti-malaria drug chloroquine as a potential treatment for Covid-19 after some patients developed irregular heart beats and nearly two dozen died after taking doses daily. Scientists say the findings, published Friday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, should prompt some degree of skepticism from the public toward enthusiastic claims and perhaps 'serve to curb the exuberant use' of the drug, which has been touted by ... Donald Trump as a potential 'game changer' in the fight against the coronavirus." ~~~

~~~ In the meantime, of course, doctors are running around with their hair on fire warning everyone off Trump's disinfectant smoothie: ~~~

~~~ Allyson Chiu of the Washington Post: Trump's musings "spurred doctors, lawmakers and the makers of Lysol to respond with incredulity and warnings against injecting or otherwise ingesting disinfectants, which are highly toxic.... White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany ... accused the media of taking Trump's words out of context." The article is free to nonsubscribers. Of course it is; the story is a life-saving public service announcement. Mrs. McC: Since Republicans in the Senate wouldn't convict him, they should at least agree to pass a law requiring Trump to wear a large skull-and-crossbones Danger! sign on his chest every time he speaks in public.

Lauren Egan of NBC News: "... Donald Trump signed a nearly $500 billion interim coronavirus bill on Friday that includes additional money for the small-business loan program, as well as more funding for hospitals and testing. The bill passed the Senate earlier this week by voice vote and was approved by the House on Thursday on a 388-5-1 bipartisan vote."

~~~~~~~~~

Thursday in Presidential* Quackery

** Time to Pad the Walls of the Brady Press Room. Reed Richardson of Mediaite: "... Donald Trump offered up bizarre and possibly dangerous suggestions about medical research on the coronavirus at his daily White House briefing, suggesting that blasting patients with 'tremendous' amounts of UV light, even 'inside of the body' as well as injecting them with the same disinfectants that are used to kill the viruses on surfaces might be effective treatments for Covid-19. Trump was riffing off of some still developing research presented by Bill Bryan, an official from the Science and Technology branch of the Department of Homeland Security, who had just detailed the half-life of the coronavirus under various heat, humidity, and light conditions. Bryan noted that the virus seemed to decay quicker under the ultraviolet light from the sun.... Trump ... began to discuss his own take on the data.... 'So, supposing we hit the body with tremendous, I don';t know if it's ultraviolet or very powerful light, and I think you said that has been checked but your'e going to test it,' Trump said, turning to Bryan.... ' Then I said what it if you brought the light inside of the body which you could do either through the skin or some other way and I think you said you were going to test that, too, sounds interesting,' he added next, again turning to Bryan for validation. But then Trump even went further, connecting the household bleaching agents in most surface disinfectants to a possible internal treatment for humans, which would be toxic and possibly fatal. 'Then I see the disinfectant, one minute. Is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside, or almost a cleaning. Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it'd be interesting to check that so that you'll have to use medical doctors with.... So we'll see, but the whole concept of the light, where it goes in one minute. That's pretty powerful.'" After Bryan diplomatically nixed Trump's "ideas," Trump doubled down, "waving his hand as if to demonstrate his imagined procedure." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: The article includes video. Because it would have to or readers would not believe even Trump could be this wacko. Especially inasmuch as he claimed in March during a visit to the CDC, "People are surprised that I understand [virology]. Every one of these doctors said, 'How do you know so much about this? ' Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for president." ~~~

This notion of injecting or ingesting any type of cleansing product into the body is irresponsible and it's dangerous. It's a common method that people utilize when they want to kill themselves. -- Pulmonologist Vin Gupta ~~~

~~~ William Broad & Dan Levin of the New York Times: "Shortly after Mr. Trump made his latest comments on Thursday, emergency management officials in Washington State posted a warning on Twitter against following the president's suggestions.... When a reporter [-- Mrs. McC: Philip Rucker of the WashPo --] suggested that Mr. Trump's proposed treatments might be dangerous, letting 'people think they would be safe by going outside in the heat considering that so many people are dying in Florida,' Mr. Trump pivoted to another of his regular briefing themes: attacking the news media. 'Yeah, here -- here we go,' he began, clearly irritated. 'The new headline is, "Trump asks people to go outside, that's dangerous."...' Seeking affirmation of his opinion, Mr. Trump [asked] Dr. Deborah Birx ... if she had heard of the success of sunlight as an effective tool against viruses, and more specifically the coronavirus. 'Not as a treatment...,' Mr. Trump cut short her answer. 'I think that's a great thing to look at,' he said." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Imagine that you're this scientist Bill Bryan. You've been plugging away at your job for decades. In near-total obscurity. Almost by chance, you get a moment on the national stage. It's a big day! Then along comes Trump, who tells you to try shooting up people with bleach & zapping them with UV rays. You have to respond to that. A moment in the sun, it turns out, is not nearly as delightful as Trump would have it. Bill Bryan found that out the hard way. ~~~

     ~~~ BTW, if you're interested in knowing what the study Bryan outlined actually found, this Washington Post story by Andrew Freedman & Jason Samenow does the job. The story is free to nonsubscribers. ~~~

~~~ NBC New York: "The maker of Lysol disinfectants has a stern warning: Please don't ingest its products to try and treat the coronavirus. 'As a global leader in health and hygiene products, we must be clear that under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion or any other route),' British consumer goods company Reckitt Benckiser said in a statement Friday, taking the extra step of bolding the phrase 'under no circumstance' in their release." ~~~

~~~ Trump Thinks He's Entitled to His Own Facts. Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "President Trump said Thursday he disagreed with Anthony Fauci's statement that the U.S. does not yet have the testing capacity that it needs to effectively contain the spread of the novel coronavirus as stay-at-home restrictions are relaxed.... The president described the U.S. as more advanced than other nations on testing, claiming that other countries have inquired about American capabilities. 'We're doing very well on testing. We've tested far more than anyone else in the world and within a short period of time you'll be hearing about new tests that are coming out that are going to be incredible,' Trump said.... Fauci ... told Time in an interview published earlier Thursday that the U.S. needs to 'significantly ramp up' testing in order to contain future outbreaks.... Fauci ... was not present at Thursday's briefing...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Alice Park of Time: "Dr. Anthony Fauci ... says 'we are not in a situation where we can say we are exactly where we want to be with regard to testing' capacity for COVID-19 in the U.S. Fauci, in a discussion for TIME 100 Talks: Finding Hope on Thursday, says that the U.S. needs to not only increase the number of tests, which is happening as commercial testing companies increase production and the Food and Drug Administration continues to clear tests.... But, he says..., 'We need to significantly ramp up not only the number of tests, but the capacity to perform them, so that you don't have a situation where you have a test but it can't be done because there isn't a swab, or because there isn't extraction media, or not the right vial.... I am not overly confident right now at all that we have what it takes to do that. We are doing better, and I think we are going to get there, but we are not there yet.'" ~~~

~~~ James Risen of The Intercept: "[L]ike a medieval demagogue, Trump is spouting quackery and hatred straight out of the 14th century, when panicked Europeans confronting the Black Death strapped live chickens to their bodies, drank potions tinged with mercury and arsenic, and blamed the Mongols and the Jews when none of it worked.... Trump's criminally negligent, chaotic handling of the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed, once and for all, that he is a corrupt, narcissistic psychopath.... Of course, some of Trump's most important enablers are the reporters in the White House press corps, who daily act as his Greek chorus.... The result is that the White House is stuck in a surreal alternate reality in which reporters and government officials continue to do their jobs as if the president were not mad as a hatter." --s

Jennifer Senior of the New York Times: "The president has decided he's had enough of running the country and is running full time for re-election instead. One could argue that this has been Donald J. Trump's approach from the start -- the last three years of shriek-tweeting, Fox-bingeing, and stadium rallies have had little to do with governance -- but it's much more obvious now that we&'re in the midst of a global emergency.... Trump's nightly news conferences, propaganda from the very beginning, are now aimed almost entirely at his base. They are campaign events. And ... the cable news outlets, which still carry the bulk of them live, ought ... check in with the Joe Biden camp before, during and after each one.... It would be harder to make the case for equal time for Biden if Trump were busy telling us what he's doing during these Potemkin pressers. But he's repeatedly telling us what he's not doing, because he's apparently responsible for nothing." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

He's a Nut Job, But He's Our Nut Job. Julie Pace & Anna Fingerhut of the AP: "... Donald Trump has made himself the daily spokesman for the nation's coronavirus response. Yet few Americans regularly look to or trust Trump as a source of information on the pandemic, according to a new survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Just 28% of Americans say they're regularly getting information from Trump about the coronavirus and only 23% say they have high levels of trust in what the president is telling the public. Another 21% trust him a moderate amount.... Only about half of Republicans say they have a lot of trust in Trump's information on the pandemic -- and 22% [of Republicans] say they have little or no trust in what he says about the COVID-19 outbreak. But even as many Republicans question Trump's credibility during the pandemic, the overwhelming majority -- 82% == say they still approve of how he's doing. That's helped keep the president's overall approval rating steady at 42%, about where it's been for the past few months." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Katrin Bennhold of the New York Times: "As images of America's overwhelmed hospital wards and snaking jobless lines have flickered across the world, people on the European side of the Atlantic are looking at the richest and most powerful nation in the world with disbelief.... The pandemic sweeping the globe ... is shaking fundamental assumptions about American exceptionalism -- the special role the United States played for decades after World War II as the reach of its values and power made it a global leader and example to the world. Today it is leading in a different way: More than 840,000 Americans have been diagnosed with Covid-19 and at least 46,784 have died from it, more than anywhere else in the world.... And in the United States, [the pandemic] has exposed two great weaknesses that, in the eyes of many Europeans, have compounded one another: the erratic leadership of Mr. Trump, who has devalued expertise and often refused to follow the advice of his scientific advisers, and the absence of a robust public health care system and social safety net." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

A Day in the Life of a Dimwit. Katie Rogers & Annie Karni of the New York Times: "President Trump arrives in the Oval Office these days as late as noon, when he is usually in a sour mood after his morning marathon of television. He has been up in the White House master bedroom as early as 5 a.m. watching Fox News, then CNN, with a dollop of MSNBC thrown in for rage viewing. He makes calls with the TV on in the background.... The president sees few allies no matter which channel he clicks. He is angry even with Fox, an old security blanket, for not portraying him as he would like to be seen. And he makes time to watch Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's briefings from New York, closely monitoring for a sporadic compliment or snipe.... News coverage of his handling of the coronavirus has been overwhelmingly negative.... Mr. Trump frequently vents about how he is portrayed.... The daily White House coronavirus task force briefing is the one portion of the day that Mr. Trump looks forward to, although even Republicans say that the two hours of political attacks, grievances and falsehoods by the president are hurting him politically.... Mr. Trump rarely attends the task force meetings that precede the briefings, and he typically does not prepare before he steps in front of the cameras."

Richard Fausset & Rick Rojas of the New York Times: "When Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia announced this week that he would soon allow restaurants, barbershops and other businesses to reopen, the Republican governor's plan seemed in tune with a president who had openly encouraged protesters of social distancing restrictions. And the president did seem pleased. On Tuesday night, Vice President Mike Pence and President Trump, in separate phone calls, each expressed his support for the governor's coronavirus response.... That is why Mr. Trump's criticism on Wednesday -- 'I think it's too soon,' the president said during an afternoon briefing -- has baffled Mr. Kemp and Georgia Republicans, whose first-term governor rode to victory on a Trump endorsement. The president amped up his criticism on Thursday. 'I want them to open,' he said of businesses, "... But I was not happy with Brian Kemp. I will tell you that.'... Mr. Trump's public scoldings of Mr. Kemp sent a confusing message to other Republican governors who are considering similar moves.... Governors, even those allied with Mr. Trump, are all but forced to pay close attention to the administration's guidance on the timing of opening up their economies. And the guidance, critics say, is all over the place." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: A few news outlets have given Dr. Deborah Birx credit for getting Trump to criticize Kemp's order, but I'd say Nicolle Wallace of MSNBC put her finger on the real reason when she hypothesized that what really changed Trump's mind were polls that showed Kemp's move was unpopular. ~~~

~~~ Anne Gearan of the Washington Post also examines Trump's mixed & confusing messages on "reopening our country." ~~~

~~~ Jonathan Lemire & Ben Nadler of the AP: "... Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence repeatedly told Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp that they approved of his aggressive plan to allow businesses to reopen, just a day before Trump pulled an about-face and publicly bashed the plan, according to two administration officials. The green light from Pence and Trump came in separate private conversations with the Republican governor both before Kemp announced his plan to ease coronavirus restrictions and after it was unveiled on Monday.... Trump's sudden shift came only after top health advisers reviewed the plan more closely and persuaded the president that Kemp was risking further spread of the virus by moving too quickly."

Katherine Eban of Vanity Fair: "On the afternoon of Saturday, April 4, President Trump stood at the White House podium and escalated his marketing blitz on behalf of hydroxychloroquine, hyping the old malaria drug's alleged promise in treating COVID-19, as well as his administration's success in acquiring huge amounts of it.... That evening, according to emails obtained by Vanity Fair, Trump's political appointees would ramp up the pressure on career health officials to make good on the president's extravagant promises, despite clear warnings from federal clinicians about the risks and unproven benefits of chloroquine-based treatments for COVID-19.... That night, Brett Giroir, the assistant secretary for health in the Department of Health and Human Services, sent an email [to top officials, announcing,] 'WH call. Really want to flood Ny and NJ with treatment courses....'... [In another email,] Giroir argued strongly against limiting the drugs to hospitals.... [A series of] emails indicate that the administration's top health officials were closely involved in a frenzied effort to make unproven chloroquine treatments widely available, even though the FDA's new emergency rule limited distribution of the drug as a COVID-19 treatment to hospitalized patients.... The intra-White House battle over the use of chloroquine drugs for treating COVID-19 broke into the open in dramatic fashion on April 21, when the administration's top coronavirus vaccine developer, Rick Bright, was pushed out of his position...." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I figured Giroir was some low-information Trump political appointee, so I checked his Wikipage. Wow! I was completely wrong! He has an incredible amount of academic, professional (and military) experience in immunology, infectious diseases & other applicable fields. His CV would be pages long & all of it impressive. You would trust him with your life. Until now.

Dareh Gregorian & Geoff Bennett of NBC News: "A top Health and Human Services official [Dr. Rick Bright] who said he was transferred from his post for pushing back on 'efforts to fund potentially dangerous drugs promoted by those with political connections' felt pressured to rush access to chloroquine treatments for coronavirus after President Donald Trump had a conversation about it with a mega-rich donor [Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison], a source close to the doctor told NBC News.... Ellison sits on the White House economic recovery task force and is one of the president's top supporters in the tech industry. The billionaire also hosted a big-money fundraiser for Trump at his home in Rancho Mirage, Calif., in February." --s

Andrew Kaczynski, et al., of CNN: "The new spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services in a series of now-deleted tweets made racist and derogatory comments about Chinese people, said Democrats wanted the coronavirus to kill millions of people and accused the media of intentionally creating panic around the pandemic to hurt ... Donald Trump. Michael Caputo, a longtime New York Republican political operative who worked on Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, was appointed last week as Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at HHS, a prominent communications role at the department which serves a central role in the federal government's response to the coronavirus pandemic. Caputo, a prolific user who often tweeted insults and profanity, recently erased nearly his entire Twitter history from before April 12." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump's HHS Department is pretty great. They hired a guy (apparently at Trump's behest) who's a xenophobic liar who falsely accuses Democrats of wishing death to millions; the guy who is running the department's pandemic response lacks much experience in anything but labradoodle breeding, and they fired a doctor who's an expert on vaccines because he pushed back against funding Trump's magical meds. Decency & competence are liabilities at HHS, not assets. ~~~

~~~ Todd Gillman of the Dallas Morning News: "No, the Trump administration did not put a professional dog breeder from Dallas in charge of COVID-19 response. Yes, the chief of staff at the Department of Health and Human Services briefly owned a family business raising Labradoodles. But he's also served three administrations in high level posts at HHS, the White House and the Pentagon. Colleagues who hired Harrison and served with him in government were appalled to see him disparaged Thursday as a mere 'dog breeder.'... By all accounts of those who've worked with him, Harrison is a serious public servant with deep experience. And he was never in charge of pandemic containment strategy. He was, rather, assigned a typical role for a cabinet secretary's chief of staff, serving as aide de camp on a task force run by the boss himself -- until Trump stripped that job from [HHHS Secretary Alex] Azar.... Trump's irritation with ... Azar, has been apparent for months and some confidants suspect that he's has gotten caught in the crossfire of a classic Washington ritual: finger pointing." Mrs. McC: Aah, I'm going with the dog-breeder characterization. Arf. ~~~

~~~ Then There's This Guy. Brendan Morrow of the Week: "One of President Trump's economic advisers has an admittedly 'crazy' idea for how to reopen the country amid the coronavirus pandemic: space outfits. Stephen Moore, a member of Trump's economic task force, spoke to The New York Times this week about restarting the U.S. economy, saying he's been advising the president about how 'we have to really get things opened' as soon as May 1st. But how are states to send people back to work in a safe way that doesn't endanger public health? Moore offered a bit of an ... out of the box ... suggestion. 'I was thinking this morning, and this is just kind of a thought experiment because I was thinking about this -- why don't we just put everybody in a space outfit or something like that?' Moore asked. 'No. Seriously.' The Times noted to Miller that 'well, we'd have to make the space outfits,' a fact he acknowledged while continuing to spitball." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: That was this week. Last week, Moore was "repeatedly compar[ing] protesters who demonstrated against social-distancing measures to civil-rights icon Rosa Parks." Apparently Moore didn't notice that the protesters whose virtues he was extolling were carrying Confederate flags, whereas the flag-waving rebs of Parks' day were her antagonists. But don't think Moore isn't sensitive to racial issues. Like back when he joked "about Trump moving into the White House and kicking 'a black family out of public housing.'"

** Jonathan Allen, et al., of NBC News: After an executive of Prestige Ameritech went on Steve Bannon's podcast, Bannon hooked him up with White House trade advisor Peter Navarro. Soon, Prestige Ameritech had a $9.5MM FEMA contract "directed by the White House" to produce medical masks & another excellent deal with Texas, engineered by Gov. Greg Abbott. "... it ... shows ... how Trump and his top aides have played favorites in awarding contracts and allocating scarce resources. Using the unilateral authority of the White House, Trump and his aides have consolidated power in a period of national crisis, picking winners and losers based in part on personal relationships, ideological affinity and partisan loyalty. Ultimately, that favoritism has created a two-track system of haves and have-nots in what Trump calls the 'war' against the coronavirus.... Put simply, the fight for survival among businesses related to the COVID-19 fight -- and for a slice of the billions of dollars going out the door — is about political influence. Most of the decisions are made by members of Vice President Mike Pence's coronavirus task force, which works closely with White House senior adviser Jared Kushner's innovation team.... There's growing evidence that Trump and his aides are using his authority over both the contracting and allocation processes for political gain." Read on.

Jonathan O'Connell & Aaron Gregg of the Washington Post: "... the Small Business Administration issued new guidance Thursday that suggested dozens of publicly held companies that previously received loans under the program should return the funds by May 7. The SBA's original $349 billion Paycheck Protection Program contained a vague requirement that businesses certify that 'current economic uncertainty makes this loan request necessary.' The new guidance is more explicit and said companies that had other sources of cash probably would not qualify.... While the SBA has refused to release a list of companies that received loans under the PPP, dozens of [large,] publicly traded companies have disclosed receiving the loans in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.... Although it relies on borrowers to certify their own eligibility, the SBA could audit loan recipients once the crisis passes. Violating the Cares Act rules would amount to breaking the law and submitting false information to a federally insured lender carries stiff penalties." ~~~

~~~ Stephen Gandel & Graham Kates of CBS News: "A digital technology company that specializes in the mass collection of smartphone location data and is working for ... Donald Trump's re-election campaign received millions from the federal coronavirus relief fund for small businesses. The company, Phunware, which now has about 60 employees, was eligible for the low-interest loan through the Paycheck Protection Program, which is aimed at businesses with less than 500 workers. There is no allegation of illegality associated with its loan. But the size of the loan -- $2.85 million -- is nearly 14 times the current PPP average of $206,000. Meantime, hundreds of thousands of smaller businesses got nothing, because the nearly $350 billion loan program ran out of money in just two weeks.... The speed of Phunware's loan is notable, too. The publicly traded Texas-based company named a high-profile former Wall Street executive as its corporate board chair on March 30, the day after the PPP program was passed by Congress.... The executive is Blythe Masters, who until 2014 had spent most of her financial services career at JPMorgan Chase, the bank that made the PPP loan to Phunware. The company received its loan funds two days after applying." Lou Rabon, who is suing Chase, said his small business applied via Chase for a $200K loan four days earlier than did Phunware -- the first day one could apply -- and has not yet received a loan.

Erica Werner of the Washington Post: "The House overwhelmingly passed a $484 billion spending package Thursday as the unemployment crisis deepened, a stark illustration of how policymakers continue trying to rescue an unraveling economy amid growing despair. Th legislation, approved 388-5, would restart a small-business loan program that was swamped by demand and allocate more money for health-care providers and virus testing. The vote was historic, as many lawmakers wore masks on the House floor, some even speaking through face coverings as they delivered impassioned remarks.... The legislation will now go to President Trump...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Unemployment Problem Is Worse Than the Numbers Reveal. Patricia Cohen of the New York Times: "... millions of laid-off workers have still not been able to apply for [unemployment] benefits -- let alone receive them -- because of overwhelmed state unemployment systems.... According to the Labor Department, only 10 states have started making payments under the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, which extends coverage to freelancers, self-employed workers and part-timers. Most states have not even completed the system needed to start the process."

New York. Karen Matthews & David Caruso of the AP: "More evidence is emerging that far more New Yorkers have had the coronavirus than the number confirmed by lab tests, officials said Thursday, offering insight that could help authorities decide how and how quickly to let people stop isolating from friends and return to work. Blood samples collected from about 3,000 people indicated that nearly 14% had developed antibodies to fight a coronavirus infection, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at his daily news briefing. In New York City, the epicenter of the pandemic in the U.S., 21% of the people tested had antibodies. It's not know yet how much protection antibodies provide or how long that immunity might last, and Cuomo cautioned that the data was preliminary. The sample of people tested was small. Participants were hastily recruited at shopping centers and grocery stores, meaning they were healthy enough to be out in public." (Also linked yesterday.)

Pennsylvania. Still, There Will Be Heroes. Meagan Flynn of the Washington Post: "At his factory just off the Delaware River, in the far southeastern corner of Pennsylvania, Joe Boyce clocked in on March 23 for the longest shift of his life. In his office, an air mattress replaced his desk chair. He brought a toothbrush and shaving kit, moving into the Braskem petrochemical plant in Marcus Hook, Pa., as if it were a makeshift college dormitory. The casual office kitchen became a mess hall for him and his 42 co-workers turned roommates. The factory's emergency operations center became their new lounge room. For 28 days, they did not leave -- sleeping and working all in one place. In what they called a 'live-in' at the factory, the undertaking was just one example of the endless ways that Americans in every industry have uniquely contributed to fighting coronavirus. The 43 men went home Sunday after each working 12-hour shifts all day and night for a month straight, producing tens of millions of pounds of the raw materials that will end up in face masks and surgical gowns worn on the front lines of the pandemic." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

Feeding Hungry Americans. Here's a partial response to a comment RAS made in Wednesday's thread: ~~~

~~~ Danielle Garrand of CBS News: "Farmers around the country have been forced to dump milk and waste fresh produce as schools, restaurants and other institutions remain closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. In response, Supermarket chain Publix launched a new initiative Wednesday to help struggling farmers -- and get the food to Americans who need it most. The company's press release said it will purchase fresh produce and milk from farmers impacted by the COVID-19 crisis and donate the goods directly to Feeding America food banks that are in its 'operating area.' During the first week of the initiative alone, some 150,000 pounds of produce and 43,500 gallons of milk is expected to be donated, the company said.... In addition to the new initiative, Publix Super Markets Charities recently made donations which totaled $2 million to help Feeding America's member food banks amid the crisis." Mrs. McC: Publix is owned by its employees. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ AND Now This. Laura Reiley of the Washington Post: "Farmers in the upper Midwest euthanize their baby pigs because the slaughterhouses are backing up or closing, while dairy owners in the region dump thousands of gallons of milk a day. In Salinas, Calif., rows of ripe iceberg, romaine and red-leaf lettuce shrivel in the spring sun, waiting to be plowed back into the earth.... Across the country, an unprecedented disconnect is emerging between where food is produced and the food banks and low-income neighborhoods that desperately need it.... Late last week, the Trump administration stepped in, announcing a $19 billion program to help the struggling agriculture sector and distribute food to families in need. The aid package includes the government purchase of $3 billion in dairy, produce and meat products that will go to food banks and those in need. (About $16 billion is going to direct payments to farmers and ranchers.)" The article goes on to detail the distribution problems the operation faces. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I made a substantial contribution last week to a local food bank, and the director told me the organization had solved the distribution problem by sending grocery-store gift cards to needy families. This would not work in every case, but grocery gift cards would go a long way toward putting food on many families' tables, at the same time eliminating the need for creating a separate distribution system of perishables for food banks.

Oops. Ed Silverman, et al., of STAT: "The antiviral medicine remdesivir from Gilead Sciences failed to speed the improvement of patients with Covid-19 or prevent them from dying, according to results from a long-awaited clinical trial conducted in China. Gilead, however, said the data suggest a 'potential benefit.' A summary of the study results was inadvertently posted to the website of the World Health Organization and seen by STAT on Thursday, but then removed." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Sasha Pezenik of ABC News: "The eldest of former Democratic presidential contender and Massachusetts Sen. Sen. Elizabeth Warren's three older brothers, Don Reed, died on Tuesday night from the coronavirus in Norman, Oklahoma, about three weeks after testing positive. He was 86.... Warren has been passionately outspoken about the pandemic's grip on the nation and world; and a vocal critic of the Trump administration's response to the COVID-19 crisis; releasing plans to combat its economic impact." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Pandemics Kill Twin Brothers, 100 Years Apart. Giulia Nieto del Rio of CNN: "A 100-year-old World War II veteran who died from Covid-19 lost a twin brother to the 1918 pandemic a century earlier, his grandson said. Philip Kahn is the oldest veteran in Nassau County, New York, according to his family, and had been fearful of another pandemic happening in his lifetime, his grandson, Warren Zysman, told CNN.... Kahn and his twin brother, Samuel, were born on December 5, 1919. His brother died weeks later, [Zysman] said."

Coral Murphy of USA Today: "Retail stores may take a big hit: 100,000 locations could close by 2025 -- a trend accelerated by the COVID-19 outbreak -- if more Americans opt for online shopping. Analysts at Wall Street firm UBS said in a research note this week that the pandemic could alter behaviors, leading more shoppers to continue buying online. Shoppers who do go to stores may not linger, they said." --s

Presidential Race. Ha! Marc Caputo, et al., of Politico: "Donald Trump is warning 'China will own the United States' if Joe Biden is elected president. But Trump himself is tens of millions of dollars in debt to China: In 2012, his real estate partner refinanced one of Trump's most prized New York buildings for almost $1 billion. The debt includes $211 million from the state-owned Bank of China -- its first loan of this kind in the U.S. -- which matures in the middle of what could be Trump's second term, financial records show.... Aside from the historic precedent of a developer-turned president paying back millions to a bank controlled a foreign government, the 2012 Bank of China deal also stands out because Trump and his campaign have repeatedly highlighted the same bank's role in a $1.5 billion deal announced in 2013 by partners of Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden. Critics of the Bidens have seized on the fact that the agreement materialized just days after Hunter Biden traveled to China with the then-vice president, who was there on official business.... [Also,] Chinese state-owned companies are constructing two luxury Trump developments in United Arab Emirates and Indonesia."

Senate Race. Georgia. She Got Runned Over by a Damned Trump Bus. Greg Bluestein of the Atlanta Journal Constitution: "... Donald Trump's opposition to Gov. Brian Kemp's plan to start reopening parts of Georgia's economy will force Republican candidates to pick between their party's leader or the state's top official amid the coronavirus pandemic. That tension quickly factored into the race between U.S. Kelly Loeffler, Kemp's appointee to the seat, and U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, whom Trump initially favored. Loeffler said Thursday she supports Kemp's 'efforts to begin to get Georgians back to work safely,' while Collins was critical of the governor.... In a quirk of timing, [Loeffler] joined the governor on a tele-town hall shortly before Trump's press briefing where she spoke of Kemp's approach as a needed step.... 'Poor Kelly did this to herself. She asked Brian to help her across the political street and they both got hit by a bus,' said Collins spokesman Dan McLagan. 'Which then got backed over them. And caught fire.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Bob Brigham of the Raw Story: "The husband of 'The View' personality Meghan McCain violated federal labor law while threatening employees of his right-wing website against unionizing. In 2019, Ben Domenech tweeted that that union organizing in his workplace would result in the employee being sent 'back to the salt mine.' 'FDRLST Media chief Ben Domenech's tweet was an 'obvious threat' -- not a joke or an expression of opinion shielded by the First Amendment -- when viewed in light of workers' legally protected rights, Judge Kenneth Chu said Wednesday,' Bloomberg Law reports." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

Texas. Emmanuel Felton of Buzzfeed: "Police in Texas arrested a man earlier this month after they said he took to Facebook Live to stream his search for a lone police officer to 'ambush and execute.'... [A]uthorities received several 911 calls reporting that 36-year-old Aaron Swenson went live on Facebook on the night of April 11, broadcasting his intentions to kill a police officer. After joining the live feed, police were able to identify Swenson's whereabouts and sent several officers to the area.... For months leading up to the incident, Swenson had been sharing memes from boogaloo pages on Facebook. In this internet subculture, boogaloo is slang for an upcoming second civil war, and members share anti-government, anti-law enforcement, and pro-gun messages." --s

The Commentariat -- April 23, 2020

Afternoon Update:

** Time to Pad the Walls of the Brady Press Room. Reed Richardson of Mediaite: "... Donald Trump offered up bizarre and possibly dangerous suggestions about medical research on the coronavirus at his daily White House briefing, suggesting that blasting patients with 'tremendous' amounts of UV light, even 'inside of the body'; as well as injecting them with the same disinfectants that are used to kill the viruses on surfaces might be effective treatments for Covid-19. Trump was riffing off of some still developing research presented by Bill Bryan, an official from the Science and Technology branch of the Department of Homeland Security, who had just detailed the half-life of the coronavirus under various heat, humidity, and light conditions. Bryan noted that the virus seemed to decay quicker under the ultraviolet light from the sun.... Trump ... began to discuss his own take on the data.... ' So, supposing we hit the body with tremendous, I don't know if it's ultraviolet or very powerful light, and I think you said that has been checked but you're going to test it,' Trump said, turning to Bryan.... ' Then I said what it if you brought the light inside of the body which you could do either through the skin or some other way and I think you said you were going to test that, too, sounds interesting,' he added next, again turning to Bryan for validation. But then Trump even went further, connecting the household bleaching agents in most surface disinfectants to a possible internal treatment for humans, which would be toxic and possibly fatal. 'Then I see the disinfectant, one minute. Is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside, or almost a cleaning. Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it'd be interesting to check that so that you'll have to use medical doctors with.... So we'll see, but the whole concept of the light, where it goes in one minute. That's pretty powerful." After Bryan diplomatically nixed Trump's "ideas," Trump doubled down, "waving his hand as if to demonstrate his imagined procedure." The article includes video.

Trump Thinks He's Entitled to His Own Facts. Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "President Trump said Thursday he disagreed with Anthony Fauci's statement that the U.S. does not yet have the testing capacity that it needs to effectively contain the spread of the novel coronavirus as stay-at-home restrictions are relaxed.... The president described the U.S. as more advanced than other nations on testing, claiming that other countries have inquired about American capabilities. 'We're doing very well on testing. We've tested far more than anyone else in the world and within a short period of time you'll be hearing about new tests that are coming out that are going to be incredible,' Trump said.... Fauci ... told Time in an interview published earlier Thursday that the U.S. needs to 'significantly ramp up' testing in order to contain future outbreaks.... Fauci ... was not present at Thursday's briefing...."

Erica Werner of the Washington Post: "The House overwhelmingly passed a $484 billion spending package Thursday as the unemployment crisis deepened, a stark illustration of how policymakers continue trying to rescue an unraveling economy amid growing despair. The legislation, approved 388-5, would restart a small-business loan program that was swamped by demand and allocate more money for health-care providers and virus testing. The vote was historic, as many lawmakers wore masks on the House floor, some even speaking through face coverings as they delivered impassioned remarks.... The legislation will now go to President Trump...."

He's a Liar, But We'll Vote for Him. Julie Pace & Anna Fingerhut of the AP: "... Donald Trump has made himself the daily spokesman for the nation's coronavirus response. Yet few Americans regularly look to or trust Trump as a source of information on the pandemic, according to a new survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Just 28% of Americans say they're regularly getting information from Trump about the coronavirus and only 23% say they have high levels of trust in what the president is telling the public. Another 21% trust him a moderate amount.... Only about half of Republicans say they have a lot of trust in Trump's information on the pandemic -- and 22% [of Republicans] say they have little or no trust in what he says about the COVID-19 outbreak. But even as many Republicans question Trump's credibility during the pandemic, the overwhelming majority -- 82% -- say they still approve of how he's doing. That's helped keep the president's overall approval rating steady at 42%, about where it's been for the past few months."

Andrew Kaczynski, et al., of CNN: "The new spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services in a series of now-deleted tweets made racist and derogatory comments about Chinese people, said Democrats wanted the coronavirus to kill millions of people and accused the media of intentionally creating panic around the pandemic to hurt ... Donald Trump. Michael Caputo, a longtime New York Republican political operative who worked on Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, was appointed last week as Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at HHS, a prominen communications role at the department which serves a central role in the federal government's response to the coronavirus pandemic. Caputo, a prolific user who often tweeted insults and profanity, recently erased nearly his entire Twitter history from before April 12." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump's HHS Department is pretty great. They hired a guy (apparently at Trump's behest) who's a xenophobic liar who falsely accuses Democrats of wishing death to millions; the guy who is running the department's pandemic response lacks much experience in anything but labradoodle breeding, and they fired a doctor who's an expert on vaccines because he pushed back against funding Trump's magical meds. Decency & competence are liabilities at HHS, not assets.

Oops. Ed Silverman, et al., of STAT: "The antiviral medicine remdesivir from Gilead Sciences failed to speed the improvement of patients with Covid-19 or prevent them from dying, according to results from a long-awaited clinical trial conducted in China. Gilead, however, said the data suggest a 'potential benefit.' A summary of the study results was inadvertently posted to the website of the World Health Organization and seen by STAT on Thursday, but then removed."

New York. Karen Matthews & David Caruso of the AP: "More evidence is emerging that far more New Yorkers have had the coronavirus than the number confirmed by lab tests, officials said Thursday, offering insight that could help authorities decide how and how quickly to let people stop isolating from friends and return to work. Blood samples collected from about 3,000 people indicated that nearly 14% had developed antibodies to fight a coronavirus infection, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at his daily news briefing. In New York City, the epicenter of the pandemic in the U.S., 21% of the people tested had antibodies. It's not know yet how much protection antibodies provide or how long that immunity might last, and Cuomo cautioned that the data was preliminary. The sample of people tested was small. Participants were hastily recruited at shopping centers and grocery stores, meaning they were healthy enough to be out in public."

Katrin Bennhold of the New York Times: "As images of America's overwhelmed hospital wards and snaking jobless lines have flickered across the world, people on the European side of the Atlantic are looking at the richest and most powerful nation in the world with disbelief.... The pandemic sweeping the globe ... is shaking fundamental assumptions about American exceptionalism -- the special role the United States played for decades after World War II as the reach of its values and power made it a global leader and example to the world. Today it is leading in a different way: More than 840,000 Americans have been diagnosed with Covid-19 and at least 46,784 have died from it, more than anywhere else in the world.... And in the United States, [the pandemic] has exposed two great weaknesses that, in the eyes of many Europeans, have compounded one another: the erratic leadership of Mr. Trump, who has devalued expertise and often refused to follow the advice of his scientific advisers, and the absence of a robust public health care system and social safety net." ~~~

~~~ Yet There Will Be Heroes. Meagan Flynn of the Washington Post: "At his factory just off the Delaware River, in the far southeastern corner of Pennsylvania, Joe Boyce clocked in on March 23 for the longest shift of his life. In his office, an air mattress replaced his desk chair. He brought a toothbrush and shaving kit, moving into the Braskem petrochemical plant in Marcus Hook, Pa., as if it were a makeshift college dormitory. The casual office kitchen became a mess hall for him and his 42 co-workers turned roommates. The factory's emergency operations center became their new lounge room. For 28 days, they did not leave -- sleeping and working all in one place. In what they called a 'live-in' at the factory, the undertaking was just one example of the endless ways that Americans in every industry have uniquely contributed to fighting coronavirus. The 43 men went home Sunday after each working 12-hour shifts all day and night for a month straight, producing tens of millions of pounds of the raw materials that will end up in face masks and surgical gowns worn on the front lines of the pandemic." ~~~

Here's a partial response to a comment RAS made in yesterday's thread:

Danielle Garrand of CBS News: "Farmers around the country have been forced to dump milk and waste fresh produce as schools, restaurants and other institutions remain closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. In response, Supermarket chain Publix launched a new initiative Wednesday to help struggling farmers -- and get the food to Americans who need it most. The company's press release said it will purchase fresh produce and milk from farmers impacted by the COVID-19 crisis and donate the goods directly to Feeding America food banks that are in its 'operating area.' During the first week of the initiative alone, some 150,000 pounds of produce and 43,500 gallons of milk is expected to be donated, the company said.... In addition to the new initiative, Publix Super Markets Charities recently made donations which totaled $2 million to help Feeding America's member food banks amid the crisis." Mrs. McC: Publix is owned by its employees.

Jennifer Senior of the New York Times: "The president has decided he's had enough of running the country and is running full time for re-election instead. One could argue that this has been Donald J. Trump's approach from the start -- the last three years of shriek-tweeting, Fox-bingeing, and stadium rallies have had little to do with governance -- but it's much more obvious now that we're in the midst of a global emergency.... Trump's nightly news conferences, propaganda from the very beginning, are now aimed almost entirely at his base. They are campaign events. And ... the cable news outlets, which still carry the bulk of them live, ought ... check in with the Joe Biden camp before, during and after each one.... It would be harder to make the case for equal time for Biden if Trump were busy telling us what he's doing during these Potemkin pressers. But he's repeatedly telling us what he's not doing, because he's apparently responsible for nothing."

Sasha Pezenik of ABC News: "The eldest of ... Massachusetts Sen. Sen. Elizabeth Warren's three older brothers, Don Reed, died on Tuesday night from the coronavirus in Norman, Oklahoma, about three weeks after testing positive. He was 86.... Warren has been passionately outspoken about the pandemic's grip on the nation and world; and a vocal critic of the Trump administration's response to the COVID-19 crisis; releasing plans to combat its economic impact."

She Got Runned Over by a Damned Trump Bus. Greg Bluestein of the Atlanta Journal Constitution: "... Donald Trump's opposition to Gov. Brian Kemp's plan to start reopening parts of Georgia's economy will force Republican candidates to pick between their party's leader or the state&'s top official amid the coronavirus pandemic. That tension quickly factored into the race between U.S. Kelly Loeffler, Kemp';s appointee to the seat, and U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, whom Trump initially favored. Loeffler said Thursday she supports Kemp's 'efforts to begin to get Georgians back to work safely,' while Collins was critical of the governor.... In a quirk of timing, [Loeffler] joined the governor on a tele-town hall shortly before Trump's press briefing where she spoke of Kemp's approach as a needed step.... 'Poor Kelly did this to herself. She asked Brian to help her across the political street and they both got hit by a bus,' said Collins spokesman Dan McLagan. 'Which then got backed over them. And caught fire.'"

Bob Brigham of the Raw Story: "The husband of 'The View' personality Meghan McCain violated federal labor law while threatening employees of his right-wing website against unionizing. In 2019, Ben Domenech tweeted that that union organizing in his workplace would result in the employee being sent 'back to the salt mine.' 'FDRLST Media chief Ben Domenech's tweet was an "obvious threat" -- not a joke or an expression of opinion shielded by the First Amendment -- when viewed in light of workers' legally protected rights, Judge Kenneth Chu said Wednesday,' Bloomberg Law reports."

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Jeff Cox of CNBC: "Jobless claim filings continued at a historically unprecedented pace last week with 4.4 million new signups for unemployment insurance, bringing the total of the past five weeks to 26.4 million, the Labor Department said Thursday. The total represented a decline of 810,000 from the previous week, but the five-week sum has now surpassed all of the job gains since the financial crisis...."

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Thursday are here. "Lawmakers are gathering in Washington today to vote on a $484 billion coronavirus package that would revive a depleted loan program for distressed small businesses and provide funds for hospitals and coronavirus testing. But it will not provide money for state governments, even as governors across the country have had to divert resources to fight the virus while watching their revenue streams fall off a cliff.... Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, said that states should consider declaring bankruptcy rather than looking to the federal government.States do not now have the ability to declare bankruptcy to reduce their financial obligations, but Mr. McConnell raised the possibility of letting them do so."

Notes from Wednesday's Propaganda Briefing:

Here's Trump comparing the crowd he got for his speech last July 4th to crowds MLK used to get for his speeches pic.twitter.com/rwaO0YPj4G

-- Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 22, 2020

If we have embers of corona coupled with the flu, it's not going to be what we’ve gone through in any way, shape or form.... It's also possible it doesn't come back at all. -- Donald Trump, Wednesday's briefing

There will be coronavirus in the fall. -- Anthony Fauci, Wednesday's briefing ~~~

~~~ Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "The president's latest assertion seemed prompted by his anger with The Washington Post over an interview with Dr. Robert R. Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, published a day earlier. In that interview, Dr. Redfield warned that fall and winter would be taxing on Americans because influenza and the coronavirus would be circulating at the same time. 'He was misquoted,' Mr. Trump said.... On Wednesday, directed by the president to take the stage, Dr. Redfield said, 'When I commented yesterday that there was a possibility of next fall and winter, it could be more difficult, more complicated when we had two respiratory illnesses circulating at the same time.'... When pressed by reporters, Dr. Redfield said he had been accurately quoted." ~~~

~~~ Ashley Parker, et al., of the Washington Post: "Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, issued a candid warning Tuesday in a Washington Post interview: A simultaneous flu and coronavirus outbreak next fall and winter 'will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through,' adding that calls and protests to 'liberate' states from stay-at-home orders -- as President Trump has tweeted -- were 'not helpful.' The next morning, Trump cracked down with a Twitter edict: Redfield had been totally misquoted in a cable news story summarizing the interview, he claimed, and would be putting out a statement shortly. By Wednesday evening, Redfield appeared at the daily White House briefing -- saying he had been accurately quoted after all, while also trying to soften his words as the president glowered next to him."

Uh-Oh. Trump Hangs Kemp Out to Dry. Dareh Gregorian of NBC News: "... Donald Trump said Wednesday he 'strongly disagrees' with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp's decision to allow businesses like barbershops and nail salons to reopen, a day after he praised him during the White House briefing. 'I told the governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, that I disagree strongly with his decision to open certain facilities,' Trump said at his daily coronavirus briefing Wednesday. 'But at the same time, he must do what he thinks is right. I want him to do what he thinks is right. But I disagree with him on what he's doing.' Kemp tweeted after the president's remarks that he appreciated Trump's 'bold leadership and insight during these difficult times,' but he didn't back down.... Asked about the same plan Tuesday, Trump praised Kemp as 'a capable man who knows what he's doing.'"

MSNBC: "President Trump said he did not know Dr. Rick Bright, a leading vaccine doctor who says he was ousted from his position for resisting the recommendation of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for the coronavirus by the Trump administration. Yet after further questioning, the president began to question Bright's experience." This is a caption for a video of portions of Trump's "briefing," which is worth watching. ~~~

~~~ Michael Shear & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "The official who led the federal agency involved in developing a coronavirus vaccine said on Wednesday that he was removed from his post after he pressed for rigorous vetting of hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug embraced by President Trump as a coronavirus treatment, and that the administration had put 'politics and cronyism ahead of science.' Rick Bright was abruptly dismissed this week as the director of the Department of Health and Human Services' Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA, and removed as the deputy assistant secretary for preparedness and response. He was given a narrower job at the National Institutes of Health. In a scorching statement, Dr. Bright, who received a Ph.D. in immunology and molecular pathogenesis from Emory University, assailed the leadership at the health department, saying he was pressured to direct money toward hydroxychloroquine, one of several 'potentially dangerous drugs promoted by those with political connections' and repeatedly described by the president as a potential 'game changer' in the fight against the virus." ~~~

~~~ From the New York Times' live updates Wednesday: "'I believe [my] transfer was in response to my insistence that the government invest the billions of dollars allocated by Congress to address the Covid-19 pandemic into safe and scientifically vetted solutions, and not in drugs, vaccines and other technologies that lack scientific merit,' [Bright] said in a statement to The Times's Maggie Haberman.... 'Specifically, and contrary to misguided directives, I limited the broad use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, promoted by the administration as a panacea, but which clearly lack scientific merit,' he said.... 'I will request that the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services investigate the manner in which this administration has politicized the work of BARDA and has pressured me and other conscientious scientists to fund companies with political connections and efforts that lack scientific merit,' he said." This is a follow-up to a STAT story linked yesterday. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Larry Elliott of the Guardian: "Donald Trump's botched handling of the Covid-19 crisis has left the US looking like a 'third world' country and on course for a second Great Depression, one of the world's leading economists has warned. In a withering attack on the president, Joseph Stiglitz said millions of people were turning to food banks, turning up for work due to a lack of sick pay and dying because of health inequalities. The Nobel prize-winning economist said: 'The numbers turning to food banks are just enormous and beyond the capacity of them to supply. It is like a third world country. The public social safety net is not working.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Lock Him Out! Gabby Orr of Politico: "As his own health officials continue to warn against nonessential travel, Trump has privately urged aides over the past week to start adding official events back to his schedule, including photo ops and site visits that would allow him to ditch Washington for a few hours. The day trips would be similar to those Vice President Mike Pence has made visiting businesses during the viral pandemic, according to three people familiar with the planning.... 'If there was a situation where the president was trying to violate his own guidelines, we would certainly have a conversation about that,' said an aide to Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers." (Also linked yesterday.)

Aram Roston & Melissa Taylor of Reuters: In late January, HHS Secretary Alex "Azar tapped a trusted aide with minimal public health experience to lead the agency's day-to-day response to COVID-19. The aide, Brian Harrison, had joined the department after running a dog-breeding business for six years. Five sources say some officials in the White House derisively called him 'the dog breeder.'... Harrison, 37, was an unusual choice, with no formal education in public health, management, or medicine and with only limited experience in the fields." Mrs. McC: I do think breeding labradoodles is excellent experience for running a massive effort to save the nation from a looming pandemic. Maybe the reason I would not be up to the task is that I had my dogs neutered.

Betsy DeVos Is So Sweet. From the NYT's live updates for today: "The Education Department will prohibit colleges from granting emergency assistance to undocumented students, even those currently under federal protection, according to guidance issued to colleges and universities on Tuesday. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos ordered higher education institutions to distribute more than $6 billion in emergency relief only to students who are eligible for federal financial aid, including U.S. citizens or legal residents. The directive effectively excluded the hundreds of thousands of students who attend college under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals -- or DACA -- program, an Obama-era policy that protects hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children. Mr. Trump has moved to end the program, but that effort is awaiting Supreme Court review." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Erin Banco & Spencer Ackerman of the Daily Beast: "A Silicon Valley company co-founded by a close ally of ... Donald Trump will play a major new role in helping the government track the spread of the coronavirus, pulling information that is being used by top administration officials, including the president himself. Palantir, the data-mining firm created by investor Peter Thiel, is best known for its work with global intelligence, military, and law enforcement agencies. Now, the company has a contract with the Department of Health and Human Services to help the federal government create a new data platform called HHS Protect Now.... Palantir's involvement in the creation of a new government coronavirus data platform system underscores the Trump administration's reliance on close political allies of the president to respond to the global pandemic. Thiel was Trump's earliest and highest-profile backer in Silicon Valley, and delivered a prime-time speech at the 2016 Republican National Convention."

Coalition of the Witless. Matt Dixon of Politico: "Republican governors across the Southeast are teaming up to reopen the region's economy, even as they lack the testing to know how rapidly the coronavirus is spreading. One health expert called the political decision a 'perfect storm' for the virus to reassert itself. The newly formed coalition includes Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi, a part of the country that has underfunded health systems, as well as high rates of obesity, diabetes and other illnesses that amplify the deadliness of the coronavirus. And unlike their peers in New York, New Jersey and other Northeastern states that have been working cooperatively since last week to restart their economies, the six in the South have lagged on testing and social distancing measures." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ William Wan, et al., of the Washington Post: "As several states -- including [Georgia,] South Carolina, Tennessee and Florida -- rush to reopen businesses, the sudden relaxation of restrictions will supply new targets for the coronavirus that has kept the United States largely closed down, according to experts, math models and the basic rules that govern infectious diseases.... Georgia, according to some models, is one of the last states that should be reopening. The state has had more than 830 covid-19 deaths. It has tested less than 1 percent of its residents -- low compared with other states and the national rate. And the limited amount of testing so far shows a high rate of positives at 23 percent."

Nevada. Michelle Price of the AP: "Nevada officials condemned comments Wednesday by Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman after she called for casinos and other nonessential businesses to reopen and suggested the city could serve as a test case to measure the impact during the coronavirus pandemic. One local official called her comments 'reckless and dangerous' and another described them as an 'embarrassment.' Goodman, during a 25-minute interview with Anderson Cooper on CNN, said she wants everything back open, including casinos, restaurants and small businesses, and a return of conventions.... Goodman for weeks has spoken out against Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak's orders shuttering casinos and nonessential businesses, calling it 'total insanity' that's 'killing Las Vegas.' Sisolak has repeatedly pushed back, saying that he understands the economic harm the order is causing but saving lives is more important.... The mayor said Wednesday that while she wants casinos to reopen, she offered no guidance on how they could do so safely and maintain social distancing, saying, 'That's up to them to figure out.'... She demurred when asked if she herself would enter a reopened casino, saying she has a family and doesn't gamble and is very busy. She also dismissed a Chinese study cited by Cooper showing the spread of COVID-19 in a restaurant, saying, 'This isn't China, this is Las Vegas, Nevada.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I saw much of the interview, and it was in-sane. It seems nothing is Goodman's job except maybe taking calls from constituents who want to get back to work. Devise a plan to safely re-open casinos & hotels? Nope. Arrange for virus testing? Nope.

"Concierge Treatment" for the Rich. Emily Flitter & Stacy Cowley of the New York Times: "The federal government's $349 billion aid program for small businesses devastated by the coronavirus pandemic was advertised as first-come, first-served. As many business owners found out, it was anything but. That's because some of the nation's biggest banks, including JPMorgan Chase, Citibank and U.S. Bank, prioritized the applications of their wealthiest clients before turning to other loan seekers, according to half a dozen bank employees and financial industry executives who spoke on the condition of anonymity.... Some businesses seeking coronavirus loans got to avoid flaky online portals or backed-up queues.... The two-tiered system paid off for well-to-do customers: By the time the Paycheck Protection Program ran out of money last week, many top clients of national and regional banks had already had their loans approved." ~~~

~~~ Jeanna Smialek, et al., of the New York Times: "Hotels, luxury resorts and management companies that funnel money back to a single company [-- Ashford Inc. --] have secured about $53 million in federal virus aid, the largest known amount to benefit one firm and the latest example of how the government's small business relief program is also helping big companies.... Those companies reported in public filings that their hotels had received millions in forgivable loans through a government program meant to help small businesses. The so-called Paycheck Protection Program ran out of its initial $349 billion on April 16, leaving many small companies with no assistance."

Benedict Carey & James Glanz of the New York Times: "By the time New York City confirmed its first case of the coronavirus on March 1, thousands of infections were already silently spreading through the city, a hidden explosion of a disease that many still viewed as a remote threat as the city awaited the first signs of spring. Hidden outbreaks were also spreading almost completely undetected in Boston, San Francisco, Chicago and Seattle, long before testing showed that each city had a major problem, according to a model of the spread of the disease by researchers at Northeastern University who shared their results with The New York Times. Even in early February -- while the world focused on China -- the virus was not only likely to be spreading in multiple American cities, but also seeding blooms of infection elsewhere in the United States, the researchers found. As political leaders grappled in February with the question of whether the outbreak would become serious enough to order measures like school closures and remote work, little or no systematic testing for the virus was taking place." ~~~

~~~ Allyson Chiu & Teo Armus of the Washington Post: "At least two people who died in early and mid-February had contracted the novel coronavirus, health officials in California said Tuesday, signaling the virus may have spread -- and been fatal -- in the United States weeks earlier than previously thought. Tissue samples taken during autopsies of two people who died at home in Santa Clara County, Calif., tested positive for the virus, local health officials said in a statement. The victims died on Feb. 6 and Feb. 17, respectively. Initially, the nation's earliest coronavirus fatality was thought to have occurred on Feb. 29, in Kirkland, Wash., a suburb of Seattle that rapidly became a hot spot.... Additionally, the early deaths could mean covid-19 may have been misdiagnosed in many people early this year, Eric Topol, a geneticist and researcher who directs the Scripps Research Translational Institute, told The Post." The New York Times story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

William Frey of the Brookings Institution: "There is a stereotypical view of the places in America that COVID-19 has affected most: they are broadly urban, comprised predominantly of racial minorities, and strongly vote Democratic.... While that perception of high-prevalence areas was accurate during the earlier stages of the pandemic, COVID-19's recent spread has changed the picture. During the first three weeks of April, new counties showing a high prevalence of COVID-19 cases are more suburban, whiter, and voted more strongly for Donald Trump than counties the virus hit first. These findings result from a new analysis of counties with high COVID-19 prevalence rates (more than 100 confirmed cases per 100,000 population) based on data available from The New York Times and the U.S. Census Bureau."

Kyle Bagenstose, et al., of USA Today: "A rash of coronavirus outbreaks at dozens of meat packing plants across the nation is far more extensive than previously thought, according to an exclusive review of cases by USA Today and the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting. And it could get worse. More than 150 of America's largest meat processing plants operate in counties where the rate of coronavirus infection is already among the nation's highest, based on the media outlets' analysis of slaughterhouse locations and county-level COVID-19 infection rates. These facilities represent more than 1 in 3 of the nation's biggest beef, pork and poultry processing plants. Rates of infection around these plants are higher than those of 75% of other U.S. counties, the analysis found."

Zack Beauchamp of Vox: "Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, media critics have warned that the decision from leading Fox News hosts to downplay the outbreak could cost lives. A new study provides statistical evidence that, in the case of Sean Hannity, that's exactly what happened." This is another take on a Daily Beast report linked yesterday. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Abdi Dahir of the New York Times: "The coronavirus pandemic has brought hunger to millions of people around the world. National lockdowns and social distancing measures are drying up work and incomes, and are likely to disrupt agricultural production and supply routes -- leaving millions to worry how they will get enough to eat. The coronavirus has sometimes been called an equalizer because it has sickened both rich and poor, but when it comes to food, the commonality ends. It is poor people, including large segments of poorer nations, who are now going hungry and facing the prospect of starving.... This hunger crisis, experts say, is global and caused by a multitude of factors linked to the coronavirus pandemic and the ensuing interruption of the economic order: the collapse in oil prices; widespread shortages of hard currency from tourism drying up; overseas workers not having earnings to send home; and ongoing problems like climate change, violence, population dislocations and humanitarian disasters." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

~~~ On the Other Hand. Seth Borenstein of the AP: "As people across the globe stay home to stop the spread of the new coronavirus, the air has cleaned up, albeit temporarily. Smog stopped choking New Delhi, one of the most polluted cities in the world, and India's getting views of sights not visible in decades. Nitrogen dioxide pollution in the northeastern United States is down 30%. Rome air pollution levels from mid-March to mid-April were down 49% from a year ago. Stars seem more visible at night. People are also noticing animals in places and at times they don't usually. Coyotes have meandered along downtown Chicago's Michigan Avenue and near San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. A puma roamed the streets of Santiago, Chile. Goats took over a town in Wales. In India, already daring wildlife has become bolder with hungry monkeys entering homes and opening refrigerators to look for food.... Researchers are tracking dramatic drops in traditional air pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide, smog and tiny particles. These types of pollution kill up to 7 million people a year worldwide, according to Health Effects Institute president Dan Greenbaum." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Presidential Race

Tal Axelrod of the Hill: "Former Vice President Joe Biden said he plans to announce the members of a selection committee who will help choose his running mate by May 1 as speculation continues to mount over his vice presidential pick.... Biden added that the committee will likely take until July to narrow the hunt for a vice president down to the top three contenders." (Also linked yesterday.)

NEW. Jonathan Stempel of Reuters: "Ten of the world's largest banks, including JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, have been sued for allegedly conspiring over nearly 14 years to rig prices in the $9.6 trillion U.S. corporate bond market, costing ordinary investors billions of dollars.... The proposed class action filed on Tuesday in federal court in Manhattan said the banks have since August 2006 violated antitrust law by overcharging investors on 'odd-lot' trades, which are worth less than $1 million and comprise 90% of all corporate bond trading. Other defendants include Barclays, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Royal Bank of Scotland and Wells Fargo & Co, or their respective affiliates." --s