The Commentariat -- November 9, 2020
Afternoon Update:
Matt Naham of Law & Crime: "David Bossie, a conservative activist who is not a lawyer but who is nonetheless coordinating the Trump campaign's post-election legal strategy, has tested positive for COVID-19, the Bloomberg News's Jennifer Jacobs reported on Monday.... A longtime ally of Trump's, Bossie has served since 2010 as the president and chairman of Citizens United -- the group whose eponymous U.S. Supreme Court victory paved the way for unlimited corporate political expenditures."
Trump Fires Defense Secretary on Twitter. Rebecca Kheel of the Hill: "President Trump on Monday announced he had fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper.... 'I am pleased to announce that Christopher C. Miller, the highly respected Director of the National Counterterrorism Center (unanimously confirmed by the Senate), will be Acting Secretary of Defense, effective immediately, Trump said in a series of tweets. 'Chris will do a GREAT job! Mark Esper has been terminated. I would like to thank him for his service.'... Earlier Thursday, NBC News reported that Esper had prepared a letter of resignation...." Mrs. McC: According to CNN, Trump did not allow Esper to submit the resignation letter, preferring to fire him on Twitter to cause Esper maximum humiliation.
Nathaniel Weixel of the Hill: "President-elect Joe Biden on Monday implored every American to put aside political differences and wear masks. 'A mask is not a political statement, but it is a good way to start pulling the country together,' Biden said during a somber address that acknowledged the COVID-19 crisis is likely to get worse before it gets better." ~~~
The New York Times' live Biden updates Monday are here.
The Washington Post's live election updates Monday are here. They are free to non-subscribers: "... lawyers for President Trump, who has refused to concede the election, plan to press ahead with legal challenges alleging irregularities in several states where Biden leads in the vote count, including Pennsylvania. With no evidence, Trump has contended that widespread fraud cost him the election.... ~~~
~~~ "Geoff Duncan, the Republican lieutenant governor of Georgia, said Monday that his office has seen no 'credible examples' of widespread voter fraud in his state, which is among those in which Biden holds a narrow lead and Trump alleges cheating.... ~~~
~~~ "As of Monday morning, six days after Election Day, an estimated 46 percent of votes in Alaska had been counted, according to Edison Research. That's in part because no mail ballots have been included in the total. The state won't begin to tabulate mail ballots until Tuesday, which means perhaps a third of votes could still be pending.... ~~~
~~~ "Vice President Pence on Monday [falsely] credited Operation Warp Speed for the announcement by drugmaker Pfizer that an analysis of its coronavirus vaccine trial suggested it was highly effective in preventing covid-19, even though Pfizer did not join the Trump administration initiative.... In an interview with the New York Times Kathrin Jansen, a senior vice president at Pfizer and head of its vaccine research and development, sought to distance the company from the initiative and presidential politics. 'We were never part of the Warp Speed,' she said. 'We have never taken any money from the U.S. government, or from anyone.'" ~~~
~~~ Pence Lied & Junior Floats a "Nefarious" Conspiracy. TMZ: The Smarter Brother "has his tinfoil hat on Monday morning -- he thinks the promising COVID vaccine news coming out right after the election is more than coincidence ... he's insinuating the drug company held its findings back till after the election so Trump wouldn't get a bounce and possibly win as a result. Donald Trump Jr.'s response to Pfizer developing a coronavirus vaccine that may be more than 90 percent effective ... 'Nothing nefarious about the timing of this at all right?' [he tweeted].... President-elect Biden says he was informed of the vaccine development Sunday night and says, 'I congratulate the brilliant women and men who helped produce this breakthrough and to give us such cause for hope.'"
Oh, You Kidz Are So Mean. Katie Shepherd of the Washington Post: "In its search for viable challenges to President-elect Joe Biden's victory, President Trump's campaign set up a voter fraud hotline after Election Day, encouraging people to call in with reports of suspicious incidents. Although the campaign has thus far failed to prove any voter fraud, the hotline has received no shortage of phone calls -- all thanks to a viral campaign on TikTok and Twitter to clog the hotline with anti-Trump memes and absurd messages. Campaign staffers in Virginia have been answering the calls, ABC News reported, fielding prank calls from Biden supporters who have played songs and movie clips, filed bogus reports, submitted the entire script for the 2007 film 'Bee Movie,' or simply mocked Trump's loss before hanging up.... Alex Hirsch, creator of the Disney Channel TV show 'Gravity Falls,' called in to report that he saw a man, matching the description of McDonald's Hamburglar, walk into a polling place wearing a 'black hat, black mask, a striped shirt and a red tie, and I believe there were hamburgers in his bag.... And he was saying, "Robble,"' as he was exiting the building,' Hirsch added. 'Like a burglar. You know, I think he's probably antifa.'... ~~~
~~~ "On Sunday, comedian John Oliver suggested people submit images of rats mating, in a nod to an obscene slang term for devious political sabotage." ~~~
Elizabeth Culliford of Reuters: "... Donald Trump will be subject to the same Twitter Inc rules as any other user when President-elect Joe Biden takes office on Jan. 20, the social media company confirmed this week. Twitter places 'public interest' notices on some rule-breaking tweets from 'world leaders' that would otherwise be removed. Such tweets from political candidates and elected or government officials are instead hidden by a warning and Twitter takes actions to restrict their reach. But the company said this treatment does not apply to former office holders.... Under Facebook Inc's policies, it appears that after Biden takes office in January, Trump's posts would also no longer be exempt from review by Facebook's third-party fact-checking partners."
Paulina Firozi & Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post: "Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson has tested positive for the coronavirus, a HUD spokesman confirmed. Carson was at the White House on Tuesday for the election night party. The diagnosis comes days after news of a fresh wave of coronavirus infections at the White House, with Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and five other Trump aides having received positive test results in the time around Election Day." This is a breaking news story.
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Presidential Transition, Etc.
Philip Marcelo of the AP: "On Monday, Biden announced the members of his coronavirus task force that will develop a blueprint for fighting the pandemic. It includes doctors and scientists who have served in previous administrations, many of them experts in public health, vaccines and infectious diseases. Notable among the members is Rick Bright, a vaccine expert and former head of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. He had filed a whistleblower complaint alleging he was reassigned to a lesser job because he resisted political pressure to allow widespread use of hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug pushed by ... Donald Trump as a COVID-19 treatment. Public health officials warn that the nation is entering the worst stretch yet for COVID-19 as winter sets in and the holiday season approaches, increasing the risk of rapid transmission as Americans travel, shop and celebrate with loved ones." The Washington Post's story is here. In today's Comments, Akhilleus is concerned that there isn't a witch doctor or Fox "News" quack among them.
Matt Viser of the Washington Post: "President-elect Joe Biden and his advisers plan this week to demonstrate a far more assertive strategy against the coronavirus than President Trump's, and Biden may take a more proactive role in coming weeks in congressional negotiations over an economic stimulus package. Biden's proposals, some of which were posted on his new transition website, include aiming to secure funds for ramping up coronavirus testing, acquiring additional protective equipment such as masks and gowns, and investing $25 billion in vaccine manufacturing and distribution. Biden's aides, saying they recognize that the United States has one president at a time, nonetheless hope to seize on the momentum from his victory to signal decisive action on the major crises engulfing the nation. That could be complicated, however, by Trump's refusal to concede and the fact that some states are still finalizing their vote counts." ~~~
~~~ Will Weissert, et al., of the AP: "President-elect Joe Biden signaled on Sunday he plans to move quickly to build out his government, focusing first on the raging pandemic that will likely dominate the early days of his administration. Biden named ... co-chairs of a coronavirus working group set to get started, with other members expected to be announced Monday. Transition team officials said that also this week Biden will launch his agency review teams, the group of transition staffers that have access to key agencies in the current administration to ease the transfer of power. The teams will collect and review information such as budgetary and staffing decisions, pending regulations and other work in progress from current staff at the departments to help Biden's team prepare to transition. White House officials would not comment on whether they would cooperate with Biden's team on the review." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Well, some did comment to the WashPo, and their comment was, "Nope." ~~~
~~~ Sour Grapes Discovered at GSA. Lisa Rein, et al., of the Washington Post: "A Trump administration appointee [GSA Administrator Emily Murphy] is refusing to sign a letter allowing President-elect Joe Biden's transition team to formally begin its work this week, in another sign the incumbent president has not acknowledged Biden's victory and could disrupt the transfer of power.... 'An ascertainment has not yet been made,' Pamela Pennington, a spokeswoman for GSA, said in an email, 'and its Administrator will continue to abide by, and fulfill, all requirements under the law.'... By declaring the 'apparent winner' of a presidential election, the GSA administrator releases computer systems and money for salaries and administrative support for the mammoth undertaking of setting up a new government -- $9.9 million this year. Transition officials get government email addresses. They get office space at every federal agency. They can begin to work with the Office of Government Ethics to process financial disclosure and conflict-of-interest forms for their nominees." ~~~
~~~ Alex Thompson of Politico: "Former Republican White House officials and veterans of past presidential transition are calling for the government to begin the formal transfer of power from ... Donald Trump to President-elect Joe Biden. 'While there will be legal disputes requiring adjudication, the outcome is sufficiently clear that the transition process must now begin,' the nonpartisan Center for Presidential Transition wrote in a letter.... The letter is signed by Democratic and Republican experts in transitions, including George W. Bush's former chief of staff Josh Bolten and the former Republican Governor of Utah Mike Leavitt. The letter was also signed by Bill Clinton's first chief of staff Thomas (Mack) McLarty and Barack Obama's Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker."
Colin Campbell of Yahoo! News: "Former President George W. Bush issued a rare public statement on Sunday, congratulating President-elect Joe Biden on his victory and also giving a nod to President Trump's unsuccessful reelection bid. 'I just talked to the president-elect of the United States, Joe Biden. I extended my warm congratulations and thanked him for the patriotic message he delivered last night,' Bush said. 'I also called Kamala Harris to congratulate her on her historic election to the vice presidency,' Bush said of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.... But Trump has yet to acknowledge Biden's victory, as major party candidates have done throughout modern political history when it was clear they had lost. The incumbent president has alternated between silence and tweets promoting conspiracies falsely asserting that the election was rigged. 'No matter how you voted, your vote counted,' Bush said. 'The American people can have confidence that this election was fundamentally fair, its integrity will be upheld, and its outcome is clear.' The 43rd president added: 'I want to congratulate President Trump and his supporters on a hard-fought campaign. He earned the votes of more than 70 million Americans -- an extraordinary political achievement. They have spoken, and their voices will continue to be heard through elected Republicans at every level of government.'" (Also linked yesterday.)
How Joe Won. Alexander Burns, et al., of the New York Times: "Mr. Biden campaigned as a sober and conventional presence, rather than as an uplifting herald of change. For much of the general election, his candidacy was not an exercise in vigorous creativity, but rather a case study in discipline and restraint.... If Mr. Biden made numerous errors along the way, none of them mattered more in this election than the essential rightness of how he judged the character of his party, his country and his opponent. This account of his candidacy, based on interviews with four dozen advisers, supporters, elected officials and friends, reveals how fully Mr. Biden's campaign flowed from his own worldview and political intuition. During the primaries, Mr. Biden rebuffed pressure to move to the left, believing his party would embrace his pragmatism as its best chance to beat Mr. Trump. In the general election, Mr. Biden made Mr. Trump's erratic conduct and mismanagement of the coronavirus pandemic his overwhelming themes, shunning countless other issues as needless distractions." (Also linked yesterday.)
Kyle Cheney & Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "In the end, 'the biggest political scandal in the history of our country' and 'the second biggest political scandal in our history' turned out to be neither.... Trump pushed two factually challenged narratives about Biden in the waning weeks of the campaign. In one, Biden was a mastermind of an effort to spy on Trump's 2016 campaign, collaborating with top intelligence officials to derail Trump's incoming administration. In the other, Biden was the secret beneficiary of multi-million-dollar business deals with shady foreign interests carried out by Hunter Biden. But both stories were riddled with falsehoods, exaggerations and assumptions, often pushed by unreliable narrators who revealed no evidence of wrongdoing by Biden.... And the months-long investigations by his Republican allies in the Senate failed to gain traction outside of the Trumpworld echo chamber as Trump hurtled toward an Election Day defeat. Now, Trump is facing his own mounting scandals that are likely to dog him post-presidency." (Also linked yesterday.)
Ezra Klein of Vox: “Joe Biden has won the presidency. But the current president of the United States, Donald Trump, is attempting a coup in plain sight. 'I WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT!' he tweeted on Saturday morning. This came after he demanded that states cease counting votes when the total began to turn against him, after his press secretary shocked Fox News anchors by arguing that legally cast votes should be thrown out.... One of his legal advisers said, 'We're waiting for the United States Supreme Court -- of which the President has nominated three justices -- to step in and do something. And hopefully Amy Coney Barrett will come through.'... That this coup probably will not work -- that it is being carried out farcically, erratically, ineffectively -- does not mean it is not happening, or that it will not have consequences. Millions will believe Trump, will see the election as stolen.... We are not seeing, in any way..., a wholesale rejection on the right of Trump's effort to delegitimize the election." (Also linked yesterday.)
Alayna Treene of Axios: "President Trump plans to brandish obituaries of people who supposedly voted but are dead -- plus hold campaign-style rallies -- in an effort to prolong his fight against apparent insurmountable election results, four Trump advisers told me during a conference call this afternoon.... Fueling the effort is the expected completion of vote counting this week, allowing Republicans to file for more recounts.... The team led by Trump communications director Tim Murtaugh is now a surrogate messaging center. It will pump out 'regular press briefings, releases on legal action and obviously things like talking points and booking people strategically on television,' one adviser said. They'll also make a big play to raise money for their legal defense fund."
Jeremy Roebuck, et al., of the Philadelphia Inquirer: "What began five years ago with the made-for-TV announcement of Donald Trump's presidential ambitions from the escalator of his ritzy Manhattan high-rise ended Saturday with his aging lawyer shouting conspiracy theories and vowing lawsuits in a Northeast Philadelphia parking lot, near a sex shop and a crematorium.... It started Saturday morning, with a presidential tweet that ... announced: 'Lawyers News Conference Four Seasons, Philadelphia, 11 a.m.,' only to delete his post minutes later and replace it with one changing the venue from the upscale Center City hotel to ... Four Seasons Total Landscaping on industrial State Road, next to Fantasy Island Adult Books and Novelties and across the street from the Delaware Valley Cremation Center.... The New York Times reported Saturday that Giuliani and Trump adviser Corey Lewandowski had always intended the news conference to take place in a section of Philadelphia where they might receive a more welcomed reception than at the raucous celebrations of Joe Biden's victory going on in Center City.... The 78-year-old employee manning the counter at the Fantasy Island sex shop, who declined to give his name, said the phone had been ringing off the hook since Saturday with callers asking: 'Is Rudy Giuliani there?... It is a circus,' he said. 'But to be honest with you, it doesn't surprise me. That's Trump.'" Firewalled. ~~~
~~~ Katelyn Burns of Vox: "The campaign, which has held a number of similar press conferences in Philadelphia attempting to cast doubt on the state's vote count, has struggled to find appropriate venues for these events. Earlier in the week, [Pam] Bondi and [Corey] Lewandowski attempted to hold a press conference in the city following a court decision that allowed poll watchers to stand just 6 feet from workers counting ballots, rather than 20 feet. They tried to spin the ruling as a win; however, a DJ nearby blasted Beyoncé music and completely drowned out their remarks."
Alex Rogers of CNN: "President-elect Joe Biden urged the country 'to lower the temperature' in his victory speech on Saturday night, but Republican leaders he'll have to work with in Congress have either urged ... Donald Trump to not concede or stayed silent despite no widespread evidence of fraud in the election. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell ... has not commented since Friday, the day before the race was called, when he called for 'every legal' vote to be counted, while House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy echoed Trump's claims that the election isn't over yet.... 'This is a contested election,' Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham said on Fox on Sunday. 'The media doesn't decide who becomes president, if they did, you would never have a Republican president forever.... Do not concede, Mr. President, fight hard.'..." ~~~
~~~ David Edwards of the Raw Story: "Fox News host Chris Wallace on Sunday compared Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) to a Japanese soldier who thinks World War II is 'still going on' because he refuses to accept the presidential election results.... Cruz is on record supporting ... Donald Trump's baseless claims of voter fraud.... 'It would seem to me that Republicans on Capitol Hill have a role to play in this,' Wallace explained on his Fox News Sunday program. 'A very few of them have said, look, you pursue your legal options but, you know, damn down the rhetoric, like Mitt Romney, like Pat Toomey.'"
Since when does the Lamestream Media call who our next president will be? -- Donald Trump, in a tweet, Sunday
~~~ More Fake News from the Incompetent Trumpies. Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "... Donald Trump's reelection campaign plastered images of a doctored newspaper inside its headquarters to illustrate its view of where the 2020 election stands. 'Greeting staff at @TeamTrump HQ this morning, a reminder that the media doesn't select the President,' Tim Murtaugh, the campaign's communications director, wrote in a now-deleted tweet. The post included an image of a doctored Washington Times front page from Nov. 8, 2000, declaring Al Gore the winner over George W. Bush after 'Florida pushes Gore over the top with bare majority,' as the text below the headline reads.... The [right-wing] Washington Times said Sunday that it never ran a 'President Gore' headline."
Arizona. Biden is about 17,000 votes ahead of Trump in Arizona. The final batch of votes to be tallied are not likely to so heavily favor Trump as did the huge tranches dumped over the past few days, according to MSNBC. Nate Cohn of the NYT confirms the view that Trump isn't doing well enough to overtake Biden. ~~~
~~~ McCain's Revenge. Bryan Bender & Maggie Severns of Politico: At John McCain's memorial service in Arizona, with all of the state's Republican leaders in attendance, one of his eulogizers was Joe Biden. "'My name is Joe Biden. I'm a Democrat. And I loved John McCain,' the former vice president began, sharing anecdotes from their decades-long friendship and recounting their bipartisan victories in the Senate.... Many in the audience had already been riled up by Trump's famous dismissal of McCain's years as a POW -- 'I like people who weren't captured.' They'd been appalled when, just months earlier, a Trump White House aide allegedly dismissed the opinion of the cancer-stricken McCain because 'he's dying anyway.' They'd been enraged that, two days before the memorial service, Trump had again attacked McCain after reports of his refusal to lower American flags in his honor. On Election Day, many of them -- led by McCain's widow, Cindy -- took revenge: Arizona is on target to choose a Democrat -- Biden -- for the first time in almost 25 years.... Early indications suggest that Biden won a full 10 percent of Arizona Republicans." Many of McCain's prominent Arizona friends publicly endorsed Biden.
Arkansas. Tim Elfrink of the Washington Post: "The violent posts appeared Friday on Parler, an unfiltered right-wing social media app, echoing President Trump's unfounded claims that Democrats are stealing the election. They called for 'death to all Marxist Democrats,' and urged followers to 'take no prisoners' and 'leave no survivors.' And they were all posted under the name and photo of Lang Holland, the police chief of Marshall, Ark. When journalists and residents asked about the posts, Holland at first claimed they were fake, the Kansas City Star reported. But Marshall's mayor said that when he confronted Holland on Saturday, the chief apologized for the posts and then resigned. 'The City of Marshall condemns the actions of Mr. Holland in his posts to social media,' said Marshall Mayor Kevin Elliott in a letter.... 'I pray all those in that picture hang on the gallows and are drawn and quartered!!!!' one post said of a Photoshopped picture of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton & Nancy Pelosi wearing orange prison jumpsuits]. 'Anything less is not acceptable.'" An NBC story is here.
Carla Marinucci of Politico: "Launching Kamala Harris into the White House as vice president come January has officially kicked off one of Gov. Gavin Newsom's biggest political decisions: appointing California's next U.S. senator." Marinucci names some of the likely contenders. The newly-named senator would serve until the end of Harris's current term, which expires on two years.
Annals of Journalism, Ctd. Margaret Sullivan of the Washington Post: "... mainstream journalism never quite figured out how to cover President Trump, the master of distraction and insult who craved media attention and knew exactly how to get it, regardless of what it meant for the good of the nation.... He was a deeply abnormal president, but we constantly sought to normalize him, treating his deranged tweets like legitimate news and piously forecasting, every time he sounded the least bit calm, that he was becoming 'presidential.'... And we took far too long to call his falsehoods what they often were: lies. And far too long to call his worldview what it clearly was: racist. Instead, we danced around -- for years -- with euphemisms like 'misstatements' and 'racially tinged comments.'... And yet ... the mainstream media, however flawed, has managed to tell us who Trump is. Even the worst of it -- the way lie-filled briefings on the coronavirus, in which the president promoted untested cures and pure quackery, were broadcast live to the nation -- had the benefit of showing people how unfit he was. And the best of the Trump-era journalism has been crucial, true to its democratic mission of holding the powerful accountable.... Without the reality-based press, whatever its flaws and shortcomings, we would be utterly lost."
~~~ Ben Smith of the New York Times: Maggie "Haberman has been, for the last four years, the source of a remarkably large share of what we know about Donald Trump and his White House, from the Mueller investigation to his personal battle with the coronavirus to his refusal to accept defeat. She's done more than a story a day, on average, and stories with her byline have accounted for hundreds of millions of page views this year alone. That's more than anyone else at The Times. She has consistently painted a portrait of a man who is both smarter and less competent than his enemies believe, a portrait vindicated again this past week as the president impotently poisoned politics with lies about election results." An interesting read.
The Trumpidemic, Ctd.
The Washington Post's live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Sunday are here: "The United States reported its 10 millionth coronavirus case on Sunday, with the latest million added in just 10 days, as most of the country struggled to contain outbreaks in the third and most widespread wave of infection since the pandemic began." (Also linked yesterday.)
AP: "The U.S. has set another record for daily number of coronavirus cases. The country reported more than 126,000 positive cases and more than 1,000 deaths from COVID-19 on Saturday, according to the most recent data from Johns Hopkins University. It marked the fourth day in a row that new cases topped more than 100,000 as the country has broken its own record for daily cases with nearly every passing day this week." (Also linked yesterday.)
Carolyn Johnson of the Washington Post: "A front-runner coronavirus vaccine developed by drug giant Pfizer and German biotechnology firm BioNTech was more than 90 percent effective at protecting people compared with a placebo saline shot, according to an interim analysis by an independent data monitoring committee that met Sunday." An AP story is here.
Jill Colvin of the AP: "... the Trump campaign's election night watch party in the White House East Room has become another symbol of ... Donald Trump's cavalier attitude toward a virus that is ripping across the nation.... Polls suggest that attitude was a serious drag on the president's reelection bid as voters chose to deny Trump a second term.... And the party -- with few masks and no social distancing -- is now under additional scrutiny after the president's chief of staff, Mark Meadows, with few masks and no social distancing -- became the latest top White House official to contract the virus.... The latest White House cluster ... includes a top Trump campaign official as well as a handful of undisclosed White House staff, officials said.... Meadows, who spent time with Trump's family before [the party], was seen working the room, including giving several fist-bumps to those in attendance, before Trump took the stage early Wednesday morning.... Earlier that day, Meadows had also accompanied the president to his campaign's headquarters in Virginia, where Trump received rousing cheers from several dozen staff and volunteers. Meadows did not wear a mask, nor did other White House staffers.... If Meadows tested positive Wednesday -- as Bloomberg News reported -- he would likely have been infectious during both events...."
News Lede
Weather Channel: "Tropical Storm Eta is tracking near South Florida, where heavy rainfall, strong winds, storm surge and high surf are expected to continue on Monday. Eta made landfall in the Florida Keys at Lower Matecumbe Key on Sunday night at 11 p.m. EST. This is the 12th named storm to make landfall in the U.S. this hurricane season, and the first for the state of Florida. The center of Eta is now located just off the southwest coast of Florida." An AP story is here.
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