The Commentariat -- August 31, 2020
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Matt Viser & Ashley Parker of the Washington Post: "Joe Biden excoriated President Trump on Monday as a threat to the safety of all Americans, saying he has encouraged violence in the nation's streets even as he has faltered in handling the coronavirus pandemic. For his most extensive remarks since violent protests have escalated across the country in recent days, Biden traveled to Pittsburgh and struck a centrist note, condemning both the destruction in the streets and Trump for creating a culture that he said has exacerbated it.... He called the president a danger to those suffering from the coronavirus, to anyone in search of a job or struggling to pay rent, to voters worried about Russian interference in the upcoming election and to those worried about their own safety amid unrest." ~~~
~~~ Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "Former Vice President Joe Biden on Monday squarely blamed Donald Trump for the violence that has accompanied mass protests for racial justice this summer, accusing the president of 'long ago' forfeiting 'any moral leadership in this country.' In remarks in Pittsburgh, the Democratic presidential nominee portrayed Trump as having lost control of a country rocked by a series of converging crises and being guilty 'for years' of fomenting racial tensions that have led to clashes and episodes of violence, which he also denounced. 'Ask yourself: Do I look like a radical socialist with a soft spot for rioters? Really?' Biden said. 'I want a safe America, safe from Covid, safe from crime and looting, safe from racially motivated violence, safe from bad cops. And let me be crystal clear: safe from four more years of Donald Trump.'" Here's a slightly condensed video: ~~~
Harper Neidig of the Hill: "A federal appeals court rejected Michael Flynn's effort to force a judge to immediately dismiss the charges against him, overturning an earlier decision that would have allowed the Department of Justice to drop its case against the former national security adviser. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 8-2 against Flynn's petition for it to step in and force a district judge to grant the Justice Department's motion to drop charges without holding a hearing on the issue." This is a developing story. ~~~
~~~ Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "A Federal District Court judge may go forward with his plans to scrutinize the Justice Department's request to drop the prosecution of President Trump's former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn, a full appeals court ruled on Monday. A three-judge panel on the court had earlier ordered the judge to end the case immediately. Separately, a panel on that same court ruled for a second time that the House cannot sue Donald F. McGahn II, the president's former White House counsel, for defying a subpoena. The full court already reversed one such ruling by that same panel on different grounds, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House would 'immediately' ask the full body for another do-over." ~~~
~~~ Jan Wolfe of Reuters: "A U.S. appeals court on Monday ordered the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by a Democratic-led House of Representatives panel seeking to enforce a subpoena issued to former White House Counsel Donald McGahn. The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which will likely be appealed, marked a victory for the Trump administration in its effort to block congressional investigations into the president. In a 2-1 decision, a three-judge panel said the House Judiciary Committee's lawsuit had to be dismissed because Congress had never passed a law authorizing such litigation."
The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Monday are here: "Americans began their Sunday with the news that the staggering pandemic death toll, seemingly beyond dispute, was being questioned by their own president, and ended it as the country reached more than six million confirmed infections. Almost 183,000 people have died in the United States from the virus -- some analyses put the true toll well past 200,000 -- but President Trump lent his embrace to fringe groups peddling claims that the number is grossly exaggerated."
Yasmeen Abutaleb & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "One of President Trump's top medical advisers [-- Scott Atlas of the right-wing Hoover Institution --] is urging the White House to embrace a controversial 'herd immunity' strategy to combat the pandemic, which would entail allowing the coronavirus to spread through most of the population to quickly build resistance to the virus, while taking steps to protect those in nursing homes and other vulnerable populations, according to five people familiar with the discussions. The administration has already begun to implement some policies along these lines, according to current and former officials as well as experts, particularly with regard to testing.... [Atlas] He has advocated that the United States adopt the model Sweden has used.... Sweden ... has among the highest infection and death rates in the world. It also hasn't escaped the deep economic problems resulting from the pandemic.... [The discussion] is drawing concern from experts inside and outside the government who note that a herd immunity strategy could lead to the country suffering hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of lost lives." ~~~
~~~ Philip Bump of the Washington Post: After the GOP convention, CNN's Jim Acosta "asked a White House official why there was apparently no effort to implement social distancing measures for the audience at the speech. The official's response? 'Everybody is going to catch this thing eventually,' the official reportedly said. It's a staggering comment.... Everyone won't catch the novel coronavirus eventually, ideally; the point of developing a vaccine is to keep that from happening. What's more, even if there were no vaccine, there's a big difference between people catching it now and catching it in a year or two when there might be better therapeutic treatments or potentially a cure.... Trump understood the risks of letting the virus spread without containment back in April, when he was defending the administration's decision to endorse a shutdown of economic activity.... Trump said of Sweden's strategy, '... if we did follow that approach, I think we might have 2 million people dead.'" But now the tens of thousands of Covid-19 deaths are hurting him politically, so he wants to curb testing to bring the number of known cases down, at the same time greatly increasing the number of people who get sick or die from the virus. ~~~
~~~ Like, Say, Zombie Tweeter Herman Cain, a Covid Victim Who Has Returned from the Dead to Back the Trump Theory. Ed Mazza of the Huffington Post: "The Twitter account formerly used by the late Herman Cain fired off a head-scratching message on Sunday, insisting that the coronavirus 'isn't as deadly' as once thought. Cain died in July at the age of 74 after being hospitalized for more than a month with the COVID-19 infection. His Twitter account ― now run by his family and social media managers ― tweeted: 'It looks like the virus is not as deadly as the mainstream media first made it out to be.' Given Cain's own cause of death, the tweet ― which was eventually deleted ― drew a rather stunned response from critics on social media[.]" Mrs. McC: Remember that Cain contracted the virus after attending a Trump rally where he (1) didn't wear a mask and (2) sat packed in with other Trumpophiles. Maybe Trump will use Cain's tweet from the grave as a testimonial to his strategy.
Wisconsin. Mitchell Schmidt of the Kenosha News: "Gov. Tony Evers (D) on Sunday sent a letter to ... Donald Trump asking the president to reconsider his plan to visit Kenosha on Tuesday. A spokesman for Trump said the president plans to meet with local law enforcement and survey damage from recent demonstrations.... 'It is our job as elected officials to lead by example and to be a calming presence for the people we know are hurting, mourning, and trying to cope with trauma,' Evers said in the letter. 'Now is not the time for divisiveness. Now is not the time for elected officials to ignore armed militants and out-of-state instigators who want to contribute to our anguish.' Evers also raised concern that an in-person visit from the president would require a large-scale redirection of resources to support the visit."
Portland, Oregon. Guardian: "Portland police declared a protest in the north-eastern part of the Oregon city an 'unlawful gathering. late on Sunday, ordering crowds to disperse or risk arrest.... Twenty-nine arrests were made, police said, adding that two of those held had handguns, others had knives and at least one had an expandable baton. Many in the group of protesters wore helmets, gas masks, goggles and armour. Police said some carried shields and reflective squares used to reflect police lights back at officers. Some threw rocks, eggs, and other items at officers and police vehicles."
Mike Allen of Axios: "One of the crazy nuggets in a deeply reported book by the N.Y. Times' Michael Schmidt -- 'Donald Trump v. the United States,' out tomorrow -- is that President Trump mulled the idea of 'settling' with special counsel Robert Mueller.... 'At one point, as the investigation seemed to be intensifying,' Schmidt writes, Trump told White House counsel Don McGahn 'that there was nothing to worry about because if it was zeroing in on him, he would simply settle with Mueller. He would settle the case, as if he were negotiating terms in a lawsuit.'" Mrs. McC: I wonder what "settlement" Trump had in mind. A $500 fine? A promise not to speak to Roger Stone for six months?
~~~~~~~~~~
Black Lives Matter
Maxine Bernstein of the Oregonian: "A 48-year-old man who was accused of carrying a loaded gun at an earlier downtown Portland protest is under investigation in the fatal shooting Saturday night of a right-wing demonstrator after a pro-Trump rally. Michael Forest Reinoehl calls himself an anti-fascist and has posted videos and photos of demonstrations he attended since late June, accompanied by the hashtags #blacklivesmatter, #anewnation and #breonnataylor.... Sources familiar with the case but not authorized to speak said police are investigating Reinoehl. A family member also identified him as a man captured in photos and video seen leaving the shooting scene shortly before 9 p.m. Saturday.... On July 5 at one of the demonstrations, Reinoehl was cited at 2:10 a.m. ... on allegations of possessing a loaded gun in a public place, resisting arrest and interfering with police. He was given a date to appear in court later that month, but the allegations were dropped on July 30 with a 'no complaint,' according to court records."
Elise Viebeck of the Washington Post: "... Joe Biden condemned the violence in Portland, Ore., accusing President Trump of 'fanning the flames of hate and division in our society' and 'recklessly encouraging violence.' 'We must not become a country at war with ourselves," Biden said in a statement. 'But that is the America that President Trump wants us to be, the America he believes we are.... All of us are less safe because Donald Trump can't do the job of the American president.' His response came after Trump denounced Black Lives Matter protesters as 'agitators and thugs' on Sunday morning...."
David Nakamura, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Sunday amplified his call for federal forces to help subdue protests in American cities, denouncing local Democratic leaders and fanning partisan tensions a day after a deadly clash between his supporters and social justice protesters in Portland, Ore., underscored the threat of rising politically motivated violence. Scenes of Trump faithful firing paint and pellet guns at protesters during a 'Trump cruise rally' caravan through downtown Portland -- a liberal bastion that has been the site of weeks of street demonstrations -- raised the specter that the nation's summer of unrest had entered a new phase in which the president's backers are rallying to defend businesses and fight back against Black Lives Matter and other groups he has labeled 'anarchists' and 'terrorists.'... Trump called the participants 'GREAT PATRIOTS!' The reaction marked a sharp contrast to his silence during a large and peaceful civil rights march on Friday in Washington that drew thousands to the Mall, where some speakers denounced his leadership." ~~~
~~~ Mike Baker, et al., of the New York Times: "Mr. Trump wrote that 'the big backlash going on in Portland cannot be unexpected,' a remarkable instance of a president seeming to support confrontation rather than calming a volatile situation.... [Portland Mayor Ted] Wheeler, at an afternoon news conference at City Hall, said the shooting had left his heart heavy, and he denounced violence. But he pointed to Mr. Trump's combative and unyielding message as a generator of the nation's escalating polarization and violence, and he called on the president to work with him and others to help de-escalate tensions.... Mr. Trump responded quickly to the mayor's remarks, mocking Mr. Wheeler and calling him 'wacky' and a 'dummy.'... Mr. Trump is planning to visit Kenosha on Tuesday, though both the governor of Wisconsin, Tony Evers, a Democrat, and the mayor of Kenosha, John Antaramian, also a Democrat, urged him to reconsider." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: It is worth noting that the POTUS*, a person who holds the position once held by leaders of the free world, is not only encouraging violence in American cities, but also using the types of taunts against elected officials that you might have used in a moment of confrontation when you were in the third grade. If a teacher overheard you, you might have got detention for it. ~~~
~~~ Chandelis Duster & Simret Aklilu of CNN: "Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes said Sunday that ... Donald Trump should not travel to Kenosha, Wisconsin, this week and that his presence would not be helpful amid ongoing protests over the police shooting of Jacob Blake.... 'You look at the incendiary remarks that the President has made, they centered an entire convention around creating more animosity and creating more division around what is going on in Kenosha,' Barnes told CNN's John King.... 'So, I don't know how given any of the previous statements that the President made that he intends to come here to be helpful. And we absolutely don't need that right now.'" ~~~
~~~ Elise Viebeck of the Washington Post: "Starting before 6 a.m., Trump let loose a barrage of nearly 90 tweets and retweets touting his chances for reelection, attacking Democratic state and local officials over ongoing protests and defending aggressive actions by his supporters in Portland, who appeared to be firing paintballs and pepper spray at onlookers from pickup trucks as they drove through the city streets Saturday night.'The big backlash going on in Portland cannot be unexpected after 95 days of watching and incompetent Mayor admit that he has no idea what he is doing,' Trump tweeted in response to one such video posted by New York Times reporter Mike Baker, who wrote that the Trump supporters 'shot me too.' Trump responded to a video from Saturday that appeared to show a cavalcade of hundreds of vehicles bearing pro-Trump signs and flags driving toward downtown Portland, writing: 'GREAT PATRIOTS!'... Kate Bedingfield, deputy campaign manager for Joe Biden, said Sunday morning that Trump has incited violence as further protests against police brutality sweep the country. 'He has encouraged his supporters to go out, to be aggressive,' she said on 'Fox News Sunday.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Trump unleashed an especially intense barrage of Twitter messages overnight and Sunday morning, embracing fringe conspiracy theories claiming that the coronavirus death toll has been exaggerated and that street protests are actually an organized coup d'état against him.... In the weekend blast of Twitter messages, Mr. Trump also embraced a call to imprison Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York, threatened to send federal forces against demonstrators outside the White House, attacked CNN and NPR, embraced a supporter charged with murder, mocked his challenger, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., and repeatedly assailed the mayor of Portland, even posting the mayor\s office telephone number so that supporters could call demanding his resignation." ~~~ (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
~~~ Allan Smith of NBC News: "... Donald Trump praised a pro-Trump caravan of activists who moved into Portland, Oregon, on Saturday and whose presence there appeared to contribute to violent clashes in the city.... In a lengthy statement Sunday afternoon, 2020 Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden condemned violence in Portland as 'unacceptable' but called on Trump to stop 'fanning the flames of hate and division in our society and using the politics of fear to whip up his supporters.... As a country, we must condemn the incitement of hate and resentment that led to this deadly clash,' Biden said, adding, 'What does President Trump think will happen when he continues to insist on fanning the flames of hate and division in our society and using the politics of fear to whip up his supporters? He is recklessly encouraging violence[.]'" (Also linked yesterday.)
Trump's Encouragement of Violent Supporters Trips up Republicans
David Edwards of the Raw Story: "Department of Homeland acting Security Secretary Chad Wolf on Sunday declined to condemn Trump supporters who have instigated or incited violence at Black Lives Matter protests around the country.... [After some back-and-forth during an interview with CBS's Margaret Brennan, she said, '... the president has tweeted about Portland 12 times in the past 48 hours, including retweeting a video of his supporters -- people with Trump flags flying -- driving into Portland and he called them great patriots. Doesn't that heighten tensions when you say you are trying to lower it?' 'Absolutely not,' Wolf objected. 'Do you endorse this as the president appears to be doing?' Brennan queried. Wolf continued to blame 'local officials not doing their job.'" ~~~
~~~ Tom Boggioni of the Raw Story: "In a highly contentious interview on CNN Sunday morning, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) repeatedly refused to condemn Kyle Rittenhouse, the Donald Trump fan accused of shooting and killing two Black Lives Matter protestors early this week. Speaking with 'State of the Union' host Dana Bash, Johnson repeatedly spoke over her while manically spouting out prepared comments and ignoring her questions that led the CNN host to finally cut him off." No matter what Bash asked, again and again Johnson answered, "It is a tragedy." Mrs. McC: This is what happens when staff gives the dumbest U.S. senator only one line of "response," perhaps because that was all staff thought he could remember. Bash should have booked Wisconsin's other U.S. senator, Tammy Baldwin (D), who could have spoken intelligently about the "tragedy."
Washington, D.C. Clarence Williams of the Washington Post: "Police moved in on dozens of protesters in the District early Monday, deploying a chemical irritant in the crowd and tackling some demonstrators as officers moved quickly to clear Black Lives Matter Plaza. It is unclear why police moved in on the crowd. The irritant, which was deployed shortly after midnight Sunday night, sent dozens of protesters dispersing from the corner of 16th and H streets NW. Police in helmets and riot gear were deployed along H Street outside of Lafayette Square. The large sound of the deployment could be heard for blocks. Smoke from the police munitions could be seen wafting in the air.... Two units of bike officers had pedaled into Black Lives Matter Plaza to descend on demonstrators.... Officers were seen tackling fleeing demonstrators and swinging their bikes at people as they appeared to take several protesters into custody and shove others away from the plaza."
Presidential Race, Etc.
Natasha Korecki & Christopher Cadelado of Politico write that Joe Biden is being "forced to play on Trump's turf" because of events in Portland, Oregon, & Kenosha, Wisconsin. Mrs. McC: But the pretense of the story seems to be that Trump is playing fair, and that "racial unrest" is simply a current event that naturally inures to Trump's advantage because of his supposed "law & order" agenda. Even Biden's own backers, according to the report, are upset he is not going to Kenosha, as Trump is doing. However, the person they cite on the Kenosha visit is a Bernie Sanders supporter, and the person they say insists Biden must go to Arizona is a Republican. ~~~
~~~ Axios: "... Joe Biden will travel to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Monday to make an address 'on whether voters feel safe' in President Trump's America and offer his vision for a 'better future,' his campaign said in a statement.... The Biden campaign's announcement Sunday comes one day after the New York Times reported that the former vice president would be making a trip to 'condemn violence, and to note that chaos has unfolded' on Trump's watch.... Via Axios' Hans Nichols: Biden's plans to travel and directly address the violence is an indication that the campaign is worried about losing ground on the law and order issue."
Evan Semones of Politico: "Rep. Cedric Richmond, who serves as co-chairman of Joe Biden's presidential campaign, took ... Donald Trump to task on Sunday over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, race relations and a faltering economy. 'This is Trump's America. He has to own this moment,' Richmond (D-La.) said in an interview on NBC's 'Meet the Press.' 'He has to own the incompetence around coronavirus and 180,000 American deaths, almost 6 million infections, almost 38 million jobless claims. He has to own it. This is his America.'"
Trump Group Plans to Swift-Boat Biden. Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "Senior Republicans are launching a massive new super PAC this week to bolster Donald Trump's reelection in the final stretch of the campaign -- a move that comes as the president has been pummeled by Joe Biden on TV. The new organization, Preserve America, is poised to begin a $30 million advertising blitz, an amount that's likely to escalate in the weeks to come, two people familiar with the effort told Politico. The super PAC is expected to draw the support of a range of GOP megadonors, including Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus. Preserve America will be overseen by Chris LaCivita, a veteran Republican strategist who orchestrated the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth takedown of John Kerry in the 2004 presidential race."
Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: "Twitter flagged a video shared by the second-ranking House Republican on Saturday as 'manipulated,' as it spliced quotes together from an activist who speaks through computer voice assistance, making it sound as though he'd convinced Joe Biden to defund police departments. 'I have lost my ability to speak, but not my agency or my thoughts,' Ady Barkan wrote to Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the House minority whip, in a Sunday tweet. 'You and your team have doctored my words for your own political gain. Please remove this video immediately. You owe the entire disability community an apology.'... [The doctored conversation] has been featured in advertising worth millions of dollars that accuses Biden of wanting to 'defund' police.... 'Though Ady would have loved Joe Biden to announce in this interview that he is in favor of defunding the police, the Vice President never said it,' Liz Jaff, the president of Barkan's Be A Hero political fund, said in a statement to CNN last month." A Hill report is here. ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: It's as if Scalise asked you two questions: (1) Do you like pumpkin pie? and (2) Do you favor genocide? You answer "Yes, absolutely," to pie, and you express horror at his second question. So Scalise attaches your pie response to the genocide question and publishes it to prove you're a homicidal maniac. But Scalise sees nothing wrong with this. According to his spokesperson, his Biden video merely had been "condensed."
Around the World, Trumpism "Is Wearing Thin." Ishan Tharoor of the Washington Post: "Last week's Republican National Convention saw a blizzard of misinformation. President Trump's acceptance speech Thursday was itself 'a tidal wave of tall tales, false claims and revisionist history,' according to The Washington Post's Fact Checker, which cited more than two dozen significant falsehoods in that address.... Trump has goaded hard-line supporters into taking violent action against protesters. All the while, the United States inches toward 200,000 coronavirus-related deaths, maintains the highest number of infection cases in the world and has seen its economy crash by a third of its GDP.... Much of the world has seen through the Trumpist mirage for quite some time.... Still, numerous commentators [around the world] hope that a Trump defeat in November may lead to a kind of restoration. A potential Biden administration would revive the United States' role in the global alliance system, meaning, for example, America's swift return to the Paris climate agreement and international efforts to transition toward a carbon-neutral economy."
Donnie Liked It! Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "On Monday night, former Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle, a top fundraiser for the Trump reelection effort and girlfriend of Donald Trump Jr., delivered a booming, scenery-chewing speech at the 2020 Republican National Convention that immediately went viral.... Her critics found the speech to be over-the-top and 'strange.'... Stephen Colbert mocked the pretaped address as a series of 'very nuanced screams.'... Minutes after her speech aired on Monday evening..., Donald Trump called Guilfoyle, to effusively praise her for the address he'd just watch on TV, comparing her to Eva 'Evita' Perón, according to two people familiar with the phone conversation.... 'That was fantastic ... so amazing,' Trump said on the Monday night call. 'So much energy ... so much passion.' According to these sources, the president added that 'nobody could have done that but you,' calling her 'my Kimberly.' He told her that hers was one of the 'greatest' speeches he'd ever seen." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Evidently Guilfoyle was playing to an audience of one. Every commentator I saw on the teevee who "analyzed" the speech found it either horrifying, hilarious or both.
Chad Wolf Plays Dumb. Sanjana Karanth of the Huffington Post: "Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf claimed Sunday that he did not know the naturalization ceremony he led at the White House last week would be televised at the Republican National Convention later that day.... In an interview Sunday on ABC's 'This Week,' the DHS head argued that he believed Trump just genuinely happened to be leading a naturalization ceremony alongside him with cameras filming it at the White House during the week of the convention...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
The Trumpidemic, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Sunday are here: "On Sunday, the United States hit yet another milestone, with six million reported cases, according to a New York Times database. ~~~
~~~ "Dr. Stephen M. Hahn, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, who has been under pressure from the White House to speed coronavirus treatments, said in a newspaper interview that his agency would be willing to approve a coronavirus vaccine before Phase 3 clinical trials were complete if the agency found it 'appropriate' to do so. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Juan Cole: "The US reported its sixth million coronavirus case, and deaths are headed toward 200,000. It is hard to explain just how bad the US death rate under Trump from the novel coronavirus is.... As of Sunday, Johns Hopkins reported US deaths as 183,057.... Americans under Trump are dropping dead at 88 times the rate of South Korea.... Out of 194 countries in the world, only 10 have had a worst per capita death rate than the United States. Some are also in thrall to right wing business classes, like the United Kingdom. Others are populist/fascist and also lack a proper national health system, like Brazil. Others just don't have strong governance systems, like Italy and Spain.... What explains it is that Trump is bad at his job." Emphasis original.
Laurie McGinley, et al., of the Washington Post take a deep dive into how Trump pressured the FDA into turning an emergency authorization for a convalescent plasma Covid-19 treatment into a false political claim that the treatment amounted to a "very historic breakthrough." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Rebecca Falconer of Axios: "A new Centers for Disease Control report shows 94% of people who died from COVID-19 in the U.S. had contributing health conditions.... Australian epidemiologist Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz noted in a blog post on Monday that the CDC estimates COVID-19 was the underlying cause of 95% of all deaths related to the virus. Only in 5% of deaths has it been listed as a contributing cause.... This report doesn't mean that COVID isn't as bad as we thought. It's clear from the CDC's statistics on excess deaths that more people are dying than usual, because of COVID. The fact that common pre-existing medical conditions often coincide with deadly coronavirus infections is part of what makes it scary -- not a reason to write it off." The CDC report is here. ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Sorry, Rebecca; that's way too much explaining for Donald Trump & his QAnon buddies to follow: ~~~
~~~ Daniel Dale & Jamie Gumbrecht of CNN: "Twitter on Sunday took down a tweet containing a false claim about coronavirus death statistics that was made by a supporter of the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory -- a post that ... Donald Trump had retweeted earlier in the day. The tweet -- which has been replaced with a message saying, 'This Tweet is no longer available because it violated the Twitter Rules['] -- from 'Mel Q,' copied from someone else's Facebook post, claimed that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had 'quietly' updated its numbers 'to admit that only 6%' of people listed as coronavirus deaths 'actually died from Covid,' since 'the other 94% had 2-3 other serious illnesses.' That's not what the CDC said. As of Sunday at 4 p.m. ET, Twitter had not removed a second tweet, also retweeted by the President on Sunday, that spread the same false claim.... The CDC's latest regular update to a public statistics page on the pandemic -- there was nothing especially 'quiet' about it -- said that for 6% of the deaths included in its statistics, 'Covid-19 was the only cause mentioned' on the deceased person's death certificate."
Today's Realty Chex Report. Matthew Haag of the New York Times: "Over three days in late July, a three-bedroom house in East Orange, N.J., was listed for sale for $285,000, had 97 showings, received 24 offers and went under contract for 21 percent over that price.... In the Hudson Valley, a nearly three-acre property with a pool listed for $985,000 received four all-cash bids within a day of having 14 showings. Since the pandemic began, the suburbs around New York City, from New Jersey to Westchester County to Connecticut to Long Island, have been experiencing enormous demand for homes of all prices, a surge that is unlike any in recent memory, according to officials, real estate agents and residents. In July, there was a 44 percent increase in home sales for the suburban counties surrounding the city when compared with the previous year.... At the same time, the number of properties sold in Manhattan plummeted 56 percent.... It is an exodus that analysts say is reminiscent of the one that fueled the suburbanization of America in the second half of the 20th century."
** Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "The Justice Department secretly took steps in 2017 to narrow the investigation into Russian election interference and any links to the Trump campaign, according to former law enforcement officials, keeping investigators from completing an examination of President Trump's decades-long personal and business ties to Russia. The special counsel who finished the investigation, Robert S. Mueller III, secured three dozen indictments and convictions of some top Trump advisers, and he produced a report that outlined Russia's wide-ranging operations to help get Mr. Trump elected and the president's efforts to impede the inquiry. But law enforcement officials never fully investigated Mr. Trump's own relationship with Russia, even though some career F.B.I. counterintelligence investigators thought his ties posed such a national security threat that they took the extraordinary step of opening an inquiry into them. Within days, the former deputy attorney general Rod J. Rosenstein curtailed the investigation without telling the bureau, all but ensuring it would go nowhere." Read on. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I know some of you don't like incendiary terms, but Schmidt's report is a bombshell. I mean, "Ka-Boom." It turns out the Mueller probe was indeed a hoax but for a reason opposite to what Trump claims. The article is adapted from a book that will be published Tuesday. Edwin Rios of Mother Jones has a summary report here. ~~~
~~~ ** Jonathan Swan of Axios: "The day after President Trump fired FBI boss James Comey, the president phoned John Kelly, who was then secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, and offered him Comey's job, the New York Times' Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Michael Schmidt reports in his forthcoming book, 'Donald Trump v. The United States.'... 'But the president added something else -- if he became FBI director, Trump told him, Kelly needed to be loyal to him, and only him.... Kelly immediately realized the problem with Trump's request for loyalty, and he pushed back on the president's demand,' Schmidt writes. 'Kelly said that he would be loyal to the Constitution and the rule of law, but he refused to pledge his loyalty to Trump.'... This previously unreported conversation sheds additional light on the president's mindset when he fired Comey. Special counsel Robert Mueller never learned of this information because the president's lawyers limited the scope of his team's two-hour interview with Kelly.... In a summary of the reporting, Schmidt tells me, '... Mueller's team wanted to know whether Trump had a role in the firing of the acting FBI director Andrew McCabe and whether Trump was saying anything about prosecuting Comey....Trump was indeed discussing prosecuting [Hillary] Clinton and Comey, and [White House Counsel Don] McGahn had written a memo to Trump detailing why he should not be pressing the Justice Department for such a prosecution.'" ~~~
~~~ Jonathan Swan: "On Feb. 23, 2018, White House counsel Don McGahn sent a two-page memo to Chief of Staff John Kelly arguing that Jared Kushner's security clearance needed to be downgraded, the New York Times' Michael Schmidt reports in his forthcoming book, 'Donald Trump v. The United States.'... Schmidt reports directly from the confidential McGahn memo for the first time, describing how Kelly had serious concerns about granting Kushner a top-secret clearance in response to a briefing he had received related to the routine FBI investigation into Kushner's background.... President Trump ultimately intervened to ensure Kushner got his top-secret security clearance."
Way Beyond the Beltway
Belarus. Anton Troianovski of the New York Times: "Tens of thousands of people marched on the palace of President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko of Belarus on Sunday, demanding he resign, as large-scale protests against the longtime, authoritarian leader entered their fourth week. The crowd appeared to be at least as large as those of the previous two Sundays, when estimates put the protesters' numbers at more than 100,000. The demonstrators deployed an angry, acerbic wit but virtually no violence, and for the third weekend in a row, the authorities refrained from widespread use of force or mass detentions.... Mr. Lukashenko did not come out, but his press secretary released a photograph of him in a white T-shirt and black bulletproof vest in front of the palace, clutching a rifle.... A path to unseating Mr. Lukashenko, who insists the West is fomenting the demonstrations, remains far from clear."
News Lede
Washington Post: "strong>John Thompson, the Washington native who elevated Georgetown University basketball to national prominence, earned Hall of Fame honors and carved a place in history as the first African American coach to lead his team to the NCAA championship, has died at 78."
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