Category: Trump Administration

Rising coronavirus cases spark fears of harsh winter

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After surpassing another grim milestone — 200,000 confirmed coronavirus deaths — the U.S. is bracing for an increase in lives lost this fall and winter as the pandemic collides with flu season.

Temperatures are beginning to dip across the country and case counts are subsequently starting to rise again, putting the country on the wrong path as colder weather approaches.

Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, had hoped daily new cases would be around 10,000 by the fall, but the seven-day average is 42,000 and heading upward. Continue reading.

Here’s what you can do if you’re panicking over Trump trying to steal the election: Constitutional scholars

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If you read The Atlantic report and heard President Donald Trump announced he’ll demand they “get rid of the ballots,” you might be nervous.

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow’s call to defend American democracy likely didn’t help as she sounded the alarm that “it’s happening” and urged Americans to save democracy.

Former Assistant Attorney General for Counterterrorism Joshua Geltzer penned a thread with ideas for what folks can do right now if you’re starting to panic and look for your passports. Continue reading.

How Trump Plans To Remain In Power: ‘Get Rid Of The Ballots’

Donald Trump has been escalating his attacks on voting ahead of the November election, but at Wednesday’s press conference, he called for getting “rid of the ballots” altogether.

“Win, lose, or draw in this election, will you commit here, today, for a peaceful transferral of power after the election?” a reporter in the White House press corps asked.

Trump refused to make such a commitment. Continue reading.

Trump’s rally rhetoric is becoming uglier

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President Trump is an underdog in his reelection campaign. And despite the continued coronavirus outbreak in this country, during the past week he has returned to holding large rallies in an effort to jump-start his campaign and rekindle the support that drove him to victory in 2016.

The result has at times been even uglier than in previous Trump rallies.

Over the course of the rallies, Trump has amped up his attacks on refugees and a Muslim congresswoman, his approval of violence against journalists, his baseless theories about Joe Biden and his not-terribly subtle shunning of a mask to protect against the novel coronavirus. Continue reading.

Trump’s Vaccine Czar Won’t Relinquish Stock In Drug Company Despite Blatant Conflict

The former pharmaceutical executive tapped by President Donald Trump to lead the administration’s race to a COVID-19 vaccine is refusing to give up investments that stand to benefit from his work — at least during his lifetime.

The executive, Moncef Slaoui, is the top scientist on Operation Warp Speed, the administration’s effort to develop a coronavirus vaccine in record time. Federal law requires government officials to disclose their personal finances and divest any holdings relating to their work, but Slaoui said he wouldn’t take the job under those conditions. So the administration said it’s treating him as a contractor. Contractors aren’t bound by the same ethics rules but also aren’t supposed to wield as much authority as full employees.

Slaoui agreed to sell stock worth $12 million and resign from the board of Moderna, the developer of a leading potential vaccine. But Slaoui insisted on keeping his roughly $10 million stake in his former company, GlaxoSmithKline, another contender in the Operation Warp Speed vaccine race. “I won’t leave those shares because that’s my retirement,” he has said. GlaxoSmithKline, working with Sanofi, has started human trials for a coronavirus vaccine using similar technology to Sanofi’s flu shot. It is supported by up to $2.1 billion from the U.S. government. Continue reading.

Three Trump ads in Spanish, many distortions

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With Florida an intense battleground in the presidential election, President Trump’s campaign has been running ads in Spanish-speaking television markets and uploading them to YouTube (“Donald J. Trump En Español”). In many cases, the ads simply repeat false or misleading claims first uttered in English about his Democratic opponent, former vice president Joe Biden.

We previously fact-checked Trump’s “Goya” campaign ad. Now we’re taking a crack at three more Spanish-language ads.

‘Capacidad mental’

“Mental capacity”

Spanish: “Ahora a los 77 años y en su tercera candidatura presidencial, Biden claramente está debilitado. … Joe Biden no tiene la fuerza, la energía, ni la capacidad mental para liderar este país.” 

English: “Now 77 years old and on his third presidential campaign, Biden clearly is weakened. … Joe Biden doesn’t have the strength, energy or mental capacity to lead this country.” Continue reading.

POLITICO-Harvard poll: Pandemic fallout, racial reckoning are deeply personal to 2020 voters

A rapid approval of a coronavirus vaccine would do little to boost Trump’s political fortunes, the poll also indicates.

It’s the economy, again. But it’s also the coronavirus pandemic, the upheaval it’s brought to kids’ education and a nationwide reckoning on racial discrimination that’s top of mind for likely voters, according to a new POLITICO-Harvard poll gauging their attitudes heading into the presidential election.

While the economy is typically a top voter issue in presidential elections, it’s taken on new urgency with millions out of work because of the pandemic. The new poll shows that unlike some past elections, issues that are deeply personal to Americans’ everyday lives, rather than policy debates that can be more abstract, rank among the most important priorities that will influence voters.

“Issues which are broader and further away from people’s lives may not have the same impact as they would have at another time when you didn’t have an epidemic and a recession,” said Robert Blendon, a professor of health policy and political analysis at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health who designed the poll. Continue reading.

We’ve reached 200,000 deaths. Our response has gotten even worse than it was at 100,000.

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The United States has reached the grim milestone of 200,000 deaths from covid-19. We are in a much worse place than we were when we crossed the 100,000-death threshold in May.

Why? Start with the numbers. In late May, we had about 20,000 new infections per day. Now we are at double that, with around 40,000 new daily infections. This is a high baseline to have entering the fall and winter, when the combination of quarantine fatigue and cold weather could drive people to congregate indoors and substantially increase transmission.

In addition, restrictions keep getting lifted, even in states with surging infections. The nearly 2 million students returning for in-person instruction will surely lead to more outbreaks, as some college towns are already emerging as new coronavirus hot spots. In 27 states, the number of infections this week is higher than it was last week. In 14, the test positivity rate is in the double digits, which means the true infection rate is much higher. Continue reading.

Senate GOP eases Wolf’s path to becoming Homeland Security secretary

Wolf, acting chief for nearly a year, defended his agency against whistleblower claims in a mostly frictionless hearing

Overcoming a pair of whistleblower reports by employees alleging misconduct and neglect, as well as skepticism over the legality of his current appointment, Chad Wolf faced little resistance at his Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday to become Homeland Security secretary.

Wolf, who has been serving as the department head in an acting capacity for almost a year, was given a wide berth by Republicans on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to explain recent controversies his department has battled.

Despite concerns panel Democrats raised about Wolf’s record, the swift, largely frictionless round of questioning suggests the nominee may face a quick confirmation by the full Senate in coming weeks. A committee meeting has been scheduled for Sept. 30 to vote on the nomination. Continue reading.

New report details Trump’s racist behind-the-scenes comments about Black Americans and Jewish people

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President Donald Trump recently claimed that he has done more for African-Americans than any U.S. president since Abraham Lincoln, but this is the same person who — during a MAGA rally this week — reiterated his belief that Rep. Ilhan Omar (a Somali immigrant) shouldn’t be “telling us how to run our country. His campaign has also focused on the message that low-income housing (a dog whistle for Black housing) will destroy the quality of life in suburbia. Journalist Greg Miller, in an in-depth report for the Washington Post, examines Trump’s problems with non-Anglo voters and how prominent an issue they are in the election

“In unguarded moments with senior aides,” Miller explains, “President Trump has maintained that Black Americans have mainly themselves to blame in their struggle for equality, hindered more by lack of initiative than societal impediments, according to current and former U.S. officials. After phone calls with Jewish lawmakers, Trump has muttered that Jews ‘are only in it for themselves’ and ‘stick together’ in an ethnic allegiance that exceeds other loyalties, officials said. Trump’s private musings about Hispanics match the vitriol he has displayed in public, and his antipathy to Africa is so ingrained that when First Lady Melania Trump planned a 2018 trip to that continent, he railed that he ‘could never understand why she would want to go there.’”

When confronted about racially insensitive remarks, Miller notes, Trump will insist that he has been a strong ally of Black voters — and yet, his cabinet is “overwhelmingly white and among the least diverse in recent U.S. history.​” Continue reading.