Richard Bright gave riveting testimony yesterday. As he highlighted the problems, Republicans on the committee spent time trying to defend hydroxychloroquine, which Dr. Bright was correct to challenge in real time over safety issues. That gives you an idea of how it went.
Pres. Trump attacks ousted vaccine chief Rick Bright, who is set to testify to Congress that virus warnings were ignored. https://t.co/4LSPX2GA9S
— ABC News (@ABC) May 14, 2020
‘They are angry:’ Pandemic and economic collapse slam Trump across Rust Belt
Coronavirus infections and unemployment filings are spiraling in parts of the industrial Midwest where Donald Trump cleaned up in 2016.
The numbers and interviews, however, paint a much grimmer picture. The virus has moved from urban centers like Detroit and Chicago into suburbs and more sparsely populated counties, a trend seen from western Pennsylvania to Minnesota and Iowa. In Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania—Democrats’ so-called “Blue Wall”—19 counties report coronavirus cases doubling in less than 14 days. Trump won all but one of those counties, by an average of 65 percent.
Democrats are working to ensure that doesn’t happen again by casting his stewardship over the virus and economy as a betrayal.
Republicans took two tacks in this hearing (both are BS, by the way):
1. Hydroxychloroquine is working, why are you trying to stop doctors from using it?
2. We as a committee didn’t know any of this. Don’t blame us.
One is covering for Trump, the other is covering for themselves.
This is what a trend looks like: https://t.co/TaX1421nLb pic.twitter.com/QHkvBhjL55
— Brandon (@Brand_Allen) May 14, 2020
Ron Brownstein/Atlantic:
Trump Brings in the Infantry for His War on Blue America
Even during the pandemic, he is using the tools of national authority to advance Republican priorities while weakening Democrats’ capacity to impede them.
Most sweepingly, Barr’s decision to drop charges against Michael Flynn, the former Trump national-security aide who admitted to lying to federal investigators, marked another step in the attorney general’s long campaign to discredit the investigation of possible collusion between Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign. Barr has systematically worked to shift the focus from the Trump campaign’s actions to the decisions by Obama law-enforcement officials to investigate those actions. It is as if Barr is unraveling the Mueller investigation and weaving the threads into a new design.
Barr has hinted at future prosecutions of Obama officials, and Trump seems to have that prospect in mind with his repeated allegations that Obama broke the law. Just this morning, Trump raised the stakes even further by calling on the Senate to demand Obama’s testimony under oath on the Russia investigation’s origins, which he called once again “the biggest political crime and scandal” in the country’s history.
Rick Bright: �It was quite a surprise to me that the urgent ramp up of the testing did not include full consideration of all the critical supplies needed to support that ramp up of testing, including those materials you mentioned swabs, viral transport media, buffers, etc.�
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) May 14, 2020
Greg Sargent/WaPo:
The 2016 nightmare is already repeating itself
The latest developments in the Michael Flynn case should prompt us to revisit one of the most glaring failures in political journalism, one that lends credibility to baseless narratives pushed for purely instrumental purposes, perversely rewarding bad-faith actors in the process.
News accounts constantly claim with no basis that new information “boosts” or “lends ammunition” to a particular political attack, or “raises new questions” about its target. These journalistic conventions are so all-pervasive that we barely notice them.
But they’re extremely pernicious, and they need to stop. They both reflect and grotesquely amplify a tendency that badly misleads readers. That happened widely in 2016, to President Trump’s great benefit. It’s now happening again.
NEW via @Reuters: Approval of Trump’s handling of coronavirus is down net 15 points since March 30th. pic.twitter.com/8TT032EnuX
— Matt Rogers ðÂ�Â�Â�ï¸Â� (@Politidope) May 14, 2020
Dan Froomkin/Press Watch:
New York Times health reporter Donald McNeil deserves accolades, not a scolding
In a wide-ranging 15-minute interview with Christiane Amanpour on CNN on Tuesday (here’s the video; here’s a rough transcript), McNeil spoke freely about what he has learned.
He did it with authority, passion and alarm.
He warned of terrifying spikes if governors reopen their states too fast. “When your curve is bending upwards, you have no idea what the top is. You don’t have a handle on the virus,” he said. “When their voters start to die, their voters are going to get angry, angrier than the donors are. And I — why governors don’t see this, I don’t understand.”
He despaired over the lack of testing, saying we need “millions and millions, as in 5 million a day. Otherwise you have no idea where the virus is and your only indicator is that your emergency rooms are getting overwhelmed. And when that happens: too late.
And he rendered some harsh judgments on Donald Trump, Mike Pence and Centers for Disease Control director Robert Redfield.
“We completely blew it for the first two months of our response. We were in a headless-chicken phase, and yes, it’s the president’s fault, it is not China’s fault,” McNeil said. “So we lost two months there, and that was because of incompetent leadership at the CDC, I’m sorry to say — it’s a great agency, but it’s incompetently led, and I think Dr. Redfield should resign.”
This would certainly be interesting. Voter ratings (favorable/unfavorable) via @MonmouthPoll: Trump – 40 favorable / 53 unfavorable Obama – 57 favorable / 34 unfavorablehttps://t.co/Fz2dzSwLXJ https://t.co/kllHI52xtY
— Patrick Murray (@PollsterPatrick) May 14, 2020
Rex Huppke/Chicago Tribune:
Fed chair Powell shares shocking job loss numbers. Pelosi’s coronavirus relief plan is big — and we need big.
With people frustrated and fearful, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is focused on making sure businesses are legally protected from workers who get sick. And on Tuesday, he dismissed a Democratic effort to help struggling Americans by saying: “This is not a time for aspirational legislation.”
Respectfully, Sen. McConnell, that’s a load of rat poop. Now, at this unprecedented moment in our nation’s history, is exactly the time for aspirational legislation. It is time for something big, something that will protect human beings — you remember them, don’t you? — and give Americans the reassurance they need to ride out this crisis without having to choose between losing their homes or contracting a vicious and highly contagious disease.
McConnell’s dismissive statement was in response to a massive, $3 trillion coronavirus rescue bill House Democrats released Tuesday. Admittedly, the 1,800-page bill, in true Democratic form, tries to do too much. It ranges from the aforementioned protecting human beings (very important) to funding the Postal Service (also very important, but maybe a separate issue) to requiring airplane passenger to wear masks (important, but perhaps something airlines should handle).
A threshold: Since late March, more than 1,000 counties carried by Trump have now become high-coronavirus, according to new data from demographer William Frey. In the last three weeks, some 80 Trump counties *in swing states* have become high-covid. New:https://t.co/u3znK5XE1y
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) May 14, 2020
Aaron E. Carroll/NY Times:
Too Many States Are Flying Blind Into Reopening. Not Indiana.
The federal government doesn’t seem willing to mobilize, so states will have to do the heavy lifting.
It would require a full statewide, random sample study to allow us to see what’s going on.
That, of course, would require a government that leads.
We’ve just seen that happen in Indiana. Thanks to a study done with the state’s help, we now know that it’s likely that about 2.8 percent of Hoosiers have so far been infected with this virus. It also means that the fatality rate in Indiana is about 0.6 percent, significantly higher than what we usually see for seasonal influenza.
In some ways the low number of people infected is good news. Social distancing worked. The hospitals, while strained at times, were never overwhelmed. The state was able to keep the rate of infection much lower than others, like New York. It also appears that less than half of those infected are asymptomatic. This might also account for the lower levels of spread.
In other ways, this news is troubling. Many have hoped that great numbers of Americans have been infected, but with no symptoms or very mild illness. If that were true, we might be able to get to herd immunity with relatively few bad outcomes.
Dr. Bright w/ a damning statement on Trump administration’s virus response: “We did not forewarn people. We did not train people. We did not educate them on social distancing and wearing a mask as we should have in January and February. All those…could have…saved more lives.”
— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) May 14, 2020
Jack Shafer/Politico:
Why Trump Is Peddling Extra-Strength Conspiracy Theories
The president is doubling his dose of outrageous claims because he worries his audience isn’t responding like it used to.
Trump could not possibly have been surprised, either, when CBS News correspondent Weijia Jiang asked a pointed question about why Trump was trying to frame the testing as some sort global competition. Instead of giving a coherent answer, the president told her twice she should direct her question to “China,” which many have interpreted as a shot at Jiang’s ethnicity. In the interchange that ensued, Trump labeled her question “nasty” twice—his typical putdown for a question he doesn’t like—and then, after calling on CNN’s Kaitlan Collins and then uncalling on her, he abruptly shut the presser down by saying, “OK, ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much,” and marched away from the podium.
And this wasn’t even the weirdest part of the presser! When a reporter asked about his recent “Obamagate“ tweets and wanted to know exactly what crime he was accusing his predecessor of, Trump avoided answering, shooting back at the reporter, “You know what the crime is, the crime is very obvious to everybody.” And it’s not the only crime Trump is bird-dogging. Recent Trump’s tweets have reprised his old and completely baseless accusation that MSNBC’s Scarborough was culpable in the death, 19 years ago, of a staffer. (For what it’s worth, Senate Republicans seem to want no part of Trump’s Obamagate-mongering, according to POLITICO.)
Embracing mania … engaging in pageantry … fight-picking … conspiracy theorizing … throwing a public tizzy. While none of these batty Trump behaviors are new, their current intensity invites us to ask once more why he still goes on like this.
The full stunning quote from Dr. Bright about what keeps him up at night and haunts him today. @CourthouseNews pic.twitter.com/Zriu7eNHOA
— Brandi Buchman (@BBuchman_CNS) May 14, 2020
G.O.P. Defiance of Pennsylvania’s Lockdown Has 2020 Implications
Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, said it was a “cowardly act” for Republican officials to flout his virus stay-at-home orders. But conservatives see rising anger that could lift turnout in November.
A survey released this week by The Washington Post/Ipsos showed that 72 percent of Pennsylvania adults approved of how the governor has handled the coronavirus outbreak, including 51 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents. Only 45 percent of all adults in the state supported Mr. Trump’s handling of the outbreak.
In addition, seven in 10 Pennsylvanians said the United States should keep trying to slow the virus’s spread even if it means keeping businesses closed. Nearly half of Republicans agreed.
“I’m baffled by what the Republican game plan is here,” said J.J. Balaban, a Democratic strategist in Pennsylvania. “I guess they think this will rally their base, but it seems to speak to a narrow base that is already riled up, while alienating them from the kinds of voters they need to carry Pennsylvania.”
Conventions serve 3 purposes: 1) do party business, esp nominate Pres/VP candidates, but also set party platform and rules. 2) intro ticket to America; 3) create cohesion and identity among �the party,� activists, professionals, and electeds who make up party. 2/n
— Kenneth Baer (@KennethBaer) May 11, 2020
David Byler/WaPo:
Trump is benefiting from a covid-19 grace period. It won’t last forever.
Trump’s defeat is far from assured. Americans could subdue the virus through a combination of medical interventions, competent state-level governance and individual commitment to social distancing — and Trump could slide in and take credit. Polarization could kick in, pushing Republicans and right-leaning swing voters to Trump despite his poor handling of the virus. Joe Biden could blow himself up with a last-minute scandal or gaffe. Trump might even manage the rest of this crisis effectively and even improve his numbers. At this point, anything is still possible.
But this type of issue — one that revolves around competence rather than culture wars — is dangerous for Trump. Most swing voters don’t have elaborate ideologies or theories of governance. They want the government to work well for them, and they’re willing to throw out presidents who can’t make that happen. That should make Trump very afraid.
That’s where I am. I think most political people still underestimate what’s going to happen (with the pandemic, with the economy, with the election).
Bright’s testimony (live now) is calm, sober, sciencey, almost boring. But I don’t think anger is an unreasonable reaction to govt officials touting untested treatments without accounting for side-effects or hoarding, and for pushing out a scientist who said to wait for testing. https://t.co/ul8suByq8b
— Nicholas Grossman (@NGrossman81) May 14, 2020
Dr. Bright: The president and his team were unprepared, have no plan and their mistakes have cost tens of thousands of lives and may cost tens of thousands more GOP: So have you taken any paid sick leave recently?
— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) May 14, 2020
The mere act of an infected patient talking could be effective in transmitting coronavirus. The biggest impact of the findings might be reinforcing the necessity to wear masks under any circumstances when leaving the house, to avoid possible transmission. https://t.co/PlIZr6tJqF
— Jeffrey Duchin (@DocJeffD) May 14, 2020
Republican pollster:
Presidential Polling: Biden (D): 52% (+2) Trump (R): 43% (-2) Firehouse/Optimus / May 12, 2020 / n=728 / Online (% chg w May 9)https://t.co/H0EsCLOZ37
— Polling USA (@USA_Polling) May 14, 2020
Biden last night:
Asked what he’d say to women who believe Tara Reade and are now struggling with their vote, Biden says: “If they believe Tara Reade, they probably shouldn’t vote for me. I wouldnâÂ�Â�t vote for me if I believed Tara Reade.”
— Mike Memoli (@mikememoli) May 15, 2020
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