President Trump falsely claims on Twitter that the Dems now are begging him for a deal: “So now Schumer and Pelosi want to meet to make a deal. Amazing how it all works, isn’t it. Where have they been for the last 4 weeks when they were ‘hardliners’, and only wanted BAILOUT MONEY for Democrat run states and cities that are failing badly? They know my phone number!”
Sen. Chuck Schumer told MSNBC this morning that neither he nor Speaker Nancy Pelosi have called Trump.
Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin told CNBC the White House is open to more coronavirus stimulus talks: “We’re prepared to put more money on the table.” Sounds like Mnuchin and Trump want more negotiations, not the other way around.
“President Trump’s executive actions to address the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic are aimed at extending economic relief for millions of Americans, but the measures face possible legal challenges and implementation hurdles,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Democrats charged that the president’s actions Saturday were an unconstitutional breach of Congressional spending authority, and House Democrats plan to discuss a response on a conference call on Monday afternoon, an aide said. But the House is in recess for the rest of August, making quick legislative action against the orders unlikely.”
“With the Nov. 3 election looming, however, any move to block the payments could backfire, as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin suggested in a televised interview Sunday.”
Axios: Republicans and Democrats react to Trump’s coronavirus aid action.
“The Lord and the Founding Fathers created executive orders because of partisan bickering and divided government.” — White House economic adviser Peter Navarro, on Meet the Press. LOL.
President Trump’s aides selectively present him with flattering comments about him and charts that make him look good to keep him in a “positive feedback loop” on the coronavirus pandemic, the Washington Post reports.
Said one official: “Everyone is busy trying to create a Potemkin village for him every day. You’re not supposed to see this behavior in liberal democracies that are founded on principles of rule of law. Everyone bends over backwards to create this Potemkin village for him and for his inner circle.”
It took only 17 days for the number of coronavirus cases in the United States to rise from 4 million to 5 million, the Washington Post reports.
“The previous million cases were also reported in about a two-week span. The United States leads the world with a quarter of all global infections. Brazil and India follow, with 3 million and 2.1 million reported infections, respectively.”
Slate offers “a blow-by-blow account of how the president killed thousands of Americans.”
“The story the president now tells—that he ‘built the greatest economy in history,’ that China blindsided him by unleashing the virus, and that Trump saved millions of lives by mobilizing America to defeat it—is a lie. Trump collaborated with Xi, concealed the threat, impeded the U.S. government’s response, silenced those who sought to warn the public, and pushed states to take risks that escalated the tragedy. He’s personally responsible for tens of thousands of deaths.”
Philip Bump itemizes the time President Trump spends doing things that are obviously not part of his job.
Stat: “The good news: The United States has a window of opportunity to beat back Covid-19 before things get much, much worse.”
“The bad news: That window is rapidly closing. And the country seems unwilling or unable to seize the moment.”
“Winter is coming. Winter means cold and flu season, which is all but sure to complicate the task of figuring out who is sick with Covid-19 and who is suffering from a less threatening respiratory tract infection. It also means that cherished outdoor freedoms that link us to pre-Covid life — pop-up restaurant patios, picnics in parks, trips to the beach — will soon be out of reach, at least in northern parts of the country.”
Wall Street Journal: “The economic hit of the coronavirus pandemic is emerging as particularly bad for millennials, born between 1981 and 1996, who as a group hadn’t recovered from the experience of entering the workforce during the previous financial crisis. For this cohort, already indebted and a step behind on the career ladder, this second pummeling could keep them from accruing the wealth of older generations.”
Associated Press: “Around the world, young people armed with new degrees, diplomas and professional qualifications are struggling to enter the workforce as the pandemic pushes the global economy into recession. COVID-19 has thwarted hopes of landing first jobs – important for jumpstarting careers – as employers cut back graduate recruiting plans or even revoke job offers.”
Chicago Tribune: “Hundreds of people swept through the Magnificent Mile and other parts of downtown Chicago early Monday, smashing windows, looting stores, confronting police and at one point exchanging gunfire with officers.”
“For a brief moment after George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis policeman in late May, some members of the GOP joined calls for change as protests exploded onto streets across the country. That moment is over,” Politico reports.
“Facing possible electoral calamity, Republicans are now turning to a familiar playbook: stoking fear by trying to redefine the Black Lives Matter movement as a radical leftist mob looking to sabotage the white, suburban lifestyle.”
“Republicans are using two lines of attack: the Trump administration, candidates in safe red seats and right-wing social media channels seek to label the entire movement ‘Marxist’ and anti-family as they try to energize their conservative base. Republicans running in swing districts and states, meanwhile, are tying their Democratic opponents to activists’ demands to defund police departments, while avoiding explicitly mentioning Black Lives Matter. Instead, Republicans running in competitive general election races have focused recent ads on more abstract targets like ‘left-wing radicals’ and the ‘liberal mob.’”
“President Trump on Sunday denied reports that the White House contacted the governor of South Dakota about carving his face into Mount Rushmore,” the New York Post reports.
Said Trump: “This is Fake News by the failing New York Times & bad ratings CNN. Never suggested it although, based on all of the many things accomplished during the first 3 1/2 years, perhaps more than any other Presidency, sounds like a good idea to me!”
White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said he would prefer President Trump give his Republican National Convention speech “miles and miles away” from the White House after the President floated the idea of delivering it on White House grounds, CNN reports.
Said Meadows: “Those decisions are still in flux, but I can tell you what I’m advocating for is miles and miles away from here.”
President Trump tweeted that he has narrowed the choice of locations for his Republican convention speech to two locations: The Great Battlefield of Gettysburg and the White House.
Jack Shafer: “It starts with a reporter, usually a female reporter, asking President Trump hard, tenacious questions at a news conference. Trump’s jaw seizes up, rattled and dumbfounded by the questions that he can’t or won’t answer, he abruptly ends the presser by saying, ‘Thank you, very much’ and stalking out of the room.”
Trump’s “increasingly skittish manner with the press marks a turning point in his presidency, a new moment where his usually reliable mouth almighty seems incapable of articulating a put-down or a blow-off response. Our two-fisted brawler of a president, always ready to smash the interlocutors from the press with a virtual folding chair, has replaced moxie with pouts. In the old days, he would have had a ready answer for the much-expected question… But now he’s like the former alpha leader of the troop. He makes a show of maintaining his dominance by beating his breast, but when challenged by somebody superior, he takes his beating then slinks off to a dark, safe place to lick his wounds.”
President Trump accused Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) of being a “RINO” who had “gone rogue” by scolding the White House for a recent collection of executive actions meant to provide assistance to Americans amid the coronavirus pandemic, Politico reports.
Said Trump on Twitter: “RINO Ben Sasse, who needed my support and endorsement in order to get the Republican nomination for Senate from the GREAT State of Nebraska, has, now that he’s got it (Thank you President T), gone rogue, again. This foolishness plays right into the hands of the Radical Left Dems!”
Ezra Klein has a good conversation with Stuart Stevens, author of It’s Was All a Lie: How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump.
“Most dissidents from Trumpism take a familiar line: They didn’t leave the Republican Party, the Republican Party left them. But for Stevens, Trump forced a more fundamental rethinking: The problem, he believes, is not that the GOP became something it wasn’t; it’s that many of those within it — including him — failed to see what it actually was.”
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