Daily Archives: March 26, 2020

While both parties say they are moving forward, other major summer events are being canceled or delayed. The summer Olympics in Tokyo was just postponed until next year.

Republican officials have been working behind the scenes to prepare for the convention, raising money and building a rapport with Charlotte's Democratic mayor.

Republicans have so far received $51 million in commitments for the convention. The party has set a goal of $65 million by the end of June, though it's unclear how the public health crisis will affect fundraising.

Louis DeJoy, a North Carolina businessman who serves as finance chairman for the Charlotte host committee, has emerged as a substantial donor to the convention, according to people familiar with the fundraising efforts. DeJoy, a longtime Republican giver, has been a top financier of the presidents political operation.

While past conventions have relied on grants from local governments, Republicans this year have been focusing their outreach on major donors and large corporations. Party officials say they are in far better financial shape than they were in 2016. Just before that years confab, organizers pleaded with Republican mega-donor Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam, for a $6 million cash infusion.

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Organizers have been plotting out themes they want to emphasize during the multi-day event. They're planning a Made in America marketplace at the contention, with booths for American-based companies that have benefited financially from Trumps economic policies.

Trump, a former reality TV star who is keenly focused on production of his rallies and events, has been kept up to date on planning for the event. He has held several conversations with RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and other senior Republicans about the convention.

The event has been a source of controversy. Some officeholders in the liberal-tilting city initially voiced concern about hosting the convention, and last year the Charlotte city council passed a resolution condemning the president. But people familiar with convention planning say Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles has been cooperative.

National party conventions typically turn out to be a windfall for host cities and the confab is expected to benefit Charlotte financially.

While the Charlotte event is going forward, state parties are adjusting planned conventions that will determine national delegates. Several states, such as Colorado and Kansas, have altered the format of their conventions to be digitally focused. Other states, such as Texas, Virginia, and Washington, have delayed their conventions.

Earlier this month, the RNC legal counsel distributed a memo noting that party rules allow for some flexibility as it relates to a state party administering its delegate and presidential nomination processes during an emergency.

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Republicans forging ahead with Charlotte convention - POLITICO

You knew it was coming. You didnt know when, or from whom, but conservative economic Puritanism was bound to gum up the works. Three prominent stoogesTim Scott, Lindsey Graham, and Young and Perpetually Troubled Ben Sassethink that the increased unemployment insurance is too luxurious and, to borrow from the great Dave Barry, I am not kidding about this, either. From NBC News:

How self-employed people lay themselves off is only one interesting conundrum raised by these characters. While were talking about real world problems, how are people in states that have been locked down by their governors supposed to be incentivized to go to work at places that are, yknow, closed? Sasse even had the cojones to use criminally underpaid home-health aides as examples of people who will be encouraged to stay home and eat them bonbons instead of doing the thankless work that they do every day. These really are the damn mole people.

Right on cue, of course, and to the cheers of his followers, Bernie Sanders threatened to block the bill unless the stooges dropped their opposition. Which, of course, is exactly what every Republican everywhere would like. The stooges are running a bluff. They dont want to be the people who block this. They just want to talk about blocking it. If Sanders does them the incredible favor of blocking it himself, thereby pulling Mitch McConnell out of the ditch into which the Democratic minority has rolled him, theyll all get re-elected.

Update: Florida Senator Rick Scott apparently has jumped onto the bandwagon as well. In times of pandemic, I know that I will seek advice from the guy whose firm committed the most massive Medicare fraud in history.

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You Knew the Republican Economic Puritanism Was Coming to Gum Up the Works - Esquire

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After Texas Gov. Greg Abbottdeclaredabortions as nonessential care during the coronavirus outbreak (and state Attorney General Ken Paxton made an order to clarify and enforce that decision on Monday), a Republican running for Congress in the state posted a hell of a take on the matter.

Kathaleen Wall, who is running to replace retiring Republican Rep. Pete Olson in Texas 22nd congressional district, thanked the governor for his action and claimed on Facebook that because of the order, #COVID19 will save more lives this week than it takes! #ProLife.

Right.

According to the New York Timesdatabase, more than 700 cases of the novel coronavirus have been diagnosed so far in Texas.

Wall will compete in a run-off in July for the Republican nomination against Troy Nehls; if she wins, she will face Democrat Sri Preston Kulkarni, who narrowly lost a campaign against Olson in the 2018 midterms. As my colleague Tim Murphy reported then, the district is in one of the most racially diverse counties in the country and is by no means a Republican lock. Now that Olson is retiring, Cook Political Report classifies the race as a toss-up.

Wall is a major donor to Texas Right to Life, a powerful anti-abortion group in a state that tends to be on the front lines of the abortion wars, and her campaign website describes her as 100% pro-life and vows she will never give up on protecting innocent human life.

Thanks to the leadership of Office of the Governor Greg Abbott and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, #COVID19 will save more lives this week than it takes! #ProLife

Posted by Kathaleen Wall onTuesday, March 24, 2020

Also, I shouldnt have to say this but probably I do: basically no one gets an abortion at the stage of pregnancy depicted in the image above without extreme extenuating circumstances that risk the life of the fetus or the mother.

The state governments order bans all abortion procedures under threat of up to $1,000 in fines or 180 days of jail time for physicians. Ohio took a similar step over the weekend and deemed abortion a nonessential medical procedure during the coronavirus crisis.

Its also worth noting that Wall is not the only Texas politician who made an extremely ignorant comment in the past 24 hours regarding the coronavirus pandemic. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who is one of the few lieutenant governors in this country that I can name off the top of my head precisely because he says shit like this, suggested on Fox News last night that seniors may be willing to exchange their lives for the US economy.

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This #ProLife Texas Republican Wins With the Worst Coronavirus Take (At Least So Far This Week) - Mother Jones

The nationwide outbreak of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, has already radically transformed American society as states order schools to close, require non-essential workers to stay at home, and Americans practice social distancing as much as possible.

Given the constant and overwhelming influx of information from public officials providing their own estimations and opinions on when society can get back to normal, Insider ran a poll this week asking Americans when they believe the outbreak will end.

We asked 1,132 respondents: "If you had to estimate, when do you think that the coronavirus situation will be over, in that schools, restaurants, and businesses will be widely open again?"

Overall, 72% of Americans think the coronavirus outbreak will level off and US society will be largely re-open for business sometime between April 1 and July 1. The median respondent said a date 69 days away.

A quarter of Americans, or 25%, think the crisis will mostly be over by May 1, 20% think it will end by June 1, 11% think it will be over by July 1, and 8% think it will end by August 1.

Shayanne Gal/Business Insider

The survey also found stark differences along partisan lines between self-identified Democrats and Republicans in their expectations of how long the crisis will last.

Like Trump, Republicans are much more optimistic than both Americans as a whole and especially Democrats in their estimations of when the crisis will end and the economy can start getting back on track.

While the median Republican thought the crisis would be over in 62 days, or about two months, the median Democrat estimated that the outbreak will end in 91 days, or in about three months.

In total, 82% of self-identified Republicans estimated the outbreak will be over between April 1 and July 1, compared to 64% of Democrats.

In the survey, 26% of Republicans estimated the outbreak will end and society will re-open by April 1, 29% thought the outbreak will end by May 1, 17% estimate it will end by June 1, and 10% believe it will be over by July 1.

Shayanne Gal/Business Insider

Democrats, however, are much more cautious and pessimistic than Republicans in their estimations of when the outbreak will die down and society can start getting back to normal.

In the survey, just 10% of Democrats estimate the outbreak will end by April 1, 21% think it will be over by May 1, 22% estimate it will end by June 1, 13% set the end date at July 1, and an additional 11% estimate the outbreak will end by August 1.

Shayanne Gal/Business Insider

Despite the fact that many public health experts warn that the virus is still yet to reach its peak in many places, President Donald Trump and some top economic officials are eager for the virus to end and get people back in the workforce to boost the struggling US economy.

The outbreak has already wreaked havoc on the US economy. While the travel and hospitality industries were initially hardest-hit, workers in every subset of the economy from food service, retail, entertainment, and much more are now facing layoffs or cuts to their hours, with unemployment claims projected to surge into the millions per week in March

In a Tuesday coronavirus town hall on Fox News, Trump set a highly ambitious target date of Easter on April 12 to re-start the economy and begin sending Americans back to work, despite the crisis continuing to worsen in many states.

But Democrats, and even some Republican governors of hard-hit states, warn that the worst of the outbreak is still yet to come, and Americans need to practice social distancing and stay home as much as possible now to prepare to eventually go back into the workforce.

Mike DeWine, the Republican governor of Ohio, differed with Trump by warning in a Wednesday tweet that he doesn't expect the virus to peak until May 1.

SurveyMonkey Audience polls from a national sample balanced by census data of age and gender. Respondents are incentivized to complete surveys through charitable contributions. Generally speaking, digital polling tends to skew toward people with access to the internet. SurveyMonkey Audience doesn't try to weigh its sample based on race or income. A total of 1,132 respondents were collected March 25, 2020, a margin of error plus or minus 3 percentage points with a 95% confidence level.

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Republicans think COVID-19 outbreak will last longer than Democrats - Business Insider - Business Insider

The House Republican whip team is telling members to get behind the emerging Senate stimulus package, with House Minority Whip Steve ScaliseStephen (Steve) Joseph ScaliseHouse GOP whip team seeks to get Republicans behind Senate coronavirus bill 14 things to know today about coronavirus Members of House GOP leadership self-quarantining after first lawmakers test positive MORE (R-La.) telling members Tuesday he believes its the GOPs best option to respond to the economic harm caused by the coronavirus.

During a whip team call led by Scalise and Chief Deputy Whip Drew FergusonAnderson (Drew) Drew FergusonHouse GOP whip team seeks to get Republicans behind Senate coronavirus bill 14 things to know today about coronavirus Members of House GOP leadership self-quarantining after first lawmakers test positive MORE (R-Ga.), Scalise cast the Senate bill as a better alternative than the House package Speaker Nancy PelosiNancy PelosiThe Hill's Morning Report - Presented by Airbnb - Senators clinch deal on T stimulus package White House, Senate reach deal on trillion stimulus package Democrats eye remote voting options MORE (D-Calif.) has put together.

Whip Scalise emphasized that time is of the essence, and that our best position is to accept the Senate bill, given that we have seen Speaker Pelosi is not interested in putting together a serious product and instead is attempting to use this crisis as a vehicle to codify a host of progressive policies that are unrelated to the coronavirus, including federalizing our elections, implementing the Green New Deal, and massive giveaways to unions, among other things, Scalise spokeswoman Lauren Fine saidin a statement.

The Senate appears to be closing in on a deal on a package that will cost nearly $2 trillion. A source familiar with the call said the Senate bill is likely to get strong Republican support" at this point.

With the House out of session and concerns rising over members traveling back to the Capitol, the whip team is expected to conduct its work remotely.

Top lawmakers in both parties are looking to pass the bill through the lower chamber via unanimous consent, which a whip team source acknowledged could present a hurdle given the magnitude of the bill.

Leaders are also discussing the possibility of passingthe bill via voice vote.

He also said that the health and safety of members is a top priority when thinking through the mechanics of voting on this bill, and noted that our whip count for this bill will be critical in determining whether it is possible to pass this bill by voice vote, Fine added.

The source familiar with the call also said such a vote was possible.

We have discussed this with various factions of our conference and believe this is a possible outcome, the whip source said.

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House GOP whip team seeks to get Republicans behind Senate coronavirus bill | TheHill - The Hill

There has to be some line beyond which the GOP will not go in their blind obedience to the President.

| 12:21 PM

History has taught us that there is more than one way to kill a few million people. Deliberate famine worked pretty well for Joe Stalin, for example. Theres even a term for this (Holodomor) which is a compound of the Ukrainian words holod hunger and mor plague.

Apparently, historians still debate whether Stalins Great Famine of 1932 and 1933 meets the technical definition of genocide. I guess its hard to parse between benign and malicious neglect. When does maladministration cross over into a maniacal desire to eradicate a whole people? Who is qualified to say?

Were at risk now of suffering a Trumpomor. This is almost solely because the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate neglected to remove President Trump when they were given good cause. Since he is still in power, hes in a position to cause a million or more excess deaths in this country and more than that on a global scale. He might do it for no better reason than so he can have people visit his resorts and golf courses before his whole real estate empire goes broke.

He might be less inclined to do this if the Republicans in Congress had forced him to divest from his business interests rather than tripping over each other to patronize them. So, as you can see, Im building a decent case that congressional Republicans are giving us a Holodomor.

I wonder, however, if Trump is acting in such a reckless manner that the Republicans may be forced to remove him after all.

President Donald Trump has never been known for his patience or long attention span.

Now, as the coronavirus crisis threatens his presidency, and upends his campaign for reelection, Trump is rapidly losing patience with the medical professionals who have made the case day after day that the only way to prevent a catastrophic loss of life is to essentially shut down the country to minimize transmission and flatten the curve so hospitals arent overwhelmed with critical patients.

The president also has been furious that his efforts to halt the harrowing drop in the stock market have so far proven ineffective. He has been calling friends and economists at all hours and berated aides and reporters who try to persuade him to recognize the severity of the outbreak.

The man is berating people who try to persuade him to recognize the severity of the coronavirus outbreak. He is inclined to do whatever he can to get people back to work, back on the subways, back on airplanes, back in our public parks, and (above all) back in his hotels. This has the potential to cause two million excess American deaths. When people tell him this, he yells at and insults them.

Congress doesnt have the luxury of ignoring this. There are members of Congress who are severely ill with COVID-19, and many others who are currently self-quarantining and unable to vote. Theyre also responsible for their constituents health, and most of them are not outright insane. They know that the best policy is to follow expert scientific advice, and the best politics is to let others take responsibility for any negative economic consequences that result. Taking actions that will lead to a couple of million excess deaths isnt going to be good for them on any level, especially because it wont improve the economy.

There may come a point soon when Trump openly defies his health advisors and causes many of them to resign. That will be the point when members of Trumps cabinet will have to decide whether or not to invoke the 25th Amendment. The prospect of having a couple million deaths on your conscience can change peoples ordinary calculation of what it means for a president to be unfit for office.

If the 25th Amendment everis invoked, this is how it will look:

Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

Mike Pence would become president, at least temporarily, and considering that hes listening to health experts every day, that would be a good thing. But it would be up to Congress to decide if Pence remained in charge.

Thereafter, when the President [Trump] transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.

A lot of people have been fantasizing about this result for a few years now, but were in a different world now.

The president has snapped at aides delivering news that contradicts his relentless belief the crisis will be resolved soon.

Upon his return from a trip to India last month, Trump lit into aides about Dr. Nancy Messonnier, the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who had provided a dire warning about the virus potential impact. He chided Vice President Mike Pence in a West Wing meeting for defending Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, a one-time Democratic presidential contender, for his handling of the crisis. And he angrily upbraided medical providers who called on his administration to do more, saying they should be upset instead with their local leadership.

If Trump tries to end the containment policy, he will face resistance.

There is dissent within the Republican Party, however, including from some close allies of the president.It would be a major mistake to suggest any change of course when it comes to containment, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) said in an interview. I just spoke with Dr. [Anthony] Fauci he believes that, if anything, we should be more aggressive and do more. ... You cant have a functioning economy if you have hospitals overflowing.

There has to be some line beyond which the Republicans will not go in their blind obedience to Trump. This crisis seems perfectly designed to discover exactly where that line is.

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How Far Will the Republicans Go Before They Defy Trump? - Washington Monthly

The first confirmed case of a coronavirus infection in the United States was announced on January 21. Two days later, with the World Health Organization recording 581 confirmed cases worldwide, the Chinese government locked down Wuhan and ordered a travel ban. On January 24, the WHO reported 846 cases and warned that the virus was spreading from human to human outside China. In its daily situation report, it wrote, WHO assesses the risk of this event to be very high in China, high at the regional level and high at the global level.

That same day, U.S. senators were invited to a Health Committee briefing on the novel coronavirus outbreak from administration officials, including National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci, the most knowledgeable and experienced member of the presidents public health team.

Not long after that briefing, at least a few senators sprang into action. Senator Kelly Loeffler, for example, immediately began dumping stock, making 29 transactions over the following weeks, with the first happening that day. While she engaged in this bit of economic disaster preparedness in private, in public, she did and said nothing to prepare her constituents or the country at large for the potential threat of a global pandemic. Throughout February, her staff pushed out press releases with titles like Loeffler Cosponsors Legislation to Repeal the Death Tax and promoted local news appearances like one headlined Fox 5 Atlanta: Sen. Loeffler Supports Withholding Funds to States Over Drivers Licenses.

Senator Richard Burr also acted decisively, dumping, according to reporting from ProPublica, between $628,000 and $1.72 million of his holdings on Feb. 13 in 33 separate transactions. Burr is the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which receives daily briefings on the threat of the coronavirus. In January, he had attended the White House briefing with Senator Loeffler. And although Burr was slightly more active about communicating the details of the pandemic than Loeffler was, he, too, did and said nothing that served anyone but himself. On February 7, he (along with Senator Lamar Alexander) published an opinion piece for Fox News insisting that the government was prepared for the threat. The CDC has developed a diagnostic test that detects coronavirus infections and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is prepared to expedite its review, they wrote. As The Washington Post would later report, the WHO had by that point shipped 250,000 tests to labs around the world; the CDC had only shipped 160,000 to U.S. labs. Most of those would soon be deemed unusable, and only about 200 of those tests sent to labs would be used.

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The Republican Plot to Save the Rich - The New Republic