Category: 2020 Election

Kushner ‘de facto president’ during COVID-19 crisis, WH sources said to claim

Vanity Fair report paints Trump’s son-in-law as go-to deputy making the critical calls over country’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, and beyond

Earlier this month, after Bernie Sanders dropped out of the presidential race, JTA made a list of 10 others who could one day become the nation’s first Jewish president. But according to a new report in Vanity Fair, Jared Kushner has already beat them all to it.

“Jared is running everything. He’s the de facto president of the United States,” a former White House official told Vanity Fair’s Gabriel Sherman, a political reporter who wrote a bestselling biography of the late Fox News president Roger Ailes.

The article, full of anonymous insider accounts about US President Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, paints a picture of Kushner as Trump’s go-to deputy on every big issue — the pandemic included. According to the story, Kushner warned his father-in-law against taking steps that could chill the stock market, and even after Vice President Mike Pence was named the head of the coronavirus task force, Kushner formed his own team to tackle the disease’s spread. Continue reading.

As Trump talks rebound, Fed’s Powell warns economy’s pain will last

The Fed chief’s comments suggest the U.S. economy could face a rocky path for at least the next year as it attempts to rebuild.

President Donald Trump is hoping the economy will bounce back rapidly from the coronavirus shutdown, but Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warned Wednesday that it will take time for the country’s wounds to heal even after businesses begin to reopen.

After the Fed pledged to keep interest rates near zero until the economy has weathered the pandemic, Powell underscored the bleak reality, saying next week’s monthly jobs report is expected to show an unemployment rate somewhere in the double digits.

“We’re going to see economic data for the second quarter that’s worse than any data we’ve seen for the economy,” he said during a news conference. Continue reading.

Trump erupts at campaign manager as reelection stress overflows

(CNN) — As he huddled with advisers on Friday evening, President Donald Trump was still fuming over his sliding poll numbers and the onslaught of criticism he was facing for suggesting a day earlier that ingesting disinfectant might prove effective against coronavirus.

Within moments, the President was shouting — not at the aides in the room, but into the phone — at his campaign manager Brad Parscale, three people familiar with the matter told CNN. Shifting the blame away from himself, Trump berated Parscale for a recent spate of damaging poll numbers, even at one point threatening to sue Parscale. It’s not clear how serious the President’s threat of a lawsuit was.

Trump defended Parscale in a tweet on Thursday, writing, “Actually, he is doing a great job. I never shouted at him (been with me for years, including the 2016 win), & have no intention to do so.” Continue reading.

As Trump talks rebound, Fed’s Powell warns economy’s pain will last

The Fed chief’s comments suggest the U.S. economy could face a rocky path for at least the next year as it attempts to rebuild.

President Donald Trump is hoping the economy will bounce back rapidly from the coronavirus shutdown, but Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warned Wednesday that it will take time for the country’s wounds to heal even after businesses begin to reopen.

After the Fed pledged to keep interest rates near zero until the economy has weathered the pandemic, Powell underscored the bleak reality, saying next week’s monthly jobs report is expected to show an unemployment rate somewhere in the double digits.

“We’re going to see economic data for the second quarter that’s worse than any data we’ve seen for the economy,” he said during a news conference. Continue reading.

Republicans made a deal with the devil — and the bill is coming due

AlterNet logoDonald Trump’s approval ratings over the coronavirus pandemic are in free fall, having tumbled 10 points over the last month, to 39% in a new Emerson poll. This comports with the FiveThirtyEight tracking of Trump’s overall approval, which shows that after a short rally-round-the-flag response to the coronavirus, the public is starting to understand that the man who goes on TV and suggests injecting household cleaning products is a complete imbecile. Moreover, he’s the principal reason the U.S. has a massive shortfall in testing and four times as many official cases of COVID-19 as the second most hard-hit country, Spain. (This is without taking into account, unfortunately, how much the Chinese government may have fudged that nation’s numbers.)

That said, Trump’s overall approval numbers still aren’t dipping below his baseline of about 42%, which appears to be immovable. That’s because Trump’s base voters care about sticking it to the liberals more than they care about anything else, including their own health, their jobs or protecting our country from total collapse.

That puts Republicans running in 2020, especially endangered incumbents in swing states, in quite a bind. Yes, we’re talking about you, Susan Collins — along with other precarious GOP senators like Cory Gardner of Colorado, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Martha McSally of Arizona. To align themselves fully with the orange overlord is to alienate the possible swing voters who aren’t too keen on the “inject disinfectants” platform. But if they try to distance themselves from President Clorox Chewables too much, they risk bringing down Trump’s Twitter wrath unto them and alienating those base voters they will absolutely need to have any hope of surviving what looks to be a tough election cycle for their party. Continue reading.

Trump says he plans to resume travel next week with trip to Arizona

The Hill logoPresident Trump on Wednesday said he plans to resume traveling next week with a trip to Arizona after spending the past month largely cloistered in the White House due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“I think I’m going to Arizona next week, and we look forward to that,” he told reporters during a roundtable with business leaders.

“And I’m going to, I hope, Ohio very soon,” he continued. “And we’re going to start to move around, and hopefully in the not too distant future we’ll have some massive rallies and people will be sitting next to each other.” Continue reading.

Trump makes case for reelection with promises of a swift return to normalcy that experts warn is far off

Washington Post logoBefore the coronavirus pandemic ravaged the country, President Trump’s campaign had a simple, economy-focused reelection pitch: “Keep America Great.”

Now, with the economy in free-fall less than six months before voters cast their ballots and daily life disrupted, Trump is trying a new tack: making bold new promises about a swift economic rebound that experts and even members of his own party say are unrealistic.

The president and his allies have embraced optimism as a central part of his new reelection push, offering a rosy message about a swift return to normal life despite the rising death toll and jobless claims resulting from the outbreak. Continue reading.

GOP senator gives activists grim 2020 assessment amid fears over holding Senate

CNN — Sen. David Perdue, a Georgia Republican up for reelection and a close Trump confidant, issued a blunt warning to GOP activists during an off-the-record conference call this week: Democrats are in position to turn his state blue and take the Senate.

“Here’s the reality: The state of Georgia is in play,” Perdue said Monday, according to an audio recording of a call with “Women for Trump” obtained by CNN. “The Democrats have made it that way.”

The stark warning from a GOP senator — who is not considered among the most vulnerable Republicans this election cycle — illustrates the fear among Republicans that Democrats’ chances of taking back the Senate continue to grow.

State bankruptcy furor shakes up McConnell reelection bid

The Hill logoDemocrats are seizing on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) suggestion that states should be able to declare bankruptcy as the party looks to bring his Kentucky seat into play.

The GOP leader has made his outsized influence in Washington a key pillar of his campaign, positioning himself as the driving force behind Congress’s coronavirus relief  bills and touting his efforts to score critical federal aid for his state.

But Democrats believe McConnell’s remarks — that states facing budget shortfalls amid the pandemic should be able to “use the bankruptcy route” — blow a hole in his reelection argument. Continue reading.

Trump Campaign Furious Over Secret GOP Memo Urging Senators To Avoid Defending President

As the death toll from coronavirus continues to soar in the United States, President Donald Trump is being lambasted by a variety of Democrats, liberals, progressives, centrists and Never Trump conservatives over the weeks he spent carelessly downplaying the severity of COVID-19. And in Politico, reporter Alex Isenstadt describes a recent conflict with the GOP over how Republican candidates should or shouldn’t defend Trump’s record on coronavirus.

“Earlier this month,” Isenstadt explains, “the Senate Republican campaign arm circulated a memo with shocking advice to GOP candidates on responding to coronavirus: ‘don’t defend Trump, other than the China travel ban — attack China.'”On Monday, April 27, according to Isenstadt, Trump campaign adviser Justin Clark expressed his “displeasure” to Kevin McLaughlin, executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) — angrily telling McLaughlin that any Republican candidate who followed the advice of the memo should not expect the campaign’s support.

McLaughlin, Isenstadt reports, “responded by saying he agreed with the Trump campaign’s position and — according to two people familiar with the conversation — clarified that the committee wasn’t advising candidates to not defend Trump over his response.” According to Isenstadt, McLaughlin stressed to Clark that the memo wasn’t saying that Trump shouldn’t be defended on coronavirus but rather, was offering advice on how he should be defended. Continue reading.