Trump’s messy attempt to clean up unwelcome coronavirus vaccine news

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President Trump is putting a lot of his reelection hopes on one thing: the imminent arrival of a coronavirus vaccine that he and his administration can take credit for.

We got a glimpse Wednesday of just how dependent the president is on convincing Americans a vaccine is coming to end this pandemic in months.

Earlier in the day, a top public health official in his administration said something that doesn’t jibe with that. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention DirectorRobert Redfield said that even if a vaccine were ready and approved by this fall or winter, it wouldn’t be ready to be widely distributed to Americans until spring or summer 2021. Continue reading.

‘Tyrannical and un-American’: ACLU slams Barr for urging sedition charges against protesters

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Attorney General William Barr drew stinging rebuke from legal experts and civil liberties advocates including the ACLU Wednesday after he told federal prosecutors to more aggressively charge some protesters with crimes—including sedition, under certain circumstances.

The Wall Street Journal reports Barr’s directive came during a conference call last week in which the attorney general warned that protests—which have been overwhelmingly peaceful and focused on racial justice—could increase as Election Day approaches.

Two people familiar with the call told the Journal that Barr urged prosecutors to seek federal charges wherever possible—including a rarely-used sedition law meant to punish people who conspire to overthrow the U.S. government. Continue reading.

Trump’s most popular YouTube ad is a stew of manipulated video

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President Trump’s YouTube channel is a force of nature. There are more than 900 videos, with the top five all earning more than 12 million views. Joe Biden’s YouTube channel has far fewer videos — and viewers. His most popular video has only 3 million views.

The tone of the videos is much different, too. Biden’s most popular videos are generally positive; Trump’s are apocalyptic.

Then president’s most popular video at the moment, with more than 21.5 million views, is a jumbled stew of allegations about Biden and China. It mixes images of closed factories, quotes from Biden and misleading claims about Biden’s son Hunter and his involvement with a Chinese investment fund. Continue reading.

What Trump is completely missing: Republican states are a total mess

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Donald Trump appears to be seceding from the Union, which is bizarre given his status as the president of it. Make no mistake: Trump appears to be deliberately marginalizing himself by repeatedly insisting that he’s not responsible for certain states and cities, despite technically being the president of the entire United States.

We’ve all heard him say it. On topics ranging from poverty to crime to COVID-19, Trump never hesitates to defer all the blame for whatever onto state and local Democrats rather than acknowledging that he’s supposed to be the president of those cities and states, too.

Earlier this year, for example, Trump tweeted, “The homeless situation in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and many other Democrat Party run cities throughout the Nation is a state and local problem, not a federal problem.” Trump, of course, is the president of those cities, and has been for nearly four years. Has he proposed any national solutions to the homelessness problem? Nope. He’s simply seceding himself from those cities. Continue reading.

Democrats accuse Pompeo, allies of cover-up over IG firing

Engel calls battles with Foggy Bottom not ‘the most pleasant way to bring my three-decade career to a close’

House Democrats on Wednesday detailed their suspicions that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and a small group of loyalists orchestrated the spring firing of the agency’s inspector general, as he was investigating Pompeo’s personal conduct, and then attempted a cover-up.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing with three top State Department officials close to Pompeo, including Undersecretary for Management Brian Bulatao, was months in the making.

“We should have been able to do this a few months ago and not with the acrimony that we’ve experienced,” said Chairman Eliot L. Engel, who lost the Democratic primary for his New York district this summer. Extracting information from a seemingly recalcitrant Foggy Bottom “has not been the most pleasant way to bring my three-decade career to a close,” he added. Continue reading.

DFL Party Statement on Mike Pence’s Plan to Visit Minnesota Next Thursday

SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA — Today, DFL Party Chairman Ken Martin released the following statement in response to reports that Vice President Pence will visit Minneapolis, Minnesota next Thursday:

“There is nothing Pence can say to Minnesotans that will distract the reality of the Trump administration’s failed leadership in our state. As we near 2,000 coronavirus deaths in Minnesota and an economic crisis that is devastating small businesses and hard-working families, Donald Trump and Mike Pence have abandoned states and left us to fend for ourselves. Trump himself admitted to purposefully downplaying the virus, and continues to pursue a response based on conspiracy theories and Twitter rants, rather than facts and science. Minnesotans deserve better, and we look forward to holding him accountable this November by electing Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and DFLers up and down the ticket.” 

CDC director seeks billions for vaccines, says millions were transferred for HHS ad campaign

Redfield tells Senate panel $6 billion more is needed to help states and cities develop distribution plans; $250 million reportedly being used for public relations push

The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asked senators Wednesday for billions of dollars more for COVID-19 vaccine distribution as he addressed allegations of political interference and disclosed that the Trump administration transferred $300 million from the CDC for a public relations campaign.

During a Senate Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee hearing, CDC Director Robert Redfield told Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the subcommittee’s ranking member, that the Health and Human Services Department and the Office of Management and Budget directed the CDC to transfer $300 million to the HHS public affairs office.

Of that amount, $250 million is reportedly being used for a public relations campaign “to defeat despair and inspire hope” in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed nearly 200,000 Americans. Lawmakers view the ads as an attempt to cast the Trump administration’s response to COVID-19 in a positive light. Redfield said that since the transfer was made, the CDC hasn’t been involved in the campaign and hasn’t been asked to weigh in with scientific expertise. Continue reading.

GOP growing more indifferent to Trump controversies as election nears

Washington (CNN)Public health experts reacted with alarm after President Donald Trump held an indoor rally with thousands of maskless supporters at a packed arena in Nevada amid the deadly coronavirus pandemic. 

But many Republicans on Capitol Hill had a different view.

“No, it doesn’t,” said Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, when asked if the rally troubled him at all. Continue reading.

‘It just created a public relations nightmare’: Inside Michael Caputo’s time at HHS

Installed by Trump himself, the bombastic spokesman seized control of Covid-19 messaging, with disastrous results.

After it became clear in mid-April that his administration’s response to Covid-19 was threatening his reelection, President Donald Trump considered a leadership shake-up within a health department whose rivalries and battles with the White House had hampered efforts to contain the virus.

Instead, Trump made a different move: He personally intervened to place his campaign aide Michael Caputo — a confidant of disgraced operative Roger Stone who had himself come under scrutiny for his ties to top Russian officials — as assistant Health and Human Services secretary for public affairs. Trump — not HHS Secretary Alex Azar — approached Caputo about the job, and Caputo has repeatedly emphasized that he works for the president, health officials told POLITICO.

Trump’s calculation seemed clear: If he couldn’t easily move aside the health professionals who led the agencies, he could dramatically alter what the public learned about their work on the coronavirus. Continue reading.