Justice Ginsburg is dead, and one can barely utter the words without thinking of the battle to fill her seat, not out of disrespect for her and her enormous imprint on the course of American legal history, but because of how quickly Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump will move – tonight – to lock down that Trump will fill the seat before his term ends. The mourning will inevitably be colored by the rush to lock in a historic conservative majority on the court.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Dead At 87
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died Friday evening due to complications of metastatic pancreas cancer.
ICYMI: Your TPM Weekend News Roundup
Desperate To Help Trump’s Campaign:
- The Trump administration continues to politicize its response to COVID-19 to boost the President’s reelection prospects.
- On Monday, experts warned TPM about the “disastrous” effects of political officials pressuring the CDC to manipulate the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a key tool that tracks the spread of the virus.
- On another front, the Trump administration doubled down on its pre-election timetable for a COVID-19 vaccine — which scientists agree is a wildly optimistic deadline.
- Even Trump’s CDC director, Dr. Robert Redfield, contradicted Trump on his vaccine timeline, which apparently earned him a salty call from the President.
- White House chief of staff Mark Meadows continued throwing Redfield under the bus on Thursday, claiming that the top health official wasn’t close enough to the vaccine process to know the specifics.
- The New York Times reported Thursday evening that the CDC posted controversial COVID-19 testing guidance on asymptomatic people against the agency’s own health officials.
- After the exposé, the CDC reversed course on the testing guidance and now says asymptomatic people exposed to COVID should be tested for the virus.
Kaput-o
- Michael Caputo’s short-lived but controversial tenure as HHS spokesman came to an abrupt halt this week.
- Caputo’s downfall began last weekend, when he went on a Facebook rant claiming that “seditious” scientists at the CDC were working to undermine Trump.
- Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), the ranking member of the Senate Health Committee, called for Caputo to step down after his screed surfaced.
- Caputo blamed his erratic behavior on a combination of personal medical issues and purported death threats against his family, acknowledging that his comments did not reflect well on HHS.
- On Wednesday, HHS announced Caputo was taking a 60-day leave of absence “to focus on his health and the well-being of his family.” He insists he’ll be back in action.
Dam Breaks On Anti-Trumpers
- This week saw another wave of former Trump administration officials coming out against the President. On Thursday afternoon, a former staffer for Vice President Mike Pence starred in a new anti-Trump video excoriating the administration’s COVID-19 response.
- Olivia Troye, who was part of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, said that Trump at one point expressed his happiness that he would no longer be forced to shake the hands of his “disgusting” (in the President’s words) supporters. Troye also announced that she was throwing her support behind Biden.
- In an interview with the New Yorker, Troye said the political pressure being applied to the development of a COVID vaccine was just one of the reasons she had decided to speak out.
- She wasn’t the only ex-administration official to publicly rebuke the Trump government this week. Josh Venable, former chief of staff to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, joined the anti-Trump group Republican Political Alliance for Integrity and Reform as an adviser.
Is this feature useful? Let us know.
Trump Claims To Know More Than Experts ‘In Many Cases’ After Clashes With Officials
President Donald asserted that he often knows more about issues than his own government experts on Friday afternoon, after publicly pushing undermining FBI Director Christopher Wray and Centers of Disease Control and Prevention Director (CDC) Robert Redfield’s testimonies on Russian election interference and the COVID-19 vaccine, respectively.
Intentional
Federal judge rips Trump’s USPS “reforms” as a clearly intentional effort to undermine the pandemic election.
Long Violent History
To send you into the weekend with conviction, a striking bit of BLM music and oratory from Kentucky musician Tyler Childers:
The Blue Wall Of Silence
This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis.
“Most cops are punks. They ain’t going to say shit. But I don’t care. I always say what I want.”
I sat a minute with that statement and not only because it was coming from a friend. I sat with it because my friend is a retired NYPD cop who spent 22 years on the force. David Wright, 69, was talking to me from the comforts of quarantine. I was asking Wright why no Black or brown cop I emailed and called was willing to go on record? I asked him why no Black police organization was willing to reply to my requests? “Punk” was about as succinct an answer as you can get.
Trump Admin Reverses Politicized Testing Guidance After Interference Exposed
The Trump administration reversed itself on a key effort to politicize the response to COVID-19, reversing a scientifically unfounded recommendation that asymptomatic people in contact with those infected with the virus not get tested.
Continue reading “Trump Admin Reverses Politicized Testing Guidance After Interference Exposed”
A Second Trump Campaign Manager Didn’t Vote For POTUS In 2016
It’s now his job to get out the vote and push to ‘Make America Great Again… Again’ but Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien, didn’t vote to ‘Make America Great’ the first time — in fact he didn’t cast a ballot at all.
Continue reading “A Second Trump Campaign Manager Didn’t Vote For POTUS In 2016”
Where Things Stand: More Than Just ‘Disgruntled’ Ex-Employees
In the last 24 hours, we’ve seen two former Trump administration officials take significant steps to speak out against President Trump and Vice President Pence, flinging their White House secrets-laced weight behind Democratic candidate Joe Biden.