White House COVID-19 task force official Dr. Anthony Fauci will warn lawmakers of the dire consequences of reopening the country too early during his hearing with the Senate Health Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Tuesday.
McConnell Attacks Obama For Criticizing Trump Admin: ‘Should Have Kept His Mouth Shut’
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) lashed out at former President Barack Obama on Monday in response to the ex-president’s comments about President Donald Trump’s Justice Department.
Trump Has A Meltdown After Female Reporters Stick Up For Each Other To Challenge Him
President Donald Trump had a freakout on Tuesday morning and Monday night after several female journalists at his press briefing went to bat for one another in wake of a racist comment he’d made to one of them.
Critical Information
One of the signatures of the COVID19 crisis in the US is how little critical information came from the US government sources. The canonical source of death tolls in and out of the United States is a project at Johns Hopkins University. The canonical sources of testing and infection data is a volunteer project spearheaded by a data guy and a journalist at The Atlantic. Yet even in the Trump Era the CDC does continue to do some public health research and publish their findings. Here’s a write-up from Josh Kovensky on a new CDC report which looks at excess mortality data to find that more than 24,000 people in New York died between March 11th and May 2nd as a result of the epidemic.
Trump Abruptly Ends Press Conference As Reporter Challenges Him On ‘Ask China’ Retort
President Donald Trump abruptly ended a press conference Monday after telling an American reporter who was born in China to “ask China” about coronavirus testing statistics.
CBS News’ Weijia Jiang had asked Trump why he insisted on framing the United States’ testing capacity relative to other countries, to which Trump replied, “ask China.”
“Don’t ask me, ask China that question, okay?” he said. “When you ask them that question, you may get a very unusual answer.”
“Sir, why are you saying that to me specifically?” Jiang responded. Trump dodged the question, saying he was posing the question to “anybody that would ask a nasty question like that.”
Jiang protested the characterization, but Trump moved on, calling on CNN’s Kaitlin Collins before trying to pass onto another reporter instead.
“Sir, I just want to let my colleague finish,” Collins said. But Trump was done. “Ladies and Gentleman, thank you very much,” he said, leaving the briefing.
" Very, very ugly ending to that one hour appearance by the President in the Rose Garden" pic.twitter.com/yiBtbIWkpF
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) May 11, 2020
The briefing largely focused on testing capacity in the United States — a combined private, local and federal effort and a key aspect of Trump’s effort to “reopen” the country. At one point, Trump read from prepared remarks that “We have met the moment, and we have prevailed.” He later said that the United States had “prevailed” with regard to testing capacity, not in the virus’ impact on the country.
“You never prevail when you have 90,000 people, 100,000 people, when you have 80,000 people as of today, when you have the kind of death, potentially millions of people throughout the world, that are dying, that’s not prevailing,” he said.
Read our full coverage below:
NYC ERs Are Getting More ‘Normal’ Type Cases — But The Mood Is Anything But
New York City’s COVID-19 curve has begun to flatten. But for some doctors in the metropolitan area, life in the emergency room remains a roller coaster.
Continue reading “NYC ERs Are Getting More ‘Normal’ Type Cases — But The Mood Is Anything But”
Whitmer Calls Violent Threats ‘Beyond The Pale’ In Advance Of Capitol Protest
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D), who has become the subject of violent threats ahead of a protest planned at the state capitol on Thursday, denounced the comments as “beyond the pale.”
Continue reading “Whitmer Calls Violent Threats ‘Beyond The Pale’ In Advance Of Capitol Protest”
New CDC Study Finds COVID Has Led To 24,000 Deaths In NYC
The true death toll of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City is more than 24,000 people, according to a new Centers for Disease Control report.
Continue reading “New CDC Study Finds COVID Has Led To 24,000 Deaths In NYC”
Transition Into Greatness!
President Trump just unveiled his unofficial new campaign slogan: Transition Into Greatness! Rolls off the tongue, no?
MAGA recedes into memory. TIG limps to the fore. Big shoes to fill.
What They Do Not What They Say
You’ve likely heard that two White House staffers (one a military valet who attends the President and another the Vice President’s press secretary) have recently tested positive for COVID19. You’ve likely also seen the President’s continual denigration and dismissal of the importance and value of testing. (See one example below.) But one thing that is very obvious is that notwithstanding the President’s comments the White House is following a policy of aggressive and near constant testing, coupled with tracing and isolation for those who are infected.
This is exactly what you would want and expect. And populist criticism to the contrary, it should be even more aggressive at the White House since the health of people at the White House – especially the President – is critical to continuity of government.
Whatever the President says, the people running the White House complex are making it pretty clear what they think.