The Chaos in Washington State

I say ‘chaos’ in the title. But I remind myself and you that everybody here is working in a frightening, unprecedented situation. Here from TPM Reader XX in Washington State …

I see your email about de Blasio being lost …

I’ve written in a couple of times recently about this. I work with schools in Washington. In the heart of the problem. District leadership had been looking to health departments for guidance. They simply didn’t get it in an actionable way. I hope someone with good investigative skills does a deep dive into the Snohomish county health department’s response. Woefully lacking or criminally negligent. Or worse.

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Pelosi Says She Has Deal With Trump Admin On COVID-19 Package

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday evening that she reached an agreement with the Trump administration on a package of legislative measures that would address the coronavirus outbreak.

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Maryland’s GOP Governor Will Decide Soon Whether To Make April Primary Mail-In Only

A spokesperson for Maryland Governor Larry Hogan’s (R) office said it will soon decide, “in the next few days or so,” whether to make the state’s April 28th presidential primary mail-in ballot only as the coronavirus outbreak spreads. 

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Senate GOPer Keeps Biden-Ukraine Conspiracies Alive Amid Outbreak

At least one Senate Republican is still trafficking in Biden-Ukraine conspiracies: Earlier this week, Senate Homeland Security Committee chair Ron Johnson (R-WI) abruptly cancelled the vote to subpoena Ukrainian Andrii Telizhenko, a consultant with Blue Star, a D.C. lobbying firm that worked for Burisma. Burisma is, of course, the Ukrainian gas company that former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden sat on briefly while his father was veep. Hunter Biden’s existence on that board has fueled a plethora of conspiracy theories, including the work Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani was doing in Ukraine while trying to force the government to investigate the Bidens.

Look Closely: What Exactly Did Trump Promise On COVID-19 Testing Capacity?

President Trump’s Rose Garden press conference was a self-congratulatory, glad-handing celebration of what Vice President Mike Pence called a “historic public-private partnership” to roll out nationwide testing for COVID-19 starting … wait, when exactly?

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The Bucks Stops Over There Somewhere: Trump Refuses To Own COVID-19 Failures

It’s not my fault!

That was the line from the President of the United States Friday, pressed twice on his leadership in the government’s tumultuous and politicized response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Full Appeals Court Will Rehear Two Major Separation Of Powers Cases

The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said Friday that it would rehear the House’s Don McGahn subpoena case — a sign that the full court is inclined to reverse the ruling by a panel of judges on the court that stood to severely hamper congressional oversight of the Trump administration.

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