Prime
The show will go on for least three of the four states originally scheduled to hold primary elections tonight, with the Ohio Supreme Court on Tuesday morning ruling in favor of closing polls amid the coronavirus outbreak.
Members of the White House’s Coronavirus Task Force are increasingly adopting a new default when they don’t have a satisfying answer to inquiries about COVID-19: Awkwardly pivot to praise President Trump.
TPM exclusively reported yesterday that the state of Washington has discussed applying for a Medicaid waiver that would expand the state’s ability to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak, but it needs a national emergency declaration from President Trump in order to do so. The Trump administration has thus far withheld making such a move.
This morning, a Senate Democratic aide confirmed to TPM that a group of lawmakers, including a Washington senator, are preparing to ask the Trump administration to declare a national emergency over the coronavirus.
There have been plenty of reports that President Trump is a bit of germaphobe (who also has a fear of being poisoned).
I took a deep dive into the Trump administration’s failure to bring any new Voting Rights Act cases in the first three years of his term. This dry spell of new public VRA enforcement is unprecedented, and it sets Trump’s DOJ apart from that of previous administrations, Democratic and Republican alike.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) probably should’ve known what his remarks on the steps of the Supreme Court would spark among feverish Republicans desperate for a distraction from coverage of the Trump administration’s abysmal response to the coronavirus.
But this is petty, even for Trump’s most loyal congressional bulldogs.
I’ve written a few times that my greatest fear of a Sanders general election campaign is that it would be one half against Donald Trump and one half against the Democratic party itself. The results last night help us understand some of these liabilities and dynamics. Insurgent candidacies and movements have certain enduring, inherent qualities. The simplest is the belief that there’s something wrong, outdated or corrupt about the organizational leadership you’re trying to overthrow. That’s obvious. Otherwise, why are you an insurgent?
Sanders is a twofold political figure. He’s been a federal legislator for a quarter century operating within the conventional political system. He’s also been a left activist for almost 60 years. That oppositionist mentality is deep in his political DNA and that of his campaign. It’s one of its core strengths. It’s magnified among his most vocal supporters.
Pausing on reader emails from Seattle for this dispatch from TPM Reader BP in Nashville:
Just wanted to give a heads up on how things are going here in Nashville after last night’s tornado. My home is two miles from the path, so the only issue I have is no power. Besides all the damage and deaths that have been reported, several voting precincts were either damaged, without power, or not reachable. My precinct had no power. Read More
We’re in sprint mode as the few remaining 2020 candidates vie for wins in the 14 states holding primary elections today.
But even after this weekend’s en-masse exodus of top candidates who under-performed in South Carolina on Saturday, Trump seems to be primarily concerned about the rise of the former vice president.
The state of California wants you to know that if it’s taking a while to count its residents’ votes on Super Tuesday, it’s not because it’s heading into a Iowa-esque debacle.