- While recognizing the VP of the Navajo Nation, Myron Lizer, the president mispronounced his name and instead of simply correcting himself, he said he’d been told it can be pronounced two ways. This is not the first time he’s done this with a name he’s gotten wrong. This may seem petty to point out, but it’s important. Trump is incapable of admitting even the smallest mistake. When he stumbles on a word, he will ALWAYS add something to the effect of “or as some say, [correct version]” or “also known as [correct version.]” Why is this important? Recognition of mistake is how we move forward to solutions. This is applicable to the entire Trump tenure, but specifically with Covid-19, the inability to admit where the government has made mistakes means those mistakes cannot be corrected. The end result of this paradigm is 75,000+ dead and counting.
- Jared Kushner, who has never run a successful business and otherwise has no experience, is now in charge of finding a Covid-19 vaccine. Kushner is also in charge of the opioid crisis, Israeli / Palestinian peace, relations with Mexico, relations with China, criminal justice reform, and a nebulously defined role of making the government run more like a business. Jared has no experience in any of these fields. Unsurprisingly he has not succeeded in any of these roles.
- As the president was claiming he’d solved the medical supply shortages, members of his own administration were warning that the medical supply shortages were ongoing.
- Mike Pence confirmed a story that Trump would be winding down the Covid-19 task force at the end of the month. The president backtracked and said he would keep it running. The reason he gave was not medically related, but rather its popularity.
- The president is complaining to aides that the Covid-19 statistics must be inflated. It is nearly certain the statistics are currently undercounting both deaths and infections. Notably, early on, the president said he did not want a ship full of infected people to dock in the US as it would raise the number of infections in the country.
- The government has filed a lawsuit against an orphanage outside of Laredo, TX in order to survey their property for the border wall. Often missed in right-wing demands for the wall is the fact that building it requires seizing property from private landowners. In Texas, the overwhelming percentage of the border is privately-held. Litigation over these seizures takes years if not decades.
- The president reaffirmed his stance, currently being defended by Attorney General Barr, that he will ask the Supreme Court to throw out the entirety of the Affordable Care Act. He has claimed for years that its Republicans who wish to protect people with pre-existing conditions and that without ACA we will have both cheaper and better health insurance. There is not a Republican plan to replace the ACA if the court strikes it down.
- A nurse in an Oval Office meeting mentioned her sporadic access to PPE. The president immediately contradicted her and said there was tremendous supply to “almost all places.” This was a lie.
- The president has vetoed a bill limiting his ability to conduct military strikes against Iran. Nearly all of Trump’s vetoes have been of bills that limited presidential power.
- Asked about her earlier comments that Trump would not “allow” the coronavirus to come to the US, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany brought up several past media headlines she said were incorrect. She then immediately ended the press conference without addressing her own comment.
- The state of Arizona told local universities working on Covid-19 modeling to cease work, announcing they would instead be using a FEMA model that the governor said supported re-opening the state earlier. He also said that model would not be released publicly. After media exposure, the state has reversed itself on this issue. Arizona currently ranks 51st among the states in per-capita testing.
- As the Trump administration pushes faster re-opening, its own internally modeling shows that a faster reopening will result in a large increase in Covid-19 transmission.
- The CDC prepared guidance on how to safely re-open the country. The White House has blocked its publication.
- The president has admitted he views more testing as problematic as the increased number of confirmed cases “make ourselves look bad.” He does not actually care how many people die from the virus. He cares how many people are reported as having died from the virus.
- The president has told aides that wearing a mask would make it seem like he was more concerned with health instead of the economy. He also said he would look ridiculous in a mask.
- The president’s businesses in other countries have been seeking Covid-19 aid from those foreign governments. Democrats in the House are now seeking information about these actions. This is a blatant conflict of interest that would have been completely avoidable had Trump divested himself from his business. He is the first president to run businesses in other countries while also dealing diplomatically with those foreign countries.
- In a bizarrely unprecedented act, the Justice Department is requesting to drop the prosecution of Mike Flynn AFTER his guilty plea. Flynn swore under oath that he was guilty. The president publicly stated he was guilty. While I’m not legally well-versed enough to say that the Justice Department has NEVER asked to drop a prosecution after a guilty plea, I’ve not been able to find another example. Barr’s argument is full of laughably bad legal argument, hinging on Flynn’s lie about his calls with the Russian ambassador not being “material” to an investigation about his ties to… the Russian government. When asked how his actions would be viewed by history tonight, Barr said that “history is written by the winners.” This is one of the most corrupt acts by an attorney general in American history. There is still a small chance that Judge Sullivan simply rejects the motion from the government and continues on to sentence Flynn.
- A final note that tonight the House Intelligence Committee released all of their interview transcripts from the Russia investigation. So far I have not seen any major news come from this, but there are several thousand pages to go through so there may be stories arising from them this week.
