- Twice in the last 24 hours, the president has said that the company which ends up buying Tik Tok will owe the federal government a percentage of the sale. This is absolute nonsense. Not only is the Trump administration forcing the sale to begin with, but this has never happened – ever.
- Dr. Deborah Birx spoke about the pandemic being widespread in the United States. The president took this as a personal attack and publicly called her “pathetic.” Dr. Birx was somehow surprised by the president attacking her, apparently wholly unfamiliar with the president. Trade Adviser Peter Navarro followed the attack on Birx with attacks on Brett Giroir and Anthony Fauci, again pushing hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for Covid-19 despite multiple studies now showing no effect from the drug.
- Merritt Corrigan, an appointee at USAID, has left her position after tweeting about how gay marriage is wrong and attacking trans women. Corrigan previously said women should never hold political office, adding to the long list of Trump appointees who have left the administration after bigoted remarks were discovered. (This story gets soap opera weird if you want to dive down the rabbit hole.)
- The Manhattan DA’s office has asked a judge to allow them to carry out a subpoena of Trump’s tax records explaining that their investigation is looking at more than the illegal campaign payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal. They are likely looking into Trump committing fraud regarding property values submitted to banks. The New York Times ran an exhaustive piece on this practice, which was confirmed by Michael Cohen’s testimony.
- The full interview with Jonathan Swan is now available and it’s quite simply a disaster which needs to be seen. Phillip Bump published an article detailing the president’s complete inability to understand the statistics regarding the coronavirus pandemic.
- Trump today again spoke about how horrible mail-in voting is, except in Florida where it’s fine because not many people qualify for it. This is a lie. Any registered voter in Florida can receive a mail-in ballot. Florida just happens to be a swing state Trump has to win to retain office.
- The RNC is considering holding Trump’s nomination acceptance on the White House lawn. The public areas of the White House are not supposed to be used for political events, but Trump has flaunted this law since taking office without consequence.
- The president said this afternoon the explosion in Beirut was “an attack.” When asked a followup, he realized he had been caught making something up and invented his usual excuse – made-up people supporting his lie. In this case, he said he spoke to generals who said it “seemed” like the explosion was from a bomb. The Pentagon later said there was no evidence of an attack. The president making up a terrorist attack would normally be a jaw dropping headline, but this isn’t the first time this administration has done just that.
That was so irresponsible of him to say that about Beirut. He just can’t help himself, he can’t keep his mouth shut and always makes himself look like an ass
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