Breaking news in the middle of the night: After staffer Hope Hicks tested positive for COVID-19, The President and First Lady tested positive. The entire White House is going to need to be tested, with intensive contact tracing for exposure. And that includes Mark Meadows and Amy Coney Barrett.
What a mess. And what a cavalier, reckless and irresponsible crew.
Remember, the WH and family refuse to wear masks. And staff doesn’t at the WH.
And Jonathan Lemire on Morning Joe just now reported that Kayleigh McEnany did a maskless press conference after learning of Hope Hicks testing positive. And that Trump did his Bedminster fundraiser knowing it.
The reckless behavior of the WH after finding out that Hope Hicks was positive is stunning but all of a piece. The press corps were exposed by McEnany. The Senate was exposed by Meadows. ACB might have been exposed as well.They need to be held to account for it all.
Of course, there’s politics involved, largely driven by Trump’s dismissive attitude.
Timelines of exposure are already in the news.
The debate followed strict separation protocol (separate entrances, no co-mingling), so unlikely Joe Biden was exposed (but a non zero chance of it).
This also, because of exposure via Mark Meadows (not positive but in contact) and Hope Hicks (positive), sets back the SCOTUS appointment, and the Senate, and the entire US Government.
More to come on all of this, still a developing story and a hugely impactful one.
As a physician and someone who was in a management position the first thing and the recurring thing to me: how can you do this to your staff?!
I am so angry this morning.
America, wear your masks, The pandemic is not over.
Sorry for the rant.
____________________
Meanwhile, a reminder that Trump planned all along to try and get Joe Biden to stutter in the debates. This Politico story is from September:
Trump team plots how to bust Biden in the debates
The president’s advisers are studying Biden’s idiosyncrasies to identify ways to trip him up on the debate stage.
There’s some tension among the president’s advisers over whether it’s wise to try to trip up Biden so he stutters, or to box him in on issues.
One 2016 Trump campaign official said it’s a “calculated risk” to phrase things in such a way that might cause the former vice president to stammer in his response, acknowledging such a strategy could backfire if Trump deliberately appears to be messing with Biden's history of stuttering — an attribute Biden has used to demonstrate his ability to overcome challenges and his empathy for children in similar situations. One aide said Biden is a good debater and unlikely to have difficulty speaking in that environment.
FiveThirtyEight:
Who Won The First 2020 Presidential Debate?
We partnered with Ipsos to poll voters before and after the candidates took the stage.
Debate watchers were pretty decisive in their verdict of last night’s performances: Only about one-third said Trump’s performance was “somewhat good” or “very good,” and 50 percent said it was “very poor.” Biden’s performance was more positively received, with around 60 percent saying they thought he performed well. Respondents gave more mixed grades on how they thought the candidates outlined their policies, but Biden received better marks here, too: Almost 60 percent said they thought his policies were “somewhat good” or “very good,” compared to about 40 percent who said the same for Trump.
NBC News:
Biden outspent Trump $153 million to $57 million on ads in a single month
We’ve told you how Joe Biden passed President Trump in the money race. Now let’s show you how Biden is spending his money — and how Trump isn’t, at least over the advertising airwaves.
In the month of September alone, the Biden campaign spent $153 million on TV and radio ads, while the Trump campaign spent $57 million, according to ad-spending data from Advertising Analytics.
That’s nearly a 3-to-1 spending advantage.
Morning Consult:
Obamacare Support Hits Record High as Supreme Court Faces Ideological Shift
About 4 in 5 voters support protections for people with pre-existing conditions as court hearing approaches
-
A record-high 62% of voters support the Affordable Care Act, including 85% of Democrats and 36% of Republicans.
-
56% of voters say the ACA should be improved and strengthened, while 20% say the law should be struck down and 9% say it should be left alone.
-
79% of voters support health insurance protections for people with pre-existing conditions, and 61% of voters trust Joe Biden over Donald Trump to protect this coverage.
Politico:
‘A huge misstep’: Trump allies see a lost opportunity in first debate
For the next debate, some Trump supporters want the president’s demeanor to undergo a wholesale makeover.
As the dust settled in Cleveland and the Trump campaign claimed victory over a “weak” performance by former Vice President Joe Biden, others involved in his reelection effort were less convinced the president did himself any favors. If anything, they said, he might have done more harm than good.
Indeed, the leading complaint from some of Trump’s top allies after the opening debate was not the perceived unfairness of moderator Chris Wallace — though they took repeated issues with the Fox News anchor’s performance — or Biden's evasive answer to a question related to the Supreme Court, but the president’s own demeanor. Overcome with scorn for Biden, Trump jabbed and jeered his way through the night without ever giving his opponent a chance to self-implode. The strategy confounded supporters who had giddily approached the first debate thinking it would be a prime opportunity for voters to see the 77-year-old Democratic presidential nominee stumble through answers with rambling responses and cringe-worthy gaffes.
One Trump adviser had flashbacks to the O.J. Simpson trial, likening Trump to the football legend’s domineering defense attorney Barry Scheck and Biden to frazzled prosecutor Marcia Clark. But while Scheck may have “brilliantly” saved his client with merciless cross-examinations, the adviser said Trump’s attempts to corner Biden only further imperiled his unstable campaign.
WaPo:
Belligerent Trump debate performance stokes fears among Republicans about November
Biden, who launched a train tour through the battlegrounds of Ohio and Pennsylvania, continued to pitch himself as a champion of working-class voters and saw Democrats rally around what they view as Trump’s threat to American democracy.
But few Republicans voiced outrage in the wake of Trump’s norm-shattering spectacle in Cleveland on Tuesday, including his statement that the extremist Proud Boys, a male-only far-right group known for street violence, should “stand back and stand by.” Responses ranged from silence to muted criticism, reflecting how the GOP remains convinced that an alliance with Trump and his voters is crucial for its survival.
I get the logic—they realize we will never accept or vote for them again. Bye, Susan Collins. Bye, Cory Gardner. You can’t pretend to be moderates anymore.
Mike Giglio/Atlantic:
A Pro-Trump Militant Group Has Recruited Thousands of Police, Soldiers, and Veterans
An Atlantic investigation reveals who they are and what they might do on Election Day.
I drove from Kentucky into the mountains of Carroll County, Virginia, and, in a field along a winding road, parked at the end of a long row of pickup trucks and SUVs. A hundred people, most of them armed, were looking up at a man giving a speech from the back of a flatbed truck that was painted in camouflage. Between the crowd and me were two young men with semi-automatic rifles. They stopped me in a manner—neither friendly nor unfriendly—that I’d encountered at checkpoints in other parts of the world.
So-called militia musters like this one had been quietly happening all over the state. The legislature was still pushing ahead with gun-control measures, and people were preparing for the possibility of more riots, and for the election. Rhodes was scheduled to give remarks but, as usual, he was late.
One of the young men said something into a walkie-talkie, and a muscular Iraq War veteran named Will joined me and explained the reason for the guards and the men posted in the woods on the far side of the field. They weren’t worried about law enforcement—a deputy from the sheriff’s department stood not far from me, leaning against his cruiser. It was leftists, antifa, who might record your license plate, dox you, show up at your home.
A reminder there’s still a pandemic to deal with, from Reuters:
Meatpackers deny workers benefits for COVID-19 deaths, illnesses
Saul Sanchez died in April, one of six workers with fatal COVID-19 infections at meatpacker JBS USA’s slaughterhouse in Greeley, Colorado, the site of one of the earliest and deadliest coronavirus outbreaks at a U.S. meatpacking plant.
Before getting sick, the 78-year-old Sanchez only left home to work on the fabrication line, where cattle carcasses are sliced into cuts of beef, and to go to his church, with its five-person congregation, said his daughter, Betty Rangel. She said no one else got infected in the family or at Bible Missionary Church, which could not be reached for comment.
JBS, the world’s largest meatpacker, denied the family’s application for workers’ compensation benefits, along with those filed by the families of two other Greeley workers who died of COVID-19, said lawyers handling the three claims. Families of the three other Greeley workers who died also sought compensation, a union representative said, but Reuters could not determine the status of their claims.
JBS has said the employees’ COVID-19 infections were not work-related in denying the claims, according to responses the company gave to employees, which were reviewed by Reuters.
And a reminder that JBS owners, the Batistas, are under investigation by the DOJ and SEC for “potential violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act”.
San Twin/USA Today:
COVID-19 ravaged meat plants: My refugee mother's life is worth more than the bottom line
My mother came to the United States pursuing the American dream. She died of coronavirus having never met her new grandson and attached to a ventilator.
Meat packing company JBS helped take away what our family treasured most: My mom. And then the government took more: our belief that every life matters, no matter how much money you make.
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) cited JBS last month for failing to protect its employees in Greeley, Colorado, from being exposed to COVID-19. The company’s negligence cost one corporate employee and six workers at the plant their lives, including my mom, Tin Aye. Another 290 workers have confirmed positive cases as of mid-September.
JBS denies it did anything wrong, but my mother, who worked for JBS for 12 years, was almost certainly exposed to COVID-19 in the Greeley meat packing plant, where she worked long, hard hours to keep America’s grocery stores well-stocked, and an endless supply of meat available for summer grilling. It made me sick to hear OSHA only fined JBS $15,615, the maximum allowed. That’s less than $3,000 per death. My mom’s life is only worth $2,230?