WASHINGTON – Yesterday, July 30, 2020, will likely be a significant and consistent day in Donald Trump’s presidency.
It was a day when we learned that the United States economy suffered a historical decline during the second quarter.
It was a day when we learned that former presidential candidate Herman Cain, who had attended Trump’s Tulsa rally without wearing a mask, died of the coronavirus.
It was a day when Trump tweeted that perhaps the November 3 elections should be delayed.
It was a day when Trump was the only living president or former president who made no comment or condolences at John Lewis’s funeral, and when Barack Obama made a full defense of voting rights.
And it was a day when, just a few hours later, Trump gave a press conference full of falsehoods about the coronavirus. (“Young people are almost immune to this disease,” he said.)
What has been remarkable about the Trump summer so far is the amount of his actions, statements, and tweets that have backfired him.
That trip to the Church of San Juan to hold the Bible? A public relations disaster.
Economic reopens in the south and west? They led to new spikes in the coronavirus.
That Tulsa rally? An increase in infections was probably related to the event.
Move the republican convention to Jacksonville, Florida? They had to cancel that.
And tweeting that maybe the elections should be delayed? He did it on a day when the world was paralyzed by the legacy of John Lewis to extend voting rights to Americans.
If you sow the wind, you reap the whirlwind, as the Old Testament says.
And right now, Trump is reaping the whirlwind.
Three points in Trump’s tweet to delay the elections
As for yesterday’s Trump tweet that perhaps the elections should be delayed (something the president cannot do), three things may be true at the same time.
First, you may well have done so to distract yourself from the horrible economic news that preceded your tweet.
Two, it still represented a five-alarm fire for American democracy. (Never in the history of the United States, during the Civil War or World War II, was there a successful effort to delay elections, as noted historian Michael Beschloss).
And three, it only highlights Trump’s political weaknesses before November 3.
If you are really concerned about how long it will take to count the ballots during the pandemic, why aren’t you working to secure more funds and personnel for the elections?
Why aren’t you giving the United States Postal Service the resources it needs to deliver mail on time?
And if you’re concerned that the US won’t be able to vote “properly, safely and securely” before November 3, what does that say about attempts to reopen schools and businesses during the pandemic?
Tweet of the day
Downloading data: the numbers you need to know today
4,506,161: The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in the United States, according to the latest data from NBC News and health officials. (That is 58,176 more cases than yesterday morning).
153,302: The number of deaths in the United States from the virus so far. (That’s 1,055 more than yesterday morning).
54.64 million: The number of coronavirus tests that have been administered in the United States so far, according to researchers from the COVID Monitoring Project.
$ 3.9 million: How much he spent the Biden campaign on television on Wednesday and Thursday, as the Trump campaign was virtually obscured as part of a “overhaul and adjustment” of his advertising strategy.
As much as $ 500 million: How much the Trump government has spent on fans, according to a Democratic House of Representatives investigation.
$ 2.1 million: The price of an agreement reached between the United States and drug makers Sanofi and GSK to support the development of a coronavirus vaccine.
74: The age of former presidential candidate and prominent Black Trump ally Herman Cain, who died yesterday from Covd-19
Vision 2020: Darken
Less than 100 days after the election, the Trump campaign spent virtually nothing on television or radio ads on Wednesday or Thursday, according to data from Advertising Analytics, NBC’s Ben Kamisar and Shannon Pettypiece write.
By comparison, Joe Biden’s campaign spent $ 3.9 million on those two days.
A Trump campaign official told NBC that “they will be back on the air soon,” after a “review and adjustment of campaign strategy” following the demise of Brad Parscale.
That messaging strategy has recently focused on raising fears about law and order: The Trump campaign spent $ 17 million on broadcast and nationwide cable since early July to run an ad denouncing the “Defund the” movement. Police “and was trying to attribute it to Joe Biden
The campaign still has more than $ 146 million in general election announcements reserved for the fall. But it’s not often that you see a presidential campaign go completely dark during this time period, giving up its opponents’ control over the airwaves, especially as it comes out of a major poll deficit.
Worlds apart
After a meeting Thursday night with Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and Chief of Staff of the White House Mark Meadows, Democrats and the administration are still a world away in the coronavirus relief negotiations, the NBC Hill team reports.
Both sides agreed to continue talking throughout the day and weekend, but the lack of a deal ensures that the weekly federal unemployment benefit expires today.
“We just don’t think they understand the seriousness of the problem,” Schumer said after the meeting.
Mnuchin said they proposed a bill in the short term, but Democrats flatly rejected it, and Democrats signaled their House-passed legislation starting in May.
“What use is a one-week extension? A one-week extension is good if you (already) have an invoice and are solving it, ”Pelosi said in response to a one-week extension of unemployment benefits.
The cap: you are a sunflower
Don’t miss out on yesterday’s pod, when we flipped through some amazing announcements in the Kansas Senate primary.
ICYMI: What else is happening in the world?
Joe Biden is accusing Republicans of “playing political games” with the help of coronavirus.
John Lewis’s death is causing new calls to enshrine voting rights.
Dave Wasserman postulates that voting by mail may be more problematic for Democrats than they think.
A delay in the USPS is creating concerns that mail ballots will be seriously affected by the delays.
A virtual meeting between Sanders’ committee members and Biden DNC got a little cranky.
Democratic state parties are seeing a large influx of cash.
NPR reports that the knock on the Census gate will stop a month earlier than planned, increasing the risk of outsourcing in the poorest and minority communities.
DHS compiled “intelligence reports” on reporters covering the Portland protests.
