WASHINGTON – Last Friday, we told you that there was a significant divide between the pro-Trump and pro-partisan wings of the Republican Party.
And on Tuesday, that split was evident to all of Washington, when conservatives in favor of Trump’s House went after Liz Cheney, the third member of the House’s Republican leadership.
About, in part, Cheney’s support of Dr. Anthony Fauci.
“Reps. Matt Gaetz, R-Florida, asked Cheney on Tuesday to resign or be” removed “as president of the Republican House Conference. As president, Cheney is the only female member of the Republican House Party leadership.” writes NBC’s Kasie Hunt.
“Gaetz’s tweet quickly received the support of other prominent Republicans, including Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky and the President’s oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., who compared Cheney to Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, the only Republican senator to voted to condemn Trump during his impeachment. “
And it’s not just Gaetz vs. Liz Cheney.
It’s the clash between the White House and Senate Republicans about what should be in the next round of coronavirus relief stimulus, even before reaching the demands of Democrats.
And it’s Allen West, yes, that Allen West, becoming the new president of the Republican Party of Texas, in a state that is becoming more problematic for the Republican Party.
“There are three words I hate to hear: I hate ‘big top’. I hate ‘inclusion’. And I hate ‘scope,'” West said, according to the American Policy Almanac, according to the Texas Tribune. “I think he leans on the principles that make him great, that transcends everyone in the United States, and people will come to that.”
President Trump deliberately remade the Republican Party in his own image. And the question is: what happens to the Republican Party when it is no longer president, either after November or after 2024?
Remember, Allen West and his politics existed before Trump became president.
Romancing the Tone
On Tuesday, five months after the coronavirus pandemic turned into a crisis within the United States, President Trump finally admitted the reality.
“Probably, unfortunately, it will get worse before it gets better, something I don’t like to say about things, but that’s the way it is,” he said.
But as NBC’s Kristen Welker reported on “TODAY” this morning, Trump did not answer an important question in his admission: What comes next?
What is the best way to fight the virus and prevent future outbreaks?
What does “get worse before better” mean for the schools Trump wants to reopen?
Did Trump’s desire to reopen the country, before he was ready, make things worse?
And what are you doing today to tackle the coronavirus?
In fact, your public agenda has nothing to do with the coronavirus.
Downloading data: the numbers you need to know today
3,909,514: The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States, according to the latest data from NBC News and health officials. (That’s 54,359 more cases than yesterday morning).
142,959: The number of deaths in the United States from the virus so far. (That’s 993 more than yesterday morning).
47.22 million: The number of Coronavirus TESTS that have been administered in the United States so far, according to researchers from the COVID Monitoring Project.
7,000: The number of QAnon accounts that Twitter has banned as part of a larger crackdown on conspiracy theory social media users
Tweet of the day
Vision 2020: the socially distant conversation of Biden and Obama
The Biden campaign has released a video of former President Barack Obama and his vice president, Biden, having a socially distant conversation, reports Mike Memoli of NBC.
The video was shot earlier this month in Washington, DC, and the full video will be released on Thursday.
But here is the excerpt from the Biden camp released:
Biden: “Can you imagine standing up when you were president and saying” it is not my responsibility. I am not responsible. “Literally, literally.
Obama: “Those words didn’t come out of our mouths while we were in office.”
Biden: “No. I don’t understand your inability to get an idea of what people are going through. You just can’t, you can’t relate in any way.”
Obama: “Well, and one of the things I’ve always known about you, Joe, is the reason I wanted you to be my vice president, and the reason you were so effective … it all starts with being able to relate.” If you can sit down with a family and see your own family in them, and the struggles you have been through or your parents or children have gone through, if you can connect those struggles with someone else’s struggles, then we are going to work hard for them. And that is always what motivated you to enter the public service. “
Stagnation
Coronavirus relief is unlikely to be enacted before key programs expire, given the slow Republican negotiations on Capitol Hill.
According to the NBC team on Capitol Hill, the White House continues to demand a cut in payroll taxes, as well as a cut in funds for coronavirus testing. The only area of agreement appears to be around the decision not to extend the $ 600 weekly federal unemployment benefit that millions of Americans are collecting. But before the committee can argue with the White House tax cut and test funding demands, they have to catch up with each other, and some Republicans have said they won’t support any new spending (like the Senator from Wisconsin Ron Johnson). and Kentucky Senator Rand Paul).
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he will introduce a bill in the coming days that “enjoys quite significant support among Republican senators.”
But with so much up in the air, Texas Senator Ted Cruz could have summed it up better when, according to a Republican source familiar with his comments, he asked his caucus, “What the hell are we doing?” You can read more about the Senate Republican negotiations here.
The cover: a change will come
Don’t miss out on yesterday’s pod when we analyzed some of the most important findings from our NBC / WSJ survey questions on race and discrimination.
ICYMI: What else is happening in the world?
Trump reportedly asked the United States ambassador to the United Kingdom to seek the British Open for his Scottish golf complex.
Things are heating up quite a bit with Senate Republicans arguing about coronavirus relief.
Democrats are looking for a new party platform.
Climate activists are evaluating Joe Biden’s plan for clean energy.
Here’s the latest on the showdown in Portland between protesters and federal police.
State officials want to speed up the process for counting mail ballots.
The Ohio State House spokesman was arrested in what agents call the “largest bribery scheme” in state history.
The Black Lives Matter movement does not want a singular leader. Politician look why.
The New York Times tracks the rise and fall of Andrew Gillum.
