WASHINGTON – Republican silence on what’s happening in Portland is jarring: If you’ve followed American policy for the past 10 years, you might be surprised that Republicans are more outraged at Liz Cheney than by federal armed agents who simply fired tear gas to a city mayor.
What happened to “Don’t step on me”?
What happened to the rights of the states?
What happened to freedom of expression and assembly?
It is easy to understand in our current policy why Republicans-elect are not speaking out against Department of Homeland Security forces in liberal urban Portland. (Senator Rand Paul is an exception.)
But if you lived through the Obama era, this republican silence is jarring.
And the next time they’re out of White House power, it will only undermine their future efforts to denounce the federal overreach.
American partisan division on race stands out in NBC News / WSJ poll
The nation’s two political parties could not be more divided on the issue of race after the death of George Floyd and the protests that followed, according to the numbers from the NBC News / Wall Street Journal poll we released earlier this month. week.
One party believes there is discrimination against blacks and Latinos (between 80 and 90 percent of Democrats say this); the other party does not (only 15 to 26 percent of Republicans).
One party believes that the United States is a racist society (82 percent of Democrats); the other party did not (30 percent of Republicans).
One party believes that President Trump has made it more acceptable for people to be racist (79 percent of Democrats); the other party does not (18 percent of Republicans).
One side has a positive view of Black Lives Matter (83 percent of Democrats); the other party does not (11 percent of Republicans).
And members of one party want to remove Confederate monuments by being destroyed or placed in a museum (81 percent of Democrats); the other party did not (16 percent of Republicans).
White Democrats vs. White Republicans on the Run
And if you think this partisan divide over race is because Democrats have more blacks and Latinos in their ranks, just look below.
The differences between white Democrats and white Republicans could not be more stark.
Downloading data: the numbers you need to know today
3,989,346: The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States, according to the latest data from NBC News and health officials. (That’s 79,832 more cases than yesterday morning).
144,183: The number of deaths in the United States from the virus so far. (That’s 1,224 more than yesterday morning).
48.02 million: The number of coronavirus tests that have been administered in the United States so far, according to researchers from the COVID Monitoring Project.
$ 1 billion: The price in the tentative deal that Senate and White House Republicans have reached to tackle the next round of coronavirus relief
$ 3.4 billion: The cost of the recovery bill that Democrats have already passed in the House
More than a half: The number of states that now have mandates to use masks
At least 76 percent: The proportion of voters who are eligible to cast a ballot by mail in the fall, according to a study by the Washington Post.
72: The number of House Republicans who joined Democrats in voting to remove statues of Confederate Capitol leaders.
45 percent to 44 percent: The showdown between Biden and Trump in Texas, according to a new Quinnipiac poll.
Tweet of the day
Vision 2020: Obama and Biden discuss healthcare
In the latest launch of the Biden campaign conversation between Barack Obama and Joe Biden, the two men talk about health care and Biden’s son Beau, according to NBC’s Mike Memoli and Marianna Sotomayor.
Biden: “I remember when Beau was towards the end, and the only person I would tell the details to all the time like you, because you had the right to know exactly who I was, and he only had months left. And I used to sit there and look at him in bed and with pain and death and glioblastoma, I thought to myself, what would happen if his insurance company could come in, what they could have done before going through Obamacare and saying: You’ve passed your insurance. You are about to suffer the last five months of your life in peace. You’re on your own. Everything he did was so profound, an impact on people. It was like, it took them a while until they started taking it off to figure out what was going on. “
Obama: “I mean, you and I both know what it’s like to have someone you love really sick. And in some cases losing someone, but that loss is compounded when you see the stress on their faces, because they are concerned that they are a burden to their families. They are concerned if insurance will cover the treatments they need. I couldn’t be more proud of what we did. 20 million people have health insurance that they didn’t have because of what we did. “
Where Senate Republicans Agree and Disagree on the Aid Bill
Senate Republicans announced Wednesday night that they “struck a fundamental deal” with the White House in the next phase of coronavirus relief, according to NBC’s Hill team.
While the details of the bill remain fluid, Republicans are not yet fully in sync with it, and Democrats have not begun to step in.
Here’s what our Hill team can report will be in the proposal:
- $ 25 billion for total testing ($ 9 billion from previous packages plus $ 16 billion in this package).
- $ 70 billion for K-12 schools: Half of that will go to all schools per capita, and the other half will go to the costs of the schools that have reopened.
- $ 30 billion for colleges / universities not linked to reopening.
- $ 5 billion for governors to use at their own discretion.
And what are we waiting to know?
- There is an agreement to provide more direct stimulus payments to Americans, but the amount and levels of income it will cover are not yet public.
- There is no agreement on additional unemployment insurance benefits at this time.
- Whether or not a payroll tax cut will be on this invoice.
The cover: we will never, never be together again
Don’t miss yesterday’s pod, when we saw a big schism in the Republican Party and what it could mean for the party.
ICYMI: What else is happening in the world?
Joe Biden says Trump is the first racist president.
Mike Bloomberg’s gun control group is investing millions in careers in eight states.
The White House cafeteria is closed after a worker tested positive for coronavirus.
Biden’s campaign goes on the offensive in the Burisma investigation of the Republican Senate Party.
The Trump administration is sending more federal agents to Chicago and Albuquerque.
Mike Pompeo’s wife is under the scrutiny of some State Department experts.
