HAPPY SUNDAY MORNING. IF IT’S SUNDAY … it’s a golf day for the president of the United States. The motorcade was on the move at 9:34 a.m., per ASAWIN SUEBSAENG of the Daily Beast. President DONALD TRUMP is at his golf club in Virginia for the 83rd time in his presidency, per CBS Radio’s MARK KNOLLER. He arrived at 10:11 a.m.
SNEAK PEEK … THE PRESIDENT’S WEEK AHEAD: Monday: TRUMP will have lunch with Secretary of State MIKE POMPEO. Tuesday: TRUMP will have lunch with VP MIKE PENCE, and will participate in a conversation about “safely reopening American schools.” Wednesday: THE PRESIDENT will host Mexican President ANDRÉS MANUEL LÒPEZ OBRADOR at the White House. Thursday: THE PRESIDENT will host a roundtable with Hispanic leaders.
THE PRESIDENT’S FRONTS: NYT … WAPO with a beautiful shot of the Lincoln Memorial … N.Y. POST has a photo of Kevin Spacey and Ghislaine Maxwell in Buckingham Palace
WHAT AMERICA IS READING: Arizona Republic: “In Arizona, actions to fight COVID-19 slowed as the virus spread” … L.A. Times: “This Independence Day just didn’t have much pop” … Tampa Bay Times: “Fla. voters swinging away from president” … Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Economy rests on still-shaky consumer” … Houston Chronicle: “How did we get here?”
NYT, A1 … SHERI FINK with photos by ERIN SCHAFF, both in Houston: “As Coronavirus Slams Houston Hospitals, It’s Like New York ‘All Over Again’”
MARTHA RADDATZ spoke to HARRIS COUNTY (TEXAS) JUDGE LINA HIDALGO on ABC’S “THIS WEEK”: HIDALGO: “What we’re seeing is that wishful thinking is neither good economic policy nor good public health policy. We had initially this increase back in March. I had the authority to issue a stay home order, and I did quickly, early. We avoided the fate of most other communities our size. But since then the state reopened. Now we know too early, too much. It took away my authority to enforce these orders. And now all I can say is recommend, ask the community, stay home. Which, of course, is not as effective and I don’t think is appropriate at the level of crisis we’re facing right now.”
ARKANSAS GOV. ASA HUTCHINSON told ANDREA MITCHELL on NBC’S “MEET THE PRESS” that if TRUMP wanted to hold a rally in his state that attendees would have to wear masks and social distance. He said he would “insist upon” that.
MITCHELL also had SUSAN RICE … MITCHELL: “You are also, of course, being mentioned as someone on the vice presidential list for Joe Biden. Obviously you have the national security credentials. But how should Americans feel about voting for someone who’s never had any, any experience on election, in electoral politics, never run in a national campaign.”
RICE: “Well Andrea let’s not get ahead of ourselves here right? Joe Biden needs to make the decision as to who he thinks will be his best running mate and I will do my utmost drawing on my experience of years in government, years of making the bureaucracy work. I’ve worked on multiple campaigns, presidential campaigns, I’ve been on the campaign trail as a, as a surrogate and I’m going to do everything I can to help get Joe Biden elected and to help him succeed as president, whether I’m his running mate or I’m a door knocker I don’t mind.
“I just want to get Joe Biden elected and see the Democrats control the Senate and retain the House because Andrea we are at a moment where our democracy is at stake, where our leadership role in the world is at stake, where the lives of tens of thousands of Americans are on the line lost to incompetence and callous leadership that could care less. We’ve got to change that. This country is a tremendous place but we have work to do to perfect it. We have work to do to unite it and this president could care less. We need new leadership and so in whatever capacity I can serve to support Joe Biden and support this country, that’s what I’m going to do. “
CNN’S DANA BASH spoke to FDA Commissioner STEPHEN HAHN on “STATE OF THE UNION” and she pressed him about whether the president was right or wrong in saying that 99 percent of Covid cases are harmless. HAHN: “So, I’m not going to get into who is right and who is wrong. What I have going to say, Dana, is what I have said before, which is that it’s a serious problem that we have. We have seen the surge in cases. We must do something to stem the tide. And we have this in our power to do it by following the guidance from the White House task force and the CDC.”
BASH: “So, you won’t say whether 99 percent of coronavirus cases are ‘completely harmless’ is true or false, what the president said at the White House last night?” HAHN: “Dana, what I will say is that we have data in the White House task force. Those data show us that this is a serious problem. People need to take it seriously.” The 53-second clip
MARGARET BRENNAN said she’s been requesting ANTHONY FAUCI appear on CBS’s “FACE THE NATION” for three months, but has not been able to get him.
LABOR SECRETARY EUGENE SCALIA was on “FOX NEWS SUNDAY” with MIKE EMANUEL … Against enhanced unemployment benefits: “In terms of the unemployment benefit, it was a really important thing to do as we were shutting our economy down, Americans across the country were basically being told — and we needed to take measures, but they were basically being told you can’t go to work right now. And so, we needed that substantial unemployment benefit. But, you know, there are some states where you can get on an annual basis, $75,000 a year right now on unemployment. And I think as we reopen the economy, I don’t know that we need a benefit like that.”
TALKER … WAPO’S BOB COSTA and PHIL RUCKER: “Trump’s push to amplify racism unnerves Republicans who have long enabled him”: “President Trump’s unyielding push to preserve Confederate symbols and the legacy of white domination, crystallized by his harsh denunciation of the racial justice movement Friday night at Mount Rushmore, has unnerved Republicans who have long enabled him but now fear losing power and forever associating their party with his racial animus. …
“Over the years, some Republicans have struggled to navigate Trump’s race baiting and, at times, outright racism, while others have rallied behind him. Bursts of indignation and frustration come and go but have never resulted in a complete GOP break with the president. Trump’s recent moves are again putting Republican officeholders onto risky political terrain.”
SEN. JACK REED (D-R.I.) on “FOX NEWS SUNDAY” on stripping bases of the names of Confederate military figures: ““When you look at a post in the United States military it is composed of men and women, it is composed of Americans of all different races. It cannot be named I think for someone who basically pledged his service to a system that was based on slavery. That has to be changed, and we will.”
NYT’S ANNIE KARNI and MAGGIE HABERMAN: “At Mt. Rushmore and the White House, Trump Updates ‘American Carnage’ Message for 2020”: “President Trump used the spotlight of the Fourth of July weekend to sow division during a national crisis, denying his failings in containing the worsening coronavirus pandemic while delivering a harsh diatribe against what he branded the ‘new far-left fascism.’
“In a speech at the White House on Saturday evening and an address in front of Mount Rushmore on Friday night, Mr. Trump promoted a version of the ‘American carnage’ vision for the country that he laid out during his inaugural address — updated to include an ominous depiction of the recent protests over racial justice.
“In doing so, he signaled even more clearly that he would exploit race and cultural flash points to stoke fear among his base of white supporters in an effort to win re-election. As he has done in the past, he resorted on Friday to exaggerated, apocalyptic language in broadly tarring the nationwide protests against entrenched racism and police brutality, saying that ‘angry mobs’ sought to ‘unleash a wave of violent crime in our cities’ and that those seeking to deface monuments want to ‘end America.’
“Mr. Trump followed up with his remarks on Saturday from the South Lawn of the White House, which sounded more like a campaign rally, and repeated the themes from the previous evening. ‘We will never allow an angry mob to tear down our statues, erase our history, indoctrinate our children or trample on our freedoms,’ Mr. Trump said, claiming that protesters — who have won broad public support, including from corporate America — were ‘not interested in justice or healing.’”
GABBY ORR and MARC CAPUTO: “Donald Trump’s shrinking electoral map”: “Donald Trump’s campaign once spoke of expanding his electoral map into blue-leaning territory like Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico and New Hampshire. Now, winning at least a handful of those states has become a matter of survival.
“States that top campaign officials had said they had the luxury of pursuing are no longer considered add-ons to the president’s electoral vote tally but backstops to keep him afloat, according to multiple people close to or involved with his reelection operation.”
AP/TALLAHASSEE: “Trump Cabinet members look to reassure battleground voters”: “U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue tromped through a strawberry festival in central Florida, detailing the government’s new trade pact. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo talked about foreign policy at a roundtable in south Florida. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler toured parts of Michigan and Wisconsin, where he boasted of the Trump administration’s efforts to clean up the Great Lakes.
“And just this past week, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt was listed as a headliner along with White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, Donald Trump Jr. and his girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, a top fundraiser for the president, at an event in Rapid City, South Dakota, where tickets prices started at $250, according to an independent watchdog group, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.
“With President Donald Trump confronted by skyrocketing joblessness and the coronavirus pandemic as he campaigns for reelection against Democrat Joe Biden, members of his Cabinet are busy making time in pivotal states. They are carrying a message to voters about what the Trump administration is doing for them. At the same time, there are questions about whether these agency heads are running afoul of a law meant to bar overt campaigning by federal officials on the taxpayer tab.”
LAT: “Kanye West tweets that he’s running for president,” by Jack Dolan: “It’s unclear whether West has filed any of the necessary paperwork to formally join the race between incumbent Donald Trump — for whom West has expressed admiration — and Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee. West and his wife Kim Kardashian West have visited Trump in the White House.”
TRUMP’S SUNDAY: NOTHING ON THE PRESIDENT’S schedule today.
WILD STORY … WAPO: “Militias flocked to Gettysburg to foil a supposed antifa flag burning, an apparent hoax created on social media,” by Shawn Boburg and Dalton Bennett, with a Gettysburg National Military Park, Pa., dateline.
STEPHANIE MURRAY in Boston: “Progressives plot to take down another House chairman”: “Rep. Richard Neal hasn’t had a tough primary challenge in 30 years. But Massachusetts’ Sept. 1 contest represents the last, best chance for the left to take down a Democratic incumbent this year, so the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee isn’t taking any chances against a progressive challenger.”
NYT’S MIKE GRYNBAUM: “We Now Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Convention Programming”: “This year’s political conventions — a quintessential, quadrennial TV spectacle — are rapidly shrinking in the face of the coronavirus. And so are the coverage plans of the news networks, who are expecting the usual media circus to resemble something closer to a county fair. …
“[M]any TV networks are now planning to keep correspondents stationed outside the convention venues, where the risk of transmission is lower. Instead of sitting in custom-built skybox studios, many anchors and commentators will offer analysis from desks in Washington and New York — or from their home quarantines. In one scenario floated by network executives, reporters could avoid entering the venue completely.”
Send tips to Eli Okun and Garrett Ross at [email protected].
WEDDING — Paul Dorsey and Ariel Gordon, via NYT: “Mr. Dorsey, 31, is now a regulatory attorney for the National Automobile Dealers Association in Tysons, Va. … Ms. Gordon, 28, is a legislative assistant for United States Senator Pat Toomey, a Pennsylvania Republican. … On June 27, they were legally married atop Andesite Mountain in Big Sky, [Mont.].”
BIRTHDAYS: Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) is 69 … Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) is 54 … Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) is 83 … Rep. Darin LaHood (R-Ill.) is 52 (h/t John Rauber) … former Rep. John Fleming (R-La.), now assistant to the president for planning and implementation, is 69 … Hannah MacInnis, digital director for VP Mike Pence (h/t Ninio Fetalvo) … Steve Rattner, chairman and CEO of Willett Advisors, is 68 … NYT’s David Sanger is 6-0 … Michael LaRosa, national/traveling press secretary for Jill Biden, is 37 … David Burden, DVP for comms content strategy at Princeton University and a proud N.J. native (h/ts Ben Chang) … Mike Manatos, president of Manatos & Manatos, is 52 … Ben Dimiero … Austin Lavin … Walt Cronkite, director at FTI Consulting, is 32 … POLITICO’s Zack Colman and Erica Morrison … Ben Ray … Brennan Chamberlin … Julie Nixon Eisenhower is 72 … Mike Stranz …
… John Lawrence, visiting professor at the University of California Washington Center, is 71 … ABC News’ Alisa Wiersema … Alexandra de Rienzo Madero … Alexandra Kinney … former Rep. David Dreier (R-Calif.) is 68 … Ben Binswanger (h/t Jon Haber) … Drew Ball (h/t Andrew Bates) … Barb Barrett, managing editor of Pew’s Stateline … CSIS’ Beverly Kirk … photojournalist Paul Richards … Julie Shapiro, senior enterprise editor at NBC News digital … Kerry Picket … Kelley Merwin … Qualcomm’s Angela Baker (h/t B.A.M.) … Reesa Kossoff … Daniel McCarthy … Steve McMillin … Nancy Donaldson … Barbara Lawton (h/ts Teresa Vilmain)… Lauren Jones … BerlinRosen’s Andrew Friedman … John Marzulli
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