HAPPY SUNDAY. THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES tweeted “thank you to the great people of The Villages” — in response to a tweet of a guy yelling “White power.” The tweet, which includes the video
SUNDAY BEST: HHS SECRETARY ALEX AZAR told CNN’s JAKE TAPPER that neither he, nor President DONALD TRUMP nor the administration “would do anything to do supportive of white supremacy or anything that would support discrimination of any kind.”
SEN. TIM SCOTT (R-S.C.) told TAPPER the president “should not have reteweeted it, and he should just take it down. … It is indefensible.”
THE PRESIDENT is at his golf club with Sen. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-S.C.).
— VP MIKE PENCE is in Dallas today. Traveling with him is Sen. JOHN CORNYN (R-Texas) — a top Playbook reader and tweeter — HUD Secretary BEN CARSON and Dr. DEBORAH BIRX. He will attend the Celebrate Freedom Rally iat the First Baptist Church in Dallas. Gabby Orr: “A new dilemma for Trump’s team: Preventing super-spreader churches”
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS had Speaker NANCY PELOSI on ABC’s “This Week”: STEPHANOPOULOS: “Is it time to mandate the wearing of masks across the country?”
PELOSI: “Oh, definitely long overdue for that. And my understanding, that the Centers for Disease Control has recommended the use of masks, but not to demand — required it, because they don’t want to offend the president.”
“And the president should be example. You know, real men wear masks. Be an example to the country and wear the mask, not only to pro — it’s not about protecting yourself. It’s about protecting others and their families.”
— CHARLOTTE OBSERVER: “The politics of masks: How face coverings became so divisive in NC and beyond,” by Andrew Carter:
WHO IS GOING TO TELL HIM … HHS SECRETARY ALEX AZAR to CHUCK TODD on NBC’S “MEET THE PRESS”: AZAR: “The window is closing. We have to act and people as individuals have to act responsibly. We need to social distance, we need to wear our face coverings if we’re in settings where we can’t social distance — particularly in these hot zones.”
VP MIKE PENCE spoke to JOHN DICKERSON on CBS’S “FACE THE NATION”: DICKERSON: “The virus doesn’t know federalism. A virus that hits in Texas is in New York tomorrow. This is a problem that requires a coordinated national result, which is what these outbreaks are showing. And so to say, states should deal with them individually seems to miss the big fact, which is the virus can go wherever it wants.”
PENCE: “John, if we’d have taken that approach, we’d have never had the success that we had in the greater New York City area. We’d have never had the success in Michigan or New Orleans, because from early on, we worked closely in partnership with governors to make sure that they had what they needed when they needed it, tailored to the unique circumstances in their states. And- and when you look at the extraordinary progress that we made in New York and in Connecticut and in New Jersey and New Orleans and in Michigan and in — early on in states like Washington State where we- we flattened the curve, we slowed the spread, and we did it at a time early in this pandemic where we were just scaling testing up.”
CHRIS WALLACE had former CDC director TOM FRIEDEN on “FOX NEWS SUNDAY”: “This is going to backfire. We’re moving too fast. If you open when cases are still increasing as many states did. It’s like leaning into a left hook, you’re going to get hit hard, and that’s what’s happening. When we see, Arizona, Texas, Florida, South Carolina, they’re currently, you know, in a rapid upswing and sad to say, this is going to continue to get worse. Because the physical distance thing that they’re implementing now will only take effect you don’t see it for another few weeks and we’re going to see a few more weeks of increases in all likelihood, in several states.”
TRUMP’S FRONTS: WaPo … N.Y. POST: “GET OUT OF DODGE … 100s of cops flee the NYPD … 19 people shot, 2 dead in 14 hrs.” … NYT, with this top headline: “How the World Missed Covid’s Symptom-Free Carriers”
WHAT AMERICA IS READING … THE NATION’S FRONTS: Arizona Republic: “County not following CDC guidelines for contact tracing” … Bakersfield Californian: “WHO POLICES THE POLICE” … L.A. Times: “Nursing home outbreaks raise oversight issues” … San Diego Union-Tribune: “Front-line workers: We wish public could see what we see … NEW VIRUS CASES SET SINGLE DAY RECORDS ACROSS U.S.” …
… San Jose Mercury News: “POLICE HAVE KILLED 110 PEOPLE IN THE BAY AREA SINCE 2015. AN OUTSIZED PERCENTAGE HAVE BEEN BLACK. HERE’S WHO DIED.” … Orlando Sentinel: “DeSantis’ political fate could be at risk” … Palm Beach Post: “‘It’s a hoax’: Gen Z shrugs off virus” … Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Moment turns into movement for justice in Ga.” … Indianapolis Star: “Some jobs lost from pandemic won’t return”
SNEAK PEEK … A FEW NUGGETS FROM THE PRESIDENT’S WEEK: Monday: TRUMP will have lunch with VP MIKE PENCE. Thursday: THE PRESIDENT will speak at a “Spirit of America Showcase” Friday: THE PRESIDENT will fly to Keystone, S.D., for fireworks at Mount Rushmore.
ANOTHER STORY THAT WILL DRIVE THE WEEK … @Liz_Cheney: “If reporting about Russian bounties on US forces is true, the White House must explain: 1. Why weren’t the president or vice president briefed? Was the info in the PDB? 2. Who did know and when? 3. What has been done in response to protect our forces & hold Putin accountable?”
— READ BETWEEN THE LINES: The NYT reported that: “Russian military intelligence unit secretly offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing coalition forces in Afghanistan.” TRUMP tweeted that he wasn’t briefed on “so-called attacks on our troops in Afghanistan by Russians.” That’s not what the Times reported!
— PELOSI said on ABC this morning that she asked for a briefing on this.
TALKER … ALEX ISENSTADT: “Trump admits it: He’s losing”: “The president has privately come to that grim realization in recent days, multiple people close to him told POLITICO, amid a mountain of bad polling and warnings from some of his staunchest allies that he’s on course to be a one-term president.
“Trump has endured what aides describe as the worst stretch of his presidency, marred by widespread criticism over his response to the coronavirus pandemic and nationwide racial unrest. His rally in Oklahoma last weekend, his first since March, turned out to be an embarrassment when he failed to fill the arena.”
— NYT’S ALEX BURNS and KATIE GLUECK: “Trump Faces Mounting Defections From a Once-Loyal Group: Older White Voters”: “Republican presidential candidates typically carry older voters by solid margins, and in his first campaign Mr. Trump bested Hillary Clinton by seven percentage points with voters over 65. He won white seniors by nearly triple that margin.
“Today, Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden are tied among seniors, according to a poll of registered voters conducted by The New York Times and Siena College. And in the six most important battleground states, Mr. Biden has established a clear upper hand, leading Mr. Trump by six percentage points among the oldest voters and nearly matching the president’s support among whites in that age group.”
— LAT’S KATE LINTHICUM in Kingman, Ariz.: “In ‘God, guns and Trump’ country, simmering doubts about the president”: “In Mohave County, a vast expanse of desert where 90% of the 212,000 residents are white and 73% of the vote went for Trump in 2016, there is still deep support for the president. But he is facing new challenges here, such as assuaging concerns that he and the federal government have mishandled the coronavirus. The U.S. death toll of more than 127,000 is the highest in the world.”
FAILURE …
— WAPO: “With Trump leading the way, America’s coronavirus failures exposed by record surge in new infections,” by Toluse Olorunnipa, Josh Dawsey and Yasmeen Abutaleb.
— NYT, A1 … NEWS ANALYSIS: “After Asking Americans to Sacrifice in Shutdown, Leaders Failed to Control Virus,” by Sabrina Tavernise in D.C., Frances Robles in Miami and Louis Keene in Los Angeles.
NYT’S CARL HULSE in Kremmling, Colo.: “Hickenlooper Stumbles in Colorado Race, Complicating Democrats’ Senate Push”: “Mr. Hickenlooper, who was coaxed into the Senate contest after ending his brief presidential run, has faltered in recent weeks ahead of the primary race on Tuesday. He now finds himself in a tougher-than-expected contest with Andrew Romanoff, a former state House speaker and another longtime Colorado political presence, in a fight with significant implications for the general election and control of the Senate. …
“‘We haven’t detected any enthusiasm for his candidacy, including from him,’ Mr. Romanoff said in an interview. ‘I just think it has been an appalling performance. There is nothing he has done in this campaign to convince me that he was wrong when he said he would be a terrible senator.’”
WAPO’S PAUL KANE in Brigantine, N.J.: “In South Jersey, it’s a Kennedy against a power broker favorite to challenge turncoat Rep. Van Drew”: “Amy Kennedy is an unlikely heir to a family dynasty that first set foot in Congress in 1947 and has won the White House, sent three men to the Senate and propelled several members into the House.
“Kennedy, 41, grew up in this Jersey Shore outpost in a family that was politically active only at the municipal level. She spent 10 years as a public school teacher. Now, the mother of five is running in a key congressional battleground that has the backdrop of President Trump and a Democratic vendetta to take out a once trusted ally who betrayed them.
“And, in perhaps the most unusual fashion, she is running as an outsider, trying to establish a new beachhead for one of the most famous families in Democratic politics. ‘It’s not the name, it’s more people just associate that legacy with kind of the unfinished work of social justice. And that’s what I think people are really hungry for right now,’ Kennedy said Wednesday in an hour-long interview at her house on the bay. … ‘The Kennedys as outsiders,’ Brigid Callahan Harrison said Wednesday, in an hour-long telephone interview, amazed at how much the race is pivoting on personality. ‘That is how they’re marketing this.’”
LAURA BARRÓN-LÓPEZ: “Biden campaign says 35 percent of staff are people of color”: “Joe Biden’s campaign released diversity statistics for its staff Saturday, revealing that 35 percent of its full-time members are people of color. The campaign also said 36 percent of its senior staff are people of color, 53 percent of its full staff are female and 58 percent of its senior staff are female. Five percent of staff chose not to specify their race or ethnicity.”
LOUISVILLE COURIER JOURNAL: “What we know about Saturday’s fatal shooting at the downtown Louisville protest,” by Lucas Aulbach: “After a month of mostly peaceful protests at Jefferson Square Park in downtown Louisville, Saturday night was marred by chaos. One male victim was killed and another person was injured in a shooting that occurred at the site of the ongoing Breonna Taylor demonstrations, which have rocked the city and put Louisville in the international spotlight over the course of the past month.”
S.F. CHRONICLE: “Bay Area charter schools tap tens of millions in federal small business loans,” by Tal Kopan
WSJ’S BEN MULLIN: “Cable News Networks to Team Up on Convention Coverage, Limiting Staff Exposure”: “Rashida Jones, senior vice president of MSNBC and NBC News, said she is having regular calls with leaders at CNN and Fox News to coordinate ‘pool’ coverage, enabling the networks to use one video feed and reduce the number of journalists in potentially infectious areas. Pool cameras have long been a mainstay of election coverage, but coordination with other networks has become increasingly important because of the pandemic, she said.
NYT’S FRANK BRUNI goes all in for Sen. TAMMY DUCKWORTH (D-Ill.): “She’s a paragon of the values that Donald Trump, for all his practice as a performer, can’t even pantomime. She’s best described by words that are musty relics in his venal and vainglorious circle: ‘sacrifice,’ ‘honor,’ ‘humility.’ More than any of the many extraordinary women on Biden’s list of potential vice-presidential nominees, she’s the anti-Trump, the antidote to the ugliness he revels in and the cynicism he stokes. Americans can feel good — no, wonderful — about voting for a ticket with Duckworth on it. And we’re beyond hungry for that. We’re starving.”
NICE … WAPO’S JOSHUA PARTLOW and JOSH DAWSEY: “Workers removed thousands of social distancing stickers before Trump’s Tulsa rally, according to video and a person familiar with the set-up”: “In the hours before President Trump’s rally in Tulsa, his campaign directed the removal of thousands of ‘Do Not Sit Here, Please!’ stickers from seats in the arena that were intended to establish social distance between rallygoers, according to video and photos obtained by The Washington Post and a person familiar with the event.”
Send tips to Eli Okun and Garrett Ross at [email protected].
TRANSITION — Josh Jorgensen will be government affairs manager at the National Rural Health Association. He previously was a legislative aide for Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.).
BIRTHDAYS: Marc Kasowitz is 68 … Elon Musk is 49 … former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is 82 … former Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) is 86 … former Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) is 75 … former Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.) is 62 … former Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) is 78 … Richard Walters, RNC chief of staff … Ashley Marquis, principal at Jefferson Strategies … NYT’s David Kirkpatrick is 5-0 … Laura Tyson … Ziad Ojakli (h/ts Devon Spurgeon and Christin Tinsworth Baker) … Bill Greener III is 7-0 (h/t son Ted) … Jesse Holland … Scott Waldman … Kurt Eichenwald is 59 … Erin McPike … Nancy Payne (h/t Jon Haber) … Carolyn Coda of Invariant … Shari Dexter … Brunswick Group’s Stephanie Benedict … Lara Kline … Brian Roberts, chairman and CEO of Comcast, is 61 … Stuart Burns … Deanna Williams …
… Kenneth DeGraff, senior policy adviser to Speaker Nancy Pelosi … Moses Marx … Jason Roe is 5-0 … Leslie Peterson … Steve Johnson, EVP of corporate affairs at American Airlines … Rhonda Houston … Bloomberg’s Anna Edgerton … Mike Lurie is 33 … Paul Morrell … Dan King … Pete Nonis is 4-0 … Rob Tappan … Paul Bonicelli … Elizabeth Hagedorn … Allison Aprahamian … CNN opinion producer Yaffa Fredrick is 31 (h/t David Andelman) … Megan Bloomgren … Al Eisele … Mike Basch … Quinn McCord … Sean Bartel … AP’s Brendan Farrington … Dusky Terry … Meagan Mahaffey … David Olsen (h/ts Teresa Vilmain)… Mark Helprin … Eli Reyes … Kristen Ellingboe, comms manager at Alliance for Gun Responsibility … Al Briganti … Jas Sajjan … Brian Jodice … Coddy Johnson … Scott Tilley
- Anna Palmer @apalmerdc
- Jake Sherman @JakeSherman
