POLITICO Playbook PM: ‘I hope he projects calm’ – POLITICO – Politico
THE SCENE: THIS MORNING IN THE CAPITOL, Speaker NANCY PELOSI enrolled a Uyghur human rights bill alongside New Jersey Republican Rep. CHRIS SMITH. SMITH, who has served in the House since 1981, is the chamber’s fourth-ranking lawmaker.
AFTER PELOSI SIGNED THE BILL, she escorted SMITH out of the room, and an aide placed a Bible on the table. And then she lit into President DONALD TRUMP.
PELOSI: “Last night when I saw the president hold up the Bible, I was thinking of so many things in the Bible that would have been appropriate in terms of the humanity of all people in our country.” She said a president has “the responsibility to heal.”
— ON POLICE FORCEFULLY CLEARING THE WAY for TRUMP’S church visit: “What is that? That has no place, and it’s time for us to do away with that. A time to heal. The book of Ecclesiastes.”
MORE REAX TO TRUMP’S MONDAY …
— SEN. JOHN THUNE (R-S.D.) — the No. 2 Senate Republican — on TRUMP going to St. John’s Church Monday night: “Well, as a general matter, I always think it’s a good thing for our elected leaders to be spending time at church. … I would encourage the people that protest [to] protest peacefully, which sounds like that’s why these folks were protesting yesterday. … I hope he projects calm. I hope people act calmly.”
ASKED IF TRUMP WAS PROJECTING CALM, THUNE said: “Well, I hope so. He has moments. As you know, it lasts generally as long as the next tweet. I just think that that’s the … tone right now that he needs to project to the country.”
MORE FROM THUNE: “A lot of this is going to be in the eye of the beholder. His supporters are gonna think … he was standing up with things he believes in and they believe in. His detractors are going to say it was a photo-op, so I just think your view of the world right now shapes how you see all these things. People’s perceptions are based on kind of whether they are for him or not.”
— BEN WHITE interviewed Sen. TIM SCOTT (R-S.C.), via Max Cohen: “Sen. Tim Scott said Tuesday that protesters in Lafayette Square should not have been cleared with tear gas and rubber bullets to accommodate President Donald Trump’s visit to a historic church, a rebuke of the president by the only black Republican in the Senate. [Scott] said he did not think Trump’s visit to St. John’s Church — the so-called ‘church of the presidents’ — was helpful and it was not something he would have done.
“‘But obviously, if your question is, should you use tear gas to clear a path so the president can go have a photo-op, the answer is no,’ Scott said, while noting he did not personally see the incident.” POLITICO
— SEN. BEN SASSE (R-NEB.): “There is no right to riot, no right to destroy others’ property, and no right to throw rocks at police. But there is a fundamental — a Constitutional — right to protest, and I’m against clearing out a peaceful protest for a photo-op that treats the Word of God as a political prop.
“Every public servant in America should be lowering the temperature and that means saying two basic truths over and over: (1) police injustice — like the evil murder of George Floyd — is repugnant and merits peaceful protest aimed at change; (2) riots are abhorrent acts of violence that hurt the innocent. Say both things loudly and repeatedly, as Americans work to end the violence and injustice.”
CANADIAN PM JUSTIN TRUDEAU said people are watching with “consternation and horror” at what’s going on in the U.S., but Canada also has its challenges.
MORE FALLOUT — “Episcopal bishop says Trump’s message is ‘antithetical to the teachings of Jesus,’” by Quint Forgey
TRUMP at 9:19 a.m.: “D.C. had no problems last night. Many arrests. Great job done by all. Overwhelming force. Domination. Likewise, Minneapolis was great (thank you President Trump!).”
… at 9:33 a.m.: “Yesterday was a bad day for the Cuomo Brothers. New York was lost to the looters, thugs, Radical Left, and all others forms of Lowlife & Scum. The Governor refuses to accept my offer of a dominating National Guard. NYC was ripped to pieces. Likewise, Fredo’s ratings are down 50%!”
BREAKING … WAPO: “John Falcicchio, the chief of staff for D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser, confirmed Tuesday that federal officials, including at the White House, inquired about their powers to take control of the city’s police department. He said city officials objected and would mount a legal challenge if federal officials tried to do so.”
CUOMO VS. DE BLASIO, CH. INFINITY … NBC’S @Tom_Winter: “NEW: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says, ‘the NYPD and the Mayor did not do their job last night.’”
— CUOMO SAID that a governor could replace a mayor — but noted he did not have any plans to do so!
Good Tuesday afternoon.
BIDEN ON THE TRAIL, DAY TWO … MARC CAPUTO: “‘I won’t fan the flames of hate’: Biden blasts Trump in Philly”: “Former Vice President Joe Biden stepped out of the shadows of his self-imposed quarantine Tuesday to address the unrest gripping the nation and paint President Trump as an authoritarian.
“‘When peaceful protestors are dispersed by the order of the President from the doorstep of the people’s house, the White House — using tear gas and flash grenades — in order to stage a photo op at a noble church, we can be forgiven for believing that the president is more interested in power than in principle,’ Biden said. …
“‘George Floyd’s last words. But they didn’t die with him. They’re still being heard. They’re echoing across this nation,’ Biden said. ‘They speak to a nation where too often just the color of your skin puts your life at risk. They speak to a nation where more than 100,000 people have lost their lives to a virus and 40 million Americans have filed for unemployment – with a disproportionate number of these deaths and job losses concentrated in the black and minority communities.’
“Biden’s speech marked the latest evolution of a campaign that until recently was literally stuck in the basement of his home in Wilmington, Delaware, where he has ridden out the coronavirus pandemic since mid-March. … He accused the president of reading neither the Bible nor the U.S. Constitution.” POLITICO
— NBC’S @sahilkapur: “Biden policy prescriptions in this speech: -Ban chokeholds by federal legislation -Set up national use-of-force best practices -Stop military gear transfers to local police -End Trump’s support for anti-ACA lawsuit -Expand the ACA.”
BIDEN will join LAWRENCE O’DONNELL on MSNBC for a virtual town hall Thursday at 10 p.m. Sen. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-Mass.) will join Biden in their first joint TV interview.
NEWSY … THUNE told us that he doesn’t expect another coronavirus relief bill until sometime in July.
SCOOP — “Republicans to tour Nashville as potential convention site,” by Alex Isenstadt: “Republican National Committee officials are considering Nashville, Tennessee and other locations as potential sites for the GOP convention amid a standoff with North Carolina over whether it will allow the party to hold it in Charlotte as planned.
“Party officials are expected to make a trip to Nashville later this week, likely Thursday or Friday, according to a person familiar with the deliberations.
“Nashville is one of several locations in which Republicans are expressing interest. Others include Las Vegas; Orlando, Florida; Jacksonville, Florida’ and Georgia. All of the prospective sites have directly expressed interest in hosting the convention, and party officials say it’s likely they will visit several of them in the coming days.” POLITICO
ANOTHER HIT TO AMERICA’S REPUTATION … AFP: “Australia probes U.S. police assault on its journalists”: “‘We have asked the Australian embassy in Washington, DC to investigate this incident,’ [foreign minister] Marise Payne said after the journalists were slammed with a riot shield, punched and hit with a baton while broadcasting from the protest. …
“The journalists said they were later shot with rubber bullets and tear-gassed, which Brace said left the pair ‘a bit sore.’ The incident was widely broadcast in Australia, causing consternation in a country that has been a close US ally.”
CLICKER — VOICES FROM THE UNREST: “‘In Every City, There’s a George Floyd’: Portraits of Protest,” by NYT’s John Branch
TESTING LATEST — BRETT GIROIR is stepping down as the coronavirus testing czar and returning to his regular job at HHS later this month, per POLITICO Pulse. HHS said he’ll still be involved with testing work.
RARE LOOK INSIDE THE WHO … AP: “China delayed releasing coronavirus info, frustrating WHO”: “Throughout January, the World Health Organization publicly praised China for what it called a speedy response to the new coronavirus. … But behind the scenes, it was a much different story, one of significant delays by China and considerable frustration among WHO officials over not getting the information they needed to fight the spread of the deadly virus, The Associated Press has found.
“Despite the plaudits, China in fact sat on releasing the genetic map, or genome, of the virus for more than a week after three different government labs had fully decoded the information. Tight controls on information and competition within the Chinese public health system were to blame, according to dozens of interviews and internal documents. … WHO officials were lauding China in public because they wanted to coax more information out of the government, the recordings obtained by the AP suggest.”
THE REOPENING — “Vague testing guidance hinders business reopenings,” by Rebecca Rainey and David Lim: “The Trump administration has said businesses can make diagnostic coronavirus tests and temperature checks a condition for returning to work. But it hasn’t answered key questions like when or how often to test workers or whether there should be a blanket testing policy for job seekers.
“Now, employers worried about a do-it-yourself approach are asking Congress to give them broad legal protections in case workers or customers get Covid-19. And they’re bracing for the added cost of testing, hiring companies like LabCorp and Quest Diagnostics to repeatedly screen their employees.” POLITICO
TRACKING TREATMENT — “Heart Drugs Show Promise With Covid-19 Complications,” by WSJ’s Jared Hopkins and Betsy McKay: “Spurred by promising early findings, researchers are investigating whether drugs currently approved to treat heart disease can also prevent or reduce complications from Covid-19 and help hospitalized patients recover sooner.
“Treatments being evaluated include blood-pressure drugs, blood thinners, statins, antiplatelets and a drug to lower triglycerides. Results from the studies, some of which could come as early as this summer, could offer doctors a new array of drugs to treat patients infected with the coronavirus. … Researchers hope cardiovascular drugs can save patients by reducing inflammation—a bodily response to the virus—and potentially by attacking the virus itself.” WSJ
MUCK READ — “This Treasury Official Is Running the Bailout. It’s Been Great for His Family,” by ProPublica’s Justin Elliott, Lydia DePillis and Robert Faturechi: “Treasury’s [bailout] responsibilities have fallen largely to the 42-year-old deputy secretary, Justin Muzinich. A major beneficiary of that bailout so far: Muzinich & Co., the asset manager founded by his father where Justin served as president before joining the administration. He reported owning a stake worth at least $60 million when he entered government in 2017.
“Today, Muzinich retains financial ties to the firm through an opaque transaction in which he transferred his shares in the privately held company to his father. Ethics experts say the arrangement is troubling because his father received the shares for no money up front, and it appears possible that Muzinich can simply get his stake back after leaving government.”
HAPPENING WEDNESDAY — “Rod Rosenstein to kick off Senate’s Russia redux hearings,” by Betsy Woodruff Swan and Andrew Desiderio: “In another time, it would have been the biggest story of the week: a former top Justice Department official testifying to Congress about his role overseeing one of the highest-profile investigations of the century. But now, with a pandemic raging and protests swelling nationwide, some senators are questioning whether Rod Rosenstein should even testify at all. …
“Rosenstein will face a host of pointed questions from Republicans in his first congressional appearance in two years. Their key focus will likely be the genesis of the probe into Russia’s meddling into the 2016 election, as well as his sign-off of an application to reauthorize surveillance of a former Trump campaign adviser.” POLITICO
SOME GOOD NEWS — “Census Bureau Says 60.5% of Households Responded to 2020 Count,” by WSJ’s Paul Overberg: “The Census Bureau reported Monday that it had reached its target to get at least 60.5% of households to respond to the 2020 census, despite disruptions created by the Covid-19 pandemic. The 2020 census ramped up in March, with many households responding quickly by late March. The response rate reached 50% by April 18 and 60% by Memorial Day. The final 2010 census rate was 66.5%.
“‘We are still pushing to have as many households as possible respond online, by phone or by mail,’ said Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham. He said that four out of five households have opted to respond online, topping projections by 9 percentage points. … Self-response is a closely watched census yardstick because each percentage point represents 1.4 million homes that workers won’t have to visit this summer, in the most expensive single phase of the census.” WSJ
KNOWING BRENDAN CARR — “Trump’s unexpected ally in the fight against tech,” by John Hendel: “He rails against the ‘far left’s’ hoaxes. He says the World Health Organization has been ‘beclowned’ over its response to the coronavirus. And he describes a ‘secret and partisan surveillance machine’ run by House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff. … The FCC, though it has no direct authority over social media, could play a key role in assisting Trump’s efforts to rein in the power of Twitter and other online companies. …
“Carr, a 41-year-old former communications lawyer who became a commissioner in 2017, is hitting just the right notes to appeal to Trump, who could soon use a new FCC chairman if he wins a second term [in] November.” POLITICO
MEDIAWATCH — Luke Broadwater is joining the NYT as a congressional reporter. He previously was a reporter for The Baltimore Sun, where he was part of the team that won a Pulitzer this year. Announcement
BONUS BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: DNC’s Alex Hornbrook. A fun fact about him: “My grandfather and great-grandfather were elephant trainers, which as a child I thought was a totally normal experience. I unfortunately did not inherit the touch with animals but sure did learn a lot about people and their basic decency and dignity from my grandfather.” Playbook Q&A
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