Crooked Media - What A Day: Even Stephen

Many of us questioned President Trump’s coronavirus-ridden return to the White House, but now that he’s threatened to travel to Miami, reverted to spreading months-old disinformation about COVID-19, and sent the economy into a nosedive, it seems clear the man’s judgement is as sound as ever.
 

• Within moments of arriving home, a highly-medicated Donald Trump horrified doctors (and also, everyone) by dramatically removing his mask and releasing a bizarre propaganda video that asserted he contracted coronavirus as an act of...leadership. Today Trump proved how much he’s learned from his firsthand leadership experience by spreading the same false comparison between coronavirus and influenza he first promoted 210,000 deaths ago. Social media companies censored those posts, leading Trump to cryptically call for the destruction of the internet. He’s back, baby!
   
• Not content to shed coronavirus around the hard-hit, poorly-ventilated West Wing, Donald Trump has announced his intention to take this infectious show on the road. Trump’s lying doctor Sean Conley put out a statement that the president, who was visibly gasping for air upon his return to the White House on Monday, today “reports no symptoms,” and the miraculously recovered 74-year-old tweeted that he’s “looking forward to the debate on the evening of Thursday, October 15th in Miami. It will be great!” That townhall-style debate would be just two weeks after Trump (purportedly) began experiencing symptoms, and it is beyond insane for him to consider attending it in person.
   
• On Monday Conley suggested that Trump’s tweets served as a useful gauge of his mental fitness. We would be interested to know what the good doctor thinks about these ones, in which President Deals shut down all hopes of further coronavirus stimulus until after the election and immediately tanked the stock market. Incidentally, here’s a new poll that found 74 percent of voters think the Senate should prioritize coronavirus relief over confirming Amy Coney Barrett. More Coronavirus, Worse Economy: It’s a bold closing argument from Team Trump.

Meanwhile, as more people in the White House’s orbit fall ill, the administration has worked systematically to make sure we never learn when Trump last tested negative, or how many people contracted the virus from him or people at his superspreading events. 

• Stephen Miller has it. Nearly all of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are in quarantine after a Coast Guard admiral tested positive. Trump’s Coast Guard aide Jayna McCarron has coronavirus, as does one of his active-duty military valets and a third press office aide. New York Times reporter Michael Shear said his wife has now tested positive: “The collateral damage is going to be pretty significant, I think.” White House employees are rightly scared and angry; one source told Axios, “It's insane that he would return to the White House and jeopardize his staff's health when we are still learning of new cases among senior staff. This place is a cesspool.”
   
• Trump’s recklessness and refusal to conduct contact tracing have consequences beyond the White House grounds. Washington, DC, reported 105 new coronavirus cases on Monday, the city’s highest one-day spike since June. That spike may not be a function of the Rose Garden Misadventure alone. John Hagee, a megachurch pastor and Trump advisor, has tested positive; he wasn’t present at the Amy Coney Barrett nomination event, but he did attend a September 15 White House event along with hundreds of people who were largely flouting safety measures. 

Our new reality is almost too surreal to fathom: The president and his allies are not only neglecting their responsibility to bring the pandemic under control, they’re now actively and knowingly spreading a deadly virus themselves. What a good time to don the hazmat suit of democracy and escort them out. 

Against all odds (and probably better judgement), this week brings us the 2020 Vice Presidential Debate. Sen. Kamala Harris and VP Mike Pence will be taking the stage this Wednesday, October 7 at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT. Watch with us LIVE—we’ll be streaming the whole thing along with our Groupthread, where we and other familiar faces from the Crooked Media family will be breaking down what’s happening and giving our live commentary. Join us at crooked.com/debate→

Top White House officials have blocked new federal guidelines for the emergency release of a coronavirus vaccine, because the guidelines would make it virtually impossible for Donald Trump to triumphantly announce the authorization of a vaccine before the election. The White House had previously told the FDA that pharmaceutical companies objected to the tougher requirements, a justification which, bear with us here, appears to be a big fat lie. The FDA has gone ahead and published the new guidelines after the White House blocked their formal release, making clear that regulators don’t intend to let political pressure impinge on the authorization process.

• Joe Biden’s still negative! Time to celebrate by unclenching your jaw and doing one (1) exhale.
   
• Vice President Mike Pence’s team has reversed course and asked that there be no plexiglass divider around him at Wednesday’s debate, in an inspiring display of leadership from the leader of the coronavirus task force, who was potentially exposed to Covid himself.
   
• A Texas police officer has been arrested and charged with murder after fatally shooting Jonathan Price, a 31-year-old Black man who was breaking up a fight.
   
• E. Jean Carroll has filed a motion to block the Justice Department from intervening in her defamation lawsuit against President Trump, arguing that Trump was not, in fact, “acting within the scope of his office” when he defamed her:  “There is not a single person in the United States—not the President and not anyone else—whose job description includes slandering women they sexually assaulted.”
   
• A grand jury has indicted St. Louis Gun Couple and Honored RNC Speakers Mark and Patricia McCloskey on charges of exhibiting guns at protesters. 
   
• Georgetown University Law Center has created fact sheets for all 50 states on what to do if you see militia members at the polls. Florida’s fact sheet is just “chug a Lime-A-Rita and go with your gut, bro,” which seems kind of risky.
   
• Here’s what the line to drop off ballots in Harris County, TX, looks like, after Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) ordered the 11 other drop-off sites in the county to close. And here’s where to fight back against voter suppression. 
   
• The subject of a Project Veritas video accusing Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) of voter fraud said he was offered a bribe to participate. A nation gasped as one. 
   
• Facebook has announced a more aggressive ban on QAnon content. Levels of enforcement and effectiveness TBA. 
   
• Florida extended its voter registration deadline through Tuesday after its registration website crashed repeatedly, in what might have been a cyberattack. 
   
• A chemical weapons watchdog confirmed that Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent. We expect a comment from Donald Trump the moment he’s done making his latest Soviet-style strongman hype video.
   
• Legendary guitarist Eddie Van Halen has died, after a long battle with cancer. He was 65. 

The Supreme Court has reinstated a witness requirement for South Carolina mail ballots, siding with Republicans after lower courts ruled that the requirement put an undue burden on voters during a pandemic. More than 8,000 people have already voted by mail in South Carolina under the impression that a witness signature wasn’t required, and many of them are likely to be disenfranchised. That’s upsetting in and of itself, but the ruling is a not-great omen for future election-related cases: The Court has signaled an inclination to stop lower courts from allowing voting rule changes close to the election, even changes aimed at expanding accessibility during a pandemic. Be ready to spend the last 28 days fighting for every last vote. 

Immune support is #1 on almost everyone’s back-to-school shopping list. But many of the fizzy drink powders and supplements you’ll find are a) disappointingly ineffective, and b) packed with artificial dyes, cheap fillers, and refined sugars—ingredients which may actually weaken immune health.                  

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Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) has approved legislation allowing Michigan election officials to begin processing absentee ballots before November 3. 

A Michigan judge struck down Republicans' effort to leave a voter transportation ban in place. A cool day in Michigan!

Ten bellwether counties in battleground states tell a hopeful story for Joe Biden.

Mandy Patinkin and his “glorious AF” wife Kathryn are doing the lord’s work.