Trump warns stocks will 'disintegrate' if he loses. But stocks are climbing as Biden pulls ahead

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/08/investing/biden-trump-stock-market-election/index.html

 President Donald Trump is warning a blue wave in November will crash into Americans' investment portfolios. Wall Street, however, is hardly cowering at the prospects of a Democratic sweep.

"If you want your 401k's and stocks, which are getting closer to an all time high (NASDAQ is already there), to disintegrate and disappear, vote for the Radical Left Do Nothing Democrats and Corrupt Joe Biden," Trump tweeted Monday.

The ominous warning stands in stark contrast with the view from Wall Street. Investors seem totally unfazed by the political troubles of Trump, whose surprise 2016 election win set off a boom in the stock market.

 

Vindman to retire from military. His lawyer blames White House 'campaign of bullying, intimidation and retaliation'

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/08/politics/vindman-retiring-alleged-white-house-retaliation/index.html

 "The President of the United States attempted to force LTC Vindman to choose: Between adhering to the law or pleasing a President. Between honoring his oath or protecting his career. Between protecting his promotion or the promotion of his fellow soldiers," Pressman said in a statement to CNN. 

It is "absurd and frightening" for the White House to be involved in promotions at this level, the source added.

Israel had coronavirus firmly in its grasp, only to see it slip away

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/08/middleeast/israel-coronavirus-second-wave-netanyahu-intl/index.html

 For months, Israel appeared to be an international model of coronavirus success.

With early travel restrictions and sweeping closures, the Startup Nation had largely contained the spread of Covid-19, recording a mortality rate that was far better than many countries in the Western world. As coronavirus tore across the United States and Europe, Israel was comfortably moving towards reopening.

'Lying, Cheating Failure’: New Book By Trump's Niece Casts Trump As Traumatized Narcissist | MSNBC

Mary Trump's disturbingly credible assessment of her 'dangerous' Uncle Donald

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/08/opinions/mary-trump-book-dangerous-donald-dantonio/index.html

 No one will ever fully explain Donald Trump: the cruelty, the vanity, the insecurity converted to massive overconfidence. However, in "Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man," his niece Mary L. Trump comes closer than anyone to describing the making of a seemingly heartless person who won his way to the White House.

 On page after page of this book, to be published next Tuesday, the author relies on her perspective as an insider and her expertise as a psychologist to reveal the family dynamic that produced a person capable of the kind of outrageous acts Trump has committed. This is, after all, a man who used insult, racism, and lies to gain and maintain power. A president whose leadership contributed to lethal fiascos involving asylum-seeking children, hurricane victims and, now, a pandemic made far worse by his bungling. Through it, he has seemed immune to feelings of regret, grief and empathy.

Once a source of pride, Israel’s virus response now a cautionary tale for world

https://www.timesofisrael.com/once-a-source-of-pride-israels-covid-response-now-a-cautionary-tale-for-world/

 

After inspiring worldwide praise, Israel’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic has now emerged globally as a blueprint for how not to reopen the economy too fast as a second wave of infections, worse than the first, sweeps the nation.

While many countries had looked to Israel’s early closing of borders and initial flattening of the curve as a guide, recent international reports have focused negatively on the Jewish state, asking what went wrong and how that can be avoided in other countries.

Churches Were Eager to Reopen. Now They Are a Major Source of Coronavirus Cases.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/08/us/coronavirus-churches-outbreaks.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

Weeks after President Trump demanded that America’s shuttered houses of worship be allowed to reopen, new outbreaks of the coronavirus are surging through churches across the country where services have resumed.

The virus has infiltrated Sunday sermons, meetings of ministers and Christian youth camps in Colorado and Missouri. It has struck churches that reopened cautiously with face masks and social distancing in the pews, as well as some that defied lockdowns and refused to heed new limits on numbers of worshipers.

 

Mississippi's War: Slavery and Secession | MPB

Cooper: Trump says US in a good place. His experts say otherwise

See Trump's Own Family Call Him A Cheating, Traumatized “Clown” | The Beat With Ari Melber | MSNBC

Tucker Carlson ratchets up criticism of Duckworth, calls her a 'coward'

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/506322-tucker-carlson-ratchets-up-criticism-of-duckworth-calls-her-a-coward

 

Fox News host Tucker Carlson escalated his criticism of Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) on Tuesday night, calling her a “coward” for refusing to come on his show without a public apology.

The Fox News host said his show reached out to the Illinois Democrat’s office to invite her on the program to have a “vigorous, reasoned exchange between adults.” But he said a representative “informed us that before even considering our request, we must first issue a public apology for criticizing” the senator.

“Keep in mind that Tammy Duckworth is not a child, at least not technically – she is a sitting United States senator, who is often described as a hero,” he said. “Yet Duckworth is too afraid to defend her own statements on a cable TV show. What a coward.”

Sweden Has Become the World’s Cautionary Tale

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/07/business/sweden-economy-coronavirus.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

Its decision to carry on in the face of the pandemic has yielded a surge of deaths without sparing its economy from damage — a red flag as the United States and Britain move to lift lockdowns.

This is what has happened: Not only have thousands more people died than in neighboring countries that imposed lockdowns, but Sweden’s economy has fared little better.

“They literally gained nothing,” said Jacob F. Kirkegaard, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. “It’s a self-inflicted wound, and they have no economic gains.”

The results of Sweden’s experience are relevant well beyond Scandinavian shores. In the United States, where the virus is spreading with alarming speed, many states have — at President Trump’s urging — avoided lockdowns or lifted them prematurely on the assumption that this would foster economic revival, allowing people to return to workplaces, shops and restaurants.

Five shocking passages in Mary Trump's tell-all book

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53328654

A tell-all memoir written by President Donald Trump's niece claims that he is a "narcissist" who now threatens the life of every American.

'More than narcissism'

 "This is far beyond garden-variety narcissism," his niece, who has a doctoral degree in clinical psychology, writes of Mr Trump. "Donald is not simply weak, his ego is a fragile thing that must be bolstered every moment because he knows deep down that he is nothing of what he claims to be."

 University 'cheater'

Ms Trump claims that her uncle paid a friend to take the SAT test for him - a standardised exam which determines university placement - because he was "worried that his grade point average, which put him far from the top of his class, would scuttle his efforts to get accepted".

 

President Donald Trump tweets to Bubba Wallace urging apology for noose ‘hoax’

https://www.foxsports.com/nascar/story/bubba-wallace-president-donald-trump-noose-hoax-070620


“Whether it was tied sometime throughout 2019, the fall race there, someone did it with whatever intent they had,” Wallace said. “We weren’t in that garage stall at that time, so we can’t say it was directed toward me, which is good. It wasn’t directed toward me or my family.
“But somebody still knows how to tie a noose and whether they did it as a bad joke or not, who knows? But it was good for the public to see. It still won’t change some people’s mind of it being a hoax, but it is what it is.”

 

Phelps stressed June 25 that Wallace had nothing to do with the reporting of the noose. It was found by Richard Petty Motorsports crewman David Cropps, who is Black, and Wallace never saw the noose itself.

“Bubba Wallace and the 43 team had nothing to do with this,” Phelps said June 23. “Bubba Wallace has done nothing but represent this sport with courage, class and dignity.

No other garage stall on the NASCAR circuit has a garage pull shaped as a noose, NASCAR said June 25 after it had tracks inspect all garage stalls.

“We’re in a crucial time in the world right now,” Wallace said June 26. “And, we see what’s going on outside of the sport. And the way we reacted to it and the way it was brought to my attention, I thought it was done in the right way.

“[Should the statement be] worded it differently? Sure. You can’t let that slip-up and be just like, ‘Oh, it might be a mistake.’ I encouraged him to do the same thing over and over again. I tried to do my research behind the scenes with my guys to make sure it wasn’t a garage pull. You’ve seen the numbers and how many garage stalls they inspected. Eleven had knots and only one had a noose.”

Trump’s Misguided Tweet Seeking Wallace Apology for Noose ‘Hoax’

https://www.factcheck.org/2020/07/trumps-misguided-tweet-seeking-wallace-apology-for-noose-hoax/

President Donald Trump misdirected blame when he questioned why NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace had not “apologized to all of those great NASCAR drivers & officials who came to his aid … only to find out that the whole thing was just another HOAX.”

Why the media raced to cover Trump, NASCAR and the Confederate flag

https://www.foxnews.com/media/why-the-media-raced-to-cover-trump-nascar-and-the-confederate-flag

A few points: NASCAR’s only fulltime black driver didn’t initiate the probe of a noose found in his stall, which turned out not to have been targeted at Bubba. NASCAR’s ratings aren’t down. And the president was clearly critical of the league’s decision to ban the Confederate flag at its races.

 

Now it would be easy to say the media are utterly obsessed with this issue. It fuels the journalistic narrative that the president is stoking white resentment with his attacks on angry mobs and left-wing fascism, not to mention his threat to veto a major defense bill if it renames bases that honor Confederate generals.

 hat’s more, the reporters were frustrated by McEnany’s repeated insistence that Trump has no position on displaying Confederate flags.

But most of all, the contretemps reflects the president’s decision to drive the news cycle through Twitter.

Since that social network is the primary way he communicates with his 83 million followers, Trump has the power to change the national conversation with a couple of sentences. Sometimes this chokes off positive coverage he had been getting, to the dismay of his advisers, and sometimes it helps him turn the page from negative coverage.

But the White House can’t very well complain that journalists are creating a distraction when they covering the president’s own words, not when he has used Twitter to make major announcements, push policies, attack opponents and otherwise generate headlines.

There are many well-documented instances of Trump stunning his top aides by tweeting a big decision that they thought they were still debating.

Trump leans into old failures in push to reopen schools as virus roars

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/08/politics/donald-trump-schools-coronavirus-education/index.html

 

President Donald Trump's new push to open schools shows he's learned nothing from calamities sparked by his demands for premature state openings. 

He also delivered a fresh rebuke to his government's top infectious disease specialist, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who had dismissed the President's discredited claims that the US has the world's lowest mortality rate.

And Trump conjured another wishful prediction: that the worsening battle against the virus, which has already killed 130,000 Americans and infected 3 million, would be far less serious within weeks. This all came a few days after another discredited claim -- that 99% of cases of the virus are harmless.

Sen. Duckworth, who lost both legs in the Iraq War, hits back at Tucker Carlson for suggesting she hates America

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/07/07/tammy-duckworth-slams-tucker-carlson-suggesting-she-hates-america/5389191002/

The senator has also drawn attention from the Trump campaign. Trump shared the video of Carlson's monologue on Tuesday, and his campaign released a statement later in the day saying she was "using her military service to deflect from her support for the left-wing campaign to villainize America’s founding."

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, who lost her legs serving in Iraq, hits back after Tucker Carlson suggests she hates America

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/07/media/tammy-duckworth-tucker-carlson/index.html

Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a US Army veteran who lost both of her legs while serving in Iraq, rebuked Tucker Carlson after the conservative Fox News host attacked her on Monday night and suggested that she hates America.

"Does @TuckerCarlson want to walk a mile in my legs and then tell me whether or not I love America?" Duckworth wrote on Twitter.

Duckworth was awarded the Purple Heart after she lost her legs in 2004 when a rocket-propelled grenade hit the helicopter she was co-piloting during the Iraq War.

But Carlson, whose controversial comments over the years have prompted multiple advertiser boycotts, sought to question her patriotism on his Fox News program.

Stelter: Book is essentially an anti-Trump campaign book

U.S. Marine DESTROYS Tucker Carlson for Saying Disabled Veteran Tammy Duckworth "HATES AMERICA!!!"

Deutsche Bank faces $150m fine for Jeffrey Epstein ties

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-53324888

Deutsche Bank has been hit with a $150m (£120m) fine for failing to properly monitor its relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

New York state regulators said the bank had suffered "significant compliance failures", processing hundreds of transactions for the late financier.

Those included payments to Russian models and $800,000 in "suspicious" cash withdrawals.

Deutsche said it "deeply" regretted its relationship with Epstein.

But Deutsche has faced multiple penalties for its compliance failures in recent years, including over its failure to stop Russian money-laundering. Its relationship with US President Donald Trump has also brought scrutiny.

Here's what Trump said about Confederate flags in 2015

RJJ Journal of Halacha and Contemporary Society - YUTorah

 https://www.google.co.il/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjyzvP4ubvqAhUMXsAKHfCyDacQFjAAegQIBhAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdownload.yutorah.org%2F1981%2F1053%2F735653.pdf&usg=AOvVaw1_MPQtj5UomeQZHZdgAqor

Indeed, while. Jewish law clearly and unequivocally forbids intermarriage, the biblical source of this prohibition has been a matter of con- siderable debate and .

Mary Trump’s book says the president practices ‘cheating as a way of life’

https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ny-mary-trump-book-president-trump-20200706-ttbg3kkxkvh5lnebtvuhbvacfa-story.html

 

A forthcoming book by President Trump’s estranged niece describes him as a “toxic” bully who practices “cheating as a way of life,” values money above anything and belittles his own family members, according to a Monday press release.

In addition to those damning details, the press release from publisher Simon & Schuster says Mary Trump’s book, “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man,” will now be released July 14, two weeks earlier than planned — even though the president’s brother is trying to block the tell-all in court.

Members of Congress took small-business loans — and the full extent is unknown

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/16/congress-small-business-loan-320625

At least four members of Congress have reaped benefits in some way from the half-trillion-dollar small-business loan program they helped create.

And no one knows how many more there could be.

Fact-checking Trump's claims that US coronavirus death rate is the lowest worldwide

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/07/politics/trump-coronavirus-death-rate-lowest-fact-check/index.html

 As hospitals deal with a resurgent coronavirus outbreak, White House officials and the President himself continue to tout the country's alleged success at addressing the virus.

In an interview with Fox News on Monday, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany implied that the US response to coronavirus should not be viewed so harshly when compared to the impact the virus has had on other countries.

"This President takes Covid seriously, but we should note the mortality rate and how well we're doing vis-à-vis to the rest of the world," McEnany told Fox News.

 

Dr. Peter Hotez, professor of pediatrics and molecular virology and microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine, told CNN that according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins, the President's statements were not accurate. Out of the at least 2.8 million cases of coronavirus in the US, as of Monday morning Johns Hopkins estimated a fatality rate of 4.5%, the sixth highest worldwide.

66% of coronavirus patients infected at home, just 2% at synagogue

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/283125

 

Most coronavirus patients in Israel were infected at home, according to a report by Israel Hayom Tuesday morning.

According to the report, research conducted by the Knesset Research and Information Center, nearly two-thirds (65.8%) of people infected with the coronavirus were infected at home, while just 2.2% were infected at synagogues.

The government rejected calls by the Health Ministry and National Security Council to close all synagogues in the country, but did impose new restrictions, limiting the number of worshippers to 19 at a time.

NY Judge: Cuomo can keep Jewish summer camps closed

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/283164

Last-ditch effort by Orthodox Jews to allow sleepaway camps to open fails as judge refuses to hear case in lawsuit.

Republicans accepting Trump losing Sen. Kennedy's advice to Americans: If Joe Biden wins, 'build a fallout shelter'

https://www.foxnews.com/media/john-kennedy-if-biden-wins-build-fallout-shelter

Sen. John Kennedy on Monday advised Americans to “build a fallout shelter” if presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden is elected president in November.

“The vice president says he will transform America. He will and the American people will pay a fearsome price,” Kennedy, R-La., told “Hannity.”

Kennedy said that Biden’s foreign policy is “hugs and hot cocoa” for America’s enemies.

“Build a fallout shelter. You’ll need it. Weakness invites the wolves,” Kennedy said.

Whispers

NASCAR's Bubba Wallace hits back at 'HATE' from Trump

https://www.foxnews.com/sports/nascars-bubba-wallace-hits-back-hate-trump

NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace on Monday fired back at President Trump for accusing him of not apologizing after a highly publicized investigation over a rope found in his garage supposedly turned out to be a hoax.

The president suggested Wallace, the auto racing company’s only Black driver, should apologize after the sport rallied around him after the noose was found in his assigned stall at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama. Federal authorities ruled last month the noose had been hanging since October and was not a hate crime. NASCAR and the FBI have exclusively referred to the rope – which was used to pull the garage door closed – as a noose.

 

Wallace responded on Twitter with a note to "the next generation and little ones following my foot steps" in which he urged people to use their platforms and not be detracted by "hate being thrown at you."

"Love should come naturally as people are TAUGHT to hate," Wallace tweeted. "Even when it's HATE from the POTUS .. Love wins."

Later, NASCAR released a statement praising Wallace’s “courage” and “leadership”

Bubba Wallace: Nascar driver's defiant tweet over Trump's 'hate'

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53315148

African-American Nascar driver Bubba Wallace has sent out a tweet condemning words of "hate from the president of the United States".

Wallace is the sole full-time black driver in the US racing organisation and was instrumental in it banning the Confederate flag from races.

A noose was later found in his garage but an FBI inquiry determined "no federal crime was committed".

President Trump called the story a hoax and suggested Wallace should apologise.

Wallace has been a vocal supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement, which has come to the fore since the death in police custody of African American George Floyd in Minneapolis in May.

 

More than 1,000 new coronavirus cases on Monday as spike continues

https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/coronavirus-israel-passes-30000-cases-634021

 

Parts of the country will once again be shut down or restricted after the government announced a new set of directives on Monday. They are the first such restrictions since two months ago, when Israel thought it had defeated the virus.

Event halls, clubs, bars, gyms, public pools and cultural performances will be closed. Restaurants will be limited to seating 20 patrons inside and 30 outside. Synagogues must have no more than 19 prayer attendees.

Mary Trump's book to be published early amid 'extraordinary interest'

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/06/mary-trump-book-release-date-early-donald-trump

A tell-all book by Donald Trump’s niece will be published two weeks ahead of schedule and will argue that the president suffered “child abuse” in the early years of his life.

 

Trump criticizes NASCAR ban on Confederate flags, attacks Black driver

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/06/trump-nascar-bubba-wallace-confederate-flag-349730

Donald Trump's campaign spent the weekend fending off criticism of a pair of presidential speeches panned as racially divisive and inflammatory.

On Monday, the president undercut his own team's efforts at damage control with a single tweet — criticizing NASCAR’s decision to ban the Confederate flag from its races and demanding the sport’s top Black driver apologize for an incident that, by all accounts, was not his fault.

 

Fox News edits Trump out of photo with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell — but not Melania

https://www.salon.com/2020/07/06/fox-news-edits-trump-out-of-photo-with-jeffrey-epstein-and-ghislaine-maxwell--but-not-melania/

 

Fox News came under fire after it bizarrely cropped President Donald Trump out of a photo of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and indicted alleged co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell but left fir

Epstein and Maxwell frequently socialized with prominent figures in New York and elsewhere, including Trump.

"I've known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy," Trump told New York Magazine in 2002. "He's a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it, Jeffrey enjoys his social life."

Epstein has been linked to a number of other wealthy and prominent people, including former President Bill Clinton.

st lady Melania Trump in the image.

McEnany pressed on Trump's claim that 99% of COVID cases are harmless, says it was 'factual'

https://www.foxnews.com/media/kayleigh-mcenany-trump-covid-cases-harmless

White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Monday defended President Trump’s claim that "99%" of coronavirus cases are harmless.

Fox News anchor Sandra Smith asked whether it was "helpful" for the president to characterize the virus in that way, pointing out that FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn did not back up the statement in a subsequent interview.

“The president was making a factual point that most people will recover from coronavirus who get it, that there are a very small fraction of people who fall victim to coronavirus in a fatal way,” McEnany told “America’s Newsroom.”

Fox News says it 'mistakenly' cropped Trump out of photo featuring Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/06/media/fox-news-trump-crop-epstein-maxwell/index.html

Fox News said on Monday that it "mistakenly" cropped President Trump out of a photograph that featured the accused sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and his alleged accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.

"On Sunday, July 5, a report on Ghislaine Maxwell during Fox News Channel's 'America's News HQ' mistakenly eliminated President Donald Trump from a photo alongside then Melania Knauss, Jeffrey Epstein and Maxwell," a spokesperson for the network said. 

The Fox News spokesperson added, "We regret the error."

Maxwell was charged by federal prosecutors in New York on Thursday for her alleged role in recruiting and sexually abusing underage girls as part of a years-long criminal enterprise.

 

Trump "Testing is OVERRATED and not needed!" Trump Impersonator John Di Domenico

Trump Tweets: Watch Newsmax, OANN – Not Fox!

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/trump-newsmax/2020/07/05/id/975809/

President Donald Trump sent out a tweet Sunday slamming Fox News as he urged his followers to watch Newsmax TV and OANN instead.

"Fox News weekend afternoons is the worst! Getting into CNN and MSDNC territory," the president wrote on Twitter.

"Watch @OANN and @Newsmax instead. Much better!"

Trump added in another tweet on Sunday that Fox News "gladly puts up the phony suppression polls as soon as they come out. We are leading in the REAL polls because people are sick & tired of watching the Democrat run cities, in all cases, falling apart. Also, now 96% Approval Rating in the Republican Party. Another 2016!”

 

Haredi rabbi warns: 'Yeshiva students may be on the streets'

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/283070

Rabbi Yitzhak Koldetzki, the son-in-law of Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, called for a gathering of supplications and prayer in order to prevent the further deterioration of those who spend their days in yeshivas, Kikar Hashabbat reported.

Due to closures caused by the coronavirus outbreak, yeshiva students - like other students - have spent only minimal time in their yeshiva settings over the past few months. As a result, parents and educators are struggling in the face of a reality in which the spiritual level of their students has radically declined, in some cases to a "critical level."

Kikar Hashabbat quoted Rabbi Koldetzki as telling a small number of people that "the situation in general is much lighter, and there are less seriously ill [people]."

He added that "unfortunately there are certain young men who do not live in Bnei Brak and Jerusalem, who have not come to yeshiva. We are concerned that young men, a very large number of them, have not returned and have fallen into the streets. This is a life-threatening situation, when they do not come to the yeshivas."

"What the Zionists have not managed to do in 70 years, in these trials we have lost young men. We must pray that they are all healthy," he mourned, calling for special prayers until the beginning of the Hebrew month of Elul.

Drain the swamp! Lobbyists connected to Trump reap windfall in coronavirus aid money

https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-07-06/lobbyists-connected-trump-reap-windfall-coronavirus-aid-money

Forty lobbyists with ties to President Trump helped clients secure more than $10 billion in federal coronavirus aid, among them five former administration officials whose work potentially violates Trump’s own ethics policy, according to a report.

 The lobbyists identified Monday by the watchdog group Public Citizen either worked in the Trump executive branch, served on his campaign, were part of the committee that raised money for inaugural festivities or were part of his presidential transition. Many are donors to Trump’s campaigns, and some are prolific fundraisers for his reelection.

Phoenix mayor says the federal government is 'declaring victory while we're still in crisis mode' as Arizona sees the highest per-capita infection rate in the US

https://www.businessinsider.com/phoenix-mayor-victory-while-state-in-crisis-mode-2020-7

Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego said Sunday that the state of Arizona opened up too quickly and criticized the federal government's response as Arizona battles the current highest infection rate per capita in the US.

Gallego said the state was struggling to administer COVID-19 tests, and said some people in the state had waited up to eight hours to get tested for the virus. She called on the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to assist the state in its testing efforts.

"We were told they're moving away from that, which feels like they're declaring victory while we're still in crisis mode," she said.

 

Trump’s ’99 percent’ coronavirus comment finds little support

 https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/05/hahn-coronavirus-trump-infection-348954

The president may have been referring to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statistic this week that the hospitalization rate is 102.5 per 100,000. But the long-term health ramifications of the coronavirus remain unknown, and mortality rates continue to vary greatly for reasons that are not immediately clear. There are now more than 2.8 million diagnosed cases in the United States and more than 129,000 deaths.

Trump Falsely Claims ‘99 Percent’ of Virus Cases Are ‘Totally Harmless’

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/05/us/politics/trump-coronavirus-factcheck.html

 

False. No matter how you define harmless, most public health experts and respected coronavirus disease models would flatly contradict Mr. Trump’s assessment.

Experts say the president appears to have seized only on a death rate estimate of 1 percent or less that does not capture the entire impact of the disease, and excludes a multitude of thousands who have spent weeks in the hospital or weeks at home with mild to moderate symptoms that still caused debilitating health problems.

Patients fortunate enough to survive a lengthy hospitalization and weeks in an intensive care unit or on a ventilator face a long road to recovery. Many will suffer debilitating long-term effects, including impaired lung function, neurological problems and cognitive deficits, and some may require lifelong care and not regain full independence.

FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn refuses to say whether there is any validity to Donald Trump's claim that 99 per cent of coronavirus cases are 'totally harmless'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8491689/Stephen-Hahn-refuses-comment-Trumps-claim-99-coronavirus-cases-totally-harmless.html

ABC News host Martha Raddaz asked: 'We have more than 129,000 dead and more than 2.8 million cases. How many cases would you say are harmless?'

'Well, what I'd say is, you know, any case, we don't want to have in this country,' he continued to avoid directly answering the question. 'This is a very rapidly moving epidemic, rapidly-moving pandemic. And any death, any case is tragic. And we want to do everything we can to prevent that.'

During a White House speech Saturday to commemorate Independence Day celebrations, Trump reasserted that the U.S. has more confirmed cases than any other country due to bolstered levels of testing.

 

FDA commissioner pressed by Sunday show hosts over Trump's claim '99 percent' of coronavirus cases 'harmless'

https://www.foxnews.com/media/fda-commissioner-trump-99-percent-coronavirus-cases-harmless

FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn on Sunday refused to comment when pressed by multiple Sunday show hosts over President Trump’s suggestion the previous day that 99 percent of coronavirus cases were “harmless.”

 

As Trump gaslights America about coronavirus, Republicans face a critical choice

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/06/politics/us-election-trump-coronavirus-republicans/index.html

 

The gulf between reality and President Donald Trump's delusional vision of a waning coronavirus threat was on full display this weekend, as cases soared in key hotspots while he delivered speeches at Mount Rushmore and at the White House, with little physical distancing and few masks, directly contradicting the advice from his public health experts.

A majority of Americans do not approve of Trump's handling of the pandemic (or his response to the nation's racial reckoning), which has stirred consternation even in his own campaign as the President banks on an economic revival and good news about a vaccine to restore his political fortunes.

When the President's own medical advisers refuse to correct his misleading claim, the coronavirus trust gap grows

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/05/politics/trump-medical-advisers-fda-commissioner/index.html

On Saturday night, President Donald Trump made the dangerously inaccurate claim that 99% of coronavirus cases are "totally harmless." On Sunday morning, one of his top health experts failed to correct the assertion, a stunning breakdown of the government's core duty to keep Americans safe and protect the public health.

CNN's Dana Bash pressed US Food and Drug Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn repeatedly Sunday morning to explain the President's false statement in his Fourth of July speech from the South Lawn of the White House, one that minimized the devastating effects of the virus and seemed to encourage Americans to ignore the deadly risks of a pandemic that has so far claimed more than 129,000 American lives.

Hahn's refusal to specifically address Trump's misleading claim underscored the growing trust gap between Americans and this administration. Hahn apparently was afraid to correct the President -- a pattern that has repeated itself over and over again in an administration where disagreeing with or undercutting Trump has cost many appointees their jobs.