Trump Administration, Week 179: Friday, 19 June – Thursday, 25 June 2020 (Days 1,246-1,252)

• Trump also downplayed the severity of the virus, fixating on the number of names used for it — and offering one, ‘Kung Flu,’ a racially offensive term.
• There was no massive overflow audience greeting Trump; the area outside the arena had emptied out by early evening, and plans for Trump to address the audience outside were quickly scrapped. The campaign blamed protesters, but there were only scattered efforts to block entrances, which were resolved by police.
• The campaign said quarantine procedures had gone into effect for the infected staff members and those in ‘immediate contact’ with them. Meanwhile, Tulsa County reported 136 new cases Saturday — marking another high for both single-day and average cases — while the state as a whole reported 331 new infections.
• At least six people were arrested with charges of obstruction, loitering and other related offenses. Police fired pepper balls during one tense moment before demonstrators fell back to the historically black Greenwood neighborhood, where people danced in an atmosphere more party than protest.

5 takeaways from Trump’s Tulsa rally, The Washington Post, Amber Phillips, Saturday, 20 June 2020.

Here are some significant developments:

• For the second time this week, Texas surpassed 4,000 new daily coronavirus cases as the pandemic continues to sweep through the state amid its reopening. On Saturday, the state reported its highest single-day increase, with 4,430 confirmed cases. Florida also surpassed 4,000 new cases reported in a single day, with 4,049 new infections.
• Six members of Trump’s campaign advance team for his Tulsa rally tested positive for the novel coronavirus, according to a statement from the president’s campaign. ‘Quarantine procedures’ were implemented immediately, the statement added.
• An experimental vaccine by Oxford University has turned into the West’s best — and perhaps only — chance to have a viable vaccine before the end of the year.
• Pope Francis thanked doctors and nurses from Italy’s hardest hit region for their work Saturday in one of his first speeches to an in-person audience since the pandemic lockdowns.
• The National Institutes of Health said it halted a clinical trial of hydroxychloroquine for treating coronavirus patients, saying it ‘provides no benefit.’
• Face mask requirements are taking hold across the country as states throughout the South and West continue to report record highs in new daily coronavirus cases.

Many other significant developments are included in this article.

• White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said Sunday the Trump administration is stocking up in preparation for a possible second wave of the novel coronavirus in the fall. But he said he isn’t suggesting there will be a second wave.
• One of the country’s leading public health experts said Sunday that he was worried that Trump’s campaign rally in Tulsa could become a ‘superspreader’ event.
• Spain ended its months-long state of emergency on Sunday, allowing in tourists from most of Europe but warning that measures must be followed to avoid a second wave.
• Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis acknowledged Saturday that surging coronavirus cases in his state were not solely the result of expanded testing.
• Comedian D.L. Hughley said he tested positive for the coronavirus after he was hospitalized for collapsing onstage during a performance in Nashville.
• The test kits for detecting the nation’s earliest cases failed because of ‘likely’ contamination at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to a new federal review.

Many other significant developments are included in this article.

• Income is a potent force along with race in determining who among the nation’s vulnerable, older population has been infected with the novel coronavirus, according to a federal analysis.
• As cases increase in Boise, Idaho health officials Monday scaled back some reopening plans in Ada County, the state’s most populous jurisdiction.
• The bitter, months-long negotiation between Major League Baseball and its players’ union effectively ended Monday night, with the MLB saying it intended to exercise its power to implement a 2020 schedule. Meanwhile, the NBA is preparing for its return at Disney as Florida’s coronavirus cases exceed 100,000.
• Coronavirus cases at San Quentin State Prison in California are skyrocketing, with the prison reporting 317 active cases as of Monday evening, more than double the number of reported cases two days ago.
• Citing the pandemic, President Trump issued an executive order Monday barring many categories of foreign workers and curbing immigration visas through the end of the year.
• Politicization of the pandemic has worsened the global outbreak, the secretary general of the World Health Organization said Monday, a day after the U.N. body announced the highest daily rise since the pandemic began.

Many other significant developments are included in this article.

White House Eases Virus Restrictions Except for Those Around Trump, The New York Times, Annie Karni, Monday, 22 June 2020: “The White House on Monday began easing up on restrictions that have been in place since Washington officials instituted a stay-at-home order in the city in March in response to the coronavirus. Temperature checks for visitors to the complex will be scaled back, allowing many White House staff members who have been teleworking to return to their offices, and the cafeteria in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, across the street from the West Wing, will be reopened. But assuring that President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence will not be exposed to the virus by visitors will remain a priority. ‘Every staff member and guest in close proximity to the president and vice president is still being temperature-checked, asked symptom histories and tested for Covid-19,’ Judd Deere, a White House spokesman, said in a statement.” See also, Two More Trump Staff Members Test Positive for Coronavirus After Tulsa Rally. The workers, who attended the rally, joined six other members of the campaign’s advance team who tested positive before the event. The New York Times, Annie Karni, Monday, 22 June 2020: “Two Trump campaign staff members who attended the president’s indoor rally in Tulsa, Okla., on Saturday night tested positive for the coronavirus, a spokesman said Monday, despite earlier assurances that a small outbreak among campaign workers had been contained and no staffers who had tested positive had entered the arena. The two workers, members of the campaign’s advance team, tested positive when ‘another round of testing’ was conducted after the rally, according to Tim Murtaugh, the campaign’s communications director. He said the staff members in question had attended the event, but had worn masks the entire time.”

Trump Suspends Visas Allowing Hundreds of Thousands of Foreigners to Work in the U.S., The New York Times, Michael D. Shear and Miriam Jordan, Monday, 22 June 2020: “President Trump on Monday temporarily suspended new work visas and barred hundreds of thousands of foreigners from seeking employment in the United States, part of a broad effort to limit the entry of immigrants into the country. In a sweeping order, which will be in place at least until the end of the year, Mr. Trump blocked visas for a wide variety of jobs, including those for computer programmers and other skilled workers who enter the country under the H-1B visa, as well as those for seasonal workers in the hospitality industry, students on work-study summer programs and au pairs who arrive under other auspices. The order also restricts the ability of American companies with global operations and international companies with U.S. branches to transfer foreign executives and other employees to the United States for months or yearslong stints. And it blocks the spouses of foreigners who are employed at companies in the United States. Officials said the ban on worker visas, combined with extending restrictions on the issuance of new green cards, would keep as many as 525,000 foreign workers out of the country for the rest of the year. Stephen Miller, the White House aide and the architect of Mr. Trump’s immigration policy, has pushed for years to limit or eliminate the worker visas, arguing that they harm employment prospects for Americans. And in recent months, Mr. Miller has argued that the economic distress caused by the virus has made it even more important to turn off the spigot. But the directive, which has been expected for several weeks, is fiercely opposed by business leaders, who say it will block their ability to recruit critically needed workers from countries overseas for jobs that Americans are not willing to do or are not capable of performing.” See also, The Southern Poverty Law Center Statement on Trump Administration Executive Order Expanding Immigration Restrictions, The Southern Poverty Law Center, Meredith Stewart, published on Tuesday, 23 June 2020: “The Southern Poverty Law Center issued the following statement by Meredith Stewart, senior supervising attorney with the SPLC’s Immigrant Justice Project, regarding the Trump administration’s executive order expanding immigration restrictions to include the suspension of some work visas. ‘It is not a coincidence that the Trump Administration turns to its anti-immigrant agenda in challenging times. This latest order does nothing to address the challenges all workers face as a result of COVID-19. Instead, it demonizes immigrant workers who are too often exploited and abused by unscrupulous employers. Long before the COVID-19 pandemic, white nationalists and other anti-immigrant extremists pushed for this proposal. White House Senior Adviser Stephen Miller himself, advocated for similar restrictions on immigrant workers in a series of emails to Breitbart News in which he also shared white nationalist propaganda. Rather than using the current crisis to promote its anti-immigrant agenda, the White House should be ensuring workers’ safety and reforming guest worker programs to end abuse and exploitation.’

The Facts About Mail-In Voting and Voter Fraud, The New York Times, Mike Baker, Monday, 22 June 2020: “As states grapple with how to safely carry out elections during a pandemic, President Trump has made an escalating series of fantastical — and false — accusations about the risks of embracing mail voting. Without evidence, the president has warned that mail elections would involve robbed mailboxes, forged signatures and illegally printed ballots. In a tweet on Monday, this one in all-caps, Mr. Trump warned of a ‘rigged 2020 election’ and claimed: ‘Ballots will be printed by foreign countries, and others. It will be the scandal of our times!’ That claim about foreign-made ballots was the latest misleading statement from Mr. Trump: He offered no evidence, and the tampering of ballots is widely seen as a nearly impossible scenario because they are printed on very specific stock and often have specific tracking systems like bar codes. Mr. Trump himself has voted by mail.”

Democratic secretaries of state launch ad campaign linking voting restrictions to ‘white supremacy,’ The Washington Post, Vanessa Williams, Monday, 22 June 2020: “As President Trump continues to rail about a ‘rigged 2020 election’ on Twitter, the group representing Democratic secretaries of state released its own social media campaign, accusing Trump and the Republican Party of engaging in voter suppression that is ‘rooted in white supremacy.’ The video ad by the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State connects the issue of voting rights to the current conversation about addressing systemic racism. It uses images of black protesters from the 1950s and ’60s demanding voting rights, alongside those of current protests over police violence, sparked by the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody. A narrator says: ‘White supremacy does not endure on its own. It is propped up by suppressing black voices and votes.'”

Here are some significant developments:

• Following often bitter and contentious negotiations after the sport was effectively shut down amid the pandemic in mid-March, Major League Baseball is set to open ‘spring’ training camps July 1 and set Opening Day for July 23 or 24.
• Top federal health officials warned Tuesday that the surge in infections in more than a dozen states could worsen without new restrictions. They also contradicted President Trump’s recent claims that he told officials to slow testing so the country would record fewer cases.
• The federal government plans to end support of testing sites on June 30, including seven sites in Texas, where cases and hospitalizations are climbing rapidly.
• The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning people not to use hand sanitizer from a Mexican manufacturer, Eskbiochem, after finding methanol, a toxic and potentially fatal substance, in some of its products.
• Voters in Kentucky were on track to cast ballots in record numbers for Tuesday’s primary despite the risk of coronavirus infection and shortages of poll workers, thanks in part to the widespread embrace of voting by mail.
• Trump told aides that he is largely supportive of sending Americans another round of stimulus checks, believing the payments will boost the economy and help his chances at reelection in November, according to three people aware of internal administration deliberations. However, leading congressional Republicans and some senior White House officials remain skeptical.
• In countries that saw new coronavirus infections decline in recent weeks, spikes in confirmed case numbers have alarmed officials and sent Australia, Germany, Portugal and South Korea, among other nations, scrambling to respond to resurgent outbreaks.

Many other significant developments are included in this article.

Dr. Anthony Fauci and other top federal health officials warn of covid-19 surge and contradict Trump on testing, The Washington Post, John Wagner, Felicia Sonmez, Yasmeen Abutaleb, Lena H. Sun, and Laurie McGinley, Tuesday, 23 June 2020: “Top federal health officials warned Tuesday that surges in coronavirus infections in more than a dozen states could worsen without new restrictions, and contradicted President Trump’s recent claims that he told officials to slow testing so the country would record fewer cases. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the country is still in the grip of the pandemic’s first wave, including a “disturbing surge” of new cases in Southern and Western states, including Florida, Texas and Arizona.” See also, Dr. Anthony Fauci says Trump hasn’t ordered slowdown of coronavirus testing, Politico, Brianna Ehley, Tuesday, 23 June 2020: “The government’s top infectious disease expert told a House hearing Tuesday that he and other health officials have not been told to slow coronavirus testing, just hours after President Donald Trump again suggested he had asked for fewer tests.” See also, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Citing ‘Disturbing Surge,’ Tells Congress the Virus Is Not Under Control, The New York Times, Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Noah Weiland, Tuesday, 23 June 2020: “Dr. Anthony S. Fauci told Congress on Tuesday that he was seeing a “disturbing surge” of infections in some parts of the country, as Americans ignore social distancing guidelines and states reopen without adequate plans for testing and tracing the contacts of those who get sick. Dr. Fauci’s assessment, delivered during a lengthy hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, painted a much grimmer picture of the coronavirus threat than the one given by President Trump, who claimed last week that the virus that had infected more than two million Americans and killed more than 121,000 would just ‘fade away.’ ‘The virus is not going to disappear,’ said Dr. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, who testified that the virus was not yet under control in the United States.” See also, Dr. Deborah Birx Contradicts Trump and Privately Tells Governors to Increase COVID Testing, The Daily Beast, Erin Banco and Sam Stein, Tuesday, 23 June 2020: “Dr. Deborah Birx, the coordinator of President Donald Trump’s coronavirus task force, told the nation’s governors in a call Monday that it was vital that they ramp up testing to find asymptomatic individuals to prevent further community spread. Her remarks stood in stark contrast to those by the president at his rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma over the weekend—and the days since—in which he said he had asked his team to slow-walk testing initiatives so as not to inflate the country’s official case count. ‘Hopefully I have left you with the impression that increased testing is good,’ Birx said on the call, a recording of which was obtained by The Daily Beast. ‘We would like to see it even more. Identifying cases early including your asymptomatic [ones] will really help us protect the elderly and the additional people with comorbidities.'”

Qualified Immunity Protection for Police Emerges as Flash Point Amid Protests. The Supreme Court developed the doctrine that serves as a shield for officers. A half-century later, it is at the center of the debate over policing. The New York Times, Hailey Fuchs, Tuesday, 23 June 2020: “[S]o-called qualified immunity [is] an esoteric legal doctrine that has been invoked by police departments across the country for decades in response to allegations of excessive force. It provides legal protections for officers when they are accused of violating others’ constitutional rights. Once a little-known rule, qualified immunity has emerged as a flash point in the protests spurred by Mr. Floyd’s killing and galvanized calls for police reform. In the vast majority of cases of police brutality, officers are never criminally prosecuted. For families of victims seeking some sort of relief through the justice system, qualified immunity presents another obstacle to obtaining financial or other damages. Even in the rare cases where the officers are charged, as in Mr. Floyd’s death, the police can still claim qualified immunity if relatives or victims sue them…. Activists have seized on qualified immunity as what they see as one of the biggest problems with policing and argued that it shields officers from being held accountable in cases of misconduct. Police leaders said it was essential for officers’ ability to respond to calls and to make split-second decisions. Qualified immunity is a focal point of the new debate on Capitol Hill over how to address systemic racism in policing and use of excessive force. House Democrats unveiled a bill that would allow victims of police brutality to seek damages from their assailants. A competing Senate Republican bill made no mention of qualified immunity, and the White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, called it a ‘total and complete nonstarter.’ State legislatures have taken up the issue as well. The Colorado General Assembly became the first to eliminate qualified immunity this month. ‘It’s a message that’s sent in these cases — that officers can violate people’s rights with impunity,’ said Joanna Schwartz, a professor of law at the University of California, Los Angeles, who has written extensively on the doctrine. ‘That is outrageous to people and causing people to act.'”

A low-flying ‘show of force.’ Two military helicopters roared over demonstrators in D.C. protesting on 1 June after the death of George Floyd, producing winds equivalent to a tropical storm. The Washington Post, Alex Horton, Andrew Ba Tran, Aaron Steckelberg and John Muyskens, Tuesday, 23 June 2020: “Hemmed in by police on all sides, Camellia Magness feared that the military helicopter descending on downtown Washington might unleash a final assault on protesters. It was June 1, nearly three hours after federal police in riot gear charged largely peaceful demonstrators as they gathered near the White House to protest after the killing of George Floyd. Magness and others had lingered downtown past a 7 p.m. curfew. Military helicopters had been flying high overhead, seeming to track their movements. But shortly before 10 p.m., a Black Hawk swept low over protesters in Chinatown and held its position, producing gusts that snapped thick tree limbs and swirled the air with volleys of dust and broken glass, sending many running for cover in panic and confusion…. The Washington Post reconstructed the movements of the two D.C. Army National Guard helicopters that parked nearly still in the air over protesters in Chinatown that night, using flight-tracking data, images and videos.”

With Tweets, Videos, and Rhetoric, Trump Pushes Anew to Divide Americans by Race, The New York Times, Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Martin, Tuesday, 23 June 2020: “President Trump has repeatedly pushed inflammatory language, material and policies in recent days that seek to divide Americans by race as he tries to appeal to his predominantly white base of voters four months before Election Day rather than try to broaden his support. Trailing in national polls and surveys of crucial battleground states, and stricken by a disappointing return to the campaign trail, Mr. Trump has leaned hard into his decades-long habit of falsely portraying some black Americans as dangerous or lawless. And he has chosen to do so at one of the most tumultuous periods in decades as Americans protest recent episodes of police brutality against black people that have highlighted the nation’s long history of racial injustice. Over the last few days the president has tweeted context-free videos of random incidents involving black people attacking white people and baselessly argued that President Barack Obama, the country’s first black leader, committed ‘treason.’ In an interview with the Catholic News Agency that was posted online on Monday, Mr. Trump said he planned to sign an order to protect national monuments at a time when statues of Confederate generals are being torn down across the country.”

Trump Family Asks Court to Stop Publication of Tell-All by Trump’s Niece, The New York Times, Maggie Haberman, Tuesday, 23 June 2020: “President Trump’s family is seeking a temporary restraining order to try to block publication of a tell-all book by the president’s niece, Mary L. Trump. Ms. Trump is the daughter of the president’s late brother, Fred Trump Jr., and her book, “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man,” is scheduled to be published by Simon & Schuster on July 28. Mr. Trump’s younger brother, Robert S. Trump, requested the restraining order on Tuesday in a filing in Queens County Surrogate’s Court, where the estate of the president’s father, Fred Trump Sr., was settled. The filing names Ms. Trump and Simon & Schuster, and it seeks to stop publication on the grounds that Ms. Trump is violating a nondisclosure agreement related to the settlement of the estate of Fred Trump Sr., the father of Donald and Robert Trump and Mary Trump’s grandfather.” See also, Trump family seeks to block book by Trump’s niece that calls him the ‘World’s Most Dangerous Man,’ The Washington Post, Michael Kranish, Tuesday, 23 June 2020: “President Trump’s brother on Tuesday petitioned a New York court to block the publication of a book by Mary L. Trump that describes the president, her uncle, as the ‘world’s most dangerous man.’ Presales of the book, slated for publication on July 28, have soared to the top of bestseller lists on the basis of a description from publisher Simon & Schuster that it will reveal decades of family secrets, including a ‘nightmare of traumas’ that explain the psychology of the man who is now president. President Trump told the Axios news service earlier this week that Mary Trump is ‘not allowed’ to write the book, because she signed a nondisclosure agreement in 2001 that settled her suit against him and his siblings over her inheritance from her grandfather Fred Trump Sr., the president’s father. President Trump said the agreement was a ‘very powerful one’ that ‘covers everything.'”

Trump again uses a racial slur to describe coronavirus, The Washington Post, Colby Itkowitz, Tuesday, 23 June 2020: “Trump again referred to the novel coronavirus as ‘kung flu,’ eliciting laughter and wild cheers from a young crowd in Arizona on Tuesday. Trump was listing the different names he has heard for the virus, which has killed at least 119,000 Americans, during a speech for the student Republican group Turning Point Action. ‘Wuhan. Wuhan was catching on, coronavirus, kung flu,’ he said, repeating it as the crowd roared. ‘I could give you many, many names. Some people call it the Chinese flu, the China flu, they call it the China.’ Trump drew criticism after he used the racially insensitive moniker to describe the coronavirus at a campaign rally in Tulsa on Saturday night — his first since the outbreak largely shut down the country.” See also, In Arizona, Trump Boasts About His Wall and Repeats Unfounded Predictions of Voter Fraud, The New York Times, Michael D. Shear and Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Tuesday, 23 June 2020: “Trump traveled to the southwestern border on Tuesday to lift his flagging re-election campaign with a renewed anti-immigrant appeal, bragging about the progress his administration has made in constructing a ‘big, beautiful wall’ before predicting to a group of students at a Phoenix mega church that the election could be stolen in a huge fraud. In a visit with handpicked border officials and Republican allies in Yuma, Ariz., Mr. Trump sought to revive the issue at the heart of his 2016 victory: his portrayal of immigrants as a threat to the economic and personal security of Americans, and his promise to close the United States off from much of the world…. Mr. Trump followed his border visit with a rambling 90-minute speech to a mostly maskless gathering of Students for Trump in Phoenix in which he vented about the removal of Confederate monuments, China’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak and one of his newer themes, voter fraud by mail. He ratcheted up his usual predictions of fraud in the November election, made without any supporting evidence, by suggesting that mail-in ballots — which will be in more widespread use as Americans face limits on their movements because of the virus — were ‘a disaster for our country.’ He suggested at one point that mail carriers could be held up as they delivered ballots, which could then be counterfeited by enemies foreign and domestic.” See also, Trump visits border barrier in Arizona to push his anti-immigrant message amid the coronavirus pandemic and civil unrest, The Washington Post, Anne Gearan, Nick Miroff, and Toluse Olorunnipa, Tuesday, 23 June 2020: “Trump toured a border barrier along the U.S.-Mexico line [on] Tuesday, seeking to tout what he views as a key reelection accomplishment in a critical state as his bid for a second term has been upended by a resurgent pandemic, an economic crisis and racial unrest…. The trip — more than three hours on Air Force One to a state dealing with a record spike in virus cases — was itself controversial, as Trump and his aides continued to flout public health guidelines at the same time that top administration officials were testifying before Congress about the growing threat of covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. Neither Trump nor his aides wore masks during the visit, which included the border tour and a speech before a crowd of young supporters in Phoenix. Public health officials have argued against unnecessary travel, and several testified on Tuesday about the need to maintain social distancing and other preventive measures.”

The 1968 Kerner Commission Report Still Echoes Across the U.S., The New York Times, Clyde Haberman, Tuesday, 23 June 2020: “A young African-American is killed by a white police officer in full view of others. Angry people take to the streets — unrest that goes on night after night, with scores injured and hundreds arrested. Sound familiar? But this was back in July 1964, in the Harlem and Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhoods of New York. And far worse lay ahead. More racial rioting erupted the following summer in Los Angeles’s Watts section. In 1966 there was yet more, this time in Cleveland. Then came the disastrous summer of 1967. Chaos enveloped more than 160 American cities and towns, the most ruinous riots leading to 43 deaths in Detroit and 26 in Newark. With the nation reeling that summer, President Lyndon B. Johnson created a task force to explore the roots of the unrest and possible remedies. The National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, led by Gov. Otto Kerner Jr. of Illinois, released a report in February 1968. Known as the Kerner Commission, its findings still echo across the land, wracked once again by turmoil turning largely on uneasy relations between black communities and police departments. The report offered a conclusion that was deliberately worded to be head-turning: ‘Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white, separate and unequal.’ The report left scant doubt that it regarded white racism as the tinder igniting those 1960s fires.”

Prosecutor Aaron Zelinsky says he was pressured to cut Roger Stone ‘a break’ because of his ties to Trump, Politico, Kyle Cheney and Leah Nylen, Tuesday, 23 June 2020: “A prosecutor who withdrew from the Roger Stone case after Justice Department leaders intervened to recommend a lighter sentence intends to testify before Congress that he and his colleagues were repeatedly pressured to cut Stone ‘a break,’ and were told that it was because of his relationship with President Donald Trump. ‘What I heard – repeatedly – was that Roger Stone was being treated differently from any other defendant because of his relationship to the President,’ Aaron Zelinsky, one of four prosecutors who quit the case, plans to tell the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday, according to his prepared testimony. ‘I was also told that the acting U.S. Attorney was giving Stone such unprecedentedly favorable treatment because he was ‘afraid of the President.'”

65 faculty members from George Washington University Law School, Attorney General William Barr’s law school alma mater, say he has ‘failed to fulfill his oath of office,’ CNN Politics, Chandelis Duster, Tuesday, 23 June 2020: “Law professors and faculty from George Washington University Law School, Attorney General William Barr’s alma mater, said in a letter Tuesday he has failed to fulfill his oath of office ‘to support and defend the Constitution of the United States.’ The rebuke comes after continued fallout over the departure of Geoffrey Berman, the federal prosecutor ousted over the weekend by the Trump administration, and adds to a chorus of criticism over Barr’s actions as attorney general. Barr received his Juris Doctor degree from the law school in 1977, and while serving as attorney general under then-President George H.W. Bush he received an honorary degree from the university in 1992. In a statement signed by 65 faculty and professors from the law school, the group wrote that Barr’s actions as attorney general ‘have undermined the rule of law, breached constitutional norms, and damaged the integrity and traditional independence of his office and of the Department of Justice. We include members of both major political parties, and of none,’ they wrote. ‘We have different legal specialties and represent a broad spectrum of approaches to the law.'”

Obama Urges Democrats: ‘Whatever You’ve Done So Far Is Not Enough,’ The New York Times, Katie Glueck, Tuesday, 23 June 2020: “Former President Barack Obama and his vice president, Joseph R. Biden Jr., on Tuesday held their first joint event of the 2020 campaign, where Mr. Obama warned Democrats against becoming complacent about the presidential election and offered an unusually direct and detailed rebuke of President Trump. The split-screen appearance of the presumptive Democratic nominee and his former boss came as Mr. Biden has enjoyed a run of strong fund-raising, while a spate of recent polls have shown him holding as much as a double-digit lead over Mr. Trump. Mr. Biden’s campaign announced Tuesday that the event had raised $7.6 million from 175,000 grass-roots contributors. But Mr. Obama instructed the 120,000 people who logged on to watch that they must not take the election for granted. ‘We can’t be complacent or smug or sense that somehow it’s so obvious that this president hasn’t done a good job, because look, he won once,’ Mr. Obama said. ‘This is serious business,’ he added. ‘Whatever you’ve done so far is not enough. And I hold myself and Michelle and our kids to that same standard.'”

• The Dow Jones industrial average fell 709 points, or 2.7 percent, as investors grappled with a spike in covid-19 infections in several states, fueling concerns that an already drawn-out economic recovery will be delayed further.
• The governors of the New York/New Jersey/Connecticut tri-state area jointly announced a travel advisory, which requires a 14-day quarantine for visitors from nine states whose infection rates meet certain thresholds indicating “significant community spread,” according to New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D).
• The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday said the global economy will shrink this year by 4.9 percent and will be followed by a sluggish recovery as the pandemic has caused more widespread damage than expected.
• Virginia took a big step on Wednesday toward ushering in a new set of coronavirus-era safety rules that companies would be forced to implement to protect workers from infection — a first in the country and potentially a way forward for other states in the face of federal inaction.
• An independent investigation into a Massachusetts long-term care facility where 76 people died of the novel coronavirus and an additional 84 residents tested positive found that errors by officials there contributed to the spread of the virus.

Many other significant developments are included in this article.

Coronavirus Cases Are Accelerating Across the U.S., The Wall Street Journal, Sarah Krouse, Anthony DeBarros, and Brianna Abbott, Wednesday, 24 June 2020: “Covid-19’s spread is picking up steam in a larger swath of the U.S. as cases have increased at a faster rate nationwide for nearly two weeks, an acceleration that isn’t attributable solely to increased testing, a Wall Street Journal analysis shows. Thirty-three states, from Oklahoma to South Carolina and Washington, had a seven-day average of new cases on Tuesday that was higher than their average during the past two weeks, according to a Journal analysis of Johns Hopkins University data. That was the situation in 21 states at the start of the month, so the data reflect recent increases in new cases.”

Coronavirus cases rise in states with relaxed face mask policies, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Kasra Zarei and John Duchneskie, Wednesday, 24 June 2020: “Coronavirus cases seem to be rising in states with relaxed policies on wearing masks, leading experts to reemphasize the importance of face coverings to preventing spread of the disease. Sixteen states currently recommend, but do not require, that residents wear masks in public. In those states — including Texas and Arizona — new coronavirus cases have risen by 84% over the last two weeks, according to an Inquirer analysis. In the 11 states that mandate wearing masks in public — including New York, Illinois, and Michigan — new cases have fallen by 25% over the last two weeks. Other states that are less stringent and require mask-wearing by employees and patrons of certain businesses have seen an overall 12% drop in cases (Pennsylvania, which is in this group, has seen a 28% drop.) Meanwhile, states that require masks only for employees of certain businesses have seen a 70% increase, on average, in new cases.”

Dozens of Secret Service officers and agents told to self-quarantine after Trump’s Tulsa rally, The Washington Post, Carol D. Leonnig and Joshua Partlow, Wednesday, 24 June 2020: “Dozens of Secret Service officers and agents who were on site for President Trump’s rally in Tulsa last week were ordered to self-quarantine after two of their colleagues tested positive for the novel coronavirus, part of the fallout from Trump’s insistence on holding the mass gathering over the objections of public health officials. The Secret Service instructed employees who worked the Tulsa event to stay at home for 14 days when they returned from the weekend trip, according to two people familiar with the agency’s decision.”

Senate confirms Trump’s 200th judicial nominee, CNN Politics, Devan Cole and Ted Barrett, Wednesday, 24 June 2020: “President Donald Trump’s 200th judicial nominee was confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate on Wednesday, marking a significant milestone in a presidency that has tilted the federal judiciary in a conservative direction for decades to come. With the confirmation of Judge Cory Wilson to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, Trump has successfully appointed 53 appeals court judges, 143 district court judges, two US Court of International Trade judges and two Supreme Court justices — Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh — according to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office. By comparison, former President Barack Obama successfully appointed 334 federal judges during his two terms, according to the US Courts. Former President George W. Bush successfully appointed 340 judges during his eight years in office, while former President Bill Clinton put 387 judges on the bench during his two terms.” See also, With Confirmation of Cory Wilson, Trump and Senate Republicans Achieve a Milestone, The New York Times, Carl Hulse, Wednesday, 24 June 2020: “The Senate on Wednesday confirmed Cory T. Wilson of Mississippi to a New Orleans-based circuit court over united Democratic opposition, handing President Trump the 200th federal judicial confirmation of his tenure and achieving a Republican goal of filling every appeals court opening by the end of the year. In winning Senate approval, Judge Wilson, a conservative state court judge and former Mississippi legislator, became the 53rd federal appeals court judge installed by Mr. Trump and cemented a milestone in a judicial legacy that has reshaped the federal courts during his administration, including putting in place two Supreme Court justices. Republicans lauded the achievement. The vote was 52-48.” See also, Senate confirms 200th judicial nominee from Trump, a legacy that will last well beyond November, The Washington Post, John Wagner, Wednesday, 24 June 2020: “A divided Senate on Wednesday confirmed President Trump’s 200th judicial nominee, a milestone that reflects the breakneck speed at which he and fellow Republicans have moved to create a legacy that will endure regardless of the outcome of this year’s elections.”

• The number of Americans who have been infected with the novel coronavirus is likely 10 times higher than the number of cases reported, according to the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In a call with reporters Thursday, CDC Director Robert Redfield said, ‘Our best estimate right now is that for every case that’s reported, there actually are 10 other infections.’
• A rush to reopen the nation’s economy without proper safety measures in place is behind this week’s spike in cases, Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, said Thursday on the ‘Today’ show.
• In New York, coronavirus hospitalizations dipped just below 1,000 for the first time since March 18, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) said.
• President Trump continued to push the discredited notion that coronavirus cases are increasing in the United States because of ‘GREAT TESTING’ and complained that the news media was not spreading the word. While testing has increased, health experts say that in several states with rising caseloads, new cases are outpacing the spread of testing.
• The World Health Organization said the global pandemic’s hotbed is now in Latin America, which has reported 100,000 fatalities as of this week. New flare-ups have also been reported in Australia, Germany and South Korea.

Many other significant developments are included in this article.

Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), says coronavirus cases are likely to be 10 times higher than reported, The Washington Post, Lena H. Sun and Joel Achenbach, Thursday, 25 June 2020: “The number of people in the United States who have been infected with the coronavirus is likely to be 10 times as high as the 2.4 million confirmed cases, based on antibody tests, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. CDC Director Robert Redfield’s estimate, shared with reporters in a conference call, indicates that at least 24 million Americans have been infected so far. The antibody tests examine a person’s blood for indicators that the immune system has mounted a response to an infection. The serological surveys are being done around the country as epidemiologists try to measure the reach of the virus to date. Redfield said he believes 5 to 8 percent of the population has been infected so far.”

State Coronavirus Data Doesn’t Support Trump’s Misleading Testing Claims, ProPublica, Charles Ornstein and Ash Ngu, Thursday, 25 June 2020: “The Trump administration has doubled down on its claims that coronavirus case counts are up because the U.S. has increased testing. However, a closer look at graphs of testing numbers and positive cases shows that this isn’t the case for many states.”

How the Virus Won, The New York Times, Derek Watkins, Josh Holder, James Glanz, Weiyi Cai, Benedict Carey, and Jeremy White, Thursday, 25 June 2020: “Invisible outbreaks sprang up everywhere. The United States ignored the warning signs. We analyzed travel patterns, hidden infections and genetic data to show how the epidemic spun out of control.”

Texas Orders Hospitals in Four Counties to Halt Nonessential Surgeries Amid Coronavirus Outbreak, The Wall Street Journal, Melanie Evans and Preetika Rana, Thursday, 25 June 2020: “Texas has ordered hospitals in four counties to stop some surgeries as the pandemic gains traction across Western and Southern states and hospitals fill with critical coronavirus patients. Hospitals in Bexar, Dallas, Harris and Travis counties must halt nonessential procedures as of Saturday to make sure beds are available for coronavirus patients, under an executive order issued by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Thursday. The governor stopped short of a statewide shutdown, as Texas and other states previously ordered when the pandemic first hit. Hospitals nationwide emptied out in late March under the state orders, which governors began to roll back in late April as economies tentatively reopened. The order also allows surgeries that wouldn’t deplete hospital capacity.”

New research explores how conservative media misinformation may have intensified the severity of the coronavirus pandemic, The Washington Post, Christopher Ingraham, Thursday, 25 June 2020: “Coronavirus infections have surged in a number of states, setting the United States on a markedly different pandemic trajectory than other wealthy nations. There are many reasons our response to the pandemic tied to more than 120,000 U.S. deaths has faltered, experts say, including the lack of a cohesive federal policy, missteps on testing and tracing, and a national culture emphasizing individualism. In recent weeks, three studies have focused on conservative media’s role in fostering confusion about the seriousness of the coronavirus. Taken together, they paint a picture of a media ecosystem that amplifies misinformation, entertains conspiracy theories and discourages audiences from taking concrete steps to protect themselves and others.”

Government Accountability Office Finds That $1.4 Billion in Stimulus Funds Was Sent to Dead People. A Government Accountability Office report said the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service failed to consult death records, resulting in improper payments. The New York Times, Alan Rappeport, Thursday, 25 June 2020: “The Trump administration delivered more than a million stimulus payments worth about $1.4 billion to dead people in a rush to pump money into the economy this year, the Government Accountability Office said on Thursday. The Treasury Department, working with the Internal Revenue Service, raced to deliver nearly $270 billion in economic impact payments to Americans this spring. But a chunk of the money ended up in the wrong places as a result of internal administration decisions, including failing to consult death records to ensure that deceased people were not receiving funds. The improper payments reflect some of the wasteful government spending that occurred in the wake of the rapid economic stabilization effort that was undertaken after Congress passed a $2.6 trillion bailout package in March.” See also, Government Accountability Office finds the Treasury Department sent more than 1 million coronavirus stimulus payments to dead people. The checks sent to dead people as of April 30 totaled nearly $1.4 billion. The Washington Post, Erica Werner, 25 June 2020: “The Washington Post previously reported that the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service disbursed some payments of up to $1,200 each to dead people. But the astonishing scope of the problem had not been known. The U.S. Government Accountability Office, an independent investigative agency that reports to Congress, issued the finding as part of a comprehensive report on the nearly $3 trillion in coronavirus relief spending approved by Congress in March and April. It said it had received the information from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration in an accounting as of April 30.”

Another 1.48 million workers are newly unemployed. This is the 14th straight week more than a million people have filed for jobless claims since the pandemic began. The Washington Post, Eli Rosenberg and Abha Bhattarai, Thursday, 25 June 2020: “The news Thursday that another 1.48 million people applied for unemployment for the first time last week — the 14th straight that more than 1 million people filed for unemployment — was yet another reminder of the magnitude of the economic crisis. For three weeks straight, the number has hovered around 1.5 million, pointing to the potential stubbornness of the recovery.” See also, U.S. Initial Unemployment Benefits Are Steady at 1.5 million in June, The Wall Street Journal, Sarah Chaney, Thursday, 25 June 2020: “The number of workers seeking jobless benefits has held steady at about 1.5 million each week so far in June, signaling a slow recovery for the U.S. economy as states face new infections that could impede hiring and consumer spending. Applications for unemployment benefits were slightly below 1.5 million last week, at 1.48 million, the Labor Department reported Thursday. While weekly totals have gradually eased from a late March peak of nearly 7 million, they also remain well above the prepandemic record of 695,000 in 1982.”

Here Are Some Things to Know About Elijah McClain’s Death. He died in August 2019 after the police in Aurora, Colorado, restrained him with a chokehold that has since been banned.  The New York Times, Lucy Tompkins, Thursday, 25 June 2020: “As outrage over police brutality has erupted across the country in the wake of George Floyd’s death, a wave of fresh attention and scrutiny has been applied to older cases in which people died after encounters with the police. One such case is that of Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old black man who died last summer after the police in Aurora, Colo., restrained him with a chokehold that has since been banned. Mr. McClain was walking home from a convenience store on Aug. 24 when someone called 911, saying he ‘looked sketchy’ and was wearing a ski mask and waving his arms. The police arrived, and after struggling to handcuff Mr. McClain, officers brought him to the ground and used a carotid hold, which restricts blood to the brain to render someone unconscious. When medical responders arrived, after about 15 minutes, paramedics injected him with ketamine, a powerful sedative. Mr. McClain went into cardiac arrest on the way to a hospital. He died a few days later. Mr. McClain was a massage therapist who is said to have loved animals and who taught himself to play the guitar and the violin, according to The Cut. A photograph of Mr. McClain playing the violin for stray cats, which he believed helped soothe them, has gone viral.” See also, What We Know About the Killing of Elijah McClain, The Cut, Claire Lampen, Thursday, 25 June 2020: “Last August, police officers in Aurora, Colorado, approached 23-year-old Elijah McClain as he walked home from a convenience store. The Aurora Police Department later said that a 911 caller had reported a ‘suspicious person’ in a ski mask, and that when officers confronted McClain — who was not armed and had not committed any kind of crime — he ‘resisted arrest.’ In the 15 minutes that followed, the officers tackled McClain to the ground, put him in a carotid hold, and called first responders, who injected him with ketamine. He had a heart attack on the way to the hospital, and died days later, after he was declared brain dead.” See also, Officers involved in Elijah McClain’s death are taken off street duty ‘in an effort to protect’ them, The Hill, Brooke Seipel, published on Friday, 26 June 2020: “Aurora, Colo., officials announced Friday that the three police officers involved in the death of 23-year-old Elijah McClain last year have been reassigned and are off the streets for their own protection as McClain’s case gains national attention…. McClain’s last words include him saying: ‘I’m an introvert. I’m just different. That’s all. I’m so sorry. I have no gun. I don’t do that stuff. I don’t do any fighting. Why are you attacking me? I don’t even kill flies! I don’t eat meat! But I don’t judge people, I don’t judge people who do eat meat. Forgive me … I’m so sorry.’ He was held in a chokehold before vomiting. Police then injected him with ketamine to sedate him, leading to a heart attack. He was pronounced dead three days later after he was declared brain dead.”

Three Wilmington, North Carolina, police officers are fired after racist talk of killing black residents: ‘We are just gonna go out and start slaughtering them,’ The Washington Post, Tim Elfrink, Thursday, 25 June 2020: “Sitting in his patrol car in Wilmington, N.C., Officer Michael ‘Kevin’ Piner predicted Black Lives Matter protests would soon lead to civil war. ‘I’m ready,’ Piner told another officer, adding that he planned to buy an assault rifle. ‘We are just going to go out and start slaughtering them f—— n——,’ he said. The shocking threat came amid extended, openly racist conversations between Piner, 44, and two other police officers, 50-year-old Cpl. Jesse E. Moore II, and 48-year-old Officer James ‘Brian’ Gilmore. In the discussions, taped by accident on a patrol car camera and released Wednesday by the department, the men freely drop racial slurs, suggest killing black residents and deride protesters. ‘Wipe ’em off the f—— map,’ Piner said of African Americans. ‘That’ll put ’em back about four or five generations.’ All three officers were fired Wednesday, with new Wilmington Police Chief Donny Williams, who is black, calling the conversations ‘brutally offensive.'”

Supreme Court Says Rejected Asylum Seekers Have No Right to Object in Court, The New York Times, Adam Liptak, Thursday, 25 June 2020: “The Supreme Court sided on Thursday with the Trump administration’s efforts to speed the deportation of asylum seekers, ruling that a law limiting the role of federal courts in reviewing those decisions was constitutional. Last week, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of young undocumented immigrants known as Dreamers, allowing them to continue to use a program that shields them from deportation and allows them to work. Thursday’s decision, which barred immigrants whose asylum claims were rejected in bare-bones proceedings from filing petitions for habeas corpus, struck a strikingly different note.” See also, Supreme Court agrees with Trump administration on limits for asylum seekers, The Washington Post, Robert Barnes and Nick Miroff, Thursday, 25 June 2020: “The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that asylum seekers who are quickly turned down by U.S. immigration officials do not have a right to make their case in federal court, a win for the Trump administration and its desire to rapidly deport people who enter the United States illegally. The ruling was 7 to 2, although the usual undercurrents of an ideological divide on the court were present. Two of the court’s liberals dissented, and the other two agreed only with the outcome in the specific case.” See also, Supreme Court Eases Path to Deport Asylum Seekers, The Wall Street Journal, Jess Bravin, Thursday, 25 June 2020: “The Supreme Court on Thursday smoothed the government’s path to deport unauthorized immigrants seeking asylum, ruling that a noncitizen apprehended shortly after crossing the border has no constitutional right to challenge immigration officials’ ‘expedited removal’ orders in federal court. In an opinion by Justice Samuel Alito, the court’s conservative majority held that such noncitizens are entitled only to the administrative process Congress provided, which allows asylum seekers to make their claims before immigration officers; if they are denied, their claims can be reviewed by an immigration judge, who is a Justice Department employee and not part of the independent federal judiciary.”

Senate Judiciary Committee Moves to Empower Justice Department’s Independent Watchdog Over Attorney General William Barr’s Objections, The New York Times, Katie Benner, Nicholas Fandos and Charlie Savage, Thursday, 25 June 2020: “The Republican-controlled Senate on Thursday advanced an effort to expand the power of the Justice Department’s independent watchdog to investigate allegations of ethical violations and professional misconduct by department lawyers, overriding the objections of Attorney General William P. Barr. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 21 to 1 to approve the bipartisan measure, which unanimously passed the House last year. It would shift the responsibility for investigating lawyer misconduct from an office under Mr. Barr’s supervision to the department’s independent inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz.”

House Passes Sweeping Policing Bill Targeting Racial Bias and Use of Force. Democrats’ legislation would institute significant changes to the rules that govern how police officers operate, but it is doomed in the Republican-led Senate. The New York Times, Catie Edmondson, Thursday, 25 June 2020: “The House on Thursday passed an expansive policing overhaul bill aimed at combating racial discrimination and excessive use of force in law enforcement, as Democrats sought to respond to a nationwide outcry for racial justice and pushed through legislation that is doomed in the Republican-controlled Senate. The bipartisan vote was 236-181 to approve the measure, the most sweeping federal intervention into law enforcement in years. It would eliminate legal protections that shield police officers from lawsuits, make it easier to prosecute them for wrongdoing, impose a new set of restrictions on the use of deadly force, and effectively ban the use of chokeholds. But passage of the legislation, introduced as a response to the killings of black Americans across the country and a wave of protests that have followed, only underscored the depth of the stalemate in Congress over how to bring about law enforcement changes that both parties say are needed. Republicans have said the bill is a federal overreach into policing that will never pass the Senate, and the White House has threatened a veto.”

Police Groups Wield Strong Influence in Congress, Resisting the Strictest Reforms, The New York Times, Luke Broadwater and Catie Edmondson, Thursday, 25 June 2020: “Law enforcement groups, which have donated generously to members of both political parties, have dictated the terms of the debate on an overhaul, prodding lawmakers to reject the toughest measures.”

Inside Attorney General William Barr’s Effort to Undermine Prosecutors in New York, The New York Times, Benjamin Weiser, Ben Protess, Katie Benner, and William K. Rashbaum, Thursday, 25 June 2020: “Shortly after he became attorney general last year, William P. Barr set out to challenge a signature criminal case that touched President Trump’s inner circle directly, and even the president’s own actions: the prosecution of Michael D. Cohen, Mr. Trump’s longtime fixer. The debate between Mr. Barr and the federal prosecutors who brought the case against Mr. Cohen was one of the first signs of a tense relationship that culminated last weekend in the abrupt ouster of Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States attorney in Manhattan. It also foreshadowed Mr. Barr’s intervention in the prosecutions of other associates of Mr. Trump.”

Court in New York rejects effort to block book by Trump’s niece, The Washington Post, Michael Kranish, Thursday, 25 June 2020: “A New York court on Thursday rejected an effort by President Trump’s family to block the publication of a book by the president’s niece, Mary L. Trump, who is said to describe the ‘nightmare of traumas’ that led to her uncle being the ‘world’s most dangerous man.’ However, the effort to block the book is set to continue in a different court. Judge Peter J. Kelly of Queens County Surrogate’s Court dismissed the effort by President Trump’s brother, Robert, to block publication on grounds that it was filed in an improper jurisdiction and that a family probate dispute had long been settled.” See also, Trump Family Will Ask Second Court to Stop Publication of Tell-All Book, The New York Times, Maggie Haberman and Alan Feuer, Thursday, 25 June 2020: “A Queens County, N.Y., Surrogate’s Court judge on Thursday rejected a request to bar President Trump’s niece, Mary L. Trump, from publishing a tell-all book about the family because the court lacked jurisdiction in the case. Judge Peter J. Kelly recommended that Robert S. Trump, the president’s brother, take to another court his claim that publishing the book, ‘Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man,’ would violate a nondisclosure agreement signed by Ms. Trump. ‘Insofar as the petition seeks a declaratory judgment, this forum is presumptively improper,’ Mr. Kelly wrote. Charles Harder, a lawyer for Robert Trump, said he would now file suit in the New York State Supreme Court, which is a lower-level court in the state, in an effort to stop Simon & Schuster from publishing the book on July 28.”