No wonder Donald Trump is all over the place with his coronavirus response. (Everywhere but competence, that is—and that’s just beyond him.) His polling is looking baaaad. But he’s going in the opposite direction from what the poll indicates the public wants. Trump is trying to evade responsibility by putting the responsibility on the states, but “Most Americans disagree with the Trump administration’s position that the federal government is a backup to the states. The public seems to view this as a national crisis that requires a national response on par with the aggressive approach taken by the states,” Monmouth University Polling Institute director Patrick Murray said.
Trump wants to "reopen America" without the one thing necessary to do so safely. Namely, testing. CNN went in depth on the Trump administration’s early testing failures, about which a University of Florida expert said “What we needed was extremely aggressive leadership at the CDC level and at the national level to say, okay, these are all our plans... I don't think there was really a realization of the magnitude of the problem.” And now, without having fixed the problems that started early on, Trump wants to lift precautions “very, very, very, very soon.” Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is pushing back.
● Republican lawmakers have a message for Trump: Shut up. Turns out, those endless press briefings aren’t playing as well as he thinks they are, and that’s not just a Democrat’s opinion.
● Democrats demand answers to how a tax break benefiting Trump and Kushner got into coronavirus bill.
● At-risk janitors, housekeepers, other non-clinical hospital staffers “terrified” about coronavirus.
● D.C.'s hospitality and tourism authority announces $5 million in relief for undocumented workers. Hugely important move for a group that’s being left out of too much of the (already insufficient) assistance going to newly unemployed people.
● Trump is trying to kill the United States Postal Service as vote-by-mail becomes the best chance to save our democracy. Also on the vote-by-mail front, Georgia and Texas voting rights advocates go to court in the battle for absentee ballot access.
● Trump's White House is finally preparing for something: Beating back oversight of coronavirus relief. Impeachment provided a lot of practice and Trump’s lawyers are ready to go. Including, presumably, the one he’s trying to put in as inspector general for pandemic recovery.
● New Zealand shows us what a really 'good job,' and real leadership, looks like.
● Spurred by the coronavirus crisis, and Trump’s incompetence and corruption in dealing with it, California declares (rhetorical) independence from the undemocratic Trumpian States of America.