The Ashford Zone Blog

This week opened and closed with Russia: opening with a bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report reaffirming U.S. intelligence’s January 2017 conclusion that Russia interfered to help install Trump, and closing with Trump surreptitiously signing an unusual joint statement with Russian President Vladimir Putin amid the pandemic.

This week the country passed the tragic milestone of 50,000 deaths from the coronavirus — more than 1 in 4 deaths worldwide. The country is losing 10,000 Americans every four days now, and as New York sees its cases and deaths ebb, several other states surged. Trump flipped from encouraging states to reopen, to pulling back, to encouraging again. Polling showed the vast majority of Americans want to stay home, despite the optics of protest rallies, some fomented by far-right groups or groups with ties to Trump himself. He and his regime have yet to come up with a plan or strategy to control the pandemic, as the U.S. continues to be the global epicenter. Data this week revealed the virus was already in major U.S. cities in February, quietly spreading undetected to thousands of Americans.

After a major study cautioned against the use of hydroxychloroquine, Trump later in the week made a remarkable suggestion to try ultraviolet light or disinfectant. Following the uproar thereafter, Trump finally backed off from his daily task force briefings, which had morphed into campaign rallies, some two hours long. Republicans, Trump aides, and campaign staffers fretted the briefings and his lack of response to the outbreak have hurt him in 2020 polling in battleground states, and threaten to drag down not only Trump in 2020, but also Republicans could lose the Senate.

1. On Tuesday, the Senate Intelligence Committee’s fourth report reaffirmed its support for the U.S. intelligence’s conclusion that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election with the goal of putting Trump in office.
2. The panel also reaffirmed intelligence’s January 2017 assessment that Putin ordered the move, citing “specific intelligence” to support the conclusion that Putin “approved and directed aspects” of the efforts.
3. The report also noted the assessment did not rely on information from the Steele dossier to make its conclusions — contrary to public statements by Trump and his allies — but FBI senior management noted it in an annex.
4. On Sunday, an NBC News/WSJ poll found 58% of Americans are concerned that lifting stay-at-home orders too soon could lead to more coronavirus deaths, while 32% say the greater worry was the economic impact.
5. The poll also found 65% believe Trump did not take the coronavirus threat “seriously enough at the beginning,” 30% say he did. Trump’s approval was unchanged from March at 46% approve, 51% disapprove.
6. The polls also found 36% trust what Trump says on the coronavirus, 52% do not. In contrast, 66% said they trust their governor, and 60% said they trust Dr. Anthony Fauci.
7. The poll also found that 67% of Americans support vote-by-mail for the November election, 29% are against it. The poll also found 58% who said voting by mail should be a permanent change.
8. On Saturday, Charlie Kirk, the leader of Students for Trump, called on its members to launch “peaceful rebellion against governors” over stay-at-home orders in states like Michigan and Wisconsin.
9. On Saturday, Cleveland.com reported some Ohio stay-at-home protests included anti-Semitic symbolism. A protestor in Columbus held a sign of a rodent with the Star of David on its side and the words “The Real Plague.”
10. On Sunday, WAPO reported pro-gun activist Ben Dorr, the political director of a group called “Minnesota Gun Rights,” and his brothers Christopher and Aaron were behind some of the stay-at-home protests.
11. The three set up Facebook groups to target Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York, which by Sunday had more than 200,000 members. The brothers manage a slew of pro-gun groups nationwide.
12. The New York Facebook group questioned whether the virus is really that bad. The Pennsylvania group questioned the wisdom of wearing masks publicly, contrary to recommendations by state and federal officials.
13. On Saturday, WAPO reported Trump’s campaign has concluded it will be a more effective strategy to launch a broad effort to tie Joe Biden to China, rather than focus on Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
14. Polling showed Trump’s approval declining with key groups while three-quarters blame the outbreak on China. The shift marks a remarkable acknowledgement it is better to attack than focus on achievements.
15. On Saturday, at the daily briefing, Trump said of China, “If it was a mistake, a mistake is a mistake,” adding, “But if they were knowingly responsible, yeah, I mean, then sure there should be consequences.”
16. Trump shared no evidence that China is responsible for the pandemic, but said a U.S. investigation is ongoing. He also said, “Does anybody really believe this number?” about a chart showing deaths in China.
17. Trump also defended protestors, saying, “There are a lot of protests out there and I just think that some of the governors have gotten carried away,” citing the governors of Michigan and Virginia.
18. Trump also bragged, again lying about U.S. testing capacity, and falsely claimed only Democratic governors were complaining, saying, “We have tremendous capacity…They’re the ones that are complaining.”
19. Trump again blamed the Obama administration, saying, “We started off with a broken system….And I always say it, our cupboards were bare. We had very little in our stockpile. Now we’re loaded up.”
20. Trump also repeated the lie that no one saw the epidemic coming, falsely claiming as he speaks with world leaders, “You know, we’re only talking about a few weeks since everybody knew this was such a big problem.”
21. Trump also claimed the U.S. would be at war with North Korea if not for him, saying, “I received a nice note from him [Kim Jong Un] recently. It was a nice note.” On Sunday, North Korea issued a statement denying this.
22. On Saturday, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, Chair of the Democratic Caucus, called the briefing “deeply troubling,” tweeting to Trump’s cabinet, “it may be time to invoke the #25thAmendment.”
23. On Saturday, in defending the protestors, Fox News host Jeanine Pirro said on her show, “We understand there are still many sick and dying…But what about the rest of us?”
24. On Sunday, the U.S. passed 40,000 coronavirus deaths, with more than 750,000 confirmed cases. Globally, 165,000 people had died, and 2.4 million tested positive.
25. Reuters reported, after recording the first U.S. death on February 29, it took 38 days to reach 10,000 deaths, five more days to reach 20,000, four more days to reach 30,000, and four more to 40,000.
26. On Sunday, the obituary section in Sunday’s print edition of the Boston Globe spanned 16 pages. The paper said the section had grown every week since the outbreak. Massachusetts, a hot spot, had more than 1,700 dead.
27. On Sunday, NYT reported on the death of Joe Joyce, who oversaw JJ Bubbles, a popular tavern in Brooklyn, citing his children say Joe went on a cruise in early March feeling assured by Fox News host Sean Hannity.
28. His daughter said, “he watched Fox, and believed it was under control.” Hannity said Democrats were trying to “bludgeon Trump with this new hoax.” Hannity shot back Monday, calling the article “slander” and “libel.”
29. On Sunday, a study by the University of Chicago on misinformation during the pandemic contrasted Fox News viewers who watched Hannity versus host Tucker Carlson, who warned viewers about coronavirus risks.
30. The study of viewers 55 and older found “Hannity relative to Carlson is associated with approximately 30 percent more COVID-19 cases on March 14, and 21 percent more COVID-19 deaths on March 28.”
31. On Sunday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said his state is on “the other side” of the coronavirus curve, as daily deaths dropped to 507, the lowest count since April 6. Hospitalizations, ICU admissions, and intubations also dropped.
32. On Sunday, Gothamist reported NYPD issued 60 summonses to attendees of an “anti-lockdown” party at a barber shop in Brooklyn, New York late Saturday, and arrested two on gun possession charges.
33. On Sunday, Reuters reported Neiman Marcus is preparing to file for bankruptcy as soon as this week, becoming the first U.S. retailer to succumb to the economic fallout of the coronavirus.
34. On Sunday, Trump ally and defender U.K. news anchor Piers Morgan told “Good Morning Britain” that his “friend” is “failing the American people” during the coronavirus, saying he is “aghast at these press conferences.”
35. Morgan said Trump is turning briefings “into a self-aggrandizing, self-justifying, overly defensive, politically partisan, almost like a rally,” adding, “almost like what’s more important is winning the election in November.”
36. On Sunday, Vice President Mike Pence told “Fox New Sunday” testing could double to 300,000 a day, but the onus was on governors, saying they need “to activate all of the laboratories in their states around the country.”
37. Asked what Trump intended with his “LIBERATE” tweets, Pence said Trump just meant to “encourage governors to find ways to safely and responsibly let America go back to work.”
38. On Sunday, Dr. Deborah Birx parroted Trump’s attacks on the WHO on “This Week,” claiming “it wasn’t until the beginning of March that we could all fully see how contagious this virus was.” This claim is false.
39. Birx also blamed China: “It is always the first country that gets exposed to the pandemic that has really a higher moral obligation on communicating and transparency,” citing other countries make “decisions on that.”
40. On Sunday, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin told “State of the Union” it was “my idea” to add Trump’s name to the stimulus checks, citing, “He is the president and I think it’s a terrific symbol to the American public.”
41. On Sunday, Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam told “State of the Union” that the regime’s claim the states have ample testing capacity is “just delusional,” adding, “We’ve been fighting every day for PPE.”
42. GOP Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said, “to try and push this off to say that the governors have plenty of testing and they should just get to work on testing — somehow we aren’t doing our job — is just absolutely false.”
43. GOP Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine told “Meet the Press” that Ohio hospitals lack needed chemicals known as reagents for testing, and called for federal help, saying his state could probably double or triple testing with help.
44. On Sunday, Trump responded to criticism on testing, tweeting, “I am right on testing,” saying, “just like I was right on Ventilators,” and adding, “our Country is now the ‘King of Ventilators.’”’
45. On Sunday, the New England Journal of Medicine reported the chief executive of a Massachusetts hospital said he was outbid by the federal government for PPE multiple times, and had to cut a deal and pay extra.
46. Baystate Health in Springfield had to hire trucks for transport, which were interrogated by the FBI and almost redirected to the Department of Homeland Security before the hospital’s Congressperson intervened.
47. On Sunday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told “Fox New Sunday” she would give Trump an “F” for his leadership during the pandemic, saying, “leaders take responsibility…..he’s a weak leader….He places blame on others.”
48. Shortly after, Trump tweeted, “Nervous Nancy is an inherently “dumb” person. She wasted all of her time on the Impeachment Hoax,” adding, “She will be overthrown.” It was unclear what he meant.
49. Trump also again attacked Fox New anchor Chris Wallace, tweeting, “Wallace & @FoxNews are on a bad path, watch!”
50. On Sunday, scattered protests of lockdowns continued. In Washington, 2,500 rallied at the state capitol in Olympia, defying a ban on gatherings of 50 or more people, and not wearing face masks as recommended.
51. On Sunday, in Denver, health care workers counter-protested an anti-lockdown rally of hundreds driving, honking horns, and holding up signs, by standing in the street with scrubs and protective masks blocking cars.
52. On Sunday, governors of Kentucky and Ohio reported their largest daily cases of coronavirus, with Kentucky adding 253 and Ohio adding 1,353. Both states were the sites of protests to lift stay-at-home orders last week.
53. On Sunday, at the daily press briefing, Trump again said testing was up to states, saying, “The governors wanted to have total control over the opening of their states. But now they want to have us…do the testing.”
54. Trump added, “Testing is local. You can’t have it both ways. Testing is a local thing.” He also falsely claimed, “Our testing is expanding very rapidly by millions and millions of people.” The actual number is 150,000 per day.
55. Trump said the government is sending out more than 5 million nasal swabs to states, saying some states “don’t know where they are,” adding, the nation will end up with so many swabs, “you won’t know what to do with them.”
56. Trump also played a propaganda video including a clip of Gov. Cuomo saying the federal government “stepped up and was a great partner” to New York. Trump used the clip to congratulate himself on the job he was doing.
57. Trump also snapped at another female reporter, telling CBS’s Weijia Jiang to “lower her voice” and to take it “nice and easy,” after she pressed him on what steps he had taken during the month of February.
58. Trump also ripped CNN’s Jeremy Diamond, who asked Trump about his “self-congratulation” over his handling of the pandemic with 40,000 dead. Trump responded, “You don’t have the brains you were born with.”
59. Trump also cited Fox News anchor Bret Baier, who noted the coronavirus did not come up at the February 19 Democratic debate. Trump has been repeatedly questioned by reporters about his inaction in February.
60. WAPO traced Trump’s events and comments in February, and found amid the multiple campaign rallies, golf, and other appearances, Trump played down the virus and took no real action. There were 15 cases at month-end.
61. On Sunday, WAPO reported U.S. researchers, physicians, and public health experts who were working full time at WHO late last year relayed information about the discovery and spread in China to the Trump regime.
62. The Department of Health and Human Services had 17 staff members, including 16 from the CDC, detailed at the WHO’s Geneva headquarters as part of a rotation that has operated for years.
63. Senior Trump-appointed healthcare officials also regularly consulted with the WHO at the highest level as the crisis unfolded. The presence of so many U.S. officials undercut Trump’s rationale for defunding the WHO.
64. After a G7 call last week, the White House claimed the focus was “the lack of transparency and chronic mismanagement” by the WHO. The other countries disputed that, issuing strong statements backing the WHO.
65. On Sunday, the Columbus Dispatch reported more than 1,800 inmates at Marion Correctional Institution tested positive for Covid-19. Overall, 2,426 inmates in Ohio have tested positive, 21% of the state’s cases.
66. On Sunday, mass testing at LM Wind Power in Grand Forks, North Dakota found an additional 99 workers tested positive for coronavirus, bringing the total to 128 workers — the second largest cluster in the state.
67. On Sunday, KTSM news reported El Paso, Texas is still owed $470,000 from the Trump campaign to cover the police force and fire department during his visit in February 2019. The city added $98,000 in late fees.
68. On Sunday, the CEO of burger chain Shake Shack said the company would return a $10 million government loan it received from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) meant to help small businesses.
69. Shake Shack was one of more than a dozen companies with $100 million plus annual revenue that received loans from the $349 billion coronavirus relief bill, using a loophole of having no more than 500 employees per individual location.
70. On Monday, AP reported based on regulatory findings, at least 94 companies that received PPP relief checks were publicly listed companies, some with market values over $100 million.
71. On Monday, NPR reported while most small businesses found it impossible to get a PPP check, Continental Materials, owned by a Chicago family with close ties to Trump, was able to get a $5.5 million loan.
72. On Monday, nations like Germany, New Zealand, and South Korea, credited with fast responses to the coronavirus including lockdowns and mass testing that limited outbreaks, moved to gradually reopen businesses.
73. On Monday, a Yahoo News/YouGov poll found 60% of Americans oppose the largely pro-Trump anti-lockdown protestors, just 22% support them, and 18% were unsure.
74. On Monday, registered nurses, wearing masks and standing six feet apart, gathered at the White House. The nurses read the names of 45 healthcare workers who died of Covid-19 and held up signs with their photos.
75. More than 9,000 healthcare workers have tested positive for coronavirus, according to the CDC. The number is believed to be an undercount due to lack of testing in many areas.
76. On Monday, Fauci told ABC News his message to protestors of stay-at-home orders who are calling on him to be fired: “unless we get the virus under control, the real recovery economically is not gonna happen.”
77. Fauci added, “So what you do if you jump the gun and go into a situation where you have a big spike, you’re gonna set yourself back,” adding, “it’s gonna backfire. That’s the problem.”
78. On Monday, hundreds of anti-quarantine protestors organized by Dorr carried signs, honked horns, and waved Americans flags outside the capitol in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Many had guns and few social distanced.
79. Healthcare workers at the rally asked protestors to go home. Shortly after the rally, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, announced he would extend the state’s stay-at-home order from April 30 to May 8.
80. On Monday, Arizona Central reported nurses who were on their day off stood wearing masks and in silence in counter-protest as hundreds rallied against the stay-at-home order at the state capitol.
81. On Monday, a memo from the Office of Management and Budget said federal government would “ramp back up government operations to the maximum extent possible,” as states start to reopen.
82. On Monday, Facebook said it would take down posts promoting stay-at-home protests being organized in California, New Jersey, and Nebraska after consulting with officials in those states, while leaving up similar posts.
83. On Monday, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Milwaukee Health Commissioner Jeanette Kowalik said seven people appear to have contracted coronavirus linked to the April 7 election day.
84. On Tuesday, the Wisconsin Department of Health said that 19 voters statewide who voted in or worked the April 7 election had tested positive. By the end of the week, the number of cases was up to 40 in Milwaukee County.
85. On Monday, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp announced the state would reopen some businesses as early as Friday, including gyms, bowling alleys, body art studios, barbers, hair, nail salons, and massage therapy businesses.
86. Kemp said no local ordinance can restrict the openings, which will be implemented statewide. Pressed on the timing by reporters, Kemp said, “we’re probably going to have to see our cases continue to go up.”
87. Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms told CNN of Kemp’s decision, “I don’t see that it’s based on anything that’s logical,” and Savannah mayor Van Johnson called the move “reckless.” They were not informed in advance.
88. The Republican governors of Tennessee and South Carolina also said on Monday they would take similar steps, with Tennessee letting its stay-at-home order expire on April 30, and South Carolina reopening some stores on Tuesday.
89. On Monday, LA Times reported the first large-scale study tracking spread of Covid-19 in Los Angeles Country found 4.1% of adults had antibodies, suggesting roughly 221,000 to 442,000 have recovered from an infection.
90. On Monday, oil future contracts for May crude delivery fell more than 300%, from $18.27 Friday to settling at negative $37.63 per barrel, the first time oil futures traded in negative territory.
91. The futures price below zero mean producers would have to pay traders to take oil amid a glut in supply due to the global pandemic. The price for June future contracts closed Monday at $21.
92. On Monday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus raised alarms about countries easing restrictions, saying, “the worst is yet ahead of us,” adding, “It’s a virus that many people still don’t understand.”
93. On Monday, NYT reported Maryland Gov. Hogan, frustrated by lack of tests, ordered 500,000 tests from South Korea, saying, “It should not have been this difficult.” His wife, a Korean immigrant, did the negotiating.
94. On Monday, at the daily briefing, Trump said adequate coronavirus testing existed, but blamed governors for not adequately using it. Trump continued to resist states’ demands for additional testing help.
95. Trump attacked Gov. Hogan, falsely claiming he was unaware of all the testing sites in his own state, saying, “The governor of Maryland didn’t really understand. He didn’t really understand what was going on.”
96. On Monday, GOP Texas Lieutenant Gov. Daniel Patrick told Fox News host Tucker Carlson that his state needs to take the risk of getting back to work, saying, “there are more important things than living.”
97. On Monday, LA Times reported more than 1 million U.S. citizens have been blocked from receiving stimulus checks under the CARES Act because they are married to immigrants who don’t have Social Security numbers.
98. On Monday, in a tweet at 10:06 p.m., Trump said, “In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens,” he would suspend immigration into the U.S.
99. In recent weeks, the Trump regime had been using the pandemic to justify aggressively restricting immigration, expanding travel restrictions, slowing visas, and seeking to bar asylum seekers.
100. On Tuesday, NYT reported according to people familiar, Trump planned to issue an executive order temporarily barring new green cards and work visas for an undetermined period of time.
101. The move was part of Trump’s nativist approach of “America First,” and came as travel restrictions with Europe and China were already in place and few seeking to come to the U.S., but as Trump faced criticism.
102. On Tuesday, the number of global cases topped 2.5 million, as the U.S. surpassed 800,000 cases (32%). The U.S. death toll topped 43,000, accounting for 25% of worldwide deaths.
103. On Tuesday, AP reported a nationwide study at Veterans Affairs hospitals, the largest look so far at hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin use, found no benefits, and more death from the use of the drugs.
104. The study found 28% who were given hydroxychloroquine plus usual care died, versus 11% of those getting routine care alone. Hydroxychloroquine made no difference in the need for a ventilator either.
105. Later Tuesday, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases recommended against the use of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin in patients with Covid-19, citing it increases the risk of sudden cardiac death.
106. The recommendation came from an expert panel at NIH, which Fauci directs, finding there was insufficient evidence to use hydroxychloroquine to either prevent Covid-19 or treat its symptoms.
107. On Tuesday, documents obtained by the Center for Public Integrity show HHS officials estimated in early April that more than 300,000 Americans would die from Covid-19 if social distancing measures were abandoned.
108. The HHS document has been shared with other federal agencies to help shape their response. The White House coronavirus task force has referenced models by academic institutions, but not its own modeling.
109. The report lays out four scenarios ranging from 151,000 deaths to more than 1,800,000 deaths, with 302,000 deaths being the “Best Guess.” HHS and the White House did not respond to NPR’s request for comment.
110. On Tuesday, Politico reported that acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell rebuffed House Intelligence Chair Adam’s Schiff demand to halt an intelligence community overhaul or to provide justifications.
111. On Tuesday, Politico reported as Trump looks to reopen, House Democrats say the Office of Personnel Management is refusing to brief them on the status of the agency and federal employees’ teleworking arrangements during the pandemic.
112. OPM, which functions as the federal government’s human resources department which sets policies and guidelines, has declined two requests. Democrats say they have never been denied a briefing before.
113. On Tuesday, Missouri became the first U.S. state to sue the Chinese government alleging negligence, saying it will cost the state tens of billions in economic damages. The lawsuit also alleges China hoarded PPE.
114. On Tuesday, NYT reported an informal network of conservative groups and leaders, including some with connections to the White House, were quietly also behind fomenting the anti-lockdown protests.
115. FreedomWorks and Tea Party Patriots agitated, as did a law firm led partly by former Trump White House officials, state-based conservative policy groups, and a group of conservative leaders known as Save Our Country.
116. Those behind it hoped the protests would energize the conservative base, similar to the Tea Party movement in 2009 and 2010, and be helpful to Trump in his re-election. So far the protests gathered little traction.
117. On Tuesday, in a radio interview, Attorney General William Barr said the Justice Department would support legal action against states that continue to impose stay-at-home orders, even as the surge in cases subside.
118. Barr said, “The idea that you have to stay in your house is disturbingly close to house arrest,” adding, “in some places it might still be justified. But it’s very onerous, as is shutting down your livelihood.”
119. Barr also praised Trump, saying his guidance has been “superb and very commonsensical,” and “to the extent that governors…impinge on either civil rights or on the national commerce…we’ll have to address that.”
120. Later Tuesday, Pelosi told reporters, “I think that the attorney general has injected himself into a place that I think even the public knows doesn’t make sense.”
121. Pelosi also said of the Senate Intelligence report, “It leads you to the question what does Vladimir Putin have on President Trump personally, politically, financially, in every way, that he would choose.”
122. On Tuesday, CDC Director Robert Redfield told WAPO the second wave of the coronavirus is likely to be far more dire, citing, “We’re going to have the flu epidemic and the coronavirus epidemic at the same time.”
123. Redfield warned that having two simultaneous respiratory outbreaks will put unimaginable strain on the health-care system, and said federal and state officials need to use the coming months to prepare.
124. On Tuesday, STAT News reported Dr. Rick Bright, one of the nation’s leading vaccine development experts, and director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, left the role suddenly.
125. The shake-up at BARDA, the agency which invests in drugs, devices, and other technologies that help address infectious disease outbreak, comes amid the pandemic. No reason was given for his departure.
126. On Tuesday, the stock market fell 630 points, bringing the two day loss on the Dow Jones to over 1,200 points, after another plunge in oil prices, and a continued dampening of the market outlook.
127. On Tuesday, Gov. Cuomo told MSNBC he had a “productive” meeting with Trump at the White House, saying, “the big issue was testing ” and how “we separate the responsibilities and the tasks on testing.”
128. Cuomo said it was “just honest and open” and “the tone of the conversation was very functional and effective.” He also told Trump that NYC no longer needed the USNS Comfort, and to deploy it elsewhere.
129. On Tuesday, at the daily briefing, Trump said, “I will be issuing a temporary suspension of immigration into the United States,” claiming, “By pausing, we’ll help put unemployed Americans first in line for jobs.”
130. Trump said he will halt immigration to the U.S. for 60 days, barring new immigrants, including family members of U.S. citizens to enter, but will allow temporary workers to enter on nonimmigrant visas.
131. White House officials and lawyers met Tuesday to sort out logistics and the legal implications for Trump’s late Monday proclamation. Critics called it a PR stunt, and an attempt to distract from mishandling the pandemic.
132. Asked about Gov. Kemp’s decision to reopen, Trump said, “He’s a very capable man. He knows what he’s doing. He’s done a very good job as governor.” Earlier, Trump and Pence spoke to Kemp to offer support.
133. Trump continued his support for protestors, falsely claimed they were using social distancing. Videos and photos of protests in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky and more show this was not the case.
134. Asked about large companies taking PPP money, Trump threatened Harvard University for taking coronavirus funding “meant for workers.” The monies Harvard received came from the CARES Act for higher education.
135. Later Tuesday, Pelosi told PBS Trump is “always engaged in distractions like immigration…supporting people in the street. They’re all distractions away from the fact…he’s a total failure when it comes to testing.”
136. Pelosi added, “What is impeding the federal government from addressing the COVID-19 crisis is the president’s denial, delay in all of this, and that has been deadly,” adding he “is engaged in a series of misrepresentations.”
137. On Tuesday, Education Department Secretary Betsy DeVos ordered higher education institutions to exclude undocumented students, including Dreamers, from receiving any of the $6 billion in emergency relief funds.
138. The stimulus law, Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act, directed DeVos to distribute the funding in the same manner as other financial aid, but did not define which students were eligible.
139. On Tuesday, NYT reported the Trump Org. is requesting a break on the terms of its lease for the Trump Hotel DC due to the coronavirus. It will be up to the Trump regime to decide, as the payment is due to government.
140. The General Services Administration holds the lease and will decide. Trump Org. has also sought payment relief from Deutsche Bank and Palm Beach County, but was barred by Congress from the $500 billion relief bill.
141. On Wednesday, an AP-NORC poll found 61% of Americans say the stay-at-home orders in place “are about right.” Just 12% say they “go too far,” and 26% say the limits “don’t go far enough.”
142. On Wednesday, Trump tweeted, “States are safely coming back. Our Country is starting to OPEN FOR BUSINESS again,” the day after Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee said they would start to reopen.
143. Trump added, “Special care is, and always will be, given to our beloved seniors (except me!). Their lives will be better than ever…WE LOVE YOU ALL!” AP estimated 11,000 Americans in nursing homes had died.
144. AP also reported nursing homes suffer a lack of testing availability to help stop the spread, with just one-third having access to tests. Neither the federal government or states require workers to be tested.
145. On Wednesday, Trump tweeted “CDC Director was totally misquoted by Fake News @CNN on Covid 19,” citing Redfied’s interview with the Post, adding, “He will be putting out a statement.”
146. Shortly after, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told Fox News that Redfield was mostly encouraging Americans to “get their flu shots,” but “leave it to the media to really take those out of context.”
147. Trump also tweeted, “I have instructed the United States Navy to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea,” shortly after “Fox & Friends” aired a segment on the topic.
148. On Wednesday, NBC News reported Trump aides are exploring ways to get a “frustrated” Trump out of Washington for events in the coming weeks, as he grows restless, with a target of starting the week of May 4.
149. Trump is eager to hit the campaign trail again. Senior officials are evaluating how to organize social gatherings, as the campaign has pledged to hold rallies before November. His last event was on March 2.
150. On Wednesday, National security adviser Robert O’Brien told NPR the WHO is “a bit of a propaganda tool for the Chinese,” and said China “controls” it. Asked for details, he parroted Trump’s previous remarks.
151. On Wednesday, Harvard University announced it would not accept the $8.6 million in relief money, following Trump’s criticism. Stanford and Princeton also they would not take money allocated to them.
152. On Wednesday, Rick Bright said in a statement he was abruptly removed as head of BARDA after calling for rigorous vetting of hydroxychloroquine, saying the regime put “politics and cronyism ahead of science.”
153. Bright said he was pressured to direct money toward hydroxychloroquine, one of several “potentially dangerous drugs promoted by those with political connections” and repeatedly touted by Trump as “game changer.”
154. The drug was championed by Trump allies like Oracle founder Larry Ellison and several Fox News contributors. Bright will be represented by Debra Katz and Lisa Banks, the lawyers for Christine Blasey Ford.
155. On Wednesday, NYT reported Fox News host Laura Ingraham, who for a month pushed hydroxychloroquine as a “game changer” to her nearly four million viewers, stopped mentioning it on her show last Wednesday.
156. Hosts Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity also cut back on referring to the drug: since April 13, the drug was only mentioned 12 times on Fox News, but in the four previous weeks it was mentioned more than 100 times.
157. On Wednesday, Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman told CNN her city should reopen, saying her city’s workers could be used as a “control group” to determine the effectiveness of social distancing measures.
158. On Wednesday, CNN reported autopsies of two people who died in California in early to mid-February showed the cause was Covid-19. The first death was thought to have occurred on February 29 in Washington.
159. The two were a woman, 57, who died in her home on February 6, and a man, 69, who died at home on February 17. Neither had “significant travel history,” indicating the infection was likely from community spread.
160. On Wednesday, WAPO reported although a month ago doctors thought Covid-19 would act like a standard variety respiratory virus, they have since seen the virus attack the kidneys, heart, intestines, liver, and brain.
161. Doctors are reporting bizarre cases that do not fit their textbooks, including patients with startling low oxygen, asymptomatic patients going into cardiac arrest and patients with mild disease dying instantly at home.
162. Some doctors believe the unusual cases may be a result of blood-clotting complications. Some doctor groups have raised the controversial possibility of giving preventive blood thinners to everyone with Covid-19.
163. On Wednesday, Tyson Foods announced it would close its largest pork plant in Waterloo, Iowa. The Black Hawk County health department linked the plant to 182 of the 374 coronavirus cases in the county.
164. The closing came after a week of public pressure. CNN reported employees claim the company did not provide PPE, did not enforce social distancing, and hallways and locker rooms had crowded conditions.
165. On Wednesday, top economist Joseph Stiglitz said Trump’s botched handling of the coronavirus crisis has left the U.S. looking like a “third world” country, and on course for a second Great Depression.
166. On Wednesday, the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, WAPO reported Washington D.C.’s air has the lowest level of pollutants in 25 years, a trend being seen around the globe with the slowdown from the pandemic.
167. On Wednesday, the CDC confirmed two cats living in separate homes in New York tested positive for Covid-19, the first U.S. pet cases. One cat lived in a home where a human did not test positive, the other with a positive.
168. On Wednesday, National Geographic reported four more tigers and three lions at the Bronx Zoo have tested positive for the coronavirus. The animals caught it from an asymptomatic zookeeper who was positive.
169. On Wednesday, at the daily briefing, Redfield walked back his comments, saying, “I didn’t say that this was going to be worse. I said it was going to be more difficult” and complicated with flu and Covid-19 at the same time.
170. Redfield added, “The key to my comments and the reason that I really wanted to stress them was to appeal to the American public and to embrace the flu vaccine with confidence,” but then relented, saying the Post had in fact quoted him accurately.
171. Trump called the Post “fake news” and claimed the title was wrong. When reporters asked Birx, she said, “I don’t know if it will be worse,” adding, “I believe that we’ll have early warning signals.”
172. Trump again bragged about how well he was doing, falsely claiming on testing, “Ultimately, we’re doing more testing, I think, than probably any of the governors even want.”
173. Asked about Bright’s firing, and whether he was forced out because he challenged Trump’s support for hydroxychloroquine, Trump said, “Maybe he was and maybe he wasn’t; I don’t know who he is.”
174. Trump also reversed himself on supporting Kemp, saying he told him, “I disagree strongly with his decision to open certain facilities which are in violation of the phase one guidelines for the incredible people of Georgia.”
175. Trump said Georgia is not meeting the threshold of the White House guidelines to reopen so far, but added that Kemp “must do what he thinks is right.”
176. CNN reported the flip came after Fauci told Trump at an afternoon meeting, “I cannot defend this publicly,” then Trump met with Birx. Trump called Kemp to ask that he slow down, but Kemp said no.
177. Trump also falsely claimed that at Speaker Pelosi’s visit to San Francisco’s Chinatown on February 24, she was having a “rally in San Francisco, in Chinatown.” Pelosi went amid concerns of rising anti-Chinese bigotry.
178. Fauci urged caution to avoid a “rebound” of cases, saying, “I plead with the American public, with the governors, with the mayors…I know one has the lead to leapfrog over things, don’t do that. Do it in a measured way.”
179. On Wednesday, ABC News reported that after Trump’s nearly two-hour long briefing, he walked away from the podium and seconds later did a hand-off to his campaign’s digital team, which started its online show.
180. The slickly produced digital shows are streamed across social media platforms, and often incorporate guests from the regime who earlier had appeared at his press briefing.
181. Later Wednesday, Kemp praised Trump for his “bold leadership and insight during these difficult times,” but said he would reopen, citing a “measured step…. driven by data and guided by state public health officials.”
182. On Wednesday, Reuters reported HHS Sec. Alex Azar tapped Brian Harrison in to lead HHS’s day-to-day response to Covid-19. Harrison, 37, a Labradoodle breeder from 2012–2018, has no public health experience.
183. Harrison was Azar’s deputy chief of staff in 2018. In the summer of 2019, he was promoted to chief of staff. In January, he became a key manager of the Covid-19 response with everyone reporting up through him.
184. On Wednesday, supermarket chain Publix announced an initiative to buy excess milk and produce from Florida farmers and southeastern dairy farmers and donate it to food banks.
185. On Wednesday, in a radio interview, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell suggested states most impacted by the coronavirus and seeing sharp shortfalls should consider bankruptcy rather than get federal aid.
186. Although states do not have the ability to go bankrupt, McConnell said, “I would certainly be in favor of allowing states to use the bankruptcy route. It saves some cities. And there’s no good reason for it not to be available.”
187. McConnell said, “I think this whole business of additional assistance for state and local governments needs to be thoroughly evaluated,” adding, “There’s not going to be any desire on the Republican side to bail out.”
188. Shortly after, McConnell’s staffers circulated a news release including his statement under the heading “Stopping Blue State Bailouts,” suggesting he was targeting hard hit states New York, California, and Illinois.
189. Later Wednesday, GOP Rep. Peter King of New York called McConnell’s remarks “shameful and indefensible,” referring to McConnell as “the Marie Antoinette of the Senate” in a tweet.
190. On Thursday, Cuomo called McConnell remarks “one of the saddest, really dumb comments of all time,” adding, “OK, let’s have all the states declare bankruptcy — that’s the way to bring the national economy back.”
191. Cuomo tweeted New York puts $116 billion net into the federal pot, while Kentucky takes out $148 billion, “But we don’t deserve help now because the 15,000 people who died here were predominately democrats?”
192. On Wednesday, CNN reported that Fauci, who has missed four days of briefings, saying he found them “really draining,” will return Wednesday. He is focusing instead on vaccine development and battling the pandemic.
193. Birx has attended all the briefings, except one in March when she had a low-grade fever. Unlike Fauci, she has avoided publicly breaking from Trump on issues like testing and treatment.
194. Trump continued to be fixated on his ratings. Aides say Trump bragged that he, not his underlings or medical professionals, gets the best ratings. He continues to bring a varied cast from the regime each day.
195. On Wednesday, CNBC reported massive layoffs and pay cuts are coming to state and local governments after getting left out of the fourth relief bill expected to pass this week. Detroit and Los Angeles have made cuts.
196. On Thursday, the Labor Department reported the number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits rose by 4.4 million, bringing the total number to who have filed in the past five weeks to 26.5 million.
197. On Thursday, the Treasury Department issued new guidance, telling publicly traded companies who received PPP loans to return the money within two weeks, by May 7.
198. On Thursday, the CDC released a report finding Smithfield Food’s pork plant in Sioux City offered a “responsibility bonus” of $500 to employees who did not miss work. The first reported positive was on March 24.
199. On Thursday, a CBS News poll found 63% of Americans are worried about reopening too fast, 37% too slowly. Also, 70% believe the priority should be staying at home and slow the spread, 30% say get back to work.
200. The poll found, if restrictions were lifted, 29% would go to a restaurant or bar (71% would not), 15% would get on an airplane (85% would not), and 13% would attend a large event (87% would not).
201. On Thursday, an AP-NORC poll found just 28% of Americans are getting information on the pandemic from Trump, including 47% of Republicans and 7% of Democrats, while 52% from their state or local government.
202. The poll found 23% have high levels of trust in what Trump is telling the public, and another 21% trust him a moderate amount. Just 17% say Trump is disciplined and 24% say Trump cares about people like them.
203. On Thursday, NYT reported researchers at Northeastern University found while on March 1 there were 23 confirmed cases, the actual number in five major cities was estimated to be 28,000.
204. The virus had been spreading since early February. The estimate showed by March 1, New York City had an estimated 10,700 cases, San Francisco 9,300, Chicago 3,300, Seattle 2,300, and Boston 2,300.
205. On Thursday, Cuomo said a state program that randomly tested customers at supermarkets for antibodies found 21% of 1,300 tested in NYC were positive, and 14% of 3,000 tested statewide were positive.
206. If those percentages translated into infections, it would mean more than 1.7 million in NYC and 2.4 million statewide have been infected, a number much larger than the 250,000 reported cases based on testing.
207. On Thursday, the White House said its coronavirus model maintained by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, updated Tuesday, showed no state should open before May 1, and then just Montana.
208. The model showed on May 10, Alaska, Hawaii, North Carolina, Vermont and West Virginia could start to reopen. South Carolina and Georgia, which were set to reopen, should not open until June 5 and June 19.
209. The model showed about half the states should remain closed until May 25 or later. IHME director Dr. Christopher Murray warned the timeline for relaxing social distancing measures should be slowed.
210. On Thursday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren announced her oldest brother died from coronavirus in Norman, Oklahoma on Tuesday night, about three weeks after testing positive. He was 86.
211. On Thursday, standing on the House floor, Rep. Maxine Waters said, “I am going to take a moment to dedicate this legislation to my dear sister who is dying in a hospital in St. Louis…right now infected by the Coronavirus.”
212. On Thursday, the FDNY Hispanic Society announced that Jay-Natalie La Santa, the daughter of an FDNY firefighter and Education Department worker, died of the coronavirus days shy of her 5-month birthday.
213. On Thursday, the House voted 212-182 along party lines to create a panel to investigate coronavirus spending. The panel will have subpoena power and investigative authority to review federal spending.
214. The panel will be a special investigatory subcommittee with seven Democrats and five Republicans to probe “efficiency, effectiveness, equity and transparency” of taxpayer funds used to respond to the crisis.
215. On Thursday, WAPO reported the Treasury Department is considering taking unprecedented control over the U.S. Post Office by imposing tough terms on a proposed $10 billion relief loan.
216. The move would fulfill Trump’s longtime goal of changing the way USPS does business. Trump has claimed USPS is exploited by e-commerce sites such as Amazon, which is owned by Jeff Bezos, who also owns WAPO.
217. On Thursday, Fauci said in an interview that he is “not overly confident right now at all,” when it comes to coronavirus testing,” saying, “we’re getting better and better at it,” but not “where we want to be.”
218. On Thursday, Politico reported Bright will soon file a whistleblower complaint. Bright will reportedly say Trump pushed for use of hydroxychloroquine “with limited physician oversight.”
219. Bright argued the move was dangerous and pushed for more clinical trials, but under pressure from his superiors agreed to sign off on an emergency use authorization allowing the regime to acquire tens of millions of doses.
220. On Thursday, House Energy and Commerce subcommittee Chair Anna Eshoo said she plans to hold hearings on Bright’s removal. Eshoo helped create BARDA, which Bright oversaw.
221. Eshoo plans to call Sec. Azar and Bright’s boss, assistant secretary HHS Dr. Robert Kadlec. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Frank Pallone Jr. requested the HHS inspector general look into Bright’s removal.
222. On Thursday, CNBC host Jim Cramer said Trump’s daily briefings are “unwatchable,” referring to them as “press conferences or shows,” adding, “you can’t tell whether things are great or things are catastrophic.”
223. On Thursday, the Miami Herald reported the federal government took one million N95 masks bound for Miami-Dade County Emergency Management needed by first responders and front-line workers.
224. The county said in a statement the masks “were in the process of being secured when the vendor notified MDFR that the product was no longer available.” The vendor said the federal government needed masks.
225. On Friday, San Francisco Mayor London Breed said at a press conference that the city’s order for PPE had been confiscated by FEMA and diverted to other U.S. cities and foreign countries like France.
226. On Saturday, WAPO reported VA hospital workers said they had inadequate protective gear. VA health chief Richard Stone said he had “5 million masks incoming that disappeared.”
227. Stone said FEMA directed vendors to send the supplies to the national stockpile, citing Trump invoking the Defense Productive Act to replenish supplies. Stone said some hospitals are operating at “austerity levels.”
228. On Thursday, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a preliminary injunction blocking Alabama’s Covid-19 abortion ban, saying abortion providers can perform abortions through the pandemic.
229. On Friday, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a decision to block Tennessee’s attempt to restrict abortion access during the pandemic.
230. On Thursday, Trump nominated Anthony Tata, a retired Army brigadier and frequent commentator on Fox News, as undersecretary of Defense for policy, replacing John Rood who was dismissed in February.
231. On Thursday, CNN reported that Michael Caputo, the new spokesman for HHS appointed by Trump last week, made several racist comments about Chinese people in 1,300 deleted tweets from February through April.
232. Caputo tweeted, “millions of Chinese suck the blood out of rabid bats as an appetizer and eat the ass out of anteaters,” and followed up with users, saying, “Don’t you have a bat to eat?” and “You’re very convincing, Wang.”
233. Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported Caputo also sent anti-Semitic tweets, accusing George Soros and the Rothschild family of seeking to exploit the pandemic for control and to advance their agenda in several tweets.
234. On Thursday, Politico reported a DHS memo warns of an increase in violent extremists mobilizing due to the pandemic, adding the threat could become more severe until the virus is contained and life resumes.
235. The memo cites recent arrests of individuals threatening government facilities and elected officials over stay-at-home measures, which included an “anti-government extremist” who targeted New Mexico’s governor.
236. On Thursday, at the daily briefing, Bill Bryan, head of DHS’ science and technology division, said research found Covid-19 does not live as long in warmer and more humid temperatures and “dies quickest in sunlight.”
237. Trump mused to Bryan, “Supposing we hit the body with a tremendous, whether it’s ultraviolet or just a very powerful light, and I think you said that hasn’t been checked but you’re going to test it.”
238. Trump added, “I see the disinfectant that knocks it out in a minute…is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside…it gets in the lungs, it does a tremendous number on the lungs.”
239. Trump did not specify which kind of disinfectant, and Bryan said this is not the kind of work he does in his lab. Trump jumped in and added, “Maybe it works. Maybe it doesn’t work” — as he said about hydroxychloroquine.
240. Trump then turned to Birx, and asked if she had ever heard about heat’s killing the virus. Birx said she had not heard of it “as a treatment.” Trump added to Birx, “I think it’s a great thing to look at.”
241. Pressed by a WAPO reporter Philip Rucker on his statements, saying people turn to these briefings “to get information and guidance…not looking for rumors,” Trump responded, “I’m the president and you’re fake news.”
242. When pressed by Rucker on why he stopped promoting hydroxychloroquine, Trump said, “I haven’t at all.” This is false: in the past three weeks he mentioned it more than a dozen time, this week only once.
243. Shortly after, Trump’s disinfectant and UV radiation suggestions were widely condemned by experts, calling it “irresponsible,” and “dangerous,” and part of a pattern of pushing unproven medical treatments.
244. On Thursday, NYT reported since the pandemic and lockdown, Trump arrives to the Oval Office as late as noon, usually in a sour mood from watching a marathon of Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC and tweeting.
245. Trump wakes up as early as 5 a.m., and makes calls with the television on in the background. He is angry at how he is portrayed even on Fox News. He watches Cuomo daily to monitor for a compliment or snipe.
246. The economy, which was viewed as his ticket to re-election, is imploding, Democrats have condemned his lack of empathy and incompetence, and Republicans view his daily briefings as long-winded and unproductive.
247. Aides say Trump is obsessed with how his performance is portrayed in the media, and whether history will blame him. Trump looks forward to the daily briefings as a prime-time substitute for his campaign rallies.
248. Trump is more sensitive to criticism than at any time while at office, and surrounds himself with handful of longtime aides including Hope Hicks, Johnny McEntee, Dan Scavino, and his new chief of staff Mark Meadows.
249. Trump rarely attends task force briefings before the daily briefings. He plows through aides’ talking points then moves on to bully reporters. After, Trump watches television with aides over dinner to reassess his briefings.
250. On Friday, the U.S. death toll surpassed 50,000. By late morning, nearly 51,000 were dead. In one month, more than 50,000 had died since 704 died March 24, which was also the first day more than one hundred died.
251. On Friday, Reckitt Benckiser, the owner of Lysol, warned in a statement, “under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion or any other route).”
252. On Friday, Reuters reported the FDA cautioned against the use of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine in Covid-19 patients outside of hospitals and clinical trials, citing risks of serious heart rhythm problems.
253. The FDA’s warning came the day after the European Union’s drug regulator came out with a similar warning, and urged medical professionals to closely monitor patients taking the drug.
254. On Friday, the Twitter account for Surgeon General Jerome Adams warned Americans to “always talk to your health provider first before administering any treatment/medication to yourself or a loved one.”
255. On Friday, the White House issued a statement saying Trump’s comments had been mischaracterized, saying he “has repeatedly said that Americans should consult with medical doctors regarding coronavirus treatment.”
256.  White House press secretary McEnany added in the statement: “Leave it to the media to irresponsibly take President Trump out of context and run with negative headlines.”
257. On Friday, the Maryland Emergency Management Agency issued a warning to residents not to use disinfectant products to treat Covid-19 after receiving more than 100 calls to its hotline after Trump’s comments.
258. On Friday, Trump tweeted, “Our Country wants to move safely forward. There is a tremendous pent up demand. We will open big!” It was unclear what he meant by “open big.”
259. He also tweeted, “Getting VERY good reviews of the job the Federal Government is doing on CoronaVirus. Ventilators, building hospitals, beds and yes, Testing.” It was unclear who was giving reviews, but clearly this is false.
260. Trump also sent a series of tweets, saying he had conversations with leaders and would send ventilators to Indonesia, El Salvador, Honduras, and Ecuador. It was unclear where the ventilators came from, or of the U.S. need.
261. Trump also attacked AT&T’s CEO, who announced he was retiring, tweeting, “Great News! Randall Stephenson, the CEO of heavily indebted AT&T, which owns and presides over Fake News @CNN, is leaving.”
262. Trump added, of Stephenson, “or was forced out. Anyone who lets a garbage “network” do and say the things that CNN does, should leave ASAP,” adding, “Hopefully replacement will be much better!”
263. On Friday, Congress passed a $480 billion package to help small businesses and hospitals. Speaker Pelosi promised more relief for Americans, saying, “There will be a bill, and it will be expensive.”
264. On Friday, when pressed by reporters at a ceremony to sign the fourth coronavirus aid package, Trump falsely claimed he was, “asking a question sarcastically to reporters” about disinfectant.
265. He added, “I was asking a sarcastic and a very sarcastic question to the reporters in the room about disinfectant on the inside. But it does kill it and it would kill it on the hands, and it would make things much better.”
266. When asked if he took any responsibility for the 50,000 deaths so far, Trump said, “I think we’ve done a great job. As you know, minimal numbers were — minimal numbers — were going to 100,000 people.”
267. Trump also said he would not support a $10 billion loan to the USPS, saying, “The Postal Service is a joke because they’re handing out packages for Amazon…every time they bring a package, they lose money on it.”
268. Trump added it will be a “whole new ballgame” at the Postal Service. Trump said to Mnuchin, “If they don’t raise the price of the service… I’m not signing anything and I’m not authorizing you to do anything.”
269. Shortly after, Trump tweeted, “I will never let our Post Office fail,” adding, “It has been mismanaged for years, especially since the advent of the internet and modern-day technology” — pointing to online sellers.
270. On Friday, NBC News reported that Trump’s disinfectant comments left aides shocked. He was supposed to say that disinfectants should be used on surfaces, but took it a step further and “totally ad-libbed.”
271. Later Friday, the CDC issued a warning, tweeting, “Household cleaners and disinfectants can cause health problems when not used properly. Follow the instructions on the product label to ensure safe and effective use.”
272. Later Friday, in a clip that will air Saturday on Fox News, Birx seemed to defend Trump, saying, “When he gets new information, he likes to talk that through out loud,” adding, “he was still digesting the information.”
273. On Friday, Mnuchin said the Treasury Department is considering taking equity stakes in U.S. energy companies to help the nation’s oil and gas sector. Trump also urged Mnuchin to buy oil for later use.
274. On Friday, Speaker Pelosi told MSNBC that the November elections “must” go on as scheduled, saying she hoped Republicans too would not support Trump attempting to delay them. Joe Biden expressed similar concerns.
275. On Friday, thousands of protestors flooded Wisconsin’s capitol to protest its stay-at-home order, organized by business owners and right-wing groups. Some protestors stood close together, defying social distancing measures.
276. On Friday, protestors in D.C. showed their disapproval over Trump’s handling of the pandemic by leaving body bags at the foot of Trump Hotel DC, representing the more than 50,000 already dead.
277. On Friday, WAPO reported that Trump senior policy adviser Stephen Miller told White House supporters in a private call that Trump’s 60 day immigration order is part of a long-term vision to restrict immigration.
278. On Friday, NYT reported the Navy recommended Capt. Brett Crozier be restored to command of the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt. There have been 856 positives cases on board. Defense Sec. Mark Esper will now decide.
279. On Friday, at the daily briefing, Trump claimed, “I’ve spoken to numerous leaders of countries over the last 48 hours, and they are saying we are leading the way. We are really leading the way in so many different ways.”
280. Neither Fauci nor Birx attended — Birx for only the second time. Trump touted his successes with controlling the virus in the 21 minutes briefing, the shortest so far, then left without taking questions from reporters.
281. Shortly after, Axios reported Trump plans to cut his daily briefings shorter. Trump’s trusted advisers have warned him he is overexposed, and the marathon appearances are part of the reason Biden is polling better.
282. A decision has not yet been finalized. Aides say there is not enough material to talk about for long appearance, and the result is debacles like Trump going off script to talk about disinfectant.
283. Later Friday, the NY Daily News reported NYC’s Poison Control Center managed a total of 30 cases of possible exposure to disinfectants between 9 p.m. Thursday and 3 p.m. Friday, shortly after Trump’s remarks.
284. On Friday, NYT reported West Point will bring 1,000 cadets who had been sent home back to campus so Trump can deliver a commencement address in June. The move, given the campus’ proximity to NYC, is risky.
285. Trump got the idea from Pence speaking at the Air Force Academy in Colorado last week. The Air Force sent home underclassmen, but locked down seniors on campus. The Naval Academy did a virtual graduation.
286. On Saturday, NYT reported Republicans are nervous Trump, who is sinking in the polls with his erratic briefings and inadequate Covid-19 response, will cause the GOP to lose control of the Senate in November.
287. On Saturday, Trump said, “Just spoke to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali of Ethiopia. His Country needs Ventilators, and the U.S. is in good position to help him. We will!” Again, it was unclear where Trump got these from.
288. Trump added, “It is a wonderful feeling to know that our States are loaded up with Ventilators, many brand new….that we are able to help other countries,” and claiming, “Every person needing a Ventilator got one!”
289. Trump also falsely claimed, “We have now Tested more than 5 Million People. That is more than any other country in the World.” More than 30 countries have tested a higher per capita rate than the U.S.
290. Trump also tweeted, “The Do Nothing Democrats are spending much of their money on Fake Ads. I never said that the CoronaVirus is a “Hoax.”” He did call it the Democrats’ “new hoax” at a February 28 campaign rally.
291. Trump added, “Also, it did start with “one person from China”, and then grew, & will be a “Miracle” end!” It was unclear what he meant by miracle.
292. On Saturday, WSJ reported Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin issued an unusual joint statement intended to commemorate the 75th anniversary of a meeting between American and Soviet troops in 1945.
293. The broader intent was to underscore how the two nations could put their differences aside for a larger purpose. The statement stirred debate among the regime and sparked concern by some lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
294. As the week came to a close, there were 2,858,489 worldwide cases and 200,698 dead from the coronavirus. The U.S. had 919,066 cases (32.1%), 52,100 deaths (26.0%), and a mortality rate of 5.7%.

This week Trump threw a series of shiny coins to distract from the growing death toll and his mishandling of the coronavirus response. On Monday, he proclaimed he, not the governors, had “absolute authority” to reopen the country; on Tuesday he halted funding to the World Health Organization in the midst of a global pandemic; on Wednesday he threatened to adjourn Congress to make recess appointments; on Thursday he announced his plan to reopen the economy to much ballyhoo and which wasn’t actually a plan; and on Friday he encouraged protestors with tweets to “liberate” states from lockdown orders. Each item was remarkable on its own, and the media spent their days dissecting the legality of the pronouncements and whether they were presidential, as the death toll surpassed live lost in three years of the Korean War and kept going.

As the week came to an end, the United States accounted for nearly 1 in 3 worldwide coronavirus cases, and nearly 1 in 4 deaths. The U.S. is just 4.2% of the world’s population. It became increasingly clear that months of inaction, lies, and disinformation had turned a country which up through the Obama administration had been a leader in preventing global pandemics, into the epicenter of infection, death, and dysfunctionality.

As the U.S.counted 2,000 or more deaths per day, with no slow down in sight, Trump, Fox News, and conservative commentators minimized the import with various whataboutisms, and not-so-subtly pushed for the country to reopen. Not that the country was ready — it was definitely not according to public health experts. Rather Trump was singularly focused on getting re-elected, which required an economic upturn, as 22 million Americans filed for unemployment — even if that meant inciting insurrection.

1. On Tuesday, WAPO reported Trump has made more than 18,000 false or misleading claims in his 1,170 days in office. In the last 75 days, Trump has averaged 23 claims a day, beating his 22 a day record in 2019.
2. Stuck at the White House, Trump has used daily briefings as campaign rallies, which have been full of misinformation, pinning blame on others, and taking undue credit. Nearly 20% of his lies come on Twitter.
3. On Tuesday, WAPO reported in an unprecedented move, the Treasury Department held up stimulus checks the Internal Revenue Service was rushing to send to 70 million Americans so Trump’s name could be added.
4. The move was finalized late Monday to add “President Donald J. Trump” on the left side of the payment. This marked the first time a president’s name appeared on an I.R.S. disbursement.
5. Trump had privately suggested to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin that he formally sign the checks, but that idea was scrapped given a president is not an authorized signer for legal disbursements by the U.S. Treasury.
6. On Thursday, a Gallup poll found the rally of support Trump enjoyed in mid-March had faded: his approval was 43%, 54% disapprove (net -9), down from 49% approve, 45% disapprove (net +4) — a 13 point net decrease.
7. Just 30% of Americans expressed satisfaction with the direction of the country, down 12 points since early March. Congress’s approval increased 8 points to 30%, the highest level since 2009.
8. On Thursday, Pew Research found 65% of Americans say Trump’s response to the coronavirus was too slow, while 34% said it was quick. 73% said the worst was still to come with the virus.
9. The poll also found 66% of Americans were more concerned that state governments will lift restrictions too early, while 32% were more concerned they would not be lifted quickly enough.
10. On Saturday, the U.S. death toll from the coronavirus topped 20,000, and stood at 20,389. The director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation said the U.S. likely saw its peak daily death total at 2,074.
11. On Saturday, reproductive rights groups filed an emergency request asking the Supreme Court to ease a March 23 order in Texas banning medical providers from performing nonessential surgeries, including abortion.
12. On Monday, the ACLU sued Arkansas to block a state order preventing the state’s sole clinic from performing abortions during the coronavirus outbreak. Notably, dentists were allowed to keep appointments.
13. On Saturday, about 10,000 cars lined up at the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, which is helping to feed the poor. More than 2 million people in California have filed for unemployment since mid-March.
14. Food banks across the country are struggling to cope with the huge surge of Americans needing food. San Antonio Food Bank’s CEO Eric Cooper told the “TODAY” show that this is the worst he has seen in his 25 years.
15. On Saturday, WAPO reported as Trump announced his “Opening Our Country Council” Friday, he has many coronavirus task forces, but still has no plan to clear plan for ending the coronavirus crisis.
16. The task forces frequently have competing goals and agendas, but lack of coordination and bureaucracy has left the country unprepared to get medical supplies where needed or plan for a new spike in cases when employees go back to work.
17. Experts say to return to normalcy, nationwide testing, serological testing, and contact tracing are needed. But the regime still has not made enough tests available to those who need it, let alone the entire country.
18. One of the major obstacles is Trump, as projects get caught in up the chaos of the White House, and advisers need to manage him. Although there are daily meetings, few decisions are made by the task force members; rather, it comes from Trump.
19. In one Situation Room meeting, Trump wanted to understand the talk of herd immunity, and asked, “Why don’t we let this wash over the country?” Dr. Anthony Fauci said, “Mr. President, many people would die.”
20. Dr. Deborah Birx also formed a group with six doctors to meet daily, including Fauci, the FDA and CDC directors, and the Surgeon General, which arose from the need to moderate Trump’s “voodoo” in public messaging.
21. On Saturday, NBC News reported Jared Kushner and his cronies are getting involved in the supply chain and distribution of medical supplies, causing weeks of delay and disorganization as they clashed with career officials.
22. FEMA has also taken supplies from some hospitals, including Kaiser Permanente in the San Francisco Bay Area. The hospital system was notified, “FEMA is intervening and taking U.S. supply” of protective gear, leaving them with a shortfall.
23. The task force has operated entirely in the dark, with no accountability. Third-party distributors have also inserted themselves into getting goods to the government from factories abroad for undisclosed profits.
24. On Saturday, Trump allies Reps. Andy Biggs and Ken Buck criticized Fauci, saying in a Washington Times op-ed that he may be doing more harm than good by keeping the economy closed with social distancing.
25. On Saturday, Trump spent the afternoon and evening sending a flurry of tweets. He praised C-SPAN for a segment on his trade deals, adding, “Our Trade Deals will be having a big impact on our Country as they kick in!”
26. Trump attacked the media, tweeting, “When the Failing @nytimes or Amazon @washingtonpost writes a story saying “unnamed sources said”… don’t believe them. Most of these unnamed sources don’t exist.”
27. Both newspapers had stories critical of Trump’s coronavirus response. Trump added, “Does anyone ever notice how few quotes from an actual person are given nowadays by the Lamestream Media,” and, “FAKE NEWS.”
28. Trump also tweeted, “Watching @FoxNews on weekend afternoons is a total waste of time. We now have some great alternatives, like @OANN,” referencing Fox News competitor One America News Network.
29. Trump also tweeted, “The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board doesn’t have a clue on how to fight and win,” adding, “If we followed their standards, we’d have no Country left. They should love Sleepy Joe!”
30. Trump added, “So now the Fake New @nytimes is tracing the CoronaVirus origins back to Europe, NOT China. This is a first!” adding, “They were recently thrown out of China like dogs, and obviously want back in. Sad!”
31. Later Saturday, Trump tweeted, “Cryin’Chuck doesn’t have a clue. Couldn’t care less about the American Worker,” quoting a tweet about 17 million Americans losing their jobs and the Senate battling over a new bill.
32. Later Saturday, Trump phoned in to Fox New host Jeanine Pirro’s show, saying he will make the call about re-opening the economy, describing it as possibly the “toughest” decision he will ever make.
33. Trump said he will make the decision based on conversations with “smart” people, including doctors and business leaders, adding, “Whether we like it or not, there is a certain instinct to it. People want to get back to work.”
34. Trump added, “I think we’ll have just a tremendous surge. I think it’s gonna be like a rocket ship,” adding, “we still have to remember all of the people that perished. We did it the right way…we’ll be back bigger.”
35. On Saturday, the Miami Herald reported Florida Gov. Rick DeSantis’s general counsel pressured the Herald’s law firm to quash a public records lawsuit seeking information on deaths at nursing homes from Covid-19.
36. On Saturday, the Tampa Bay Times reported Florida is undercounting deaths, as the Florida Department of Health has not included snowbirds who die there. So far, there are 40 deaths not counted in the 419 reported.
37. On Monday, DeSantis removed Florida Surgeon General Scott Rivkees from his cabinet, after Rivkees said in a video that social distancing measures would need to continue until there is a vaccine.
38. On Sunday, the Guardian reported that Trump’s coronavirus response has further damaged the United States’ reputation, tarnishing its reputation as a country that knows how to do things effectively.
39. Allies are also upset over Trump blocking a shipment of medical supplies headed to Germany, his regime’s calling Covid-19 the “Wuhan virus,” and his unwillingness to create a global task force to combat the virus.
40. On Sunday, NBC News reported nearly 2,500 nursing homes in 36 states are battling the coronavirus, significantly higher than the 400 home federal estimate on March 30.
41. Without federal reporting requirements in place, there is a large variation in how states gather information on the virus, and their willingness to disclose it. NBC estimates 2,246 deaths in nursing homes from Covid-19.
42. On Sunday, NYT reported a study in Brazil of coronavirus patients taking a higher dose of chloroquine, a drug related to hydroxychloroquine, was halted after patients developed irregular heart rates.
43. On Sunday, Trump continued his flurry of tweets, saying, “For the first time in history there is a fully signed Presidential Disaster Declaration for all 50 States,” adding, “We are winning…the war on the Invisible Enemy!”
44. Trump also tweeted, “Just watched Mike Wallace wannabe, Chris Wallace,” adding, “What the hell is happening to @FoxNews. It’s a whole new ballgame over there!” It was unclear what remarks caused his ire.
45. Trump added, “If the Fake News Opposition Party is pushing, with all their might, [that he ignored early warnings] then why did Media & Dems viciously criticize me when I instituted a Travel Ban on China?”
46. On Sunday, Dr. Fauci told “State of the Union” that if “you started mitigation earlier,” in February, as opposed to the middle of March, “you could have saved lives.”
47. Fauci added, “what goes into those decisions is complicated,” adding, “you’re right, I mean, obviously, if we had right from the very beginning shut everything down, it may have been a little bit different.”
48. Fauci said, “there was a lot of pushback about shutting things down,” and, “we look at it from a pure health standpoint. We make a recommendation. Often, the recommendation is taken. Sometimes it’s not.”
49. Shortly after, Trump lashed out at Fauci, quoting a tweet that read, “Time to #FireFauci,” and adding, “Sorry Fake News, it’s all on tape. I banned China long before people spoke up. Thank you @OANN.”
50. Trump also tweeted, “Governors, get your states testing programs & apparatus perfected….No excuses!” repeating states are on their own, and and the false claim, “We are testing more than any country in the World.”
51. On Sunday, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam signed new measures into law, making Election Day a state holiday, and expanding early voting to 45 days before an election.
52. Later Sunday, Trump tweeted, “I am working hard to expose the corruption and dishonesty in the Lamestream Media. That part is easy, the hard part is WHY?”
53. Trump also tweeted, “The @nytimes story is a Fake, just like the “paper” itself. I was criticized for moving too fast when I issued the China Ban, long before most others wanted to do so,” adding, “Fake News!”
54. On Monday, Pew Research found 29% of Americans believe Covid-19 was created in a lab, and just 43% believe it developed naturally — a sign of misinformation in the crisis. 23% believe it was created intentionally.
55. On Monday, ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos said he tested positive for Covid-19, but did not have any symptoms. Stephanopoulos was tested after his wife contracted the virus, and was very sick from it.
56. On Monday, the Office of Refugee Resettlement, the federal agency charged with the care of migrant children, said 27 had tested positive for the coronavirus — 6 have recovered, and the rest were in isolation.
57. On Monday, the Navy reported the first death from the coronavirus-infected U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said the death was the first among active-duty members of the military.
58. On Monday, ESPN reported Florida Gov. DeSantis deemed WWE an “essential business” in an April 9 memo, which could also open the door for other sports to resume. The state had 21,600 cases and 570 deaths.
59. DeSantis later told reporters, “we’ve never had a period like this in modern American history where you’ve had such little new content,” adding, “people are watching, we’re watching, like, reruns from the early 2000s.”
60. WWE is run by Vince McMahon, husband of Linda McMahon, who served in Trump’s cabinet. On April 9, Linda McMahon’s pro-Trump super PAC announced it will spend $18.5 million on advertising in Florida.
61. On Monday, WAPO reported the CIA has privately advised its workforce that taking hydroxychloroquine has potentially dangerous side effects, including sudden death. The warning came on March 27.
62. On Monday, the FBI issued a warning for fraud schemes related to testing, saying, “bad actors are selling fake COVID-19 test kits and unapproved treatments” through calls, social media and door-to-door visits.
63. On Tuesday, Daily Beast reported FEMA shipped out nearly 20 million hydroxychloroquine tablets to cities around the country hit by the coronavirus. Experts warn the drug’s efficacy is anecdotal.
64. On Monday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced New York has surpassed 10,000 deaths, including 671 on Easter, but said that “the worst is over,” as hospitalizations, ICU admissions, and intubations continue to decline.
65. On Monday, the New York City schools’ chancellor announced 50 Department of Education employees had died from the coronavirus. The NYPD had 20 deaths, and 50 Metropolitan Transit employees had died.
66. On Monday, after Trump’s tweet on #FireFauci, the White House said in a statement it is “ridiculous” to think Trump would fire him, and “the tweet clearly exposed media attempts to maliciously push a falsehood.”
67. On Monday, Trump tweeted, “For the purpose of creating conflict and confusion, some in the Fake News Media are saying that it is the Governors decision to open up the states,” adding, “this is incorrect.”
68. Trump tweeted, “It is the decision of the President, and for many good reasons,” adding, “A decision by me, in conjunction with the Governors and input from others, will be made shortly!”
69. Shortly after, Trump announced a task force on reopening the economy, including Ivanka, Jared, his chief of staff Mark Meadows, Treasury Sec. Mnuchin, Commerce Sec. Wilbur Ross, and cabinet members.
70. On Monday, New York Gov. Cuomo announced his state along with New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Delaware, will form a regional task force to guide re-opening the economies.
71. On Monday, the governors of California, Oregon, and Washington also announced a Western States Pact to work together on re-opening their economies and controlling Covid-19 spread.
72. Later Monday, Cuomo announced Massachusetts would be the seventh state to be part of the coalition — notably, the only state of the ten so far with a Republican governor.
73. On Monday, Trump’s reelection campaign filed a defamation lawsuit against a Wisconsin television for running an ad by Democratic super PAC Priorities USA, which includes a clip of Trump calling the virus a “hoax.”
74. On Monday, a letter from Sen. Chuck Grassley to Trump seeking an explanation of why Inspector General Michael Atkinson was fired gained signatures, having a total of seven from members of both parties.
75. On Monday, at the daily briefing, the first in three days as the U.S. death toll passed 23,000, Trump held a 2 1/2 hour campaign-style rally where he reeled off his enemies list, attacked reporters, and took no responsibility.
76. The briefing opened with Fauci walking back his statements in an apparent statement to appease Trump, saying Trump “listened to the recommendation,” and, “That was the wrong choice of words.”
77. Trump then played a video put together by White House aides that was labeled by media outlets as propaganda. The video was media criticizing of his response interspersed with media clips of loyalists praising him.
78. ABC’s John Karl asked Trump about the video, saying, “I’ve never seen a video like that played in this room.” Trump bragged, “We have far better than that. That was nothing compared to some that we have.”
79. Trump said, “Everything we did was right.” Trump complained about being “brutalized” by the press, then added, “But I guess I’m doing okay because, to the best of my knowledge, I’m the president of the United States.”
80. Trump said of his new economic task force, “We’re going to be putting out guidelines and recommendations fairly quickly, within a few days” on reopening the economy, adding Ivanka and Jared will not be part of it.
81. Akin to a campaign rally, Trump said, “You know, I don’t mind controversy. I think controversy is a good thing, not a bad thing,” while attacking “sleepy Joe Biden,” who he said he criticized him, and the “fake news.”
82. When CBS’s Paula Reid asked Trump about the gap in the video and his inaction in February, Trump snapped that he did “A lot. A lot,” and added, “You know you’re a fake.”
83. Trump also made the remarkable and false claim, “When somebody is the president of the United States, the authority is total,” in response to states forming groups to coordinate reopening.
84. Trump added, “I’m going to put it very simply: the president of the United States has the authority to do what the president has the authority to do, which is very powerful. The president of the United States calls the shots.”
85. When asked by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, “You said when someone is president of the United States, their authority is total. That is not true. Who told you that?” Trump said, “The governors need us,” and snapped, “Enough!”
86. Shortly after, CNN’s Jim Acosta, “That is the biggest meltdown I have ever seen from a President of the United States in my career,” adding Trump, “sounds like he is out of control.”
87. Acosta said Trump is realizing the “walls are closing in on him when it comes to managing this crisis,” adding, “He ignored the severity of this crisis for a couple of months, and now he’s trying to seize control.”
88. On Monday, several Republicans rebuked Trump. Rep. Liz Cheney, the No. 3 Republican in the House tweeted, “The federal government does not have absolute power,” citing the Tenth Amendment.
89. On Monday, in a surprise upset in swing state Wisconsin, liberal challenger Jill Karofsky beat the Trump-endorsed GOP candidate for state Supreme Court by an 11-point margin, despite hurdles detailed in Week 178.
90. On Tuesday, Trump tweeted, without evidence, “GET RID OF BALLOT HARVESTING, IT IS RAMPANT WITH FRAUD. THE USA MUST HAVE VOTER I.D., THE ONLY WAY TO GET AN HONEST COUNT!”
91. On Tuesday, Cuomo said if Trump “wants a fight he’s not going to get it from me,” adding he is “wrong on the law,” and, “We don’t have a king in this country, we didn’t want a king. So we have a constitution.”
92. On Tuesday, Trump responded, tweeting, “Cuomo’s been calling daily, even hourly, begging for everything, most of which should have been the state’s responsibility,” and falsely claiming, “I got it all done for him.”
93. Trump threatened, “Tell the Democrat Governors that “Mutiny On The Bounty” was one of my all time favorite movies,” adding it is “exciting and invigorating” to watch, “especially when the mutineers need so much.”
94. On Tuesday, Fauci told AP in an interview that the U.S. is “not there yet” to reopen the economy, saying critical testing and tracing procedures are still needed, adding a May 1 target is “a bit overly optimistic” for many areas.
95. On Tuesday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi tweeted, “The truth is that in January Donald Trump was warned about this pandemic, ignored those warnings, took insufficient action and caused unnecessary death and disaster.”
96. Pelosi added, “Now more than ever, we need the truth,” and added, “The truth is a weak person, a poor leader, takes no responsibility. A weak person blames others.”
97. In a letter to House Democrats, Pelosi said, “We will overcome this moment,” but success requires “we need truth,” and “Americans must ignore lies and start to listen to scientists” and other professionals.
98. On Tuesday, the U.S. death toll surpassed 25,000, accounting for 20% of worldwide deaths, and the number of cases passed 600,000, more than 30% of worldwide cases.
99. On Tuesday, the NY Daily News reported the Navajo Nation had recorded an alarming rate of coronavirus infections, with more than 800 cases and 28 deaths. In a two-week span, the number of cases jumped 367%.
100. On Tuesday, Republican Rep. Trey Hollingsworth of Indiana said in a radio interview given “the choice between the loss of our way of life as Americans and the loss of life” that “we have to always choose the latter.”
101. On Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund warned that the global economy will this year likely suffer the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression due to the coronavirus pandemic.
102. On Tuesday, Trump announced the Dynamic Ventilator Reserve plan at a meeting with healthcare executives, a public-private partnership where unused ventilators will be available to coronavirus hot spots.
103. The White House said as many as 60,000 ventilators at hospitals around the country were not being used. Notably, state governors had already started to work together to share ventilators.
104. On Tuesday, NYC’s Health Department increased the city’s death toll by 3,778 victims who had died since March 11 listed as “probable,” meaning the victims were not tested, but were presumed to have died of the virus.
105. The addition brought NYC’s total to more than 10,000 deaths. The CDC said in its guidance that “assumed” coronavirus infection should be noted on death certificates since the city recorded its first death on March 14.
106. Epidemiologist experts noted the virus is moving very fast so counting is challenging, but including these deaths offers a more accurate accounting of the actual impact of the pandemic. A fuller study after will take months.
107. Cuomo said, “we will begin reporting all categories of fatalities pursuant to new CDC guidelines and are contacting facilities to get updated numbers,” adding additional people may have died not in hospitals.
108. On Tuesday, in an op-ed, two epidemiologists said their data showed if Trump had put social distancing into effect on March 2 instead of March 16, 90% of the deaths from the first wave could have have been avoided.
109. They warned states that have not yet issued stay-at-home orders to do so, citing the lockdowns are not a solution, but they buy time to prepare for further waves and develop treatments and vaccines.
110. On Tuesday, at the daily briefing, Trump sought to shift blame to the WHO, announcing he was halting U.S. funding pending a review, and saying, “So much death has been caused by their mistakes.”
111. The WHO first raised the alert on the outbreak on January 5. Trump and his allies focused on a January 14 WHO tweet saying “no clear evidence” of human-to-human transmission, which was updated January 23.
112. Trump claimed the WHO “willingly took China’s assurances to face value” and “pushed China’s misinformation.” On January 24, Trump tweeted, “China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus.”
113. Trump said, “Many countries said, we’re going to listen to the WHO, and they have problems, the likes of which they cannot believe.” Notably, Trump minimized the threat of the pandemic until mid-March.
114. Trump backed off on his “absolute” authority, saying, “I will be speaking to all 50 governors very shortly, and I will then be authorizing each individual governor of each individual state to implement a reopening.”
115. Speaking on how to reopen the country. Trump also echoed comments by Florida Gov. DeSantis, saying, “We have to get our sports back. I’m tired of watching baseball games that are 14 years old.”
116. On Tuesday, Richard Horton, editor-in-chief of The Lancet medical journal, tweeted, “Trump’s decision to defund WHO is simply this — a crime against humanity,” calling it an “appalling betrayal.”
117. On Wednesday, Bill Gates tweeted, “Halting funding for the World Health Organization during a world health crisis is as dangerous as it sounds,” adding, “Their work is slowing the spread of COVID-19.”
118. On Wednesday, CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield parted with Trump, heaping praise on the WHO in an interview on “CBS This Morning,” and saying any review would be left until “after we get through this.”
119. On Wednesday, Pelosi said on Trump halting WHO funds, “This is another case, as I have said, of the President’s ineffective response, that ‘a weak person, a poor leader, takes no responsibility. A weak person blames others.’”
120. Pelosi added, “sadly” Trump is “disregarding science and undermining the heroes fighting on the frontline,” and, “This decision is dangerous, illegal and will be swiftly challenged.”
121. On Monday, WAPO reported after South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem refused to issue a stay-at-home order, one of the largest clusters in the U.S. has developed at a Sioux Falls ­pork-processing plant with more than 300 ill.
122. Local leaders, public health experts, and front-line medical workers begged Noem to act as 57 more at the plant tested positive Monday. Instead, at a press conference she touted hydroxychloroquine as a potential breakthrough.
123. Noem acknowledged that based on scientific modeling, up to 70% of people in her state could contract the coronavirus, yet she said it was not up to the government to tell residents how to behave.
124. On Thursday, AP reported Smithfield Foods will temporarily close plants in Wisconsin and Missouri. The Missouri plant received raw materials from the company’s Sioux Falls, South Dakota facility.
125. Smithfield also said it closed the Sioux Falls facility, where 518 employees were infected, as well as an additional 126 people connected to them. A small number of employees in Wisconsin and Missouri tested positive.
126. On Thursday, WAPO reported shutdowns and closures at the country’s biggest beef processing plants due to the coronavirus outbreak have reduced production by as much as 25%.
127. On Tuesday, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker told CNN, “We have gotten very little help from the federal government,” adding, “I’ve given up on any promises,” and they are “near irrelevant” when it comes to testing.
128. On Tuesday, Dr. Mehmet Oz told Fox News host Tucker Carlson, “we need our mojo back,” adding some things could be opened “without getting into a lot of trouble,” such as schools, calling it “a very appetizing opportunity.”
129. Oz added based to his reading of a new medical journal study, resuming classes “may only cost us 2 to 3 percent in terms of total mortality,” concluding that “might be a trade-off some folks would consider.”
130. Late Thursday, Oz apologized in a video, saying, “I misspoke,” adding the goal was to discuss “how do we get our children safely back to school” as he was asked “how we’ll be able to get people back to their normal lives.”
131. Oz, a controversial figure, has been a regular on Fox News programs during the pandemic, hyping hydroxychloroquine, praising Gov. Noem for keeping her state open, dismissing Fauci, and telling viewers to be hopeful.
132. On Thursday, talk show host Dr. Phil McGraw told Fox News host Laura Ingraham that we do not shut down the economy for lung cancer, car crashes, and pool drownings. Notably, none of those are contagious.
133. McGraw appeared after Fauci, in a segment in which Ingraham said, “We don’t have a vaccine for SARS or HIV. Life went on, right?” saying Covid-19 could disappear. Fauci said, “These kind of viruses don’t just disappear.”
134. Dr. Phil, who has a doctorate in clinical psychology, responded to Fauci’s comments warning on the toll on mental health, and citing incorrect statistics and talking points which have been disputed by health experts.
135. On Wednesday, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway falsely claimed on “Fox & Friends” that the WHO should have been on top of the novel coronavirus because “this is Covid-19, not Covid-1.”
136. According to the CDC, “CO” stands for “corona,” “VI” stands for “virus,” and “D” stands for “disease.” The “-19” refers to the year 2019 when the outbreak began, not because it was the 19th appearance, as Conway implied.
137. On Wednesday, the Empire State Manufacturing Index for April collapsed to -78.2, far worse than the -32.5% expected by economists. The previous record low was -34.3% during the 2008 financial crisis.
138. On Wednesday, the Commerce Department reported U.S. retail sales plunged 8.7%, the biggest drop on record since the agency started tracking records in 1992.
139. On Wednesday, global cases of coronavirus passed 2,000,000, with the U.S. accounting for 30.4% of the total. Global stocks fell, and oil prices hit an 18-year low.
140. On Wednesday, a new Daily Kos/Civiqs poll found 45% of Americans who frequently watch Fox News believe the U.S. coronavirus death toll is inflated, compared to 11% who do not watch the network.
141. On Wednesday, Cuomo announced New York would tighten social distancing measures, requiring residents to wear masks when in public, as hospitalizations, ICU admissions, and intubations fell, but deaths remained high.
142. On Wednesday, in “Operation Gridlock,” protestors in MAGA hats, carrying American and Confederate Flags in Lansing, MI caused a traffic jam near the capitol building to protest the state’s stay-at-home order.
143. Protestors yelled, “Lock her up!” and “We will not comply!” It was organized by groups including the Michigan Conservative Coalition, whose founder is a political adviser to Betsy DeVos.
144. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said she was “disappointed” to see people congregating and not wearing masks, saying, “We know that this rally endangered people.” The state has 28,000 cases and 1,900 deaths.
145. Fox News also covered the protest, with Tucker Carlson calling Whitmer’s order “petty authoritarianism,” and protestors appearing on Fox News shows. Protests also took place in North Carolina and Ohio.
146. On Wednesday, four Michigan residents sued Gov. Whitmer, citing they “reasonably fear that the draconian encroachments on their freedom set forth in this complaint will, unfortunately, become the ‘new norm.’”
147. On Wednesday, NBC News reported the number of deaths in nursing homes nearly doubled since last week to 5,670, driven in part by a huge increase in New York where 2% of nursing home residents had died.
148. On Wednesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced plans to gradually reopen from its lockdown. Germany had far fewer cases and deaths per capita than the U.S. due to mass testing and an early lockdown.
149. On Wednesday, WAPO reported Trump spent much of his day hosting calls for industry executives and business groups as part of the hastily formed task force he formed to push for reopening the economy.
150. Many chief executives warned against the May 1 reopening, and urged the White House to focus more on mass testing. Some were notified of the calls in advance, while others first heard Trump say their name at Tuesday’s briefing.
151. Politico reported that several chief executives missed Trump’s call with Wall Street leaders, and other leaders could not get through. One top executive described the call as a “shit show” that produced little of substance.
152. NYT reported Cisco Systems and McDonald’s learned about their inclusion when Trump mentioned them Tuesday. Pfizer got a heads up they would be mentioned, without any information about the purpose of the group.
153. There was also confusion with the House and Senate, where members were abruptly notified they had been selected for a congressional task force in a Wednesday email, and were told, not asked, to be part of it.
154. On Wednesday, NYT reported Trump’s new chief of staff, Mark Meadows, is having a tough adjustment to the position. It does not help that Meadows is emotional and cries at times, while Trump likes to display strength.
155. Trump also sees emotion as weakness. What functioned well in Congress for Meadows is not working in White House with the constant infighting, lack of process, and moves subject to Trump daily whims.
156. Meadows was caught off guard when the press office blasted out a list of people selected to be part of groups advising Trump on reopening, a list compiled at the direction of Jared Kushner, creating a debacle with the rollout.
157. On Wednesday, at the daily briefing, without providing details, Trump said the worst was over: “we have passed the peak of new cases. Hopefully that will continue, and we will continue to make great progress.”
158. Trump bragged and made misstatements about testing and antibodies, and said these would put us on a path to reopening, saying, “These developments have put us in a strong position to finalize guidelines for states reopening.”
159. Trump added that, “Today, I spoke with the leaders of many of our nation’s most renowned companies and organizations” on “the full resurgence of the American economy,” adding, “We want to get our country open again.”
160. Trump said he would speak to governors about, backing off from ordering, rolling back restrictions saying, “They’ll be safe, they’ll be strong, but we want to get our country back,” adding, “We’ll be the comeback kid.”
161. Trump also insisted that Republican leaders immediately call the Senate back into session to confirm them his nominees, calling it a “dereliction of duty the American people can’t afford during this crisis.”
162. Trump added, “It’s a scam what they do,” saying Congress should end its “phony pro forma sessions,” or threatened he would use the “very strong power” afforded to him by the Constitution to force an adjournment.
163. On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell dismissed Trump’s threat saying the Senate would operate and “pledged to find ways to confirm nominees considered mission-critical” to the pandemic.
164. On Wednesday, Sen. John Kennedy told Fox News host Tucker Carlson, “We’ve gotta reopen,” addin,g “when we do, the coronavirus is going to spread faster,” calling it “making a hard decision with the cold, hard facts.”
165. On Wednesday, NYT reported after an anonymous call, police in New Jersey found 17 bodies crammed into a small morgue meant to hold up to four at Andover Subacute and Rehabilitation Center.
166. On Wednesday, there were a record-high 2,569 U.S. deaths from the coronavirus reported in the 24 hours ended at 8 p.m., bringing the total to more than 28,000 deaths and 636,000 cases.
167. On Wednesday, NYT reported the Navy is considering reinstating fired Capt. Brett Crozier. He is viewed as a hero by his crew for putting their lives ahead of his career.
168. On Wednesday, Michael Caputo, a former Trump 2016 campaign advisor and associate of Roger Stone, who was interviewed in the Mueller probe, was named spokesperson for the Health and Human Services Department.
169. Politico reported loyalist Caputo was installed by Trump to give the White House more control over HHS, as they believed HHS Sec. Alex Azar has been behind critical reports of Trump’s handling of the pandemic.
170. On Wednesday, CNBC reported the tool launched by the Internal Revenue Service to track Americans’ stimulus relief checks did not work for many. Instead, they were given an error message, “Payment Status Not Available.”
171. On Thursday, the Commerce Department reported U.S. housing starts fell 22.3% in March from the month prior. The housing decline was the worst since the 1980s.
172. On Thursday, the Labor Department reported 5.2 million Americans filed for unemployment, bringing the total to 22 million jobs lost from the coronavirus, wiping out nearly all the jobs gained since the 2008 Great Recession.
173. On Thursday, the Small business loan program known as the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), an initial $349 billion pool for emergency loans for small businesses passed by Congress, ran out of money.
174. On Thursday, Reuters reported Cuomo and 6 other East coast governors have hired McKinsey to develop a plan to help re-open the states, seeking to counter Trump’s pressure to move rapidly and all at once.
175. Deloitte is also involved in developing the regional plan. An aide for New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said the goal is to “Trump-proof” the plan.
176. On Thursday, Fauci told ABC News that the U.S. return to normal will not be like a “light switch” turned on, would likely be “some degree of modification” of behavior for citizens into the summer months.
177. Fauci said scientists still do not know everything about the virus and what it is capable of doing, adding, “It is entirely conceivable that we will see a rebound as we get into a seasonal situation, such as next fall or winter.”
178. On Thursday, Reuters reported the Kremlin said it would accept a “kind offer” by Trump to ship ventilators to the country if it needed them. Russia had 27,938 cases and 232 deaths.
179. On Thursday, NBC News reported the Association of Public Health Laboratories expressed concern about the reliability of antibody tests not approved by China’s FDA being used by at least two states.
180. On Thursday, the governors of seven mostly Midwestern states, including Ohio, Minnesota, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Kentucky said they would coordinate on reopening their economies.
181. The Midwest coalition joined the 10 states in the East and West, totally 17 states working together, including three states with Republican governors, despite Trump’s early week proclamation of “absolute authority.”
182. On Thursday, at the daily briefing, Trump announced federal guidelines for a slow and staggered return to normal activity in three phases, despite political and public health outcry for national testing first.
183. Trump said, “America wants to be open and Americans want to be open,” saying we stay shutdown, and “To preserve the health of our citizens, we must also preserve the health and functioning of our economy.”
184. Despite Trump repeatedly calling for a May 1 reopening, the plan did not give a specific date for implementation of the three vague phases for reopening the economy, schools, and other gathering places.
185. The plan reversed Trump’s claim of having “total authority” on Monday, putting control in the hands of governors. WAPO reported in a morning call with governors, Trump said, “You’re going to call your own shots.”
186. Asked about the anti-restriction protests, Trump said, “it’s been a tough process for people,” adding ,“It’s not just, ‘Isn’t it wonderful to stay at home?’ They’re having — they’re suffering.”
187. WAPO also reported according to current and former senior regime officials, Trump’s strategy of letting governors decide was to shield him from blame if the reopenings resulted in new outbreaks or other problems.
188. Trump’s plan did not contain a national testing strategy, leaving states and localities to develop and administer their own testing programs. Governors have repeatedly asked for national testing as a key part of reopening.
189. So far, 3.3 million Americans have been tested, including 146,000 per day in the past week. Although this is a significant improvement from early stumbles, experts say millions of tests are needed per day for reopening.
190. Trump continued to falsely claim the U.S. is doing “the most advanced and robust testing anywhere in the world,” but many countries including South Korea, Germany, and New Zealand have tested more per capita.
191. There are no senior task force officials in charge of a national testing strategy. In a Thursday call with bipartisan senators, Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Trump ally Lindsey Graham have also pushed that testing is key to reopening.
192. On Thursday, CNN reported the cost of PPE has increased by more than 1,000% amid a surge in demand. The federal government’s Strategic National Stockpile has nearly emptied, as states scramble for supplies.
193. On Thursday, Daily Beast reported reopening gyms was added to “phase one” of Trump’s reopening plan, after a Wednesday call with 16 business leaders, including Stephen Ross, owner of Equinox Gyms and SoulCycle.
194. The advice to reopen gyms went against advice of public health experts, who warned the format was like a petri dish, and social distancing was not possible. Ross threw Trump a big fundraiser last year.
195. On Thursday, Facebook announced it would warn users who have liked or commented on false, misleading or dangerous information on the coronavirus after the posts have been removed by the moderators.
196. On Thursday, NYT reported Ivanka disregarded federal guidelines against discretionary travel by traveling along with Jared and their three children to Trump’s Bedminster Club in New Jersey for Passover.
197. Citizens this year resorted to family gatherings on Zoom for Seders and on Easter Sunday, and governors urged people to stay away from their second homes. Officials defended Ivanka, saying she did not fly commercial.
198. On Thursday, at a trial for Roger Stone, all twelve of the jurors said they feared for their safety, and do not want more information made public about their identity, after Trump and the far right media criticized them.
199. Federal Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled in an 81-page opinion that Stone did not deserve a retrial, after he claimed jury misconduct, saying the forewoman had not lied about bias but rather Stone’s attorney had not fully screened her.
200. Stone could appeal in the coming weeks, but he may be ordered to report to prison to serve his 40 month term, at the earliest in two weeks. The gag order against him was also lifted.
201. On Thursday, the FBI notified Michael Cohen that he will be released early from a prison in Otisville, NY where he was serving a three-year sentence, after 14 inmates and seven staff members tested positive for the coronavirus.
202. On Friday, a study from China found Covid-19 patients may be most infectious before they began showing symptoms: infectiousness started 2.3 days and peaked 0.7 days before symptoms appeared.
203. On Friday, the Times of Israel reported U.S. intelligence alerted Israel and NATO allies about the coronavirus outbreak in China in the second week of November using a classified document.
204. Reportedly U.S. intelligence had informed the Trump regime, “which did not deem it of interest,” but did decide to update allies. It was unclear if the report was the same one cited by ABC News in Week 178.
205. On Friday, citing Fox News, Trump tweeted, “Why did the W.H.O. Ignore an email from Taiwanese health officials in late December” on human-to-human transmission. Taiwan and the WHO disagree that was in the email.
206. Trump also blamed Democrats, tweeting, “Today people started losing their jobs because of Crazy Nancy Pelosi, Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, and the Radical Left,” adding, “End your ENDLESS VACATION!
207. On Friday, governors in Texas, Michigan, Wisconsin, Idaho, and Minnesota said they would slightly ease off some restrictions on some outdoor and other activities, despite the lack of testing.
208. On Friday, Cuomo said 630 more New Yorkers had died, bringing the total to 12,822. Cuomo said to reopen, “We cannot do it without federal help,” saying the state cannot handle the needed volume or ramp up to open.
209. Shortly after, Trump tweeted, “Governor Cuomo should spend more time “doing” and less time “complaining”. Get out there and get the job done. Stop talking!”
210. Trump added, “We” gave “a large numbers of Ventilators that you should have had, and helped you with testing,” claiming, “We have given New York far more” than other states, and adding, “Less talk and more action!”
211. Asked by reporters about Trump’s tweets, Cuomo said, “First of all, if he’s sitting home watching TV, maybe he should get up and go to work, right?” and, “Second, let’s keep emotion and politics out of this, and personal ego.”
212. Shortly after, Trump tweeted, “Cuomo ridiculously wanted “40 thousand Ventilators”. We gave him a small fraction of that number, and it was plenty. State should have had them in stockpile!”
213. Cuomo responded, “They’re your projections,” adding, “If we were foolish for listening to you, then shame on us.” On Trump asking for thanks, he said, “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do — send a bouquet of flowers?”
214. Trump also fomented anti-restriction protests, tweeting in a series of three tweets: “LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege,” “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!” and “LIBERATE MINNESOTA!”
215. Trump’s tweets were a remarkable display of a sitting president egging on protests, less than 24 hours after he had said at his news conference that reopening decisions would be left to the states.
216. His tweets were sent minutes after a Fox News segment on the protests, featuring a protestor in Virginia saying, “those of us who are healthy and want to get out of our house and do business, we need to get this going.”
217. Shortly after, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said in a statement the tweets “encourage illegal and dangerous acts. He is putting millions of people in danger of contracting COVID-19” and “could also lead to violence.”
218. Inslee added Trump “is off the rails. He’s not quoting scientists and doctors but spewing dangerous, anti-democratic rhetoric,” adding, “I hope someday we can look at today’s meltdown as something to be pitied.”
219. Conservative economist Stephen Moore, a member of the White House council to reopen the country, said, “I call these people the modern-day Rosa Parks — they are protesting against injustice and a loss of liberties.”
220. On Friday, Guardian reported protests in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and other states were also backed by right-wing hate groups like the Proud Boys as well as conservative armed militia groups and religious fundamentalists.
221. Trump also tweeted, “China has just announced a doubling in the number of their deaths,” falsely claiming, “It is far higher than that and far higher than the U.S.” The U.S. reported 36,000 deaths, and China reported 4,600.
222. On Friday, WAPO reported significant problems with the regime sending out relief checks, threatened by old technology and a depleted IRS staff from 99,500 in 2010 to 76,000 under Trump, including in its senior ranks.
223. While criticism and complaints mounted, Trump deflected to Obama, tweeting, “Biden/Obama were a disaster in handling the H1N1 Swine Flu,” saying, “17,000 people died unnecessarily and through incompetence!”
224. Trump also claimed, “Also, don’t forget their 5 Billion Dollar Obamacare website that should have cost close to nothing!” — seeming to deflect from relief checks and problems with the SBA rollout earlier in the week.
225. On Friday, NYC reported an additional 722 probable deaths, bringing the total of probable deaths to 4,309. A total of 12,199 were confirmed or probable of dying of Covid-19, with 122,148 confirmed cases.
226. On Friday, CNN reported while some early states on the coasts have started to plateau, this week there was a small but significant spike in cases in rural states across the American heartland.
227. The states most pronounced are those without stay-at-home orders, including Oklahoma increasing 53% this week, Arkansas by 60%, Nebraska by 74%, Iowa by 82%, and South Dakota by 205%.
228. On Friday, Politico reported Senate Democrats erupted on a conference call with Vice President Pence after Pence gave only vague answers on the federal government’s efforts to ramp up coronavirus testing.
229. Mild-mannered Sen. Angus King called it a “dereliction of duty,” saying, “I have never been so mad about a phone call in my life.” Asked about the liberate tweets, Pence demurred, saying this is how Trump communicates.
230. On Friday, AP reported cable-TV networks CNN and MSNBC are continuing to broadcast Trump’s daily briefings, amid a debate over how much unfiltered on-air time to give. Major networks are not covering.
231. Hosts Rachel Maddow, Don Lemon, Chris Hayes, and Joe Scarborough have suggested on-air that their networks stop coverage. Maddow said, “All of us should stop broadcasting. It’s going to cost lives.”
232. On Friday, at the daily briefing, Trump defended protestors, saying they have endured “too tough” social distancing orders in their states, and adding, “They seem to be very responsible people to me.”
233. NYT reported Trump is trying to seize on the energy of the small protests popping up around the country to fuel his re-election, and to deflect anger about his response from him and towards Democratic governors.
234. Trump also said, “The governors are responsible for testing,” and claimed Democratic governors made “requests were made far beyond what was objectively needed.”
235. Trump says he now expects “around 60,000, maybe 65,000” Americans deaths, without any mention or empathy for the more than 37,000 already dead, and said a death count under 100,000 will mean he did a great job.
236. Trump said he hoped to have rallies, saying, “I think they are going to be bigger than ever,” and closed saying, “This has been a situation where a lot of great people have been involved and a lot of great decisions have been made.”
237. On Friday, HuffPost reported the Trump campaign is secretly paying Donald Jr., his girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle, and Eric’s wife Lara Trump $15,000 a month each through Brad Parscale’s private company.
238. Late Friday, the U.S. passed 700,000 confirmed cases, roughly 31% of worldwide cases, with more than 37,000 dead.
239. On Saturday, in a series of tweets, Trump attacked Democrats, saying, “No matter what you do for the Do Nothing Democrats,” they and “their Fake partners in the Lamestream Media” will only respond “in the negative.”
240. Trump cited the Politico story on Pence’s Friday call with senators, saying, “He gave them everything that they would have wanted to hear,” and calling the Democrats on the call “ RUDE and NASTY.”
241. Trump also tweeted, “The most often used phrase in the Lamestream Media, by far, is “sources say,”” claiming it “allows Fake News to make up a phony quote,” and, “The American people should demand NAMES!”
242. On Saturday, WAPO reported FDA officials concluded that the CDC violated its own laboratory standards in making the kits, citing contamination at the CDC’s central laboratory complex in Atlanta.
243. Contamination was found in of one of the three test components. In January practice runs with the new kits, false-positive reactions emerged at 24 of the 26 labs — meaning cross contamination.
244. The problem came from an unnecessary step in the testing process identified in late January that took more than a month to remove, exacerbating nationwide delays in testing.
245. On Saturday, Floridians returned to the beaches, after Gov. DeSantis gave the green light to loosen coronavirus restrictions. The state has more than 24,000 confirmed cases and 686 reported deaths.
246. On Saturday, Kim Pagan, a New Jersey woman organizing a protest of stay-at-home orders, was charged by New Jersey State Police for violating the governor’s emergency orders, which prohibits all gatherings.
247. As the week came to a close, there were 2,293,644 worldwide cases and 157,400 dead from the coronavirus. The U.S. had 715,536 cases (31.1%), 37,625 deaths (23.9%), and a mortality rate of 5.2%.

This week, nearly 12,000 Americans died of the coronavirus. The U.S. became not only the country with the most cases by a factor of three, but also the country with the most deaths in the world. As American bodies piled up, Trump was obstinate and refused to change his approach, instead continuing to tweet grievances and holding daily campaign rallies masquerading as task force briefings, some lasting hours long.

It became clear this week that neither Trump nor our federal government would have a plan or much of a role to play in stopping the growing outbreak — unthinkable in the history of our country. Instead, states were left to fend for themselves, and Americans learned to count on one another to stay home and volunteer to help. Trump’s short-lived bump in the polls disappeared, and approval of his and the federal government’s handling of the outbreak fell considerably.

This week Trump pushed the unproven drug hydroxychloroquine as his game changer, amplified by Fox News — taking a page from the Roger Ailes playbook of casting Trump as a hero bringing hope, and the “other media” and Democrats as villains who downplayed the drug to get back at Trump. Fox News and Trump allies also pushed other conspiracy theories, including that the death count was overstated.

As the week came to an end, Trump seemed on unfamiliar ground, unable to deploy his typical strategy of casting blame and making it stick and redirecting as Americans were dying, and dying alone — and the virus developed new hot spots in major cities and rural America.

1. On Wednesday, CNN reported just 41% of Americans say the federal government in doing a good job of preventing the coronavirus spread, 55% say a poor job. Last week 48% said good job, 47% poor job.
2. The poll also found 52% disapprove of the way Trump is handling the coronavirus, 45% approve, although his approval was little changed at 44% approve, 51% disapprove. 22% know someone with the virus.
3. On Saturday, NYT reported that since China disclosed the coronavirus outbreak on New Year’s Eve, more than 430,000 have arrived in the U.S. on direct flights from China, including flights last week.
4. Nearly 40,000 have traveled in the two months since Trump imposed restrictions on such travel on February 2, on 279 direct flights from China. Screening procedures have been uneven according to interviews.
5. Trump has repeatedly bragged his travel measures impeded the spread saying things like, “That was probably the biggest decision we made so far.” Direct flights last week landed in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
6. On Saturday, WAPO reported Trump picked White House lawyer Brian Miller as coronavirus inspector general for the $500 billion rescue fund for industry. Miller defended Trump during impeachment proceedings.
7. Miller served for nine years as IG for the General Services Administration, but he was viewed by Democrats as a loyalist to Trump. Sen. Richard Blumenthal likened it to putting the “fox in charge of the henhouse.”
8. On Saturday, at the daily task force briefing, Trump gave a rambling, incoherent speech, offering no specifics, but rather aired a variety of grievances. Trump warned the coming week will be “one of the toughest.”
9. Trump said, “There’s going to be a lot of death, unfortunately. There will be a lot of deaths.” So far, 7,100 Americans had died, with 278,000 cases. Dr. Deborah Birx said Detroit, Louisiana, and New York were the hot spots.
10. Trump reversed himself again, saying, “The cure could not be worse than the virus,” adding, “at a certain point, some hard decisions are going to have to be made,” regarding social distancing guidelines currently in place.
11. Trump added, “I want fans back in arenas. They want to see basketball and baseball and football and hockey. They want to see their sports. They want to go onto the golf courses and breathe nice, clean, beautiful fresh air.”
12.  Trump said millions of doses of hydroxychloroquine were being placed in the federal stockpile, even though it has not been approved by the FDA, and urged patients to take it, saying, “What do you have to lose?”
13. Trump added, “I really think they should take it. But it’s their choice. And it’s their doctor’s choice or the doctors in the hospital…Try it, if you’d like,” and adding, “if this drug works, it will be not a game changer because that’s not a nice enough term.”
14. Trump said he also had spoken to Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India about procuring millions more doses of hydroxychloroquine from that country. India is the world’s main supplier of generic drugs.
15. Dr. Anthony Fauci looked on, but did not speak. Trump also suggested azithromycin, known as Z-Pak, saying, “that’s an antibiotic. It can clean out the lung. The lungs are a point of attack for this horrible virus.”
16. Trump added, “We’re coming to a time that’s going to be very horrendous, probably a time like we haven’t seen in this country,” adding, “We’re getting to that point where it’s going to be really some very bad numbers.”
17. Fauci said there were signs social distancing was working. Trump added, “but again, we’re not going to destroy our country,” saying we have a “decision” to make and the “cure cannot be worse than the problem itself.”
18. On Sunday, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp faced criticism for reopening beaches a day after issuing a stay-at-home order. Savannah Mayor Van Johnson told NBC News Kemp was closing schools while opening beaches.
19. On Sunday, Fauci told “Face the Nation” on the coronavirus, “I will not say we have it under control, we are struggling to get it under control,” but added mitigation efforts are showing some success in places like New York.
20. On Sunday, Surgeon General Jerome Adams told “Meet the Press” that “The next week is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment,” adding, “It’s going to be the hardest moment for many Americans in their entire lives.”
21. Adams also told “Fox New Sunday” this week will be “the hardest and the saddest week of most Americans’ lives,” and, “This is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment, our 9/11 moment…happening all over the country.”
22. While not calling for a national shutdown, Adams asked holdout governors to at least “give us a week” of restrictions, saying health officials warned of an accelerating rate of infections and deaths.
23. On Sunday, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker told “State of the Union” if Trump “had started in February building ventilators, getting ready…we would not have the problems we have” and “very many fewer people would die.”
24. Pritzker said we “now know that intelligence sources and all the best advice that was given…in January and early February” but Trump and White House did not act, adding Trump should have invoked the Defense Production Act.
25. On Sunday, NYT reported the official count of death understates the coronavirus death toll due to inconsistent protocols, limited testing resources, and a patchwork of decision making.
26. Patients who died at home often are not tested, and between states, protocols for testing at funeral homes and availability of tests factor in. One home said of three patients who tested positive, one death certificate listed it.
27. Hospital officials also say early in the outbreak, testing was not available for patients with flulike systems. Experts who study mortality said it might take scientists months to calculate the number of mortalities.
28. On Sunday, Defense Secretary Mark Esper told “This Week” the military will use face masks. He voiced support of Navy Secretary Thomas Modly, saying he made a “tough call” but he has “faith and confidence in him.”
29. Asked if the Pentagon received an intelligence assessment on Covid-19 in China last November from the National Center for Medical Intelligence, Esper said, “I can’t recall, but we have many people that watch this closely.”
30. On Sunday, Michael Atkinson said in a statement that Trump’s “loss of confidence in me derives from my having faithfully discharged my legal obligations as an independent and impartial Inspector General.”
31. On Sunday, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson was taken to the hospital, on doctors’ advice, after experiencing persistent coronavirus symptoms still ten days after testing positive.
32. On Sunday, at the daily press briefing, Trump again promoted hydroxychloroquine, repeatedly asking, “What do we have to lose?” and adding, “I’m not a doctor. But I have common sense.”
33. Trump added, “we have no time” for lengthy studies, and “if it does work, it would be a shame if we didn’t do it early,” adding people may need a doctor’s approval but that personally, “I’ve seen things that I sort of like.”
34. A reporter asked Fauci for his opinion on the the drug, asking, “What is the medical evidence?” Fauci opened his mouth to answer, but Trump cut in, saying, “Do you know how many times he’s answered that question?”
35. Trump also fired back at Gov. Pritzker, saying he is “complaining all the time,” and “He’s not able to do what he’s supposed to be able to do as a governor. He has not performed well.”
36. On Sunday, American Medical Association president Patrice Harris told CNN she would not prescribe the drug if she has a coronavirus patient, citing the drug’s well-known side effects can cause fatal heart problems.
37. Harris said, “You could lose your life,” adding, “It’s unproven. And so certainly there are some limited studies, as Dr. Fauci said. But at this point, we just don’t have the data to suggest that we should be using this.”
38. On Sunday, WAPO reported Rudy Giuliani is promoting the use of hydroxychloroquine to Trump. He told the Post he now spends his day speaking to doctors, patients, and hospital executives promoting it too.
39. Giuliani is one of several Trump allies who downplayed the severity of Covid-19 and now are embracing cures, worrying health experts. Last week, he was locked out of Twitter for promoting disinformation.
40. On Sunday, Axios reported that the coronavirus task force had its biggest fight yet on Saturday, in a blow up between economic adviser Peter Navarro and Fauci over the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine.
41. Navarro had a stack of folders and dropped them on the table, saying studies overseas show “clear therapeutic efficacy.” Fauci said there was only anecdotal evidence, and studies in France and China were inadequate.
42. An animated Navarro said, “That’s science, not anecdote.” In addition to Navarro, Giuliani and Fox News host Sean Hannity are pushing hydroxychloroquine. Most task force members had a cautious approach.
43. On Sunday, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh issued a 9 p.m. curfew for residents, and urged them to wear masks. The city also closed all recreational sports, including tennis and basketball courts.
44. On Sunday, the Bronx Zoo said Nadia, a 4-year-old female Malayan tiger, tested positive for the coronavirus. She, her sister, two Amur tigers, and three African lions developed dry coughs and were expected to recover.
45. Later Sunday, Trump called in to Sean Hannity’s show, saying he would “love” to open the country, and we might “open up sections and also looking at the concept where you open up everything.”
46. Trump added, “I think New York is getting ready if not already, but getting ready to peak and once it peaks, it will start coming down and it’s going to come down fast.”
47. On Monday, the number of global deaths topped 70,000. The virus has spread to 183 countries and regions, with 1.3 million cases. The U.S. had the most confirmed cases, with 338,000.
48. On Monday, the U.S. surpassed 10,000 deaths, standing at 10,530, including 4,758 in New York — roughly 1 in 8 of all death worldwide. In New York City, there were 67,551 cases and at least 3,048 deaths.
49. On Monday, Dr. Craig Smith, surgeon in chief of New York–Presbyterian Hospital said, “The steadily positive slope we’ve watched for a month is grinding and relentless,” adding, this is “our Fallujah.”
50. On Monday, Assistant Secretary for Health and Human Services Brett Giroir told the “TODAY” show Americans should limit their visits to the grocery store, and if they do go, to wear a mask.
51. On Monday, Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council told CNBC, “No one could have predicted the exponential rise of this.” This statement is obviously false.
52. On Monday, NYT reported Navarro starkly warned the Trump regime in a January 29 memo that the coronavirus crisis could cost the U.S. $6 trillion and put a possible death toll at half a million Americans.
53. The memo is the highest-level alert known to have circulated inside the West Wing. It warned, “The lack of immune protection or an existing cure or vaccine would leave Americans defenseless” in a full-blown outbreak.
54. A second memo on February 23, which was addressed to Trump directly through the offices of the National Security Council, warned, “There is an increasing probability of a full-blown COVID-19 pandemic.”
55. The memo added the virus “could infect as many as 100 million Americans, with a loss of life of as many as 1–2 million souls,” and laid out expected level of needed medical supplies.
56. On Monday, acting Navy Secretary Modly addressed the crew of the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt, saying Capt. Brett Cozier was “too naïve or too stupid to be a commanding officer” if he thought the letter would not leak, or did it “on purpose.”
57. On Monday, Trump lashed out at NYT and WAPO over reporting on his coronavirus response, tweeting, “Advertising in the Failing New York Times is WAY down. Washington Post is not much better.”
58. Trump added, “they are Fake News sources of information, to a level that few can understand, or the Virus is just plain beating them up,” and adding, “Fake News is bad for America!”
59. Trump also tweeted Democratic candidate Joe Biden “wants a “Virtual” Convention, one where he doesn’t have to show up,” asking what happened to the phone call “he told the Fake News he wanted to make to me?”
60. After his tweet, a phone call was set up between the two and reportedly lasted for 15 minutes. Biden has publicly criticized Trump’s slow response to the crisis, and said Trump should stop talking and listen to experts.
61. On Monday, the Department of Health and Human Services IG Ann Maxwell issued a report based on conversations with 323 hospitals between March 23–27, calling it “the first objective, independent, national look” at how hospitals are faring.
62. The report found U.S. hospitals were facing “severe” and “widespread” shortages of needed medical supplies, hampering their ability to test and respond to coronavirus adequately, as well as protect medical staff.
63. Hospitals were forced to make their own disinfectant from in-house chemicals, and tried to source face masks from places like nail salons. They also complained of running low on toilet paper and food.
64. Hospitals reported “frequently waiting 7 days or longer for test results,” saying the “scarcity” of tests and time to get results “meant presumptive positive patients greatly strained bed availability, supplies, and staffing.”
65. The report also found “some hospitals reported that the multiple changes in guidance contributed to a greater sense of confusion, fear, and distrust among staff that they can rely on hospital procedures to protect them.”
66. On Monday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the state had seen a decline for the second day in deaths, hospital, and ICU admissions, indicating the state’s curve may be flattening, and the state may have reached its apex.
67. On Monday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said his state is loaning 500 ventilators to New York, New Jersey, and Illinois. Cuomo thanked him, saying New York has already fallen back on “plan B, C, D” to locate equipment.
68. On Monday, WAPO reported U.S. grocery workers are beginning to die of the coronavirus, with major supermarket chains like Trader Joe’s and Walmart reporting their first employee deaths in recent days.
69. Some companies began installing plexiglass sneeze guards at cash registers, and are requiring customers to stand at six feet apart in line. Companies are also taking steps to ramp up home delivery.
70. On Monday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared a state of emergency for one month to cover seven prefectures, including Tokyo and the city of Osaka. Japan had just 3,900 cases andd 92 deaths.
71. On Monday, Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase, the nation’s largest bank, said in a letter to shareholders the pandemic “is only one example of the bad planning and management that have hurt our country.”
72. Dimon added, “As a nation, we were clearly not equipped for this global pandemic, and the consequences have been devastating.” Dimon also predicted a “bad recession” combined with financial stress similar to 2008.
73. On Monday, Boris Johnson was moved to the intensive care unit in the evening, after his condition worsened. Johnson asked Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to “deputise for him where necessary.”
74. On Monday, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Sen. David Perdue made an unusually high number of stock buys and sell starting on January 24, the day Senators got a coronavirus briefing.
75. On the day of the briefing, Perdue made the first of 10 purchases of shares of DuPont de Nemours, which produces PPE. He also in that period sold shares of Caesar Entertainment, a casino.
76. On Monday, at the daily briefing, Trump said, “we certainly want to try” to lift restrictions on life by April 30, but gave no concrete answer on when, saying, “Tremendous progress has been made in a very short period.”
77. Asked about his call with Biden, Trump said it was a “wonderful, warm conversation,” and “very nice,” saying, “He gave me his point of view and I fully understood that,” and said he could not share what was said.
78. Asked about a handful of memos written by Navarro, Trump claimed, “I didn’t see them. I didn’t look for them.”
79. Asked about the HHS IG report, Trump mocked, “Did I hear the word inspector general?” adding, “It’s just wrong,” and berated the reporter, saying, “You should say, ‘Congratulations. Great job’ instead of being so horrid.”
80. When a second reporter, John Karl of ABC News asked about the backlog of testing found in the IG report, Trump said, “You’re a third-rate reporter and what you just said is a disgrace, OK?” and, “You will never make it.”
81. Asked about the troubled rollout of the Small Business Administration’s relief program, Trump berated the reporter: “I wish you’d ask the question differently. You’re just incapable of asking a question in a positive way.”
82. Trump was also asked about the outcry over Modly’s remarks. Trump said the comments were “rough” and pledged to get involved. Two hours later, Defense Secretary Mark Esper demanded Modly publicly apology.
83. Closing out the brief, Trump said Democrats “shouldn’t be allowed to win” the 2020 election after everything he has done to stop the pandemic, saying he was “artificially stopped” by the virus.
84. Later Monday, Modly apologized to Crozier, his family, and the crew in a statement, saying, “Let me be clear, I do not think Captain Brett Crozier is naive nor stupid. I think, and always believed him to be the opposite.”
85. On Monday, the American Hospital Association said in a statement the IG report “accurately captures the crisis that hospitals and health systems, physicians and nurses on the front lines face.”
86. On Monday, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, issued an executive order postponing Tuesday’s primary, which included the presidential primary and hundreds of local elections, until June 9.
87. Shortly after, the GOP-controlled state legislature challenged the order, sending it to the state’s supreme court, which ruled 4-2, split along ideological lines, to overturn the governor and hold the primary.
88. An hour later, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 along ideological lines that absentee ballots must be postmarked by April 7 and received by 4 p.m. on April 13 to count. WI law typically requires ballots by 8 p.m.
89. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg warned the ruling will cause “massive disenfranchisement,” saying voters will “have to brave the polls, endangering their own and others’ safety, or they will lose their right to vote.”
90. On Tuesday, voters in Milwaukee were forced to choose between following public order to stay at home, or standing in line for hours to vote, after the city closed all but five of its more than 100 polling places.
91. Two-thirds of Wisconsin’s black voters live in Milwaukee. Black Americans have been disproportionately impacted by the virus there, accounting for 626 of 1,387 confirmed cases, and 36 of 51 deaths.
92. On Tuesday, a poll worker wrote in an op-ed, “Wisconsin made me risk my life to help people vote,” adding, “Push for mail-in ballots. Push for voting reform,” and if I die, “you have my permission to politicize my death.”
93. On Tuesday, ABC News reported U.S. intelligence officials warned in a November report by the military’s National Center for Medical Intelligence that the coronavirus was sweeping through China’s Wuhan region.
94. The report warned the virus was spreading quickly and changing the patterns of life and business, as well as posing a threat to the population. The report was based on wire and computer intercepts, and satellite images.
95. The report concluded “it could be a cataclysmic event,” and was reportedly briefed multiple times to the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s Joint Staff and the White House.
96. The Pentagon, after not commenting on Tuesday, issued a statement Wednesday evening, denying the report existed. Esper had been asked by George Stephanopoulos about the report on “This Week” but obscured.
97. On Tuesday, CNN reported Trump fired Stephanie Grisham as White House press secretary after nine months. Grisham never held a daily press briefing. She will return to being First Lady Melania Trump’s chief of staff.
98. Trump’s new chief of staff Mark Meadows hired Kayleigh McEnany, 31, a vocal defender of Trump, to replace her. Meadows and Grisham clashed. Alyssa Farah, a top spokeswoman at the Pentagon, will also join press staff.
99. On Tuesday, Reuters reported Modi is lifting India’s export ban on hydroxychloroquine after Trump threatened retaliation on a phone call Monday. India had put a hold on exports due to a depleted supply.
100. On Tuesday, Trump fired Glenn Fine, who had served as acting inspector general for the Defense Department since 2016, and was charged with overseeing how the regime spent the $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill.
101. Last week, an umbrella group of agency inspectors general named Fine the chairman of a new Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, with an $80 million budget to oversee how the relief money is spent.
102. Fine is a former DOJ inspector general, and has a reputation for aggression and independence in scrutinizing law-enforcement powers. Trump abruptly named Sean O’Donnell, the E.P.A’s IG, to replace Fine.
103. On Tuesday, acting Navy Secretary Modly resigned. He was replaced by Acting Undersecretary of the Army, James McPherson. As of Tuesday, 230 crew members of the Roosevelt tested positive.
104. On Tuesday, House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff accused Trump appointee acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell in a letter of improperly overhauling the intelligence community.
105. Schiff said under Grenell’s management, every Senate-appointed official in the DNI’s hierarchy had been removed, without consulting Congress, and Trump “did not nominate you for confirmation as permanent DNI.”
106. Schiff sounded an alarm about Michael Atkinson’s abrupt removal, and asked Grenell whether he prevented him from completing any of his unfinished work before Trump placed him on administrative leave.
107. On Tuesday, the LA Times reported that while Trump has told states to fend for themselves in getting medical equipment, the federal government has been quietly seizing coronavirus supplies across the country.
108. Officials at hospitals and clinics in seven states say FEMA has seized medical supplies, however the Trump regime has not publicly said how it decides which supplies to seize or where to reroute them.
109. Jared Kushner has said the federal government is using a data-driven approach. Officials in Florida, Massachusetts, Washington, Texas, Alaska, Oregon, and California said they had supplies taken with no explanation.
110. On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s campaign announced record fundraising for his 2020 re-election of $7.4 million in the first quarter, the highest amount since he came to Washington in 1985.
111. On Tuesday, NBC News reported the Supply Chain Resilience task force, a key coronavirus task force charged with shipping and distributing goods, will work remotely after a member of the group tested positive.
112. On Tuesday, University Hospital Center of Nice in France suspended its hydroxychloroquine experimental treatment for Covid-19 patients, after it became a major risk to at least one cardiac patient.
113. The head of the cardiology department at the Pasteur hospital in Nice said in an interview the side effect had already been identified, and some patients had to stop treatment and are being monitored with ECG tests.
114. On Tuesday, Dr. Michael Ackerman, a genetic cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic, called Trump’s promoting hydroxychloroquine while ignoring side effects “inexcusable,” saying it poses a lethal risk for some patients.
115. On Tuesday, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found 72% of all U.S. adults, including 79% of Democrats and 65% of Republicans, support mail-in ballots for voting in November if the coronavirus is still a threat.
116. Also 89% said they were concerned about the virus. Just 42% approved of Trump’s handling of the outbreak, down six points from last week. The U.S. had 385,000 coronavirus cases and more than 11,900 had died.
117. On Tuesday, at the daily briefing, Trump continued to push hydroxychloroquine, saying, “You are not going to die from this pill,” adding though he is not a doctor, “I really think it’s a great thing to try.”
118. Trump continued attacking mail-in voting, despite having voted this way himself, claiming without evidence, “Mail ballots, they cheat, people cheat. Mail ballots are very dangerous thing for this country.”
119. Trump said of aid to the WHO, “We’re going to put a very powerful hold on it,” accused the WHO of being “China-centric” and slow to sound alarms about coronavirus, saying, “They could have called it months earlier.”
120. Trump added, “They call it wrong. They really, they missed the call.” This is a false claim. The WHO sounded the alarm in the earliest days of the crisis, and repeatedly warned about the emergence of the virus in China.
121. Fox News hosts like Tucker Carlson have also criticized the WHO, as have numerous Republicans. Sen. Rick Scott told Fox News on Monday that “if they had done their job, everybody would have gotten more ready.”
122. Carlson also disparaged some “members of the media” for criticizing Trump on hydroxychloroquine, saying, “It is probably the most shameful thing I, as someone who has done this for 20 years, has ever seen.”
123. On Tuesday, Biden told CNN he had a “good call” with Trump, saying, “I laid out what I thought he should be doing…four or five specific points,”and adding, “I indicated that it is about taking responsibility.”
124. On Tuesday, NYT reported Black Americans are being infected and killed by the coronavirus at alarming and disproportionately high rates in several states and big cities.
125. Longstanding inequalities make Black Americans less likely to be insured, and more like to have pre-existing conditions. Many live in segregated neighborhoods that lack good jobs and supermarkets with healthy choices.
126. On Thursday, WAPO reported black men wearing masks and bandanas, as suggested by the CDC, were being profiled by police. Two men in Illinois say they were followed by police after leaving Walmart.
127. On Tuesday, NYT reported that Americans being quarantined has changed the way we use the internet. There is a rise in use of apps and websites that allow people to connect personally, for work and for school.
128. The thirst for information on the virus has caused a huge surge in local newspapers, some 50 to 150%, and well as established news sources like CNBC, WAPO and NYT, while visits to partisan sites have decreased.
129. On Wednesday, Trump tweeted, “Republicans should fight very hard when it comes to state wide mail-in voting. Democrats are clamoring for it,” falsely claiming “voter fraud,” and saying it “doesn’t work out well for Republicans.”
130. On Wednesday, as Singapore reported a second wave of coronavirus infections with 142 new cases, the government imposed a second full lockdown. Singapore has had just 6 deaths so far.
131. On Wednesday, NYT reported that new research revealed the coronavirus started to circulate in New York City by mid-February, before the first confirmed case, and was brought from Europe, not Asia.
132. The research found the hidden spread of the virus that might have been detected if aggressive testing programs were put in place. Trump banned China flights on January 31.
133. The Trump regime initially limited testing only to people who had come from China and displayed symptoms, missing the quiet spread. On doctor working on the study said, “It was a disaster that we didn’t do testing.”
134. On Wednesday, WHO director Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made a plea for global solidarity, warning that politicizing the pandemic was “playing with fire” and that disunity and blame would result in deaths.
135. On Wednesday, CNN reported a committee of the National Academy of Sciences sent a letter to the White House saying the current coronavirus tests sometimes misses positive cases — in one study 16 of 51 cases.
136. On Wednesday, a somber Gov. Cuomo ordered flags in New York be flown at half-staff, announcing the deadliest day so far with 779 dead. New York continued to see a flattening in new cases, hospitalizations, and ICU adds.
137. On Wednesday, Quinnipiac found on handling of the coronavirus response: Fauci: 78% approve, 7% disapprove; Your state’s governor: 74/24; Cuomo: 59/17; Trump: 46/51; and Congress: 44/46.
138. On Wednesday, Trump tweeted, “Once we OPEN UP OUR GREAT COUNTRY, and it will be sooner rather than later, the horror of the Invisible Enemy…must be quickly forgotten.”
139. Trump added, “Our Economy will BOOM, perhaps like never before!!!” His tweets came as the U.S. had more than 400,000 cases, 28% of worldwide cases, and nearly 2,000 Americans died on Tuesday.
140. Minutes later, Trump tweeted, “The Radical Left Democrats have gone absolutely crazy that I am doing daily Presidential News Conferences,” adding, “They actually want me to STOP!”
141. Trump added, “They tried to shame the Fake News Media into not covering them, but that effort failed because the ratings are through the roof,” adding, “Monday Night Football, Bachelor Finale type numbers.”
142. On Wednesday, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez warned South Florida is still weeks away from its coronavirus peak. Florida had more than 15,000 cases, with 8,000 in the southeastern Miami region.
143. On Wednesday, Kansas Republican leaders revoked Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s order limiting religious gatherings to 10 people ahead of Easter, as the number of cases passed 1,000 and the death toll jumped 40% to 38.
144. Kelly sued lawmakers on Thursday, saying Kansas lives are on the line and “I took an oath to uphold and defend the constitution.” Three of the state’s 12 clusters have stemmed from church gatherings.
145. On Wednesday, AP reported the Trump regime is considering loosening rules to allow Americans who have been exposed but have no symptoms to return to work. More than 14,000 Americans were dead.
146. On Wednesday, NBC News reported the White House is working on a plan to cut aid to the WHO, as Trump tried to deflect blame for his mishandling of the crisis. The regime is also looking at the timeline of their response.
147. On Wednesday, WAPO reported three months into the coronavirus epidemic, the Trump regime still lacks a national strategy for testing, something experts say is key to slowing the spread and resuming daily life.
148. In the absence of federal leadership, several states are developing their own testing systems, such as New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut working together, as well as California and Utah.
149. Testing varies widely between states. Some like New York, using private labs, have tested 1,645 of every 100,000 people, while Texas has tested 297 and Georgia 381. On a per capita basis the U.S. is behind many countries.
150. On Wednesday, NYT reported that while the coronavirus was slow to spread to rural areas, more than two-thirds of rural counties now have positive cases, with one in ten having at least one death.
151. Doctors and elected officials are warning the virus could overwhelm rural counties that are older, sicker, and poorer than much of the country, and have limited access to medical care, including beds, staff, and equipment.
152. Several of the hold-out states that have not issued stay-at-home order, including North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, and Arkansas have large rural populations — some say it violates personal liberties.
153. Rural doctors and nurses are already calling in sick and being quarantined. The loss of 120 rural hospitals in the past decade leaves many areas defenseless, while other hospitals are now in the process of closing.
154. Rich ski towns like Sun Valley and Vail have some of the highest infection rates in the country. Indian reservations, which suffer from high poverty and inadequate medical services, are confronting a huge increase in cases.
155. On Wednesday, NYT reported that there are at least 1,324 coronavirus cases in U.S. prisons, including at least 32 deaths. Some state and local agencies have not released information on cases or deaths.
156. Cook County jail in Illinois is the country’s largest known source of infection, with 238 inmates and 115 staff cases. The jail said the figure is likely low because most of the 4,500 inmates have not been tested.
157. The outbreak has caused authorities across the country to release inmates awaiting trial or serving time for nonviolent crimes. Inmates say there are few protections in place, and guards do not always wear masks.
158. On Wednesday, at the daily briefing, Trump repeated that we will be able to reopen “sooner rather than later,” adding, “We’ll be sitting down with many different people and making a determination…fairly soon.”
159. Asked again if he was briefed on the Navarro memos, Trump said, “I don’t remember that. I’ve now seen the memo…Peter sends a lot of memos. I didn’t see the memo. … But no, I didn’t see the memo at the time.”
160. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said 50,000 Americans have been brought back from 90 countries. He backed off from attacking China, saying, “This is not the time for retribution,” but for “clarity and transparency.”
161. Asked about a leadership change at the WHO, “This is not the time to be doing that kind of change,” he said. “There’ll be a lot of time to look back and see how the World Health Organization performed.”
162. Fauci and Birx rejected an increasingly popular theory on Fox News put forth by Tucker Carlson and and Brit Hume that the coronavirus death toll is inflated because people are dying regardless of other medical conditions.
163. Birx noted if people have an underlying condition, it is exacerbated by the virus that causes the disease covid-19. Fauci added, “You will always have conspiracy theories when you have a very challenging public health crisis.”
164. On Wednesday, former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly told former colleague Sean Hannity on his radio show of people dying from the coronavirus that many “both here and around the world, were on their last legs anyway.”
165. On Wednesday, Attorney General William Barr told Fox News host Laura Ingraham that coronavirus lockdown measures are “draconian” and should be revisited at the end of April.
166. Barr added, “I think we have to allow people to adapt more…and not just tell people to go home and hide under their bed,” adding he was “very concerned” about encroachments on freedom of religion.
167. Barr also said of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, “What happened to him [Trump] was one of the greatest travesties in American history,”
168. Barr added, “Without any basis, they started this investigation of his campaign,” and said “even more concerning” is “a whole pattern of events while he was president … to sabotage the presidency.”
169. On Wednesday, Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Liberty University, said arrest warrants were out for Julia Rendleman, a freelance photographer for NYT, and Alec MacGillis, a ProPublica reporter, for trespassing on campus.
170. On Thursday, AP reported 1 in 10 Americans have lost their job in the past three weeks, as the Department of Labor announced another 6.6 million filed for unemployment last week, bringing the total to 16.8 million.
171. On Thursday, CNN reported according to data from the National Multifamily Housing Council, a trade association, just 69% of American paid this month’s rent, down from 82% in April 2019.
172. On Thursday, WSJ reported farmers are dumping food product as closed restaurants, hotels, and schools hurt demand. As much as 7% of all milk produced last week was dumped.
173. Sanderson Farms said demand from restaurants was down 60-65%, causing it to break eggs rather than hatch them. Consumption patterns are changing, and packaging and such meant for restaurants does not work for consumers.
174. Two major dairy industry groups sent a “milk crisis plan” to the Department of Agriculture this week, urging for help to purchase the milk for the nation’s feeding program or to pay farms that cut production.
175. On Thursday, San Antonio Express News reported a record-setting 10,000 cars lined up at the San Antonio Food Bank. Cars started lining up before dawn for households hit by the economic effects of the coronavirus.
176. Roughly 6,000 households pre-registered, and thousands more showed up. The food bank stayed open four extra hours, and called the Food Bank warehouse to send in more trucks. Workers were brought to tears.
177. On Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told CNBC, “We could have a depression because so many people are out of work.” On reopening, she said, “Data, data, data, evidence, science — that is the answer.”
178. On Thursday, with Trump eager to reopen the economy, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin told CNBC the U.S. economy could be ready to reopen by the end of May, saying as soon as Trump “feels comfortable.”
179. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell echoed the sentiment in an interview, saying, “We need to have a plan nationally for reopening the economy. We all want it to happen as quickly as possible.”
180. On Thursday, Fauci told the WSJ, “When you gradually come back, you don’t jump into it with both feet,” and going forward we should have “compulsive hand-washing,” and “don’t ever shake anybody’s hands.”
181. On Thursday, Fauci told the “TODAY” show that the country is enduring a “very bad week,” but thanks to social distancing measures, the final toll currently “looks more like 60,000 than the 100,000 to 200,000.”
182. The figures is based on a new projection by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, which predicted the U.S. death toll through early August. The projection also showed deaths will peak on April 11.
183. Fauci cited “glimmers of hope” in New York where hospitalizations, ICU admissions, and intubations are down. He said testing will be important to reopening, adding many may have been infected and asymptomatic and not know it.
184. On Thursday, NYT reported Trump’s advisers and GOP allies are worried that the daily briefings have devolved to campaign rhetoric of belittling Democratic governors, attacking the media, and trafficking innuendo.
185. Trump is effectively wagering he can win re-election amid a national crisis on a platform of polarization. Republicans and regime officials want him to limit his error-filled appearances and focus instead on the economy.
186. As Bernie Sanders dropped out and Biden became his opponent, Trump has mostly lost the small approval bump he got at the start of the crisis. Three polls show Biden leading. He trails governors and Fauci in polling.
187. Even as a senior campaign adviser said Trump was handing Biden ammunition, publicity-obsessed Trump is unlikely to give up the appearances, telling aides he loves the free television time and the ratings.
188. Some Republicans want Trump to step back and put Fauci in charge, and include a broad range of the country’s leaders, including George W. Bush and Barack Obama, for an all-hands-on-deck national emergency.
189. On Thursday, WSJ reported Trump is weighing creating a new economy-focused coronavirus task force, including Mnuchin, Kudlow, Ivanka and Kevin Hassett, former chair of the Council of Economic Advisers.
190. On Thursday, CNN reported that Pence’s office is blocking public health officials, including Birx and Fauci, from appearing on CNN unless the network broadcasts the daily briefings, including portions with Pence and other officials.
191. Currently, CNN is broadcasting Trump and questions, which sometimes includes health officials, and then cuts to fact checking what Trump said. Major networks had stopped broadcasting Trump, but have not been singled out.
192. On Thursday, Politico reported that Trump’s approval rating is dipping back down, after a short bump with the coronavirus outbreak. Presidents typically surge in a time of crisis — Trump’s rise was short and small.
193. On Thursday, the WSJ Editorial Board excoriated Trump in an op-ed titled “Trump’s Wasted Briefings,” saying he has “concluded that the briefings could be a showcase for him,” perhaps a substitute for campaign rallies.
194. They noted his outbursts against critics are “notably off key,” as this is “a once-a-century threat to American life and livelihood.” The board also criticized long briefings, saying they should be no more than 45 minutes.
195. On Thursday, Cuomo announced a “breathtaking” 799 deaths, saying the pandemic had far eclipsed the horror of 9/11, and that he never thought any New Yorker would experience such mass death in a generation.
196. Shortly after, Trump tweeted the WSJ “always “forgets” to mention that the ratings for the White House Press Briefings are “through the roof” (Monday Night Football, Bachelor Finale…), calling them “Fake News.”
197. On Thursday, states in the South and Midwest saw a spike in cases: Illinois added 1,500 cases to 15,000 with 462 dead, Michigan saw 117 deaths and passed 1,000 total, Kansas saw 150 new cases, three times the day prior.
198. On Thursday, Florida Gov. Rick DeSantis said he was mulling re-opening schools in May, saying Covid-19 “doesn’t seem to threaten” kids, and added, “Even if it’s for a couple of weeks, we think there would be value in that.”
199. On Thursday, a prestigious National Academy of Sciences committee told Trump in a letter that the coronavirus will not go away with warmer weather, as Trump has claimed.
200. On Thursday, NYT reported the United States Postal Service appealed to Congress for an $89 billion rescue package, saying it could run out of cash by the end of September, with mail volume down nearly one-third.
201. Democrats have pressed to give the USPS most of what it wants, but Trump has resisted, saying the agency should solve its own problem by raising prices on packages delivered for big online retailers like Amazon.
202. On Thursday, Bloomberg reported that the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement that Covid-19 may “reactivate,” saying 51 patients testing positive again after being cured.
203. On Thursday, Trump’s campaign took heat for an ad showing Biden with former Washington governor Gary Locke, who is Chinese-American, claiming, “Biden stands up for China … while China cripples America.”
204. On Thursday, GOP Gov. Chris Sununu announced New Hampshire will allow voters to cast mail-in ballots in the November election if the coronavirus is still a factor — a break from his previous position and with Trump.
205. On Thursday, and again on Friday, Trump spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin. There was no U.S. readout. Putin said they discussed a cut in global oil production and the coronavirus outbreak.
206. On Thursday, the Dow Jones jumped 282 points, or 1.2%, capping off the stock market’s best since 1974, rallying 12.7%. The stock market was closed Friday for Good Friday.
207. During the week, the Federal Reserve unveiled plans to inject an additional $2.3 trillion into programs aiming to get money to small businesses and to help bolster municipal finances.
208. On Thursday, WAPO reported behind closed doors Trump is pushing to reopen much of the country on May 1, concerned about the sagging economy and its impact on his reelection prospects.
209. On Thursday, at the daily briefing, Trump said the U.S. was at the “top of the hill,” adding, “Hopefully, we’re going to be opening up — you could call it opening — very, very, very, very soon, I hope.”
210. The briefing was Trump’s 26th appearance in 27 days, appearing each evening in prime television viewership time as Americans are stuck at home. The briefings have become increasingly long and devoid of news.
211. While Americans are tuning in, desperate for information, the briefings have devolved into a daily reality show filled with dangerously inaccurate information. Trump seemed to heed the WSJ, and kept his remarks brief.
212. Reporters attending the briefing were tested as a precaution, after a member of the press corp left Tuesday after feeling symptoms, but later tested negative. All reporters have their temperatures checked upon entry.
213. On Thursday, Fox News host Laura Ingraham said, “After hearing all of the stories where hydroxychloroquine is credited with saving lives, it is amazing that the left and the medical establishment is still in total denial.”
214. On Friday, WAPO reported that Fox News hosts have tried to turn the hydroxychloroquine controversy into a culture war, part of a Roger Ailes playbook of having heroes and villains and a theme across the network.
215. The Fox News shows this week followed that theme of emphasizing that the critics of the drug are wrong, and overstating its danger just to get at Trump. The network appeared to be in a feedback loop with Trump.
216. On Friday, NPR reported a doctor in Texas used his GOP connections to get hydroxychloroquine to give to dozens of elderly patients at a nursing home diagnosed with Covid-19, in what he called an “observational study.”
217. Dr. Robin Armstrong, a prominent GOP activist, admitted it will be difficult to quantify an improvement from the drug. In some cases, he didn’t discuss with families before prescribing the drug. Doctors raised ethical concerns.
218. On Friday, Trump tweeted, “in only 4 days, we had the biggest Stock Market increase since 1974,” and “great chance for the really big bounce when the Invisible Enemy is gone!” More than 17,000 were dead.
219. On Friday, CNN reported that due to the surge of deaths in New York, victims who are not claimed at morgues within 14 days will be buried on New York’s Hart Island. The plots will be marked for future identification.
220. On Friday, Cuomo said he signed an executive order which will allow out-of-state funeral directors to come help with the virus toll. Some funeral directors said they had run out of body bags.
221. On Friday, Trump tweeted, “Nobody wants to say that if Elizabeth Warren gets out of the race before Super Tuesday, Crazy Bernie Sanders wins virtually every state in a blowout.”
222. On Friday, Fauci told MSNBC he expects a “real degree of normality” by the November elections, saying he hopes “by November we would have things under such control that we could have a real degree of normality.”
223. On Friday, at an early and hours-long daily briefing on Good Friday, Trump announced he plans to appoint a council to advise him and make recommendations on how to best reopen the country.
224. Trump said, “I’m going to surround myself with the greatest minds.” When asked what metrics they will use to evaluate opening parts of the country, Trump pointed to his temple and said, “The metrics right here.”
225. Trump said he would listen to experts, but he would decide when to reopen, claiming, “I’ve made a lot of big decisions in my life. This is by far the biggest decision of my life.” States have their own restrictions in place.
226. Trump lied, saying, “We’re in great shape in every way. Ventilators, protective clothing — we’re not getting any calls from governors…We’re getting very few calls from governors or anybody else needing anything.”
227. Trump congratulated himself on “tremendous progress,” adding, “In the midst of grief and pain, we’re seeing clear signs that our aggressive strategy is saving countless lives.” More than 18,600 were dead.
228. Trump also said the coronavirus is “a very brilliant enemy,” adding, “the germ has gotten so brilliant that the antibiotic can’t keep up with it.” Antibiotics are not used for treatment of viruses.
229. Asked about racial disparity, Surgeon General Adams, who is a black man, said Americans of color should follow safety procedures for “your Big Mama,” including to “avoid alcohol, tobacco and drugs.”
230. On Friday, the WHO director-general Ghebreyesus warned, “Lifting restrictions too quickly could lead to a deadly resurgence,” adding, “The way down can be as dangerous as the way up if not managed properly.”
231. On Friday, a Fox News poll found 80% of voters nationwide said they favored the federal government announcing a stay at home order for everyone but essential workers.
232. On Friday, the U.S. passed 500,000 confirmed cases, 29% of all cases in the world, and more than triple the number of next country Spain. While Spain and Italy were seeing fewer case, the U.S. continued a sharp increase.
233. Shortly after, the global coronavirus death toll crossed 100,000, with more than 1.6 million cases. More than 18,000 Americans were dead, roughly 18% of the world’s total, and with 29% of the world’s cases.
234. On Friday, Boris Johnson was taken out of the ICU as his condition stabilized. So far, 8,958 British people have died. Moscow’s mayor announced tighter restrictions starting Monday, as Russia experienced a spread of the virus.
235. On Friday, in the early evening, the U.S. passed 500,000 coronavirus cases, with 18,664 Americans dead. New York accounted for nearly 35% of the cases with 172,358, down from nearly half in past weeks.
236. On Saturday, the U.S. passed Italy to have the most coronavirus deaths in the world, reaching 19,424 and surpassing Italy’s total of 18,849. There is widespread concern that lack of testing has led to a U.S. undercount.
237. WAPO reported the CDC only counts deaths in which the virus is confirmed in a laboratory test. There has been lack of testing accessibility throughout the country, and questions on the accuracy of testing.
238. On Saturday, NYT reported that during January, numerous officials in the government including top White House advisers, cabinet departments, and intelligence agencies sounded alarms and called for aggressive action.
239. Trump in January played down the seriousness of the virus, and focused on other issues. Instead of taking action, Trump focused on controlling the message and protecting gains in the economy.
240. Trump’s response, post impeachment, was also colored by distrust and disdain for the “Deep State” — the very people with long experience who could have guided him on steps needed to slow the virus and save lives.
241. In January, the National Security Council office responsible for tracking pandemics raised the option of keeping Americans at home from work and shutting down some large cities. Trump waited until March.
242. Despite Trump’s denials, he was told about Navarro’s memos. HHS Secretary Alex Azar warned Trump on a January 30 call, the second warning in two weeks. Trump said Azar was being alarmist.
243. Department of Veterans Affairs, Dr. Carter Mecher, in a January 28 email warned, “The projected size of the outbreak already seems hard to believe,” and added, “Now I’m screaming, close the colleges and universities.”
244. Trump’s only action in January was to limit travel with China on January 31, after internal debate and dissent by Mnuchin who was concerned about the impact on the pending trade deal with China.
245. In a Capitol Hill briefing on February 5, senators pushed regime officials to take the virus more seriously. Sen. Christopher Murphy tweeted shortly after: “Bottom line: they aren’t taking this seriously enough.”
246. On February 21, Dr. Robert Kadlec, the top disaster response official at the HHS, convened the coronavirus task force to discuss a lockdown. It took three more weeks for Trump to act.
247. Trump announced social distancing guidelines on March 16. As markets cratered, he repeatedly considered lifting restrictions. He did not think the regime should be blamed for lack of testing, saying it was up to states.
248. On Saturday, Trump declared Wyoming a disaster due to the coronavirus at the request of the governor, adding it to the long list of states, territories, and the District. All 50 states were covered by federal declarations.
249. On Saturday, there was no public daily briefing. Vice President Pence convened a meeting of the task force, closed to the media, and not listed on Trump’s daily schedule.
250. As the week came to a close, there were 1,733,792 worldwide cases and 106,649 dead from the coronavirus. The U.S. had 506,188 cases (nearly 3 in 10 worldwide), 19,701 deaths (18.4%), and a mortality rate of 3.9%.