"First I want to thank you, for your decisive leadership ... I also want to thank you for coming here today ... I think that's the most important thing I want to say" --CDC Director Redfield slathers Dear Leader-style praise on Trump during his tour of CDC headquarters
I regret to inform you that CDC Director Redfield is a Trump sycophant
CDC officials are unable to explain why they didn't just use the WHO's coronavirus test instead of trying to develop their own, which ended up being a failed effort that got in the way of efforts to promptly test more Americans
Trump is still pushing his bonkers argument that coronavirus isn't that bad because lots of people die from the flu. He then pivots to a plug for Fox News and the ratings his town hall got last night.
"Who are you from by the way? I don't watch CNN. That's why I don't recognize you. I don't watch CNN because CNN is fake news" -- Trump insults a CNN reporter
"The [coronavirus] tests are all perfect. Like the letter was perfect. The transcription was perfect. This was not a perfect as that, but pretty good." -- is Trump referring to the transcript of his phone call with the Ukrainian president here?
"I like the numbers being where they are. I don't need to have the numbers double because of one ship" -- Trump explains that he doesn't want to let people off the Grand Princess cruise ship because he doesn't want the number of coronavirus cases in the country to go up
Trump defends gutting the federal government's pandemic preparedness over his first 3 years in office: "I just think this is something that you can never really think is going to happen."
Here's Trump rambling at length about how smart he is and how well he understands public health
Trump smears Jay Inslee, governor of the state at the heart of the coronavirus outbreak: "I told Mike [Pence] not to be complimentary of the governor, because that governor is a snake."
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"Sure did" -- Biden in response to George Stephanopoulos opening the interview by saying he had a "bad night" during the debate
"I was exhausted," he adds.
Biden says he was feeling so bad ahead of the debate that he took a covid test but he just had "a really bad cold"
"Nobody's fault but mine ... I just had a bad night. You've had some bad interviews once in a while. I can't remember any but I'm sure you did" -- Biden to Stephanopoulos
I'm going to put together a thread covering Biden's rally in Madison, Wisconsin. Follow along for clips and commentary.
Biden has jokes: "I'm only 40 now, but I was a kid back then."
Biden: "By the way, if you wondered whether Trump has it all together, did you ever hear how explained the 4th of July? ... He said, 'George Washington's army won the revolution by taking control of the airports from the British.' Talk about me misspeaking!"
Biden: "This nation is founded on the principle that there are no kings in America .. no one is above the law, not even the President of the US ... [but] for all practical purposes, today's decision almost certainly means that there are almost no limits on what POTUS can do"
Biden: "This decision today has continued the Court's attack in recent years on a range of long-established legal principles in our nation. From gutting voting rights and civil rights, to taking away a woman's right to choose, to today's decision that undermines the rule of law."
Biden: "Nearly 4 years ago, my predecessor sent a violent mob to the Capitol to stop the peaceful transfer of power. We all saw it ... now the man who sent that mob is facing potential conviction. The American people deserve to have an answer in the courts before the election."
Rep. Clyburn on CNN: "I always say that the best predictor of future behavior is past performance. And when you look at the best performance of these two men, we get a lot of indication of what their future behavior should be. Joe Biden should continue to run on his record."
Clyburn: "Take into account the record. Yes, it was a bad performance ... I know when I see what I call 'preparation overload.' And that's exactly what was going on the other night."
Dana Bash gets a bit defensive after Clyburn criticizes the CNN debate for the lack of fact-checking (Bash was one of the moderators)
I'm putting together a thread covering the first Biden-Trump debate of the 2024 cycle. Follow along for clips and commentary 👇
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