Excerpts of @MarkMeadows' jaw-dropping CNN interview:
1) He says WH is focused on limiting deaths, not spread. "We’re not going to control the pandemic," he says. "What we need to do is make sure that we have... vaccines or treatments to make sure that people don’t die" from it.
2) @MarkMeadows derides Biden for promoting masks: “This president is leading, while Joe Biden is sitting there suggesting that we’re going to mandate masks.”
”What is Joe Biden’s plan for the pandemic?” Meadows asks later. ”He’s going to wear two masks, like he does every day?”
3) Meadows argues that masks aren't "the answer," since experts admit they wouldn't make schools perfectly safe.
He suggests mask science is dubious because WH virus officials Fauci and Birx, "the people you like to tout," changed their views. (They now strongly urge mask use.)
4) When @jaketapper cites cases in which people "got the virus at these Trump rallies" (he cites examples in MN, DC, and OK), @MarkMeadows suggests that masks wouldn't have helped, because reporters who "have worn masks religiously" also get infected.
5) Meadows defends the campaign's refusal to require masks at rallies.
@jaketapper: ”Why don’t you require supporters to wear masks at rallies?”
Meadows: “We live in a free society.”
Meadows: “We give out masks.”
Tapper: “They don’t wear them.”
Meadows: “It’s a free society.”
6) When Tapper asks about NYT's report that Meadows "sought to keep news of the outbreak" among Pence's staff "from becoming public," even as Pence campaigns, Meadows replies, "Sharing personal information is not something that we should do."
2020 is not 2016. To come back and win, Trump would need a far greater miracle than he got last time.
This thread shows surveys from 5 key states. Same pollsters, similar time frame, 2020 vs. 2016. Look at Biden’s numbers compared to Clinton’s. He's polling significantly higher.
This WP investigation, based on inside reporting, finds that Trump and like-minded advisers — in particular, Scott Atlas — have abandoned the war on the virus. They've decided to accept mass infection, and they've undercut measures to stop the spread. /1 wapo.st/3dMuQb2
Atlas is undermining preventive measures. He dismisses masks and social distancing as meaningless. Two days ago, he publicly rejected the idea that "masks work." He says all restrictions on activity should be lifted except for the highest-risk groups. /2 wapo.st/3dMuQb2
Atlas has blocked efforts to test the general population. As a result, money allocated by Congress for testing is going unspent. That's one reason why people can't get fast test results. It also impedes the government's ability to monitor the spread. /3 wapo.st/3dMuQb2
For four days, we’ve watched Republicans lie about Trump’s mismanagement of the coronavirus.
Now it’s time to tell the truth. This article documents everything he did to multiply the death toll. Here are a few key facts and excerpts to read and share. /1 bit.ly/3fImz7h
Trump says China deceived him about the virus. But Trump actually collaborated with Xi to deceive the rest of us. Here’s a phone call in which Xi fed Trump a rosy talking point that US health officials called misleading. Trump then used that talking point at a campaign rally. /2
This chronology shows that Trump downplayed the virus and said it was going away 1) after he was told it was spreading, 2) after he was told that China was understating the crisis, and 3) after his own health officials warned it would overwhelm the US. /3 bit.ly/3b0kHpN
The @washingtonpost reports that Trump, in continuing to tell Americans that the virus is receding, is in fact contradicting an internal White House projection — which, according to aides, alarmed him — that infections will rise from August to October. /1 wapo.st/2XJloOO
The Post report also indicates that Trump has refused to force companies to produce equipment for virus tests, on the grounds that doing so would expose him to responsibility for the testing shortage, which he prefers to dump on governors. /2
The article says Trump's chief of staff, @MarkMeadows, "personally monitors" Fauci’s media appearances and "admonishes" him when he sees Fauci "sounding out of sync with Trump." Meadows has instructed Fauci, Birx, and other health officials not to "opine on restrictions." /3
Kudos to @nytimes and @SherylNYT for publishing this article on Birx, which rectifies some of the unfair criticism aimed at her in NYT's July 18 article. This one tells the rest of the story: She's been pushing the White House and governors to do more. /1 nyti.ms/30AEgS0
The July 18 article was full of criticisms of Birx, many of them anonymous, that exceeded, and in some cases contradicted, evidence in the public record. Some of that evidence was in the article itself. I described some problems with that article here. /2