“This is a great success story, and I think that's really what needs to be told. ...
I think you'll see by June that a lot of the country should be back to normal, and the hope is that by July the country's really rocking again.”
Kushner wasn't the only one making rosy predictions. Here's Kevin Hassett's chart from early May (a few days after Kushner's quote). Infections and deaths were projected to have stopped months ago, and total deaths at 134,475 (count as of today: 335,000)
"While talk of an increase in cases dominates cable news coverage, more than half of states are actually seeing cases decline or remain stable. ... the progress we’ve made is remarkable." is what Mike Pence wrote in June: wsj.com/articles/there…
"We’re going toward 50- or 60,000 people. That’s at the lower--as you know, the low number was supposed to be 100,000 people. We could end up at 50-60." - President Trump, April 20, on his projected total COVID American death toll
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Becerra got his current job b/c he was appointed to Harris's old job when she was elected to the Senate.
Now the governor, Newsom, will appoint at least two statewide officials: a senator and an AG. Plus, perhaps, a secretary of state, if the current one gets one of those spots
part of the reason Newsom was holding off on naming Harris's replacement for the Senate was his awareness that there was a chance of Becerra's HHS nomination, and that he'd potentially get a chance to balance these appointments
there's also speculation that Newsom would get an appointment for California's other Senate seat, given that Feinstein is 87 and her term runs through 2024. If so, that would be an unprecedented singlehanded reworking of power in America's largest state by Newsom.
it's a lie that Trump met with resistance in his own transition.
Obama instructed aides directly to do everything to assist. Special iPads were prepared with material for each agency & office. Counterpart meetings were offered. Obama spoke to Trump several times himself.
"Our staffs have been getting along very well, and I'm getting along very well with him," Trump said then. "Other than a couple of statements I responded to&we talked about it and smiled about it and nobody is ever going to know b/c we are never going 2b going against each other"
What *is* true is that the Pence and Kushner threw out the materials prepared by Christie over the summer of 2016 because they thought they knew better how to do it. And that many incoming Trump officials didn’t follow up with Obama counterparts offering meetings.
Bob Bauer of the Biden campaign on a briefing right now: "the harm is real; there is, however, no chance that Donald Trump can be successful in what he is trying to do"
Bauer says of yesterday's Republican briefing led by Giuliani and Sidney Powell: "ludicrous" and "comical":
"it was an embarrassment to everyone concerned, but that's where we are. It's all the president has left at this point."
Bauer says Trump's summoning of Michigan officials to try to get them to overturn the popular vote because he doesn't like the results is simultaneously "an abuse of power" and "pathetic"
This number could go up significantly as votes keep being counted in spots like California & New York. But either way, shows how minute differences in some states—cumulatively, a shift of under 300,000 votes would radically change what the Electoral College looked like either way
Biden’s current popular vote lead is bigger than the populations of 21 states, or of the approximate populations of Rhode Island, Delaware, North Dakota, South Dakota, Alaska, Vermont and Wyoming combined.
"our data shows that Joe Biden will be the next president of the United States," argues Biden campaign manager @jomalleydillon. Seeing "the same data and knows he is losing" Trump "continues to push a flailing strategy designed to keep people's votes from being counted"
.@jomalleydillon is predicting that there may be some fluctuations as the votes come in for Nevada, depending on which county comes in when during the day, but that by the end of the day, the count will be done there and Biden will win
A similar prediction for Arizona fluctuations over the day as with Nevada: "the story of Arizona is one where Joe Biden is going to win, but it's going to take time"