In Case You Missed It (V35)

Got a cuppa, or a Mother's Day mimosa or some other day drink? Maybe a breakfast sammy or a bowl of homemade soup? It doesn't matter what you're eating or drinking or even what time of day it is - gather 'round, and take a look at the week that was.

Last week's Sunday School was an all-politician edition, with five governors talking about the situation in their states. The conversations touched on testing, reopening, protests, and more.  NJ's Phil Murphy visited the Fox News Sunday virtual classroom. In response to Chris Wallace's wondering about state aid and prior comments Murphy had made, saying "it's going to be Armageddon" if they don't get federal aid, here's what the gov had to say.

We need a big slug of federal, direct cash assistance. And it's not -- not just New Jersey and it's not just blue states... It clearly would be a huge win for the residents who are being served. It would be a huge win for those first- line responders and their families, working families. I think, frankly, it's a huge win for the president to be able to say, you know what, with this cash assistance, we were able to keep serving folks across the country in both red and blue states, and we kept folks employed at a time where we desperately need to keep folks employed.

We know, generally, that the up-sucking is usually successful, so we'll have to see if Trump takes the bait and pressures Mitch McConnell to take one for the team and work to get on state and municipal aid. After all, it's only money, right?

Monday's Extra Credit was all about the medical experts, including Dr. Tom Inglesby of Johns Hopkins, who talked with Chuck Todd on MTP,  who said that "it's like a patchwork across the country" in terms of access to and "the operations around" testing, in contrast to what the White House has maintained. He noted in some places the percentage of people testing positive is very low, while in others it's very high, and said "that's worrisome." And more diagnostic testing is important because we're not capturing the mildly or moderately sick folks now, so we "can't break their chains of transmission."

He was also asked whether he's worried about a "bad fall outcome" if we don't see advancements on treatment or a vaccine, Inglesby is worried even before we get to fall. 

Nothing has changed in the underlying dynamics of this virus. If we stop social distancing all together tomorrow, we would recreate the conditions that existed in the country in February and March. So what we need to do is continue, to our best possible effort, all the individual efforts we're making around social distancing...the extent to which we're able to do that over the next couple of months will dictate how we do as states and as a country.

Because, as he reminded us, in the fall we'll still have COVID and we'll have the flu, at the same time...

In Wednesday's Wondering, I tried to understand exactly what Secretary of State Mike Pompeo actually believes about the coronavirus, aka the Wuhan virus, aka the Chinese virus, aka the "whatever button we're pushing today" virus. Martha Raddatz, sitting in for George on This Week, asked him if he believed the virus was man-made or genetically modified. 

(I emphatically modified the transcript for clarity - if there's any to be found in this interview.)

Pompeo said "Look, the best experts so far seem to think it was man-made. I have no reason to disbelieve that at this point."

Here's the part where Raddatz pushed back.

MR: Your - your Office of the DNI says the consensus, the scientific consensus was not man-made or genetically modified.

MP: That's right. I agree with that. Yeah. I've seen their analysis. I've seen the summary that you saw that was released publicly. I have no reason to doubt that that is accurate...

MR: OK, so just to be clear,  you do not think it was man-made or genetically modified?

MP: I've seen what the intelligence community has said. I have no reason to believe that they've got it wrong.

I have no reason to disbelieve the consensus is his statements are as clear as mud. Simultaneously,  I agree that they are not.  Hmm.... I maybe could get use to this kind of thinking...

And almost before I realized it, Friday was upon us, and so was the week's TGIF entry. Among the former Democratic presidential candidates who are not currently elected officials, Andrew Yang is the one I hear from the most. He's continuing to push for universal basic income for all Americans and has now formed a new Political Action Committee. But that's not why he made our good week - bad week list. Nope -- that was for a totally different reason.

For a somewhat unusual reason, Andrew Yang is in the news again this week. Last week, Yang sued the NYS Board of Elections for cancelling this year's presidential primary, as there are no candidates still officially in the running other than Joe Biden. And just the other day, a federal judge ordered NY to hold the primary after all. While some saw it as a victory for delegates who still have a chance to impact the party's platform at the convention, others don't feel the same. Ben Adler, writing in City and State New York, disagrees.  Adler said "this is just more proof - as if any were needed after Trump - that "outsider" candidates who run to promote their personal brand or idiosyncratic ideas usually leave politics worse for their involvement." Ouch.

We closed the week with a Trump in Transition entry. This is a sporadic recurring feature started back when he was in transition from celebrity obnoxious businessman to celebrity obnoxious president, but the theme has continued, because he can't seem to actually transition into a president that is worthy of representing the best of America. And he proved that, repeatedly, in an interview with ABC's David Muir. 

The interview was such a mess that twice in the post I had to make 'put down your beverage' warnings, something I typically only do when having private conversations with friends. Consider yourself warned, or things could get messy. 

Here's one of the least ridiculous moments, when Muir tried to get Trump to say whether or not he agreed with my Sonofa Gov Andrew Cuomo that governors who were trying to reopen might have to stop, or "turn off the valve...slow things down" if they see spikes in key metrics. 

No, I don't know -- I’d have to see his full statement. But look we've gotten along very well. Don't forget Governor Cuomo last week said the President and the federal government had done -- have done a phenomenal job. He said that. A phenomenal job.

Huh?

I can only tell you what he said last week. I mean, David, I can only tell you what he said last week. I mean, it wasn't - two years ago. He said the President and the federal government have done a phenomenal job. That was the word he used and he's right.

We built him 2,900 beds. We moved the ship in. Now, they didn't use it too much, which I'm frankly happy about because they didn't need it because we were right about the numbers. We were actually right about the numbers, but we took the Javits Convention Center and made it into a major hospital in a period of four days. So, he's been you know he's been actually very nice, I think.

The part before the 'Huh?" is when Muir asked it the first time. After the 'Huh?" is the Trump's second response. And yes, there was  a third attempt, and we STILL don't know the answer to this simple yes or no question. 

So, there it is - the veritable pastiche from last week - an interesting one, for sure, if share my affliction for trying to understand what the heck some of these folks are talking about. 

Keep your distance. Wear your mask. Wash your hands. Stay safe.  I'll be back later with today's Sunday School.