Cut to the News
Cut through the clutter to today's top news
October 2, 2020
Good morning
Welcome to today's top news.
Leading the News . . .
Trump tests positive for coronavirus . . . President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump have tested positive for the coronavirus. Trump tweeted the news out early Friday morning: "Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery
process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!" Thursday evening, he tweeted the news that his close advisor, Hope Hicks, had tested positive. It is not clear if he caught the virus from her. Hicks had traveled Wednesday with the president to a campaign rally in Duluth, Minnesota. She reportedly began feeling symptoms on the flight home from the rally Wednesday evening and was isolated from others on the plane. Trump is 74 and overweight, and is therefore at elevated risk for
complications from the disease. Let’s all pray for him, the first lady, and our country. White House Dossier
Vice President Pence could assume control if Trump incapacitated . . . President Trump could potentially be forced to relinquish executive control to Vice President Mike Pence or be replaced on the GOP ticket altogether, if he becomes incapacitated from COVID-19. The 25th Amendment
states that the vice president can replace the commander-in-chief temporarily in the event that Trump is unable to continue the term. If the VP is also unable to assume control, the powers are then delegated to the Speaker of the House, in this case, Nancy Pelosi. Daily Mail
Trump receives well wishes from critics . . . Shortly after President Trump announced that he and First Lady Melania Trump had tested positive for COVID-19, a number of the president’s fiercest critics wished him well as he battles a disease that has already left more than 205,000 Americans dead. “God bless the president and the first lady,” MSNBC host Rachel Maddow tweeted. “If you pray, please pray for their speedy and complete
recovery — and for everyone infected, everywhere.” She added: “This virus is horrific and merciless — no one would wish its wrath on anyone.” Actress Alyssa Milano, who has fiercely criticized Trump on numerous issues including his nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, tweeted that she “wouldn’t wish this virus on my worst enemy.” Fox News
Others mock and lecture . . . While many on social media sent well wishes to President Trump and first lady Melania Trump early Friday after the president confirmed they had both tested positive for the coronavirus, others took the time to criticize or make negative comments. "Tonight will reveal where we all think the line is comedically," director Judd Apatow, who is known for movies like "Knocked Up" and "The
40-Year-Old Virgon" tweeted about the likely prospect the president's diagnosis would be fodder for jokes.
"Maybe you shouldn't have mocked people for wearing masks," screenwriter Randi Mayem Singer, who wrote "Mrs. Doubtfire," commented on Twitter. "Maybe you shouldn't have encouraged packed crowds. Maybe you shouldn't have told the CDC what to report. Maybe you don't deserve to be POTUS." Fox News
Coronavirus stimulus talks in limbo after vote on Democrat-only plan . . . U.S. stimulus talks remain on life support after the House passed a Democrat-only $2.2 trillion package that did nothing to bridge the gap with Republicans. The 214-207 vote, which garnered no GOP support, followed the most concerted
talks between the top negotiators since early August. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters Thursday evening that she would review documents that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had sent her to determine where to go next. Bloomberg
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Trump condemns white supremacists and the Proud Boys . . . President Trump explicitly denounced white supremacists in a Thursday night interview, after facing a number of questions in recent days for his controversial comments on the far-right “Proud Boys” group during the first
presidential debate. “I’ve said it many times, and let me be clear again: I condemn the [Ku Klux Klan]. I condemn all white supremacists. I condemn the Proud Boys. I don’t know much about the Proud Boys, almost nothing. But I condemn that,” Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity. The president also repeated his view that Vice President Joe Biden should condemn Antifa. Trump called the left-wing group, known to clash with Proud Boys members, “a horrible group of people.” New York Post
Today's Trump schedule
Coney Barrett signed antiabortion ad in 2006 . . . Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett signed an antiabortion newspaper advertisement more than a decade ago that blasted the high court’s landmark abortion rights ruling in Roe v. Wade, a public stance that brought new focus Thursday to a central issue in her confirmation battle. A Senate Democratic aide said “the ad should have been included in Judge Barrett’s Senate Judiciary questionnaire
and was not.” The Senate Judiciary Committee, which is vetting her nomination, had asked her to provide a list of all published material, including letters to the editor. The two-page advertisement was placed in a South Bend, Ind., newspaper in January 2006 by a group called St. Joseph County Right to Life. The ad, pegged to the anniversary of Roe, contained one page with a list of signatories under a statement saying, “We, the following citizens of Michiana, oppose abortion on demand and
defend the right to life from fertilization to natural death.” Wall Street Journal
Judge blocks Trump ban on foreign workers . . . A federal judge ruled on Thursday that President Trump overstepped his authority in suspending new visas for hundreds of thousands of foreign workers amid the coronavirus pandemic, enabling major companies like Microsoft, Goodyear Tire and Exxon Mobil to resume
bringing employees from abroad. Judge Jeffrey S. White of U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California temporarily blocked further implementation of the sweeping order, issued in June, as it applied to thousands of companies seeking to bring workers to the United States on a wide array of visas, including the H-1B for high-skilled workers, seasonal employees on guest-worker visas and others, such as au pairs, who enter the country on cultural exchange visas. New York Times
Biden flip flops on door knocking . . . Campaign door-knocking in a pandemic puts lives at risk and turns off voters. It’s also sort of useless. And anyone who said otherwise is needlessly panicking. That was the Joe Biden campaign’s position — until Thursday, when it abruptly
reversed course and announced hundreds of volunteers would soon be hitting the doors in swing states with just 33 days to go in the campaign. The campaign said volunteers would start door-knocking in Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania this weekend with the rest of the battleground states following early next week. Politico
Don't feel sorry for Biden: He was just as rude to Paul Ryan in 2012 . . . What everyone so appalled at President Trump’s treatment of Joe Biden during the debate Tuesday night was that Biden inflicted a similar level of rudeness on vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan during their 2012 debate. According
to ABC News, he smiled or broke out into laughter 92 separate times while “often interrupting” and occassinally getting personal. It was a completely phony, bullying performance. White House Dossier
Video || McEnany rips CNN as having no use for the truth
Boston marathon victim says that Biden inappropriately touched her . . . Handy Joe strikes again. According to the Washington Examiner: The wife of a Massachusetts transit police officer who was injured in the manhunt for the Boston Marathon bombers accused Joe Biden of touching her
inappropriately and making a suggestive comment in 2014. In two Facebook posts, one of which has since been deleted, Kim Donohue alleged that during a remembrance ceremony in Boston, a year after the April 2013 deadly bombing, then-Vice President Biden began “rubbing” her lower back. White House
Dossier
Trump campaign says debate commission favors Biden
Second debate moderator worked as intern for Biden . . . President Trump's campaign is calling out C-SPAN anchor Steve Scully, who's moderating the second presidential debate, for his ties to former Vice President Joe Biden. Steve Scully, who serves as a host for C-SPAN's "Washington
Journal," interned for Biden after coming to Washington, D.C. as a student. He later worked as a staff assistant for the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., a Democratic icon who was honored at the party's 2012 convention. Fox News
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Trump to overturn "ridiculous order" for SEALs to use gender-neutral terms . . . Donald Trump said Thursday he will overturn the 'ridiculous order' of removing the words 'brotherhood' and 'man' from the US Navy SEAL ethos. In a tweet responding to the news, the president wrote: 'I will be overturning this ridiculous order immediately!' The Navy has removed gendered words from its official SEAL ethos, changing them to
'citizen' and 'warrior'. Alterations have also been made in the Special Warfare Combatant Crewmen creed. Daily Mail
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Covid-19 cases fall in Latin America . . . The Covid-19 pandemic has ravaged Latin America, killing more than 300,000 people, erasing years of social and economic gains and plunging millions back into poverty. But from Mexico to Brazil, a recent slowdown in new cases and fatalities is raising cautious hopes that the hard-hit region might be turning a corner. While the U.S. has struggled with an increase in new
Covid-19 cases over the past two weeks, Brazil has seen a reduction of more than 40% since July. Brazil’s daily death toll, though still one of the world’s highest at more than 700 people, has also fallen almost 40% over the same period. Mexico has reported fewer than 600 deaths a day for the past six weeks, down from 800 at a June peak. Wall Street Journal
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US hiring gains likely cooled in September . . . U.S. hiring gains likely cooled in September, suggesting labor-market improvements from the coronavirus downturn are moderating as employers confront a prolonged period of uncertainty.
Economists expect employers added about 800,000 jobs in September and that the jobless rate fell to 8.2%, from 8.4% the preceding month. Such payroll gains would add to the 11 million jobs recovered after 22 million were lost in March and April at the beginning of the pandemic, but would also mark the first month since April that net hiring was below 1
million. Wall Street Journal
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Secret recording shows Melania frustrated about separation policy criticism . . . First lady Melania Trump expressed frustration that she received criticism for the Trump administration's 2018 border separation policy, according to secret recordings released by CNN on Thursday. The first
lady’s former friend and senior adviser Stephanie Winston Wolkoff secretly recorded the first lady after she left the White House, according to CNN. "They say I'm complicit. I'm the same like him, I support him. I don't say enough I don't do enough where I am," Melania Trump said. The recordings, which aired on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360,” also document Melania Trump’s irritation with performing traditional first lady duties, specifically decorating the White House for Christmas. "I'm
working ... my ass off on the Christmas stuff, that you know, who gives a f--- about the Christmas stuff and decorations? But I need to do it, right?" she said. The Hill
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Keith
Keith Koffler
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