The Next President of the United States

[MintTrav]

Did you see this exchange yesterday?



She isn't being very honest. Phoenix TV is 28% owned by China Mobile and Bank of China (both state-owned) and 37% owned by a reporter who used to work for State TV in China, and is known for Communist sympathies. The station's output is all pro-Chinese government.

The big issue is how did she into the briefing and get to ask the President a question. Spots are precious and are controlled by the White House Correspondents' Association, though the Administration sometimes adjusts it. This is one of the seating charts - Trump moved conservative outlets forward. Occasionally, an outlet is bumped up or down a bit and sometimes a coveted spot is allocated due to the seniority of the reporter more than their employer - when Helen Thomas retired, having been at the WH since Kennedy, there was intense lobbying for her centre-front position, which is now occupied by AP.

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But suddenly the virus has meant that most seats are left unoccupied and most reporters don't get into the room to ask questions, even some of the main media organisations in the world. NBC, FOX, ABC and CNN are getting the best seats, followed by CBS, AP and Reuters. A few others get a place at the back, but most have been evicted, and there is no standing.

So how did a Chinese State-controlled channel get a seat in the White House briefing and get to question the President of the USA about whether he is co-operating with China?

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/republicans-demand-explanation-after-reporter-with-ties-to-china-questions-potus-at-white-house-briefing/

Usually it looks like this:

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But now it looks like this:

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[MintTrav]

New York Mayor Bill De Blasio is giving an update, and has given the racial split of NYC deaths so far:

                   % in Population              % of Covid Deaths
Hispanic                29%                                 34%
Black                    22%                                 28%
White                   32%                                 27%
Asian                    14%                                  7%

Based on this information, they're going to focus on public hospitals and poorer areas, who have the most cases.
I would have thought they could have guessed anyway that poorer areas and public hospitals would need the most help.

[MintTrav]

He's Off!

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Bernie Sanders Suspends 2020 Democratic Campaign: https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2020/04/08/us/politics/08reuters-usa-election-sanders.html

Most of Bernie's inner team has been urging withdrawal for a while, to stay on good terms with Biden, but the more radical ones had wanted him to stay in. 
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/us-election-2020/some-top-sanders-advisers-urge-him-to-consider-withdrawing/ar-BB12aMw9?li=AAggNb9

[Karabiner]

He's Off!

Click to see full-size image.

Bernie Sanders Suspends 2020 Democratic Campaign: https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2020/04/08/us/politics/08reuters-usa-election-sanders.html

Most of Bernie's inner team has been urging withdrawal for a while, to stay on good terms with Biden, but the more radical ones had wanted him to stay in. 
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/us-election-2020/some-top-sanders-advisers-urge-him-to-consider-withdrawing/ar-BB12aMw9?li=AAggNb9

It seems that his campaign was doomed once Obama sided with Biden.

[MintTrav]

Joe tells it straight:

[Marky147]

Oh dear. You'd hope that clip was doctored somehow.

[MintTrav]

An inspirational message from the First Lady:

[Marky147]

Her English is better than his

[Marky147]

Bit of Seth.

[MintTrav]

Robin Vos is Speaker of the Wisconsin State Assembly. As leader of the Republican group, he was mainly responsible for the appeal to the Supreme Court that led to the Governor's delay being overturned and the elections going ahead.

With the shortage of election workers, anyone willing was drafted in and Vos took a shift himself.

Here he is explaining that it's "incredibly safe to go out", while dressed like he was about to do heart surgery.

[bookiebasher]

Nearly a million views.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5D3iT4BhbQ

Was a great speech.

[MintTrav]

Will Fauci Be Fired?

The tension between Trump and Fauci continues. Fauci keeps giving interviews where he hints that he disagrees with things the President has done or said. The public trusts him, so he may feel untouchable, and part of the reason he has survived five previous Presidents has been his political skill of finding the right balance between telling what they want to hear and what they don't. But he has seemed to over-reach several times and Trump has put up with it so far. His patience may be running out though.

Right-wing blogs and sites had been taking shots at him all along, eg https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/03/anthony_fauci_the_nihs_face_of_the_coronavirus_is_a_deepstate_hillary_clintonloving_stooge.html, but Fox News and Breitbart had held off. That is starting to slip a bit, and Republican hardliners have been circling, saying that he is responsible for crippling the economy and needs to be sacked. Ron Paul, who ran for President three times, says Fauci is a fraud, and current Congressmen have been saying similar stuff. You wouldn't expect this noise to be happening unless it had been sanctioned.

Fauci did it again yesterday for the zillionth time but went further, saying the US "could have saved lives" if it had introduced measures to stop Covid-19 earlier. Asked about a report that he had recommended shutdown weeks earlier than it happened, he said "We make a recommendation. Often, the recommendation is taken. Sometimes, it's not...........If we had, right from the very beginning, shut everything down, it may have been a little bit different. But there was a lot of pushback about shutting things down back then."

The offending section is at 7:30:



I'm not sure whether he is trying to influence policy with all these interviews, or making sure that history is clear about where he stood. He gets plenty of opportunity within the White House to influence things. Whether Fauci is right or wrong, it's no wonder the President would be frustrated at a loose cannon undermining official policy on the television time after time.

Later, Trump retweeted a tweet referencing #FireFauci, (https://twitter.com/hashtag/FireFauci), which is a message in itself. This triggered a lot of discussion about whether Fauci is on his way out, to the extent that the White House felt the need to issue a statement today "This media chatter is ridiculous - President Trump is not firing Dr. Fauci......Dr. Fauci has been and remains a trusted advisor to President Trump.” Fauci has tried to walk it back at today's briefing but my guess would be that we'll see less of him at the briefings as soon as it can be said that infections are under control and they're focussing on reopening the economy.

[Marky147]

Just had a look at her Twitter. She seems like a nice woman.

[nirvana]

Press conference today is really interesting - Fauci seemed to have to work hard to not let his emotions rip at the implication he was being forced to get up and say something he didn't want to.

Really enjoyed the Mnuchin segment, it's been going for what seems like hours and we still haven't got to the doctors presentations.

Trump could obviously be described as many things, many things, but he is incredible at speaking straight past the press and selling his administration direct to his base. Also incredible energy for a 73 year old. Impressive display when under massive pressure, perhaps in these extremely pressured situations it helps to be, well, different.

[MintTrav]

Press conference today is really interesting - Fauci seemed to have to work hard to not let his emotions rip at the implication he was being forced to get up and say something he didn't want to.

Really enjoyed the Mnuchin segment, it's been going for what seems like hours and we still haven't got to the doctors presentations.

Trump could obviously be described as many things, many things, but he is incredible at speaking straight past the press and selling his administration direct to his base. Also incredible energy for a 73 year old. Impressive display when under massive pressure, perhaps in these extremely pressured situations it helps to be, well, different.

I'm about an hour behind watching it, haven't got to Mnuchin yet, but it is already one of the most extraordinary I've seen. We had an election video in the briefing room and Trump has been putting up a defence of the performance to date, but allowed himself to be dragged into an undignified back-and-forth with a couple of the reporters.