memeorandum: ‘It bothers me that this is still in the news cycle,’ Birx says of Trump's disinfectant and light comments (Connor O'Brien/Politico)

3:15 PM ET, April 26, 2020

Top Items:

Connor O'Brien / Politico:

‘It bothers me that this is still in the news cycle,’ Birx says of Trump's disinfectant and light comments — Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, downplayed President Donald Trump's suggestion last week that injected disinfectants and light could work as treatments …

Discussion: Breitbart

Joe Scarborough / Washington Post:
The cost of Trump's deadly state of denial

Discussion: Raw Story and The Daily Caller

Tristan Justice / The Federalist:
Pelosi Now Says U.S. Should Have Stopped Americans Coming Back From China

Discussion: Redstate, IJR and The Hill

Allan Smith / NBC News:
Governors urge Trump to keep briefings ‘fact-based’ after disinfectant comments

Discussion: ABC News, The Federalist and NBC Chicago

Meg Cunningham / ABC News:
Amid pandemic, country lacks national leadership: Sen. Amy Klobuchar

Discussion: The Hill

Tiana Lowe / Washington Examiner:

What does CNN know about the Biden assault allegation that we don't? — Right now, the available evidence does not prove that Joe Biden more likely than not committed the 1993 assault that his former Senate staffer Tara Reade has alleged. Part of this is purely on the virtue of the age …

Harry Enten / CNN:
Biden's invisible campaign is winning

Discussion: Outside the Beltway

Joseph Wulfsohn / Fox News:
Biden accuser Tara Reade ‘lost total respect’ for CNN's Anderson Cooper for not asking former VP about assault claim

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Redstate, Conservative News Today, PJ Media Home and Twitchy

Joseph Wulfsohn / Fox News:
CNN ‘Larry King’ episode featuring Biden accuser's mother disappears from Google Play catalog

Discussion: Redstate, Twitchy, The Gateway Pundit, The Daily Caller, Slate, NB Blog and KTLA

Henry Rodgers / The Daily Caller:
Senate Democrats Refuse To Acknowledge Sexual Assault Accusations Against Joe Biden

Discussion: Fox News, The Gateway Pundit and TheBlaze

Paul Farhi / Washington Post:

The White House tried to move a reporter to the back of the press room, but she refused. Then Trump walked out. — A White House official ordered a CNN reporter to give up her front-row seat and move to the back of the press room before President Trump's briefing on Friday …

Discussion: Conservative News Today and Contemptor, more at Mediagazer »

Politico:
White House weighing plan to replace Azar

Discussion: New York Times, Vanity Fair, Fox News, Slate, The Week, CNN, HuffPost and NBC News

Erik Wemple / Washington Post:
The White House attempts to humiliate CNN's Kaitlan Collins

Discussion: CNN

Wall Street Journal:
White House in Talks to Replace Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar

Discussion: New York Times, Fox News, The Week and The Hill

Will Bunch / The Philadelphia Inquirer:

Hey, teachers, cops, etc. — Mitch McConnell wants your job, pension. Will he kill the GOP instead? — It's been a generation since the right-wing activist Grover Norquist said his movement's goal wasn't to eliminate government but merely to “shrink it down to the size where we can drown it in a bathtub.”

Discussion: POLITICUSUSA

ABC News:
COVID-19 jobless rates will be comparable to Great Depression: Trump economic adviser

Discussion: HuffPost, Forbes, The Hill, Raw Story and Townhall

Zack Budryk / The Hill: Mnuchin: 'You're going to see the economy really bounce back in July, August, September'

Charles Duhigg / New Yorker:

Seattle's Leaders Let Scientists Take the Lead. New York's Did Not — The initial coronavirus outbreaks on the East and West Coasts emerged at roughly the same time. But the danger was communicated very differently. — The first diagnosis of the coronavirus in the United States occurred …

Washington Post:

Kim Jong Un's train spotted at coastal resort, intel reports scotch death rumors — TOKYO — Evidence that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is still alive and in the coastal resort of Wonsan is mounting, as satellite images showed his train apparently traveled there in the past few days …

Discussion: The Week

Hyung-jin Kim / Associated Press:
Satellite imagery finds likely Kim train amid health rumors

Discussion: New York Post, The Week, Washington Times and New York Times

Washington Post:

13 hours of Trump: The president fills briefings with attacks and boasts, but little empathy — President Trump strode to the lectern in the White House briefing room Thursday and, for just over an hour, attacked his rivals, dismissing Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden as a …

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog

Helena Bottemiller Evich / Politico:

USDA let millions of pounds of food rot while food-bank demand soared — Tens of millions of pounds of American-grown produce is rotting in fields as food banks across the country scramble to meet a massive surge in demand, a two-pronged disaster that has deprived farmers of billions of dollars …

Mark Leibovich / New York Times:

Trump Turns Shared American Experiences Into Us vs. Them — Nostalgia for a time when Democratic leaders could embrace Republican leaders in a moment of crisis — and when a bipartisan group would gather for an annual roasting in Washington. — WASHINGTON — Last weekend …

New York Times:

One Rich N.Y. Hospital Got Warren Buffett's Help. This One Got Duct Tape. — The inequities of New York City's health care system are clear at a public hospital in a section of Brooklyn hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. — It has been hours since the 71-year-old man in Room 3 …

Ramesh Ponnuru / Bloomberg:

America Isn't Actually Doing So Badly Against Coronavirus — The U.S., like all countries, has made its share of mistakes, but that doesn't make it a “failed state.” — We don't have enough tests for Covid-19 in the U.S. President Donald Trump spent weeks minimizing the threat …

Washington Post:

'We're basically ill-prepared': Hobbled House majority frets about its effectiveness amid pandemic — House Democrats have blasted President Trump's response to the coronavirus pandemic as inept and dangerous. Party leaders insisted on the creation of a special committee to root out abuse …

Discussion: Politico and ncsl.org

Charles Gaba / ACA Signups:

Michigan (and elsewhere): For anyone using the “It's a Detroit problem!” dog whistle, I have some bad news for you. — For the past month, I've spent an awful lot of time tracking COVID-19 cases and fatalities on a state-by-state level. I'm obviously not the only one doing this …

New York Times:

Closed Hospitals Leave Rural Patients ‘Stranded’ as Coronavirus Spreads — A for-profit company bought three struggling hospitals in West Virginia and Ohio. Doctors were fired, supplies ran low and many in need of care had to journey elsewhere. Then the doors shut for good.

Doree Lewak / New York Post:

NYC tailor defies state order: 'I'm opening my doors come hell or high water' — One defiant NYC business owner — who's been deemed “non-essential” during the pandemic — has a message to New York: “I'm opening my doors come hell or high water.” — Eliot Rabin, whose Upper East Side boutique …

San Francisco Chronicle:

Exclusive: Coronavirus caused heart to rupture in nation's first known victim, autopsy shows — The Santa Clara woman whose death from COVID-19 is the earliest so far known in the United States suffered a massive heart attack caused by coronavirus infection, signs of which were found throughout her body …

Discussion: CNN, NBC Los Angeles, Politico and The Hill

David Edwards / Raw Story:

Tom Cotton: Ban Chinese students from learning science so they can't ‘steal’ coronavirus vaccine — Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) on Sunday argued that the United States should ban Chinese students from learning about science while they are in the United States. — During an interview …

Eric Levitz / New York Magazine:

Why Americans Don't Vote Their Class Anymore — For decades now, major left-wing parties throughout the West have been bleeding support from the working-class voters whose interests they claim to represent. — In the mid-20th century, a voter's socioeconomic position strongly predicted …

Discussion: Washington Monthly

Sean Sullivan / Washington Post:

Democrats see Senate suddenly within reach, boosted by Biden's ascent — Joe Biden's unexpectedly rapid consolidation of the Democratic presidential nomination has upended calculations in both parties about the U.S. Senate landscape, with Democrats hopeful that Biden can actively help …