memeorandum: Nervous Republicans See Trump Sinking, and Taking Senate With Him (New York Times)

2:45 PM ET, April 25, 2020

Top Items:

CNN:

How a media-distracted Trump ended up derailing his own briefing — See Dr. Birx's reaction to Trump's dangerous suggestion — Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump was absent from the Situation Room on Wednesday when William Bryan, the acting head of science at the Department of Homeland Security …

Discussion: emptywheel

New York Daily News:

A spike in New Yorkers ingesting household cleaners following Trump's controversial coronavirus comments — An unusually high number of New Yorkers contacted city health authorities over fears that they had ingested bleach or other household cleaners in the 18 hours that followed President Trump's bogus claim …

Discussion: The Daily Dot, EurAsian Times, Mediaite and Contemptor

Elizabeth Nolan Brown / Reason:

No, Poison Control Calls Aren't Suddenly Spiking After Trump's Disinfectant Comments — On Thursday, the president suggested that perhaps an “injection” of disinfectant could help cure people of COVID-19. Critics of Donald Trump went to town—and rightfully so!—while supporters scrambled …

Discussion: Redstate and VICE, more at Mediagazer »

Politico:

Trump grapples with a surprise threat: Too much Trump — Donald Trump's top aides are fiercely debating a question their boss rarely confronted during his decades of jousting with tabloid newspapers, starring on reality TV shows and running a media-soaked presidential campaign: whether there's such a thing as too much Donald Trump.

Discussion: Althouse, Fox News and Raw Story

Jonathan Swan / Axios:
Trump plans to cut daily coronavirus briefings

Discussion: CNN, HuffPost, Gothamist, Slate, The Guardian, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Daily Caller, Raw Story, Politico, POLITICUSUSA, NBC News, Fox News, The Hill, The Wrap, The Daily Beast, Mediaite, Breitbart, Daily Kos and BBC

Washington Post:
Trump floats another bogus coronavirus cure …

Discussion: The Hill, Daily Kos, The Daily Beast, Raw Story, US EPA and The Verge

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:
Trump: My Idea to Inject Disinfectant Was a Prank on Reporters ‘Just to See What Would Happen’

Discussion: IJR and HuffPost

Associated Press:
White House could alter virus briefings to limit Trump role

Discussion: Vanity Fair, Outside the Beltway and Mediaite, more at Mediagazer »

New York Times:

Nervous Republicans See Trump Sinking, and Taking Senate With Him — The election is still six months away, but a rash of ominous new polls and the president's erratic briefings have the G.O.P. worried about a Democratic takeover. — WASHINGTON — President Trump's erratic handling …

Discussion: Daily Kos, POLITICUSUSA and Raw Story

Wall Street Journal:

Trump, Putin Statement Stirs Concern Among Some — Rare declaration comes amid U.S.-Russian strains, military tension, disinformation complaints — President Trump issued a symbolic joint statement Saturday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a move that has stirred debate within …

Discussion: The Week and New York Post

Brian Flood / Fox News:

CNN slammed for treatment of Biden sexual assault allegations after old Larry King clip surfaces — Mother of Biden accuser reportedly phoned into Larry King's show to complain about ‘prominent senator’ — CNN, which has already drawn fire for its reluctance to cover a claim of sexual assault …

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

MJ Lee / CNN:
Biden's accuser says mother called into ‘Larry King Live’ in 1993 for advice after alleged sexual assault

Discussion: Fox News, Redstate and Instapundit

Holly Otterbein / Politico:
New evidence surfaces in Tara Reade allegation against Biden

Discussion: Twitchy, NB Blog and The Intercept

TMZ.com:

N. KOREA DICTATOR KIM JONG-UN REPORTEDLY DEAD ... After Botched Heart Surgery — N. KOREA DICTATOR KIM JONG-UN REPORTEDLY DEAD ... After Botched Heart Surgery — North Korea's Supreme Leader/dictator Kim Jong-un has reportedly died, or is on his death bed with no hope for recuperation …

Reuters:
Exclusive: China sent team including medical experts to advise on North Korea's Kim, sources say

Discussion: New York Post, Outside the Beltway, TheBlaze and Bloomberg

Michael A. Cohen / The Boston Globe:

Say it loud, say it clear: Donald Trump needs to resign over his handling of the coronavirus — The United States has just over 4 percent of the world's population, but had about one-third of all global coronavirus cases and one-quarter of the fatalities, as of Friday.

Discussion: FOX40, FOX31 Denver, Kaiser Health News and Mediaite

Ariana Eunjung Cha / Washington Post:

Young and middle-aged people, barely sick with covid-19, are dying from strokes — Thomas Oxley wasn't even on call the day he received the page to come to Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital in Manhattan. There weren't enough doctors to treat all the emergency stroke patients, and he was needed in the operating room.

Kiyerra Lake / WLNS-TV:

“It was not a Confederate flag,” State Senator explains questionable mask — LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — Friday afternoon during a senate vote at the capitol it was brought to our attention that one State Senator was wearing a mask that appeared to have the confederate flag on it.

Discussion: The Hill and Detroit Metro Times

Ross Ramsey / The Texas Tribune:

Trump narrowly leads Biden in presidential race in Texas, UT/TT Poll finds — President Donald Trump leads Democrat Joe Biden by 5 points in the race for president in Texas, but voters give the president mixed grades on his handling of the pandemic and the economy. They think Gov. Greg Abbott is doing a better job.

Discussion: The Hill

Bret Stephens / New York Times:

America Shouldn't Have to Play by New York Rules — A national lockdown is bad medicine and worse politics. — In 1976, the artist Saul Steinberg drew a cover for The New Yorker — “View of the World from Ninth Avenue” — that became an instant classic. You know the one …

Discussion: The Wrap

Richard Ruelas / Arizona Republic:

'That's the one there': A photo of a protesting nurse in Phoenix goes viral — He saw that the rally to reopen businesses shut down by the COVID-19 pandemic was transitioning from speeches at the plaza to a march to the Arizona state Capitol across the street.

World Health Organization: WHO:

“Immunity passports” in the context of COVID-19 — Scientific Brief — WHO has published guidance on adjusting public health and social measures for the next phase of the COVID-19 response.1 Some governments have suggested that the detection of antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2 …

Discussion: Axios, The Guardian, The Hill, Vox, Daily Kos, NPR, Financial Times, The Week, Bloomberg and Associated Press

Richmond Times-Dispatch:

SATURDAY UPDATE: Confirmed COVID-19 cases in Virginia jump by 733, deaths increase by 25 — The Virginia Department of Health reported Saturday there are 11,902 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the state - an increase of 733 from the 11,169 reported Friday. — Also, there are 432 confirmed …

Discussion: The Federalist, Newsradio 1140 WRVA, Washington Post, The Daily Caller, Breitbart and The Gateway Pundit

Washington Post:

I work at Smithfield Foods. I'm suing them over putting our lives at risk for your dinner. — Meat processing plants can do more to protect us from the coronavirus — On the “cut floor” at Smithfield Foods, the meat processing company where I work in Milan, Mo., we use knives to butcher …

Discussion: New York Times and NPR

Tal Axelrod / The Hill:

San Francisco mayor says city's PPE orders have been diverted, confiscated: It ‘blows my mind’ — San Francisco Mayor London Breed (D) said Friday that her city's orders for personal protection equipment (PPE) have been diverted to other U.S. cities and foreign countries.

Craig Pittman / Politico:

Florida's No-Rules Vibe Gets a Coronavirus Reality Check — At the farthest northwest corner of Florida, straddling the border with Alabama, sits a sprawling, ramshackle beach bar called the Flora-Bama Lounge. First opened as a roadhouse in 1964, it's celebrated in song by Jimmy Buffett …

Discussion: Raw Story

Katharine Q. Seelye / New York Times:

Philip Kahn, 100, Dies; Spanish Flu Took His Twin a Century Ago — Aware of the irony of dying during a pandemic, he said history repeats itself. A family member called the brothers “pandemic bookends.” … Philip Kahn believed that history repeats itself, a truism that has hit home for his family in extraordinary fashion.

Teran Powell / WUWM:

40 Coronavirus Cases In Milwaukee County Linked To Wisconsin Election, Health Official Says — Forty people in Milwaukee County may have become infected with the coronavirus as a result of participating in Wisconsin elections on April 7. — Milwaukee Health Commissioner Jeanette Kowalik …

New York Times:

A Candidate in Isolation: Inside Joe Biden's Cloistered Campaign — Walled off from voters in a distinctive kind of lockdown, Mr. Biden has developed a routine, of sorts, as he seeks the presidency from his basement. — Joseph R. Biden Jr. usually rises before 8 a.m. at his home in Wilmington …

Rosalind S. Helderman / Washington Post:

The pandemic at sea … On land, more than 300,000 people worldwide had contracted the deadly coronavirus, and the governor of California had just ordered all 39 million residents to stay at home. But as the Celebrity Eclipse cruise ship steamed north across the Pacific Ocean on March 21 …

Discussion: The Verge

Caitlin Dickerson / New York Times:

‘My World Is Shattering’: Foreign Students Stranded by Coronavirus — When the pandemic shuttered colleges, many international students had no idea where to live or whether they would ever be able to return to class. — When universities abruptly shut down last month because of the coronavirus pandemic …

Tom Sims / Reuters:

Deutsche Bank refuses to give U.S. senators information on recent Trump dealings — FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Deutsche Bank has declined a request by prominent U.S. senators to provide information about the German lender's recent business dealings with President Donald Trump and his family, according to a letter this week seen by Reuters.

Discussion: Raw Story

NBC News:

Firms with Trump links or worth $100 million got small business loans — Three companies with ties to the Trump admin received millions under the PPP program. Another got a loan from a bank that once employed its board's chair. — The government's $349 billion small business lending program …