Buttigieg highlights importance of local officials in first post-campaign endorsements

Team Trump Pushes CDC to Revise Down Its COVID Death Counts

Source: Daily Beast

President Donald Trump and members of his coronavirus task force are pushing officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to change how the agency works with states to count coronavirus-related deaths. And they’re pushing for revisions that could lead to far fewer deaths being counted than originally reported, according to five administration officials working on the government’s response to the pandemic.

Though he has previously publicly attested to the accuracy of the COVID-19 death count, the president in recent weeks has privately raised suspicion about the number of fatalities in the United States, which recently eclipsed 80,000 recorded deaths. In talks with top officials, Trump has suggested that those numbers could have been incorrectly tallied or even inflated by current methodology, two individuals with knowledge of those private comments said.

The White House has pressed the CDC, in particular, to work with states to change how they count coronavirus deaths and report them back to the federal government, according to two officials with knowledge of those conversations. And Deborah Birx, the coordinator of the administration’s coronavirus task force, has urged CDC officials to exclude from coronavirus death-count reporting some of those individuals who either do not have confirmed lab results and are presumed positive or who have the virus and may not have died as a direct result of it, according to three senior administration officials.

Officials inside the CDC, five of whom spoke to The Daily Beast, said they are pushing back against that request, claiming it could falsely skew the mortality rate at a time when state and local governments are already struggling to ensure that every person who dies as a result of the coronavirus is counted. Scientists and doctors working with the task force, including Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, have said the U.S. death-toll count is likely higher than is being reflected in government data sets. And several local officials in hot spot areas said they’ve seen hundreds if not thousands more deaths over the last two months than in the same time period over the last several years. They presume many of those individuals contracted the coronavirus.

Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/team-trump-pushes-cdc-to-dial-down-covid-death-counts?ref=home

Biden and Sanders announce "Unity Task Force" members

A new internal GOP poll suggests tight prez, Senate races in Georgia

Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution

An internal poll conducted by a group backing Gov. Brian Kemp showed a deadlocked presidential race in Georgia and tight contests for both U.S. Senate seats, underscoring the challenges Republicans face keeping the state in the GOP column.

The poll pegged Joe Biden at 47% of support and President Donald Trump with 46%, within the margin of error of 4 percentage points. A small number of voters – just 5% - said they were undecided and 2% declined to answer.

U.S. Sen. David Perdue led Democratic frontrunner Jon Ossoff by a 43-41 margin, also within the margin of error, in his re-election bid. Libertarian Shane Hazel logged 7% of the vote and 8% were undecided. Ossoff’s top rivals weren’t tested in the GOP poll.

And the pollster pronounced the November special election for appointed Republican U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler’s seat “wide open.” Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Collins (19%), Loeffler (18%) and Democrat Matt Lieberman (17%) were in a jumble at the top of the 21-candidate race, while Raphael Warnock, backed by national Democrats, was at 9%. About one-quarter of voters were undecided.

Read more: https://www.ajc.com/blog/politics/new-internal-gop-poll-suggests-tight-prez-senate-races-georgia/VUuh6VQLw7SJVSMEfvGC5L/

CA-7 goes to the Republicans

75% reporting
Mike Garcia 56%
Christy Smith 44%

Ocasio-Cortez Commits Re-election Gaffe, Losing a Progressive Ballot Line

Source: New York Times

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is one of the best-known progressive politicians in the country, and her endorsement is sought by candidates running for president. Her firebrand style of politics has helped her raise millions of dollars and accumulate 6.9 million followers on Twitter.

But Ms. Ocasio-Cortez will not be appearing on the Working Families Party ballot line in the June primary or in the November general election because she failed to collect the required number of signatures — 15.

The loss of the ballot line will make no discernible difference in her re-election bid; she is still heavily favored to win the Democratic primary and the general election.

But ever since Ms. Ocasio-Cortez became the youngest woman elected to Congress in 2018, her every move has been scrutinized by both sides of the political spectrum, especially those on the right, who seldom miss an opportunity to magnify any perceived flaw.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/12/nyregion/aoc-ballot-primary-wfp.html

Democrats will NOT be picking up WI-7...

20% reporting: Republican Tom Tiffany leads 58-42.

U.S. judge puts on hold Justice Dept. move to dismiss Michael Flynn's guilty plea

Source: Washington Post

A U.S. judge on Tuesday put on hold the Justice Department’s move to drop charges against Michael Flynn, saying he expects independent groups and legal experts to argue against the bid to exonerate President Trump’s former national security adviser of lying to the FBI.

U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of Washington D.C. said he expects individuals and organizations will seek to intervene in the politically charged case.

Sullivan’s order came after the government took the highly irregular step last Thursday of reversing its stance on Flynn’s charges and embracing Flynn’s move to dismiss his own guilty pleas.

Flynn was convicted of lying to investigators about his contacts with Russia’s ambassador about easing U.S. sanctions during Trump’s presidential transition in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation of interference in the 2016 election.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/us-judge-puts-on-hold-justice-dept-move-to-dismiss-michael-flynns-guilty-plea-to-hear-outside-groups-challenges/2020/05/12/2fb4e356-949d-11ea-82b4-c8db161ff6e5_story.html

L.A. County 'with all certainty' will keep stay-at-home orders in place through July

Source: Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles County’s stay-at-home orders will “with all certainty” be extended for the next three months, county Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer acknowledged during a Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday.

Los Angeles County last week loosened some stay-at-home rules, reopening some trails and allowing some retail stores to begin curbside services with social distancing. But Ferrer warned Tuesday that further loosening of the rules will be slow.

Ferrer said that would only change if there was a “dramatic change to the virus and tools at hand.”

“Our hope is that by using the data, we’d be able to slowly lift restrictions over the next three months,” she said. But without widely available therapeutic testing for the coronavirus or rapid at-home tests that would allow people to test themselves daily, it seems unlikely that restrictions would be completely eased.

Read more: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-05-12/coronavirus-beaches-reopen-los-angeles-county-move-toward-new-normal

Coronavirus Live Updates: Health Experts Testify U.S. Still Lacks Critical Capabilities to Contain S

Source: New York Times

Leaders of the Trump administration’s coronavirus response painted a grim picture on Tuesday of the months ahead, warning a Senate panel the United States does not yet have control over the pandemic and lacks crucial capabilities to contain an inevitable spike in cases that could arise if the nation moves too quickly to reopen the economy.

A day after President Trump declared, “We have met the moment, and we have prevailed,” the experts warned of dire consequences if states do not proceed with caution in reopening.

“We are not out of the woods yet,” said Dr. Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “but we are more prepared.”

Dr. Redfield’s remark, during a high-profile — and partially virtual — hearing before the Senate’s health committee, along with comments of Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, made clear that the country is still facing steep challenges in responding to the pandemic.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/12/us/coronavirus-updates.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage