General
Deutsche Bank Opens Review Into Personal Banker to Trump and Kushner
Jesse Drucker and David Enrich, The New York Times
Deutsche Bank has opened an internal investigation into the longtime personal banker of President Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, over a 2013 real estate transaction between the banker and a company part-owned by Mr. Kushner. In June 2013, the banker, Rosemary Vrablic, and two of her Deutsche Bank colleagues purchased a Park Avenue apartment for about $1.5 million from a company called Bergel 715 Associates, according to New York property records.
Ginsburg waited 4 months to say her cancer had returned
Mark Sherman, The Associated Press
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is perhaps the most forthcoming member of the Supreme Court when it comes to telling the public about her many health issues. But she waited more than four months to reveal that her cancer had returned and that she was undergoing chemotherapy.
Scientists Worry About Political Influence Over Coronavirus Vaccine Project
Sharon LaFraniere et al., The New York Times
In April, with hospitals overwhelmed and much of the United States in lockdown, the Department of Health and Human Services produced a presentation for the White House arguing that rapid development of a coronavirus vaccine was the best hope to control the pandemic. “DEADLINE: Enable broad access to the public by October 2020,” the first slide read, with the date in bold.
Seven Missing Marines And One Sailor Are Feared Dead After A Training Accident Off The California Coast
Stephanie K. Baer, BuzzFeed News
One Marine has died and eight other missing service members are presumed dead after their vessel sank during a training exercise off the coast of Southern California, officials said Sunday. On Thursday, 15 Marines and one sailor were taking part in a routine training exercise near San Clemente Island, when the amphibious assault vehicle they were riding in took on water and sank, the US Marine Corps said in a statement.
Should the Capitol start COVID-19 testing for staff and members?
Chris Cioffi, Roll Call
Rep. Louie Gohmert’s positive coronavirus test this week raised questions about whether people in or around the Capitol should get regular testing — but it’s not as simple as it sounds. “The Capitol physician has not said yet that he thinks that we should be tested,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters Friday.
White House & Administration
U.S. coronavirus ‘extraordinarily widespread,’ White House experts say
Doina Chiacu, Reuters
The United States is in a new phase of the novel coronavirus outbreak with infections “extraordinarily widespread” in rural areas as well as cities, White House coronavirus experts said on Sunday.
Trump keeps promising an overhaul of the nation’s health-care system that never arrives
Anne Gearan et al., The Washington Post
It was a bold claim when President Trump said that he was about to produce an overhaul of the nation’s health-care system, at last doing away with the Affordable Care Act, which he has long promised to abolish. “We’re signing a health-care plan within two weeks, a full and complete health-care plan,” Trump pledged in a July 19 interview with “Fox News Sunday” anchor Chris Wallace.
Kayleigh McEnany Heckles the Press. Is That All?
Katie Rogers and Maggie Haberman, The New York Times
For the first half of his term, President Trump treated the White House press briefing as must-see television. From his small dining room off the Oval Office, he kept close watch over his first two press secretaries as they battled with journalists, defended his performance and often tried to rewrite history. Kayleigh McEnany, the fourth person to hold the job since Mr. Trump took office, does all of those things.
The Man Who Made Stephen Miller
Jean Guerrero, Politico
In December 2012, with the Republican Party reeling from a brutal election that left Democrats in control of the White House and the Senate, the conservative activist David Horowitz emailed a strategy paper to the office of Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions. Horowitz, now 81, was a longtime opponent of immigration and the founder of a think tank and a campus freedom-of-speech advocacy group.
Senate
Senate GOP divided over whether they’d fill Supreme Court vacancy
Alexander Bolton, The Hill
Senate Republicans are conflicted about what to do if a Supreme Court seat becomes vacant during the remainder of President Trump’s first term, a possibility that has come more into focus in recent weeks in light of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s health problems. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has made clear that he intends to fill a Supreme Court vacancy in 2020, despite holding the seat vacated by the death of late conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia open during the 2016 presidential election.
Could Obama’s call to end Senate filibuster shift the tide?
Lindsey McPherson and Clyde McGrady, Roll Call
Former President Barack Obama’s endorsement Thursday of ending the legislative filibuster energized progressive senators and groups who’ve championed the issue and converted one previous skeptic, Sen. Bernie Sanders. But will it provide enough momentum to topple a longtime Senate rule that many view as a pivotal check against partisan politics?
How Marco Rubio runs Trump’s Latin America policy
Sabrina Rodriguez, Politico
When President Donald Trump took office, he passed down one key instruction on how to handle Latin America: Make Marco Rubio happy. Rubio, a Florida Republican and son of Cuban immigrants, had already built his political brand around vocal criticism of the regimes in Cuba and Venezuela, and to what he viewed as the Democrats’ policy of appeasement in the region.
GOP Sen. Sasse zips his criticism of Trump to fend off primary threat
David M. Drucker, The Washington Examiner
Sen. Ben Sasse is firebombing President Trump on key domestic and foreign policy issues, criticism that accelerated in July after the Nebraska Republican had muted their differences leading up to his contested spring primary. On July 17, Sasse accused Trump of “strategic incompetence” that is “Jimmy Carter-level weak” for floating a military pullout from South Korea amid tensions with China and North Korea.
House
Republicans prep for leadership battle if Trump goes down
Melanie Zanona, Politico
The maneuvering for power in a possible post-Trump world has already broken out among House Republicans — a worrisome preview for the GOP of potentially chaotic leadership fights this fall. The party’s long-simmering divides were largely papered over after Donald Trump won the White House in 2016.
Pelosi says she has no confidence in White House coronavirus adviser Birx
Doina Chiacu et al., Reuters
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Sunday she does not have confidence in White House coronavirus task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx, linking her to disinformation about the virus spread by President Donald Trump. “I think the president has been spreading disinformation about the virus and she is his appointee so, I don’t have confidence there, no,” Speaker Pelosi told ABC’s “This Week” when asked if she has confidence in Birx.
Another fake Pelosi video goes viral on Facebook
Donie O’Sullivan, CNN
Facebook’s fact-checkers on Sunday labeled as “partly false” a video that it said was manipulated to make it appear as if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was drunk or drugged. The video had been circulating on Facebook since Thursday and by Sunday night had been viewed more than 2 million times.
Jim Clyburn: Trump is Mussolini
Zachary Warmbrodt, Politico
House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn on Sunday likened President Donald Trump to Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, warning that Trump would resist leaving office. The South Carolina lawmaker and No. 3 House Democrat said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that Trump has taken up “strong-arm tactics.”
Spending on Christmas parties among allegations in ethics report on Sanford Bishop
Chris Marquette, Roll Call
Rep. Sanford D. Bishop Jr. may have used thousands in campaign funds for personal expenses on gas fill-ups for him and his family, greens fees at country clubs, luxurious trips and school tuition. Further, the Georgia Democrat also may have spent more than $16,000 in taxpayer money for joint Christmas parties — featuring a saxophonist and DJ equipment — with his congressional staff and his wife’s employees, according to an Office of Congressional Ethics report released Friday.
2020
Trump campaign nears point of no return
David Siders, Politico
Time is running out on Donald Trump. While there are still 92 days until Election Day, the president has as little as half as much time to begin closing the gap with Joe Biden, according to interviews with nearly two dozen Republican and Democratic Party officials and strategists.
Why Biden’s VP pick matters to Team Trump
Jonathan Swan, Axios
After pausing their multimillion-dollar advertising campaign to review their strategy, the Trump campaign plans to launch new ads on Monday depicting Joe Biden as a puppet “controlled by the radical left,” according to two senior campaign officials.
Republican National Committee disputes GOP convention spokesperson’s claim that Trump’s renomination will be closed to media
Felicia Sonmez, The Washington Post
The Republican National Committee says no final decision has been made about whether President Trump’s renomination will be held in private at the GOP convention in Charlotte, contradicting previous reports that restrictions on crowd size during the coronavirus pandemic would prevent the news media from attending. Two RNC officials insisted Sunday that they are still working through the logistics and press coverage options, a break with a statement reportedly made by a GOP convention spokesperson the previous day.
Democrats in the states that matter press for a more visible Biden campaign
Jenna Johnson and Holly Bailey, The Washington Post
In the states that will likely decide the presidential election, President Trump is everywhere. Discussion of his presidency and the actions of his administration — often critical — fill social media feeds, newscasts, letters-to-the-editor pages and socially distanced end-of-the-driveway conversations. For months, his campaign ads dominated the airwaves.
Trump-era primaries in Kansas, Tennessee trigger GOP family feuds over who would deliver more for president
David Weigel and Paul Kane, The Washington Post
An army of identical men in suits marches across the screen in the campaign ad. A Senate candidate floats through the Washington “swamp” in a cartoon canoe, as a narrator praises his outsider rival.
‘Hating Joe Biden doesn’t juice up their base’: Key swing state slips away from Trump
Holly Otterbein, Politico
Senior citizens and suburban voters are sinking President Donald Trump’s campaign across the country. But here in Pennsylvania — home to one of the largest populations of residents age 65 or older and where suburbanites comprise more than half of the electorate — their defection to Joe Biden is hurting Trump even more acutely.
How the Trump campaign came to court QAnon, the online conspiracy movement identified by the FBI as a violent threat
Isaac Stanley-Becker, The Washington Post
Outside the Las Vegas Convention Center, Kayleigh McEnany raised a microphone to a mega-fan and asked what it felt like to be acknowledged by President Trump at his February rally in Sin City. At the time a spokeswoman for Trump’s reelection campaign, McEnany nodded as the supporter said the shout-out was most meaningful because of the words on the shirt he was wearing, which he read aloud: “Where we go one, we go all,” the motto of QAnon conspiracy theorists who believe Trump is battling a cabal of deep-state saboteurs who worship Satan and traffic children for sex.
In St. Louis, Testing Liberal Might Against a Democratic Fixture
Nicholas Fandos, The New York Times
As an activist who jumped into the political arena after the police shooting of Michael Brown here six years ago, Cori Bush is accustomed to hard fights. She has been maced, shot at with rubber bullets and cloaked in tear gas at so many protests against police brutality that they have blurred together.
States
Nevada passes bill to mail all voters ballots amid pandemic
Sam Metz, The Associated Press
State lawmakers passed a bill Sunday that would add Nevada to a growing list of states that will mail all active voters ballots ahead of the November election amid the coronavirus pandemic. The bill now heads to Gov. Steve Sisolak.
With No Federal Agents on Streets, Portland Protests Turn Largely Peaceful
Alicia A. Caldwell, The Wall Street Journal
A band of Portland moms chanting, “No justice, no peace” led hundreds of marchers to a federal courthouse here Saturday night, arriving to raucous cheers from a few thousand others already in place. For several hours, Moms United for Black Lives took their usual spot, front and center along a roughly 15-foot-high fence line ringing the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse, ground zero for more than two months of nightly protests.
Advocacy
More than 100 CEOs warn Congress of ‘catastrophic’ consequences for small biz without relief bill
Stephanie Ruhle and Rebecca Shabad, NBC News
More than 100 current and former top executives at major U.S. companies are calling on Congress to pass long-term relief for small businesses to ensure they survive the coronavirus pandemic. In a letter released Monday that was sent to top congressional leaders of both parties in the House and Senate, the CEOs and other executives warn of significant consequences to the economy if Congress doesn’t immediately act to save small business.
Wall Street Is Torn on Whether a Biden Win Brings Joy or Misery
Robert Schmidt and Jesse Hamilton, Bloomberg
As President Donald Trump’s poll numbers continue to sink, Wall Street is starting to envision Washington under Joe Biden — a scenario that many executives say they welcome. But to some pessimists, the upbeat view underestimates the rising influence of progressive Democrats who are demanding a clampdown on banks, hedge funds and private-equity firms.
Opinions, Editorials and Perspectives
For President Trump, Not All Monuments Are Created Equal
Rob Vessels, Morning Consult
For the past few months, our country has spent much time considering monuments, heritage and the legacy of white supremacy. The murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police on May 25 shocked the nation.
How the Media Could Get the Election Story Wrong
Ben Smith, The New York Times
Picture this Thanksgiving: turkey, football (maybe), tenser-than-usual interactions with relatives. And perhaps a new tradition: finding out who actually won the presidential election.
There’s a Deal to Save TikTok — if Trump Doesn’t Mess It Up
Kara Swisher, The New York Times
Yes, President Trump can ban TikTok in the United States. The problem? This won’t actually stop the digital deluge from China.
Research Reports and Polling
Americans Who Mainly Get Their News on Social Media Are Less Engaged, Less Knowledgeable
Amy Mitchell et al., Pew Research Center
The rise of social media has changed the information landscape in myriad ways, including the manner in which many Americans keep up with current events. In fact, social media is now among the most common pathways where people – particularly young adults – get their political news.
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