Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Amid Slumping Approval Ratings, Trump Returns To Tried-And-True Tactic Of Attacking Obama, Enemies
Politico: With Obamagate, Trump Returns To A Favorite Distraction Tactic
Donald Trump launched his political career turbocharging the conspiratorial birther movement. Now Trump is trying to keep his presidency afloat with another theory about his predecessor: Obamagate. Over the past three days, Trump has tweeted and railed about unproven claims that President Barack Obama, in his final days in office, orchestrated a plot to damage the incoming president. “He got caught, OBAMAGATE!” Trump tweeted on Sunday, one of 126 tweets and retweets — the second-highest single-day total of his presidency — that kept returning to Obama. (Nguyen, 5/12)
The Washington Post: As Coronavirus Roils The Nation Trump Suggests Joe Scarborough Murdered Aide
On a day when coronavirus deaths passed 80,000 and top government scientists warned of the perils of loosening public health restrictions too soon, President Trump used his massive public platform to suggest a talk-show host he has clashed with committed murder. His baseless charge capped a 48-hour stretch in which he accused scores of perceived opponents of criminal acts ranging from illegal espionage to election rigging. (Olorunnipa, 5/12)
The Washington Post Fact Check: Trump’s Vicious Claim That Joe Scarborough Might Have Murdered An Aide
The Facts: “Morning Joe” airs on MSNBC from 6 to 9 a.m. on weekdays. The hosts have been hammering the administration’s dysfunction in the face of the covid-19 pandemic, with Scarborough often taking Trump to task for “a blizzard of lies.” This morning, the hosts also zeroed in on Trump’s contentious exchange with a CBS News reporter at a news conference Monday. Brzezinski and Scarborough both called Trump’s remarks “racist.” They ran a segment criticizing the Justice Department’s unusual move to drop the criminal case against Michael Flynn, a former Trump national security adviser who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. They interviewed Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), who said of Trump: “He can’t handle women, particularly strong women, and we know that Trump is xenophobic, and it comes out time and again.” (Rizzo, 5/12)
Politico: Republican Voters Give Trump And GOP Governors Cover To Reopen
Republican voters have undergone a significant shift on the coronavirus in a few short weeks. A month ago, half of GOP voters said they were more worried about public health than the economy. Now, fewer than 2 in 5 say their concerns about the physical dangers of the virus outweigh their fears of a free-falling economy — a 13 percent drop. And the percentage of Republicans who said it was more important for the government to address the spread of the virus than the economy fell 22 points, from 65 percent to 43 percent, versus a 15-point drop overall. (Shepard, 5/13)
Politico: Republicans To Trump: Wear A Mask
President Donald Trump has faced plenty of criticism from Democrats throughout the coronavirus pandemic — including for his refusal to wear a mask. But according to a new survey, even most Republicans think Trump and Vice President Mike Pence should sport face coverings when traveling in public. It’s a rare point of bipartisan consensus during a public health crisis that’s become deeply politicized. (Forgey, 5/12)
The New York Times: Trump Is Courting Black Voters. His Failures On The Virus Are A Problem.
Since he took office, President Trump and his advisers have made a show of trying to chip away at the overwhelming support that Democrats enjoyed from black voters in the 2016 presidential campaign. Even as Mr. Trump himself has offended people with language widely seen as racist, like telling four congresswomen of color to “go back” to countries where they came from (three of them were born in the United States), his campaign poured $10 million into a Super Bowl ad featuring a black woman and highlighting the administration’s efforts on criminal justice reform. (Haberman and Karni, 5/12)
Reuters: Trump Approval Dips Amid Mounting Coronavirus Death Toll, Trails Biden By 8 Points: Reuters/Ipsos Poll
More Americans have grown critical of President Donald Trump over the past month as the death toll mounts from the coronavirus pandemic and he now trails Democratic challenger Joe Biden by 8 percentage points among registered voters, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Tuesday. The poll conducted on Monday and Tuesday showed that 41% of U.S. adults approved of Trump’s performance in office, which is down 4 points from a similar poll that ran in mid-April. Fifty-six percent disapprove of Trump, up by 5 points in the same span. (Kahn, 5/12)
The Hill: Kushner Acknowledges 'Risk' In Reopening Too Quickly
White House senior adviser Jared Kushner acknowledged there could be “risk” to reopening the country too quickly following the coronavirus outbreak while pointing to the economic consequences of the pandemic. “There’s risk in anything, but the president carries the burden of the 30 million Americans who have lost their jobs due to this historic effort to save lives,” Kushner, who is also President Trump’s son-in-law, said in an interview for the TIME100 Talks series on Tuesday. (Axelrod, 5/12)
Meanwhile, the presumptive Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, attacks Trump's virus response, but he doesn't always get it right —
ABC News: Biden Pushes Back On Trump's Testing Claims, Labels Coronavirus Response 'Incompetent'
In an interview Tuesday morning on “Good Morning America,” presumptive Democratic presidential nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden pushed back on President Donald Trump’s claim that anyone in America who wants to get tested for COVID-19 has the ability to do so. “The truth is the truth, George. Anyone can't get a test around the country... He knew about this crisis all the way back in January and February. He's been incompetent the way he responded,” Biden told ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos. (Verhovek and Nagle, 5/12)
The Washington Post Fact Checker: Biden Video Uses Misleading Edits To Hype Trump’s Remarks To Nurse
On May 6, President Trump met with nurses in the Oval Office to sign a proclamation for National Nurses Day. The Biden campaign turned the event into a 30-second attack video, tweeted out by Biden. With strumming guitar music, the video shows Trump appearing to interrupt a nurse who mentions that supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE) have been “sporadic.” The video ends with display text: “Happy National Nurses Week from the president (only to nurses who agree with him).” (Kessler, 5/13)
