Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Biden Lays Blame On Trump For School Reopening Turmoil
Politico: ‘I Just Don’t Get These Guys’: Biden Blasts Trump, GOP Lawmakers Over Virus Response
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden attacked President Donald Trump’s deal-making abilities and criticized congressional Republicans’ coronavirus response as woefully inadequate during a rare question-and-answer session with reporters Wednesday. In his first news conference in more than a month, the former vice president touted his work advancing the 2009 Recovery Act under the previous administration as a model for how to reinvigorate a flailing economy and help hurting Americans. (Forgey, 9/2)
Politico: Biden Pins School Reopening Chaos On Trump As FEMA Denies Assistance
Joe Biden promised Wednesday that he would harness billions of dollars in FEMA disaster aid to pay for supplies like masks and hand sanitizer to help schools reopen, if he's victorious on Election Day. The former vice president made that commitment during a speech in Delaware, kicking off a Democratic campaign blitz this week to blame President Donald Trump as parents and students throughout the country struggle with virtual learning and sudden school closures amid coronavirus outbreaks. (Scholtes, 9/2)
The Washington Post: Biden And Trump Battle Over Pandemic-Related School Closures.
Joe Biden on Wednesday sought to channel the frustrations of students, parents, and teachers around the country by squarely blaming President Trump for school districts' inability to fully reopen amid the coronavirus pandemic. Biden, who with his wife, Jill, received a briefing from education leaders here at a sparsely filled downtown theater, said the lack of in-person primary school education around the country was a “national emergency.” (Viser, Dawsey and Parker, 9/2)
AP: Biden: Trump Ignores Pandemic, Stokes Unrest, Solves Neither
Joe Biden is calling the struggle to reopen U.S. schools amid the coronavirus a “national emergency” and accusing President Donald Trump of turning his back to stoke passions instead about unrest in America’s cities.The Democratic presidential nominee’s broadsides came a day ahead of his own trip to Kenosha, Wisconsin, where Biden said he wants to help “heal” a city reeling from another police shooting of a Black man. The wounding of Jacob Blake and subsequent demonstrations have made the political battleground state a focal point for debate over police and protest violence, as well as the actions of vigilante militias. (Barrow and Weissert, 9/3)
In other election news —
The New York Times: As He Questions His Opponent’s Health, Trump Finds His Own Under Scrutiny
For much of his life, President Trump has promoted himself as a virtual superman who has endless energy, needs little sleep, rarely gets sick and excelled at sports in his youth. As he once dictated in a statement put out in the name of an agreeable doctor, he is “the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.” So as Mr. Trump seeks to become the oldest individual ever elected to the office for a second term, recent questions about his mental and physical condition have sent him into paroxysms of pique. They have complicated his own efforts to question the health of his challenger and fellow septuagenarian, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Baker, 9/2)
