Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
'Trump Can't Wish It Away:' In Speech On Health Care, Biden Blasts Rival's Handling Of Pandemic
ABC News: 'He's Like A Child': Biden Slams Trump's Handling Of Coronavirus Pandemic Amid 'Heartless Crusade' To End Obamacare
In one of his sharpest rebukes of President Donald Trump to date, former Vice President Joe Biden lambasted the president's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, comparing Trump to a whining child. "(Trump's) like a child who can't believe this has happened to him -- all his whining and self pity. This pandemic didn't happen to him. It happened to all of us. And his job isn't to whine about it, his job is to do something about it -- to lead," Biden said in a speech in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on Thursday. (Nagle, 6/25)
Politico: Trump ‘Like A Child’ In Responding To Coronavirus, Biden Says
Biden reiterated his campaign pledge to expand health care coverage by implementing a public insurance option. “We need a public option, now more than ever, especially when more than 20 million people are unemployed,” Biden said. Speaking at a podium emblazoned with the words “Protect and Build on the Affordable Care Act,” the former vice president touted the legislation as one of President Barack Obama’s crowning achievements that covered tens of millions of Americans. (Cohen, 6/25)
Politico: Trump Sidesteps Grim Coronavirus Surge To Sell A Happier Message
President Donald Trump and his top aides sought Thursday to minimize the threat of the coronavirus to the public’s health and the U.S. economy despite alarms blaring across two dozen states — including many overseen by Trump-friendly leaders. Aides insisted there would be no change in White House strategy to fight the pandemic, and no additional money or new resources given to states dealing with spikes in cases. “In only 3 percent of the counties across the country are we seeing an increase in cases,” said a senior administration official. “The vast majority of the country is not experiencing that. When they turn on the TV and see maps full of red and then they go out into their communities, that is not what they see.” (Cook, 6/25)
Politico: Why Trump’s Focus On Falling Death Rates Could Be Dangerous
President Donald Trump and Republican governors are pointing to fewer coronavirus deaths to suggest that the worst of the coronavirus pandemic has passed — and to blunt criticism that a surge of new infections in more than half the states is proof the country reopened too soon. But that’s a dangerous gamble. Death rates tell nothing about the current spread of the virus and only offer a snapshot of where the country was roughly three weeks ago. If the caseloads in states like Texas, Arizona and Florida are any indication, the U.S. will almost certainly see a spike in deaths in July that could undermine the entire nationwide reopening effort. (Goldberg, 6/25)
CNN: Donald Trump's Post-Covid Bubble Is Popping
America's single worst day of new coronavirus cases obliterated President Donald Trump's fantasyland vision of a post-Covid America -- even as he sowed new diversions in an effort to hide the reality of his leadership void in a deepening national crisis. More than 37,000 new cases of Covid-19 were reported on Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The numbers superseded the previous darkest day of the pandemic, on April 24. (Collinson, 6/26)
