Impact2020: June 15, 2020
In your Impact2020 briefing for Monday, June 15, Tulsa’s health director hopes President Trump will reconsider his new rally date, the White House says it will consider Democrats’ police reform proposals, with one exception, and many of the details of the Democratic convention remain up in the air.
On the Ground
Rallying to delay a rally
President Donald Trump pushed back his Tulsa campaign rally by one day after backlash over its Juneteenth timing, but now the city’s health director said he wishes the event would be pushed back even further due to concerns over the coronavirus.
“In an interview, … Dr. Bruce Dart said Tulsa is seeing a ‘significant increase in our case trends’ that makes a large gathering like the rally dangerous for not only attendees, but the president himself,” the Tulsa World’s Stetson Payne reports.
“I’m concerned about our ability to protect anyone who attends a large, indoor event, and I’m also concerned about our ability to ensure the president stays safe as well,” Dart said
The Tulsa World’s editorial board agreed, writing, “we can’t see any way that his visit will be good for the city.” Laying out the challenges and potential tolls on the city’s health care system and budget, the board writes “This is the wrong time.”
Trump considers police reform
Trump is considering Democratic police reform proposals introduced in a bill last week, including a chokehold ban, but the White House says it won’t budge on immunity, McClatchy’s Francesca Chambers reports.
“White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said that eliminating ‘qualified immunity,’ the legal standard that protects police from being held liable for actions taken in the line of duty that are not explicitly against the law, is a ‘nonstarter’ for the administration,” writes Chambers.
Credit: Alex Brandon, AP
Supporters of qualified immunity argue the standard shields police from frivolous civil lawsuits while opponents say “too much legal cover is provided to police to use excessive and at times deadly force.”
“It has emerged to some degree as a flashpoint,” Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, told McClatchy in an interview.
Trump has not publicly commented on the issue directly but said in Dallas last week that he is “working to finalize” an executive order that would encourage police departments “to meet the most current professional standards for use of force.” A senior White House official told McClatchy that Trump wants Congress to act on policing reforms with or without an executive order.
A check on the other convention
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Molly Beck and Bill Glauber have the details from Joe Biden’s recorded speech to Wisconsin Democrats at their virtual convention over the weekend.
“We’re dealing with multiple national crises and we need real leadership right now,” said Biden. “It’s time for us to take a hard look at uncomfortable truths. It’s time for us to face the deep open wound of system racism in this nation.”
Biden’s comments came shortly after announcing he planned to be in Milwaukee for the 2020 Democratic National Convention to accept the party’s presidential nomination, Beck and Glauber note . But just what that convention set for the week of Aug. 17 will look like remains unclear.
Several Wisconsin delegates told the Journal Sentinel “it is still too early to tell what will happen with a convention held in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic.” DNC Chair Tom Perez said earlier that the party would “not abandon Milwaukee,” but he wasn’t sure how many people would attend the convention.
Lawrence Andrea and Allison Garfield of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel report that some delegates, such as Vic Verma of Merrill, say they’d rather attend virtually. Verma said, “the risks that are involved and the fact that we have gone through the whole process of becoming a delegate virtually, I would like to perform my duties from home, virtually,” he said. “I think it’s the safer course of action.”
Trail Mix
Election disruption
Georgia Democrats set a new turnout record amid a turbulent primary last week, surpassing 2008’s total of more than 1 million votes — and absentee ballots are still being counted, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Greg Bluestein reports.
The Iowa legislature passed a controversial expansion of the state’s voter ID program that would require those voting early in person to provide ID before receiving their ballots, Stephen Gruber-Miller and Ian Richardson report for the Des Moines Register.
A California judge suspended Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive order that tells counties how to conduct a vote-by-mail election in November, temporarily blocking an emergency measure issued because of the coronavirus outbreak, Hannah Wiley and Sophia Ballog report for the Sacramento Bee.
The Raleigh News & Observer’s Will Doran reports that North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper signed an elections bill into law that includes extra money for increased cybersecurity, and other measures to make it easier to request, use and track absentee mail-in ballots for the 2020 elections.
Ohio elections officials are worried that they won’t be able to set up polling places at schools this fall because of COVID-19, the Columbus Dispatch’s Rick Rouan reports.
Battle for Congress
Bob Good defeated Rep. Denver Riggleman for the Republican nomination in Virginia’s 5th congressional district at an “unusual dive-thru convention” over the weekend, the Roanoke Times’ Amy Friedenberger reports.
Opponents are hoping that voters care enough about former Colorado governor John Hickenlooper’s ethics law violations that he’s defeated in the June 30 primary for Senate, reports the Denver Post’s Jon Murray.
Battleground state watch
“Polls suggest … Trump’s reelection campaign is in deep trouble in Michigan,” Todd Spangler writes for the Detroit Free Press.
Number of the Day
3
Democrat Theresa Greenfield leads GOP Sen. Joni Ernst by 3 points, 46% to 43%, in Iowa, according to a new Des Moines Register poll.
For Planning Purposes
June 15
Trump participates in a roundtable on ”Fighting for America’s Seniors”
Biden holds a virtual fundraiser
June 16
Vice President Mike Pence travels to Iowa to visit Gov. Kim Reynolds, tour Winnebago Industries and speak to its employees
June 18
Pence travels to Michigan for a tour of Chardam Gear Company and to speak at Casadei Structural Steel, Inc.
June 20
Trump rally in Tulsa, Okla.
May fundraising reports are due to the Federal Election Commission
June 23
Kentucky and New York hold primaries
July 7
Delaware and New Jersey hold primaries
July 11
Louisiana primary
Not sure you want to bring that up
Sen. Ted Cruz took a virtual swing at actor Ron Perlman for attacking Reps. Matt Gaetz and Jim Jordan on Twitter (and inadvertently caused a lot of people to google Jim Jordan and wrestling). Perlman, however, upped the ante by saying he’d fight Cruz instead — and donate $50,000 if he won to Black Lives Matter.
Download the latest episode of the Beyond the Bubble podcast to hear the team debate whether Trump can rebound from his recent dip in the polls on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podcasts.
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This story was originally published June 15, 2020 at 12:42 PM.