"Will you shut up, man?" US Politics October 2020

YES! that's (part of) the exact footage! and i feel like such a dumbass - i didn't recognize that was Mike Lee while I was watching! during that footage (there's much more than that clip, before and after), Lee is walking all over the place gregariously chatting it up with everyone, he hits the cameraman on accident and apologizes, all sorts of shit happens

amazing

with a mask in his hand!

can i just say i may be even happier that mike lee tested positive than the t man

also, i mean, LOTS of people were at that ceremony. Bill Barr, etc. and i know it was outside, and everything. but that 16 seconds of footage is only a small part of the 5-10 minutes of close contact schmoozing going on after that. in addition to the big names everyone would recognize on sight:

...When the press is escorted to the Rose Garden, many guests are already seated. There is some slight distance between the chairs because of COVID-19, but only a few guests are wearing masks. A military band is out on the South Lawn, playing the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” and similar martial choices.

It’s time to see who’s here. Corey Lewandowski, the president’s one-time campaign manager, had walked past the press office earlier and now is seated near the front. Gary Bauer, who served in President Ronald Reagan’s administration, led the Family Research Council, and ran for the Republican presidential nomination, is seated in the middle.

Mercedes Schlapp, a former Trump White House staff member who is now working on the president’s re-election campaign, is seated near the front. Her husband, Matthew Schlapp, the chair of the Conservative Political Action Committee, is seated farther back, next to Thomas Fitton, the president of Judicial Watch.

John Malcolm of the Heritage Foundation, who has helped draw up names for Trump’s Supreme Court lists, is here, wearing a mask. I don’t see Leonard Leo, who also helped draw up such lists when he was with the Federalist Society.

Christine Rousselle, a reporter with the Catholic News Agency, helps me identify a few other guests, including Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List, and Jeanne Mancini, the president of March for Life, a similar group.

Rousselle also points out the Rev. John I. Jenkins, the president of the University of Notre Dame, where Barrett is still on the faculty even after joining the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit in 2017.

https://www.scotusblog.com/2020/09/a-view-from-the-rose-garden-the-nine/

along with "At least five Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee": aMike Lee of Utah, Mike Crapo of Idaho, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, and Josh Hawley of Missouri.

i'm not pro biden beyond any of the obvious reasons but that clip has major actor-of-a-certain-age going for the oscar vibes 2 me

Tbh I hope they all die.

Well well

News: I have obtained a memo from the @WHCA board to WH reporters with word of "two additional cases of COVID-19 at the White House." A journalist received a preliminary positive result. And a WH staffer who sits in the "lower press" area received a confirmed positive result.

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) October 2, 2020

Also, a useful little thread.

1/ Quick reminder that Sen Judiciary Comm. rules require a quorum to be "actually" present to conduct business (such as recommending ACB for SCOTUS seat). Related Senate standing rule requires committee quorums to be "physically" present to report measure/matter to full Senate.

— Sarah Binder (@bindersab) October 2, 2020

I was already thinking the whole Trump testing positive reveal and Karl's story/video above about the Rose Garden event seemed like a Pynchon set piece, but "Senator Mike Crapo" just seals the deal.

It's almost as though it were spreading like a virus or something.

It may be going...

Wait for it...

Viral

(CSI Miami sunglasses gif)

😎

Daltrey: "YEEEEEAAAAAAH!"

bummer - the previous version of the archived WashPost video had ALL of the footage, including the minutes before and after when everyone else clearly thought the cameras were down.

this is the same video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDcz4laYqxY

but it's been trimmed down substantially. you see just a couple of minutes (starts at around 20 minutes in) of the people milling around, which is enough to give you an idea of the density of the seating there as well as how almost no one is wearing a mask. but the good stuff was after that, another 10-15 minutes where everyone's got their guard down and you can clearly hear mike lee and others just a couple feet away from the mic. all that's been removed from the video. oh well.

hopefully someone kept it, because honestly i think it's a historical document of stupidity, from several angles all at once.

to me it's like if you had 1944 footage of hitler sarcastically joking about killing himself in his bunker

lol

until the very end, where I spied a grand total of three masks you couldn't even tell the event was happening in the Covid era

given the way these people live it's amazing they've dodged the Vid for so long

It's like a guy getting pink eye after 6 months of wiping his ass with his hands

nah it makes sense that he got it when he started doing dozens of rallies and fundraisers (which other than mt rushmore and that half empty indoor arena thing he wasn't over the summer i don't think)

I guess we'll see what a diet of Cool Ranch Pringles, KFC & diet coke does for one's health & vitality.

Nothing good so far

Trump cancels events, goes without tweeting for 12 hours following coronavirus diagnosis https://t.co/riCZRSRIg1

— The Independent (@Independent) October 2, 2020

xxpost sure but there were also a bunch of cases in the White House and directions that mask wearing was a bad look

Bearing in mind the iron law that they're liars and it's always worse than it seems with these people, I note he has "mild symptoms".

It's now beginning to look to me like the White House was at the center of a super-spreading event, or multiple such events. This seems more horrifying than cause for glee, but this is a rich harvest of payback for Trump's enablers.

President Trump’s advanced age and his immune system’s response will most strongly influence the course of his battle with covid-19, a disease whose impact ranges unpredictably from no symptoms at all to rapid death, according to experts and research.

sounds good. keep me posted.

Bearing in mind the iron law that they're liars and it's always worse than it seems with these people, I note he has "mild symptoms".

someone mentioned he was notably off during his NJ fundraiser, not taking time to chat with anyone and appearing out of breath

By official medical standards, "mild" symptoms could mean flu-like, which could still be shitty for him, and yeah, it could get worse, because he is old and fast and an asshole.

Impatiently awaiting word on Attorney General Barr.

I note he has "mild symptoms".

Born to be mild

Negative, I’m afraid.

xp

Negative, I’m afraid.

Ah, well. But I hear there are plenty of false negatives, and any one negative test is unreliable.

Boris is like Usain Bolt compared to Trump.

Meanwhile, Florida!

Wow. Look at these returned vote by mail numbers in Florida. @FlaDems +91,340 vote advantage.

DEM: 184,552 (7.6% return rate)
GOP: 93,212 (5.6%)
N/3/I: 64,119

Total: 341,877

In 2016, this far out from E-Day, GOP held +1,304 advantage with only 7,487 mail ballots returned.

— Kevin Cate (@KevinCate) October 2, 2020

awesome

Let me point out: Miami-Dade and Broward haven't voted yet. So.

with this many ballots already cast it's gonna be fucked up if Trump actually died from this

not bad, just fucked up

More positive tests in the White House. Details to come

— Frida Ghitis (@FridaGhitis) October 2, 2020

with this many ballots already cast it's gonna be fucked up if Trump actually died

there is no time left for ballots to be reprinted. should trump die or withdraw all votes cast for trump-pence would be assigned to whatever substitute ticket the Republicans might designate. this is the only solution that even approximates an orderly process.

"We've replaced Donald Trump with... Hillary Clinton"

b/c the Republicans care so much about an orderly process, yes yes

Aimless you might be right, but that seems kinda fucked up. wouldn’t there be a metric assload of maga chuds who’d rather go vegan than vote Romney?

i'm pretty sure that process for dealing with last-minute death or withdrawal of a candidate is codified in various state election laws. plus, since a dead man can't be president, the Republicans have a vested interest in still having a shot at winning, so they would be quite happy that such a process exists.

have to figure the national party would nominate Ivanka, to keep the name. and start madly spinning out propaganda that while she may have been out of the spotlight, she's JUST as much of an egomaniacal racist lib-owning piece of shit asshole who built a great company and will build the wall and make America great again

At the rate we are going, I wouldn't be shocked if Trump fully recovered and then said having antibodies made him a better candidate, because Biden was too at risk of catching covid.

the best antibodies!

xxxpost afaict, the party convention would reconvene and select a name. electors won by Trump/Pence would be encouraged to vote for that person (hard to imagine many of them bailing).

there's a chance this tanks his Supreme Court nomination, right? like we don't know who all has it but it would be nuts for the Senate to convene right now

Has it been noted that supposedly Trump has gone 12 hours without tweeting? Usually that only happens when he is traveling overseas, but apparently you also go silent while you are traveling the River Styx.