So far in my recaps, I’ve neglected to mention that there’s been a run on toilet paper, water, and disinfectants for about a month as rumors and uncertainty about the coronavirus take hold. And as of this week, both brick-and-mortar and online stores can’t keep toilet paper, Purell, and disinfectants in stock. How much toilet paper does any single household need? Save some for the rest of us poor catastrophe planners!

Anyway, here’s what happened in politics for the week ending March 8…

Missing From Last Week:

1. In early February, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the U.S. would send $100 million in aid to countries impacted by the coronavirus. That included the personal protective equipment that we’re running short of in the U.S. right now. The idea was that countries like China would be ahead of the virus by the time it hit the U.S. and would be able to return the favor.

Shootings This Week:

1. There were 8 mass shootings in the U.S. this week (defined as killing and/or injuring 4 or more people). Shooters kill 4 people and injure 52 more. There are so many injured because shooting broke out at a motorcycle club, injuring 17 people.

Russia:

1. Newly released documents relating to Mueller’s interview with Rick Gates indicate that Sean Hannity tailored his show to the suggestions of Paul Manafort in 2016. Previously released documents already showed that Hannity was a contact person for Trump and his associates who were under investigation.
2. A federal judge criticizes the way Attorney General William Barr handled the release of the Mueller report, saying Barr distorted the report and mislead the public about its findings. The judge also says Barr lacks credibility on the topic, pointing out discrepancies between Barr’s representation of the report and the actual contents. The judge is reviewing the full report in order to decide whether to release more of it to the public.
3. At an election security conference, an FBI official warns that Russia wants to see us tear ourselves apart in the run-up to the 2020 elections. I’d say we’re giving them what they want.
4. Russia takes advantage of the spreading anxiety over the coronavirus and trolls take to social media again to spread disinformation, this time about coronavirus conspiracy theories. And this is why we should get our news from reliable media outlets. I know; I’m a broken record here.

Legal Fallout:

1. A federal judge orders Hillary Clinton to sit for a sworn deposition in connection with the 2016 investigation into her emails. The judge says her written answers are inadequate, and all of the investigations into the matter failed to put the issue to rest.
2. Mitt Romney suggests he’ll block the Senate Homeland Security Committee’s efforts to subpoena Hunter Biden.
3. House Democrats ask an appeals court to rehear the case over whether Don McGahn must testify before Congress. An earlier ruling says the courts can’t force it, leaving Congress with only one way to respond—having the sergeant at arms arrest people who refuse to comply.

Courts/Justice:

1. The Supreme Court hears a case that could weaken the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB). The bureau was put in place to protect consumers from deceptive practices by lenders and financial institutions. The head of the CFPB serves for five years and cannot be fired by the president as a way to maintain the bureau’s independence.

• • The Seila Law firm is suing because they say that the CFPB’s structure is unconstitutional. Not surprisingly, the CFPB is investigating Seila.
  • This is a big deal because the Social Security Administration has the same structure so the court’s ruling could affect a century of policy.

2. The Supreme Court leaves a lower court’s decision in place upholding the Trump administration’s ban on bump stocks.

Healthcare/Coronavirus:

Healthcare:

1. The Supreme Court announces they’ll hear two cases brought by Texas and a coalition of Republican-governed states. The cases center on whether the entire ACA must be struck down since the individual mandate has been removed. Even though legal experts widely regard this argument as ridiculous, our greatest court will hear the case.

Coronavirus:

1. By the beginning of the week, six people in Washington have died from coronavirus infections. Four were residents at a nursing facility.
2. The CDC’s initial test kits for coronavirus didn’t work as designed. Independent labs tried to take up the slack, but have been delayed by red tape.

• • Experts on infectious diseases say none of their simulations considered a failure in testing when predicting spread, because it didn’t occur to them this would happen.
  • An FDA official who was deployed to help at the CDC says he found contamination in the lab for one of the test components.
  • There’s a rumor circulating that the Trump administration rejected the WHO’s offer for test kits early on. This is not actually true. The WHO offered kits to countries hit earlier and without the resources to deal with it. We could’ve used a protocol created by another country, but decided to create our own. Germany’s was available 11 days before ours, and they seem to be very successful with it so far.

3. Healthcare facilities begin running low on protective equipment and will soon run out of the ventilators and respirators required to treat the most severe patients. Hospitals start rationing protective wear, and doctors and nurses start re-using their protective equipment.
4. Trump hesitates to invoke the Defense Production Act to stop competition between states over supplies and to force manufacturers to switch over to producing medical equipment.
5. Donald Trump Jr. claims that Democrats want the coronavirus to kill millions of people in order to bring down Trump. Mike Pence defends the statement. At any rate, Democratic voices urging action are louder right now than GOP voices, so it seems Jr. is wrong again.
6. Trump claims that Democrats’ policy of open borders is a threat to our health and wellbeing. But Democrats, in general, are not for open borders. But I repeat myself.
7. Trump incorrectly blames a decision made by the Obama administration for the slow rollout of coronavirus test kits. What really happened is that the lack of oversight for medical testing during Obama’s terms so concerned the FDA that they proposed heavier oversight, with bipartisan approval in Congress. But the proposal never became a regulation, and the Obama administration ultimately left the decision to the Trump administration. The head of the CDC backs up Trump’s claim, and the CDC doesn’t respond to queries about it.
8. Italy orders all sporting events to be held with no spectators until April 3.
9. Defense Secretary Mark Esper warns commanders not to surprise Trump with coronavirus information. He doesn’t want them to contradict White House talking points and wants them to clear decisions through him. Defense officials push back, saying at times they’ll need to make urgent healthcare decisions to keep troops abroad safe and healthy.
10. During a meeting with health officials, Trump asks if we’ll have a vaccine over the next few months. Alex Azar says maybe one for testing will be ready, but there won’t be a vaccine in the next few months. Another health official says it won’t be ready for a year to a year and a half.
11. Trump befuddles those officials by asking if a flu vaccine would work.
12. Trump says that the WHO’s assessment of a 3.4% death rate for the virus is a false number based on a hunch.
13. Officials worry that Trump’s messaging that a cure or vaccine is around the corner will lull people into a false sense of security, which could help spread the virus.
14. Trump is aggressively pushing the NIH and CDC to get the vaccine done quickly.
15. The Senate passes an $8.3 billion measure to provide funds to federal health agencies for vaccines, tests, and potential treatments. It also provides assistance to state and local governments. Senator Rand Paul is the only legislator to vote against it. Trump had only requested $2.5 billion.
16. Trump gives a briefing with the CDC and instead of talking about what’s being done to respond to the pandemic, he defends his administration’s handling of it. He calls Washington Governor Jay Inslee a snake (Inslee is dealing with the first crisis in the U.S. over this).
17. The Grand Princess cruise ship has been floating around waiting for permission to dock in the U.S. because its passengers have been exposed to the coronavirus. Trump wants to leave them on the ship because letting infected U.S. citizens into the U.S. will make it look like more U.S. citizens are infected.
18. HUD Secretary Ben Carson declines to review the administration’s plans for allowing the cruise ship to dock. He says Pence will implement a plan within three days, but the cruise ship is scheduled to dock the next day.
19. Trump says that anyone who wants a test can get one, though that is demonstrably false.
20. Following China’s lead, Italy, currently the second hardest-hit country, implements a quarantine on about a quarter of its citizens until April 3. They’re trying to limit the spread in the areas with the most cases, especially in the north.
21. The CDC says we might have to stay at home, possibly close schools, and limit travel. That’s fine if you can work from home, but a large sector of our population have jobs that cannot be done remotely, and they will be hit hardest if we have to stay home.
22. States begin declaring a state of emergency to prepare for the coming pandemic. By the end of the week, 13 states have made the declaration.
23. The Trump administration might use the National Disaster Medical System to reimburse medical facilities for treating uninsured patients who have coronavirus infections.
24. Trump says we’re ready to produce 1 million coronavirus test kits by the end of the week. The labs doing the work say they aren’t even close. The FDA, Health and Human Services Department, and coronavirus response team leader Mike Pence back up that misleading number.
25. A federal official says that the CDC wanted to advise seniors and at-risk people not to fly on commercial airlines, but the White House didn’t want to. The administration has now made milder recommendations about avoiding flights.
26. Health experts say we need clearer guidance from the government.
27. The CDC posts recommendations on its website for older adults and people with underlying medical conditions to stay home as much as possible and avoid crowds.
28. Trump schedules a trip to the CDC and then cancels it due to a possible coronavirus case at the CDC. The case turns out to be negative, and Trump reschedules. But CDC staff only find out about the suspected case because Trump mentions it to reporters.
29. Near the end of the week, the Trump administration claims the coronavirus outbreak is contained.
30. 541 people in the U.S. are infected so far (that we know of), with 22 deaths. Tests are ramping up, but still number only in the thousands.
31. 100,000 people worldwide have been infected.
32. Twenty states report people infected with the virus: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Wisconsin.

International:

1. Days after signing a peace plan with the Taliban to end the Afghanistan war and hours after a phone call between Trump and Taliban negotiators, Taliban fighters attack an Afghan government checkpoint. The U.S. responds with a drone strike.
2. Belatedly, U.S. intelligence says they have information indicating that the Taliban doesn’t intend to honor the promises they made for the peace plan.
3. The International Criminal Court (ICC) authorizes an investigation into potential war crimes by the U.S. in Afghanistan. Allegations include “acts of torture, cruel treatment, outrages upon personal dignity, rape, and sexual violence.”

Border Wall/Shutdown/National Emergency:

1. Nineteen states sue Trump over diverting $3.8 billion in military funding to build his border wall.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

1. The UN publishes the first global gender social norm index, which shows that around 50% of people still think men make better leaders than women, more than 40% think men are better business leaders, and around 30% (of men and women) think it’s OK for a man to beat his wife. There are only six countries surveyed in which the majority held no bias against women.
2. The Trump administration plans to start collecting DNA samples from immigrant detainees starting in April.

Climate:

1. A new study concludes that trees in the Congo are losing their ability to absorb carbon dioxide, the first indication that tropical rainforests could be losing their ability to combat climate change.
2. Not only is the Trump administration removing mention of climate change from government documents, but now an official at the Interior Department is embedding misleading language about climate change from climate change denial sites. This is so widely known inside the department that the language has its own nickname — Gok’s uncertainty language, named after Indur Goklany, who’s been inserted the wording.
3. A federal judge says the Trump administration illegally cut off public comments on a proposal to open public lands to gas and oil exploration. As a result, the judge cancels more than $125 million in gas and oil leases.

Budget/Economy:

1. The market gains back over a third of last week’s losses on Monday, but then on Tuesday, the Fed seeks to calm the markets by cutting the interest rate by a half-percentage-point. But the size of the cut coupled with the decision to do this outside of their regular meeting spooks investors a bit. The markets get a bump after the announcement, which evaporates after about 15 minutes.

• • The market proceeds to have a crazy and volatile week, mostly continuing to drop but ending the week with a little boost to cut our losses.
  • The 10-year Treasury yield drops to below 1%.

2. Trump implies that the decrease in international flights will actually be good for the U.S. economy because it will increase domestic tourism. He says “maybe that’s one of the reasons the job numbers are so good.”
3. For the first time in a century, the 400 richest U.S. families pay a lower tax rate than the middle class. All thanks to the tax reform enacted by the GOP in 2017.
4. The economy added 273,000 jobs in February, and the unemployment rate remained at a low 3.5%.
5. Manufacturing dropped to a record low in China due to the coronavirus closing several factories.

• • This economic impact is likely to spread globally as the virus spreads. Both European and U.S. manufacturers are already feeling it.
  • China’s factories also supply businesses and manufacturers around the world, producing about 65% of technology components and 80% of electronics.
  • The good news is, China’s workers are starting to go back to work.

6. While saying the U.S. economy is fundamentally sound, the Trump administration is looking at relief packages for workers and businesses.

Elections:

1. Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar drop out of the Democratic presidential primary and throw their backing behind Joe Biden. Trump says they should be impeached for their “quid pro quo” (making an unspecified deal with Joe Biden is what I think he means).
2. Trump mocks Mike Bloomberg for ending his presidential bid saying, “he didn’t have what it takes.”
3. Since 2012, Texas has closed 750 polling places, with some counties falling below the state-mandated minimum. Texas already has very low voter turnout, and these closures disproportionately hit Black and Latino communities.
4. Trump goes after Jeff Sessions, who is headed to a runoff for the Republican primary for Alabama’s open Senate seat instead of having won the primary outright. Trump tweets, “this is what happens to someone” who “doesn’t have the wisdom or courage to stare down & end the phony Russia Witch Hunt.”
5. Facebook removes Trump ads that ask users to fill out an “Official 2020 Congressional District Census” because it could confuse users into thinking they’ve filled out the actual official census. I don’t know why they’d want to fool their own base that way, because then they’re less likely to be counted. The Republican Party sent out similar mailers last October that were also designed to look like the census.
6. Erik Prince, who you might remember from the Russia investigation, has been recruiting former spies from Project Veritas to infiltrate liberal groups. He’s also recruited real U.S. and British spies to infiltrate Democratic candidate campaigns and other liberal and progressive organizations.
7. Hot on the heels of suing the New York Times and the Washington Post, the Trump re-election campaign sues CNN for publishing “false and defamatory” statements about the campaign looking for help from Russia in the 2020 election.

• • I’m no lawyer, but when your candidate asks Russia to look into his opponent‘s emails on national TV, you’ll probably have a hard time proving he didn’t.

8. Trump’s re-election campaign cancels its bus tour over coronavirus concerns.

Miscellaneous:

1. The White House has started sending out questionnaires to possible political appointees with the purpose of showing how loyal each applicant is to Trump. In case you were wondering, this type of question was not asked under Obama.
2. Trump withdraws his nomination of Elaine McCusker for Pentagon comptroller. McCusker fought to release the aid to Ukraine that Trump held up last year over investigations into the Bidens and the 2016 elections.
3. Unsurprisingly, Mick Mulvaney is out as acting chief of staff and will become the U.S. special envoy for Northern Ireland. Representative Mark Meadows, who like Mulvaney was once a member of the House Freedom Caucus, will take his place.