During what is shaping up to be the largest civil rights movement in history, Trump gasses peaceful protestors while saying he’ll protect protestors but also threatening to crack down using military force. Reverend Robert Hendrickson sums up what so many feel after this week:

“This is an awful man, waving a book he hasn’t read, in front of a church he doesn’t attend, invoking laws he doesn’t understand, against fellow Americans he sees as enemies, wielding a military he dodged serving, to protect power he gained via accepting foreign interference, exploiting fear and anger he loves to stoke, after failing to address a pandemic he was warned about, and building it all on a bed of constant lies and childish inanity.”

Here’s what happened in politics during the week ending June 7. Sorry it’s so late, but it was a doozy.

Missed from Previous Weeks:

1. Trump fires Dana Boente, the FBI’s top lawyer who’s been with the Justice Department for 38 years. He played a role in the Michael Flynn investigation and wrote a memo explaining how recently released documents don’t exonerate Flynn of wrongdoing.
2. Trump vetoed a bill that would’ve forgiven federal student loans for students who are victims of schools that employed illegal or deceptive practices to encourage them to take on the debt. The bill was only necessary because Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has been trying, against court orders, to reverse Obama-era regulations on the matter.
3. Betsy DeVos warns colleges that allow transgender athletes to compete that they’ll lose federal funding unless they end the practice.

Shootings This Week:

1. There were 16 mass shootings in the U.S. this week (defined as killing and/or injuring 4 or more people). Shooters kill 14 people and injure 66 more.
2. One of the worst shootings this week is in Valhermoso Springs, AL, where 7 people were found dead from gunshot wounds in a private home.
3. Another is a drive-by shooting in Sikeston, MO, where 2 people were killed and 7 injured.

Russia:

1. Rod Rosenstein is the first big witness in the Senate Judiciary Committee’s latest investigation into the FBI’s handling of the Russia investigation.

• • Rosenstein says that while he wouldn’t have signed off on the FISA warrants in hindsight, he also doesn’t think the Russia investigation was a hoax nor was it politically motivated.
  • He disagrees with Attorney General Bill Barr that the investigation was “utterly baseless” and a “corrupt criminal investigation.”
  • He also says it was not wrong of the FBI to investigate Michael Flynn.
  • He agrees that there seemed to be no conspiracy between Russia and the Trump campaign.

2. Senator Lindsey Graham plans a series of hearings on the investigation in the lead up to the 2020 election. Just like they did with Benghazi. Just like they did with the emails.
3. Ukrainian prosecutors complete their audit of Burisma Holdings and find no evidence of wrongdoing by Hunter Biden. So that means that Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky did open up Trump’s requested investigation into the Bidens after all. Interesting.
4. Trump and Putin have another call, this time to discuss the pandemic, trade, and progress on pulling together the G7 summit. Remember that Russia was booted from the G7 for annexing Crimea.

Coronavirus:

1. The Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine retract their studies showing that hydroxychloroquine was making patients worse because they couldn’t verify the sources of the data. This is the study on which the WHO based their decision to cancel their studies, so the WHO subsequently resumes the trials.

2. A new study indicates that taking hydroxychloroquine didn’t prevent healthy people from getting COVID-19.
3. On March 13 and April 27, Trump touted his plan to make drive-through testing available across the country and promised major pharmacies would roll out testing everywhere. Here’s what he’s got so far:

• • Overall, about 4% of major pharmacy store locations have testing.
  • Target has one testing site (out of 1,871 locations).
  • Walgreens has 28 (out of nearly 9,300 locations).
  • Kroger has 64 (out of 2,800 locations).
  • Rite Aid has 71 (out of 2,464 locations).
  • Walmart has 180 (out of 5,352 locations).
  • CVS has 991 (out of 9,900 locations).

4. A couple of things we’ve learned from our coronavirus response:

• • Shutting down non-essential medical services might have been overkill.
  • It was a bad idea for hospitals to discharge recovering COVID-19 patients back into nursing homes.

5. The ongoing protests over the murder of George Floyd could increase the spread of the virus and some health officials fear they could become super-spreader events. Marchers say it’s worth the risk, while mayors urge protestors to get tested.
   • Being outdoors is safer and wearing masks will help, but still, people are crowded in close and yelling (spreading droplets).
   • To add to that, tear gas and pepper spray make people cough, sneeze, and cry, all of which increase the likelihood of spread.
6. Sweden’s top epidemiologist, Anders Tegnell, says that their coronavirus strategy resulted in too many deaths. The country had a lax approach to social distancing, and now has one of the highest death rates from COVID-19 in the world.
7. Dr. Anthony Fauci says Trump’s meetings with the coronavirus task force have decreased dramatically in recent weeks. The task force isn’t even meeting with itself as frequently, even though we still have no solid strategy for testing, tracing, and safe reopening.
8. A recent survey finds that some people actually are inhaling disinfectants, washing food in bleach, and using household cleaning products on their skin to fight the coronavirus. Some even gargled with or drank bleach or soapy water. None of these things work, and it’s resulted in an uptick in calls to poison control centers.
9. Trump tours a factory in Maine that produces swabs used for coronavirus testing. All the swabs manufactured while he was there will be discarded. Trump doesn’t wear a mask on the tour.
10. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which has postponed citizenship ceremonies for months, starts to schedule them again.
11. Lockdown protests die down this week, or at least they get lost under the massive racial justice protests going on right now.

Exposures:

1. GOP candidates held campaign events last week in Horry County, North Carolina, with no masks or social distancing. This week, the county sees a rise in coronavirus cases and deaths. I’m not saying the two are related other than that it doesn’t seem smart to be having those types of events while cases are still going up.
2. The NYPD’s crackdown on protestors could increase the spread of coronavirus. Detainees were crammed into busses to be transported to police headquarters, where they were detained in crowded conditions for anywhere from several hours to three days. Detainees begged for their masks but police refuse to give them back.
3. Fifteen out of the sixteen West Point cadets who returned to the academy before their graduation have tested positive for the coronavirus or antibodies. They were ordered back so Trump could give a commencement speech.
4. Around the globe, countries in the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and South Asia have surges in cases. These countries largely avoided the earlier outbreaks.
5. The U.S. still has by far the most cases of any country, followed by Brazil with less than half the cases of the U.S. Russia has the third highest number of cases.

Closures:

1. Florida continues reopening stores, businesses, and outdoor spaces even as the state has three consecutive days with over 1,000 new cases per day, including its biggest one-day increase.
2. Arizona, which is also continuing to open, sees its highest number of new cases on Friday.
3. North Carolina also sees a spike this week, with three straight days of record high new cases.

Numbers:

1. Since May 21, worldwide cases of coronavirus have increased at an average of more than 100,000 cases per day. That’s higher than any single day in April. This is partially explained by an increase in testing.
2. The U.S. reaches 100,000 known COVID-19 deaths on May 28.
3. Here are the numbers by the end of the week:

• • 1,920,061 people in the U.S. are infected so far (up from 1,770,384 last week), with 109,802 deaths (up from 103,781 last week).
  • 6,863,012 people worldwide have been infected (up from 6,028,326 last week), with 399,532 deaths (up from 342,078 las week).

Healthcare:

1. Trump says he’ll urge the Supreme Court to overturn the ACA entirely, despite even Bill Barr recommending that he soften his stance on the ACA at least during the pandemic. Ah, but Barr doesn’t think it’s a bad idea because getting rid fo the ACA will hurt Americans; he just think it would be bad for Trump’s re-election chances.

International:

1. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s trial begins for charges of bribery, breach of trust, and fraud. He continues to serve in office during the trial
2. When asked about Trump’s handling of the protests, Trudeau pauses for a full 21 seconds, and then groans. Trudeau speaks out against adding Russia back into the G7 and criticizes Trump for abandoning the WHO. But he’s not the only foreign leader down on Trump.

• • Our traditional allies in Europe say they aren’t looking to the U.S. for any kind of leadership.
  • The EU’s foreign policy chief criticizes Trump’s recent actions.
  • After Trump’s announcement that he wants to add countries to the G7, including adding Russia back in, Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson says they’d veto that unless Russia stops their “aggressive and destabilizing” activities. Johnson also criticizes Trump for pulling out of the WHO.
  • German Chancellor Angela Merkel expresses opposition to adding Russia to the G7 and criticizes Trump for his anti-China rhetoric and for pulling out of the WHO. She says she won’t attend Trump’s G7 meeting, and that she doesn’t want to be in the room with Trump.
  • Norway’s Prime Minister Erna Solberg criticizes Trump for withdrawing from the WHO.
  • French President Emmanuel Macron expresses sadness and anger, and says that the U.S. is refusing to exercise leadership at a time of crisis and is instead creating divisions, which China is exploiting.
  • After Merkel says she won’t come to the G7, Trump postpones it to September and says he’ll invite Australia, India, Russia, and South Korea. He says the current G7 is a very outdated group of countries that doesn’t represent what’s going on in the world. I guess he forgot we already have the G20.

3. Brexit negotiations are deadlocked still, but trade talks resume this week and the U.K. refuses to extend the deadline.
4. China says Trump is a quitter, addicted to quitting groups and treaties. As a reminder, here are some of the international agreements Trump has pulled out of: the Paris Climate Agreement, the Iran nuclear deal, UNESCO, the UN Human Rights Council, the Open Skies Treaty, and the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty.
5. Trump says he’ll withdraw nearly one-third of our troops currently assigned to Germany. Even Republican leaders think this move is dangerous and misguided.
6. At the same time, Russia sends more troops to its European borders, and Putin signs a decree giving him more flexibility with nuclear weapons.
7. Iran releases Michael White, an American imprisoned there for nearly two years for insulting the supreme leader. He has symptoms of COVID-19. The U.S. had just released an Iranian scientist.

Legislation/Congress:

1. Congress begins working on bipartisan legislation to end the transfer of used military weapons of our police forces.
2. Democrats release their police reform bill, the Justice in Policing Act of 2020. The bill:

• • Makes it easier to prosecute misconduct by the police.
  • Expands the DOJ’s power to investigate and prosecute misconduct.
  • Lowers the requirements for being able to sue police in civil court for civil rights violations.

3. Tone-deaf Senator Rand Paul continues to block a bill that would make lynching a federal crime. The bill was all but passed when the House moved to change the name, requiring Senate approval. Since previous approval was unanimous, no one expected any trouble passing it again.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

Governors’ Conference Call:

1. In a conference call with governors, Trump threatens to deploy the military to states if governors don’t quash the protests themselves. He says they have to “dominate” rioters or they’ll look like “a bunch of jerks.” He says he’s “strongly looking for arrests” and wants them to respond aggressively.

• • He says he’s putting Barr in charge of the federal enforcement response.
  • He tells them he’s putting General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in charge of the protest response.
  • He calls the governors weak.
  • He tells the governors to seek retribution.
  • Trump praises Minnesota Governor Tim Walz for mobilizing the National Guard, and then he says Minnesota is “a laughingstock all over the world.”

2. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker (D) calls out Trump: “Rhetoric coming out of the White House is making it worse, people are experiencing real pain. We’ve got to have national leadership calling for calm and legitimate concern for protestors.” Trump says he doesn’t like Pritzker’s rhetoric either.
3. Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker (R) calls Trump out afterward, saying “At so many times during these last several weeks, when the country needed compassion and leadership the most, it simply was nowhere to be found. Instead, we got bitterness, combativeness and self-interest.”

Clearing Lafayette Square:

This couldn’t have gone more wrong…

1. Trump holds a short press briefing in the Rose Garden on Monday evening with short notice to the press. Here’s a bit of what he says:

• • He’ll take immediate action to mobilize all civilian and military resources to stop the rioting and looting and to protect your Second Amendment rights.
  • He’ll immediately end the riots and lawlessness.
  • He’ll order thousands of armed soldiers, military personnel, and law enforcement into DC to stop the unrest.
  • He’ll deploy the military to states if he doesn’t think they’re taking enough action (basically threatening to use the military against American citizens).
  • He only calls out Antifa by name as being responsible for the violence thought there’s no evidence yet that they are.

2. As reporters wait for the briefing to start, they hear loud booms coming from Lafayette Park, where peaceful protestors were gathered. The booms turn out to be pepper bombs and flashbangs thrown by police to disperse the crowd to make way for Trump to take a surprise walk from the White House to St. John’s Episcopal Church. They also use rubber bullets. This starts a half-hour before curfew, and chaos ensues in the streets of D.C.
3. Attorney General Bill Barr, Defense Secretary Mark Esper, Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Milley (in combat dress), and national security advisor Robert O’Brien all accompany Trump on his walk to the church, among other aides.
4. Once there, Trump holds up a Bible for photos. He offers no prayers, scripture reading, or words of unity. He takes no questions and then returns to the White House.
5. Earlier in the day, all Homeland Security Investigation agents in the D.C. area receive a “high severity” alert telling them to prepare to help with demonstrations. So the FBI deploys its elite hostage rescue team and ICE deploys special response teams.
6. Upon receiving criticism for the way the crowd was dispersed, the White House and law enforcement say they gave the crowd three warnings. Reporters on the scene couldn’t find anyone who heard them except CNN reporters on a rooftop who heard three orders just minutes apart.
7. Officials insist they didn’t use tear gas (video footage shows that they did). Reporters following Trump also say they could smell it when they arrived at the church.

• • Fun Fact: Tear gas can cause damage to the lungs, which makes people more susceptible to respiratory illnesses like COVID-19.
  • The U.S. Park Police later denies using tear gas but admitted to using a chemical that the federal government classifies as tear gas. And then later a sergeant does admit they used tear gas. And then the park police chief denies it again.

8. During the melee, police knock over cameramen and shove their cameras. Several journalists are hit with rubber bullets while live on air.
9. Trump accuses the peaceful protestors removed from Lafayette Square for his photo op of starting a fire in St. John’s church. Prior to Trump’s visit, several media and social media accounts claimed that St. John’s was burning down, but firefighters managed to put out a small fire that was started in the basement.
10. The White House says that Bill Barr personally ordered the use of force to clear the protestors away from Lafayette Park to make way for Trump’s walk to the church. Barr claims he didn’t. He also says there wasn’t a correlation between the dispersal of the protestors and the photo op.
11. Kayleigh McEnany, who told us she’d never lie to us, says that protestors were throwing bricks and other objects and that police were afraid for their own safety. Not only is there no evidence of this, but witness accounts and videos contradict it.
12. Esper claims he didn’t know where Trump was going when he followed him to the church and that he didn’t know about the protestors being dispersed.

• • James Miller, a principal deputy undersecretary of defense for policy, resigns and tells Esper that his last straw was when Esper visibly supported Trump when tear gas and rubber bullets were used to clear the way to a photo op. Miller accuses Esper of violating his oath of office.

13. By the time of the photo op, the violence, looting, and vandalism from the previous weekend were largely over.
14. Leaders of the church weren’t informed beforehand of the event, and express anger at being used this way.

• • Trump says, “The church leaders loved that I went there with the Bible.”
  • The Episcopal bishop of Washington who oversees St. John’s church says, “In no way do we support the President’s incendiary response to a wounded, grieving nation… The President did not come to pray; he did not lament the death of George Floyd or acknowledge the collective agony of people of color in our nation. He did not attempt to heal or bring calm to our troubled land.” And later she added, “He sanctioned the use of tear gas by police officers in riot gear to clear the churchyard. I am outraged.”

15. When asked about it the next day, Republican legislators mostly claim to know nothing about it and not to have seen it. Senators Lisa Murkowski, Ben Sasse, and Mitt Romney all criticize Trump for it.
16. After the photo up, new 8-foot fences were put up around Lafayette Park and at 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. A few days later, tall fences were also installed near the White House.
17. D.C. Mayor Bowser has “BLACK LIVES MATTER” painted in big, bright yellow letters on the road that leads to the White House. She renames that section of 16th Street Black Lives Matter Plaza.
18. Afterward, the D.C. chapter of Black Lives Matter files a lawsuit against Barr and Trump saying their right to peaceful protest was violated.
19. After all this, on the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown, Trump urges China to respect human rights.

Use of Military:

1. Pentagon and Department of Defense personnel are increasingly anxious about the military playing a more prominent role in tamping down the protests. That was heightened when Mark Esper called cities experiencing looting “battle spaces.” It was further heightened when Trump said General Milley is in charge of the response and Milley appeared with Trump in combat fatigues.
2. This isn’t the first time Trump has tried to use active-duty military on U.S. soil. He deployed them to the border as well.
3. Barr is in charge of the federal response and a variety of agencies, including the Secret Service, U.S. Park Police, National Guard, Capitol Police, Marshal’s Service, ICE, CPB, Bureau of Prisons, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. No overkill there.
4. The DOJ brings in its network of regional FBI Joint Terrorism Task Forces to ID looters, rioters, and instigators of violence during the protests. In announcing this, Bill Barr only calls out Antifa (which is unorganized) and leaves out organized groups that coordinated looting and violence.
5. Military helicopters in D.C. perform a “show of force” maneuver in which they fly low, stirring up dirt and debris and even snapping tree branches. It’s a method of dispersing crowds and scaring people away.
6. Several current and retired military leaders criticize Trump’s use of military troops to disperse the protestors to make way for his walk:

• • Former Secretary of Defense James Mattis says he’s angry and appalled by the events around Lafayette Park. He calls Trump the first president to not even try (or pretend to try) to unite the American people; instead, he tries to divide. Mattis also criticizes Esper for using the term “battle space” to describe our cities and streets.

• • Former Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen says he was sickened to see security personnel use force and violence to clear the path for Trump’s walk.
  • Retired Army Col. Paul Yingling says General Milley betrayed his oath by participating in authoritarian theatrics.
  • Former undersecretary of defense James Miller says Esper and Trump violated their oaths of office.
  • Retired Air Force General Michael Hayden says he was appalled to see General Milley in battle dress during the event. Hayden formerly led the CIA and NSA.
  • Former White House chief of staff John Kelly also says Trump is dividing the country and adds that we need to look harder at who we elect.
  • Current and former U.S. intelligence agents express concern that the events we’re seeing in the U.S. resemble scenes from other countries showing signs of collapse. They say this is what autocrats do, and this is what nations in collapse look like.

7. The soldiers of the 82^nd Airborne Division, which is assisting with the protests in D.C., are armed with bayonets.
8. Six states and 13 cities are under a state of emergency with 67,000 National Guard troops deployed.
9. Washington, D.C. is full of unidentifiable officers who aren’t wearing any badges so people can tell which branch of law enforcement they’re from. They also won’t tell people who ask where they’re from. It turns out they’re from the Bureau of Prisons, and were called to D.C. by Bill Barr. So many issues with this…
10. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser demands that Trump withdraw the military presence from the city including the group of unidentifiable riot officers.
11. Esper says he’ll order the removal of hundreds of troop from D.C. but then reverses that decision. Esper also speaks out against the use of military force to control protests.

• • But wait! By Wednesday night, Esper reverse course on that and says he’ll keep some forces in the town.
  • Two days after the photo op, the Pentagon disarms the National Guard in D.C. and sends active-duty forces home. They don’t consult Trump, who ordered a militarized presence in D.C.

12. The House Armed Services Committee calls a hearing to look into the use of military force in the protests. Both Esper and Milley refuse to appear.

George Floyd Protests

1. Protests continue in at least 140 cities across the country, mostly starting out peacefully, but there’s still some looting and vandalism after curfew hours. Several cities and counties extend their curfews, but by mid-week, even though the protests keep grow larger and larger, the rioting dissipates.
2. The largest crowds of protestors yet gather in the U.S. and abroad on Saturday, the twelfth straight day of protests. Despite COVID-19 warnings, there were marches in the U.S., Australia, England, France, Germany, Kenya, Denmark, New Zealand, and more.
3. Public health officials are worried about an increase in the spread of the coronavirus following days of crowded protests. Most protestors are wearing masks, but enough aren’t. Some protests are canceled for this reason.
4. Twitter takes down an account linked to the white nationalist group Identity Evropa that claimed to be associated with Antifa and that pushed violent rhetoric about the protests and calls for violence.
5. Facebook suspends several accounts associated with white nationalists after they advocate bringing weapons to protests. They also remove accounts that falsely claim allegiance to Antifa in order to discredit Antifa.
6. The White House spreads videos that purport to show how Antifa planted piles of bricks and rocks along protest routes to inspire looting and vandalism. The bricks and rocks in the films were all parts of ongoing construction projects and nothing to do with Antifa.
7. An incredible amount of disinformation is being spread about the protests, including that George Soros is funding them (he’s not), that Floyd isn’t dead (he most certainly is), that Antifa is bussing in protestors from other cities (they aren’t), that protestors started a residential building on fire and blocked firefighters from saving a child in that fire (the building was unoccupied, the origin of fire is unknown), and that protestors started a horse trailer on fire (they threw a smoke canister over the trailer).
8. Officials have arrested more than 11,000 people so far during the protests. It’s not clear how many were for actual crimes and how many were protestors caught up in police sweeps.
9. Federal and local law enforcement are collecting video footage to use as evidence in arrests of people who were looting or committing acts of violence and vandalism.
10. In Los Angeles, of more than 2,700 arrests, the police say the vast majority are for failure to disperse, which is pretty incredible given the amount of looting there.

• • Same for Denver, where most were for violating curfew.
  • There’s no word yet on how many arrests were of people associated with extremist organizations or Antifa.

11. A New York Supreme Court judge rules that protestors can be detained indefinitely, literally suspending habeas corpus. Over 160 New Yorkers have been detained for more than 24 hours.
12. At least 15 people have died during the protests, some by police, some by people protecting their business from looting, some by “outside agitators,” and some by accident. The details are still being sorted out, but there’s no one group or ideology that appears to be responsible.
13. Around 100 instances of reporters being harassed or injured by the police, even when displaying their press badge, have been reported. Journalists have been hit by rubber bullets, arrested on live TV while being compliant, shoved to the ground, tear-gassed, and threatened with guns. Law enforcement has slit their tires, broken their car windows with rubber bullets, and destroyed their cameras.

• • The U.S. is one of the most dangerous countries now to be a journalist according to Reporters Without Borders.

14. A judge orders police to stop firing tear gas and rubber bullets at peaceful protestors.
15. Prosecutors charge the other three police officers who were present when George Floyd was murdered. They also upgrade the charges against the officer who killed Floyd to second-degree murder.
16. The state of Minnesota files civil rights charges against the Minneapolis Police Department in George Floyd’s death, which allows the state to launch a larger investigation into the department.
17. Minneapolis bans the use of chokeholds by police, and will require police to not only report unauthorized use of force by other officers but to actively intervene.
18. After several days of videos showing police using pepper spray and rubber bullets indiscriminately and without provocation, the House and Senate begin work to end a Pentagon program started after 9/11 that transfers old military weaponry to local police departments. Obama reduced the program, but Trump revived it.
19. The DOJ under Obama created a task force and started reforms to stop discriminatory police practices and to root out racism. The DOJ under Trump has mostly abandoned this effort, and Trump himself encouraged police officers to be rougher in how they handle suspects.

• • During George W. Bush’s first term, there were 12 DOJ investigations into unconstitutional acts by police officers; during Obama’s, there were 15. During Trump’s, the DOJ has opened just one.

20. Some police chiefs and forces continue to join and support protestors. In Santa Cruz, officers follow their chief’s lead and take a knee to recognize George Floyd’s murder for what it was.
21. Multiple videos show police altering the truth during altercations with protestors and others. And by altering the truth, I mean lying.
22. Six police in Atlanta are charged for using excessive force at protests. They yanked one college student out of a car and tased another. Atlanta’s mayor fired two of the officers last week.
23. Atlanta’s police chief resigns after an officer kills another black man. The officer claims the man grabbed his taser. The mayor calls for the officer to be fired.
24. At least 19 times, drivers have driven their vehicles into protestors.
25. Three men associated with the Boogaloo movement are arrested in Nevada for their plan to infiltrate protests and incite violence. Organized crime rings are responsible for looting in some cities. The Proud Boys are trying to provoke an Antifa response. And Alex Jones tells his followers to take up arms and head to the protests. Yikes.
26. An Orange County deputy appears in photos wearing symbols associated with right-wing extremists groups: an Oath Keepers/III Percenters patch and a “Don’t Tread On Me” patch. He’s now on leave.
27. The Buffalo, NY, police department suspends two members of the Emergency Response Team for shoving a 74-year-old man who approached them during a protest. The man fell backward hitting his head and was lying in his own blood until medics came to help. The man is still in the hospital.

• • The entire Emergency Response Team resigns from that duty in support of those officers but will remain on the police force.

28. An independent autopsy requested by George Floyd’s family finds that he died of asphyxiation, contradicting the official county medical examiner’s report. The autopsies found drugs in his system, but not enough to contribute to his death. Both autopsies find his death was a homicide.
29. After more than 20 NFL players record videos calling on the NFL to take a stronger stance for racial justice, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell says that the NFL was wrong for not listening to the NFL players before. He encourages them to protest. He does not mention Colin Kaepernick once.
30. The U.S. Marines ban the Confederate flag and order it removed from bumper stickers, mugs, clothing, and so on.
31. A member of Ohio’s National Guard is suspended for posting white supremacist remarks on social media.
32. The right, egged on by Candace Owens, Glenn Beck, and Trump, start bringing up questions about George Floyd’s character. It doesn’t matter what his character was. Nothing in his background would’ve given him a death sentence.
33. When Trump announces a better than expected unemployment rate, he says George Floyd is looking down right now and that “this is a great day for him, this is a great day for everybody.”
34. Hundreds attend a memorial for George Floyd in Minneapolis, where Reverend Al Sharpton gives the eulogy. His message is, ‘Get your knee off our necks.’
35. Floyd’s body is brought to Raeford, NC, near where he was born for another service. Finally, it’s flown to Houston for his funeral to be held next week
36. Breonna Taylor’s birthday would’ve been this week. No one has been charged in her death yet.
37. An investigator testifies that Ahmaud Arbery was hit by a truck before he was murdered and that the man who shot him used a racial slur afterward.

Climate/Environment:

1. The 2020 hurricane season is having the quickest buildup on record, with three named storms in just two days.

Budget/Economy:

1. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the coronavirus epidemic could knock down the GDP by $15.7 trillion over the next decade unless Congress takes steps to mitigate the damage. The agency says it might take a decade to recover from the pandemic economically.
2. A third of Americans haven’t received the unemployment benefits owed to them, likely because agencies are struggling to keep up with the unprecedented demand.
3. While the Bureau of Labor Statistics report shows the unemployment rate dropped in May to 13.3% from 14.7% and 2.5 million jobs were added, it comes to light that data has been misclassified since March because of the pandemic. The BLS estimates that unemployment more likely came down to 16.3% from 19.7%.

• • The Dow Jones and S&P jump at the news.
  • The gain in jobs is largely because states are beginning to reopen businesses.
  • Regardless of the error, Trump boasts of having a 13.3% unemployment rate.

4. Economic advisor Kevin Hassett says the administration is working on yet another tax cut for businesses, this time a payroll tax cut. They’ll also be asking for more stimulus money.

Elections:

1. No wonder Trump thinks vote-by-mail fraud is rampant. He registered to vote in Florida using the White House address, but later corrected it to a Florida address. He says absentee ballot voting isn’t the same as voting by mail (it is exactly the same).
2. Trump’s press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany voted in 2018 using her parents’ Florida address even though she lived in Washington, D.C.
3. Trump’s campaign shifts from promoting Trump’s calls for justice around George Floyd to promoting his calls for law and order around the protests.
4. Joe Biden formally clinches the Democratic presidential nomination, reaching the 1,991 delegate limit.
5. The Trump campaign pulls its “Make Space Great Again” ad because it appears to violate NASA regulations.
6. One good bit of news this week: Iowa votes out Representative Steve King, most known for his wildly racist remarks. It’s not clear if he lost because he’s too much of a racist or because he lost all his committee seats because the House leadership thinks he’s too much of a racist.
7. The Republican Attorney General of Kansas announces he’ll appeal a lower court’s ruling on state voting ID rules to the Supreme Court. The lower court ruled that Kansas’s law requiring people to provide citizenship papers when registering to vote is unconstitutional.
8. Trump says he’ll move the Republican National Convention from North Carolina to… wherever else will let them have it with full-capacity crowds, no social distancing, no masks, and filled-to-capacity bars and restaurants. The RNC was in the midst of negotiations with Charlotte and NC when Trump blew it all up.
9. Bill Barr says that one of his biggest worries is that foreign operatives will try to mail in fake ballots. Experts say that’s almost impossible to do without being detected.
10. Columnist George Will writes an op-ed calling for not just Trump’s defeat but also flipping the Senate blue and routing Republicans. His view is that the party is beyond repair and needs to start from the ground up.
11. States are seeing a record number of mail-in ballot requests because of COVID-19, but still, lines to vote in the primaries are long and some people never receive their mail-in ballots.
12. Like Trump, Joe Biden this week had a photo op at a church. Unlike Trump, Biden sat on a folding chair inside a church listening to church leaders criticize his 1994 crime bill. Unlike Trump, Biden took notes, wore a mask, and listened.

Miscellaneous:

1. A Twitter account reposts everything that Trump tweets and gets suspended within three days.
2. After criticism of him cowering in the bunker during racial justice protests, Trump says he just went there to inspect it. He says he was just there for a “tiny, short little period of time” and he’s been there “two and a half times.”