POLITICUSUSA
According to new data from the Department of Labor, another 2.44 million Americans filed for initial unemployment benefits last week
The current unemployment rate of 14.7 percent means that nearly 40 million Americans are out of work as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, which has forced many businesses to declare bankruptcy or impose layoffs. An estimated 20 million jobs were wiped out last month.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) promised his Republican colleagues that he would end enhanced unemployment benefits. Currently, those receiving unemployment benefits receive an additional $600 a week. McConnell said Republicans are “going to have to clean up the Democrats’ crazy policy that is paying people more to remain unemployed than they would earn if they went back to work.”
According to the latest poll from Quinnipiac University, presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden leads President Donald Trump 11 points in the general election match-up.
The poll of more than 1,300 self-identified registered voters found that Biden enjoys an 11 point lead, 50 percent to Trump’s 39 percent.
According to an Associated Press report, President Donald Trump’s allies are recruiting “extremely pro-Trump” doctors to go on television and advocate reopening the national economy as speedily as possible. This would be “without waiting to meet safety benchmarks proposed by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to slow the spread of the new coronavirus.”
President Donald Trump threatened to withhold Michigan’s federal funding after its Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) announced that all state residents would receive applications for absentee ballots, allowing them to vote-by-mail.
A new oversight report released Tuesday shows that the $37.5 billion allocated so far has gone toward purchasing corporate debt.
The Orlando Sentinel‘s editorial board criticized Florida Governor Ron DeSantis after he blamed the high number of unemployed people for the state’s failure to pay unemployment benefits.
DeSantis made the remarks in response to a reporter’s question about delays that have affected individuals who first applied for unemployment in March.
Donald Trump's incompetence and failed leadership has destroyed the same economy that former Vice President Joe Biden once helped save.
Former Republican strategist Steve Schmidt criticized President Donald Trump’s coronavirus response, saying that the United States would not have the highest death toll from the virus in the world if former President Barack Obama were still in office.
Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden has called for an inspector general to investigate coronavirus stimulus loans given to large companies and those close to the administration.
“Let me issue a warning right now to anyone who participates in a corrupt giveaway with President Trump and his administration,” Biden said in a video message released by his campaign. “I will direct her to review every stimulus loan given to any big company or political insider.”
In an op-ed for The Washington Post, presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden wrote that President Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic amounts to little more than “deflecting blame and dividing Americans.”
Writing in an op-ed for The Hill, journalist and Fox News political analyst Juan Williams says President Donald Trump’s “failure of leadership” allowed the coronavirus “to do greater damage to the economy than it otherwise would.”
Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) received his first haircut in three months at Salon à la Mode, the same salon owned by Shelley Luther, who was jailed this week for defying the state’s stay-at-home order and reopening her business early.
Former Vice President Al Gore criticized President Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, saying that reopening the economy will endanger more American lives.
“I think we’re in grave danger,” Gore told Anderson Cooper and Sanjay Gupta during an appearance on CNN. “I have to tell you both. I think that we are seeing the start of a botched reopening. I think that the President appears to be engaging in magical thinking again. And what I mean by that is, you know, a couple of months ago he said one day it’s just going to magically disappear.”
Late Night host Seth Meyers slammed President Donald Trump over his insistence that the national economy reopen and his push for states to lift their stay-at-home orders, saying that his lack of empathy compels him to let Americans die to return to business as usual.
Senators Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) wrote a letter to President Donald Trump suggesting he suspend visas for guest workers “during recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.”
Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) admitted during a private call with lawmakers that reopening the economy would spread the coronavirus even as he publicly announced that he would end an executive stay-at-home order. The news was first reported by The Daily Beast; a spokesperson for Abbott confirmed the call is authentic.
President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign has launched an ad campaign calling his response to the coronavirus pandemic an “American comeback.”
The ad characterizes the president’s ban on travel from China as effective at mitigating the spread of the coronavirus even though it’s currently killed nearly 69,000 Americans. It also includes footage of Trump praising “the greatest economy the world has ever seen” despite record numbers of unemployed people as the pandemic prompted businesses to shutter.
The President’s son-in-law took a potshot at critics on Wednesday as he predicted much of the country would soon be back in business. Jared Kushner appeared to criticize late night comedians.
Kushner spoke to Fox News about reopening the economy and praised the administration’s handling of the Covid-19 crisis.
According to data released by the Department of Commerce, the United States economy shrunk 4.8 percent in the first quarter of 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic forced millions of Americans out of work.