WASHINGTON (MaceNews) – The following is Thursday’s status check of developments in the U.S. that can influence economic, health and political outcomes.
· Whew, an hour of President Trump playing defense on NBC and opponent Joe Biden for one and a half hours on ABC still being vague on his intentions for the Supreme Court should he win the presidency. Trump downplayed that “peanut” of $421 million he owes and said to his knowledge, none of it is owed to disreputable people. Probably 98%, perhaps more, had been heard before. The ambience was more tense over on the Trump side as he initially clashed with moderator Savannah Guthrie who needled him on some vague answers only distantly related to the questions. Trump again refused to be pushed into disavowing QAnon, for instance. George Stephanopoulos had a less contentious time with Biden who avoided stumbles. In the end, not very revelatory on either channel but much calmer than the initial debate. For answer-by-answer coverage of both Town Halls dial back to the 43 tweets on the @macenewsmacro Twitter account.
· In his Town Hall, President Trump slipped in, while defending his practice of not wearing a mask most of the time, that he liked Tony Fauci. But earlier in Greenville, N.C., he had a different view of the renowned expert who objected to his appearance in a Trump campaign ad, telling the MAGA crowd, “He’s a Democrat, everybody knows it. He’s Cuomo’s friend,”
· Other trivia from the intersection of the virus and the Trump campaign, aide Hope Hicks rejoined the president’s entourage, getting back on the helicopter now that she’s recovered from the coronavirus. As one of the still uninfected, presumable carrying no immunity, Chief of Staff Mark Meadows may have his fingers crossed as he, like Hicks and the president, wore no mask.
· The president did a long telephone interview on the Fox Business Network in the morning and like his speech simulcast to several economic clubs the day before, economic topics were only a part of the program. On Fox there were many other topics, old grievances against ex-FBI chief James Comey, many jibes directed at opponent Biden who was characterized as a clueless tool of the far left. Trump sounded especially aggravated by the fact the “enemy of the people,” the media, were not jumping on the N.Y. Post story of a laptop abandoned by Hunter Biden with its hard drive passed on to the Post by, first, Steve Bannon and then Rudy Giuliani. The New York Times, he said, put the story back on page A-17. The peculiar provenance of the pictures and emails prompted Twitter to block accounts of the Trump campaign, the Post and that of press secretary Kayleigh McEnany while Facebook tamped down distribution, preventing the story from going viral. It all prompted a push by some Capitol Hill Republicans to move up the planned appearances of social media executives, pulling in the Twitter chief Jack Dorsey with a subpoena as soon as next week. Meanwhile every major news outlet deployed reporters to check out the details.
· On the virus front lines, another 1,000 Americans dead in the past 24 hours. The numbers of new cases keep creeping up, 23% more than the average two weeks earlier at 53,120 a day (NYT Tracker).
· On the virus pandemic relief front, the favorite deep analysis of moves up or down in U.S. stocks, that investors were cheered or concerned by whether negotiations were either progressing or regressing, got blown away. Stocks were mildly negative when Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell seemingly pulled the rug out from under Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury’s Stephen Mnuchin by dismissing their talks on a package worth $1.8 billion, saying that’s not something he’ll bring up for a vote, A package worth much less, maybe $500 billion would be more like it. What did stocks do? They rallied, skewering that analysis that stimulus prospects help determine the market posture. President Trump, in his nighttime Town Hall was asked about it. He blamed Speaker Pelosi. What about Senate Republicans? If he can get an agreement with Pelosi, he said, “Republicans will pass it.” So at day’s end, still more murkiness that seemed to be suggesting that barring some flip by either McConnell or Pelosi, pandemic relief would depend only on a Democratic sweep on Election Day and, even then, nothing until February.
· Down in Daytona Beach, party time as 100,000 or so bikers descend on the beach for Biketoberfest. Masks, social distancing?
· Upcoming economic statistics include the latest retail sales report at 8:30a ET, industrial production at 9:15a, business inventories and consumer sentiment at 10a and at 4p Treasury’s report on international capital flows. The morning’s report of new jobless benefit claims worsened, as Kevin Kastner details elsewhere on this macenews.com site.
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