WASHINGTON (MaceNews) – The following is Friday’s status check of developments in the U.S. that can influence economic, health and political outcomes.
- It was 12:53 in the afternoon, eastern time, when the hearse carrying Ruth Bader Ginsburg began to leave the Capitol grounds, the casket having been precisely positioned inside by the stiff military honor guard pallbearers. The days of repose at the Supreme Court with so many people taking time out of their day to show their respect, many with their children, and then to be the first woman to lie in state in Statuary Hall was a tribute to a life dedicated to showing the rule of law, either in advocacy or in dissent, can allow for great change. It was a Capitol Hill bit of history that was still distorted through the political lens. Republican leaders chose not to show up for the event. And it all may be seen in retrospect as an important turning point, so that after 12:53 p.m. important changes begin to take place.
- Looking ahead 16 hours and seven minutes from that moment to Saturday in the Rose Garden, the president according to several reports, is ready to nominate Amy Coney Barrett to be RBG’s successor. Since two of those reports are by NBC and The New York Times President Trump might like nothing better than spring a surprise and nominate another judge instead, Cuban-American Barbara Lagoa. As much as she might help with must-win Florida’s Cuban-American community, though, Lagoa got too many Democratic votes when confirmed to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. When Barrett was confirmed to the 7th Circuit it was a near party-line vote. Whoever Democrats like obviously can’t be trusted completely by conservatives, so goes the line. Barrett’s will be a blistering confirmation hearing. Barrett’s opponents are busy leaking everything that could be construed as negative. So the UK’s Daily Mail among others reports she and her husband are members of “People of Praise” which it describes as a group that teaches wives have to obey their husbands in everything, including how to vote. In so many ways an apparent polar opposite to RBG. The group’s Web site describes itself as a South Bend ecumenical Christian gathering of people who pledge mutual support, along the line of early Christian communities. Barrett’s supporters say such leaks are just bait to draw criticism of her anti-abortion Catholicism while her critics say they are motivated chiefly by the fact she would cement a 6-3 conservative majority to the disadvantage of Roe v. Wade and decades worth of future progressive issues.
- “They’re just not going to be denied,” Trump opponent Joe Biden said of voters. Trump’s railing about ballot fraud “is a typical Trump distraction.” After the vote, Biden said with a smile, “he’ll just leave.” Meanwhile the president, in rallies in three states during the day, continued to push the narrative that if he loses that will show the election will have been fraudulent. “We don’t want to cheated, to be stupid,” Trump said at one stop Friday. Contrary to what was known Thursday night and reflected in “Status Check,” those nine military ballots found temporarily discarded in Pennsylvania were for the general election, not the past primary. And local investigators found no malicious intent, contrary to what Trump and his spokespeople have implied. And no, despite what the president said during the day, the ballots were not found in a stream. Why the Department of Justice broke with its 2017 rule against pre-election disclosures that could bear on the vote, briefed the White House and then issued a press release implying malicious intent will remain for possible future review.
- At his Atlanta stop, President Trump promised to direct $500 billion in investment to black communities and make Juneteenth a national holiday commemorating the day slavery officially ended. At his Miami stop, he participated in a Hispanic-themed event. The first of three presidential debates is Tuesday at 9p ET.
- “We expect to host a full Super Bowl, Florida Gov.Ron DeSantis said during the day as he suspended any locally imposed fines for not wearing a mask and reopened bars and restaurants at full capacity. Things have improved to where only 50 people a day in the state die of the virus with 2,500 new cases a day, well below the peak of 10,000 cases. Several medical experts told their TV interviewers the governor’s move to overrule local jurisdictions on virus mitigation would have a predictably negative result. Nationally, 885 more people were killed by the virus in the latest 24-hour period, somewhat fewer than the more than 1,000 deaths the day before. Nineteen states have historically high infection rates while nine other have low rates but are going up, the NYT virus tracker reported.
- As could be expected before members of Congress leave Washington to campaign, there is a spasm of renewed interest in doing something that at least appears to address the need for another round of pandemic relief. Democrats in the House are preparing another relief bill expected to still be about a trillion dollars larger than what the White House has offered and at least three quarters of a trillion larger than what a Senate majority seems able to accept. However, legislative miracles have been known to happen on short notice.
- Upcoming economic statistics are highlighted by next Friday’s September jobs report. As Kevin Kastner details in his in-depth preview elsewhere on this macenews.com site, there is a hurricane as well as the pandemic influencing the numbers.
—
This story was corrected to replace Rotunda with Statuary Hall.
Content may appear first or exclusively on the Mace News premium service. For real-time email delivery contact tony@macenews.com. Twitter headlines @macenewsmacro.