Politics

Anti-police demonstrations may have sparked new coronavirus cases, some cities now acknowledge

Several big-city mayors and top officials are acknowledging that weeks of anti-police protests and riots may have contributed to surging coronavirus rates, weeks after Democrats and even some epidemiologists openly encouraged Black Lives Matter allies to demonstrate in the streets.

In public statements and interviews with Fox News this weekend, officials in Los Angeles, Seattle and Miami-Dade County, Fla., have indicated that some link between protests and new cases was at least possible. Still, many officials declined to comment when contacted by Fox News this weekend, and others – including New York Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office – disputed that the protests had caused any issue.

“Based on our health indicators, which measure hospital admissions, number of people in ICU and percentage of New Yorkers testing positive, we have seen no indication of an uptick in cases,” Avery Cohen, de Blasio’s deputy press secretary, told Fox News.

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WNBC reported on July 4 that “over the course of a week, New York’s daily death toll has stayed constant, but its percentage of positive coronavirus cases rose four days straight.” New York City, though, has seen cases steadily decreasing over the last few months, while Los Angeles, Seattle and Miami have seen recent spikes.

In this June 6, 2020, file photo, demonstrators protest at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, over the death of George Floyd, a Black man who was in police custody in Minneapolis. Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, the group behind the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement, has established a more than $12 million fund to aid organizations fighting institutional racism in the wake of the George Floyd protests. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

Responding to that report, Cohen asserted that the number of New Yorkers testing positive “remains at a steady 2 percent, far below the nationwide average,” and that, “at this time, we do not believe there has been a resurgence in cases related to the protests, which reached their peak over a month ago.”

Cohen’s public Twitter feed explicitly praised the Black Lives Matter movement and encouraged mass protests. One June 28 post retweeted by Cohen read: “Are you ready to flood the streets to fight for Black lives and against police brutality and reclaim our roots of pride? Join us today at 1 PM at FOLEY SQUARE.”

New York officials were previously less tolerant of mass gatherings — at least, for certain religious groups. In April, de Blasio told the Jewish community that “the time for warnings has passed” after he said a funeral gathering had violated social distancing guidelines.

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New York’s current position differs markedly from assessments by officials in Los Angeles and elsewhere. Last Wednesday, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti acknowledged that public protests likely were causing a coronavirus spike, just two days after claiming there wasn’t “any conclusive evidence” showing a connection between the two. De Blasio, like Garcetti, has defended demonstrators, saying they were participating in a “historical moment.”

“I talked again with Dr. Ferrer about that this morning,” Garcetti said, referencing Dr. Barbara Ferrer, the L.A. County public-health director. “She does think some of the spread did come from our protests,” he added. “It’s not the act of protesting — that’s a great and American thing to do no matter what your opinion is… but protesting without maintaining physical distancing, without wearing your mask, without having sanitizer – we just have to be smart. Whether you’re at a protest or at your home, whether in your workplace or whether you’re out shopping, these rules don’t change.”

Cohen responded, “Los Angeles is facing a resurgence; we have seen no such equivalent in New York City.”

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New York’s governor, however, Andrew Cuomo, in June expressed concerns about the confluence of protests and the virus. “If you were at a protest, go get a test, please.”

But last month, after New York City hired 1,000 workers to conduct contact tracing to monitor the spread of coronavirus, de Blasio’s office said they would not be explicitly asking people if they participated in the Black Lives Matter demonstrations. De Blasio’s spokeswoman, at the time, said “no person will be asked proactively if they attended a protest.”

Still, Cohen said this weekend that contact tracers were “not barred from asking positive cases about attending protests,” and that “when identifying their close contacts, patients are asked if they attended any large gatherings or events.”

“We remain overcautious,” Cohen said. “As we continue our phases reopening, we will continue to monitor our indicators closely for any potential resurgence.”

By contrast, a spokesperson for Carlos A. Giménez, the mayor of Miami-Dade County, told Fox News on Sunday the protests were a “contributing factor” to the local coronavirus spike.

Giménez “meets several times a week with his team of medical experts,” the spokesperson, Patty Abril, responded in an email. “Those experts have told him that, based on information in our local emergency rooms, the protests were a contributing factor, along with our community letting its guard down and not social distancing or wearing masks, as mandated. Graduation parties, house parties and restaurants illegally turning into clubs after midnight all contributed to the spike.”

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The mayor had announced a curfew last week after it was determined that roughly 2,300 of Florida’s 10,109 new coronavirus infections originated in Miami-Dade.

“This curfew is meant to stop people from venturing out and hanging out with friends in groups, which has shown to be spreading the virus rapidly,” Giménez said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan‘s office directed Fox News to city health official James Apa, who downplayed the role of protests while still acknowledging they may have played a role in some new cases.

People march to protest during a solidarity rally for the death of George Floyd in Tokyo Sunday, June 14, 2020. Holding handmade signs that read “Black Lives Matter,” several hundred people marched peacefully at a Tokyo park Sunday, highlighting the outrage over the death of Floyd even in a country often perceived as homogeneous and untouched by racial issues. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

“No single exposure site has been the primary driver for our increase in cases,” Apa said. “Top contributors include infections from other people in households, essential workers being exposed on the job and infections within long term care facilities. From what we can tell, protests were not a major factor.”

Pressed on whether protests could have contributed to the coronavirus upswing, Apa indicated that any impact was probably marginal.

“A small percentage of the total number of cases reported going to a protest, which may or may not mean they acquired it there,” he said. “Protests are not driving our upsurge in cases.”

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The mayors of Atlanta, Minneapolis, San Diego, Washington, D.C., Oakland, San Francisco, Houston and New Orleans did not return Fox News’ requests for comment concerning the potential that protests might have led to an increase in coronavirus cases.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who did not return Fox News’ request for comment as to whether he sees a connection between protests and the coronavirus, had previously warned that in-person worship services would be a “public-health disaster,” disregarding constituents’ concerns that he was violating their First Amendment rights. In May, his administration began distributing masks to rioters, even though public gatherings of 10 or more were still ostensibly banned. Frey also allowed a police station to burn, saying it was necessary to protect police and rioters.

The mayor of Washington D.C., Muriel Bowser, who also did not return Fox News’ inquiries on Sunday, vowed $5,000 fines or 90 days in jail for anyone violating stay-at-home orders. Weeks later, though, Bowser defended the protests: “We are grieving hundreds of years of institutional racism. … People are tired, sad, angry and desperate for change.”

The mayor of Atlanta, Keisha Lance Bottoms, has been one of the few politicians to attempt to keep up her coronavirus admonitions. “If you were out protesting last night, you probably need to go get a COVID test this week,” she told CNN at the height of the protests. “There is still a pandemic in America that’s killing Black and Brown people at higher numbers.”

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The mayor didn’t answer Fox News’ questions on the spread of the coronavirus, but she did deliver emotional remarks on Sunday after an 8-year-old girl was shot and killed on the Fourth of July near a Wendy’s that became a flashpoint of recent anti-police protests in the city.

“Enough is enough,” Bottoms said. “Enough is enough. We have talked about this movement that’s happening across America and this moment in time when we have the ears and the interests of people across this country and across this globe who are saying they want to see change. But the difference in this moment in time with the civil rights movement — the civil rights movement, there was a defined, common enemy. We’re fighting the enemy within when we are shooting each other up on our streets.”

She continued: “You shot and killed a baby. And there wasn’t just one shooter; there were at least two shooters. An eight-year-old baby. If you want people to take us seriously, and you don’t want us to lose this movement, then we can’t lose each other.”

“It has to stop,” Bottoms added, according to FOX 5 Atlanta. “You can’t blame this on police officers. It’s about people who shot a baby in a car. We’re doing each other more harm than any officer on this force.”

An Atlanta police officer currently faces a potential death penalty sentence for killing a black man who attempted to shoot the officer with his own taser during a DUI stop; that officer’s stepmother later spoke to Fox News about why she was fired from her job as well.

Fox News’ Nick Givas contributed to this report.

Biden says he is going to ‘transform’ the nation if elected

Joe Biden tweeted Sunday night that if he gets elected, his administration “won’t just rebuild this nation—we’ll transform it,” raising speculation online about what exactly in the country will be transformed.

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The tweet comes after a politically charged Fourth of July weekend as the country works to manage a new surge in COVID-19 cases and tries to emerge from weeks of tense protests that have resulted in a widening divide between Democrats and Republicans.

Biden’s tweet did not specify what exactly he means by transforming the country. His critics from the left have expressed concern that he served in the upper echelon of government for over 40 years and didn’t help solve these major issues in the past. His critics from the right insist that a Biden White House will take marching orders from the Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wing of the party. Some conservatives say his vice president pick will be an early indicator of his administration’s direction.

His campaign sent a link to his website when reached by Fox News for comment about the tweet. The tweet appeared to be embraced by supporters and was liked 140,000 times as of early Monday.

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Scott Morefield, a media and politics reporter for the Daily Caller, responded to Biden’s post and said the transformation Biden was referring to would be the country’s turn “into a socialist hellscape.”

Biden’s website lays out his plans to combat the coronavirus by offering, for example, the “wide availability of free testing.” The campaign says a Biden White House would offer Americans a “decisive economic response that starts with emergency paid leave” to help those affected by the virus.

Other initiatives include an agenda for the black community, criminal justice reform and a plan for gun violence, to name a few.

The U.S. is about four months from Election Day and Biden has maintained a lead over President Trump in polls. While Trump and his campaign have downplayed their significance, political insiders are beginning to see a tough climb ahead. Biden’s supporters see his candidacy as a return to relative stability for the country.

Karl Rove, who informally advises the Trump campaign, noted the current deficit the president faces told Fox News that “these things happen in campaigns.”

Rove called on Trump to hit reset.

“When you are in the barrel, when you’re getting a lot of bad press and the polls are going against you, you need to do something that says, ‘We’re moving in a different direction.’ That’s what I mean by a reset,” he said.

But Biden also seems to have some issues that may require further explaining before Nov. 3. Politico ran an article last month titled, “Why Biden is Rejecting Black Lives Matter’s Boldest Proposals.”

The article points out that Biden’s campaign is “led by an older and whiter group of operatives” and has said he is not in favor of defunding the police.

Andrew Bates, a spokesman for the Biden campaign, said at the time, “Biden does not believe that police should be defunded. He hears and shares the deep grief and frustration of those calling out for change, and is driven to ensure that justice is done and that we put a stop to this terrible pain.”

The Politico report said, “Internally, Biden’s campaign is balancing how to best respond to the transformational demands of protesters while maintaining his commanding lead over Trump. Biden gained the lead by staying largely out of the spotlight as Trump has praised the “beautiful heritage” of the Confederacy and called protesters “thugs.”

But the Trump campaign apparently sees a vulnerability for Biden and is working to connect him to the left-wing push to disband and defund police departments.

The president has been a tough critic of cities like Seattle, Minneapolis and New York over what he described as a soft approach to dealing with violent protesters. His campaign has used these cities as a way to give Americans a glimpse of what it said would be a lawless country under Biden.

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“If we defund the police as Joe Biden’s allies are calling for, who will answer the phone when people call 911?” Donald Trump Jr. tweeted on Sunday. The Trump campaign has said, “You won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America.”

Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report

Atlanta mayor calls for citizens to stop ‘shooting each other’ after murder of 8-year-old near BLM protest site

In an impassioned press conference Sunday night, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms issued a full-throated call for citizens to stop “shooting each other up on our streets,” after an eight-year-old girl was shot and killed on the Fourth of July near a Wendy’s that has become a flashpoint of anti-police Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests in the city.

Bottoms, a Democrat who is considered a potential running mate for Joe Biden, made the remarks as she fought through tears — and the nation endured a new bout of urban carnage. Sixty-three people were injured and 17 killed in Chicago, including two children, over the weekend; and in New York City, 44 were hurt and at least six killed.

Secoriya Williamson, the father of eight-year-old Secoriea Turner, told reporters that his daughter had been killed after at least two people in a crowd of armed people opened fire on a car she was riding in with her mother. Authorities said the mother had attempted to drive through illegally placed barricades in the area when the vehicle came under fire Saturday night.

Bottoms said there have been problems with protesters in the area putting up barriers to close off the street. She said she received a message that the barriers were back up less than an hour before she was informed that the eight-year-old girl had died.

“They say Black Lives Matter. You killed your own,” Williamson said. “They killed my baby because she crossed a barrier and made a U-turn? You killed a child. She didn’t do nothing to nobody. Black Lives Matter? You killing your own. You killed an eight-year-old child. She ain’t did nothing to no one of y’all. She just wanted to get home to see her cousin. That’s all she wanted to do.”

The shooting happened near the Wendy’s restaurant where a black man, Rayshard Brooks, was killed by an Atlanta police officer on June 12. Brooks was shot only after he was caught on tape beating two officers, stealing a taser from one, and then turning and shooting the taser at an officer. The officer who shot Brooks is now fighting charges that could bring the death penalty, and the officer’s stepmother was fired from her job. (She told Fox News she was “stunned” by her termination and the charges against her son.)

The fast-food outlet was later burned, and the area has since become a site for frequent demonstrations against alleged police brutality.

In a statement Sunday, police said the girl was in a car with her mother and a friend of the mother when they got off Interstate-75/85 onto University Avenue and were trying to enter a parking lot nearby. They ran into a group of armed individuals who had blocked the entrance.

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“At some point, someone in that group opened fire on the vehicle, striking it multiple times and striking the child who was inside,” the statement read. The driver drove the girl to Atlanta Medical Center but she did not survive.

Police said they are seeking help from the public to identify those involved and released a wanted poster saying a person all dressed in black and another in a white T-shirt were being sought.

“Police shot 9 unarmed black people all of last year. 25 people were shot just in Atlanta. Yesterday.”

— Matt Walsh

“An eight-year-old girl was killed last night because her mother was riding down the street,” Bottoms said. “If Secoriea was not safe last night, none of us are safe.”

The mayor urged anyone with information about the shooting to come forward.

“The political agenda of BLM results in blacks being killed,” said journalist Andy Ngo, who extensively covers Antifa and the BLM movement. BLM explicitly advocates for the destruction of the “nuclear family structure,” which President Trump has called the “bedrock of American life.” Multiple commentators have agreed that stable family structures greatly reduce crime rates, citing statistics and personal experience.

Added commentator Matt Walsh: “Police shot 9 unarmed black people all of last year. 25 people were shot just in Atlanta. Yesterday. And not by police. BLM says the first thing is a crisis worthy of rioting but the second is not.”

Until recently, BLM was viewed with skepticism by members of both parties. A newly unearthed, secretive 2015 Democratic congressional memo flatly calls BLM a “radical” group.

The violence in Atlanta wasn’t restricted to BLM-related areas. Police said two other people, in addition to the eight-year-old, were killed and more than 20 people were injured in incidents of gunfire and violence during the long holiday weekend.

The mayor said the city’s 911 system was flooded with calls Saturday night and pointed to protesters who damaged a Georgia State Patrol headquarters in Atlanta in a separate incident early Sunday. But she said the city’s police force, though tasked by the weekend’s shootings, did not have problems with large numbers of police officers calling in sick.

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That had been a problem in the days after murder charges were filed against one of the officers in the Brooks shooting.

Meanwhile, citing publicly available data, commentators have asserted that the very idea of systemic racism by police is questionable — and that efforts to focus on the police may obscure problems elsewhere.

“In 2018, the latest year for which such data have been published, African-Americans made up 53% of known homicide offenders in the U.S. and commit about 60% of robberies, though they are 13% of the population,” Heather Mac Donald wrote in The Wall Street Journal.

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“In 2018 there were 7,407 black homicide victims,” she went on. “Assuming a comparable number of victims last year, those nine unarmed black victims of police shootings represent 0.1% of all African-Americans killed in 2019. By contrast, a police officer is 18½ times more likely to be killed by a black male than an unarmed black male is to be killed by a police officer.”

Mac Donald continued: “A 2015 Justice Department analysis of the Philadelphia Police Department found that white police officers were less likely than black or Hispanic officers to shoot unarmed black suspects. Research by Harvard economist Roland G. Fryer Jr. also found no evidence of racial discrimination in shootings. Any evidence to the contrary fails to take into account crime rates and civilian behavior before and during interactions with police.”

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Fryer’s work has also determined that when police pull out of communities, black deaths tend to increase.

“The false narrative of systemic police bias resulted in targeted killings of officers during the Obama presidency,” Mac Donald concluded.

Fox News’ Edmund DeMarche and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Reporter’s Notebook: Confederate statues, PPP highlight Congressional Republicans’ struggles

One could consolidate the challenges facing Republicans in 2020 into a matter of hours late Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning last week.

It was a little bit coronavirus pandemic, a little bit economic crisis, a little bit protest and a little bit electoral politics.

Washington awoke last Wednesday morning to the surprise that Senate Democrats, serving in the minority, were able to finagle Republicans into passing on the spot legislation to extend the Paycheck Protection Program [PPP] through early August.

Nobody seemed to have seen this coming – especially since Democrats have excoriated Republicans for weeks about refusing to advance any bills of late to combat coronavirus and the associated economic fallout.

“We just can’t wait for our Republican colleagues to wake up to the reality in this country. People are losing their homes. People are not being fed. People are losing their jobs,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., thundered on the floor.

Democrats said they’ve been exasperated with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., declining to prepare coronavirus measures. McConnell spoke in recent days with President Trump about the next wave of legislation. The Kentucky Republican has continued to promote curbs on legal liability – protecting schools and businesses if people get sick. The president has touted additional direct payments to Americans in another coronavirus bill. But, the next coronavirus measure is far from settled.

Democrats seemed to believe they could drive a political wedge through the GOP’s reluctance to act right away.

It’s traditional for the minority party in the Senate to engineer “stunts” on the floor at times. During these parliamentary gymnastics, the minority would dare the majority to block legislation on an important issue. Such exercises usually would be a fait accompli, with the minority taking the floor to crow about something and the majority party then stalling the minority effort. Everyone would know the outcome in advance. The majority would stand in the way of the minority.

The Senate could approve a bill in one of three ways. There’s a roll-call vote. There’s a voice-vote (“aye!” and “nay!”). And, there’s something called “unanimous consent,” when any senator could ask that the body approve a bill right there and then. And, so long as no senator were to object on the floor, the bill would pass.

As it’s been written in this space before, you can make the sun rise in the west in the Senate if you have unanimous consent. Ninety-nine senators could favor a bill, but all it takes is one senator to object. That would thwart everything.

It’s typical in the Senate for the sides to pre-bake, offstage, such unanimous-consent requests. The minority and majority would consult ahead of time, with the outcome set. The minority would respect the majority enough that it wouldn’t pull a fast one, and the majority would respect the minority enough that it would go along with this bit of political theatre – before stopping the minority’s request in its tracks.

But, that’s not what happened in an underreported episode, stunning most veteran observers of the world’s greatest deliberative body.

For the first time in years, the Senate approved legislation, via a bona fide, “live,” unanimous-consent request – without having determined everything in advance. It was a rare moment.

Here’s what unfolded:

Senate Democrats came to the floor and expected the usual objection to their proposal to extend the PPP. Sen. Rick Scott expressed reservations. The Florida Republican attempted to change the Democrats’ plan. But, Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Senate Small Business Committee, objected to Scott’s proposal. However, when Democrats again pressed the issue, neither Scott nor any other Republican objected to extending the PPP program through August 8.

Boom. That meant the Senate passed the bill, in a manner of seconds.

“We were shocked,” one senior Senate Democratic source conceded.

Fox News is told that Republicans were concerned about standing in the way of the proposal and there wasn’t a lawmaker on their side willing to object, considering the overall popularity of the PPP.

In other words, what was supposed to be a media stunt by Democrats turned into on-the-spot passage of a bill to re-up the PPP.

The PPP was set to expire a few hours later with over $130 billion still not allocated.

The House then synced up with the Senate the next day, sending the measure to President Trump, which he signed.

But, a signature isn’t guaranteed for the annual defense bill.

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In the wee hours of Wednesday morning, Trump tweeted a veto threat to the defense plan. He opposed a provision in the legislation that ultimately would rename military bases associated with Confederates.

“I will Veto the Defense Authorization Bill if the Elizabeth ‘Pocahontas’ Warren (of all people!) Amendment, which will lead to the renaming (plus other bad things!) of Fort Bragg, Fort Robert E. Lee, and many other Military Bases from which we won Two World Wars, is in the Bill!?” Trump tweeted.

The core defense bill included language, approved in committee, that eventually would change the names of installations named after Confederates, in three years. Various Republicans have proposed amendments to modify those provisions in the bill. Republican senators have been leery about opposing new names in the current political climate. That’s one of the reasons the Armed Services Committee adopted the amendment from Warren, D-Mass., and incorporated it into the legislation when it came to the floor.

Democrats immediately scoffed at the president’s veto ultimatum.

“This is nothing but the typical bluster from President Trump,” said Schumer, arguing Trump wouldn’t veto a bill which hiked pay for the military. “The NDAA [the defense bill] will pass and we will scrub from our military bases the names of men who fought for the Confederacy, who took up arms against our country.”

McConnell echoed Schumer during an appearance on Fox News.

“I hope the president will reconsider vetoing the entire defense bill, which includes pay raises for our troops, over a provision in there that could lead to changing the names,” McConnell said.

Privately, Republicans expressed concern about the president’s tweet and the consequences for the defense measure. But publicly, most ignored the president.

“I never read any of the president’s tweets,” said Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., even though Twitter has served as the president’s primary method of communication and his tweets are considered official administration statements.

But, others were more sanguine, especially Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jim Inhofe. The Oklahoma Republican may have been more optimistic, because, well, he has to be as the leader of the Armed Services Committee. But also, because Inhofe may be right.

“He’s not going to veto it,” Inhofe said. “It will probably be November by the time it would be coming to his desk anyway. So, a lot can happen between now and then, and one [thing] that isn’t going to happen is a veto.”

Still, Inhofe observed that Trump was “serious” and, “it’s not an empty threat.”

Rep. Anthony Brown, D-Md., a member of the House Armed Services panel, argued that the president’s position was “not really understanding where the will of the majority of Americans are” when it came to the base names. Brown added that the defense plan probably would go to the White House for a presidential signature “post-election.”

And, the timeline suggested by both Inhofe and Brown is likely the reality.

But, both episodes distilled the issues Republicans have faced this year. Tip-toeing around, trying to provide economic relief for the country amid coronavirus – but not willing to jump in completely. Wanting to swab the names of Confederates off military bases – but hesitant to go too far, considering the ire of the president and vocal elements of the Republican base.

Both scenarios have symbolized a lack of capital on the GOP side of the aisle just months before the election. That’s why Republicans deferred to Democrats on the PPP. It’s the same reason why, at least for now, they accepted Warren’s amendment in committee. Hence, the expectation that the final, unified version of the defense bill won’t be ready until mid-November at the earliest.

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Republicans are tentative now. Not on steady political footing, afraid to inflame President Trump, but mindful of the polls and potential political peril.

All of that was crystallized into two unrelated events which unfolded within a few hours of one another just last week.

Trump to hold outdoor New Hampshire rally July 11, campaign announces

President Trump’s re-election campaign announced Sunday that the president will headline an outdoor rally in the battleground state of New Hampshire next weekend, just his second rally since the coronavirus pandemic swept across the nation in March.

Campaign staffers said the rally will be held next Saturday, July 11, at the Portsmouth International Airport in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

The president drew smaller-than-expected crowds at his first rally, which took place in Tulsa, Okla., on June 20.

President Trump arriving on stage to speak at the campaign rally in Tulsa on June 20. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

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The Trump campaign had touted that 1 million people had requested tickets for the Oklahoma rally. Ultimately, large portions of the upper deck of the 19,000-capacity arena were empty as the president addressed the crowd.

The Trump campaign pushed back on suggestions that he failed to draw a big enough crowd, noting that the event attracted over 4 million viewers “across all of the campaign’s digital media channels” and spotlighting that Fox News — which carried the event live — had its best Saturday night ratings in its nearly 25-year history.

Public health officials have discouraged large crowds in extremely close contact amid the pandemic. The Trump campaign, in announcing next weekend’s rally in New Hampshire, noted that “there will be ample access to hand sanitizer and all attendees will be provided a face mask that they are strongly encouraged to wear.”

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Trump campaign national press secretary Hogan Gidley added, “We look forward to so many freedom-loving patriots coming to the rally and celebrating America, the greatest country in the history of the world.”

New Hampshire has held a special place in the president’s political history. After narrowly losing the Iowa caucuses four years ago, Trump won the New Hampshire primary in a landslide, launching him toward the GOP presidential nomination and, eventually, the White House.

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Besides holding the first-in-the-nation presidential primary, New Hampshire for a generation has been a battleground state in the general election. Trump narrowly lost the state’s four electoral votes four years ago by fewer than 3,000 votes to Democrat Hillary Clinton.

The president was last in New Hampshire on Feb. 10, for a rally on the eve of the presidential primary. The most recent public opinion polls in the state indicate Democrat Joe Biden holding an upper single-digit lead over the president.

GOP senator defends Trump’s 4th of July speech, calls its ‘one of the best that he has given’

Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., defended President Trump’s Fourth of July speech amid withering criticism from liberals – and an uneasy silence from some conservatives – that Trump’s speech was divisive instead of unifying.

Calling it “absolutely one of the best that he has given,” the Tennessee Republican on Sunday praised the president’s message for reminding “the American people and that we are unique.”

“I thought the speech was absolutely one of the best that he has given and how appropriate that he reminded the American people and that we are unique and that you can bet on hope or you can bet on fear,” Blackburn said during an interview on “Sunday Morning Futures.”

She added: “In this country, you have the ability to do whatever you want to do to dream. Those are big dreams and make them come true.”

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Trump on Saturday vowed to “safeguard our values” from enemies within — leftists, looters, agitators, he said — in a Fourth of July speech packed with all the grievances and combativeness of his political rallies.

“We are now in the process of defeating the radical left, the anarchists, the agitators, the looters, and the people who, in many instances, have absolutely no clue what they are doing,” he said. “We will never allow an angry mob to tear down our statues, erase our history, indoctrinate our children.”

He added: “And we will defend, protect, and preserve (the) American way of life, which began in 1492 when Columbus discovered America.”

He did not mention the nearly 130,000 people who are known to have died from COVID-19 in the U.S.

While Blackburn offered vocal praise of Trump’s speech, many other Republicans have sought to distance themselves from the president’s rhetoric in his speech and a similar one on Friday at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.

Asked on Sunday during an appearance on CNN‘s “State of the Union” about Trump’s rhetoric, Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, deflected and said there was a “great level of frustration across the United States all the way around.”

“We do have blemishes in our history and we need to come together and have some very hard discussions about our past,” she said. “The great thing about this nation is that we can learn from those blemishes, learn from those hard times in the past, and continue to evolve as a continually blessed nation.”

During his speech at Mount Rushmore, and later in an executive order, Trump put forward the idea of establishing a “National Garden of American Heroes” that will pay tribute to some of the most prominent figures in U.S. history, a collection of “the greatest Americans to ever live.”

The group of 30-plus features Founding Fathers and presidents, civil rights pioneers and aviation innovators, explorers, and generals. Absent from Trump’s initial list are any Native American, Hispanic or Asian-American individuals.

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Trump on Saturday spoke glowingly about his selections as an “incredible group,” but also noted they “are just a few of the people” he is considering and “are subject to change.”

“But once we make that decision, those great names are going to be up there and they’re never coming down,” Trump said in a speech at his “Salute for America” celebration at the White House to mark Independence Day.

Trump in recent weeks has repeatedly condemned the desecration and toppling of historic statues by demonstrators during protests over racial injustice and police brutality following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

In her interview on Sunday, Blackburn praised the president’s idea – calling it “a great foundation.”

“Those of us that studied history and appreciate history can tick through that list and tell you something of significance that each of those individuals did or said that inspired us in some way,” she said. “So as they are putting this list together, I think it is really wonderful and how appropriate.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Possible Biden VP pick dodges question on taking down George Washington statues

Who is Tammy Duckworth?

As the pressure rises on presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden to announce a woman as his running mate, eyes have turned to Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth. Here’s 5 things you need to know about her.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., is among the shortlist of political figures that presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is rumored to be considering as a running mate, but she balked when asked about a sensitive subject that has been on the forefront of political discourse.

Appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday morning, Duckworth was asked about recent calls to remove monuments commemorating American founding fathers like Presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson because they were slave owners.

Rather than answer directly, Duckworth first changed the subject, then made inaccurate references to President Trump’s speech at Mount Rushmore on Friday evening.

TRUMP, IN FIERY MOUNT RUSHMORE ADDRESS, DECRIES RISE OF ‘FAR-LEFT’ FASCISM,’ CALLS ON AMERICANS TO RISE UP

“Well let me just say that we should start off by having a national dialogue on it at some point, but right now we’re in the middle of a global pandemic … and one the countries who are opposed to us, Russia, has put a bounty on American troops’ heads,” she said. “What really struck me about the speech that the president gave at Mount Rushmore was that he spent more time worried about honoring dead Confederates than he did talking about the lives of 130,000 Americans who lost their lives to COVID-19 or by warning Russia off the bounty they’re putting on Americans’ heads.”

At no point in Trump’s speech did he show respect to or even mention the Confederacy or its leaders. In fact, the only times he referenced the Civil War was in the context of Union victory and honoring President Abraham Lincoln. He also celebrated the memories of Washington and Jefferson, noting – as CNN’s Dana Bash did – that there are those who seek to eliminate monuments to their memories.

After Duckworth made another allusion to the Confederacy by accusing Trump of honoring “dead traitors,” Bash noted that Washington is not a traitor and that there are people who want to remove statues of him.

“Is that a good idea?” Bash asked.

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Duckworth again did not answer but did say she was willing to hear from those who do want to take down statues of the first president.

“I think we should listen to everybody,” she said. “I think we should listen to the argument there.”

Bolton questions how much time Trump spends watching TV versus listening to advisers

John Bolton on Sunday continued to deride President Trump amid their ongoing feud – this time by suggesting that Trump spends more time watching television than he does listening to his advisers.

“I think that if you could clock the amount of time he spends actually in the Oval Office versus the amount of time he spends in the little dining room off the Oval Office with the cable news networks in one form or another on, it would be a very interesting statistic,” Bolton said on CBS’s “Face The Nation.”

BOLTON THOUGHT TRUMP-ZELENSKY CALL WOULD BE A ‘DISASTER’

Bolton, who previously served as Trump’s national security adviser, has been on a very public campaign recently criticizing the president following the publication of his tell-all memoir “The Room Where It Happened.”

The Trump administration tried to block the release of the book because of concerns that classified information could be exposed, but a federal judge last month ruled the publishing could move forward.

Bolton has defended his decision to write a tell-all about his time in the Trump administration and denied violating record-keeping laws by destroying his notes while in the White House.

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Bolton’s book depicts a president whose foreign policy objectives were inexorably linked to his own political gain.

Bolton says Trump “pleaded” with China’s Xi Jinping during a 2019 summit to help Trump’s reelection prospects. Bolton also writes that Trump linked the supply of military assistance to Ukraine to that country’s willingness to conduct investigations into Democratic rival Joe Biden and his son Hunter — allegations that were at the heart of an impeachment trial that ended with Trump’s acquittal by the Senate in February.

NJ gov calls for national mask requirement amid uptick in coronavirus cases: ‘We cannot afford to go through hell again’

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy called for the U.S. to have a united stance on how to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, saying that a requirement for everyone to wear face masks in public should be part of it.

While his state has been recovering after being one of the hardest hit by COVID-19 earlier this year, Murphy said a recent uptick has been the result of residents coming back after visiting places such as Myrtle Beach, S.C. and Florida that have higher case numbers.

REP. VAN DREW SAYS GOVERNOR’S DELAY IN REOPENING INDOOR DINING WILL KILL BUSINESSES

“To me, it says we need a national strategy, we’re only as strong as our weakest link right now,” Murphy told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” Sunday. He said masks should be “at the core” of such a strategy.

“Wear a mask. The virus outside is a lot less lethal than it is inside but when it doubt, when you’re going out, put on a mask,” he said.

New Jersey has seen more than 13,000 confirmed deaths from COVID-19 so far, second only to New York.

NJ RESTAURANT OWNER SLAMS MURPHY’S INDOOR DINING DELAY: ‘DON’T KNOW HOW MANY MORE BLOWS’ WE CAN TAKE

“I said we went through hell,” Murphy said. “We cannot afford to go through hell again.”

Discussing the idea of a national mask requirement, Murphy claimed that “it’s become almost not even debatable … absolutely indoors.”

Last week, Murphy delayed resuming indoor dining at restaurants, leaving owners upset given preparations and purchases made when they thought they were restarting their businesses.

Indoor dining had been scheduled to resume Thursday with 25 percent capacity limits, tables spaced at least six feet apart, and face masks, among other mitigation measures.

“Listen we have nothing but sympathy for them,” Murphy said, claiming that this is why the federal government needs to help states provide assistance to small businesses.

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“But the choice is either we open inside … or we lose people, we literally lose lives,” Murphy said.

“We’ll get there, I hope. But we’re not ready for it.”

Fox News’ Talia Kaplan and Business’ Shawn Carter contributed to this report.

Susan Rice slams Trump over Russian bounties: ‘I don’t buy this story that he was never briefed’

Who is Susan Rice?

As the pressure rises on presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden to announce a black woman as his running mate, eyes have turned to longtime Washington insider Susan Rice. Here’s 5 things you need to know about her.

Former National Security Adviser Susan Rice blasted President Trump’s claims that he was never briefed about reports that Russian intelligence operatives offer bounties to Taliban-linked militants in Afghanistan for the killing of U.S. troops.

Rice, who is believed to be on the shortlist as a possible running mate for presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, expressed incredulity that Trump said he was never brief on the Russian bounties and criticized the president for allegedly not reading the daily intelligence briefings he is given.

“I don’t buy this story that he was never briefed,” Rice said on NBC’s “Meet The Press.” “I believe that over a year ago, when the information first came to light in 2019, that my successor, John Bolton, would have walked straight into the Oval Office, as I would have, and informed the president of this intelligence.”

GANG OF EIGHT GETS RUSSIA BOUNTY BRIEFING AMID CONFUSION OVER TRUMP’S ROLE

Rice added: “We have credible information that suggests that the Russians and maybe Putin himself are trying to kill American service members, and the president calls it a hoax.”

Trump has been under increasing pressure to provide answers about the U.S. response to Russia or the lack of one. But the president has continued to downplay the intelligence, calling it a “hoax” and “fake news” designed to damage him and the Republican Party.

The White House has insisted that Trump wasn’t briefed on the assessments because they hadn’t been verified, even though it’s rare for intelligence to be confirmed without a shadow of a doubt before it is presented to senior government decision-makers.

News that Moscow allegedly offered bounties to Afghan militants who killed U.S. soldiers was first reported last weekend in the New York Times.

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The Washington Post further reported that the Russian bounties are “believed to have resulted in the deaths of several U.S. service members.” Meanwhile, the Associated Press reported that officials said an April 2019 attack on an American convoy that killed three Marines in Afghanistan is under investigation.

On the topic of her potentially being Biden’s running mate, Rice said she didn’t want to speculate and that, at the moment, her focus was on getting the former vice president elected in November.

“Whether I’m his running mate or I’m a door knocker, I don’t mind. I just want to get Joe Biden elected and see the Democrats control the Senate and retain the House,” Rice said. “Because, Andrea, we are at a moment where our democracy is at stake, where our leadership role in the world is at stake, where the lives of tens of thousands of Americans are on the line, lost to incompetence and callous leadership that could care less. We’ve got to change that.”

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