| | | Welcome to Day 1383. Today in one sentence: Trump told associates he intends to declare premature victory on Election Night in order to cast doubt on the integrity of the election and undermine the validity of uncounted mail-in ballots in the days after; Dr. Anthony Fauci warned that the U.S. should prepare "for a whole lot of hurt" this winter from the coronavirus pandemic, saying "it's not a good situation" and "you could not possibly be positioned more poorly"; Trump threatened to fire Dr. Anthony Fauci after Election Day; and Trump approved of his supporters surrounding a Biden campaign bus and attempting to run it off the highway in Texas. --- Editor's note: Hello! Before we continue to today's update I'd like to encourage everyone to stop, take a deep breath, and shake out that tension in your shoulders. Maybe give that clenched jaw of yours a little massage while you're at it! Okay, so, we have arrived. Election Day is tomorrow and the next time you hear from me the first polls will have closed and the first results will have started rolling in. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for joining me on this journey into logging the daily political news. This started as a personal project to become a more informed citizen and to develop a better relationship with the news after I was, like many, blindsided in 2016. Along the way this turned into my full-time job thanks to the ~2% of readers who choose to support my work. Crazy. Like many, I didn't really pay close attention to politics before 2016 because I had a job and a life, and politics – if I'm being honest – kind of sucks. It's confusing and complicated, and (generally) involves self-interested people day trading on other people's lives. Yuck. But it doesn't have to be that way, which is what I set out to do when I started WTFJHT: make a simple guide to the daily political news that was concise and conversational. Tomorrow is not the end of this journey. We have a long way to go between now and inauguration day. But more importantly, I will continue to publish WTFJHT – no matter who the president is – in 2021 and beyond. (Plus, it's not like Trump will just go away after Jan 20, 2021 – he faces at least nine major ongoing lawsuits and there's a very long list that some guy compiled of all the things that need to be unfucked.) Anyway, it's been a long, strange trip, but needless to say, I'm glad you're here, and I hope you've become more informed and developed better media habits along the way. I'll see you tomorrow, but in the mean time, remember to watch your distance, wear your mask, and wash your damn hands! -Matt, current mood: 🙈🙈🙈 — Missed an issue? Yesterday's update — Podcast: Apple | Google | Spotify | RSS | Alexa — Share: Facebook | Twitter | | 1/ Trump told associates he intends to declare premature victory on Election Night in order to cast doubt on the integrity of the election and undermine the validity of uncounted mail-in ballots in the days after. Many states, however, won’t be done counting mail ballots by Tuesday night and it’s common for some states to take several days to finalize vote counts. Trump, nevertheless, told confidants he’ll declare victory on election night if it looks like he’s “ahead.” Speaking to reporters later, Trump first denied that he would declare victory prematurely, before confirming that he would try to shut down tabulating votes after polls close. “I think it’s a terrible thing when ballots can be collected after an election […] when states are allowed to tabulate ballots for a long period of time after the election is over […] that we can’t know the results of an election the night of the election. As soon as that election’s over, we’re going in with our lawyers.” (Axios / CNN / The Guardian / Bloomberg / New York Times) 2/ Dr. Anthony Fauci warned that the U.S. should prepare “for a whole lot of hurt” this winter from the coronavirus pandemic, saying “it’s not a good situation” and “you could not possibly be positioned more poorly.” Fauci said the country needs to make an “abrupt change” in its public health practices, because “all the stars are aligned in the wrong place as you go into the fall and winter season, with people congregating at home indoors.” Fauci also praised the Biden campaign’s approach to the coronavirus, saying it was “taking it seriously from a public health perspective,” while Trump is “looking at it from a different perspective,” which he said was “the economy and reopening the country.” The White House, meanwhile, said it was “unacceptable and breaking with all norms for Dr. Fauci […] to choose three days before an election to play politics.” Trump, however, has continued to tour the country insisting that the U.S. has “turned the corner” on the coronavirus even as the nation set a new daily record Friday with more than 98,000 cases. (Washington Post / NBC News / The Guardian / New York Times) -
😷 Dept. of “We Have It Totally Under Control.” -
Global: Total confirmed cases: ~46,835,000; deaths: ~1,204,000 -
U.S.: Total confirmed cases: ~9,269,000; deaths: ~232,000 -
Source: Johns Hopkins University -
💻 COVID-19 Live Blogs: Washington Post / New York Times / CNN / CNBC / Wall Street Journal -
The U.S. set a world record for coronavirus cases in 24 hours, with more than 100,000 new infections recorded. The daily caseload surpassed the 97,894 cases reported by India on a single day in September. (The Guardian / New York Times) -
A new study from Stanford University estimates that 18 of Trump’s campaign rallies resulted in 30,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 700 deaths. A separate investigation of 17 Trump campaign rallies found that 82% of host counties had an increased rate of new COVID-19 cases one month after the rally. (Washington Post / CNN) -
America’s economy faces severe new strains in the two months between Tuesday’s election and January. “Millions of Americans are also at risk of having their power and water shut off with unpaid utility bills coming due, while protections for renters, student borrowers and jobless Americans will expire by the end of the year absent federal action.” (Washington Post / Bloomberg) -
A House subcommittee on the coronavirus crisis called the Trump administration’s response to the pandemic in a report “an American fiasco” that’s “among the worst failures of leadership in American history.” (NBC News) -
The Strategic National Stockpile is running low on medical gloves amid soaring demand across the country and is “woefully behind.” The Department of Health and Human Services’ goal is to have 4.5 billion gloves on hand. The stockpile, however, has 2 million. (NBC News) | | | 3/ Trump threatened to fire Dr. Anthony Fauci after Election Day. While Trump was complaining about news media coverage of COVID-19 a campaign rally in South Florida, the crowd broke out into a “Fire Fauci” chant. “Don’t tell anybody, but let me wait till a little bit after the election,” Trump said, adding he appreciated their “advice.” At a campaign stop in Cleveland, Ohio, Biden weighed in: “I got a better idea. Elect me, and I’m gonna hire Dr. Fauci. And we’re gonna fire Donald Trump.” (The Guardian / Associated Press / NBC News / New York Times / Bloomberg / Politico / Washington Post / ABC News) - Trump baselessly claimed that doctors are lying about the number of Americans who’ve died from COVID-19 for monetary gain. There is no evidence for Trump’s claim. “Our doctors get more money if someone dies from Covid. You know that, right? I mean our doctors are very smart people. So what they do is they say ‘I’m sorry but everybody dies of Covid,’” Trump said, without citing any evidence, at a rally in Michigan. (CNN / Bloomberg)
| | | 4/ Trump approved of his supporters surrounding a Biden campaign bus and attempting to run it off the highway in Texas, tweeting a video of the caravan boxing in the campaign bus with the caption, “I LOVE TEXAS!” The FBI said it was investigating the incident. Trump defended the Texas drivers, tweeting “In my opinion, these patriots did nothing wrong. Instead, the FBI & Justice should be investigating the terrorists, anarchists, and agitators of ANTIFA, who run around burning down our Democrat run cities and hurting our people!” Trump revisited the story hours later, falsely claiming that an FBI investigation was “FALSE” and tweeting that his supporters “did nothing wrong.” Trump again said the FBI should be investigating “ANTIFA” instead. The Biden campaign canceled at least one event in Texas following the episode. Meanwhile in New York and New Jersey, a caravan of Trump supporters halted traffic on two major highways. (New York Times / Texas Tribune / NPR / Washington Post / CNN / NBC News / CNN / The Guardian) 😳 WTF, right? — Catch up: Yesterday's update — Podcast: Apple | Google | Spotify | RSS | Alexa | | WTF Just Happened Today is supported by readers like you. | | | | | |
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