The Presidential Events: June 2020

Awkward Mixture's Presidential Events of May debuted only a week ago, but already I've compiled the Presidential Events of June, and here they are.

My singular thought, before jumping in, is that at least temporarily for the month of June, Trump seemed to successfully distract from his atrocious response to the coronavirus with his attacks on the protesters. It wasn't clear if his strategy aided him in the polls. Whether because of one or the other, Trump slipped to his worst numbers since the self inflicted government shutdown of January 2019. Some evidence theorized that the protests might be Trump's bigger problem for the moment. Six in ten Americans disapproved of Trump's response, but I'd question whether they disprove for the same reason. There are likely some who are upset because the President threatened to impose order, but has not taken the action necessary to do so.

Protests

Trump opened the month of May by unleashing an unprovoked attack on protesters outside the White House with tear gas and police violence. The police began the assault just after 6:30 even though the curfew did not begin until 7pm. The violence enabled the President to parade through the cleared streets to a nearby church for a photo op. The Bishop of the Episcopal church condemned the president for using rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse the peaceful protesters. Despite an abundance of evidence that the violence was committed by police against protesters, the US Park Police blatantly lied. The USPP claimed protesters were violent and that no tear gas was used, but Australia officially asked for an investigation because two of its reporters were assaulted. Later reporting accused Attorney General Bill Barr of ordering the illegal assault on protesters, and he defended his decision with lies.

Before the propaganda parade, Trump stood in the Rose Garden and threatened protesters with military force. He could do this by activating the Insurrection Act, an 1807 law allowing the deployment of soldiers on United States soil. He later backed away from this possibility. Trump's former Sectary of Defense, James Mattis, denounced the President's inclination to martial law. Trump responded with childish insults. When Republican Senator, Lisa Murkowski (who voted to acquit the President of conviction in the Senate), supported Mattis, Trump said he would campaign against her.


As protesters pulled down statues of Confederate generals, the President of the United States signed an executive order denouncing them. Trump asked for the statues to be restored, and signed an executive order protecting federal monuments (a uselessly redundancy because current law already makes destruction of federal property a crime). He probitited the Army from stripping military bases of their Confederate names. The Department of Justice arrested and charged protesters, overstepping normal prosecution by the state, to reinforce the President's message. Donald Trump can't tell the difference between Presidents and rebels. He doesn't understand the difference between a history museum and a memorial. And he certainly doesn't understand that the people of today have the right to dethrone the ill-contrived shrines of the past. Everyone has the right to venerate the memory of their great-great grandfather, but the nation doesn't have to uplift traitors.

China and Hong Kong

As the President condemned protesters in his own nation, and Republican officials largely followed his lead, the citizens of Hong Kong honored the victims of Tiananmen Square. Fearing to antagonize China, the White House responded with unnamed travel visas over the curtailing of freedom in Hong Kong. Then trade adviser Peter Navarro disrupted relations between the two nations, when he said the trade deal was over, because China hid the coronavirus.

Russia Investigation

A rogue judge tried to overrule the judge currently overseeing the Flynn case. Judge Neomi Rao hijacked a case that wasn't within her jurisdiction, and attempted to dismiss all charges against Michael Flynn. Another of Trump's cronies, Roger Stone, was ordered to report to jail on July 14th for his three year term. The President responded by retweeting a call for Stone to be pardoned. One of the prosecutors of Stone testified about improper politicization by the Justice Department. The prosecutor, Zelinsky, and his team wrote a memo for the sentencing. Then he learned “our team was being pressured by the leadership of the U.S. Attorney’s Office” to change the recommendation. Zelinsky was told to reduce the sentencing for political reasons, but he refused to make the changes. Zelinsky's boss approved the initial memo, but after Trump threw a tantrum, Attorney General Barr forced the US attorney office to change the recommendation. Zelinsky and three other prosecutors resigned from the case in protest.

Immigration


The Supreme Court

Even though the Supreme Court dealt the White House a defeat on DACA, it allowed the administration to expand those eligible for immediate deportation. The Supreme Court invalidated the structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, allowing the President to remove its director at will, even though the law creating the department required Congress to appoint the director. The Supreme Court also enabled the Trump administration to resume federal executions, which had been suspended since 2003. And the Department of Justice asked the Supreme Court to strike down the Affordable Care Act, stripping twenty-three million citizens of their healthcare.

Environment

Trump told environmental agencies to stop reviewing projects for damages. He also proposed drilling on the largest piece of public land, the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.

Ukraine


Corruption


The Coronavirus

In spite of all viable evidence (at least 10.8 million cases and 520,000 deaths by early July), critics of the coronavirus immediately misinterpreted a statement from the World Health Organization. To critics it seemed like the WHO was repudiating the idea that asymptomatic people could spread the coronavirus. Here is the truth, asymptomatic people can, and do, spread the coronavirus.

As infections plateaued around 20,000 per day, Trump planned a rally in Tulsa, OK. The Trump campaign felt the event was so safe, they asked attendees to sign a waiver relieving the White House of any liability. Wearing a mask was optional. The President implied masks were dangerous when he described them as “a double-edged sword.". When the day came, the rally flopped. Of the 19,200 seats, only 6,200 were filled. An outside event, planned for 40,000 was canceled when only a few dozen people arrived. At the rally the President outrageously asked public health officials to slow testing of the coronavirus, though officials would later assert that this demand was another of Trump's famous jokes. The President also referred to the virus as kung flu, another attempt to seem tough on China for his political base.

Officials from Trump's sphere continued to prognosticate inaccurately about the state of the virus. Director of the National Economic Council, Larry Kudlow, told the public that “There is no second wave.” At the time (6/12/20), the virus had stabilized at the same 20,000 new cases mentioned above, down from a high of 35,000 in April. By the end of June, daily cases had doubled to 40,000. One could debate how to label the apex, the curve, the trough, and whether to call it one wave or two, but the reality is that the country never had the virus under control. Five days later VP Mike Pence wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal titled, “There Isn’t a Coronavirus ‘Second Wave,” an atrocious deception that cases were declining, even as they remained steady.


The President continued to attack the validity of a vote by mail, a near necessity if the United States fails to control the coronavirus by the November election. A judge in Tennessee ordered all registered voters in the state to vote by mail. Dr. Fauci presented the gloomiest scenario, that based on the anti-science propaganda of Trump, Republicans,and anti-vaxxers, nearly a third of the United States population might reject the vaccine, making it impossible to control the coronavirus, ever.

John Bolton's Book

During the Senate trial after the House impeached Donald Trump, Democrats requested former National Security Advisor, John Bolton, testify. He said he would testify if the Senate voted for it, knowing they wouldn't. His purpose in not testifying was to retain his tantalizing information to sell copies of his book. Trump sued to block its release, but he was unsuccessful. While Bolton succeed in selling his book, the details, torrid and depressing as they are, will undoubtedly fail to change many minds. According to Bolton, Trump asked China's dictator for assistance in the 2020 election, told China it could continue its genocide against the Uyghur Muslims, learned that the UK had nuclear weapons and Finland was its own country, nearly exited NATO, expressed a desire to execute journalists, and meddled in Ukraine.

Russian Bounty Scandal

As June ended, the New York Times reported that Russian intelligence agencies had secretly paid the Taliban to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan. Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans expressed outrage, but the majority of elected Republicans remained silent. The President denied knowing about the Russian bounties. As the President's allies rallied to shield him for consequence, reports from other sources debunked the President's lie. The AP reported that the White House was aware of the information as early as 2019. The press secretary, National Security Advisor, Director of National Intelligence, and director of the CIA claimed the information wasn't given to the President because it wasn't credible. But sources said the information was included in the President's Daily Brief on February 27th, 2020. As Vox lays out, there are only a few possible options; the President was never briefed, the President was briefed but didn't pay attention, the President was briefed and lied. It's not clear which of these is the worst outcome.

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