MRT: 5,747 More Cases Reported Sat; Abbott Shuts Down Bars; TMC Changes Reporting; SCOTUS Rejects Challenge on Mail Voting; Early Voting Begins Today
Here is what you need to know in Texas today.
MustReadTexas.com – @MustReadTexas
BY: @MattMackowiak
MONDAY – 06/29/20
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Early voting in the Republican and Democratic primary runoffs begins today and runs through July 10. The runoff is Tuesday, July 14.
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TOP NEWS
"Texas reports 5,747 more COVID-19 cases amid surge," via AP-- "Confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Texas continued to surge on Saturday with the state reporting 5,747 new cases.
A day earlier, Gov. Greg Abbottshut down bars again and scaled back restaurant dining as cases climbed to record levels after the state embarked on one of America’s fastest reopenings.
The Texas Department of State Health Services said the new number of cases reported Saturday brought the state’s total to 143,371 confirmed cases. The number of infections is thought to be far higher because many people have not been tested, and studies suggest people can be infected with the COVID-19 virus without feeling sick.
Also Saturday, health officials said 42 more deaths were reported from the virus, bringing the state’s total to 2,366.
Texas is scrambling to contain what is now one of the nation’s biggest hotspots. Abbott has also ordered rafting and tubing outfitters on Texas’ popular rivers to close and required outdoor gatherings of 100 people or more to seek approval from local governments.
Abbott began lifting lockdown orders in May and has since accelerated his own timelines on some openings amid protests from conservatives.
Texas reached a record high positive tests of 5,996 on Thursday.
On Friday, Texas surpassed 5,000 hospitalizations for the first time with 5,102 hospitalizations. Health officials said Saturday that the number of people hospitalized was at 5,523.
For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death." AP
"American Airlines will book flights to full capacity,"AP's David Koenig -- "American Airlines will start booking flights to full capacity next week, ending any effort to promote social distancing on its planes while the United States sets records for new reported cases of the coronavirus.
American’s move matches the policy of United Airlines but contrasts sharply with rivals that limit bookings to create space between passengers to minimize the risk of contagion.
The pilots’ union at American said it hopes that the airline reconsiders and instead decides to add more flights using idle planes and crews.
American said Friday that it will continue to notify customers if their flight is likely to be full, and let them change flights at no extra cost. The airline said it will also let passengers change seats on the plane if there is room and if they stay in the same cabin.
Since April, American has limited bookings to about 85% of a plane’s capacity by leaving about half the middle seats open. However, the airline will start selling every seat it can beginning next Wednesday." AP
"Baylor to review statues, buildings over links to slavery," via AP-- "Baylor University regents are creating a panel to consider whether any statues, buildings or other tangible tributes on the Waco campus reflect a racist past.
The regents adopted a resolution Thursday that recognizes that most of the university’s founding fathers were slaveholders, racists and white supremacists when the school was founded in 1845. Those persons included Judge R.E.B. Baylor himself, as well as the Rev. James Huckins, the Rev. William M. Tryon, most members of its initial board of trustees, and several early leaders of the institution.
“During Baylor’s infancy, a number of University leaders and prominent individuals connected to the institution supported Confederate causes and engaged in the fight to preserve the institution of slavery both during and following the Civil War, including some serving as members of the Confederacy’s armed forces,” the resolution states.
The regents created “a Commission on Historic Campus Representations” to review the historical context of “all statues, monuments, buildings and other aspects of the campus in reference to their physical location, placement and naming.” The committee would then make recommendations to Baylor administrators and regents for possible action.
Baylor was recently the target of a lawsuit that accused the university of scapegoating black athletes for a scandal over its handling of sexual assaults against students. It also has been associated with the Southern Baptist Convention, an organization created in a split with northern Baptists over slavery. The convention in recent years has apologized for slavery." AP
STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT
"Texas shuts down bars as hospitalizations surpass 5,000,"AP's Paul J. Weber -- "Republican Gov. Greg Abbott shut down bars in Texas again on Friday and scaled back restaurant dining, the most dramatic reversals yet as confirmed coronavirus cases surge to record levels after the state embarked on one of America’s fastest reopenings.
The abrupt closures began just days after Abbott described shutting down business as a last resort, and reflect how urgently Texas is scrambling to contain what is now one of the nation’s biggest hotspots. In the last four days alone, Texas has reported more than 23,000 confirmed new cases, and Friday surpassed 5,000 hospitalizations for the first time — a threefold increase from a month ago.
“At this time, it is clear that the rise in cases is largely driven by certain types of activities, including Texans congregating in bars,” Abbott said. “The actions in this executive order are essential to our mission to swiftly contain this virus and protect public health.”
He also ordered rafting and tubing outfitters on Texas’ popular rivers to close, and required outdoor gatherings of 100 people or more to first seek approval from local governments.
It remains far from a full retreat, and critics swiftly protested that Abbott was still understating the severity of the spread and contradicting his own warnings." AP
"Jenkins asks Abbott to require masks in Texas as Dallas County hits another record,"The Fort Worth Star-Telegram's James Hartley -- "Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins is asking Gov. Greg Abbott to make masks mandatory and reinstate the “Stay Home, Stay Safe” order for 30 days after the county reported a record 570 coronavirus cases Sunday.
The county also confirmed another COVID-19 death Sunday, an 80-year-old Irving man who did not have any known underlying health conditions.
The “Stay Home, Stay Safe” order, more commonly referred to as a quarantine, would require non-essential businesses to shutter their stores again. Restaurants, coffee shops, bars, and non-essential retail would be limited in operating ability or closed entirely.
Jenkins wrote in a letter to Abbott that a committee made up of epidemiologists, doctors, hospital executives and healthcare leaders are recommending 30 more days of quarantine, mandatory masking, mandatory social distancing and closure of all entertainment businesses, youth sporting events, public pools, camps and other venues or activities that are not conducive to wearing a mask and maintaining social distancing.
“I made my peace early on during this crisis to always follow the science and our public health experts,” Jenkins wrote. “I recommend that you enact these requirements statewide, or at the very least, regionally.”" Fort Worth Star-Telegram
"Claiming confusion, Texas Medical Center changes how it reports ICU capacity amid COVID-19,"The Houston Chronicle's Mike Morris and Zach Despart -- "Texas Medical Center hospitals stopped updating key metrics showing the stress rising numbers of COVID-19 patients were placing on their facilities for more than three days, rattling policymakers and residents who have relied on the information to gauge the spread of the coronavirus.
The institutions — which together constitute the world’s largest medical complex — reported Thursday that their base intensive care capacity had hit 100 percent for the first time during the pandemic and was on pace to exceed an “unsustainable surge capacity” of intensive care beds by July 6.
Then, after reporting numerous charts and graphs almost daily for three months, the organization posted no updates until around 9 p.m. Saturday, sowing confusion about the hospitals’ ability to withstand a massive spike in cases that has followed Gov. Greg Abbott’s May decisions to lift restrictions intended to slow the virus.
When the charts reappeared, eight of the 17 original slides had been deleted — including any reference to hospital capacity or projections of future capacity. The TMC later called that update “incomplete.”
Following a Houston Chronicle story highlighting the missing charts, the TMC at 6 p.m. Sunday posted updated data featuring most of the original information with a few cosmetic changes, as well as some additional slides attempting to better explain the hospitals’ capacity.
Houston Methodist CEO Dr. Marc Boom stressed that the new data was not reinvented — all the figures and projection models are the same — but was simply reformatted in an effort to make clear that reaching 100 percent of capacity in an ICU is a moving target. TMC hospitals have a combined 373 beds, for instance, that can become ICU beds with a “challenging” but “doable” amount of effort, Boom said, with the reassignment of trained staff and equipment.
Doing so would take the TMC facilities’ combined 93 percent ICU capacity as of the Sunday report down to 72 percent, the chart shows.
Boom said he and his peers knew as the pandemic wore on that the measurement of ICU capacity the slides displayed was imperfect and did not convey the way they are run, but did not revisit the charts as quickly as they should have.
“This is just trying to be clear. We want to be as helpful as we possibly can,” Boom said. “Obviously, this got delayed a couple days because it’s complicated — you put 11 or so institutions together all trying to figure out something this complicated and trying to figure out how we express it a little bit more accurately — it took a while, a little longer than any of us would have liked, but simply because it’s complicated. I like what we came up with.”
The executives are working closely with Gov. Greg Abbott, Mayor Sylvester Turner and County Judge Lina Hidalgo, TMC CEO Bill McKeon said when sharing the new information with the local government officials Sunday night.
“They have all encouraged us to bring the most comprehensive, real-time information forward to help them make the most informed decisions as we all navigate the COVID-19 pandemic,” McKeon said.
The changes capped a week dominated by concerns over hospital capacity.
Abbott had expressed displeasure to hospital executives with negative headlines about ICU capacity, sources familiar with the talks said. Abbott spokesman John Wittman said any insinuation that the governor suggested the executives publish less data is false.
“The governor’s office believes all hospitals should be reporting accurate data to the state and to the public as often as possible,” Wittman said Sunday morning. “We demanded more information to share, not less.”"
Last Wednesday, 11 TMC leaders issued a statement warning that an “alarming” increase in hospitalizations soon could “overwhelm” their systems.
The next morning, Abbott issued an order restricting elective procedures at hospitals in Harris and Texas’ three other largest counties, saying he wanted to ensure the facilities retained enough beds to deal with the surge of cases.
Shortly after, four of the 11 TMC CEOs held a video press conference to tone down the concern they had expressed in the letter just 18 hours before. Hospital leaders wound up “unintentionally sounding an alarm bell too loudly,” Houston Methodist CEO Dr. Marc Boom said.
Boom and his three peers — Dr. David Callender of Memorial Hermann, Mark Wallace of Texas Children’s Hospital and Dr. Doug Lawson of CHI St. Luke’s — said their systems were not in imminent danger of turning away patients and had plans to accommodate the surge.
On Friday morning, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo moved the county to the highest threat level, however, warning that the current hospitalization rate is “on pace to overwhelm the hospitals in the near future.”
Elective procedures, which can require patients to recover from surgeries in ICU beds, reduce the ability of hospitals to absorb critically ill COVID-19 patients. Hospital revenues had plunged after Abbott last restricted elective procedures in late March.
In April — when the roughly monthlong ban was in effect — Houston’s health care sector shed nearly 33,000 jobs; Methodist and CHI St. Luke’s in mid-May said they had seen huge drops in outpatient surgeries and ER visits, and Memorial Hermann said a shift from elective procedures to COVID-19 care had reduced revenues and increased costs so drastically that $92 million in federal COVID-19 relief did not cover the system’s losses.
The CEOs also have said such restrictions impair their ability to provide needed care to other patients, warning that there will be long-term negative consequences for the community if conditions such as cancer, heart disease and other conditions don’t receive ongoing treatment." Houston Chronicle
Reaction from Gov. Abbott spokesman:
John Wittman
@john_jwitt
17h
This is blatantly false. The governor did have a discussion with hospital CEO’s where his message was clear: More data, not less - as anyone who was actually on the call would tell you. It’s absurd a “background” source who won’t put their name on anything is driving this.
Quote Tweet
Mike Hixenbaugh
@Mike_Hixenbaugh
· 18h
Houston Chronicle scoop: Houston hospital executives’ sudden reversal on ICU capacity followed talks with Gov. Abbott in which “the governor expressed displeasure with negative headlines about ICU capacity.” Hats off, @zachdespart @mmorris011 https://houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Houston-hospitals-hit-100-base-ICU-capacity-15372256.php…
"About 300 teens exposed to COVID-19 at big party near Austin,"AP's Acacia Coronado -- "About 300 teenagers were exposed to the coronavirus at a massive party in a posh lakeside suburb in the Central Texas hills, Austin Public Health authorities said.
High school students partied at the June 20 Pongfest in Lakeway, said Sandy Cox, mayor of the community about 20 miles west of Austin.
Some of the partygoers were awaiting test results for COVID-19, the illness the new coronavirus causes, when they attended the party and have since tested positive for the virus, Austin Public Health said Friday in a statement.
“The virus often hides in the healthy and is given to those who are at grave risk of being hospitalized and dying,” the health officials said. “While younger people are at less risk for complications, they are not immune to severe illness and death from COVID-19.”
Cox said in a Facebook Live announcement that anyone who attended the party should self-isolate and disclose their participation if contacted by contact tracers. The incident is being investigated by Austin contact tracers.
“Unfortunately, our case load is very probably going to increase,” Cox said." AP
"Critics question 'less lethal' force during protests,"AP's Acacia Coronado -- "When a participant at a rally in Austin to protest police brutality threw a rock at a line of officers in the Texas capital, officers responded by firing beanbag rounds — ammunition that law enforcement deems “less lethal” than bullets.
A beanbag cracked 20-year-old Justin Howell's skull and, according to his family, damaged his brain. Adding to the pain, police admit the Texas State University student wasn’t the intended target.
Protesters took to the streets in Austin and across the nation following the May 25 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. In some instances, police reacted with force so extreme that while their intent may not be to kill, the effects were devastating.
Pressure has mounted for a change in police tactics since Howell was injured. He was not accused of any crime. He was hospitalized in critical condition on May 31 and was discharged Wednesday to a long-term rehabilitation facility for intensive neurological, physical and occupational therapy. His brother has questioned why no one is talking about police use of less lethal but still dangerous munitions.
“If we only talk about policing in terms of policies and processes or the weapons that police use when someone dies or when they are ‘properly lethal’ and not less lethal, we’re missing a big portion of the conversation,” said Josh Howell, a computer science graduate student at Texas A&M University.
The Austin Police Department said in a news release that, before June 1, its officers used Def-Tec 12-gauge beanbag munitions on protesters. According to the manufacturer’s website, they have a velocity of 184 mph.
The growing use of less lethal weapons is “cause for grave concern” and may sometimes violate international law, said Agnes Callamard, director of Global Freedom of Expression at Columbia University and a U.N. adviser.
From 1990 to 2014, projectiles caused 53 deaths and 300 permanent disabilities among 1,984 serious injuries recorded by medical workers in over a dozen countries, according to Rohini Haar, an emergency room doctor in Oakland, California, and primary author of the 2016 Physicians for Human Rights report.
Ishia Lynette, a spokeswoman for the Austin Justice Coalition, said her group had been organizing a rally with an expected 10,000 attendees, but that was canceled after Howell was shot. With anger flaring on both sides, the organization that advocates for racial justice feared confrontations could arise.
“I feel safe in some sense, but it is always in the back of my head, the what if? Other people can incite violence, whether that be other protesters or the police,” Lynette said.
The Austin City Council has since begun an overhaul of the Police Department, banning the use of less lethal munitions and tear gas in crowds participating in free speech, and prohibiting the use of chokeholds. The attack on Howell is one of more than 100 under investigation.
Lynette hailed the city’s efforts to change, but said more needs to be done. Her organization also has been calling for Austin Police Chief Brian Manley to resign.
“They recently banned chokeholds, rubber bullets, beanbags,” she said. “These are small things, but we need them to take more actions to not hurt any more protesters. Since then, I have seen videos of them operating in the same way. If they would uphold what they said, it is not enough, but it is a start.”" AP
2020
"Supreme Court doesn't wade into Texas mail-in voting battle," via AP-- "The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday rejected a request by Texas Democrats to allow all of the state’s 16 million registered voters to vote by mail during the coronavirus pandemic.
The denial is not the end of the ongoing battle over mail-in voting in Texas, but it remains a loss for Democrats who made the emergency ruling request while the original case is tied up at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor urged the lower court to consider the case “well in advance of the November election.” Voting by mail in Texas is generally limited to those 65 or older or those with a “sickness or physical condition” that prevents voting in person.
For months, Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has fought expanding mail-in balloting during the pandemic, saying fear of contracting the virus is an insufficient reason. A federal judge in Texas sided with Democrats in May, but that decision is on hold pending appeal.
Early voting in Texas begins Monday for primary runoff elections that had been postponed to July over coronavirus fears, but Texas is now one of the nation’s coronavirus hotspots as confirmed cases reach record levels and Gov. Greg Abbott reimposes restrictions." AP
"Gov. Greg Abbott jumps into Texas GOP runoffs, with aim of thrashing Empower Texans,"The Dallas Morning News' Robert Garrett -- "Gov. Greg Abbott was on the receiving end recently of some jokes about his use of a wheelchair — and his alleged kowtowing to liberal Texas cities on COVID-19. Now, he’s going on offense.
In a two-week early voting period for the July GOP runoffs beginning Monday, Abbott’s using his broad popularity among Republican voters, lists of likely voters and elaborate campaign organization to try to propel three state or county-level candidates past rivals associated with Empower Texans.
In a fourth race on the July 14 ballot, he’s intervened to try to rescue a Texas House incumbent who’s labeled his challenger a puppet of the staunchly conservative group — though her association to Empower Texans is tenuous.
Abbott’s push comes just more than a week after Empower Texans operatives Tony McDonald and Cary Cheshire offended a wide array of Republicans, not to mention others, when their June 19 Texas Scorecard Radio podcast was mistakenly released with derogatory comments they made about Abbott when they thought they were off the air." Dallas Morning News
"Early voting begins Monday with new coronavirus precautions in place," The Houston Chronicle's Emily Foxhall -- "Early voting begins 7 a.m. Monday in Harris County to decide primary runoff races, including closely watched contests for chances to seek congressional and local seats.
It will be a first test of voters’ comfort with new safety precautions as coronavirus cases steeply rise — and a first run for a new county clerk after long wait times plagued the primary March 3.
Races include a face-off between Fort Bend County Sheriff Troy Nehls and GOP donor Kathaleen Wall for the Republican nomination to seek a congressional seat.
Democrats will choose between former Air Force pilot MJ Hegar and state Sen. Royce West to challenge Sen. John Cornyn in November.
Those who prefer to apply to vote by mail must get their application in by July 2; those who are 65 or older qualify, as do those who are disabled.
The Texas Supreme Court has said its up to voters to decide whether — during the pandemic — their chance of being infected means they fit under the disability provision." Houston Chronicle
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION
"Appeals court: Trump wrongly diverted $2.5B for border wall,"AP's Daisy Nguyen -- "A federal appeals court on Friday ruled against the Trump administration in its transfer of $2.5 billion from military construction projects to build sections of the U.S. border wall with Mexico, ruling it illegally sidestepped Congress, which gets to decide how to use the funds.
In two opinions, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with a coalition of border states and environmental groups that contended the money transfer was unlawful and that building the wall would pose environmental threats.
The rulings were the latest twist in the legal battle that has largely gone Trump’s way. Last July, the Supreme Court allowed the $2.5 billion to be spent while the litigation continued, blunting the impact of the latest appeals court action.
The administration has already awarded much of the money, including a $1.3-billion job in Arizona that was announced last month. Trump visited Yuma, Arizona, on Tuesday to mark completion of the 200th mile of border wall during his administration, much of it with the transferred military funds that the 9th Circuit panel found illegal.
After the $2.5 billion transfer of military funds, the Pentagon diverted another $3.6 billion that an appeals court in New Orleans ruled in January could be spent.
Still, critics of Trump’s wall praised the rulings on Friday for upholding the Constitution, which grants Congress the power of the purse.
“The funds that he is pilfering, which were appropriated by Congress, are vital to support the safety and well-being of the brave men and women in uniform, as well as their families,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat.
The 9th Circuit ruled that the Trump administration not only lacked the authority to authorize the transfer of funds, “but also violated an express constitutional prohibition designed to protect individual liberties.”
The vote on both rulings was 2-1 with judges appointed by former President Bill Clinton in the majority and a Trump nominee dissenting.
The panel said the government was proceeding with border wall construction without ensuring compliance with any environmental regulations, thereby harming the interests of Sierra Club members who visit the border region for hiking, bird watching and other recreational activities.
The panel also held that the government failed to show that construction would halt the flow of illegal drugs. It said the administration had cited drug statistics but didn’t address how the wall would have an impact on the problem.
“The executive branch’s failure to show, in concrete terms, that the public’s interest favors a border wall is particularly significant given that Congress determined fencing to be a lower budgetary priority and the Department of Justice’s data points to a contrary conclusion,” the majority wrote.
The White House said the decisions won’t interfere with its ability to continue building the wall and noted that the Supreme Court has overturned many of the court’s rulings." AP
"Pence visits Dallas as Texas grapples with coronavirus spike," The Texas Tribune's Patrick Svitek -- "Vice President Mike Pence, during a trip to Dallas on Sunday, promised Texas would bounce back from a recent surge in cases of the new coronavirus while urging Americans to turn to their faith during a tumultuous period for the nation.
"Working with your governor, we will put the health of the people of the Lone Star State first, and every single day we'll continue to reclaim our freedom and our way of life, as each day we are one day closer to the day we put this pandemic in the past," Pence said during an event at First Baptist Dallas. "And when we do, with this governor and this president, we'll bring Texas and America back bigger and better than ever before."
After the event, Pence — who chairs the White House Coronavirus Task Force — Gov. Greg Abbott and his coronavirus response advisers briefed Pence on the dire situation in Texas. Speaking with reporters afterward, Abbott said the virus has taken a "very swift and a very dangerous turn in Texas over just the past few weeks," while Pence praised Abbott for his leadership — which has come under heavy fire from Democrats — and pledged the full support of the federal government.
The vice president also emphasized the importance of wearing a mask to reduce further spread.
The talk was a last-minute addition to Pence's agenda. For over a week, the vice president had been scheduled to appear at First Baptist for its annual Celebrate Freedom Sunday, but he added the meeting with Abbott in recent days as the state confronted its worst week yet for the pandemic." Texas Tribune
"Judge: US must free migrant children from family detention," AP's Nomaan Merchant -- "A federal judge on Friday ordered the release of children held with their parents in U.S. immigration jails and denounced the Trump administration’s prolonged detention of families during the coronavirus pandemic.
U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee’s order applies to children held for more than 20 days at three family detention centers in Texas and Pennsylvania operated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Some have been detained since last year.
Citing the recent spread of the virus in two of the three facilities, Gee set a deadline of July 17 for children to either be released with their parents or sent to family sponsors.
The family detention centers “are ‘on fire’ and there is no more time for half measures,” she wrote.
Gee’s order said ICE was detaining 124 children in its centers, which are separate from U.S. Department of Health and Human Services facilities for unaccompanied children that were holding around 1,000 children in early June. The numbers in both systems have fallen significantly since earlier in the Trump administration because the U.S. is expelling most people trying to cross the border or requiring them to wait for their immigration cases in Mexico.
Gee oversees a long-running court settlement governing the U.S. government’s treatment of immigrant children known as the Flores agreement. Her order does not directly apply to the parents detained with their children.
Gee’s order says ICE can decline to release a child if there is not a suitable sponsor, the child’s parent waives rights under the Flores agreement, or if there is a “prior unexplained failure to appear at a scheduled hearing.”
ICE did not respond to a request for comment Friday." AP
"In Texas, questions grow about a lesser-known US Attorney ousted by Attorney General Barr," CNN'sKara Scannell, Evan Perez and Jeremy Herb -- "Over Memorial Day weekend, Attorney General William Barr removed a low-profile US attorney in Texas following the public airing of a dispute over an investigation into Walmart -- a move that didn't draw the same attention as the firing of the high-profile US attorney in Manhattan, but is now raising new questions about political interference inside the Justice Department.
Joseph Brown, the US attorney for the Eastern District of Texas and a Trump appointee, was pushed out after ProPublica published a nearly 7,000-word story headlined "Walmart was almost charged criminally over opioids. Trump appointees killed the indictment," which described an internal battle over a Texas prosecutor's efforts to bring criminal charges against Walmart, according to people familiar with the matter. Walmart has not been accused of any wrongdoing.
Brown quietly resigned, but now the forced exit from last month is getting renewed attention as the latest move that has stoked concerns about the politicization of the Justice Department under Barr.
The House Judiciary Committee is investigating the matter, sources with knowledge of the matter told CNN, and has lined up a witness who filed a whistleblower complaint with the Justice Department inspector general to testify about the handling of the Walmart investigation." CNN
REMAINDERS
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'MACK ON POLITICS' PODCAST
LATEST "MACK ON POLITICS" PODCAST: Congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH) is our guest for the 193rd episode, and he joins us from Tulsa, OK, the scene of the Trump re-election campaign’s first rally in several months.
In this conversation we discuss the protests, the current moment in our country, how rural America is surviving, what he expects from Congress for the rest of the year, what he hopes to see from the forthcoming Durham report on FISA abuse, how he sizes up Trump vs. Biden and what he sees as the stakes for the 2020 election.
Available on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher and on the web at http://www.MackOnPoliticsPodcast.com.
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