MRT: Trump Talks Energy in Midland; TX Hits 6,100 COVID-19 Deaths; Gohmert Contracts COVID-19; Cornyn Files Bill to Help Furloughed Workers Keep Health Insurance
Here's What You Need to Know in Texas Today.
MustReadTexas.com – @MustReadTexas
BY: @MattMackowiak
THURSDAY – 07/30/20
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Good morning from Austin, TX.
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TOP NEWS
"Trump emphasizes support for energy industry,"The Midland Reporter-Telegram's Mella McEwen -- "Buoyed by an enthusiastic audience gathered inside a tent at Double Eagle Energy’s drilling rig in Midland County, President Donald Trump sought to buoy his standing with Texas and the energy industry.
During his 16th visit to Texas since he took office and his first to West Texas, the president announced he was taking “another bold action” by signing four permits for pipeline and railroad infrastructure along the Texas border that will allow for Texas crude to be exported to Mexico.
“It’s something that has been sought for many years and we got it done,” the president said.
Trump praised the hard-working men and women of Double Eagle and the rest of the energy industry for making the nation the “No. 1 energy superpower anywhere in the world” and thanked Double Eagle founders Cody Campbell and John Sellers, who serve as co-chief executive officers, for hosting the gathering.
In introducing Trump, Campbell said the president is a great advocate of the industry.
“He knows the industry supports countless jobs,” Campbell said. “He stands shoulder to shoulder with us to oppose those on the radical left who are against the industry.”
Trump told the gathering that as long as he is in office, the nation would remain the top oil-and-natural gas producer in the world.
“I’m here to celebrate the incredible achievement of the industry and to oppose the radical left who want to tear down the industry and make the U.S. subservient to foreign energy,” he said. “I’m here to defend your jobs. I’m here to defend the Lone Star State; I love this state.”
The president listed the actions he has taken to boost the energy industry, including approving soon after taking office the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines, opening acreage in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to exploration and opening public lands to exploration. Just recently, he said, he extended until 2050 the authority to export liquefied natural gas.
He said that since he took office, Permian Basin oil and natural gas production has more than doubled, while at the same time the nation’s air pollution is down.
“We will never cease being the leader in protecting our environment,” he said. “Under my administration, the U.S. will have the cleanest air and the cleanest water.”
And because of his proactive policies, jobs from countries with lower environmental standards like China are coming back to the U.S., Trump said." Midland Reporter-Telegram
"Survey: UT Austin has the most reported cases of coronavirus among U.S. colleges," The Austin American-Statesman's Lara Korte -- "The University of Texas has the highest number of reported coronavirus cases among all public and many private higher education institutions across the country, according to a survey by The New York Times.
The Times surveyed every public university in the country as well as every private university that competes in Division I sports or is an elite research university and found more than 6,300 cases in 270 universities across the country. UT topped the list at 449 cases as of Tuesday. The university also has reported one death as a result of the coronavirus — a custodial staffer who died earlier this month.
The second-highest number of cases was reported at the University of Central Florida, with 438, following by the University of Georgia with 390 and the University of Washington with 249.
The Times points out that there is no standardized method of tracking coronavirus cases across college campuses. According to UT's COVID-19 tracker, the number of positive cases includes the result of tests conducted at University Health Services and UT Health Austin clinics, proactive community testing at UT Austin and positive test results reported to the university by students, faculty, and staff members tested at other facilities.
UT spokesman J.B. Bird questioned the Times survey's accuracy, pointing out that hundreds of universities did not respond to the request for data and saying the report leaves out some crucial data." Austin American-Statesman
"Texas passes grim milestone of 6,100 COVID-19 deaths," viaAP-- "Texas passed a grim milestone of more than 6,100 deaths caused by the coronavirus, with 313 newly-reported fatalities Wednesday.
The stark figures pushed Texas’ death total to 6,190 since the state recorded its first COVID-19 death in early March. Death tolls escalated rapidly in recent weeks as the state saw a surge of newly confirmed cases and hospitalizations in June and July.
Texas passed the 6,000 deaths mark the same day the U.S. passed 150,000 deaths, the most of any country in the pandemic.
Texas also reported 9,595 COVID-19 patients in the hospital Wednesday and 9,042 newly confirmed cases, the most in nearly a week. The true number of cases in Texas is likely higher because many people have not been tested, and studies suggest people can be infected and not feel sick.
The state’s rolling rate of positive tests continued a slow decline as it fell to 12.6%, its lowest mark in more than a month.
Texas is already one of the nation’s virus hot spots and Gov. Greg Abbott has said he’s concerned that last weekend’s hit from Hurricane Hanna across South Texas cause more virus spread if families or friends gathered in groups to ride out the storm or evacuate.
State health officials changed how they compiled fatality data this week by using the cause of death listed on death certificates, instead of waiting for local and regional public health authorities to report them. Death certificates are required by law to be filed within 10 days.
Only deaths directly attributed to the COVID-19 virus are counted. This method does not include deaths of people who had COVID-19 but died of an unrelated cause, health officials said.
For most people, the 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. The vast majority of people recover.
Earlier this week, three 85-person U.S. Army Reserve medical task forces were deployed to help hard-hit areas in South Texas, supporting hospitals in Corpus Christi, Victoria, Harlingen and Edinburg. Those teams join three other active-duty Army medical task forces and five Navy medical teams that arrived in Texas earlier this month." AP
STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT
"Texas schools are being compelled to reopen classrooms on the state's timetable, like it or not,"The Texas Tribune's Aliyya Swaby and Stacy Fernandez -- "After weeks of confusion and conflicting signals, Texas has settled into policies that effectively compel schools to reopen their classrooms this fall no later than eight weeks after the academic year begins, whether they want to or not.
Teachers, parents, school administrators and public health officials have been seeking clarity for weeks on how the state will approach reopening schools safely as coronavirus infections and deaths rise across Texas.
Gov. Greg Abbott has not responded directly to questions from reporters about who has the authority to order schools closed in areas hard hit by the virus, and the Texas Education Agency has sent mixed messages on reopening guidelines.
But despite the lack of any formal announcement from the governor, the die was cast in in a rapid two-step process Tuesday. First, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton released nonbinding legal guidance saying local public health officials do not have the power to preemptively require all schools in their jurisdictions to remain closed, even as COVID-19 cases continue to climb in many Texas hot spots." Texas Tribune
"Jury will not indict Dallas sergeant accused of tampering," via AP-- "A Texas grand jury will not indict the president of a police association accused of tampering with evidence in the case of a white Dallas police officer who fatally shot her unarmed Black neighbor in his apartment two years ago.
Former Dallas Police Officer Amber Guyger is serving a 10-year sentence for the murder of Botham Jean in his apartment in September 2018.
Guyger, 31, said she returned from work after a long shift and mistook Jean’s apartment for her own, which was directly below his. Finding the door ajar, she entered and shot him, thinking the 26-year-old was a burglar.
Guyger called 911 to report the shooting, was taken into custody and placed in a squad car. Dashcam footage shows Dallas Police Association President Michael Mata walk to the car and tell Guyger not to talk to anyone. Mata also asks a sergeant to turn off the car’s camera.
On Tuesday, a Dallas County grand jury declined to indict Mata over the alleged evidence tampering, his attorney told TV station WFAA.
“Their decision not to indict just confirms what we have known since September of 2018 — Mike Mata did nothing wrong,” attorney Robert Rogers said in a statement.
Rogers added that “protecting the constitutional rights of police officers” is part of Mata’s job and that the association president’s actions were “consistent with” Dallas Police Department policy.
Jean’s family attorney, Darryl Washington, told WFAA Tuesday that Allison Jean, Botham’s mother, was “shocked and frustrated” by the grand jury’s decision. Mata engaged in preferential treatment with Guyger by stopping the car’s camera recording, Washington said.
“There’s great public trust that has been violated. The public wants to know that police officers aren’t protecting police officers,” Washington said.
Washington went as far as to argue that if the in-car recording was entered into evidence, Guyger could’ve faced a longer sentence.
“The public and jury got to see a sympathetic Amber Guyger. Not someone we believe was prepped and coached to make certain statements,” Washington said." AP
2020
"Trump downplays West Texas energy worries, attacks Democrats," AP'sEllen Knickmeyer and Jonathan Lemire -- "President Donald Trump took sweeping digs at “crazy left radical Democrats” on a trip Wednesday to the fracking fields of West Texas, launching unsubstantiated claims that a Democratic administration would destroy everything from the country’s suburbs to the U.S. energy industry.
Trump, speaking in front of stacked oil barrels, also played down the difficulties of the U.S. oil and gas industry, which is still struggling with the pandemic economic downturn and global oversupply that briefly drove oil prices into negative territory this spring. Prices have rebounded to around $40 a barrel, still below what some producers here need to break even.
“We’re OK now. We’re back, we’re back,” Trump said to a crowd scattered with people wearing cowboy hats and face masks. He sought to contrast his support for oil and gas with Democratic rival Joe Biden’s more climate-friendly energy plan, though Biden himself has stopped short of calling for a ban on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, the production method that spurred U.S. oil and gas to a yearslong boom that started under President Barack Obama.
“If they got in, you would have no more energy coming out of the great state of Texas,″ warned Trump, whose poll numbers for the 2020 election are lagging. He claimed the same, without evidence, for Ohio and Pennsylvania, two fracking states that also are battlegrounds in the presidential race." AP
"GOP insiders worry about Trump's Texas bravado," The Washington Examiner's David Drucker -- "Texas Republicans warn the traditionally red battleground is on the verge of turning blue and fear Joe Biden will answer the Trump campaign’s dare to sink major resources into flipping the state’s crucial 38 Electoral College votes.
The Trump campaign is scoffing at polls showing the president and the presumptive Democratic nominee tied, taunting Biden that he should waste money in a futile bid for an expensive state with 20 media markets. That cavalier attitude concerns veteran Republican insiders. Trump is underwater in the suburbs, and party strategists caution a sizable investment in communities ringing Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio could push Biden past the incumbent and tank Republicans down ballot.
“Texas is definitely in play this year,” said Brendan Steinhauser, a Republican operative in Texas. “We kind of need everybody to not only take it very seriously but to realize we have to play a bit of defense in Texas before we can even think of going on offense in other states.”
Texas has not voted Democrat for president since 1976, and the state has served as the bulwark of the Republican Party’s strength in Congress. For years, GOP insiders waved off as outliers the occasional poll showing the state up for grabs, encouraging Democrats to spend there because they viewed it as a drain on money and manpower. That appeared to be Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien’s logic when he “invited” Biden to bet on Texas.
“They should play hard, they should go after Texas really, really heavily — spend a lot of money in the Houston and Dallas media markets,” Stepien told reporters last week. “I’ll even buy their first ad.”
A Republican strategist with experience advising federal campaigns in Texas said that declaration amounted to a “false sense of security” that could cause problems up and down the ticket.
An influx of newcomers in the state and the voter erosion Republicans are experiencing in Texas’s heavily populated suburbs are changing the political character of the state.
The shift began in midterm elections two years ago. Democrats flipped suburban seats in the House and the state legislature and came within 215,000 votes of ousting Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. This political transformation is poised to continue, Texas Republican insiders say, pointing to polls that show Biden in contention and Democratic challengers positioned to flip more suburban House seats. Many Republicans outside Texas are dismissive, convinced the polls are wrong and that the 2018 Senate race was anomalous.
That mindset frustrates GOP strategists in the state, who say their private data matches public surveys and fret that even a narrow Trump victory on Election Day might not be enough to pull Republicans in competitive House seats across the finish line. Republican strategists monitoring House contests concede Democrats could flip up to four GOP-held districts, with another three seats on their watchlist.
“Every Republican in the suburbs should be running 24/7 like their hair’s on fire and asking donors to empty their bank accounts,” a GOP consultant in Austin said, grumbling that too many Republicans in Washington lack a sense of urgency about the party’s precarious position in Texas. “Otherwise, you would have seen a whole lot more involvement, investment, and interest."" Washington Examiner
TEXANS IN DC
"Louie Gohmert, who refused to wear a mask, tests positive for coronavirus,"Politico's Jake Sherman -- "Rep. Louie Gohmert — a Texas Republican who has been walking around the Capitol without a mask — has tested positive for the coronavirus, according to multiple sources.
Gohmert was scheduled to fly to Texas on Wednesday morning with President Donald Trump and tested positive in a pre-screen at the White House. The eighth-term Republican told CNN last month that he was not wearing a mask because he was being tested regularly for the coronavirus.
"[I]f I get it," he told CNN in June, "you'll never see me without a mask."
Reps. Mario Diaz Balart (R-Fla.), Neal Dunn (R-Fla.), Morgan Griffith (R-Va.), Mike Kelly (R-Pa.), Ben McAdams (D-Utah) and Tom Rice (R-S.C.) have tested positive for the virus, along with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.).
In May, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) turned down the administration's offer of rapid testing for the Capitol. Some lawmakers — mostly Republicans — decline to use face coverings while in the building.
Gohmert attended Tuesday's blockbuster House Judiciary Committee hearing with Attorney General William Barr in person, where lawmakers were seated at some distance from one another." Politico
Ted Cruz guest column: "Standing with Trump in support of Texas energy producers," via The Midland Reporter-Telegram -- "Wednesday, I’ll join President Trump in visiting Double Eagle Energy in Midland at a critical time for Texas’ energy industry. Just a few months ago, before the deadly coronavirus pandemic brought our booming, blue-collar economy to a halt, the United States was the No. 1 producer of both oil and natural gas on the planet, surpassing both Russia and Saudi Arabia in crude oil production, and we had become a net exporter of natural gas. And although it didn’t make many headlines, increasing natural gas production had resulted in the United States leading the world in reducing carbon-dioxide emissions, while providing affordable energy to all Americans.
The United States, with Texas at the helm, had ushered in an American energy renaissance.
Then the pandemic hit, and as we’ve worked to slow the spread of coronavirus, flight restrictions have grounded planes and stay-at-home orders have taken many cars off the road, causing the demand for oil to plummet. The decline in both price and demand created a perfect storm for the energy sector. As The Wall Street Journal put it, “since the new coronavirus hit, the world’s thirst for oil has vanished, creating an unprecedented crisis for one of the planet’s most powerful industries.” To make matters worse, Saudi Arabia and Russia exploited the pandemic to flood the global oil market, drive down prices and drive their competitors — U.S. producers — out of business. In antitrust law, these actions could be considered predatory pricing. And it was nothing short of economic warfare." Midland Reporter-Telegram
"Senator Cornyn files bill to help furloughed Americans keep their health insurance,"Fox San Antonio's Maritza Salazar -- "Texas Senator John Cornyn filed legislation that he says will ensure Americans who have lost their jobs don't also lose their health insurance.
Cornyn says the Continuous Health Coverage for Workers Act will allow Americans who have furloughed due to the pandemic to continue receiving COBRA health benefits through their employer's health plan through the end of the year.
"As the coronavirus wreaks havoc on our job market, it's vital that Texans continue to have health care options, especially while case numbers are on the rise," said Sen. Cornyn in a statement. "This legislation will provide some degree of certainty to folks who have found themselves out of work through no fault of their own."
The bill would cover church health insurance plans and would not cover abortion services.
"Additionally, this bill ensures that Americans do not have to restart their deductible halfway through the year while incurring additional out-of-pocket costs," added Cornyn." Fox San Antonio
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION
Rick Perry guest column: "Trump policies are helping Texas economy recover, while Biden would crush energy jobs," via The Fort Worth Star-Telegram-- "Under President Donald Trump’s leadership, we have an economy that is working for the people of Texas and for the nation.
This president has cut seven regulations for every new one introduced, allowing American businesses to operate and thrive without burdensome red tape. The results are already paying off.
In May and June, we saw a combined 7.5 million jobs added to the economy. This is only because the president got the government out of the way and allowed our economy to flourish.
In Texas alone, Trump’s tax cuts, deregulation, and pro-growth policies led to unprecedented growth in the economy. The state saw unemployment fall to just 3.5 percent in February of this year before the coronavirus pandemic interrupted the economy’s growth. Since May, 475,300 jobs have been added back to the state’s economy.
And we can’t forget the Paycheck Protection Program. It alone is responsible for protecting 4.5 million jobs in Texas." Fort Worth Star-Telegram
REMAINDERS
TEXAS RANGERS: "Gallo homers in 5-run 8th for Rangers in 7-4 win over Dbacks" AP
HOUSTON ASTROS: "LA wins in 13 on MLB's first leadoff 2-run HR" MLB.com
HOUSTON ASTROS: "Astros obtain RHP Hector Velazquez from Orioles" AP
DALLAS WINGS: "Ogunbawale, Wings overcome Ionescu's 33-point effort" AP
'MACK ON POLITICS' PODCAST
LATEST "MACK ON POLITICS" PODCAST: John Solomon is our returning guest for the 197th episode.
John is the co-author of the new book, “Fallout: Nuclear Bribes, Russian Spies, and the Washington Lies that Enriched the Clinton and Biden Dynasties”.
In this conversation, we explore the purpose of the book, what the central revelation is, how Uranium sales and Ukraine fit in, what he’s learned about the Steele Dossier, what his reporting has found about Roger Stone, George Papadopoulos and Carter Page, what he expected from the Durham Report, what questions he still has about the false Russian collusion story, how he answers his critics, and why he started his own news site.
Available on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher and on the web at http://www.MackOnPoliticsPodcast.com.
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