Name: Trump says coronavirus is 'God testing me' to build economy again
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Trump says coronavirus is 'God testing me' to build economy again

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MenuSee More Speed ReadsPresident Trump on Monday blasted his likely presidential challenger former Vice President Joe Biden during a speech in Manakato, Minnesota, saying he'd " the American way of life" en route to the U.S. into a "very boring socialist country that will go to hell." He then at Biden's running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), for co-sponsoring a "socialist takeover of health care."The president also the coronavirus pandemic was "God testing me" to rebuild the U.S. economy a second time. He zeroed in on New Zealand, a country which, to Trump's apparent chagrin, has won praise for the virus. Recently, though, New Zealand has had a flare-up, and Trump made sure the crowd in Minnesota knew about it. While New Zealanders are certainly concerned about the virus resurfacing after several months, just nine new infections were reported Monday, far lower than the average daily number of cases in the United States, which Trump maintains has handled the pandemic with aplomb."All of a sudden a lot of the places they were using to hold up, they are having a big surge ... New Zealand, you see what's going on in New Zealand" -- New Zealand had nine (9!) new Covid cases today. The US had more than 42,000.The outbreaks are not comparable.— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar)The speech also included a defense of the Minneapolis Police Department, which has come under fire in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, and criticism of the Minneapolis protests. "The city was ablaze," he lamented.Trump says this of Minneapolis cops: "The police department is very good but they were told you can't do anything. They have to be able to do what they do very well." (Recall that people were protesting in Mpls after George Floyd was killed by a cop.)— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar)Ricky Kirshner, producer of the Democratic National Convention, before Monday's that "anything can happen" because the virtual DNC "is not scripted." That was partly true. Some of Monday night's marquee speeches were prerecorded, as were the musical performances and tributes. But other speeches were broadcast live, and for some reason, the DNC over the satellite link.All speakers have to warm up and prepare before they go live, and you can watch Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) fuss around with his wife, Jane, and his hair for two minutes in what appears to be a fancy woodshed. "Is that a terrible thing to have my hands showing?" Sanders asked. "Yes," said his wife. "Stand up straight, enunciate," Jane Sanders reminded her husband. "Stop it, enough," he protested in reply.Can’t watch these outtakes enough times— Christopher Cadelago (@ccadelago)Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-Mich.) warmed up for her speech with a line about "Shark Week," followed by a mouthed expletive. "I've heard about the hot mic," she half-joked.Gov. Whitmer (D-MI) jokes before going live: "It's not just Shark Week ... it's Shark Week *mouths expletive*"— The Recount (@therecount)This, of course, is something you would never seen in a traditional party convention, for better or worse.You probably can't have a Democratic National Convention for Joe Biden, virtual or otherwise, without mentioning Amtrak. Biden famously commuted to work as a senator so he could be with his family in Delaware every night. Trains, of course, can't vote, and the point of a political convention is to get people to vote for your party's candidate, so the video of Biden's Amtrak experience shown during Monday night's DNC was really about the people he met and got to know on the train."I think he's most comfortable around everyday, working class people," recounted longtime conductor Gregg Weaver, who got to be friends with Biden over years of commuting. "He just always makes you feel, feel like you belong."Watch Amtrak employees and riders look back at Joe Biden’s 30 years of riding the rails— NowThis (@nowthisnews)Weaver recounted that when Biden was vice president and no longer commuting, he still tracked him down to check in on him after a heart attack. "I'm not saying it like it was me and I was anything special — everybody was special to him," Weaver said. "The average guy is important to him. The average guy is important to him."For the train lovers in either party, there is also lots of vintage Amtrak footage to remind you of journeys past.Eleven years ago, Russell Ledet would attend classes at Southern University and A&amp;M College in the day and then work as a security guard at Baton Rogue General Medical Center at night, studying organic chemistry during his breaks.Today, Ledet is a medical student working inside the hospital, and he hopes that his story will inspire young people who believe becoming a doctor is out of their reach. "I thought growing up only rich people go to college," After high school, the Louisiana native joined the Navy as "a way out," and he "started to realize that the world was more than where I was from."He enrolled at Southern University and A&amp;M College in 2009, and took on the security guard job in order to support his growing family. After shadowing the hospital's chief surgery resident, he was motivated to continue his education, and earned his PhD in molecular oncology from New York University. In 2018, Ledet was accepted into the Tulane University School of Medicine, and earlier this year, launched The 15 White Coats organization with fellow students. Their motto is "Resilience is in Our DNA," and they want to help give a foundation to children of color planning careers in the medical field."Coming from where I come from, nobody tells you that you can do things in the world, you can make an impact," Ledet told BBC News. "If nobody tells you, you don't know. But now that I know, I can tell the kids."The first night of the first all-remote is over. It was a deeply strange event, but there were a few initial lessons to be had.1) In spite of themselves, people still watched this thing. Though there are no official ratings data on the convention yet, political media was all over it, and Michelle Obama's necklace was the during the last hour of the event. It seems people are desperate for any kind of official step forward in the challenge to President Trump.2) Keep it simple. The first hour and a half or so featured a rapid-fire sequence of different short speeches and gimmick videos. These came and went without making much of an impression — with the exception of one woman who spoke about how her father had trusted Trump's propaganda and died from COVID-19.3) Think documentaries. The best parts of the convention were the speeches from and , because they were quite substantive and rhetorically skilled respectively, and had some time to breathe. It appeared as though the Democrats were attempting to recreate the experience of an in-person convention, but they are really just broadcasting a long documentary film. That is a different format than one featuring in-person speeches with a live audience. Hopefully they can learn and make the following days of the convention more unified and coherent.If the first night of this year's virtual Democratic National Convention reminded us of anything, it is that America has two major center-right political parties. In any European country, Democrats would be the ruling neoliberals in a longstanding governing coalition with Christian Democrats or the least radical of the former communist parties.This is why the evening's proceedings began with American flags, religion, and the Founding Fathers. There were prayers and a group reading of the Preamble to the Constitution. Children recited the Pledge of Allegiance, complete with "under God." Sen. Bernie Sanders stood in front of a folksy backdrop of split logs and shamefacedly explained that a vote for the party of which he is not technically a member would not mean a vote for single-payer health care or any of the other causes for which he has stood over the course of his long political career.You would not get this impression watching the coverage on Fox News. On Laura Ingraham's program, which immediately followed the conclusion of the night's proceedings with appearances from Eric Trump and Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, viewers were told about the "radical socalist agenda" that had apparently been announced, perhaps in a secret off-camera meeting with George Soros and Xi Jinping. At one point Cruz suggested that Sanders himself would be appointed secretary of state in a Joe Biden administration. (He has about as good a chance as he has of being named the next CEO of Goldman Sachs.) The host herself explained, if that is the right verb, that "we are going to lose the free market."Eventually Dinesh D'Souza, the right-wing author who was once caught traveling with a woman he introduced as his fiancee while his actual wife was at home with their daughter, appeared to decry the iniquity of Biden's with a rapper published earlier Monday: "It's amazing that a presidential candidate would elevate Cardi B like this."There is certainly something amazing about all of this.The virtual experiment had its high points and low ones, the speeches from Democratic and a handful of Republican politicians interspersed with musical performances, prerecorded videos, conversations with normal people who said they will vote for Joe Biden, and lots of Eva Longoria. In one of the night's more somber moments, the Democrats broadcast an in memoriam video for the from COVID-19 in the U.S.One of those Amerians who died from complications COVID-19 was the great , and his final recording, "I Remember Everything," was the soundtrack to the memorial.— John Prine (@JohnPrineMusic)Soon after Prine died on April 7, his label released his last song, written with longtime collaborator Pat McLaughlin, . Since the Democrats couldn't list all 170,000-plus Americans who have died from the coronavirus, they listed occupations and other descriptors instead. Prine's was simply "Musician." You can watch him play the full song below.Former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, Quibi CEO Meg Whitman, and former New York congresswoman Susan Molinari, all Republicans, of the Democratic National Convention why former Vice President Joe Biden, not President Trump, has their vote.Christine Todd Whitman, who also served as former President George W. Bush's first director of the Environmental Protection Agency, said she is a lifelong Republican, whose parents were introduced at a Republican National Convention. The 2020 election isn't about "a Republican or Democrat," she declared. "It's about a person, a person decent enough, stable enough, strong enough to get our economy back on track. A person who can work with everyone, Democrats and Republicans, to get things done. Donald Trump isn't that person. Joe Biden is."Before going to Quibi, Meg Whitman was CEO of eBay and Hewlett-Packard, and ran for governor of California on the Republican ticket. She scoffed at Trump's background in real estate development, saying he had "no idea how to run a business, let alone an economy. Joe Biden, on the other hand, has a plan that will strengthen our economy for working people and small business owners. For me, the choice is simple. I'm with Joe."Because she is from New York, Molinari said she is very familiar with Trump, and found him to be "disturbing" and "disappointing." She has worked with Biden on projects related to ending violence against women, and said his devotion to this is why she's "so proud to call him my friend. ... He's a really good man and he's exactly what this nation needs at this time."2020 The Week Publications Inc., All rights reserved.

MenuSee More Speed ReadsPresident Trump on Monday blasted his likely presidential challenger former Vice President Joe Biden during a speech in Manakato, Minnesota, saying he'd " the American way of life" en route to the U.S. into a "very boring socialist country that will go to hell." He then at Biden's running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), for co-sponsoring a "socialist takeover of health care."The president also the coronavirus pandemic was "God testing me" to rebuild the U.S. economy a second time. He zeroed in on New Zealand, a country which, to Trump's apparent chagrin, has won...

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Trump says coronavirus is 'God testing me' to build economy again

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