The Morning Dispatch: Is the COVID Surge Led by Protests or Partiers?

Plus, Tim Scott takes center stage.

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Happy Wednesday! Can you guess which Morning Dispatcher listened to Kanye West’s new song 24 times yesterday?

Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

  • As of Tuesday night, 2,634,432 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the United States (an increase of 46,410 from yesterday) and 127,410 deaths have been attributed to the virus (an increase of 1,279 from yesterday), according to the Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 Dashboard, leading to a mortality rate among confirmed cases of 4.8 percent (the true mortality rate is likely much lower, between 0.4 percent and 1.4 percent, but it’s impossible to determine precisely due to incomplete testing regimens). Of 32,206,245 coronavirus tests conducted in the United States (648,838 conducted since yesterday), 8.2 percent have come back positive.

  • Dr. Anthony Fauci testified in a Senate hearing yesterday that the United States may begin to see up to 100,000 new coronavirus cases daily. “I can’t make an accurate prediction, but it will be very disturbing, I will guarantee you that,” he warned.

  • In a victory for advocates of the Free Exercise Clause, the Supreme Court yesterday ruled 5-4 that states that offer public funding for private school scholarships must allow religious schools to participate in those programs.

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  1. Avatar photo
    Adam

    Do we have a sense of how much curfews dampened the current outbreaks?

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    Mudskipper

    I just watched some of Biden's teleconference and a bit of the QA. There were moments during the QA where he struggled for what words he wanted to say, but overall I thought he did well. I certainly thought he was much more coherent than Trump. I'm curious if anyone else watched it and what they thought.

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      Scarlette Tarte

      I watched it. He did 1000 times better than Trump on Trumps best day. He speaks at a much higher grade level than Trump, and he always found a word that worked.

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      Angie

      I didn't watch it but I read the transcript of it, I thought he did pretty well, he has always stumbled over words, and prone to gaffes, plus the stuttering thing ( I think sometimes he is debating what word to use that might bring out the stutter)...but what he said was good

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    Adam

    "Can you guess which Morning Dispatcher listened to Kanye West’s new song 24 times yesterday?"

    Is it Steve or Brisket?

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    Wes

    David French said it well recently when he said, "what you see depends on where you sit". However, when it comes to the coronavirus it may be more appropriate to say "how you see depends on where you sit". Partisanship is blurring everyone's vision right now, but I believe the Dispatch reporting gets the facts right on the coronavirus case trends.

    Protests are mainly occurring in urban areas that are overwhelmingly democratic (62% dem vs 31% rep in 2017) (a). Additionally, it is likely safe to assume that the mix of protestors identifying as a democrat is higher than the 62% previously mentioned as only 37% of Republicans are likely to support the BLM movement (b). As a result, red counties are watching as cases in blue counties grow and they are quick to blame the growth on protestors. Perhaps the red counties are correct, but is just as likely that protestors and partiers are both contributing to the growth of new cases.

    Oddly enough, Republicans are more likely to believe that the worst is behind us (61%) than Democrats (23%) (c). This has led to changes in Republican voter's behavior, making them more likely to return to life as normal (c). I think - this is usually where I make mistakes - that this is because the coronavirus has largely been a blue issue. I do not believe it will continue that way given the recent growth in red counties (d). It’s just interesting that Republicans who think that the virus is behind us are also condemning the protests on the grounds of the coronavirus. My gut tells me that their reaction isn’t so much against the reason for the protests as much as it is a reaction against media reaction to their congregating vs the protestors congregating. That the protestors are able to congregate to applause, when they were condemned for protesting lockdown measures only solidified their belief that the system is biased against them.

    The data regarding coronavirus cases is very nuanced and drawing concrete conclusions is unwise at this point. Because our data is lagging and the virus hasn't finished running its course, we can't draw concrete conclusions. However, the one conclusion that you can draw from it is that the virus is infecting more and more people regardless of how you vote or whether you protested (BLM or the lockdown) or not.

    (a) https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2018/05/22/urban-suburban-and-rural-residents-views-on-key-social-and-political-issues/

    (b) https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2020/06/12/amid-protests-majorities-across-racial-and-ethnic-groups-express-support-for-the-black-lives-matter-movement/

    (c) https://www.people-press.org/2020/06/25/republicans-democrats-move-even-further-apart-in-coronavirus-concerns/

    (d) https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/06/24/shift-coronavirus-primarily-red-states-is-complete-its-not-that-simple/

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  5. Gene

    Interesting. Thank you.

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  6. RVA

    Mitch McConnell, easily. He gets what he wants (judges, judges, and more judges) and uses the legislative process to block anything he doesn't (Merrick Garland and witnesses at the impeachment trial). He is extremely clever. He has done a beautiful job leveraging Trump's popularity in single-minded pursuit of his own agenda. The downside of course is that he has sold his soul and helped enable an historically bad president to rip apart the country. History won't look well on him. But it will at least look at him, given his effectiveness at reshaping the judiciary and the price he was willing to pay for it.

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    Ms. SSM

    The person people think is most influential seems to be the person they hate the most judging by many comments.

    Congress is weak and getting weaker everyday. No one seems all that influential. Mitch or Nancy are fulfilling the roles of their titles. Nothing about them specifically seems to warrant any other assessment. I’m just hoping the filibuster goes away soon.

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    Paul Montagu

    I agree with Ms. McEnany that Trump is the most informed person on the planet...when he chooses to be...which is never.

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      Jenny

      That's the sad part! Think of all the stuff he could learn if he was open to it. To each his own, but I can't imagine turning down briefings. How is hearing the dirt on everything intelligence is gathering not interesting?

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        Paul Montagu

        Indeed. It's ridiculous because Trump really does have access to the best information, and the most information, and the kind of information no one else has access to, from blue-chip sources, all at the snap of his fingers, but instead he watches Fox & Friends and OAN, and he retweets the tweets of idiots.

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    Jesse R.

    Objectively, I think Mitch has been highly influential. He gets votes for judges, stops bills he doesn’t like, and is able to disarm Trump at times. He’s gotten much of the GOP in Congress against more state and local aid, but that could change. He’s also very effective at changing narratives. That said, I think the GOP needs a better person in charge, as I think Mitch has damaged the Senate’s reputation and norms a lot, but at the end of the day, his influence is far-reaching.

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      cheerio

      I think the nation is lucky this is an election year for Mitch or they wouldn't be getting a second installment of government relief.

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    Butch Earl

    "How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees?" ~ William Shakespeare

    Plagues are not like hurricanes where the damage is done, the first responders do their job, and then we can assess a timetable for rebuilding. We have to expect the pre-COVID world is not coming back any time soon. I understand the frustration. I too have recently put on my mask, gone to the grocery store, and seen two packages of nice lean ground beef and thought, "Hooray, life is back to normal."
    We live in a world where instant response and gratification are the norm. However history has taught us there is nothing normal about disease. The Black Death arrived in Europe around 1347 and it took five years and millions of lives before it abated. I say that not to be alarming as mankind had done a lot in area of medicine in the last 700 years. However, we need to be patient. Americans endured a revolution, civil war, depression, and two world wars and we can survive this too.

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