Coronavirus US live: Trump and Cuomo to discuss 'major infrastructure program'

Fact check: Mail-in ballots

Trump also lied while criticizing voting by mail. “People that aren’t citizens, illegals — anybody that walks in California is going to get a ballot,” he said of the state’s plan to expand voting options.

This is not true: in California, ballots are being mailed only to registered voters.

The president has often repeated baseless claims about voting by mail, to the. point that Twitter has added a fact-check to the president’s false tweets about the process.

Fact check: Presidential authority

The constitution does not allow the president authority to override state governors’ responses to the pandemic. As University of Texas law professor Steve Vladeck has explained before: “The president has no formal legal authority to categorically override local or state shelter-in-place orders or to reopen schools and small businesses. No statute delegates to him such power; no constitutional provision invests him with such authority.”

In the federal government, Congress the power to “regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states” — but not the president. And it’s unclear that houses of worship have any impact on interstate commerce.

Hi there, it’s Maanvi Singh, blogging from the West Coast.

Moments ago, Trump said he has the authority to overrule state governors that refuse to reopen places of worship. “And we have many different ways where I can override them,” the president said.

Trump does not have the authority to override state governors.

Echoing comments from Trump and White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany earlier today, the vice-president boasted about the current coronavirus death rate in the country.

Mike Pence noted that “just 505 Americans succumbed to the coronavirus” yesterday, saying the country has not seen that daily death toll since March.

“We’re getting there, America,” Pence said.

When the vice-president finished speaking, Trump echoed his comments, saying his administration had acted “quickly and smartly” and thus prevented a much higher death toll.

The US coronavirus death toll is expected to reach 100,000 in the coming days, while Trump said last month that he expected 50,000 to 60,000 Americans to die of the virus.

Trump mused about whether he should use insulin while delivering remarks on protecting seniors with diabetes amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“I don’t use insulin. Should I be? Huh?” the president said of the diabetes medication. “I never thought about it. But I know a lot of people are very badly affected, right? Unbelievable.”

The comment (or maybe it was a joke?) comes just after Trump said he has concluded his regimen of hydroxychloroquine, which he was using to prevent coronavirus, despite the FDA’s guidance that the drug should only be used in a hospital setting.

The AFL-CIO, the largest US federation of unions, has endorsed Joe Biden’s presidential bid, an unsurprising development considering the group has been a staunch Democratic ally.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka applauded Biden as a champion of the labor movement who would be a valuable ally if he wins the White House.

“The path to the presidency runs through the labor movement,” Trumka said. “And with the full force and unmatched reach of our political program, we are ready to pave that road for our friend Joe Biden.”

The group similarly endorsed Hillary Clinton in her 2016 race against Trump.

The justice department is reportedly closing investigations into three senators over insider-trader allegations, but the investigation into senator Richard Burr remains active.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Prosecutors on Tuesday are alerting defense attorneys for Republicans Kelly Loeffler of Georgia and James Inhofe of Oklahoma as well as Democrat Dianne Feinstein of California, that they are closing investigations into their trading, the people said.

But the investigation into Burr, who has had his cell phone seized and has temporarily stepped down as chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, remains ongoing.

Burr avoided a significant financial loss earlier this year by selling stocks that later nosedived due to the coronavirus pandemic, raising concerns that he had profited off information from closed briefings.

George Conway, who is married to senior White House adviser Kellyanne Conway, mocked Trump for his Twitter activity today.

The president spent part of his morning tweeting about a debunked conspiracy theory involving Joe Scarborough and his unsubstantiated claim that vote by mail leads to voter fraud.

Trump also suggested it was a success that the US coronavirus death toll was 100,000 rather than a million or more.

Conway responded to a summary of those tweets by saying, “We call this Tuesday.”

Conway has become a frequent critic of the president, and he is one of the leaders of the Lincoln Project, a group made up of former Republicans looking to defeat Trump in November.

Joe Biden’s campaign has named a national voter protection director, as concerns intensify over how the coronavirus pandemic will affect voting access.

The AP reports:

The campaign said Rachana Desai Martin will join its legal team, serving also as senior counsel. Martin, who has a strong background in voter protection work, previously worked as chief operating officer of the Democratic National Committee and the DNC’s director of civic engagement and voter protection.

Some states have pushed to expand absentee voting options, including vote by mail, in light of concerns about spreading coronavirus at in-person polling places.

But Trump has repeatedly criticized vote by mail, claiming mailed-in ballots are particularly susceptible to voter fraud, even though vote fraud is very rare.

As the US coronavirus death toll approaches 100,000, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany praised Trump’s response to the pandemic, saying the death toll could have been much higher.

McEnany repeatedly cited a scientific report suggesting up to 2.2 million Americans could die of coronavirus if the government did not take action to limit the spread of the virus.

“The president made the very hard choice of shutting down the economy, so we avoided that extraordinary number,” McEnany said. “We are far below 2.2 million dead Americans because of the actions of President Trump.”

The president himself made a similar argument in a tweet today, saying, “For all of the political hacks out there, if I hadn’t done my job well, & early, we would have lost 1 1/2 to 2 Million People, as opposed to the 100,000 plus that looks like will be the number. That’s 15 to 20 times more than we will lose.”

But Trump suggested last month that the country’s death toll would be 50,000 to 60,000, so the figure is already twice that of what he predicted just weeks ago.

The number may also continue to steadily climb if states move to quickly reopen their economies, as Trump has encouraged them to do.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany tried to deflect questions about Trump pushing a debunked conspiracy theory about Joe Scarborough.

The president has suggested the MSNBC host, who has been a frequent Trump critic, may be responsible for the 2001 death of Lori Klausutis, who died as the result of a fall while employed as a staffer to then-congressman Scarborough.

McEnany repeated the president’s tweet this morning that the conspiracy theory, which was been debunked by local Florida police and the medical examiner who was involved in the case, was “not an original Trump thought,” even though the president has repeatedly shared the theory with his 80 million Twitter followers.

The press secretary then tried to turn the situation back on Scarborough and his co-host Mika Brzezinski, saying they should be “held to account for their falsehoods.” She specifically criticized Scarborough for saying people would die by taking hydroxychloroquine, a drug that has been linked to a higher death rate when used to treat coronavirus.

When pressed on the fact that Klausutis’ widower wrote to the CEO of Twitter asking for Trump’s tweets to be removed, McEnany again deflected and tried to shift focus away from her boss.

Joe Biden participated in a socially distant interview with CNN host Dana Bash today, which will air on the network at 5 pm ET.

The presumptive Democratic nominee has been largely confined to his Delaware home since the start of the coronavirus crisis.

This weekend marked his first public appearance in months, as he and Jill Biden laid a wreath at a Memorial Day ceremony in Delaware, with both Bidens wearing face masks.

Trump, on the other hand, did not wear a mask during Memorial Day ceremonies yesterday, and the president later retweeted criticism of Biden for wearing a mask, even though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends doing so.

Dozens of House members have designated a proxy to vote for them this week, after the chamber voted earlier this month to allow remote voting during the pandemic.

At least 34 members have designated proxies, according to a list from the Office of the Clerk. No Republican member appears to have designated a proxy yet, after the caucus expressed opposition to the remote voting proposal.

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has suggested he may not consider votes taken by proxy to be valid, but House majority leader Steny Hoyer pushed back against that today.

“They use proxy voting in the Senate all the time,” Hoyer said, referring to recent measures passed by unanimous consent. “What that means is, two people vote for the 100.”

Republican governors are racing to offer their states to potentially replace North Carolina as the site of the Republican convention, after Trump demanded a “guarantee” from North Carolina’s governor that the convention would be able to take place at “full attendance.”

“Florida would love to have the RNC,” Florida governor Ron DeSantis said. “Heck, I’m a Republican — it would be great to have the DNC.” DeSantis said hosting a convention would help his state’s economic outlook.

Brian Kemp, the Republican governor of Georgia, made a similar offer in a tweet this morning.

Again, it is unrealistic for any state to offer Trump such a “guarantee” at this point because it’s unclear what restrictions will be necessary over the summer to limit the spread of coronavirus.

It’s also unclear how many people would choose to attend the convention in person because of the global pandemic, so hosting the event may not bring the same economic boost it has provided cities in past years.