IT’S BEEN 15 DAYS SINCE REPUBLICANS LEFT WASHINGTON TO TAKE A VACATION… AND MITCH MCCONNELL IS STILL BLOCKING URGENTLY NEEDED RELIEF.
— ANOTHER ONE MILLION AMERICANS HAVE FILED JOBLESS CLAIMS. After wasting weeks bickering among themselves and insisting they didn’t see ‘a big need’ to extend emergency unemployment relief, Senate Republicans left for vacation. Now, another one million Americans have filed new jobless claims and will be without federal relief they and their families need to make ends meet. Despite Federal Reserve officials, economists, governors and mayors warning that “the risk to the economy grows every day that goes by without a deal,” Mitch McConnell and his caucus are refusing to negotiate, and are instead on day 15 of their month-long recess.
— REPUBLICANS HAVE PUSHED THE POSTAL SERVICE INTO CRISIS. Republicans have pushed the Postal Service into a nationwide crisis that is delaying the delivery of prescription drugs for veterans and seniors, slowing down Social Security payments, harming small businesses, and threatening to disenfranchise voters in 46 states across the country and put the election at risk.
Read more about what this means for Americans across the country:
NPR: Postal Service Slowdowns Cause Dangerous Delays In Medication Delivery
CBS News: USPS delays could put 14 million at risk for late prescriptions: “This is ridiculous”
NBC News: Postal Service delays of prescription drugs put thousands of American lives at risk
The Hill: USPS lost Army veteran’s remains, delaying delivery, family says
Los Angeles Times: ‘Like Armageddon’: Rotting food, dead animals and chaos at postal facilities amid cutbacks
AK – KTUU: Postmaster General has Alaska Bypass Mail in cost-cutting sights
AZ – Cronkite News: Postal Service cuts already being felt in Arizona, raise election fears
CO – 9News: ‘We’re starting to see mail pile up’: American Postal Workers Union president warns postal service delays could get worse
KS – Wichita Eagle: Rural Kansas residents fear a diminished US Postal Service
ME – Bangor Daily News: Mainers see medication, bills and checks delayed amid Postal Service woes
MI – Michigan Advance: ‘Extremely frustrating’ mail delays for prescriptions hit veterans, rural areas
NC – MyFox8: Greensboro neighborhood goes one week without mail delivery
*HYPOCRISY ALERT* SAME GOP SENATORS NOW ON VACATION IN MIDDLE OF NATIONAL CRISIS CALLED FOR CANCELING PREVIOUS AUGUST RECESSES. The DSCC released a new video this week that highlights Senate Republicans’ hypocrisy as they continue their extended vacation in the middle of a pandemic. The video highlights how the vulnerable Republican senators who are currently on a month-long vacation in the middle of a pandemic-fueled recession and national crisis have previously demanded to “skip the annual August break” in order “to complete the legislative work that had gone unaccomplished.” Read what the Republicans on vacation have said previously about canceling recess.
REPUBLICAN PLAN WOULD DEPLETE SOCIAL SECURITY BY 2023. A new government analysis released this week revealed that the unpopular Republican plan to end payroll taxes would endanger funding for Social Security and have catastrophic consequences for millions of seniors and hardworking families. The report found that if Republican plans to fully eliminate payroll taxes were enacted next year, the funding for disability insurance would become permanently depleted in the middle of 2021 and the funding for seniors and survivors benefits “would become permanently depleted by the middle of calendar year 2023, with no ability to pay OASI benefits thereafter.” Read our statement here.
SILENCE FROM GOP SENATORS AS TRUMP ADMIN CREATES ANOTHER “TESTING DEBACLE.” This week reports revealed that Trump administration officials “pressured” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to issue new testing guidance that no longer recommended most people without symptoms who came into close contact with someone who is infected with coronavirus get tested. According to public health officials, the change was “a recipe for community spread and more spikes in coronavirus,” but Senate Republicans remained silent. Now a New York Times report details how the CDC’s attempts to clarify their guidance “further confused the issue” and left local public health officials “perplexed.” Since the start of the coronavirus outbreak, America’s testing capacity has been marred by “disarray, shortages, backlogs” while Republican senators have refused to hold the Trump administration accountable for its botched response. New York Times: C.D.C.’s ‘Clarification’ on Coronavirus Testing Offers More Confusion
REPUBLICANS BLOCK EFFORTS TO LOWER PRESCRIPTION DRUG COSTS — WHILE MISLEADING VOTERS. A New York Times report this week detailed how Republicans are trying to deceive voters into thinking they’ve taken action on drug pricing — while in reality, doing the bidding of their Big Pharma donors and blocking reforms. President Trump has been promoting a nonexistent executive order tying prescription drug prices in the United States to those in other developed nations, but the text “remains largely a secret” despite the president’s claims that it has already lowered drug prices. Trump’s non-existent order’s policy is opposed by many congressional Republicans (and the pharmaceutical industry) and the refusal of Washington Republicans to rein in the cost of prescription drugs remains a massive “political liability for the party in 2020.” While the House passed sweeping legislation to slash drug prices last year, the bill “stalled in the Senate” because Mitch McConnell has said it’s “dead on arrival.” New York Times: Trump Keeps Promoting a Drug Order That No One Has Seen
THOM TILLIS’ STRUGGLE WITH THE GOP BASE CONTINUES. Morning Consult did a deep dive into the North Carolina Senate race this week and highlighted how vulnerable Senator Thom Tillis is STILL struggling to consolidate the Republican base. As “one of the Senate’s most vulnerable incumbents,” Tillis is underperforming President Trump in recent polling, “indicating a missing piece of the coalition he’ll need to win re-election in November: unity in his party’s base.” Army veteran Cal Cunningham has an opening and is also “leading among North Carolina independents” as he seeks support from voters across the state who have been alienated by Senator Tillis. It’s the latest bad sign for the weak incumbent: Cunningham outraised Tillis by nearly $5 million in Q2, and recent polling shows Cunningham leading Tillis. Morning Consult: In N.C. Senate Race, Tillis’ Struggles With GOP Base Have Cunningham Seeking Votes in ‘Unlikely Places’
FAILED POLITICIAN JOHN JAMES LIED TO MICHIGANDERS ABOUT HIS BUSINESS RECORD. A front-page bombshell report in the Detroit Metro Times revealed that failed politician John James misled Michiganders about his business record – claiming he “created 100 jobs in Michigan and East of the Mississippi” when in fact he had not created a single job in the state. The report detailed how James benefited from close to $2 million in taxpayer money despite the fact he didn’t meet the job creation requirements, and actually “lost more than 30 jobs under his leadership.” Detroit Metro Times: GOP Senate candidate John James touts the jobs his company created, but documents show it lost its tax exempt status after failing to create the jobs it promised
IN AN “ACT OF DESPERATION,” MCSALLY TELLS DONORS TO “FAST A MEAL” TO FUND HER CAMPAIGN. Senator Martha McSally was caught on tape telling supporters to “fast a meal” so they can donate to her struggling campaign — and the backlash was swift. One GOP operative called McSally’s tone-deaf request an “act of desperation” that came as McSally is on a month-long recess while Republicans in the Senate continue to block emergency unemployment relief. It’s the latest desperate plea from the vulnerable incumbent who is behind in the polls and trailing in fundraising to Navy combat veteran and retired NASA astronaut Mark Kelly.
FACT CHECK CONFIRMS: TUBERVILLE SAID HE ‘WOULDN’T HAVE A CLUE’ ON COVID-19, STILL HAS NO PLAN. A new PolitiFact fact check confirms Senator Doug Jones’ assertions that Republican challenger Tommy Tuberville said “he didn’t have a clue” about how he would handle the coronavirus pandemic. In March, Tuberville said “he ‘didn’t have a clue’ on how to handle COVID-19” and then once again in July, he admitted “‘I don’t know which way you go.’” The facts are clear: “Tuberville has not laid out a plan for addressing COVID-19 and has sometimes downplayed its seriousness.” Not only that, but Tuberville defied public health orders earlier this summer when he didn’t quarantine after travelling to D.C. to hold in-person meetings and was photographed not wearing a mask in a “cramped room with close to 25 people seated shoulder-to-shoulder.” PolitiFact: Tuberville did say he ‘wouldn’t have a clue’ on COVID-19, but has said more
PERDUE RECEIVES “GUSHER OF OUTSIDE MONEY” AS HE FACES STRONG CHALLENGER IN JON OSSOFF. The Wall Street Journal reports that the NRSC and Mitch McConnell-aligned Super PACs have poured more than $10 million into the Georgia Senate race and plan to spend another $13.5 million between now and Election Day––more money than they’re spending against any other Democratic challenger. The “gusher of outside money” to defend Senator David Perdue in Georgia, a state that Republicans didn’t anticipate being competitive at the beginning of the cycle, is just the latest example of how strong Democratic challengers have expanded the map, putting Republicans on defense in more states than they ever expected and proving Perdue’s warning that “the state of Georgia is in play.” The Wall Street Journal: Georgia Gets Cash Crush Befitting a Battleground
“ETHICS NO-NO” IN #GASEN: DOUG COLLINS’ CAMPAIGN APPEARS TO HAVE VIOLATED HOUSE RULES. Congressman Doug Collins was caught in another “ethics no-no,” as a new report from Roll Call details how he “directly copied” language from his taxpayer-funded congressional website to use for his Senate campaign, “seemingly a violation of House Ethics rules.” This isn’t the first time that Collins has been on the wrong side of House Ethics rules – he’s facing multiple complaints for repeated misuse of House floor footage as he runs against unelected Senator Kelly Loeffler, who has dealt with ethics inquiries of her own. Read more about Collins’ copy and paste violation: Roll Call: Ethics no-no: Doug Collins Senate campaign takes from official page
AFTER 600+ DAYS OF DODGING: SENATOR COLLINS CAMPAIGNS SURROUNDED BY TRUMP SIGNS, MAINE GOP CHAIR CONFIRMS COLLINS & TRUMP “SUPPORT EACH OTHER.” For 621 days, Senator Susan Collins has dodged questions on whether she will vote for President Trump in November. She even went as far as blurring a Trump sign out of a photo from a campaign stop where she posed for photos with Trump campaign staff and was surrounded by Trump campaign signs. But the Maine GOP chair said out loud what Collins has been trying to hide for months: Collins and Trump “both support each other.”
“HORSE EXCREMENT:” GARDNER’S SHAM PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS BILL FAILS SMELL TEST. Vulnerable Senator Cory Gardner’s latest attempt to rewrite his toxic record on health care continues to get called out as “a political stunt.” After experts last week said Gardner’s bill is “motivated more by politics than substance,” 9News’ Kyle Clark and Marshall Zelinger exposed Gardner’s blatant election year stunt for what it is: a sham bill that “is actually horse excrement.” Then, a Colorado Times Recorder fact check found that the bill allows “denial of insurance coverage to those with pre-existing conditions,” with one expert asserting to the Times Recorder that “effectively, there is no protection [for pre-existing conditions] at all.” Once again, Gardner’s desperate attempts to rewrite his toxic health care record in an election year fail to pass the smell test.
75 KANSAS REPUBLICANS ENDORSE DR. BARBARA BOLLIER. 75 current and former Republican elected officials and community leaders across the state of Kansas endorsed Dr. Barbara Bollier’s campaign for U.S. Senate this week. The endorsements are just the latest sign of momentum for Bollier, who has built a reputation as an independent voice focused on finding common sense solutions. Bollier has built a juggernaut campaign and recent polls show that the Kansas Senate race is a dead heat. Watch the video from the Bollier campaign.
IN THE STATES
AL – Alabama Political Reporter: Doug Jones campaign ad notes Tuberville’s involvement in hedge fund that defrauded investors
AL – AL.com: What’s buried in Tommy Tuberville’s pine box?
CO – Aurora Sentinel: Hickenlooper hears from teachers during Grand Junction visit
GA – Georgia Public Broadcasting: Warnock Unveils Second TV Ad In Wide-Open Senate Election
IA – Des Moines Register: Theresa Greenfield: To give Iowa women a fair shot, we need new policies addressing leave, child care and the pay gap
KS – Shawnee Mission Post: In Post interview, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Roger Marshall defends vote against bill boosting Postal Service funding
ME – Maine Public Radio: Sara Gideon Releases Health Plan, Criticizes Federal Coronavirus Response
MI – NPR: Senator Who Launched USPS Investigation Unsatisfied By DeJoy’s Testimony
MI – Michigan Advance: After backing James in 2018 bid, GOP Sterling Heights mayor endorses Peters
MS – Mississippi Today: Mike Espy has built a robust and historic Senate campaign. Can he win?
MT – Missoulian (Letter): Bullock will stick up for Montana
NC – Los Angeles Times: Republicans scramble to hold once-reliable North Carolina
NH – Union Leader: Surprise medical bills focus of Shaheen’s latest campaign ad
SC – NPR: In South Carolina, Longtime GOP Senator Faces Strong Challenge From A Democrat
TWEET OF THE WEEK
Lauren Passalacqua
@laurenvpass
Stewart Boss
@stew_boss
Helen Kalla
@helen_kalla
Shea Necheles
@sheanecheles
Regina Anderson
@reginasopinion
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