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NASDAQ |
11,141.56 |
+ 2.71%
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S&P |
3,399.06 |
+ 2.02%
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DJIA |
27,940.67 |
+ 1.60%
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GOLD |
1,957.10 |
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*As of market close |
- Markets: Stocks had a big bounce-back day after a few steep sell-offs.
- Jobs: U.S. employers posted 6.6 million job openings in July, more than the 6 million in June but less than the 7.2 million a year ago. The numbers continue to reflect a grind-it-out recovery for the job market.
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Trump told Bob Woodward he knew in February that COVID-19 was ‘deadly stuff’ but wanted to ‘play it down’
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-told-bob-woodward-he-knew-february-covid-19-was-n1239658
President Donald Trump acknowledged the dangers of the coronavirus pandemic in a February interview with journalist Bob Woodward and acknowledged downplaying the threat in an interview a month later, according to an account of Woodward’s new book.
“I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down because I don’t want to create a panic,” Trump said in a March 19 call with Woodward, according to an audio clip posted Wednesday on The Washington Post’s website. The newspaper obtained a copy of the book, “Rage,” which is scheduled to be released next week.
In the same interview, Trump acknowledged that the disease was more deadly than he previously thought.
“Now it’s turning out it’s not just old people, Bob. But just today, and yesterday, some startling facts came out. It’s not just old, older,” Trump said, according to an audio clip, and then added, “young people, too, plenty of young people.”
Trump is locked in a difficult re-election battle against Democratic nominee Joe Biden, with his poll numbers sagging as he continues to get low marks from voters for how he handled the response to the virus.
Trump, speaking to reporters Wednesday afternoon, said he’d been trying to avoid “panic” and was showing “leadership.”
“We have to show calm,” he said. “Certainly I’m not going to drive this country or the world into a frenzy. We want to show confidence. We have to show strength.”
He sidestepped a question about whether lives could have been saved if he had been more forthright about the dangers posed by the virus.
“I think if we didn’t do what we did, we’d have had millions die,” Trump said.
Of his approach, Trump said, “We don’t want to go around screaming, ‘Look at this, look at this.'”
Biden noted Wednesday that over 190,000 Americans have died from the coronavirus and called Trump’s words “beyond despicable.”
“It was a life-and-death betrayal of the American people,” Biden said.
Woodward’s book is based on 18 on-the-record phone calls he had with Trump from December to July. Woodward, a highly respected veteran journalist who is an associate editor of The Post, also attributes details about the internal workings of the White House to a series of interviews with unnamed aides.
Woodward details that Trump was briefed on the virus in January.
“This is deadly stuff,” Trump told Woodward in a Feb. 7 phone call.
“You just breathe the air and that’s how it’s passed,” Trump told Woodward, according to The Post. “And so that’s a very tricky one. That’s a very delicate one. It’s also more deadly than even your strenuous flu.”
The book says Trump was given dire warnings in January about the virus that would lead to a worldwide pandemic in March.
“This will be the biggest national security threat you face in your presidency,” national security adviser Robert O’Brien told Trump on Jan. 28, according to the book. “This is going to be the roughest thing you face.”
Trump blocked some Chinese nationals from coming into the country in the days after the briefing, but he continued to play down the danger posed by the virus and repeatedly compared it to the flu.
“We only have five people. Hopefully, everything’s going to be great,” Trump said Jan. 30. A few days later, he said, “We pretty much shut it down coming in from China.”
Despite the early warning about the virus’s deadliness and its ability to be transmitted through the air, Trump continued to hold packed political rallies throughout February and told reporters at the White House on Feb. 27: “This is a flu. This is like a flu.”
On March 9, weeks after he told Woodward that the coronavirus was more than five times deadlier than the flu, Trump tweeted: “So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on. At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calf., slammed the president Wednesday in an interview on MSNBC, saying his “downplaying” cost lives.
The “denial about the threat is responsible for many of the deaths and infections that we have today, not all of them, but many of them, could have been prevented,” Pelosi told Andrea Mitchell.
The book also sheds further light on how much distrust some of Trump’s top officials had in the president.
Woodward recounted a conversation — which he attributed to unnamed sources — between Dan Coats, then the director of national intelligence, and James Mattis, who was the defense secretary at the time, in which Mattis told Coats, “The president has no moral compass.”
Coats agreed, according to the book.
“To him, a lie is not a lie. It’s just what he thinks. He doesn’t know the difference between the truth and a lie,” Coats is quoted by Woodward as saying.
According to the book, Trump — who came under fire last week for having reportedly referred to dead U.S. service members as “losers” and “suckers” — had little regard for his own generals.
In a conversation with trade adviser Peter Navarro, Trump complained: “My fucking generals are a bunch of pussies. They care more about their alliances than they do about trade deals.” The sources for that account were not named.
Navarro told reporters later Wednesday that Woodward had put “words in my mouth” that he had never said for his last book. “I don’t believe a word of what Bob Woodward says,” Navarro added.
Woodward also drew some criticism on social media, as well, where some complained that he should have spoken up about Trump’s comments much earlier. Woodward told The Associated Press that he was initially skeptical that Trump wasn’t being truthful.
CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD LAUNCHES BLACK EFFECT PODCAST NETWORK WITH IHEARTMEDIA
https://hiphopdx.com/news/id.57794/title.charlamagne-tha-god-launches-black-effect-podcast-network-with-iheartmedia
Charlamagne Tha God is hoping he has the next media empire on his hands. On Wednesday (September 9), the brash radio personality in partnership with iHeartMedia announced the launch of the Black Effect Podcast Network. The groundbreaking media network is slated to host 18 podcasts starting this fall.
The replay of his nationally-syndicated radio morning show The Breakfast Club will find a new home with the Black Effect Podcast Network. Charlamagne looks to “amplify, elevate, and empower” Black voices in the community he believes deserve to be heard on a larger scale and put in positions to succeed.
Talent joining the first Black-curated podcast network includes TV host Eboni Williams, activist Tamika Mallory and actress Jess Hilarious. There are also established podcasts already onboard such as former NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson’s All The Smoke, N.O.R.E.’s Drink Champs, and The 85 South Show with DC Young Fly.
“Blackness has an immediate, culture-shifting effect on everything,” Charlamagne Tha God revealed in a statement. “Blackness controls the cool. Blackness is the culture, but Black Voices are not monolithic. The only way to appreciate the diversity of thought and experiences in Black culture is to build a platform for those voices to be heard.”
He continued, “Our goal is to shift the narrative from Black creators signing transactional deals, to instead forming legacy partnerships that build generational wealth while allowing each creative to have an equitable stake in their future. As a long-time partner of iHeart, it’s an honor to make history with them.”
CARDI B HIRED PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR TO ARREST TEEN ‘TRUMP SUPPORTER’ WHO LEAKED HER ADDRESS
https://hiphopdx.com/news/id.57805/title.cardi-b-hired-private-investigator-to-arrest-teen-trump-supporter-who-leaked-her-address
Cardi B often finds herself the target of Trump supporting trolls due to her outspoken stance on politics. Normally, the Bronx-bred firecracker is able to turn a blind eye but as she said in a recent Instagram Live post, she wasn’t able to look past the person who shared her home address online.
“They be making fun of me,” she said. “I ignore them. I don’t give a fuck. Let me tell you something. Shit gets so intense that a Trump supporter posted my address and encouraged people to dox my home, to put my house on fire. I literally hired a private investigator and serve them with a warrant and arrest this boy. This boy was a fucking teenager. His parents were shook.”
Earlier this week, Cardi got into it with conservative pundit Candace Owens who called the Grammy Award-winning rapper “dumb and illiterate.” During the same IG Live stream, Cardi made it clear she wanted to use her massive platform to influence people to vote for Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
“It’s not a secret I use my platform to encourage people to vote,” she said. “I love politics… Today, Candace Owens said some real nasty things about me. Just like I can make millions of people pop their pussy… I can make millions of people go vote.”
Owens accused Biden of pandering to the Black community after he sat down for an interview with Cardi, but she hit back and shared an Instagram photo on Monday (September 7) of what she believes pandering really looks like.
“This what PANDERING looks like,” she wrote alongside a photo of Trump. “I will never praise no politician not even Obama, FDR or Bernie ONLY THE LORD !This is how Trump panders with black people while Candice concerns how Joe panders with me.”
Cardi’s interview with Biden took place via Zoom last month. After sharing her views on topics such as healthcare, police brutality and college eduction, Biden praised the multi-platinum artist.
“One of the things that I admire about you is that you keep talking about what I call equity — just decency, fairness, treating people with respect,” he told her. “John Lewis used to say the vote is the most powerful nonviolent tool you have. Use the power to change for the change you want.
“Thank you for your willingness to help. I’ll make mistakes as president, but I’ll admit to the mistakes I make, and you’re never going to have to wonder whether I’ll keep my word. Just check me out; I’ve never broken my word on anything I said I was going to do. Never in my life.”
A new initiative launched yesterday to change the look of American boardrooms—specifically, to make them look less white.
The Board Challenge, a project of Altimeter Capital, Valence, and theBoardlist, is challenging U.S. firms to add a Black director to their boards within 12 months.
- 17 companies, including Zillow and Nextdoor, have taken the pledge.
- Another 27 members with at least one Black board member (United Airlines, Nordstrom among them) are working with the project to advance diversity efforts.
Why it’s an issue: 9% of Fortune 500 board members are Black men and women, while 66% are white men and 18% are white women, according to theBoardlist—and Black representation on boards hasn’t budged in the last few years.
Some states, like California most recently, have introduced legislation that would require, not just “challenge,” publicly held companies to appoint at least one director from an underrepresented community by the end of 2021.
Zoom out: It’s notoriously difficult for newcomers to find a seat in the boardroom. 72% of directors have previous board experience and half are current or ex-CEOs, per Heidrick & Struggles.