GOP Rep. Louie Gohmert's daughter publicly chides him for ignoring 'medical experts,' getting COVID-19
GOP Rep. Louie Gohmert’s daughter publicly chides him for ignoring ‘medical experts,’ getting COVID-19
Rep. Louie Gohmert’s daughter publicly chides him for ignoring ‘medical experts,’ getting COVID-19″ data-tags=”[speedread,News,Lifestyle,stem]” data-publish-date=”August 3, 2020″ data-authors=”[Peter Weber]”> GOP Rep. Louie Gohmert’s daughter publicly chides him for ignoring ‘medical experts,’ getting COVID-19 August 3, 2020
Rep. Louie Gohmert’s (R-Texas) daughter Caroline is disappointed her father “ignored medical expertise” and didn’t wear a mask, and now has COVID-19, she said in a brief statement Sunday night. “This has been a heartbreaking battle [because] I love my dad and don’t want him to die. Please please listen to medical experts. It’s not worth following a president who has no remorse for leading his followers to an early grave.”
— BELLSAINT (@BELLSAINTmusic) July 31, 2020
Caroline Gohmert, who records music under the stage name BELLSAINT, may love her father but she revealed last year that she does not agree with him politically. A song she released last summer , “Much Like My Father,” begins like this: “Everybody loves you, but there’s poison in the water. You get away with everything. Much like my father.”
Gohmert, 66, told his staff — in person — last week that he tested positive for the highly communicable coronavirus. His aides then told reporters that he and his GOP colleagues have pressured staff to work in the office and similarly eschew face masks. Gohmert may also have infected some of his Democratic colleagues . Peter Weber ALASTAIR PIKE/AFP via Getty Images
Twitter could be slapped with a fine of up to $250 million from the FTC.
The social media company in a new regulatory filing says that it recently received a complaint from the Federal Trade Commission over its “use of phone number and/or email address data provided for safety and security purposes for targeted advertising” from 2013 to 2019, CNN reports .
Twitter last year apologized over the fact that users’ phone numbers and email addresses “may have inadvertently been used for advertising purposes” when they were provided to the company for security reasons, e.g. so that users could turn on two-factor authentication. This might have violated a 2011 privacy agreement between Twitter and the FTC, The New York Times reports .
“We’re very sorry this happened and are taking steps to make sure we don’t make a mistake like this again,” Twitter said last year while assuring users that “no personal data was ever shared externally with our partners or any other third parties.”
In the regulatory filing, Twitter says it could face an FTC fine of between $150 million and $250 million. News of the possible FTC fine comes after Twitter last month apologized to users over a huge hack that took over high-profile accounts in a Bitcoin scam.
“Last week was a really tough week for all of us at Twitter, and we feel terrible about the security incident that negatively affected the people we serve and their trust in us,” Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said . Brendan Morrow Steve Pope/Getty Images
Five states are holding primaries on Tuesday — Kansas, Missouri, Arizona, Michigan, and Washington — and the most-watched race is the Republican primary for the seat being vacated by Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.).
Eleven Republicans are vying for a shot to face likely Democratic nominee state Sen. Barbara Bollier, but the race is a dead heat between Kris Kobach , the former Kansas secretary of state who lost the 2018 gubernatorial race, and Rep. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.). Senate Republicans are backing Marshall, warning that a Kobach victory could lead to the state’s first Democratic senator in nearly 100 years. Several conservative groups are backing Kobach. A Democratic group has attacked Marshall, effectively helping Kobach. President Trump has not endorsed either candidate.
In Kansas’ 2nd Congressional District, newly indicted Rep. Steve Watkins (R) faces a serious primary challenge from state Treasurer Jake LaTurner, with the winner facing Topeka Mayor Michelle De La Isla (D). In Michigan, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D) has a tough rematch against Detroit City Council President Brenda Jones ; Tlaib beat Jones in the 2018 primary, but Jones held the seat for a few months after besting Tlaib in a concurrent special election to fill the vacant seat. Rep. William Lacy Clay (D-Mo.) faces a potentially serious challenge in Missouri’s 1st District from Black Lives Matter activist Cori Bush, backed by the democratic-socialist group Justice Democrats.
Both parties are targeting the Michigan seat being vacated by Rep. Justin Amash (I), with Democrat Hillary Scholten running unopposed and two Republicans — supermarket heir Peter Meijer and state Rep. Lynn Afendoulis — battling each other and three trailing candidates. In Arizona, Democrats are trying to oust Rep. David Schweikert (R), and will likely nominate former emergency room doctor Hiral Tipirneni, and Republicans are aiming to unseat Rep. Tom O’Halleran (D), in a primary pitting farmer and lawyer Tiffany Shedd against lawyer Nolan Reidhead. Peter Weber Frederick Florin/AFP/Getty Images
Eli Lilly & Co. has started a Phase 3 trial of its experimental antibody-based COVID-19 drug in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, testing whether the drug reduces the infection rate at facilities where residents or staff have recently tested positive for the new coronavirus. The study involves Eli Lilly driving specially modified RVs to newly infected nursing homes and injecting its COVID-19 drug, code-named LY-CoV555, in volunteers, The Wall Street Journal reports . The company said its drug may get government approval by the end of 2020.
Eli Lilly is already testing its antibody treatment, developed with Canadian biotech AbCellera Biologics, in hospitals on COVID-19 patents with mild and more severe cases. Researchers essentially cloned antibodies from one of the first U.S. patients to recover from COVID-19, hoping those proteins help the immune system fight the virus or prevent it from taking hold. If Eli Lilly’s drug or another like it proves safe and effective, public health experts say it might serve as a bridge until a vaccine is available.
Nursing homes have been especially susceptible to deadly COVID-19 outbreaks. The new study, conducted in collaboration with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, seeks to enroll 2,400 test subjects. Peter Weber Doug Mills-Pool/Getty Images
President Trump signaled Monday that he is okay with Microsoft purchasing the U.S. part of TikTok, the Chinese-owned social media company he has threatened to ban, but it will cost … someone. First, he told reporters at the White House that if Microsoft or another U.S. company purchases TikTok by his Sept. 15 deadline, “a very substantial portion of that price is going to have to come into the treasury of the United States.” Why? “The United States should be reimbursed or paid because without the United States they don’t have anything,” Trump said enigmatically.
“It’s a little bit like the landlord-tenant,” Trump explained. “Without a lease, the tenant has nothing. So they pay what’s called key money or they pay something.” Later Monday, Trump elaborated, arguing the U.S. “should get a very large percentage of that price,” and “it would come from the sale — whatever the number is, it would come from the sale.” This was an idea “nobody else would be thinking about but me,” Trump said. “But that’s the way I think.”
“It was unclear under what authority the White House could demand such a payment,” The Washington Post noted , and the Treasury Department and White House both declined to comment on Trump’s proposal.
Any U.S. company that purchased TikTok would have to first get approval from the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment (CIFUS), an interagency group that reviews proposed takeovers involving a foreign company, and lawyers familiar with CIFUS reviews told the Post the U.S. Treasury does sometime collect fees for its work, but only up to $300,000.
Microsoft said Sunday night that it is “committed to acquiring TikTok subject to a complete security review and providing proper economic benefits to the United States, including the United States Treasury,” but that suggested the U.S. would benefit from future tax revenue. What Trump is demanding sounds more like muscling in for a cut of the deal. Luckily, everyone has lawyers. Peter Weber Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers watch Trump fiddle with banning TikTok as America burns 3:54 a.m.
“With the coronavirus surging and the economy cratering , President Trump is turning his attention to what’s really important,” banning TikTok , Jimmy Fallon said on Monday’s Tonight Show . “What is he doing? Is he the president of the United States or the preacher from Footloose ? Apparently this is a very real national security threat, the Chinese government knowing which Americans can and can’t dance. I’m sure it has everything to do with national security and nothing to do with the TikTok teens who sabotaged his Tulsa rally — either that or Sarah Cooper’s TikToks .”
“Trump is playing hardball with China,” Fallon deadpanned. “If he bans TikTok, China will only be able to spy on our phones, TVs, cars and refrigerators, so that’s where he draws the line.” He poked fun at Microsoft’s efforts to buy TikTok with a throwback to the ’90s, “TikTok 95.”
“Meanwhile, with the 2020 election right around the corner, people are now worried that Trump’s trying to weaken the Post Office to delay mail-in voting ,” Fallon noted. “Trump’s attacking TikTok and the Post Office. You’ve got to give him credit: Only he could alienate 18-year-olds and 88-year-olds in the same day. Trump has hated the Post Office ever since they made their logo look just like his hair.”
On top of that, “the Trump administration scrapped a nationwide testing plan because they wanted to blame Democrats for the coronavirus, and as the crisis deepens, the president has decided to focus on TikTok,” Seth Meyers said on Late Night . “That’s right, instead of stopping a pandemic or helping unemployed Americans, he’s pretending he has the power to unilaterally ban a social media app,” he said. “I’m almost certain Trump has no idea what TikTok is.”
And not only is Jared Kusher reportedly scrapping a national testing plan for poltitical gain “evil, it’s stupid,” Meyers said. “This is an infectious disease. This virus has traveled all over the world — did they not realize it could travel to red states, too? ‘It’s a perfect plan, as long as no one from New York ever goes to Florida — @#*%!'” Watch below. Peter Weber Trump uses charts to defend his COVID-19 response, shrugs about John Lewis, in freewheeling Axios interview 2:19 a.m.
Axios ‘ Jonathan Swan sat down with President Trump last Tuesday for a lengthy interview, broadcast on HBO Monday night, about the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia, the anti-racism protests sweeping the U.S., and the late civil rights hero Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), who was lying in state at the U.S. Capitol as the two men spoke in the White House.
Swan started with COVID-19. “Those people that really understand it,” Trump said, “they said it’s incredible the job that we’ve done.” “Who says that?” Swan asked, but Trump had moved on. “I think it’s under control,” Trump said later. “How?” Swan asked. “A thousand Americans are dying a day.” “They are dying, that’s true,” Trump conceded. “And it is what it is.” He later added that the pandemic is “under control as much as you can control it.”
Trump then brought up testing. “You know, there are those that say you can test too much. You do know that?” Trump said. “Who says that?” Swan asked. “Oh, just read the manuals, read the books,” the president replied. “Manuals? What manuals?” Swan asked, perplexed. “What books?” Trump brought out charts about case fatality rates to prove his point, and things got a little sloppy. . @jonathanvswan : “Oh, you’re doing death as a proportion of cases. I’m talking about death as a proportion of population. That’s where the U.S. is really bad. Much worse than South Korea, Germany, etc.” @realdonaldtrump : “You can’t do that.”
Swan: “Why can’t I do that?” pic.twitter.com/MStySfkV39
— Axios (@axios) August 4, 2020
Swan asked Trump about the intelligence that Russia paid bounties to the Taliban for killing U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Trump’s two-pronged approach to mail-in voting, and his comments wishing Ghislaine Maxwell well , and Trump suggested he hopes the alleged sex trafficker doesn’t die in jail like her associate Jeffrey Epstein.
They discussed the federal deployment to Portland and the anti-racist protests across the U.S. Trump said Black Lives Matter has never asked him for a meeting, and he tried to convince an incredulous Swan he has done more for African Americans than any president except perhaps Abraham Lincoln. And Trump had no opinion about Lewis, despite repeated queries. . @jonathanvswan : “How do you think history will remember John Lewis?”
President Trump to #AxiosOnHBO : “I don’t know…I don’t know John Lewis. He chose not to come to my inauguration.” pic.twitter.com/LDv76rrIFc
