June 24, 2020 11:36 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Wednesday (June 24)

• 7 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

Happy Bannockburn Day. Please celebrate responsibly. Now, let’s Get More Smarter. If you think we missed something important, please include the link in the comments below (here’s a good example). If you are more of an audio/visual learner, check out The Get More Smarter Show or The Get More Smarter Podcast. And don’t forget to find us on Facebook and Twitter.

BECAUSE CORONAVIRUS…

*Colorado Coronavirus info:
CDPHE Coronavirus website 

*Daily Coronavirus numbers in Colorado:
http://covid19.colorado.gov

*How you can help in Colorado:
COVRN.com

*Locate a COVID-19 testing site in Colorado:
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment

► A new poll from The New York Times and Siena College shows that President Trump is absolutely cratering:

Joseph R. Biden Jr. has taken a commanding lead over President Trump in the 2020 race, building a wide advantage among women and nonwhite voters and making deep inroads with some traditionally Republican-leaning groups that have shifted away from Mr. Trump following his ineffective response to the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new national poll of registered voters by The New York Times and Siena College.

Mr. Biden is currently ahead of Mr. Trump by 14 percentage points, garnering 50 percent of the vote compared with 36 percent for Mr. Trump. That is among the most dismal showings of Mr. Trump’s presidency, and a sign that he is the clear underdog right now in his fight for a second term…

…among a striking cross-section of voters, the distaste for Mr. Trump has deepened as his administration failed to stop a deadly disease that crippled the economy and then as he responded to a wave of racial-justice protests with angry bluster and militaristic threats. The dominant picture that emerges from the poll is of a country ready to reject a president whom a strong majority of voters regard as failing the greatest tests confronting his administration.

Trump gets crushed in this poll on questions about how he has handled the coronavirus pandemic. According to the poll, the only demographic where Trump has any advantage over Biden is among non-college educated white voters.

► Tuesday marked the highest number of new coronavirus cases in the United States since late April. The United States is doing such a poor job of containing the pandemic that the European Union may soon block travelers coming from America.

The coronavirus news isn’t all bad, fortunately. In Colorado, mortality rates are declining among people infected with the virus.

► Two federal prosecutors are testifying in front of a House committee today about the high-level political pressure placed upon their work by the Trump administration and Attorney General William Barr. As CNN reports:

Two prosecutors in the Justice Department will ratchet up the criticism of Attorney General William Barr on Wednesday with remarkable congressional testimony accusing senior Justice Department officials of politicizing DOJ investigations and the sentencing of a friend of President Donald Trump.

Aaron Zelinsky, a prosecutor on former special counsel Robert Mueller’s team, plans to testify that the sentencing recommendation for Trump’s longtime friend and adviser Roger Stone was watered down due to political pressure from the “highest levels” of the Justice Department, according to Zelinsky’s prepared remarked released Tuesday. Zelinsky, who now works in the Maryland US Attorney’s Office, said the pressure came due to Stone’s “relationship with the President.”

John Elias, a career Justice Department prosecutor in the Antitrust Division, accused Barr of ordering investigations into 10 mergers of cannabis companies because he did not like the industry, according to a copy of his testimony. Elias also charged that political leadership in the Antitrust Division pushed an investigation into California’s emissions standards last year following a tweet from the President attacking the state.

Wednesday’s testimony before the House Judiciary Committee comes amid a new flurry of questions surrounding Barr’s decision to fire Geoffrey Berman, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, which has investigated Trump and his associates. Berman initially refused Barr’s request for his resignation, vowing to remain until the Senate confirmed his replacement sparking a chaotic situation that ended after Trump and Barr fired him and Berman agreed to leave.

► In not-unrelated news, a federal appeals court has ruled that a criminal case against former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn should be dropped. From The Washington Post:

U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan cannot scrutinize the Justice Department’s decision to drop its long-running prosecution of President Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn and must dismiss the case, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.

In a 2-1 decision, the court said it is not within the judge’s power to prolong the prosecution or examine the government’s motives for its reversal in the politically charged case. Flynn twice pleaded guilty to lying to federal agents about his pre-inauguration contacts with Russia’s ambassador before the Justice Department moved in May to dismiss the charges.

If you’re looking for political news that isn’t about Coronavirus, it’s available right after the jump…

Now Only Partially Coronavirus-Related…

► Jesse Paul of The Colorado Sun takes a deep dive into the dual-primary battle in Colorado’s Third Congressional District.

► Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Andrew Romanoff is not in Colorado at the moment — despite Tuesday’s Primary Election — in order to be at the side of his dying father.

Meanwhile, The Colorado Sun reports on Romanoff’s complicated progressive reimagining. As we explain further, there are a lot of indisputable holes in Romanoff’s resume.

► Click here to get caught up on your “gray wolves in Colorado” news.

► A homeless camp has sprung up around Morey Middle School in Denver, prompting new discussions about how the city plans to deal with homelessness.

► Voters in several states voted in Tuesday’s Primary Election. POLITICO rounds up (some) of the results:

The left roared into Tuesday’s primaries hoping to unseat at least one entrenched Democratic congressman in New York City and derail the Democratic establishment’s pick to face Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in Kentucky.

They’re going to have to wait at least a few more days to find out whether they succeeded — but even though Tuesday night ended without final calls in many of the biggest primaries, the results clearly showed some incumbents in serious trouble and major trends shaking both parties.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez looks set to get some new progressive backup in New York’s congressional delegation next year. President Donald Trump’s iron-fisted grip over the Republican Party appears to be slipping. And Senate hopefuls Charles Booker and Amy McGrath are locked in a tight battle for that Kentucky Senate nomination that belies McGrath’s huge cash advantage and support from Washington power brokers.

The Democratic Primary for the right to take on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was perhaps the race with the most national interest. McGrath was leading Booker on Tuesday evening, but officials don’t expect a full ballot count for about a week because of an influx of absentee and mail ballots.

► As Westword reports, nationwide protests and questions about police brutality have drawn new interest into the 2019 death of Elijah McClain in Aurora.

► The Elbert County Republican Party doesn’t believe the news that President Trump’s Saturday rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was a bust. Do they believe Trump when he said that he instructed officials to “slow down” on coronavirus testing?

► “Second Lady” Karen Pence (don’t look at us — we didn’t come up with that title) will visit Colorado on Thursday.

► Senators Michael Bennet (D-Denver) and Cory Gardner (R-Yuma) are both supporting legislation to make Juneteenth a national holiday.

► Marshall Zelinger of 9news tries to understand how Sen. Cory Gardner can call himself one of the most bipartisan members of the U.S. Senate when he votes with President Trump 98% of the time.

► Legislation to adjust some health insurance rates with a new fee on insurance companies is waiting for the signature of Gov. Jared Polis.

► Republican Congressional candidate Steve House is not a doctor. That is a good thing.

► Governor Jared Polis activated a drought plan for 40 Colorado counties.

Your Daily Dose Of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

► President Trump supporters are dropping like flies. 

► Lauren “Yosemite Samantha” Boebert, a Republican candidate in CO-3, really hopes that the Q-anon conspiracies are real.

ICYMI

► As The New York Times reports, Republicans are worried that their opposition to the Affordable Care Act won’t be appreciated by voters in 2020:

The issue will come into sharp focus this week, when the White House is expected to file legal briefs asking the Supreme Court to put an end to the program, popularly known as Obamacare. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, seizing on the moment, will unveil a Democratic bill to lower the cost of health care, with a vote scheduled for next week in the House.

Republicans have long said their goal is to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act but have yet to agree on an alternative. This week’s back-to-back developments — Ms. Pelosi’s bill announcement on Wednesday, followed on Thursday by the administration’s legal filing — has put Republicans in a difficult spot, strategists say.

“Politically, it’s pretty dumb to be talking about how we need to repeal Obamacare in the middle of a pandemic,” said Joel White, a Republican strategist who specializes in health policy and has presented legislative proposals to House and Senate Republicans and the White House.

► Republicans have a SHADY State Senate candidate in Suzanne Staiert.

► Check out our post-legislative interview with Assistant House Majority Leader Chris Kennedy in the latest episode of The Get More Smarter Podcast:

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