| | | | | |  | | By Anna Palmer, Jake Sherman, Eli Okun and Garrett Ross | Presented by |  | | | FILLING THE VOID: TWO OF THE HIGHEST-RANKING congressional leaders weighed in on the sexual assault allegation against JOE BIDEN: -- SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI said she respects the Me Too movement, but "there is also due process, and the fact that Joe Biden is Joe Biden, there's been statements from his ... former employees who ran his offices ... that there was never any record of this." PELOSI said the happiest day of the week was announcing her support for BIDEN. 2:24 clip of Pelosi talking about Biden -- SENATE MAJORITY LEADER MITCH MCCONNELL on FOX NEWS, on whether BIDEN should release documents from the University of Delaware: "When you run for president of the United States, your life is an open book, and I can't imagine he's not going to have to participate in releasing all the information in the allegations." More from Burgess Everett BIDEN has not himself responded to the allegation. NYT'S BEN SMITH: "Why Won't TV News Book Tara Reade?": "Ms. Reade told me Wednesday that the only offers she's had to appear on television have come from Fox News, including a call from the prime time host Sean Hannity. She has so far turned them down. "'I've been trying to just kind of wait to get someone in the middle,' she said in a phone interview. 'I don't want to be pigeonholed as a progressive, I don't want to be pigeonholed as a Trump supporter.' CNN and MSNBC, whose DNA -- even in a pandemic -- is politics, have covered her on their websites but haven't put her on camera. "'They're not offering to put me on TV — they're just doing stories,' Ms. Reade told me. 'No anchors, no nothing like that.' She'd most like to tell her story to a network television anchor she admires — CBS's Gayle King is one, she said — but they haven't called. "So she's planning to accept Fox News's offer for an interview to air this weekend, she said, with 'someone a little more up the middle.' She declined to say who, but a person who has spoken to her said Ms. Reade is in talks with Chris Wallace. ... "On Wednesday, [Juanita] Broaddrick, now 77, told me that she has been talking and texting with Ms. Reade, warning her that this is going to be hard." 30 MILLION UNEMPLOYED ... 3.8 MILLION people newly filed for unemployment last week, bringing the total number of people out of work to 30 MILLION. -- BIG STATE INCREASES, per DOL: Florida (+326,251), Connecticut (+68,758), West Virginia (+31,811), Louisiana (+12,270) and Texas (+6,504). PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP this morning in the Oval Office, per pool report LIZ GOODWIN of the Boston Globe: "I think we're going to have a great third quarter.' 'I think next year is going to be a spectacular year.' Said there is 'pent up demand.'" | | A message from Blue Cross Blue Shield Association: Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies are ensuring swift access to coronavirus care by waiving prior-authorization and copays for diagnostic testing and treatment, expanding telehealth and making prescription refills easier. | | | MORE FROM PELOSI'S news conference in the Capitol ... House Majority Whip JIM CLYBURN of South Carolina said Democrats would be releasing their broadband expansion plan later today. ... PELOSI said she was aiming for $1 TRILLION in aid for states, counties and municipalities. Somewhere between zero and this number is where it will end up. ... PELOSI said the next bill the House will tackle is another large-scale stimulus bill, not a refill of the Paycheck Protection Program. She added that the chamber will come back the week after next -- May 11. SHIFTING EXPLANATIONS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE ... Second lady KAREN PENCE on maskless VP MIKE PENCE in MINNESOTA: "It was actually after he left Mayo Clinic that he found out that they had a policy of asking everyone to wear a mask." -- DAN DIAMOND, last week: "A Mayo Clinic spokesperson told POLITICO that Pence and his team had been briefed about the mask policy prior to arriving on campus. 'We made the Vice President and his staff aware of our policy regarding masking,' the spokesperson said, referring other questions to Pence's office. Masks were made available to Pence on Tuesday, said two individuals." Good Thursday afternoon. "SOURCES FAMILIAR" THE DAY AFTER A TRUMP INTERVIEW ... REUTERS: "Special Report: Trump told Saudis: Cut oil supply or lose U.S. military support - sources" WHAT TOM COTTON IS READING ... NYT: "Trump Officials Are Said to Press Spies to Link Virus and Wuhan Labs," by Mark Mazzetti, Julian Barnes, Edward Wong and Adam Goldman: "Some intelligence analysts are concerned that the pressure from administration officials will distort assessments about the virus and that they could be used as a political weapon in an intensifying battle with China over a disease that has infected more than three million people across the globe. "Most intelligence agencies remain skeptical that conclusive evidence of a link to a lab can be found, and scientists who have studied the genetics of the coronavirus say that the overwhelming probability is that it leapt from animal to human in a nonlaboratory setting, as was the case with H.I.V., Ebola and SARS. ... Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a former C.I.A. director and the administration's most vocal hard-liner on China, has taken the lead in pushing American intelligence agencies for more information, according to current and former officials." -- NATASHA BERTRAND: "Top intel agency rules out 'manmade' theory of coronavirus origins" BUCKLE UP! ... NBC WASHINGTON: "During an hour-long virtual town hall, Dr. LaQuandra Nesbitt, director of the D.C. Department of Health, walked through a slide show on what she called a 'most-stringent' and 'less stringent' plan. "Under the most stringent plan, which would be a worst-case scenario, D.C. would not be able to re-open for at least another three months, Nesbitt said. Under the least stringent plan, or best-case scenario, the city would do a phased reopening, but that also would not begin for at least two months." FOX NEWS will host a two-hour town hall Sunday from 7 p.m.-9 p.m. BRET BAIER and MARTHA MACCALLUM will host the event, from the Lincoln Memorial. HAPPENING TODAY: ANNA is leading a virtual Women Rule briefing at 4 p.m. ELIZABETH RALPH, who writes the Women Rule newsletter, and CAROLYN WITTE , founder of Tia, a women's health company, will kick off the conversation. Sen. TAMMY DUCKWORTH (D-Ill.) will join at 4:30 p.m. Watch | | | | POLITICO Magazine Justice Reform: The Decarceration Issue, presented by Verizon: Over the past decade, the longstanding challenge of criminal-justice reform has emerged under the spotlight with a new twist: Both Republicans and Democrats are on board. But if both parties want to lower the incarceration rate, why are our jail and prison populations still so high? The latest series from POLITICO Magazine works to answer this important question and take a deeper look into what it will take to make progress in the policy and politics of justice reform. READ THE FULL ISSUE. | | | | | TRUMP VS. CHINA -- "U.S. officials crafting retaliatory actions against China over coronavirus as President Trump fumes," by WaPo's Jeff Stein, Carol Leonnig, Josh Dawsey and Gerry Shih: "In private, Trump and aides have discussed stripping China of its "sovereign immunity," aiming to enable the U.S. government or victims to sue China for damages. George Sorial, who formerly served as a top executive at the Trump Organization and is now involved in a class-action lawsuit against China, told The Washington Post he and senior White House officials have discussed limiting China's sovereign immunity. "Legal experts say an attempt to limit China's sovereign immunity would be extremely difficult to accomplish and may require Congressional legislation. Some administration officials have also discussed having the U.S. cancel part of its debt obligations to China, two people with knowledge of internal conversations said. It was not known if the president has backed this idea." WaPo YIKES ... NBC'S ALEXANDER SMITH in London: "British doctors warn some Chinese ventilators could kill if used in hospitals": "Senior British doctors have warned that 250 ventilators the United Kingdom bought from China risk causing 'significant patient harm, including death,' if they are used in hospitals, according to a letter seen by NBC News. "The doctors said the machines had a problematic oxygen supply, could not be cleaned properly, had an unfamiliar design and a confusing instruction manual, and were built for use in ambulances, not hospitals. The British case is not an isolated one, and it comes as a stark example of a procurement problem that has plagued many countries as the coronavirus has spread throughout the world." NBC THE FULL UNEMPLOYMENT PICTURE -- "States Made It Harder to Get Jobless Benefits. Now That's Hard to Undo," by The Upshot's Emily Badger and Alicia Parlapiano: "The state unemployment systems that were supposed to help millions of jobless workers were full of boxes to check and mandates to meet that couldn't possibly apply in a pandemic. States required workers to document their job searches, weekly; to register with employment services, in person; to take a wait period before their first check, up to 10 days. "Such requirements increased in the years following the Great Recession, as many states moved to tighten access to or reduce unemployment benefits. With them, most states cut the share of jobless workers they helped. Now these requirements have been getting in the way. Effectively, many states have been trying to scale up aid with systems built to keep claims low." NYT -- REBECCA RAINEY: "Millions of gig workers are still waiting for unemployment benefits : "Most of the estimated 23 million independent contractors and gig workers made newly eligible last month for unemployment benefits during the coronavirus pandemic are still waiting for relief. "Six weeks after the pandemic set off a continuing wave of massive layoffs, only 21 states have started paying out benefits to self-employed workers and others not traditionally eligible, according to the Labor Department. That's up from 10 last week. The payments are being made under a new temporary program, Pandemic Unemployment Assistance. ... States reporting the largest number of weekly claims, including California and Florida, have just started to get their systems up and running this week." POLITICO THE ECONOMY ... AP: "U.S. consumer spending plunges record 7.5%, reflecting virus," by Martin Crutsinger -- "American Airlines posts $2.2 billion loss during pandemic," by AP's David Koenig -- "This is how bad things are for museums: They now have a green light to sell off their art," by WaPo's Sebastian Smee: "[I]n an unprecedented move, and as a direct result of the coronavirus pandemic, the [Association of Art Museum Directors] has recently relaxed its guidelines. It's too soon to gauge the effect, but it is already big news in the art world. Once unthinkable, the notion of selling off a Claude Monet or two to plug a budgetary hole — or to fend off a total financial meltdown — is suddenly something to contemplate." WaPo DISINFORMATION DIGEST -- "Trump's Disinfectant Talk Trips Up Sites' Vows Against Misinformation," by NYT's Sheera Frenkel and Davey Alba in San Francisco: "Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have declined to remove Mr. Trump's statements posted online in video clips and transcriptions of the briefing, saying he did not specifically direct people to pursue the unproven treatments. That has led to a mushrooming of other posts, videos and comments about false virus cures with UV lights and disinfectants that the companies have largely left up. "A New York Times analysis found 768 Facebook groups, 277 Facebook pages, nine Instagram accounts and thousands of tweets pushing UV light therapies that were posted after Mr. Trump's comments and that remained on the sites as of Wednesday. More than 5,000 other posts, videos and comments promoting disinfectants as a virus cure were also on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube this week. Only a few of the posts have been taken down." NYT | | | | HELP OUR NEIGHBORS IN NEED: The crisis is growing. More layoffs are happening, businesses are hurting, kids are at home, and health fears are top of mind. Everyone is struggling, and our neighbors need our help now more than ever. From grab-and-go dinners for kids to boxes of groceries for seniors, you can help provide critical support for those in the greater DMV community who need it most. Please support the Capital Area Food Bank's COVID-19 response today. | | | | | DELEGATE DEALING -- "Biden reaches deal to let Sanders keep hundreds of delegates," by AP's Stephen Ohlemacher and Bill Barrow: "Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden has agreed to let former primary rival Bernie Sanders keep hundreds of delegates he would otherwise forfeit by dropping out of the presidential race in a deal designed to avoid the bitter feelings that marred the party in 2016 and helped lead to Hillary Clinton's defeat. "Under party rules, Sanders should lose about a third of the delegates he's won in primaries and caucuses as the process moves ahead and states select the people who will attend the Democratic National Convention. ... However, in a memo obtained by The Associated Press, the Biden campaign says it will work with Sanders and state parties to fill those positions with Sanders supporters. The joint memo from the Biden and Sanders campaigns was being sent to state Democratic parties on Thursday." AP FOR THOSE KEEPING TRACK -- "Roger Stone launches his appeal," by Josh Gerstein: "A lawyer for Stone filed a formal notice Thursday asking the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to review the case brought by special counsel Robert Mueller that led to trial last November where a jury found Stone guilty on all seven felony charges he faced. "The new filing doesn't offer arguments against Stone's convictions or sentence, but defense attorney Seth Ginsberg specifically included in the appeal U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson's ruling earlier this month denying Stone's bid for a new trial based on claims of juror misconduct and bias." POLITICO LETTER FROM THE EASTERN FRONT -- "With the World Distracted by Coronavirus, Hopes for Peace in Ukraine Are Dimming," by WSJ's Ann Simmons in Mariupol, Ukraine: "The sound of gunfire and shelling has become a staple of everyday life here in this city in eastern Ukraine, where hopes for an end to the long-running war between Russian-backed separatists and Kyiv have faded since this winter's tentative detente between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky. ... "In December, peace talks brought hopes that an end might come to the clashes. ... But now, with the world distracted by the coronavirus pandemic and little prospect of the two leaders meeting to advance their discussions, the conflict has largely been put on the back burner, except for those who live in the conflict zone. Many who aren't leaving are becoming resigned to the possibility the war might drag on for months or years." WSJ AFTERNOON READ ... VANITY FAIR'S CHRIS SMITH: "'I'm A Chief Executive Who Has To Get Stuff Done': How Andrew Cuomo Became The Coronavirus Trump Antidote: The New York governor's impassioned coronavirus briefings, an essential counterpoint to the Trump circus, draw on a lifetime of political combat, reflecting lessons learned from Bill Clinton, the Kennedys, and most of all his late father, mentor, and model, Mario." TRANSITION -- Jon Margolick is now an EVP at the Truman National Security Project. He previously was the founding director of the Centers for Adaptive Warfighting at NavalX for the U.S. Marine Corps. 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