Yet another poll has emerged suggesting that were the 2020 election held today, every one of the top Democrats could defeat President Trump.
A poll from Quinnipiac released on Wednesday shows former Vice President Joe Biden leading over Trump by 16 points among registered voters, while Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) leads by 14 points, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) by 12 points, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) by 11 points, and South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg leads him by nine points.
This same poll shows that 56 percent of voters disapprove of Trump's job performance — with 50 percent disapproving strongly — and only 30 percent say that Trump is doing more to unite the country than to divide it; that's an all-time low in this poll. With 37 percent of voters saying the economy is getting worse, this is the first time since Trump was elected that more say the economy is getting worse than getting better.
Numerous polls in recent months show Trump losing to every major 2020 Democrat, including one from Quinnipiac in June in which Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) was also leading Trump by five points. Biden beat Trump by 13 points in that poll.
Speaking of Biden, after a stunning poll earlier this week showed Biden plunging 13 points and ending up behind Sanders and Warren, Wednesday's poll suggests this result was probably an outlier. The former vice president here not only has the largest lead over Trump but also leads all the Democratic candidates, with 32 percent support compared to Warren's 19 percent and Sanders' 15 percent.
Quinnipiac conducted its poll by speaking to 1,422 registered voters nationwide over the phone from Aug. 21-26. The margin of error is 3.1 percentage points, or 4.6 percentage points for the Democratic voter sample. Read the full results at Quinnipiac. Brendan Morrow
Two of America's newest DJs are Bob Coleman and Ed Rosenblatt, retirees who spin old favorites on Radio Recliner.
Radio Recliner is a 60-minute show that streams online, with new programs released every day at noon. All of the DJs live in senior care facilities, where they record their song introductions and transitions before sending them to producers. Radio Recliner was launched in April as a way to ensure that seniors who are in isolation during the coronavirus pandemic can still connect with the outside world. Listeners can also send in their requests and dedications.
Coleman, 88, loves country music and is known as the "Karaoke Cowboy." Rosenblatt, 80, recently started teaching himself how to play the ukulele and performed the Beach Boys song "Sloop John B" at the end of his show. "Everybody knows that song," he told The Associated Press. Listen to Radio Recliner here. Catherine Garcia
Rebekah Jones, the architect and onetime manager of Florida's COVID-19 dashboard, said on Monday she was removed from her post after she would not censor data.
In an email to CBS12 News, Jones said she refused to "manually change data to drum up support" for Florida's plan to reopen amid the coronavirus pandemic. The dashboard shares data on coronavirus cases, testing, and deaths by county and ZIP code, and is used by the public and academic and private researchers working on coronavirus models. Jones led a team of Florida Department of Health data scientists and public health officials to create the dashboard, which was praised last month by Dr. Deborah Birx of the White House coronavirus task force.
Earlier Monday, Florida Today reported that on May 5, Jones sent an email to researchers letting them know that she had been removed from her position, and for "reasons beyond my division's control," they would no longer be publishing or fixing data. Jones wrote that she did not know "what data they are now restricting," and "as a word of caution, I would not expect the new team to continue the same level of accessibility and transparency that I made central to the process during the first two months."
Over the last few weeks, the dashboard has gone offline, data has disappeared without explanation, and it's been difficult to gain access to underlying data sheets, Florida Today reports. The Florida Department of Health did not respond to requests for comment on the data and Jones' removal from her position. Catherine Garcia
If elected in November, former Vice President Joe Biden will revoke President Trump's permit for the Keystone pipeline, his campaign told Politico on Monday.
In a statement, Stef Feldman, the Biden campaign's policy director, said the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee "strongly opposed the Keystone pipeline in the last administration, stood alongside President Obama and Secretary Kerry to reject it in 2015, and will proudly stand in the Roosevelt Room again as president and stop it for good by rescinding the Keystone XL pipeline permit."
The pipeline has been in the works for a decade, but its construction has been halted several times due to legal challenges. If completed, the pipeline would carry 830,000 barrels of crude oil from Canada to the United States every day. Environmentalists have argued that the pipeline could increase air pollution, pollute water, and hurt wildlife. Trump vowed during his 2016 campaign to bring the project back to life, and shortly after his inauguration, he issued permits for the pipeline.
The pipeline is stalled right now after a federal judge in Montana ruled earlier this month that there hasn't been a sufficient environmental review of the project. The Trump administration is appealing the decision. Catherine Garcia
Bars will be able to reopen in Texas on Friday at 25 percent capacity, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) announced on Monday, while restaurants will be able to increase their capacity to 50 percent.
Zoos, rodeos, aquariums, bowling alleys, bingo halls, and skating rinks will also be able to reopen on Friday, Abbott said. Gyms were given the green light to reopen on Monday at 25 percent capacity with showers and locker rooms closed to patrons. Texas allowed restaurants to reopen on May 1 at 25 percent capacity and barbershops and hair salons on May 8.
On Saturday, Texas saw its largest single-day increase in confirmed cases since the coronavirus pandemic began, with the Texas Department of Health reporting more than 1,800 new cases. On Monday, 900 new coronavirus cases were reported in the state, along with 11 deaths.
Amarillo is one of the state's hot spots, with COVID-19 spreading among workers at meatpacking facilities in the area; more than 2,400 coronavirus test results are still pending there, Amarillo Public Health said. North of Amarillo in Moore County, one in every 39 people there has tested positive for COVID-19. Abbott on Saturday said the numbers are rising due to increased testing, and Texas will "continue to see these results in targeted areas over the next two weeks."
Another hot spot is El Paso, where Abbott said the hospital capacity is "too close for comfort." He is delaying the reopening of El Paso and Amarillo by one week. Catherine Garcia
The Dropkick Murphys will perform live from an empty Fenway Park on May 29 at 6 p.m. EST, with special guest Bruce Springsteen joining remotely.
The band announced its free "Streaming Outta Fenway" concert on Monday. It will be livestreamed on their YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Twitch pages, raising money for three organizations: Habitat for Humanity, Feeding America, and the Boston Resiliency Fund.
This will be a "full electric" concert, the band said, with Springsteen joining for a "Fenway double play" — together, they will perform a Dropkick Murphys song and a Springsteen song. The Dropkick Murphys said they will be the first band to ever play a full show in an empty sports stadium and the first to "play right on the dirt and grass of the infield diamond — and we will be doing it for free — for you, the best fans in the world." Catherine Garcia
A Congressional Oversight Commission report released Monday finds that the Treasury Department has barely spent any of the $500 billion fund meant to assist local governments and businesses.
Both the Congressional Oversight Commission and the Treasury fund were created by the $2 trillion CARES Act in March. The fund will help large and small businesses, as well as cities and states, and the commission was formed to oversee how that money is being used. The 17-page report released Monday is the commission's first.
The report found that so far, only one of the five lending facilities created by the Treasury Department to operate through the Federal Reserve — the Secondary Market Corporate Credit Facility, which will purchase corporate debt — has received funding. There is $46 billion set aside for the airline industry, but none of that money has been distributed, and the Main Street Lending Program, created to assist small and medium-size businesses, has already changed its criteria for participants, a move Democrats say is meant to benefit oil and gas firms, The Washington Post reports.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will appear before the commission on Tuesday, and are expected to field questions about when the facilities will get up and running. Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Penn.), a member of the commission, told the Post that if the funding "doesn't get out in a timely fashion, it's not going to achieve the goal behind its creation." Catherine Garcia