Singing is one of the worst things you can do during a pandemic featuring a virus that's spread through the air. Supporters of President Trump did it anyway on Wednesday.
Trump revealed early Friday morning that he'd tested positive for COVID-19 and was displaying mild symptoms of the virus. Aides reportedly said Trump started displaying those symptoms Thursday earlier at a fundraiser in New Jersey, where he didn't wear a mask and mingled with a crowd. And he did the same in Minnesota on Wednesday, where backers partook in some significantly risky activities, Minnesota radio station WCCO reports.
Blois Olson, a political consultant, said private Instagram photos of the event showed staff and guests "lingered after the president was there." "They sang karaoke, they had their arms around each other," he told WCCO Morning News. Maskless guests included South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) and Minnesota's House GOP leader Kurt Daudt, who posted a picture posing with a similarly maskless Trump.
After Trump announced his test results, Daudt said Friday he would be tested as well and stay in quarantine until he had a negative result. Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka (R) also told WCCO he would self-isolate and be tested, as did several other Republicans who were at the event.
One study has suggested that singing is no more likely to spread the virus than talking, though doing either becomes more risky the louder you are. We don't need a study to know there's no such thing as quiet karaoke. Kathryn Krawczyk
It looks like Sacha Baron Cohen's attempt to prank Rudy Giuliani for his new Borat film was a great success.
The comedian's sequel, in which Borat travels to America in hopes of gifting his daughter to someone close to the Trump administration, drops on Amazon this Friday. But spoiler-filled details emerged on Wednesday about a shocking scene in which Baron Cohen dupes President Trump's personal lawyer.
In the movie, The Guardian reveals, Giuliani speaks with the actress who portrays Borat's daughter for what he thinks is a conservative news show, after which "the pair retreat at her suggestion for a drink to the bedroom of a hotel suite, which is rigged with concealed cameras." From there, Giuliani "can be seen lying back on the bed, fiddling with his untucked shirt" and then "reaching into his trousers and apparently touching his genitals," The Guardian writes.
At that point, Borat reportedly interrupts the two, bursting in to say, "She's 15. She's too old for you."
In reviews for the film published on Wednesday, critics were naturally gobsmacked by the Giuliani moment, with the Los Angeles Times speaking of a "what-the-hell-am-I-seeing" sequence that will likely lead to "indignant lawsuits," while Deadline said that the "big Giuliani finale is a stunner" and Vanity Fair wrote that "you cannot help wondering exactly what Giuliani may have done next" had he not been interrupted.
Giuliani actually revealed earlier this year that he called the police on Baron Cohen over a prank interview, at the time telling Page Six, in a statement that didn't exactly age well, "I felt good about myself because he didn't get me." Perhaps he meant to conclude that sentence with a Borat-style "not!" Brendan Morrow
Michael Bloomberg isn't just outspending President Trump in Florida. He's dragging the president into a "money pit," a former a former Florida Democratic Party spokesman tells Politico.
After his brief and pricey failed presidential run, the former New York City mayor threw his support and his billions behind Democratic nominee Joe Biden. Bloomberg has specifically focused on the critical swing state of Florida, pledging to spend at least $100 million there, mostly on TV ads, to boost Biden's candidacy. Both Republicans and Democrats aren't quite sure why Bloomberg is spending so much on TV versus social media and voter outreach. But Max Steele, a former Florida Democratic Party spokesman, tells Politico the point is rather to "keep [Trump] mired down" because "Florida is a money pit."
Steve Schale, who leads the pro-Biden Unite the Country super PAC, agreed. Because of Bloomberg and other PACs' overhwleming spending, "Trump has now been committed to the equivalent of land war in Asia by having to spend so much of his money in Florida," Schale told Politico. In turn, Trump hasn't had the money he needs to compete in the north and midwest, namely Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. And with Florida covered by Bloomberg, other Democratic PACs have been able to head for the northern battlegrounds where Trump is falling behind.
The idea that Trump is hemorrhaging money to keep up with Biden is boosted by the fact that his campaign reported having just $63 million in the bank at the end of September, even after raising $1.5 billion since the 2016 election. Read more at Politico. Kathryn Krawczyk
The Department of Justice and Purdue Pharma have reached an $8.3 billion settlement regarding the OxyContin maker's role in the opioid crisis, the DOJ announced during a Wednesday press conference. In addition, Purdue will plead guilty to charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States and violating federal anti-kickback laws, The Associated Press reports.
Purdue will plead guilty to offering doctors kickback payments if they wrote more prescriptions for Purdue's painkillers, as well as using health record software to push for those prescriptions. The company will also have to admit it held up Drug Enforcement Administration investigations into the company as part of the settlement. It will forfeit at least $2 billion to the federal government, pay at least a $3.54 billion criminal fine, and fork over $2.8 billion in damages, among other charges. Purdue filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year, preventing it from paying the criminal fine right away.
The settlement doesn't absolve Purdue's owners and executives from criminal liability, as a criminal investigation into them and the company is still ongoing. It will turn Purdue into a public benefit company managed by a trust and remove its owners, the Sackler family, of any involvement. The company also still has to deal with thousands of claims from local and state officials over the opioid epidemic as they dealt with more than 450,000 overdose deaths in the past 20 years. Purdue has suggested paying $10 billion to settle them all. Kathryn Krawczyk
Pope Francis has reportedly backed civil unions for same-sex couples in a "major step" for the Catholic Church.
The pope in a documentary that premiered on Wednesday at the Rome Film Festival expressed support for creating "a civil union law" for same-sex couples so that "they are legally covered," Catholic News Agency reported.
"Homosexuals have a right to be a part of the family," Francis reportedly says in the film Francesco. "They're children of God and have a right to a family. Nobody should be thrown out, or be made miserable because of it."
The pope also reportedly says in the documentary, "What we have to create is a civil union law. That way they are legally covered."
This, Catholic News Agency noted, was a significant departure from the Vatican's stance on the issue and from the position of Francis' predecessors. The remarks were confirmed by The Associated Press, which noted that Francis had supported civil unions for same-sex couples as archbishop of Buenos Aires but had never done so as pope.
Jesuit priest and America Magazine editor James Martin praised the pope's remarks, describing them as "a major step forward in the church's support for LGBTQ people."
David Gibson, director of Fordham University's Center on Religion and Culture, also told The Washington Post, "This is huge. Looking behind all this, he's basically saying, again, we're not out here to be culture warriors. We're not out here to pick fights. We are out here to build up the family." Brendan Morrow