BREAKING OVERNIGHT … AP: “Trump commutes longtime friend Roger Stone’s prison sentence,” by Jill Colvin and Eric Tucker: “President Donald Trump has commuted the sentence of his longtime political confidant Roger Stone, intervening in extraordinary fashion in a criminal case that was central to the Russia investigation and that concerned the president’s own conduct.
“The move came Saturday, just days before Stone was to begin serving a 40-month prison sentence for lying to Congress, witness tampering and obstructing the House investigation into whether Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election.
“The action, which Trump had foreshadowed in recent days, underscores the president’s lingering rage over special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation and is part of a continuing effort by the president and his administration to rewrite the narrative of a probe that has shadowed the White House from the outset. Democrats, already alarmed by the Justice Department’s earlier dismissal of the case against Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, denounced the president as further undermining the rule of law.” AP
— JOSH GERSTEIN, KYLE CHENEY and BETSY WOODRUFF SWAN: “Trump acted just after a federal appeals court panel denied a last-ditch bid by Stone to delay an order for him to surrender at a federal prison in Jesup, Ga. next Tuesday. Stone claimed he suffered from health conditions that put him at serious risk of dying if he went to that prison, which is experiencing a coronavirus outbreak.
“Trump’s move to protect a close ally from charges stemming from a probe that also included an investigation of Trump’s own conduct is certain to set off explosive recriminations in the Democratically controlled House, where leaders have long said clemency for Trump’s inner circle would amount to obstruction of justice. It also comes despite Attorney General Bill Barr’s declaration that Stone’s prosecution was ‘righteous’ and that his sentence was fair.” POLITICO
SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI RESPONDS: “Congress will take action to prevent this type of brazen wrongdoing. Legislation is needed to ensure that no President can pardon or commute the sentence of an individual who is engaged in a cover-up campaign to shield that President from criminal prosecution.
“Roger Stone’s seven felony crimes, which include lying to Congress and witness tampering, constitute grave crimes. All who commit these illegal acts should be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”
HOW IT PLAYED: NYT, with this two-column hed: “TRUMP COMMUTES STONE’S SENTENCE ON SEVEN FELONIES … Friend Requested Help From President After Lying to Congress in Inquiry” … N.Y. POST, with a small hed: “TRUMP SPRINGS ROGER STONE” … WSJ … WAPO … Check out the February NYT profile of Stone
FLYNN’S COMEBACK? … ANITA KUMAR and GABBY ORR: “Trump allies want Michael Flynn to stage a campaign trail comeback”: “Four years ago, Michael Flynn, an intelligence officer with a three-decade military career, became a MAGA star introducing Donald Trump at raucous campaign rallies.
“Now, after a prolonged battle against what Trump’s biggest supporters see as a rigged judicial system staffed by Obama-era bureaucrats, Flynn’s status as a deep state-fighting warrior has only grown. And with Flynn on the verge of potentially having criminal charges dismissed altogether, Trump allies are pushing the campaign to give Flynn the ultimate comeback: hitting the campaign trail for the president, according to nine people inside or close to the Trump campaign.
“‘Great surrogate — lots of people would come to see him,’ said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Trump ally. ‘He’s the perfect example of deep state victimization. Pretty powerful.’
“Three people affiliated with the campaign said they would welcome Flynn back — perhaps reprising his role as an opening act at Trump rallies or a TV surrogate — between now and Election Day, although a Trump campaign official said the campaign has not approached Flynn about taking a formal position.
“The move would bring Flynn back to where it all started in 2016, but this time emboldened by his journey — from little-known campaign surrogate, to White House national security adviser, to indicted Russia probe target, to, potentially, the man who defeated Robert Mueller’s prosecutors.” POLITICO
Good Saturday morning.
Congress addressed the affordability of Covid-19 testing and treatment. Cancer care needs the same. It’s time to reduce out-of-pocket costs and ensure cost-sharing assistance benefits cancer patients. Congress: cancer patients need you to act quickly to remove hurdles to quality care.
WHAT AMERICA IS READING … THE NATION’S FRONTS: Arizona Republic: “Mutation in Arizona virus strain may make it more infectious” … San Diego Union-Tribune: “STATES TO RELEASE INMATES TO EASE CRISIS” … Orlando Sentinel: “DeSantis: State ‘working hard’ to limit fatalities” … Palm Beach Post: “Another day of 11,000-plus Florida cases” … Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Hospital beds added as new cases soar” …
… Des Moines Register: “Ernst urged to use whiteness to push Black issues forward” … Star Tribune (Minneapolis): “Trump lets crony Stone skip prison” … Dallas Morning News: “Trump’s endorsement to be put to test”
NEW ENGLAND WAKES UP TO QUESTIONS ABOUT TRUMP CANCELING RALLY: Union Leader (Manchester, N.H.): “Tropical Storm Fay postpones Trump’s NH rally” … Portsmouth Herald (N.H.): “Campaign denies rally canceled due to low turnout” … Boston Globe: “Delay of Trump event in N.H. spurs questions”
NYT’S JONATHAN MARTIN: “Georgia. Ohio. Texas. Democrats Tell Biden to Go Big (He’s Being Cautious)”: “With President Trump’s poll numbers sliding in traditional battlegrounds as well as conservative-leaning states, and money pouring into Democratic campaigns, Joseph R. Biden Jr. is facing rising pressure to expand his ambitions, compete aggressively in more states and press his party’s advantage down the ballot.
“In a series of phone calls, Democratic lawmakers and party officials have lobbied Mr. Biden and his top aides to seize what they believe could be a singular opportunity not only to defeat Mr. Trump but to rout him and discredit what they believe is his dangerous style of racial demagogy.
“This election, the officials argue, offers the provocative possibility of a new path to the presidency through fast-changing states like Georgia and Texas, and a chance to install a generation of lawmakers who can cement Democratic control of Congress and help redraw legislative maps following this year’s census.
“Mr. Biden’s campaign, though, is so far hewing to a more conservative path. It is focused mostly on a handful of traditional battlegrounds, where it is only now scaling up and naming top aides despite having claimed the nomination in April.” NYT
GOP CONVENTION LATEST — “Republicans tap top fundraiser in mad scramble for convention cash,” by Alex Isenstadt: “Republicans have tapped a top party fundraiser as they race to lock down money for their convention — a task that’s been complicated by a tight timetable and growing concerns about holding a large-scale event during the pandemic.
“Jeff Miller, a veteran fundraiser with deep connections to the tight-knit world of Republican donors, will serve as national finance chair for the late-August convention in Jacksonville, Fla., according to three people familiar with the appointment.
“Republicans are scrambling to raise millions of dollars after President Donald Trump moved most of the event from Charlotte. They say they’ve received several millions in commitments toward a fundraising goal of $20 to $25 million, but declined to be more specific.”
CORONAVIRUS RAGING …
— NYT: “Texas and Georgia Weigh New Restrictions as U.S. Cases Rise”: “In Texas, which reported record numbers of daily cases four times this week, Gov. Greg Abbott signaled the possibility of a new economic ‘lockdown’ if the state cannot curtail the caseloads and hospitalizations that have made it one of the country’s worst hot spots in the pandemic. Mr. Abbott, a Republican, predicted in a televised interview that ‘things will get worse’ and said that he might take steps even more drastic than a statewide face-mask requirement that has angered members of his party. …
“In Georgia, which reported more than 4,000 new cases on Friday, Atlanta officials said they were preparing to shift back to ‘Phase 1’ guidelines, which call for residents to largely stay at home. Most of Georgia’s cases have been concentrated in the counties making up the Atlanta metropolitan area. Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms of Atlanta, who said she had tested positive for the coronavirus this week, issued a mask mandate in the city on Wednesday and added further limits on large gatherings.
“Georgia’s growing concerns were also underscored when Gov. Brian Kemp said that the state was again transforming a convention center in Atlanta into a makeshift medical center as hospitals were filling with patients.”
— WSJ: “Covid-19 Cases Jump in Sun Belt Nursing Homes,” by Christopher Weaver, Anna Wilde Mathews and Jon Kamp: “Covid-19 infections are accelerating in Sun Belt nursing homes, federal data show, a sign the coronavirus is reaching the most vulnerable people there.
“So far, emerging outbreaks of Covid-19 in Tampa, Fla., Phoenix, Houston and elsewhere in the South have been less deadly than the initial U.S. wave that emerged in March and April. One reason experts cite: Victims in states that raced to reopen bars, restaurants and churches after the initial lockdown tend to be younger and better able to fight off the virus.
“Rises in nursing-home cases threaten to break that pattern, a Wall Street Journal analysis of federal nursing-home data shows. Facilities in the Houston and Tampa metropolitan areas marked a nearly 800% cumulative increase in new cases among residents from the last week of May through the week ended June 28, the most recent period available, with more than 400 new cases during that period in both cities. In Phoenix, the increase topped 900%, more than three times the national increase, as nursing homes reported 545 new cases. Data from Miami and San Antonio nursing homes showed fast growth in cases as well.”
— WAPO: “As the pandemic surges, old people alarm their adult kids by playing bridge and getting haircuts”
DAVID SIDERS: “Trump gets some good election news: GOP voter registrations outpace Dems”: “It was a flicker of hope for Donald Trump in an otherwise dismal summer. Late last month, the Democratic data firm TargetSmart found that while new voter registrations had plummeted amid the coronavirus pandemic, those who were registering in competitive states tended to be whiter, older and less Democratic than before.
“When he saw the numbers, Ben Wessel, executive director of NextGen America, said he ‘got nervous,’ and other Democratic-leaning groups felt the same. The report seemed to confirm what state elections officials and voter registration groups had been seeing in the field for weeks: Neither Democrats nor Republicans had been registering many voters during the pandemic. But Democrats were suffering disproportionately from the slowdown.”
TRUMP’S SATURDAY — The president will leave the White House at 5 p.m. en route to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. He will visit the hospital at 5:30 p.m. Trump will depart at 6:35 p.m. and travel back to the White House. He will arrive on the South Lawn at 7 p.m.
DEEP DIVE ON VAL DEMINGS — “When Val Demings Stood by Police Officers Accused of Excessive Force,” by Matt Dixon and Maya King: “An 84-year-old World War II veteran named Daniel Daley broke his neck outside a Florida bar after being slammed to the ground by an Orlando police officer young enough to be his grandson. It happened in 2010, after Daley left his car in the wrong parking lot. He came out as a tow truck arrived. An argument ensued. The next thing the octogenarian remembered was being in the hospital.
“‘A body hip check … slammed him on his head and broke his neck,’ Sean Douglas Hill, a bartender at The Caboose, who knew Daley well, said in a deposition. ‘And it cracked like a watermelon … You just heard a pop. I had never heard anything so horrific.’
“The Orlando police chief defended the officer, 26-year-old Travis Lamont. She told a local newspaper, ‘After a review of the defensive tactic form by the training staff and Officer Lamont’s chain of command, it appears the officer performed the technique within department guidelines.’ A jury disagreed that the encounter was defensible, awarding Daley $880,000 in damages.
“The chief was Val Demings, now in her fourth year as a U.S. representative from Florida and one of the leading candidates to be Joe Biden’s vice presidential running mate.” POLITICO
SCOTUS WATCH — “With wave of major rulings, Roberts and Supreme Court emerge as powerful counterweight to Trump and Congress,” by WaPo’s Robert Barnes: “The Supreme Court ended a momentous term with a trove of decisions more reflective of public opinion than of the nation’s divisive political discourse, and Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. emerged as a formidable counterpart to President Trump and the Congress.
“‘This is one of the most consequential terms for a chief justice in modern history, given his role as the decisive vote in the most important cases and the landmark opinions he wrote,’ said former solicitor general Gregory G. Garre, who, like Roberts, was chosen by President George W. Bush. It was a term, and performance by Roberts, that had those who closely watch the court searching for historical comparisons.” WaPo
THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION — “U.S. foreign aid agency hit with low morale as White House works to appoint Trump loyalists,” by CNBC’s Brian Schwartz: “President Donald Trump’s former body man entered the White House after he was chosen to lead the Presidential Personnel Office earlier this year with a message to a team of liaisons: sweep out anyone disloyal to the commander in chief. John McEntee, Trump’s new personnel head, reportedly called on the group in that meeting in February to find any so-called ‘Never Trump’ political appointees and bring their names back to him.
“McEntee later pushed out many of those liaisons he called upon to help with his purge. They were then replaced by a group of younger, more loyal representatives in positions that historically act as a go-between the White House and various agencies, according to people familiar with the matter who declined to be named. …
“One of the loyal Trump White House liaisons backed by McEntee, these people said, is William Maloney, who now works with the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID. The department that focuses on providing foreign aid to countries around the world and boasts a budget of nearly $40 billion.”
— “A Bannon ally is the latest contentious hire at USAID,” by Nahal Toosi: “A former Breitbart writer and Steve Bannon ally is joining the U.S. Agency for International Development, a few years after her departure from the White House.
“Tera Dahl, who briefly served as the deputy chief of staff at the White House-based National Security Council in 2017, is the latest in a string of hires that have alarmed career employees at USAID. She’s being given the title of senior adviser at USAID, an agency spokesperson confirmed.” POLITICO
FOR YOUR RADAR — “Bankruptcy Is Better Option for Small Businesses With New Law,” by WSJ’s Shane Shifflett: “Bankruptcy lawyers expect a surge in small-business failures in the coming months. The new law, they say, will make many business owners realize that filing for bankruptcy might be a better option than struggling for years to dig out of a financial hole, especially with the outlook so unpredictable. …
“The new law could force more creditors like suppliers and landlords to the negotiating table sooner. Under the old rules, most struggling small businesses liquidated without invoking bankruptcy, using the cash to pay their creditors, according to a 2008 analysis of credit records by Edward R. Morrison, a Columbia Law School professor.”
CLICKER — “The nation’s cartoonists on the week in politics,” edited by Matt Wuerker — 16 funnies
GREAT WEEKEND READS, curated by Margy Slattery and the staff of POLITICO Magazine:
— “The Lives Upended Around a $20 Cheeseburger,” by WaPo’s Jessica Contrera: “A cash-strapped rancher, a virus-stricken meatpacker, an underpaid chef, a hungry engineer: The journey of a single burger during a pandemic.” WaPo
— “The Political Education of Killer Mike,” by Donovan Ramsey in GQ’s August issue: “How Michael Render—a rapper from Atlanta who also happens to be a Second Amendment–loving, Bernie Sanders–boosting, unapologetically pro-Black businessman—became one of the loudest and most original political voices in the country.” GQ
— “The Unburdened Believer,” by New York magazine’s Olivia Nuzzi: “It may not matter who the face of the campaign is, since the president will overtake and overshadow any hired messaging guns. But if it does, [Hogan] Gidley is an interesting choice.” New York
— “The Hero of Goodall Park,” by Tom Junod in ESPN: “When a car careened onto a baseball field in Sanford, Maine, during a Babe Ruth game in 2018, it set in motion a true-crime mystery 50 years in the making.” ESPN
— “Slate Star Codex and Silicon Valley’s War Against the Media,” by Gideon Lewis-Kraus in The New Yorker: “How a controversial rationalist blogger became a mascot and martyr in a struggle against the New York Times.” New Yorker
— “The Dangerous Race for the Covid Vaccine,” by POLITICO’s Elizabeth Ralph: “The international competition for a coronavirus vaccine harkens back to the golden age of Edison and the Wright Brothers. But excesses of national pride and one-upmanship are threatening to overwhelm the common good.” POLITICO
— “When Senator Joe McCarthy Defended Nazis,” by Larry Tye in Smithsonian Magazine’s July/August issue: “In a nearly forgotten episode, the Wisconsin firebrand sided with the Germany military in a war crimes trial, raising questions about his anti-Semitism.” Smithsonian
— “Think Tank in the Tank,” by Sol Stern in Democracy: “I spent two decades writing for City Journal, and I cherished it and the Manhattan Institute’s independence. Then came the Trump era.” Democracy
Send tips to Eli Okun and Garrett Ross at p[email protected].
STAFFING UP — “Biden campaign taps Aaron Keyak to lead Jewish outreach,” by Jewish Insider’s Jacob Kornbluh
TRANSITION — Jim Tunnessen has been hired as chief information officer at the National Endowment for the Arts. He is currently chief information officer and chief digital officer at Voice of America, and is a USDA and DHS alum.
WEEKEND WEDDING — Remley Johnson and Robert Flock, via NYT: “She is now [Donald Rumsfeld’s] chief of staff. Mr. Flock is a lobbyist in the Washington office of the Credit Union National Association … The couple had planned a small wedding, but after the coronavirus pandemic, their celebration became even smaller. On July 4, with about 15 guests the couple were married at the Equinox Hotel in Manchester, Vt.”
BIRTHDAYS: Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) is 74 … Garrett Graff is 39 … Chris Maloney, partner at Black Rock Group … Page Gardner (h/ts Jon Haber) … Josh Wachs, president and lead adviser at Wachs Strategies … Paul Johnson … Gracie Boatright (h/ts Teresa Vilmain) … Jason Recher … Emily Benavides, comms director for Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) … Urmila Venugopalan, EVP for global operations and strategy at the MPAA … Daniel L. Doctoroff is 62 … Max Levchin is 45 … Valery Galasso … Olivia Chow is 34 … Stephen Goodin … Arthur Bushkin … Lindsey Kozberg, principal at Park and Velayos … Lindsay Rapkin … Nora Connors … John Becker … KayAnn Schoeneman … Todd DeLorenzo … Stacy Merrick Montejo … Paige Rusher, press secretary for Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) …
… Anne Sokolov, COS for Rep. Max Rose (D-N.Y.) … Kate Sokolov … Joe Wall, managing director of government affairs at Goldman Sachs (h/t Dina Powell McCormick) … Kurt Owermohle is 61 … Andrew Kirell … Meet the Press’ Ali Schmitz … Bill Bozeman … POLITICO’s Sophie Read and Katie Rice … Matthew J. Rosenbaum … Stephen Berger is 81 … Ari Teman … Michael Wong … Georgia Godfrey … Corey Boles is 43 … The City’s Alyssa Katz … Stephen Hostelley … Laurie Goldberg … Tristan Berne … Jamie Stiehm … Ryan Van Grack … Scott Graves … Matt Lahr, deputy assistant DNI for strategic comms … Susy Schultz … Donna Tappin … Zach Simon … Chris Vaeth … Bruce Greenstein … Jenn Connell Kramer … AMA’s Sandy Marks … Mike Wittenwyler … Jim Anderson … Katie TePas Graff
THE SHOWS (Full Sunday show listings here):
COVID-19 has shone a spotlight on the significant barriers to affordable health care that cancer patients have long faced. Policymakers took action to address the affordability of COVID-19 testing and treatment. Lawmakers must do the same for cancer patients by removing the red tape of prior authorization and step therapy, reducing out-of-pocket costs, and ensuring cost-sharing assistance directly benefits patients. Learn more.