MPR News Update

Daily Digest for May 22, 2020

Posted at 7:35 a.m. by Cody Nelson

 
Good morning and welcome to the long weekend. Here's your last Capitol View for a few days.

Amy Klobuchar is definitely a vice presidential contender. Multiple news outlets have reported that Joe Biden’s campaign has asked the Minnesota Senator to undergo formal vetting to be considered the Democratic veep nominee. CBS first reported the news.

But Klobuchar is far from Biden’s only option. CBS reports that she’s one of several possible contenders undergoing the vetting: “While several are expected to consent to a vetting, at least one potential contender has bowed out. Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat of New Hampshire, who is running for reelection this year, declined Biden's invitation to be considered, according to a person familiar with her decision. But Senator Maggie Hassan, the other New Hampshire senator, has agreed to be vetted, according to local news reports.”

The list of potential veep picks remains quite long, despite Klobuchar’s name being tossed around for a while. Just yesterday, The Hill and CBS reports floated these names as other contenders: Florida U.S. Rep. Val Demings; New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham; Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth; Nevada U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, California U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, former Georgia lawmaker Stacey Abrams; former national security adviser Susan Rice; and Massachusetts U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Phew, that’s a lot. 

A select committee will handle the vetting process. Its leaders, via The Hill, are these four: “Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti (D) and longtime Biden adviser Cynthia Hogan.”

And we'll end on some coronavirus news. The U.S. government could've saved 36,000 lives if it started social distancing just a week earlier. NPR reports on a new study from Columbia University: "In the analysis, researchers applied transmission models to data drawn from the pandemic's actual course county-by-county in the U.S. — the worst-hit nation in the world. The main focus of the study was the period from March 15 to May 3, when U.S. states and counties implemented 'measures enforcing social distancing and restricting individual contact.' And if restrictions had gone into effect in the U.S. two weeks earlier, researchers found, nearly 54,000 people would still be alive and nearly a million COVID-19 cases would have been avoided."
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