WHAT'S BREWING
WHITE HOUSE SUED FOR NOT PROVIDING SIGN LANGUAGE INTERPRETER An advocacy group for deaf Americans is suing the White House for failing to provide real-time sign language interpretation during COVID-19 news briefings, saying the omission violates the First Amendment and laws for Americans with disabilities. The National Association of the Deaf says in a federal lawsuit that President Donald Trump and his White House coronavirus task force briefings have not featured an American Sign Language interpreter visible on-screen since the briefings began in March. [HuffPost]
BIDEN TURNS TRUMP'S MOST CALLOUS COVID COMMENT AGAINST HIM Trump’s insensitive “it is what it is” dismissal of the soaring U.S. death toll from the coronavirus is turned against him in presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s new campaign video. The clip released on Tuesday begins with footage of Trump making the comment during an Axios interview that aired on HBO. It was one of several eyebrow-raising statements made by the president in the sit-down chat. The Lincoln Project, meanwhile, has been trolling GOP senators with Trump impersonator endorsements. [HuffPost]
POLL: AMERICANS FAVOR RENEWING $600 UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS Public support for renewing expanded unemployment benefits far outweighs opposition to the expanded benefits that expired last week, a new HuffPost/YouGov survey finds. Earlier this year, Congress passed a law giving people added federal unemployment benefits of $600 per week due to the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic. These payments lapsed over the weekend as negotiations between the White House and congressional leaders devolved into finger-pointing. Americans say, 54% to 29%, that the expanded unemployed benefits should have been renewed. [HuffPost]
PENCE GETS NEAR-INSTANT FACT CHECK ON MAIL-IN VOTING Vice President Mike Pence received a near-instant fact check on social media after he echoed Trump’s baseless claims about mail-in voter fraud to Fox News’ Laura Ingraham. Pence promoted the use of absentee ballots, describing them as “perfectly acceptable,” while criticizing universal mail-in voting as “ripe for fraud.” Twitter users pointed out that mail-in voting and absentee ballots are pretty much the same. [HuffPost]
COLORADO POLICE HANDCUFF BLACK FAMILY FOR 'STEALING' OWN CAR Police in Aurora, Colorado, detained and handcuffed a Black mother and four children at gunpoint after mistakenly identifying the SUV she was driving as a stolen motorcycle. Video of the incident shared by witness Jenni Wurtz shows Brittany Gilliam and four children, including her sister, two nieces and 6-year-old daughter, lying face down on the asphalt in a strip mall parking lot, surrounded by officers. “I actually didn’t know what I was watching when I first started seeing what was happening. I’d never seen a gun that close,” Wurtz told CBS. [HuffPost]
HUSBAND OF LA PROSECUTOR CHARGED WITH PULLING GUN ON PROTESTERS The husband of Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey has been charged with pointing a gun at Black Lives Matter members who demonstrated outside the couple’s home the day before she faced a primary election in March. The state attorney general filed three misdemeanor charges against David Lacey for assault with a firearm for the March 2 incident. Lacey, 66, pointed a gun at demonstrators who protested outside the couple’s home before dawn on March 2 and said “I will shoot you,” according to video. [HuffPost] |