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Thursday, June 11

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JEFFERSON DAVIS FALLS Nationwide anger over police brutality and systemic racism has turned toward symbols of America’s troubled past still scattered across the country: statues honoring Confederate figures and colonizers that have long invited heated debate. In Portsmouth, Virginia, protesters covered a large Confederate monument dating to the 1800s with trash bags and spray paint. A crowd of demonstrators later took bolt cutters and sledgehammers to the heads of the statues, removing them as a marching band blasted in the background. In Richmond, Virginia, demonstrators removed a statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. [HuffPost]

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TRUMP IS ACTING LIKE CORONAVIRUS IS GONE AS 2ND WAVE HITS On Wednesday, the number of U.S. coronavirus cases leapt passed 2 million, with outbreaks growing in 21 states and more than a dozen states seeing record surges. But President Donald Trump’s latest messages on the pandemic are almost indistinguishable from the one he was sending at the very beginning: Everything is under control. “We’ve made every decision correctly,” Trump said in a rambling address. With hardly a mention of the virus and its ongoing devastation, he claimed, “We may have some embers or some ashes or we may have some flames coming, but we’ll put them out. We’ll stomp them out.” Meanwhile, Trump planned a June 19 campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where there are no restrictions on large gatherings. [HuffPost]

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OVER 1,250 EX-DOJ WORKERS DEMAND PROBE OF A.G. BARR More than 1,250 former Justice Department workers have signed a letter calling for an independent investigation into Attorney General William Barr’s role in last week’s violent removal of anti-racism demonstrators near the White House. The letter addressed to DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz called Barr’s role in the protesters’ June 1 removal ahead of Trump’s photo-op at a nearby church “disturbing” as well as a likely violation of the demonstrators’ constitutional rights. [HuffPost]

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TRUMP BELIEVES 'DEFUND THE POLICE' IS A POLITICAL GIFT While Trump’s unhinged tweets may have already stepped on the message, senior White House aides are betting that his conspiracy theories about a 75-year-old Buffalo, New York, protester will fade quickly while “defund the police” could be a key campaign flashpoint for months to come. “The Democrats are giving a wink and a nod to the ‘defund the police’ movement all on their own ― even if Biden was hedging all over himself,” a senior White House aide told HuffPost, referring to Joe Biden’s careful statement on Monday. [HuffPost]

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TRUMP CAMPAIGN DEMANDS CNN APOLOGIZE FOR POLL THAT  SHOWS HIM LOSING Trump’s reelection campaign is demanding that CNN apologize for a poll that shows Biden with a 14-point lead over the president. The campaign also wants the news network to retract the poll, supposedly because it’s biased (but really because it points out the serious challenges Trump faces in his quest for a second term). The campaign stated its position in a cease-and-desist letter to CNN President Jeff Zucker. It argued that the CNN poll is “designed to mislead American voters through a biased questionnaire and skewed sampling.” [HuffPost]

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TRUMP 'WON'T CONSIDER' RENAMING BASES NAMED FOR CONFEDERATE GENERALS Trump said he “will not even consider” renaming military bases named for Confederate generals, claiming it would be a disrespect to the armed forces. Trump, in remarks he tweeted and directed press secretary Kayleigh McEnany to read at a White House press briefing, did not acknowledge that the bases are named for men who fought during the Civil War to preserve the enslavement of Black people ― America’s “original sin” that still affects the life of Black Americans today. Meanwhile, NASCAR announced Wednesday that it would ban the display of the Confederate flag at all its events and properties. [HuffPost]

WHAT'S BREWING

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MILLIONS OF TAXPAYER DOLLARS ARE GOING TO SCHOOLS THAT PUSH CONVERSION THERAPY Calvary Christian Academy is one of at least nine private schools that participate in voucher or tax credit programs and appear to push LGBTQ students to attend a form of conversion therapy. A 2017 HuffPost investigation found that at least 14% of religious schools in voucher programs advertised anti-gay policies or barred LGBTQ students and staff from admission and employment. Now HuffPost has found that some of these schools go so far as to push a medically discredited and often harmful treatment on their students in an attempt to change their sexual orientation. [HuffPost]

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LEBRON JAMES IS FIGHTING FOR BLACK VOTERS' RIGHTS Spurred by the death of George Floyd, NBA superstar LeBron James said he’s launching a new initiative with a group of other renowned African American athletes and celebrities aimed at protecting Black voting rights. James said Floyd’s death convinced him that he needed “to get out and do a little bit more” to empower and inspire African Americans across the nation to vote in the November election — and also to draw attention to efforts to suppress the votes of minority groups. [HuffPost]

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WHITE HOUSE DOUBLES DOWN ON TRUMP'S SMEAR AGAINST PROTESTER White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany defended Trump’s tweet that falsely accused a 75-year-old anti-racism protester who was shoved to the ground by police of being an “ANTIFA provocateur.” During an interview with “Fox & Friends,” McEnany said Trump was simply raising questions based on a report he saw. The president’s tweet appeared to reference a segment that aired on OANN, a right-wing network that routinely disseminates conspiracy theories. [HuffPost]

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COVID-19 IS SHATTERING SMALL BUSINESSES Small businesses like Split Creek Farm — typically defined by the government as businesses with under 500 employees — have been hit hardest by the pandemic. Most have had to lay off workers and shut their doors in response to regional lockdowns, and as time goes on, many are facing the prospect of never reopening. According to a May report from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, more than one in five said they are no more than two months away from permanently closing. More than 30 million small companies make up 99.9% of all U.S. businesses, and employ just under half of the workforce. [HuffPost]

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EX-JUDGE: TO DISMISS FLYNN CASE IS 'ABUSE OF POWER' A former federal judge appointed to review the Justice Department’s motion to dismiss criminal charges against former national security adviser Michael Flynn said the government’s request should be denied because there is “clear evidence of a gross abuse of prosecutorial power.” Former U.S. District Judge John Gleeson said in a filing that the government “has engaged in highly irregular conduct to benefit a political ally of the President.” It will ultimately be up to Judge Emmet Sullivan and potentially an appeals court whether to accept the Justice Department’s motion to drop the case. [HuffPost]

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GEORGIA'S PRIMARY WAS A NATIONAL SCANDAL Thousands of Georgia voters waited for up to seven hours in lines that stretched blocks during the state’s primary election on Tuesday, and many left before voting. The state’s new voting machines did not work, because of either mechanical failure or poor training of poll workers. Many voters came to wait in line after failing to receive absentee ballots they requested to avoid the in-person threat of coronavirus. And many voters left the lines without having cast their ballots. The worst problems were concentrated in counties and localities with higher Black populations. [HuffPost]

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