| THE BIG STORY Top Republicans aren’t backing Trump’s idea to delay the election As is occasionally the case, a tweet from President Donald Trump sent the political world into a tailspin.
“With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history,” Trump tweeted Thursday morning. “It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???”
Let’s get one thing clear: The president does not have the legal power to move an election, not even amid a national emergency.
But it’s becoming evident that if he pursues the idea, he won’t have a lot of support — top Republican leaders want no part of Trump’s suggestion to delay November’s election.
Washington State’s Attorney General Bob Ferguson prepped in March to sue if Trump tried to postpone the election. Back then, the Trump campaign called it “the dumbest thing.” Now, Ferguson says he is ready to file a lawsuit in 24 hours if the president tries.
STAYING ON TOP OF THIS Obama used his John Lewis eulogy to condemn Trump’s response to the Portland protests
In a powerful eulogy, former president Barack Obama connected what civil rights icon John Lewis endured with the current political moment. Obama compared the federal government using violence against protesters in Portland with the crackdown on civil rights protesters.
“George Wallace may be gone, but we can witness our federal government sending agents to use tear gas and batons against peaceful demonstrators,” Obama said.
Wallace was a segregationist governor who ordered state troopers “to use whatever measures are necessary to prevent” the march from Selma to Montgomery that John Lewis planned to lead. Police violently broke up the demonstration, using tear gas and clubs to beat up hundreds of marchers, including Lewis.
We gathered some emotional photos of people paying their respect to Lewis.
Joe Raedle / Getty Images SNAPSHOTS Former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain has died from the coronavirus at 74. One of the country's most prominent Black Republicans, Cain was a candidate in the 2012 GOP presidential primary. He died almost a month after he was hospitalized with COVID-19.
An anti-mask lawmaker took a statement about transphobia and replaced “LGBTQ” with “unmasked.” Pennsylvania state Rep. Russ Diamond put out a statement that criticized “hateful comments toward [the] unmasked community,” but which also subtly mocked a transgender state health official.
A Florida school district’s video promotion for its reopening is being called “apocalyptic” and “sad.” The video the school district shared on Facebook shows teachers in shields, masks, and lab coats, students in masks, and various ways they'll be distanced in the classroom and at lunch. It, well, uh… it’s not not depressing.
Breonna Taylor is on the cover of O Magazine — the first one ever without Oprah. Calls for justice have grown louder on behalf of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman who was killed by police in Louisville after officers broke down the door of her home. In announcing the magazine cover, Oprah Winfrey said, “Breonna Taylor had dreams. They all died with her the night five bullets shattered her body and her future.”
O Magazine MISCONDUCT BEHIND THE SCENES Dozens of Ellen Show employees say executive producers engaged in rampant sexual misconduct and harassment By now, it’s well established that working on The Ellen Degeneres Show is a coveted position in Hollywood. But according to dozens of men and women who work behind the scenes, the office is a place where sexual harassment and misconduct by top executive producers runs rampant.
One ex-employee said head writer and executive producer Kevin Leman asked him if he could give him a hand job or perform oral sex in a bathroom at a company party in 2013. Another said they separately saw Leman grab a production assistant’s penis.
Many of Leman’s targets, employees added, were lower-level and younger employees who felt they lacked any power to speak up.
We spoke to 36 former employees, many of whom independently corroborated incidents of harassment, sexual misconduct, and assault from top producers like Leman.
TAKE A NICE BREAK Slow down and enjoy these longreads Why does Indian Matchmaking make my culture seem so burdensome? Shows like Indian Matchmaking and Family Karma are entertaining, writes Scaachi Koul, “but when will South Asian people get reality TV that doesn't depict our culture as being a drag?”
The case for face feminization surgery. Facial feminization surgery describes a set of complex procedures designed to “feminize” the face. It’s also expensive. Like, really expensive. To make it accessible and give trans people true agency over it, Alex V. Green writes, “requires completely reimagining the capitalist medical system.”
Lisa Rinna’s shamelessness saved The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Alessa Dominguez explores how the soap star and QVC queen's utter shamelessness has revived the franchise: “No one has managed to make the most of her time on the franchise quite like Lisa Rinna.”
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