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| Presented By Facebook |
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| Axios AM |
| By Mike Allen ·Oct 27, 2020 |
| 🗳️ Happy Tuesday — one week out! Today's Smart Brevity™ count: 1,141 words ... 4½ minutes. ⚡ Situational awareness: Mike Bloomberg is plowing an additional $20 million into this election, flooding airwaves in North Carolina, Texas and Arizona to promote down-ballot candidates who share his climate views, Axios' Hans Nichols reports. Go deeper. |
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| 1 big thing: Virus crushes hospitals |
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| Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios |
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| Some states are seeing dangerous levels of coronavirus hospitalizations, with hospitals warning that they could soon become overwhelmed if more action isn't taken to slow the spread, Axios' Caitlin Owens reports. - Why it matters: Patients can only receive good care if there's enough to go around.
The big picture: The problem is particularly acute in rural parts of the Mountain West and the Midwest, where health care workers are scarce. - The Utah Hospital Association has warned that the state's situation is becoming so dire that hospitals are expecting to begin rationing care within a week or two, per The Salt Lake Tribune.
- El Paso has issued a new stay-at-home order in response to overwhelmed hospitals, and additional beds are being set up in the city's convention center.
Several Republican governors continue to resist statewide mask mandates. - When cases surged earlier on, "our governments reacted," Megan Ranney, an emergency medicine professor at Brown University, told the Washington Post. "We closed bars. We closed restaurants. We enforced mask mandates. And I'm not seeing a lot of that nationally right now."
The bottom line: Pandemic fatigue, politicization of the virus and the upcoming holiday season all make it almost certain that the situation will get worse before it gets better. |
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| 2. Justice Amy Coney Barrett |
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| Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images |
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| Just over an hour after the 52-48 Senate vote to confirm her, Justice Clarence Thomas swore in his new Supreme Court colleague, Amy Coney Barrett, at 9:17 p.m. during a ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House. - Her husband, Jesse Barrett, held the Bible.
- The vote stuck to party lines with the exception of Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who's in a tough re-election fight and voted against Barrett.
Why it matters: Barrett's choice of Thomas, the court's most conservative justice, symbolized the conservative majority — perhaps for years to come — that was cemented by her confirmation. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) sits with guests on the South Lawn ahead of the swearing-in. Photo: Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images Barrett said in brief remarks after President Trump spoke: A judge declares independence not only from Congress and the president, but also from the private beliefs that might otherwise move her. ... My fellow Americans, even though we judges don't face elections, we still work for you. ... The oath that I have solemnly taken tonight means, at its core, that I will do my job without any fear or favor, and that I will do so independently of both the political branches and of my own preferences. I love the Constitution and the democratic republic that it establishes, and I will devote myself to preserving it. Video. Know the new court ... Graphic: AP. *Gorsuch was raised Catholic but attends a Protestant church. |
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| 3. Biden's future foretold |
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| Photo: "Axios on HBO" |
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| In a sign of the squeeze Joe Biden will face if elected, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) told Alexi McCammond on "Axios on HBO" that she and other members of "The Squad" would expect him to make a liberal turn. - Also, progressive donors, activists and leaders are pushing hard for Sen. Elizabeth Warren to head the Treasury Department, NBC's Alex Seitz-Wald reports.
Why it matters: Progressives have largely refrained from publicly criticizing Biden in the lead-up to the election, even though he hasn't signed on to their most far-reaching policies. Instead, they're focusing solely on beating Trump. - But the comments by Omar and others reflect the pressure campaign they'll launch if he's elected to ensure that their liberal policies become law.
Watch a clip. |
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| A vote counted is a voice heard |
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| Check your registration status, explore voting options in your state and get access to the latest, official information from election authorities in our Voting Information Center on Facebook and Instagram. Explore the Voting Information Center now |
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| 4. Axios-Ipsos poll: Americans pan feds on pandemic |
 Data: Axios/Ipsos poll (±3.3% margin of error for total sample). Chart: Andrew Witherspoon/Axios Americans think every big institution has improved in handling the pandemic except the federal government, which they feel has gotten much worse, Axios' Margaret Talev writes from the new Axios/Ipsos Coronavirus Index. - Why it matters: The findings suggest people see President Trump and his political team as one of the biggest impediments to turning things around.
- Four in five of the 1,079 U.S. adults polled (margin of error: ±3.3 points) say they're worried about COVID-19 outbreaks.
Barely half of Republicans said the federal government's handling has improved while one in five said it has gotten worse. - One in four independents, and one in 10 Democrats, said it improved.
What they're saying: The coronavirus "is the issue of this election," said Cliff Young, president of Ipsos U.S. Public Affairs. "People are just looking around at the facts on the ground. ... [T]here's been no coordinated response to the coronavirus at the national level." - At the local level, by contrast, people see "specific, concrete things" like stickers on the ground for social distancing at stores where they shop, or modifications to schooling.
- "When they think of the federal government, they're just thinking of the overall mess. There's no end in sight."
Share this graphic. |
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| 5. Cruz: Trump's Hunter Biden attacks aren't working |
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| Photo: "Axios on HBO" |
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| Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told "Axios on HBO" he doesn't think the Trump campaign's focus on the Biden family's business dealings has any sway with voters. - After watching last week's Trump-Biden debate with Jonathan Swan, Cruz was not a fan of President Trump's strategy to attack Hunter Biden: "I don't think it moves a single voter."
"I think we should be unifying, we should be explaining, we should be lifting people up. I think it's a turnout election. But my assessment of turnout is the left is showing up no matter what," Cruz added. |
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| 6. Scoop: Lincoln Project will live on |
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| Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios |
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| The Lincoln Project — the former GOP consultants who have trolled President Trump all year with clever, ruthless ads — plans to continue as a media business after the election, sources tell Axios' Sara Fischer: - The group, formed in 2019, recently signed with the United Talent Agency to help build out Lincoln Media, and is weighing offers from TV studios, podcast networks and book publishers.
- It has attracted interest from TV studios looking for help to develop a "House of Cards"-like fiction series.
Why it matters: Lincoln is part of a new trend of activists developing massive audiences for political influence, then spinning them into commercial media. Catch up quick: The Lincoln Project — founded by prominent "Never Trump" Republicans including George Conway, Reed Galen, Jennifer Horn, Steve Schmidt, John Weaver and Rick Wilson — has transformed from an election-focused advertising PAC into a powerhouse with millions of followers. Share this story. |
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| 7. Space under Biden |
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| Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios |
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| Joe Biden hasn't gone out of his way to talk about space during his campaign, but the final frontier might have to compete with other scientific priorities if he's elected president, Axios' Miriam Kramer and Hans Nichols report. - While he has spoken broadly of the need to invest trillions of dollars in research and science, Biden's top scientific priority will be fighting climate change on Earth, not planning new missions to the Moon and Mars.
Go deeper. |
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| 8. Nobel winner: "Science is on the ballot" |
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| Photo: "Axios on HBO" |
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| Jennifer Doudna, who shared the Nobel Prize in chemistry earlier this month for her work on the gene-editing tool CRISPR, told Ina Fried for "Axios on HBO" that the science itself has been under assault from the Trump administration. - "I think now we're seeing kind of an extreme case where we have a president who is telling his followers that ... if they vote for his opponent, that ... his opponent will ... listen to scientists, as though that is a terrible thing."
More from the interview. |
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| 9. 🎓 Colleges' coronavirus cuts "hit bone" |
| "[T]he persistence of the economic downturn is taking a devastating financial toll [on universities large and small], pushing many to lay off or furlough employees, delay graduate admissions and even cut or consolidate core programs like liberal arts departments," the N.Y. Times' Shawn Hubler reports (subscription). - Even Harvard, with its $41.9 billion endowment, reports "a $10 million deficit that has prompted belt tightening."
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| 10. Shutdown startups: Puppy delivery |
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| A dog named Honey waits to board a plane in May. Photo: Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images |
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| "Need a Pandemic Puppy ASAP? ... [S]pecialists crisscross the country by air and ground to bring dogs to their new homes," writes The Wall Street Journal's Michael M. Phillips in an A-hed. - By air and ground, there's increased demand for the pet-delivery industry during this time of decreased travel when a family's perfect pup might be found online thousands of miles away.
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