POLITICO NIGHTLY: Mike Pence’s abrupt Covid shift

BY RYAN LIZZA AND RENUKA RAYASAM

Presented by

With help from Myah Ward

VEEP IN THOUGHT — Since February there has been a rift inside the White House between the scientists and the politicians over how to contain the spread of coronavirus. Anthony Fauci has been the consistent advocate of a forceful response and an opponent of any sugar-coating of the perils Americans face. President Donald Trump has been the reluctant warrior against the disease who took some major steps early on but soon grew impatient of the stay-at-home restrictions, the masks, and — most of all — the economic calamity that might jeopardize his re-election.

Vice President Mike Pence, the chair of the president’s coronavirus task force, often played the role of bridge between the factions. At the awkward task force briefings that dominated afternoon television in March and April, the three roles of the three men played out as theater: Fauci the doomsayer, Trump the misinformed optimist, and Pence the child of a troubled marriage trying to smooth things over during mom and dad’s public fights.

Pence abruptly reinvented himself as a coronavirus skeptic this week, with comments and an op-ed article that stray into pandemic denialism. In a conference call with governors, Pence incorrectly argued Monday that the spike in cases that almost half of the states are experiencing is simply a function of more testing. In a Wall Street Journal piece published today and headlined “There Isn’t a Coronavirus ‘Second Wave,’” Pence wrote, “The media has tried to scare the American people every step of the way, and these grim predictions of a second wave are no different.”

The op-ed cherry-picked a handful of positive statistics — there are of course bright spots — and emphasized the administration’s record in increasing testing and pumping up the manufacture of personal protective equipment. He boldly predicted a vaccine would be available “by the fall.”

Perhaps most telling, Pence made it clear that the effort to eliminate the disease before a vaccine is ready is not really the goal anymore. Instead, Pence argued that the White House now measures success by a lower level of daily deaths.

“In the past five days,” he wrote, “deaths are down to fewer than 750 a day, a dramatic decline from 2,500 a day a few weeks ago and a far cry from the 5,000 a day that some were predicting.” This purportedly tolerable rate of 750 dead Americans a day would equal 270,000 deaths in a year.

By this afternoon, the news pages of the Journal contradicted much of what Pence had to say. In an interview with the paper, Fauci reiterated that the jump in cases “cannot be explained by increased testing.” He warned that relaxed approaches to social distancing, such as congregating close to lots of people in large venues, and an aversion to mask-wearing would cause the disease to spread.

Pence is scheduled to be with Trump at a rally in Tulsa, Okla. on Saturday, while Fauci told NPR that he hasn’t talked to Trump in two weeks.

But Fauci did agree with Pence on one thing. “People keep talking about a second wave,” he told the newspaper. “We’re still in a first wave.”

Welcome to POLITICO Nightly: Coronavirus Special Edition. I took a trip down memory lane today to watch highlights of Spud Webb winning the 1986 Slam Dunk contest. Reach out with tips: rrayasam@politico.com or on Twitter at @renurayasam.

A message from PhRMA:

America’s biopharmaceutical companies are sharing manufacturing capabilities with each other so that once a treatment or vaccine is ready, they can get it to millions of people fast. And there’s no slowing down. America’s biopharmaceutical companies will continue working day and night until they beat coronavirus. More.

Protesters block traffic on Interstate 395 as they march from Lafayette Park in Washington, D.C. | Getty Images

NIGHTLY INTERVIEW

NOT STICKING TO SPORTS — Atlanta Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce, who is one of seven African American head coaches in the NBA, delivered a speech Monday at a rally in the wake of the killing of Rayshard Brooks, who was shot by an Atlanta police officer on Friday.

In the spring of 2020, during a year of pandemic and protests, more and more players and coaches have stopped trying to maintain the fiction that sports are above the political fray. (For Exhibit 1 of the 1990s effort to preserve the fantasy, watch ESPN’s 10-part Michael Jordan documentary The Last Dance.) LeBron James, Trae Young and other athletes have started a group to encourage African Americans to vote. The NFL has reversed course on allowing players to protest police brutality during the national anthem, and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell even encouraged a team to sign Trump target Colin Kaepernick.

Your host spoke with Pierce about how the NBA’s shutdown might have flattened the curve, whether the league should allow players to kneel during the anthem and how he’s trying to coach over Zoom.

Do you think the league should have been better prepared to handle coronavirus and arrange a less chaotic shutdown?

The abruptness of how we did it was the best thing that happened. It brought awareness to the coronavirus. I think we probably saved a lot of lives.

The Atlanta Hawks weren’t included in league plans to resume the season. How will this affect the young team?

It’s time missed, and you don't really get that time back, wherever you were in your development. If you’re at the peak of your career, everything was put on hold. For our guys specifically because they are young, they're gonna miss out on the game experience and you can't get that back.

And what about building a pipeline of new players?

Obviously you can’t scout or evaluate talent. We’re not sending anyone out to evaluate prospects. I don't believe there are many opportunities for prospects to play both collegiately or at the high school level. You just have to be creative in how you do it. You have to use a lot of past films. You have to do a lot of interviews and conversations. The new norm is different than we're used to, where we just fly around and evaluate, recruit, watch players, study players. All of that is on hold.

When the season resumes, should NBA players be allowed to kneel during the national anthem?

I will support our players. I will support anyone who is bringing awareness and attention to the fact that there’s racism in our country, and the fact that it needs to be addressed and talked about. I'm not so concerned with the act or what form in which they do it.

Do you think players have an obligation to be role models in this moment?

There are a lot of the African American players in our league. African Americans have never been shy about fighting for African Americans. I don't think it’s a higher responsibility for African Americans to protest or call attention to this issue. It’s quite the opposite. We need more white Americans to talk about the issue and bring the issue to the forefront. The burden shouldn’t be on African Americans fighting for African Americans.

Atlanta has now become the latest example of police brutality, when a police officer shot Rayshard Brooks over the weekend.

I’m not surprised, sadly. The issue is a reminder that none of the incidents that we are seeing are isolated. We just happened to see all of them now because they're captured on film. It seems new or it seems random or it seems relevant to what’s going on now. But if you are really paying attention, these things have occurred often. They just haven’t been recorded. It’s not out in public. That’s why the protests continue to occur because it’s a matter of bringing attention to what's going on because it's been ignored for a long time.

Right now is different than any other period of protest that I’ve experienced, but I hope it’s not just a moment.

Are you talking with your players about everything that’s going on right now?

Our team, we meet every Thursday and Sunday, which has been consistent for the past three months. The conversation starts to shift to the coronavirus and it starts to shift to a return a basketball and it starts to shift to the police brutality. It's our way of staying connected and being relevant with each other. We do it over Zoom.

What are your thoughts on the NBA trying to balance its economic ambitions in China with politics and public outrage over the country’s human rights abuses?

I can’t speak to any of that. I’m still worried about Atlanta. That’s out of my jurisdiction. I have no comment on that.

JOIN TOMORROW AT 4 p.m. ET - WOMEN AND COVID-19, SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS IN CRISIS PART III: WOMEN RULE INTERVIEW WITH PADMA LAKSHMI: The coronavirus pandemic has transformed the food industry and the experience of dining out, potentially forever. Join Women Rule editorial director Anna Palmer for a virtual interview with Padma Lakshmi, host of “Top Chef”, to discuss the inspiration behind her new series, ‘Taste The Nation’, as well as the devastating impact of Covid-19 on women chefs and restaurant owners, and how food has the power to connect Americans to their community. REGISTER HERE.

THREE MINUTES (AND COUNTING)

EASY PILL TO SWALLOW — Pharma reporter Sarah Owermohle has just 180 seconds to explain to your host the importance of today’s news that an inexpensive steroid called dexamethasone (“rolls right off the tongue”) helps treat Covid patients and how coronavirus has changed drug development. Can she do it? Watch to see if she can beat the clock.

FIRST IN NIGHTLY

ROCKY MOUNTAIN LOW — Colorado was the first Democratic-run state to reopen from a coronavirus lockdown, and now it’s avoiding the spikes in infection rippling across the West . Its approach could be a lesson for the country on how to reopen effectively, health care reporter Dan Goldberg writes. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis embarked on a slow and methodical economic recovery in late April — even before the White House’s stay-at-home guidelines expired. Polis limited when restaurants and other businesses could reopen, at first allowing only curbside pickups for stores, imposing strict social distancing for salons and other personal services and prohibiting gatherings of more than 10 people. That’s in contrast to neighboring Utah, which never imposed a stay-at-home order and where gyms and dine-in service began on May 1. The average number of new infections has roughly doubled there since the beginning of this month. In Arizona, where casinos, restaurants and gyms opened by mid-May, hospitalizations are up 40 percent since June 1 and the health department recently told hospitals to “fully activate” emergency plans.

 

AROUND THE NATION

‘GLADIATOR TO GUARDIAN’ — Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti on Tuesday embraced a more limited role for law enforcement that could include a diminished budget as he faces growing pressure to defund the city’s powerful police department, Jeremy White and Carla Marinucci write. During a POLITICO California Playbook Virtual Briefing , Garcetti said a key question in the wake of George Floyd’s death is how cities can transform the culture of policing “from a gladiator to a guardian mentality.” A day after Black Lives Matter activists made an extraordinary plea to the Los Angeles City Council, Garcetti supported rising calls to reevaluate police funding. “If we're going to step up to this moment we have to look at all budgets, including police budgets,” Garcetti said. But he insisted that the issue “isn’t about a single budget,” noting that if “you ask three people what ‘defund the police’ means, you’ll get three different opinions.”

Sunshine blues — When images of packed Florida beaches flashed across TV screens, critics predicted overrun hospitals. But that didn’t happen. Now as Florida prepares to host the GOP convention, cases are spiking. Marc Caputo breaks down how concerned Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis — and his political ally Trump — should be, in the latest POLITICO Dispatch.

Listen to the latest POLITICO Dispatch podcast

Flying (slightly) higher — Transportation Security Administration data suggest passengers are heading through security checkpoints at airports at a rate last seen in late March. Despite the uptick, the number of Americans taking flights is still well below rates seen a year ago.

TALKING TO THE EXPERTS

Nightly’s Myah Ward asks: Would it be possible to cure Covid without a vaccine?

“The term cure can be misleading — is cure getting rid of the virus or getting rid of the disease? We do have antiviral drugs for other viruses that can cure chronic infections like hepatitis C virus, and others that very effectively treat HIV without completely eliminating it. In addition, there are drugs that can reduce disease severity without actually targeting the virus itself. Developing either an effective antiviral or an effective treatment that ameliorates Covid-19 symptoms would have a major impact on public health, as they would reduce mortality.

However, it’s much less likely that a drug could substitute for a vaccine at fully preventing Covid-19, especially at population scale. A huge advantage of vaccines is that they only need to be taken a few times, sometimes only once, to provide lasting protective immunity. A drug that theoretically could be prophylactic would have to be taken continuously to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection, and it would be hard to manufacture enough to meet the demands of the global population. Such an approach would not be sustainable over the long-term. — Angela Rasmussen, virologist at Columbia University, Columbia Mailman School of Public Health

“We better have a plan that doesn't involve a vaccine. The timeline is uncertain, the probability of success is uncertain, scale up of manufacturing is uncertain, acceptability to the public, particularly amongst younger people and parents and their children, is uncertain. There’s just a lot stacked against a vaccine based strategy for the U.S. If we are going to get there, it's not going to be by rushing to an answer, but by rushing to do rigorous trials, as many as we can, as large as we can. And rapidly adapting to the changing information in front of us.” — Peter Bach, physician and director of drug pricing lab at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

THE GLOBAL FIGHT

LOSING INFLUENCE — Global opinion of U.S. influence on democracy around the world remains positive, but it has taken a dive: 44 percent say the U.S. is a positive influence, while 38 percent say negative, according to a new survey of 120,000 people in 53 countries, Ryan Heath writes.

Billed as the 2020 Democracy Perception Index by former NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the survey was conducted by Dalia Research for Rasmussen’s Alliance of Democracies Foundation.

In China, those with negative views of the U.S. have jumped from 38 percent to 64 percent over the past year, with only 17 percent having a positive view. Of the 53 countries surveyed, China is rated as having a better Covid-19 response than the U.S. by every country except the U.S. itself.

Protect Yourself and Others From Coronavirus: Even if you don’t have symptoms, you could spread the coronavirus. Practice these physical distancing and hygiene tips to keep yourself and your loved ones safe: Stay 6 feet away from others in public; wash your hands often for 20+ seconds; disinfect frequently touched surfaces like cellphones and light switches; and wear a cloth face covering when out in public. Together, we can slow the spread. Visit coronavirus.gov to learn more.

ASK THE AUDIENCE

Nightly asks you: Show us what the Summer of Covid looks like in your area. Snap a photo and send it in an email to nightly@politico.com. We’ll select a few to use in Friday’s newsletter.

NIGHTLY NUMBER

70 percent The amount bank profits fell by in the first quarter compared to the first quarter of 2019, as the coronavirus pandemic was just beginning to force an economic shutdown, the FDIC said Tuesday in its quarterly banking profile. (h/t financial services reporter Zachary Warmbrodt)

PARTING WORDS

SEX WORKERS’ COVID CONUNDRUM — Sex workers in Europe are faced with a dilemma — open for business and risk getting coronavirus or face having no income. Belgium was one of the first countries to allow brothels to start work, on June 8, even though saunas and massage parlors must remain closed until July 1. Customers’ temperatures are checked upon arrival and both partners have to wear a face mask. Hot Marijke, a sex worker in Flanders, has been getting state support but says she will lose it now that brothels are back open. “They are basically forcing me back to work,” she said over the phone. “It’s madness, you cannot touch your friends but you can climb into bed with a wild stranger.”

A message from PhRMA:

America’s biopharmaceutical companies are sharing their knowledge and resources more than ever before to speed up the development of new medicines to fight COVID-19. They’re working with doctors and hospitals on over 1,100 clinical trials.

And there’s no slowing down. America’s biopharmaceutical companies will continue working day and night until they beat coronavirus. Because science is how we get back to normal.

See how biopharmaceutical companies are working together to get people what they need during this pandemic.

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Renuka Rayasam @renurayasam

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