The RJC offices
will be closed April 15-16 in observance of the last days of Passover.
Today, we offer our members a streamlined newsletter that highlights
some of the thought-provoking news and commentary of the last
few days.
• Last week, Bernie Sanders suspended
his Democratic presidential primary campaign, leaving Joe
Biden the presumptive nominee. Yesterday, Sanders formally
endorsed Biden for president (to the disgust of some
of Sanders' campaign staff). Former President Barack
Obama has endorsed
Biden as well.
• Nate Cohn at the New York Times
believes that Biden's apparent lead over President Donald
Trump in national polls is
not as solid as it looks. He notes the importance of
examining battleground states versus other states and registered
voters versus likely voters. Cohn writes:
If anyone holds the early edge, it is Mr. Biden. He leads by an
average of six points in national live-interview polls of registered
voters. But the election will be decided by voters in the battleground
states, not registered voters nationwide, and there the story is not
nearly so clear or rosy for Mr. Biden.
At the moment, a reasonable estimate is that Mr. Biden is
performing four or five points worse among likely voters in the
critical states than he is among registered voters nationwide. As a
result, he holds only a narrow and tenuous edge in the race for the
Electoral College, if he holds one at all.
…Together, Mr. Trump’s relative advantage of one to two points
among likely voters compared with registered voters — and his relative
advantage of three and even four points in the tipping-point states —
means that the typical national poll of registered voters is probably
around four or five points worse for Mr. Trump than his standing among
likely voters in the most pivotal states. Mr. Biden’s already narrow
polling lead in states like Wisconsin, Pennsylvania or Arizona might
be vanishingly small after a likely voter screen.
• President Donald
Trump extended greetings for Passover to the Jewish community
in a video statement. You
can watch it here.
• A bit of encouraging
coronavirus news from Israel:
Six critically ill coronavirus patients in
Israel who are considered high-risk for mortality have been treated
with Pluristem’s placenta-based cell-therapy product and survived,
according to preliminary data provided by the Haifa-based
company.
• Our country's reliance on China for goods -
including pharmaceuticals - is a serious national security issue. So
said Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) last
week on the Hugh Hewitt Show. She's not
alone in expressing such concerns.
• The Washington Free Beacon reports on
a number of Republican lawmakers who represent a "new
generation of China hawks," including Reps. Jim
Banks (R-IN) and Elise Stefanik (R-NY).
They, along with Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), are teaming
up with more veteran members such as Sens. Tom
Cotton (R-AR), Marco Rubio (R-FL),
Ted Cruz (R-TX), and Rick Scott
(R-FL) to introduce legislation to strengthen America's medical supply
chain.
• How do you say "chutzpah" in Mandarin?
Tobias Hoonhout reports at National Review
that the head of the Wisconsin state senate recently received
multiple emails from the wife of the Chinese Consulate-General in
Chicago, asking
him to propose a resolution to praise China for its handling of the
Wuhan coronavirus outbreak. The request
infuriated State Senate President Roger Roth,
who said that he would not propose a pro-China resolution dictated by
the Chinese government. Instead he introduced a
resolution to publicly acknowledge “that the Communist Party of
China deliberately and intentionally misled the world on the Wuhan
Coronavirus and standing in solidarity with the Chinese people to
condemn the actions of the Communist Party of China." Kudos to
Senator Roth.
