Notable Quotes of the Day

“Just about every poll we’ve seen on this issue demonstrates bipartisan support for expanding vote-by-mail systems and offering Americans safe voting options this year. If rejecting vote-by-mail is part of a Republican strategy to win in November, it’s a short-sighted one. Old-line opposition to voting reform is only alienating GOP voters at a time when many Republican Senate candidates are lagging behind Democrats in fundraising and polling. The same Hart Research Associates poll showed that 40 percent of Republicans would react unfavorably toward a GOP senator who opposed diversifying options for voting. The data are clear: Voters of both parties don’t want their access to the ballot to be limited. My party should listen to the voters.”

—Michael Steele, National Review

“The Democratic Party is pushing mail-in voting as the safest way to cast ballots amid the coronavirus pandemic. But the party is struggling to persuade a bedrock constituency: African Americans. ... During the most recent national elections, the 2018 congressional midterms, only about 11% of black voters cast their ballots by mail, according to Census figures. That’s the lowest percentage of any measured ethnic group, and it’s just under half the rate of white voters. There are a variety of reasons. For African Americans such as Fason, striding to the polls is a powerful act, both symbolic and substantive. Some black voters fear their mail ballots might get lost or rejected. African Americans are more transient than other racial groups and have high rates of homelessness, government statistics show, major barriers to mail voting.”

—John Whitesides, Reuters

Election Updates

• U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) and Whoopi Goldberg hosted a virtual fundraiser for Joe Biden that featured performances by musicians Sheryl Crow, Rufus Wainwright, Jimmy Buffett, Joe Walsh, and David Crosby.

• Biden appeared in a Washington Post TikTok video skit encouraging people to wear masks.

• Biden is scheduled to give a virtual keynote address at the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party’s convention on Sunday.

• The new organization Republican Voters Against Trump is spending $10 million on an ad campaign attempting to persuade Republican voters to vote for Biden.

• Donald Trump’s campaign manager, Brad Parscale, issued a statement on Trump’s “Executive Order on Preventing Online Censorship.” Parscale said, “We have known for a long time that social media companies have it in for conservatives in general and President Trump specifically. ... Since social media companies have not appropriately self-regulated to stop the bias on their own, President Trump has stepped in to make sure Silicon Valley is held accountable for trying to manipulate the American people.” 

• The Trump Make America Great Again Committee is running digital ads on Facebook picturing Joe Biden wearing a mask in front of a Chinese flag and Trump not wearing a mask in front of an American flag.

• Republican National Committee leaders sent North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) an outline of their planned safety precautions for the Republican National Convention. The letter said, “If there are any additional guidelines to what is outlined above that we will be expected to meet, you need to let us know by Wednesday, June 3.” 

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What We’re Reading

• The Washington Post: The issue of police violence entered the 2020 campaign with the death of George Floyd

• Washington Examiner: New polling buoys Trump campaign hopes with seniors despite pandemic fallout

• Reuters: Biden losing economic argument to Trump as U.S. begins to re-open

Flashback: May 29, 2016

Trump gave a speech at the Lincoln Memorial to participants in the Memorial Day weekend Rolling Thunder motorcycle rally. He said, “When you think of the great General Patton and all our generals, they are spinning in their graves when they watch we can’t beat ISIS. … We are going to knock the hell out of them.”