1. 'I don't want a delay'

At an afternoon press briefing yesterday, President Trump appeared to back off the idea he floated earlier in the day of delaying the 2020 election. "Do I want to see a date change? No," he said, hours after raising the idea in a tweet. "But I don't want to see a crooked election." His reference to a "crooked" election is part of his ongoing campaign to raise doubts about the safety of expanding mail-in voting in response to the coronavirus pandemic. "What will happen in November—it's a mess," Trump said. "I want a result much more than you...I don't want to be waiting around for weeks and months." —USA Today

• — Pompeo equivocates. Asked about Trump's threat to delay the election during a Senate hearing yesterday, the president's longest-serving Cabinet member, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, punted. He said he was "not going to enter a legal judgment on that on the fly this morning." He also warned, without evidence, that a "full in-mail balloting program" presented a "level of risk." —ABC News
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• — Can't have vote-by-mail without mail. As Trump ramps up his rhetorical attacks on vote-by-mail, postal employees and union officials say changes implemented by Trump fundraiser-turned-Postmaster General Louis DeJoy have created a backlog and could undermine their ability to deliver ballots on time for the November election. —The Washington Post
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• — Now that's foresight. When the pandemic was just starting to upend life back in March, Bob Ferguson, attorney general for Washington, warned that Trump might use it to try to delay the November presidential election. He directed lawyers in his office to draft a memo analyzing how Trump might try to claim legal authority to change the date, and how they could sue to stop it. Now that Trump has publicly floated the idea of a delay, Ferguson says his office is dusting off the memo for a refresh. —BuzzFeed News

2. Calabresi: Postponing the election is unconstitutional 

"I am frankly appalled by the president's recent tweet seeking to postpone the November election. Until recently, I had taken as political hyperbole the Democrats' assertion that President Trump is a fascist. But this latest tweet is fascistic and is itself grounds for the president's immediate impeachment again by the House of Representatives and his removal from office by the Senate." —The New York Times

Ed. Note: Steven Calabresi is a co-founder of the Federalist Society and a professor at Northwestern University's Pritzker School of Law.

3. 'Unclear' how long pandemic lasts

Testifying today before a House panel investigating the nation's response to the coronavirus pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci couldn’t say when the pandemic will end, but he expressed "cautious" optimism that a vaccine would be available soon, and most Americans would be able to receive it in 2021. The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, along with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention head Dr. Robert Redfield and Health and Human Services testing czar Adm. Brett Giroir, also called on Americans to be scrupulous about social distancing and wearing face masks. —Associated Press

• — Coronavirus travels to the Midwest. The epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic is showing signs of shifting to the Midwest, while infections and deaths are starting to decline in Sunbelt states. New outbreaks in Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, and Tennessee are likely due to "vacations and other reasons of travel," according to Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. —Reuters

• — For once, Jared could actually have helped. This spring, a team working under the president's son-in-law, White House adviser Jared Kushner, produced a plan for an aggressive, coordinated national COVID-19 response, similar to what other countries had done to bring the pandemic under control. So what happened? Because the virus had hit blue states hardest at that point, the White House determined that a national plan was unnecessary and would not make sense politically for the president. A tragic decision. —Vanity Fair
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• — No end to congressional stalemate. With federal unemployment benefits expiring today, the Senate became bogged down in partisan fighting and left town without a resolution to the crisis. High-level talks last night among Treasury Sec. Steven Mnuchin, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer also broke down with little progress. Talks will continue, but a deal seems far off. —Politico

MORE: Pandemic fears are boosting demand for trustworthy news —The Economist

4. Slothower: Vote-by-mail is the remedy for pandemic fears

"Vote-by-mail works. It's convenient, it expands voting, and the way we do it in my state has so far proved to be nearly tamper-proof, providing an offline paper trail for each vote cast. There's no reason—other than perceived partisan advantage—that it shouldn't be adopted in every state." —The Washington Post

MORE: Video resurfaces of Trump struggling to vote in person in 2004 as he ramps up attacks on mail-in voting —CNN

5. DHS targeting journalists

Heightening the president's "enemy of the people" rhetoric with regard to the media, the Department of Homeland Security has begun compiling "intelligence reports" about the work of American journalists covering protests in Portland, Ore. Current and former officials say it's an alarming use of a government system meant to share information about suspected terrorists and violent actors.

• — Over the past week, the department's Office of Intelligence and Analysis has disseminated three intel reports to federal law enforcement agencies, summarizing tweets written by two journalists, noting they had published leaked, unclassified documents about DHS operations in Portland.

• — The documents the journalists posted and wrote about revealed shortcomings in the department's understanding of the nature of the protests in Portland, as well as techniques that intelligence analysts have used.
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• — After The Washington Post published a story about the intel reports online last night, acting Homeland Security Sec. Chad Wolf ordered the intelligence office to stop collecting information on journalists and announced an investigation into the matter. —The Washington Post

6. This week in the courts

Michael Flynn is back on the hook. Yesterday, the U.S. Appeals Court for the D.C. Circuit vacated an earlier ruling to dismiss the case against the former national security adviser, who is accused of lying to the FBI. A majority of judges on the Circuit Court agreed to an en banc rehearing of the case, including all 11 of the court's judges. Previously, a panel of three Circuit Court judges voted 2-1 to order D.C. District Court Judge Emmett Sullivan to dismiss the case against Flynn—a ruling that Sullivan appealed. The Circuit Court has scheduled oral arguments for Aug. 11. —National Review

• — Sex trafficking. U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska ordered a large tranche of documents from a 2017 case against British socialite and alleged Jeffrey Epstein conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell unsealed and released last night. The documents are related to a defamation suit involving Virginia Giuffre, who alleges Maxwell recruited her and other underage girls for sex with Epstein and his powerful friends. —Portland Press Herald

• — Police brutality. St. Louis Co. Prosecutor Wesley Bell announced yesterday that Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson will not be charged in the 2014 shooting death of Michael Brown. Bell's office reopened an investigation of the high-profile killing about five months ago but was unable to collect enough evidence to disprove a self-defense claim in trial. —The Mercury News
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• — Immigration. Judge George Daniels of the U.S. District Court in Manhattan on Wednesday ordered the Trump Administration to stop enforcing a "public charge" rule for the duration of the national emergency over the coronavirus pandemic. The rule gives officials more power to deny green card and visa applications from immigrants whom the government determines could rely on programs like food stamps and housing vouchers. —CBS News

MORE: Supreme Court blocks Idaho group from gathering ballot initiative signatures online —CNN

7. Litman: Barr's Department of Injustice

"Norms of evenhandedness, professionalism, and especially political disinterest, which traditionally check U.S. attorneys general, do not moderate [Attorney General Bill Barr's] conduct. He championed every partisan act his DOJ has taken on the president's behalf, blandly claiming they reflected the faithful application of the rule of law." —Los Angeles Times

8. Election postponed...in Hong Kong

The government of Hong Kong took Donald Trump's idea and ran with it today, announcing that the city’s highly anticipated legislative elections will be postponed by one year, purportedly due to a worsening coronavirus outbreak. The delay marks another setback for Hong Kong's pro-democracy opposition, which was hoping to capitalize on disenchantment with the current pro-Beijing majority to make gains.

• — The postponement came on the heels of an announcement yesterday that 12 pro-democracy candidates, including prominent activist Joshua Wong, were disqualified from running for not complying with the city's mini-constitution or pledging allegiance to the local and national governments.

• — "Beyond any doubt, this is the most scandalous election ever in Hong Kong history," Wong said today. "I wish to emphasize that no reasonable man would think that this election ban is not politically driven."
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• — The Trump Administration appears to agree. "We condemn the Hong Kong government's decision to postpone for one year its legislative council elections and to disqualify opposition candidates," White House Press Sec. Kayleigh McEnany said. "This action undermines the democratic processes and freedoms that have underpinned Hong Kong's prosperity, and this is only the most recent in a growing list of broken promises by Beijing." —Associated Press

9. Gerson: We are more than a 'Suburban Lifestyle Dream'

"[The American narrative] is a story of high ideals and hypocritical compromises. Of heroes offended by the gulf between our democratic aspirations and the reality around them, who pushed our country to resolve its deepest internal contradictions. Of halting, stumbling, continuing progress toward a political system that honors the value and dignity of every human life. Playing even a small part in this unfolding story is one of history's great honors. It is the reason to serve in government. The reason to write about politics. The reason to vote and participate." —The Washington Post

10. An American Story: Encinitas 4 Equality

Community members from Encinitas, Calif., came together and created the grassroots group Encinitas 4 Equality, following the murder of George Floyd, to address systemic racism and support Black residents who are fighting racism.

• — Encinitas 4 Equality started with nightly peaceful protests where residents gathered to hold signs, read the names of Black people who have died in police custody, and make other gestures that called attention to systemic racism.
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• — "I believe the vast majority of Encinitas residents believe in equality and equity," Mali Woods-Drake, one of the group's founders, said. "Because this isn't something that we deal with on a day-to-day basis—we don't experience a lot of racism when there’s not a lot of racial diversity here—it created an avenue for people to get involved who have been looking for a way to do something in their own backyard."

• — Encinitas 4 Equality has about 150 members and 2,500 followers on social media. Woods-Drake believes that the organization, which is pursuing nonprofit status, is "definitely in the growing stages." They plan on extending support to other groups in need, primarily those experiencing homelessness and mental health issues. —Encinitas Advocate

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