7 Things: ‘Safer at Home’ order extended in Alabama, one in nine seniors who get the coronavirus die, Trump won’t rally for Tuberville and more …

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July 1, 2020

7. Two old white guys are excited to show us what level of cognitive ability they have

For the first time in about three months, former Vice President Joe Biden held a press conference, and in response to a question about cognitive ability, Biden said he “can hardly wait to compare my cognitive capability to the cognitive capability of the man I’m running against.”
President Donald Trump is 74-years-old and Biden is 77-years-old, so questions coming up about either’s cognitive ability are not unexpected, but Biden is more known for his frequent gaffes. Trump isn’t exempt from these stumbles either.

6. Biden is pandering, and he is doing it poorly

Former Vice President Joe Biden has already said that his running mate will be female, but now he’s making even more promises about potential Supreme Court picks, saying that he hesitates to “follow anything the president does at all, because he usually does it all wrong.”
Biden went on to say that he’s “putting together a list of a group of African-American women who are qualified and have the experience to be in the court,” but he added that the list won’t be released for a while.

5. New York wants to defund the police as AOC tells you what it means

Attempting to bow down to the insane demands of the “Black Lives Matter” movements, such as calls to defund the police, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is pushing through a $1.5 billion dollar cut to the city’s $6 billion budget for police that everyone knows will disproportionally hurt people of color and the poor.
Dismissing this huge cut to the police in the nation’s largest city isn’t enough. Progressive darling and standard-bearer U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ()D-NY) reminded white liberals and the media that “Defunding police means defunding police.”

4. NYT sources: “There were dissenting opinions within the intelligence community”

The non-stop flow of questionable information from unnamed sources continues to say that the Trump administration knew about Russian attempts to get the Taliban to kill American soldiers, even though the same sources acknowledge that “disagreement among intelligence officials about the strength of the evidence about the suspected Russian plot and the evidence linking the attack on the Marines to the suspected Russian plot.”
Lawmakers briefed on the matter said the “the underlying intelligence was conflicting.” The White House press secretary said, “There was not a consensus among the intelligence community,” adding, “[T]here were dissenting opinions within the intelligence community, and it would not be elevated to the president until it was verified.”

3. Trump isn’t coming to campaign for Tuberville anymore

Earlier reports said that President Donald Trump had planned to visit Mobile to hold a campaign rally for former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville before the runoff election on July 14, but CNN is now reporting that Trump’s campaign has canceled the plans.
Technically, the Tuberville campaign never confirmed the reports that Trump would be holding a rally for him, but as the news made headlines, the campaign never said otherwise.

2. High fatality rate for seniors in Alabama with coronavirus

Alabama State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris, while at a press conference with Governor Kay Ivey, brought attention to the high fatality rate of those over 65 who get the coronavirus in Alabama, with about one in nine diagnosed dying.
Harris explained, “About three-quarters of all of [Alabama’s] deaths have occurred in our seniors, even though they’re only about 17 percent of our cases.” He described this as “a tragedy” as 926 people in Alabama have passed away from the coronavirus, with 726 of those being 65 years and older.

1. “Safer at Home” order extended

On Tuesday, the Alabama Department of Public Health added 854 cases to the coronavirus count, making the total case count 37,536. Governor Kay Ivey’s “Safer at Home” order has now been extended until July 31 but there are no major changes to the order.
During the press conference to announce the extension, Ivey did say that she will “reserve the right to come back and reverse course,” adding, “When you’re in public, for goodness sake, wear a mask.”