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MORNING REPORT

Tuesday, August 29

by Alexis Simendinger

© The Associated Press / Jose Luis Magana | Former President Trump's legal team on Monday arrived at a federal courthouse in Washington, D.C. (L to R) Gregory Singer, Stephen Weiss, Todd Blanche, John Lauro and Paul Kamenar.

Trump decries March trial before Super Tuesday

Unless former President Trump and his army of lawyers find a way to slow-walk a March 4 trial date set by a federal judge Monday in the 2020 election case, he could be anchored to a courtroom chair through Super Tuesday, and for months beyond that.

The Wall Street Journal editorial board, after describing the newest chess board Monday, declared the legal-campaign tangle "a spectacular mess" and urged voters to nominate an alternative GOP candidate who has a chance of defeating President Biden. 

The Hill's Niall Stanage, The Memo: Judge scrambles election with decision on Trump trial date. 
The Washington Post: Trump's D.C. federal election-subversion trial date is set for the heart of the 2024 presidential campaign.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan said the government's prosecution of Trump for allegedly seeking to subvert the 2020 election results can begin in little more than 6 months. The former president, who has pleaded not guilty, had wanted a trial to begin in April 2026. The Justice Department had proposed Jan. 2.

"The public has a right to a prompt and efficient resolution of this matter," Chutkan said. "I take seriously the defense's request that Mr. Trump be treated like any other defendant appearing before this court, and I intend to do so" (The Associated Press).

Trump was unhappy (The Hill).

Today a biased, Trump Hating Judge gave me only a two month extension, just what our corrupt government wanted, SUPER TUESDAY. I will APPEAL!" he wrote on Truth Social, repeating his assertion that criminal charges in four indictments amount to "election interference" as he seeks a second White House term. 

There is no precedent or polling projection that could possibly forecast how GOP and independent voters would react to legal wrangling for days on end over criminal charges against Trump as ballots with his name on them are cast in 2024 primary states. 

Meanwhile, in yet another surprising turn of events, Trump's former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows took the stand in a Georgia courtroom Monday and described 2020 election events in an effort to move state criminal charges to federal court, where he could try to get them dismissed (The New York Times and CNN). 

Meadows's attorney George Terwilliger walked his client through many of the actions he took after the 2020 election that were laid out in the government's indictment, such as meetings with state legislators in the Oval Office.

"It would have been in my official capacity as chief of staff," Meadows said of a November 2020 Oval Office meeting with Michigan lawmakers that was cited in the indictment, according to CNN. It's a key argument in the former chief's bid to move his case out of state court.

Former Dekalb County, Ga., District Attorney J. Tom Morgan, interviewed by CNN, said he was "absolutely amazed" that Meadows took the stand during a pretrial motion on Monday, calling it "a calculated risk" (The Hill).

The new Trump trial date set in Washington, D.C., falls just weeks before a New York state judge plans to put Trump on trial for alleged business fraud related to hush money payments during the 2016 election campaign. The former president also faces a May 20 trial date next year in the government's classified documents case against him.

A state judge in Georgia on Monday set Sept. 6 for Trump's formal arraignment in Fulton County on charges of leading a "criminal enterprise" to try to cling to office after losing the 2020 presidential election along with 18 other defendants The former president surrendered last week for processing, which involved taking a mugshot, and he officially posted a $200,000 bond before returning to New Jersey hours later (The Hill). 

The Hill: A GOP House Appropriations Committee member from Georgia wants to "prohibit the use of federal funding for the prosecution of any major presidential candidate prior to the upcoming presidential election on November 5th, 2024," as part of fiscal 2024 appropriations. Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) says a proposed amendment to an appropriations measure takes aim at Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith. Another amendment tackles federal funding for state prosecutions.

👉 Morning Report's Kristina Karisch is on leave.

The Wall Street Journal: The world is contemplating a second Trump administration. In many capitals, it's a source of anxiety.
The Wall Street Journal: Trump's free speech runs up against courtroom decorum.
The Hill: House, Senate GOP set for internal fight over Ukraine.  
The Atlantic: "The final days," an excerpt about the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan drawn from staff writer Franklin Foer's new book titled "The Last Politician: Inside Joe Biden's White House and the Struggle for America's Future."

Leading the Day

➤ 'I' OF THE STORM

🌀 Hurricane Idalia, no longer a tropical storm, is passing the western tip of Cuba this morning with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph and is expected to make landfall in Florida on Wednesday as "an extremely dangerous major hurricane," according to the National Hurricane Center (CNN). A hurricane warning is in effect from Sarasota to Tampa in Florida. 

Tampa Bay Times: Tampa braces for "life threatening" storm.
The New York Times: Hurricane Franklin in the Atlantic has intensified into a "very powerful" Category 4 storm. The closest it may get to land is more than 200 miles from Bermuda.

Biden spoke to Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday to say he approved an emergency declaration for the state. DeSantis is competing for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024 and has described his leadership in the Sunshine State as a version of a presidential résumé. As many governors have learned, natural disasters are tests of management and state emergency readiness and pose enormous political risks in the aftermath. As The Hill's Julia Manchester reports, DeSantis this week is juggling Idalia, racially motivated killings of three people in Jacksonville and the strains of campaigning against the GOP presidential frontrunner and the incumbent in the White House.

Florida deployed swift water rescue teams as local officials called for evacuations, announced school closures and warned residents to prepare their property. Tampa International Airport closed all commercial operations as of early this morning, as did St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport. Reopening is possible on Thursday, depending on conditions (updates @FlyTPA on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter). Flash flooding is also expected across the west coast of Florida, the Florida Panhandle and southern Georgia as forecasts show the storm could drop up to 10 inches of rain in some areas.

The governor declared a state of emergency in 46 counties, a broad region that stretches across the northern half of the state from the Gulf Coast to the Atlantic Coast. The state has mobilized 1,100 National Guard members to be ready for Idalia's impact, which is expected to include hurricane-force winds (The Associated Press).

"Just got to prepare for these things, hope for the best, and prepare for the worst and, you know, hunker down, as they say," Tampa resident Derek Hughes said as he waited at a city park to load his car with sandbags on Monday.

Southwest Florida continues to recover from last year's Hurricane Ian, which was responsible for 36 storm surge deaths and was the costliest in the state's history with an estimated $112 billion in damages (NBC Miami).

The Washington Post: Timing has a lot to do with why there are so many memorable hurricanes with names that begin with "I."

In Focus / Sharp Takes

➤ ADMINISTRATION

© The Associated Press / Andy Wong, pool | Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and U.S. Ambassador to China Nick Burns met on Monday in Beijing with China's Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao and other officials.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo on Tuesday met with China Premier Li Qiang in Beijing, her second full day of meeting with Chinese counterparts to discuss business, trade and commercial concerns as the U.S. works to ease tensions (Reuters).

The secretary on Monday met with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao in Beijing, raised complaints from Micron and Intel and announced that China agreed to create a new formal working group on commercial issues with the United States. 

The new commercial issues working group is a consultation mechanism "to seek solutions on trade and investment issues and to advance U.S. commercial interests in China." The two governments also agreed to convene subject matter experts from both sides for technical discussions "regarding strengthening the protection of trade secrets and confidential business information," Raimondo said (Reuters and South China Morning Post). 

The Associated Press and Fortune: An "information exchange" meeting about export controls is scheduled between the two sides Tuesday.

The U.S. has raised concerns about China's effective ban on purchases of Micron Technology memory chips and has described the ban as "economic coercion." Earlier this month, Intel terminated its $5.4 billion acquisition of Tower Semiconductor, after failing to secure approval from China's State Administration for Market Regulation.

Raimondo on Tuesday met with Chinese Minister of Culture and Tourism Hu Heping and they agreed China next year will host the 14th China-U.S. Tourism Leadership Summit. He told Raimondo that China is ready to "make new positive efforts" to improve cooperation following an agreement to reduce trade tension by launching groups to discuss export controls and other commercial disputes (The Associated Press).

The secretary is scheduled to be in China through Wednesday.

⚕️The first 10 drugs selected by the administration for Medicare pricing negotiations are to be disclosed later this morning. It's a major step in a bid to lower drug prices through the first-ever direct negotiations between Medicare and pharmaceutical manufacturers over a set of medicines. Analysts say some expensive and widely used drugs for arthritis, cancer, diabetes or heart disease could be targeted for negotiation but any price changes won't take effect until 2026. Over the next two years, another 30 drugs will be selected for negotiated prices beginning in 2027 and 2028. Biden will speak at the White House this afternoon about the goal of lowering drug costs through Medicare pricing pressure. Drug companies are pushing back, racing to try to get their challenges before the Supreme Court (USA Today, The Washington Post and Politico). 

💊 Federal regulators and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf are under increasing pressure to resolve U.S. shortages of drugs, including cancer medications such as cisplatin and carboplatin; a form of the common antibiotic amoxicillin; diabetes treatments such as Ozempic, Mounjaro and Trulicity; as well as the common medication Adderall used to treat attention deficit disorder (The Hill).

"There's a lot we can do to plug the hole when a shortage occurs and we're getting better and better at that. But the fundamental problem is that we have two drug industries in the U.S.," Califf said, arguing that problems extend into the private sector. 

Opinion

Trump's Super Tuesday trial date, by The Wall Street Journal editorial board.
There's a good chance Trump will be found 'willfully blind,' by Burt Neuborne, guest essayist, The New York Times.

Where and When

The House will convene for a pro forma session at 11 a.m. Lawmakers return to Washington Sept. 11. 

The Senate is out until Sept. 5 and will hold a pro forma session at 11:45 a.m. 

The president will receive the President's Daily Brief at 10 a.m. Biden will speak at 2 p.m. about lowering prescription drug costs under Medicare. The president will host Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves Robles at 3:45 p.m. for a bilateral meeting at the White House.

Vice President Harris will join Biden and speak during the healthcare event at 2 p.m.

The White House daily press briefing is scheduled at 1 p.m. 

Elsewhere

➤ EVERY BREATH

COVID-19 is back, although it never left. Hospitalizations are up. Masking is reappearing (The New York Times).

The increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations, blamed in part on the latest virus variants, is still relatively small. The vast majority of the sick are experiencing mild symptoms described as comparable to a cold or the flu, according to public health experts, the Times reports. More than three months after the Biden administration allowed the 2020 public health emergency to expire, most Americans balk at the idea of reprising frequent testing and isolation. There are people of all ages, however, who have been monitoring infection advisories and have quietly returned to mask-wearing in congested locations.

"Moving forward, we have to learn to live cohesively with COVID," said John Coleman, a pulmonary and critical care doctor at Chicago's Northwestern Memorial Hospital. "COVID is always going to be around."

People hospitalized for COVID-19 this summer tend to have preexisting conditions or suppressed immune systems that make them more susceptible to severe symptoms, Coleman told the Times.

Reuters: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified COVID-19 variant BA.2.86 — found in the United States, Denmark and Israel — as potentially more capable than older variants in causing infection in people who have previously had COVID-19 or who have received vaccines.

✈️ In China on Wednesday, requirements will end for incoming travelers who previously needed a negative COVID-19 test result to enter the country. It's a milestone toward ending the virus restrictions imposed in China beginning in early 2020 (The Associated Press).

The Closer

And finally … 

"But once in a while the odd thing happens, 

Once in a while the dream comes true, 

And the whole pattern of life is altered,

Once in a while, the moon turns blue."

— poet W. H. Auden, "Once In A While The Odd Thing Happens"

Time to witness a super rare blue moon Wednesday, so-called because it will be the second full moon within the month of August. The moon's color doesn't actually change (CBS News), but it will be another two years before Earth gets this close to the moon again. 

At 12 noon ET, the late-summer moon will arrive at perigee, its closest point in its orbit relative to Earth at 221,942 miles away. And 9 hours and 36 minutes later, the moon will officially turn full. 

Do some time zone calculations and check it out, wherever you happen to be (Space.com).  