In the latest huge piece of news that absolutely should not have been tied to a book release, President Trump admitted on the record to intentionally misleading the American public about the true threat of coronavirus.
 

• Bob Woodward’s upcoming book draws from a series of 18 interviews he recorded with Trump between December and July, during which Trump acknowledged that a) the coronavirus was extremely dangerous and b) he’d rather Americans didn’t know that. Here’s Trump on a February 7 call, weeks before he would publicly concede that the virus was more serious than the flu: “You just breathe the air and that’s how it’s passed. And so that’s a very tricky one. That’s a very delicate one. It’s also more deadly than even your strenuous flu...This is deadly stuff.”
   
• On March 19, having ignored urgent warnings from his national security advisers and unnecessarily condemned hundreds of thousands of people to infection and death, Trump told Woodward, “I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down, because I don't want to create a panic.” In the same interview, Trump admitted that the virus threatened a larger population than the White House had warned: “Now it’s turning out it’s not just old people, Bob. Just today and yesterday, some startling facts came out. Young people, too—plenty of young people.”
   
• Woodward’s questionably-withheld reporting also delves into Trump’s kindergarten-level thinking about race relations, his pen-pal love affair with Kim Jong Un (“I’m the only one he smiles with”), and his disclosure of a secret new nuclear-weapons system that he was evidently not supposed to talk about. In his larger investigation into the administration’s pandemic missteps, Woodward quotes Dr. Anthony Fauci telling others, “Trump’s attention span is like a minus number. His sole purpose is to get reelected.” (Here’s hoping Fauci still has that security detail.) 

Confronted with tapes proving that the president flat-out lied about the pandemic, the White House flat-out lied about the president lying about the pandemic.

• Here’s White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany’s slam dunk of a response to Trump’s taped admission that he deliberately downplayed the virus: “The president never downplayed the virus.” Nothing but net. And here’s Trump admitting once again that sure, maybe he misled the public, but only so people wouldn’t freak out about the horrors he unleashed. Joe Biden had a better read on the gravity of the news: “While this deadly disease ripped through our nation, he failed to do his job on purpose. It was a life-and-death betrayal of the American people.”
   
• It’s almost quaint to deny Trump’s months-old offenses when there’s so much recent evidence of his disregard for Americans’ lives to talk about. On Monday he demanded that a reporter take off his mask during a briefing. On Tuesday he held a rally in North Carolina during which he told his supporters to be “poll watchers” in November, and “watch all the thieving and stealing and robbing they do,” because why bother with a superspreading event if you’re not also using it to whip up some voter intimidation?

Over 200,000 Americans have died and millions more have been infected—many of whom now face long-term disabilities or health complications—because Donald Trump pretended the country was in no danger when he knew otherwise. None of this is news if you’ve been paying close attention, but neither is it something to shrug off or become desensitized to. We have 55 days. 

On this week’s episode of Missing America, Ben Rhodes explores how Donald Trump has fueled a global trend of sectarianism. It’s an important and foreboding listen. Go check it out and subscribe wherever you get your pods, new episodes drop on Tuesdays →

A whistleblower complaint alleges that top DHS appointees repeatedly directed career officials to modify intelligence assessments to align them with President Trump’s lies. Brian Murphy, the former head of DHS’s intelligence branch, alleged that acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf directed him to stop producing assessments on Russia’s efforts to interfere in the 2020 election. Ken Cuccinelli, the department’s second-highest ranking official, instructed him to change assessments to emphasize the threat of Antifa and “anarchist” groups, and downplay the much larger threat posed by white supremacists. This is astounding politicization of the systems meant to protect Americans from terrorism and foreign-government threats, from two officials who are serving in their positions illegally. Adam Schiff has scheduled a deposition with Murphy for September 21.

• AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford put their coronavirus vaccine trial on hold after one participant developed an “unexplained illness”—the very reason Phase 3 trials are necessary!
   
• Donald Trump, Jr., offered this very cool boys-will-be-boys comment on Kyle Rittenhouse, who, you will recall, shot three people, two of them fatally: “We all do stupid things at 17.”
   
• Trump has added Ted Cruz and Tom Cotton to his list of potential Supreme Court picks, if you were still on the fence about getting more involved in this election. 
   
• A police officer in Salt Lake City shot a 13-year-old with Asperger's syndrome on Friday after his mother called 911 seeking help. It is almost as if armed police officers should not be the people responding to mental health crises. 
   
• People across the country have been hit with unexpected coronavirus test costs, in spite of federal laws requiring insurers to pay all testing costs and the Trump administration’s promises to cover test bills for the uninsured. 
   
• At least we know Republican leaders take health-care costs seriously. Shot: Here is a staffer for Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) telling a cancer survivor that unaffordable health care is like a dress shirt that one might desire, but cannot have. Chaser: Tillis is on the ballot this year :)
   
• Vice President Mike Pence is scheduled to attend a Montana fundraiser hosted by QAnon supporters. To be fair, there's no way Mother allows him to look at the internet (lots of women on there) so he might be in the dark here. 
   
• An unprecedented number of fast-moving wildfires have burned through much of the West Coast, forcing tens of thousands to evacuate and turning the sky in the Bay Area an incredibly eerie orange. 
   
• Longtime GOP election lawyer Ben Ginsberg came out with a Washington Post op-ed arguing that the Republicans calling our elections “rigged” and “fraudulent” are completely full of shit. 
   
• Deutsche Bank has hired a friend of Attorney General Bill Barr for an undefined role. Somewhere, Elizabeth Warren just bolted upright in her chair and isn’t sure why. 
   
• Two Uighur organizations have lodged a complaint against China at the International Criminal Court, accusing the government and specific senior officials of crimes against humanity, torture, and genocide.
   
• The New York Times investigated how a warehouse in Beirut came to contain the haphazard collection of combustible materials that caused a devastating explosion last month, in a perfect storm of corruption and bureaucratic dysfunction.
   
• Some personal news. 

Americans may have experienced “significant” delays in receiving their prescription drugs through the mail, according to a new Senate report. Several major pharmacies told Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bob Casey (D-PA) that slowed delivery times over the last few months had led to a wave of angry phone calls from customers. Deliveries that usually took two to three days were instead taking three to four, and one pharmacy saw a “marked increase” in delays of at least a week. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy: Come for the voter suppression and illegal straw donations, stay for the added difficulty obtaining prescription medications during a pandemic.

Immune support is #1 on almost everyone’s back-to-school shopping list. But many of the fizzy drink powders and supplements you’ll find are a) disappointingly ineffective, and b) packed with artificial dyes, cheap fillers, and refined sugars—ingredients which may actually weaken immune health.

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The Celebs (Mandy Patinkin) (and some others, but who cares) have teamed up with a coalition of progressive groups for a virtual get-out-the-vote-effort. 

The Democratic super PAC Forward Majority plans to spend $15 million to help flip state legislatures in Texas, Florida, North Carolina, and Arizona. 

A federal judge slapped down key portions of a Trump administration effort to roll back protections for low-wage workers at large chains.

Portland, OR, has become the first city to ban the use of facial recognition technology by both city bureaus and private entities.