News Roundup: The Resurgent Pandemic and Partisan Election Reviews

The Resurgent Pandemic
The Delta variant’s spread across the U.S. has created a pandemic of the unvaccinated and, like many aspects of the past year and a half, one that each state is experiencing differently. 

Some states — New York, California, and North Carolina — have recently introduced mandates requiring that members of certain groups, including health care workers or state government employees, receive a coronavirus vaccine. Following the Justice Department’s determination earlier this week that federal law doesn’t prohibit such mandates, as well as the Veterans Affairs Department’s announcement that frontline health care workers will also be required to be inoculated, President Joe Biden announced a requirement for all federal employees and onsite contractors. 

Meanwhile, other states — like Texas, Florida, South Carolina, Missouri, Kansas, and several others — have in recent months put in place restrictions that prevent local entities like cities or school districts from enacting public health measures, or allowing them to overrule health department orders. Multiple regions are struggling with low vaccination rates, and Texas and Florida are seeing the nation’s highest numbers of Covid-19 cases. 

Partisan Election Reviews
Of course, it’s not just the coronavirus pandemic to which states have reacted differently. Many lawmakers and officials are promoting a different (and false) political reality, one in which the “big lie” of a stolen election and the myth of widespread voter suppression are driving democracy-undermining election reviews. 

Let’s start with the Arizona Senate’s bogus “audit,” which had a turbulent week, even by its own chaotic standards. 

• For a time, it looked like “audit” liaison Ken Bennett was dropping out of the sham process after having been denied access to the building. He pointed to “serious issues” with contractor Cyber Ninjas’ counting process, and said he was being “kept out of critical aspects … that make the audit legitimate and have integrity when we produce the final report.” By Wednesday night, he had reversed course and said he would continue in his role. 
• The drama and allegations added to the long list of reasons not to trust any such “final report.” Last week, American Oversight published a detailed report on our investigation’s findings so far, which point to the entire operation’s lack of credibility. 
• Also this week, the controversial Twitter account associated with the “audit” was suspended, along with multiple “war room” accounts and the account of Voices and Vets, the fundraising group set up by One America News reporter Christina Bobb, a vocal supporter of the stunt. 
• Who is paying for the operation, and how much, has for months been kept secret. On Wednesday, the contractors released a list of names of groups funding the “audit” to the tune of $5.7 million. (The state Senate had contributed $150,000 back in the spring.) The list is a who’s-who of “big lie” proponents, including former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, lawyer Sidney Powell, and former Overstock CEO turned conspiracy filmmaker Patrick Byrne. 
• Earlier this week, Senate leaders issued new subpoenas to Maricopa County and Dominion Voting Systems for election materials. 

Elsewhere, the Wisconsin Elections Commission issued a statement refuting the information that state Rep. Janel Brandtjen used to justify her announcement that the Assembly’s elections committee, which she chairs, would be undertaking a “forensic examination” of the state’s 2020 vote.  

This is not to be confused with the problematic investigation initiated by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, for which he has hired retired cops and a former state Supreme Court justice to complete. In fact, Vos appeared to distance himself from Brandtjen’s call for yet another probe, saying that “as far as her launching her own investigation, I don’t know what that would prove.” 

Some other related headlines: 

• Takeover of Fulton elections considered by Georgia Republicans (Atlanta Journal-Constitution) 
• Florida Rep. Anthony Sabatini calls for presidential election audit of Orange County, among others (Orlando Weekly) 
• Maricopa County launches new website about 2020 election and Arizona audit (Fox 10 Phoenix) 
• Inside a hunt for voter fraud on Philly’s Main Line and the conspiracy world that embraced it (Philadelphia Inquirer) 
• DOJ fires warning shot against ‘unusual’ post-election ballot reviews (Politico) 

Jan. 6 Hearing
The most potent example yet of the big lie’s dire consequences — the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters attempting to prevent the 2020 election’s certification — was top news this week thanks to the Tuesday hearing held by the House select committee investigating the riot. 

• Four law enforcement officers who were at the Capitol provided searing and emotional testimony about the disturbing events of that day. “The physical violence we experienced was horrific and devastating,” said Sgt. Aquilino Gonell of the Capitol Police. 
• D.C. Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone criticized the revisionist attempts by conservative lawmakers and officials to downplay the attack, saying, “The indifference shown to my colleagues is disgraceful.” 
• Here are American Oversight’s open questions about the attack, and how we’re investigating.

On the Records 

The Pandemic in Florida GEO Group Prisons
We’re still learning more about extent of the pandemic’s spread in U.S. prisons, where more than half a million people have contracted Covid-19. American Oversight recently obtained communications between GEO Group, one of the largest private prison contractors in the country, and officials at the Florida Department of Management Services, including emails suggesting that last May GEO Group was set conduct targeted testing of people over 65 at three facilities, but dropped the plan after DMS clarified that it wasn’t mandated. 

Private-Sector Pandemic Requests
American Oversight continues to uncover records that illustrate the easy access that the private sector, especially large corporations, had to senior Trump administration and White House officials during the disorganized early months of the pandemic last year. The latest batch includes emails from executives at Ford, Gap, General Electric, and Walmart to former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House adviser Jared Kushner. 

William Barr’s Texts and Call Logs
Our investigation of the Trump administration’s politicization of the Justice Department has yielded the release of more of former Attorney General William Barr’s call logs and text messages from 2019 and 2020. The records include messages exchanged with U.S. Attorney John Durham, who was tasked with looking into the origins of the Russia investigation, as well as other communications from the time of Trump’s first impeachment inquiry. Details are here and here.  

The Coronavirus Pandemic 

• As infections rise, CDC urges some vaccinated Americans to wear masks again (New York Times) 
• Democrats press Biden to extend eviction ban (Politico) 
• People are more anti-vaccine if they get their Covid news from Facebook than from Fox News, data shows (Washington Post) 
• Pfizer data suggest third dose of Covid-19 vaccine ‘strongly’ boosts protection against Delta variant (CNN) 
• The Delta variant is the symptom of a bigger threat: vaccine refusal (New York Times) 
• Democrats broaden probe into Trump-era meddling at CDC (Washington Post)

National News 

• Biden administration to curb toxic wastewater from coal plants with new rule (Washington Post) 
• Details on FBI inquiry into Kavanaugh draw fire from Democrats (New York Times) 
• Mississippi asks Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade (Politico) 
• As Trump pushed for probes of the 2020 election, he called acting AG Rosen almost daily (Washington Post) 
• Pandemic aid programs spur a record drop in poverty (New York Times) 
• White House not planning to lift Covid border restrictions this month (Politico) 
• Is this the end of summer as we’ve known it? (New York Times) 
• Trump officials can testify in inquiries into efforts to subvert election outcome and Jan. 6 riot, Justice Dept. says (New York Times) 

 In the States 

• The Texas election bill contains a new obstacle to voting that almost no one is talking about (Texas Monthly) 
• ‘Civil rights crisis’: Local leaders seek federal investigation of Kansas City police (Kansas City Star)