FREEDUMB: Trump visits Mount Rushmore amid controversy, coronavirus concerns. It will be the Republican president’s latest event with large crowds, defying health experts’ recommendations to avoid big gatherings amid recent spikes of COVID-19 cases across the country.
BACKFIRING BIGLY: Trump challenges Biden to take cognitive test that he boasts he ‘aced’. While Mr Trump and his campaign have relentlessly mocked Mr Biden for his supposed mental decline, sharing videos of him apparently slurring his words and smearing him with the nickname “Sleepy Joe”, there are reports that his attempts to focus voters’ attention on the subject are not working – and that they may even be hurting Mr Trump’s chances among older voters, some of whom find the attacks distasteful.
Joe and Mika pointing out – with the help of ‘The Daily Show’ – that it’s not a smart move for Donald Trump to attack Joe Biden on his “cognitive capacity”. (2/2) #MorningJoe #MSNBC pic.twitter.com/xTW0jI2xSd#TrumpCognitiveDecline
— SE Borrelli – 🗽🌸🌼😷 (@BorrelliGerlach) July 3, 2020
FOUR MONTHS LATER: Trump administration planning pandemic office at the State Department: report. The dissolved pandemic response unit, originally named NSC directorate for global health and security and bio-defense, was established by former President Obama during the latter end of his 8-year term. President Trump later shuttered the office in 2018.
DEJA FLU: U.S. sets record for new coronavirus cases, surpassing 55,000. The United States reported 55,220 new coronavirus cases Thursday, surpassing Wednesday’s record of 52,789, previously the largest single-day total since the start of the pandemic, according to data collected by The Washington Post.
YIKES: Fauci warns new coronavirus mutation may spread more easily. “The data is showing there’s a single mutation that makes the virus be able to replicate better and maybe have high viral loads,” Fauci said in an interview with The Journal of the American Medical Association on Thursday. “We don’t have a connection to whether an individual does worse with this or not; it just seems that the virus replicates better and may be more transmissible.”
FINALLY: Under Pressure, D.C. Football Team Will ‘Undergo A Thorough Review’ Of ‘Redskins’ Name. The name, which Native American activists have said for years constitutes a slur, has come under increased fire lately in light of protests for racial justice around the country.
NO HOMO-CONFIDENCE: Tech Mogul Peter Thiel to Sit Out Trump’s Reelection Campaign Over Doubts He Will Win, WSJ Reports. The tech mogul now projects that the U.S. economy will be in a deep recession come November, with double-digit unemployment rates, putting the president at a disadvantage to any challenger. Thiel, however, remains a supporter and reportedly plans to vote for Trump in the 2020 election.
EWW: Tucker Carlson 2024? The GOP is buzzing. Republican strategists, conservative commentators, and former Trump campaign and administration officials are buzzing about Carlson as the next-generation leader of Donald Trump’s movement — with many believing he would be an immediate frontrunner in a Republican primary.
DAYTIME DRAMA: What ‘Ellen DeGeneres Show’ Producers Have Said About Cancelation Rumors. DeGeneres’s character has suffered intense scrutiny in the last year with several allegations about her treatment of staff and guests on her show emerging.
KING OF THE MONSTERS: Godzilla Celebrates Pride With Hilarious & Heartwarming Video
DRAG MYSTERY: RuPaul Has Sashayed Away From Twitter And Instagram And Nobody Knows Why
SERIOUS SHADE: ‘Drag Race’ Winner Yvie Oddly Says RuPaul Never Made Eye Contact ‘Unless She Smelled an Emmy Moment’
NEW MUSIC VIDEO OF THE DAY: Alanis Morisette, “Smiling,” with Elizabeth Stanley from Jagged Little Pill: The Musical
HAMILTON COVER OF THE DAY: Kelly Clarkson, “It’s Quiet Uptown”
ON THE RAG: A weekly look at what’s making news in the gay magazines
FRIDAY FUR: Alex Moran
