Monday, August 2, 2021

Global USA I briefed the President today in the Oval Office. It was part of the weekly briefing that we do where Rochelle and Vivek and Marcella were on the zoom screen and I was in the office with the President and the Vice President. I briefed him on the efficacy of the vaccine against the delta variant as well as on the issue of breakthrough infections and the possibility of our need for boosters. The President was his usual pleasant and calm self; however, he seemed a bit troubled about two issues: first, he is aware that everyone is waiting for the FDA to give final approval to the vaccines and that this would go a long way to getting more people vaccinated. He clearly does not want to interfere with the FDA; however, he is growing impatient with the length of time that is taking for them to come across with a full approval. Second, he is concerned about the fact that the moratorium on evictions of people from their homes has expired and the Supreme Court has voted five to four that the moratorium cannot be extended. He has the power to call together constitutional scholars and claim that they have given him enough reason to overrule the opinion of the Supreme Court and order the CDC to continue with the moratorium on evictions. He is hesitant to do that since although he believes it is the right thing to do from a humanitarian standpoint, he does not want to set a precedent for a President to use his or her Presidential authority to overrule a Supreme Court ruling. He is afraid that if we get another President similar to Trump, that a lot of mischief and bad acting could occur if such a precedent were set. And so, he has to live with the uncomfortable situation of Nancy Pelosi essentially yelling at him on the phone to do something about the eviction situation when in some respects he is powerless to do so. I feel for him and I am more appreciative close and personal of the weight of the Presidency. As it turns out, the President did get an opinion from some constitutional scholars and made the decision to ask the CDC to extend the moratorium for 30 days. As Ron Klain said in the White House , it is likely that the courts will overturn this extended moratorium pretty quickly . We shall see. The general spin is that the president did this because of extensive pressure from Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic Congress. Governor Ned Lamont of Connecticut called me today in frustration that the FDA has not yet given full BLA approval to the COVID-19 vaccines. He asked if I could do anything about it . I explained to him that that would be difficult since it would suggest that we are putting pressure on the FDA which could backfire on us. I told him that I was very much in favor of accelerating the process and that I felt that the approval would likely come within the next couple of weeks . He also asked about booster shots and I explained to him that boosters for the immunocompromised would likely come very soon and that it would probably take a couple of months before there was enough data to recommend booster shots for the elderly. Got a call today from John Bel Edwards, Governor of Louisiana. He is having the biggest surge of cases of any state in the country right now and he is asking for my support in what he will soon do and that is to put in a mask mandate for all indoor public settings as well As for everyone in the school system which will start today. He asked if I had any further suggestions. I asked if he had ordered a restricted capacity or closing of bars and restaurants and he said that although he would like to do that, he feels that the legislature would rebel against him and take away his emergency powers for public health. And so he wants to get his mask mandate through as his first priority. I agree with him. In addition before we hung up he said that he really admired me and felt badly of what I was going through with the far right attacking me. He said a very nice thing when he said: “you have bigger clowns to deal with than I do; maybe not more clowns, but certainly bigger clowns, but at least you can sleep at night with a clear conscience “. The conspiracy of the far right and the trump loyalists continues. Recently representative Mike McCall the minority On the House Foreign Affairs Committee released a report by the panel's republican staff essentially saying that the lab leak was the cause of COVID-19 and hinting the NIH's role in creating the virus. This is based on no new information or no new data. It is very clear what is going on and it needs to be called out. It is all part of “The Big Lie”. First, trump actually won the election; next, January 6th was a friendly visit to the capital book shop; next trump was right and China caused the virus; next Fauci and the NIH helped the Chinese create the virus; next, discredit Fauci and it looks like trump is telling the truth. It is plain and simple a concerted effort aimed at getting trump re-elected and exonerating him from any blame in the complete mess up of his response to COVID-19. Lindsey Graham has contracted COVID-19 period since he is vaccinated he has a mild case. I asked his staff to have him give me a call , which he did and I expressed concern for him and offered to help if I could. He was very grateful for my concern instead we would keep in touch. PRESS: White House pressor;