The NPR Politics Podcast - Weekly Roundup: July 24th, 2020

Episode Date: July 24, 2020

President Trump announced yesterday that much of the Republican National Convention would be cancelled because of coronavirus concerns. School reopening continues to be a major concern for parents, most of whom want to see their kids return to the classroom but worry that it can't be done safely. And Republicans find themselves divided over what to include in their coronavirus aid proposal.This episode: White House correspondent Tamara Keith, White House correspondent Ayesha Rascoe, education correspondent Anya Kamenetz, and congressional correspondent Kelsey Snell.Connect:Subscribe to the NPR Politics Podcast here.Email the show at [e-mail] the NPR Politics Podcast Facebook Group.Listen to our playlist The NPR Politics Daily Workout.Subscribe to the NPR Politics Newsletter.Find and support your local public radio station.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Hi there, this is Hannah from Owensboro, Kentucky, and I'm enjoying this sweltering afternoon by painting 57,000 miles of fence in my backyard. This podcast was recorded at 109 p.m. on Friday, July 24th. Things may have changed by the time you hear it, but I will probably still be painting this fence. All right, here's the show. It sounds to me like she's exaggerating about the length of her fence. I was thinking, I was like, 57,000 miles? 57,000 miles, that is a big fence. Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Tamara Keith, I cover the White House.

I'm Aisha Roscoe. I also cover the White House. And the president has canceled part of the Republican National Convention, the big public celebration part of the Republican National Convention, as cases of the coronavirus continue to mount across the state of Florida. But I looked at my team and I said, the timing for this event is not right. It's just not right with what's happened recently, the flare up in Florida. To have a big convention, it's not the right time. Aisha, our listeners, if they've been listening closely, will know that this has been a long saga. It was, in theory, going to be in North Carolina, and then it was going to be in Florida.

Yeah, you know, and the whole reason why it was supposed to be in Charlotte, but they, you know, Charlotte was saying back way back in those old days of June, that they didn't know whether they could guarantee that you could have an event with thousands of people, no mask, no social distancing because of this coronavirus. And so President Trump basically said, well, I'm going to pick up my marbles and I'm going to go to Jacksonville. In fact, Jacksonville and Florida in particular became like the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. Well, and this is a thing where this has been scaling back and scaling back. So first, it was going to be like 20,000 people indoors, no social distancing, no masks. Then the state of Florida had new rules because the pandemic was getting worse and they had a mask mandate

in Jacksonville. It was probably going to be moved outdoors. They had a bunch of outdoor venues they were looking at. There was also a 50% capacity mandate in the state, so it wouldn't have been a full stadium or arena. There were also questions about testing. The RNC had said that they were going to test people coming in, but there's a shortage of testing. Turnaround times are 10 days in many cases in many places, and so to have this big event in the middle of a pandemic, when you're telling people to not go to big events, and people are having trouble getting tests. I think that the president and his team realized it, it was a bad look, and it probably wouldn't even look the way he wanted it to look. And so now he's going to give a virtual speech,

or give a speech. We don't know exactly what that will look like. And there will be maybe some virtual events. And that's what it will be. And the business part will take place in Charlotte as planned, previously planned. So North Carolina gets the convention after all. After all. All right. Well, let's move on to what happened at the rest of the briefing.

The president really was there to talk about reopening schools and his push to reopen schools. And for that part of the conversation, we have invited an expert on education, Anya Kamenetz from NPR's education team. Hey. Hey, how's it going? Good. How are you doing? I am surviving with my school-aged child home with me with nowhere else to go. Yeah, let's do full disclosure here. We're all surviving with our school-aged children and a couple of toddlers. Yep. Yes. So yes, millions of American parents around the country are trying to figure out what is going to go on with their schools, what is going to happen with their kids. This is now crunch time with schools opening in a matter of weeks in many states. Decisions are being made. Anya, how are things looking now

around the country? It's kind of a hot mess, I'll be honest with you. I mean, and I'm in, I'm really like, I'm toggling back and forth between, you know, talking to superintendents, teachers, and then just like my local Facebook moms who are like, what is the plan? Are they going hybrid? Are they going online only? Right now, interestingly, since the administration began this strong push a couple of weeks ago for schools to reopen full time,

the tide seems to be pushing the other way. And according to Education Week, which is tracking this, of the 15 largest school districts in the country, nine of them have already said they're going to start the year remote only. A couple of the ones that are not are in Florida, where the state has kind of tried to mandate schools opening up in person. That's brought on a lawsuit from the Florida teacher unions. So I would say that there is just way more uncertainty and confusion than there is clarity and answers. Yeah. And Aisha, as Anya mentioned, the president

has really been pushing for this. But yesterday, he slightly softened on that, huh? He seemed to acknowledge that in certain places where there are hot spots, it may be, you know, it may be wise to hold off on in-person instruction for a while, but he still wants them to fully reopen. And obviously it's not his decision, it's the governors and local officials, but he still wants schools to fully reopen. And he's saying, look, if you want this money, this federal money, you need to reopen so you can get this aid. So the thing is, parents want their kids to be able to go back to school. Teachers don't want to have to teach their kids through the internet. There's lots of research that says that it's

important for kids' well-being to be in school for any number of reasons. Yes, absolutely. I mean, first of all, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Academy of Sciences have both come out saying, yeah, we're really concerned about kids' mental health, their physical health in many cases, not being able to be under the eyes of mandatory reporters who spot child abuse. That's a really serious concern. Obviously, hunger. We've got tens of millions of children who eat because of the school food program. And then obviously learning loss and a lot of inequities. So there's really, really good reasons to get kids back in school. And then there is the need for millions of parents to be able to get work done and have a safe place for

their kids to go. But even with all of that, you know, the surveys and the polls are pretty robust. Like there were two polls that came out just this week, both of which showed that about 60% of parents were in favor of delaying school reopening to make sure that it's safe, even though they said, yes, I'm losing income. Yes, I'm losing time to myself. Yes, I'm stressed. Yes, I'm worried about my children's development. But their safety is the most important thing. Yeah, I mean, and that's the kind of the thing that is not necessarily what you would think because people are, we all know how hard it is. But it seems like people are saying, look, yeah, it's hard, but I don't want to take a risk with my kids. I don't want my kids to bring something home. And then my family, our health is at risk. Like they're saying that we can play

with a lot of things, but we just can't play with our kids. We don't want to take any risk, right? Well, absolutely. And you know, the other part of that, I think, Aisha, that we wish we knew more about is just the role that children play in getting and spreading this disease, right? So there is some emerging evidence, especially from countries with low community spread, that it is possible to open schools and keep them open safely, especially with the youngest children, potentially children under 10 seem to play less of a role in spreading the virus. But that's presuming a whole lot of things, and especially for schools, access to PPE, masks, hand sanitizer, even running water and soap in some schools is not available, ventilation.

So the irony is, of course, Trump is threatening to withhold an aid package from schools unless they open. But actually, that's a chicken and egg issue. They're not going to be able to open unless they get that aid. One other thing I wanted to bring up is what's happening at the neighborhood level, not at the school level, but parents frantically searching for some other option. Wealthy people looking at private school, for instance, or finding tutors. I mean, there's just this mad dash that appears to be happening

all over the country to try to find some sort of non-school solution. Well, yeah, absolutely. I mean, when public transit became unavailable, people bought cars if they could, right? Other people walked. So now that schools are not available, families have to figure out a way to deal. And so that has meant, you know, very different things in different communities. Certainly there's concern around equity when you think about the fact that some kids are going to be having brand new devices,

ultra-fast internet, possibly a teacher hired away from the public schools to tutor them in a small group setting. Other kids may be staying at grandma's house or in the care of an older sibling who's neglecting their own studies or possibly even home alone and trying to struggle to do remote learning. So you want to talk about achievement gap or opportunity gap. It was one thing when schools were in session. It is absolutely magnified and multiplied a million times in the situation that we're in now with essentially, you know, no public system. Yeah. And President Trump kind of talked about this idea, in a sense, wanting to give federal money to families that are trying to find these solutions. The White House is recommending that the Senate include $105 billion in its legislation in the coronavirus aid package that's currently

being debated. We will talk about that aid package that's currently being debated. We will talk about that aid package after we take a quick break. But Anya, thank you for being here and bringing us your reporting. Oh, thanks for having me. And we will be right back. Support for this podcast and the following message come from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, developing solutions to support strong families and communities to help ensure a brighter future for America's children. More information is available at aecf.org.

A Minneapolis business owner's daughter is called out publicly for racist, anti-Black tweets. Fighting to save his business and trying to make amends, he calls on a prominent black Muslim leader for help. He's an Arab Muslim. I said, Brother Makram, I'm here to learn. Tell me what to do. To hear what happens next, listen to Code Switch from NPR.

And we're back and we're joined by Kelsey Snell. Hey, Kelsey. Hi there. I'm here to bring the joy of Congress. Yes, yes. So, funny thing, earlier this week, I'm here to bring the joy of Congress. Yes. Yes. Yeah. So funny thing. Earlier this week, we talked about how Senate Republicans were about to come out with the like the next day, a plan for what they wanted in the next coronavirus relief package.

It's Friday and I still haven't seen it. Have you seen it? Well, you're not going to see it this week. So we are now expecting to see it next week. Republicans had some issues. They ran into some hurdles here where they can't get on the same page. We should first start out by saying that this isn't even them trying to get on the same page about a final bill. It's not them negotiating with Nancy Pelosi, for instance. They are negotiating with themselves about a starting point for a starting point for negotiations. So they are not yet in agreement about where to start in their negotiations

with Democrats, which essentially means that unemployment benefits are certain to lapse. And just to be clear, that's people's lives, livelihoods at this moment. Yeah, that is $600 a week that many people have come to rely on. It is a large amount of money. And there are economists who are warning that having a gap that large could have a really serious impact on people's ability to pay rent, on their ability to pay mortgages and utility bills and on consumer spending. So it could have a pretty quick and immediate impact on the economy. And the economy is not going that well right now. I mean, we had an increase in jobless claims this week for the first time in a while.

And it's I mean, jobless claims have stayed above a million for a number of weeks, which is unheard of. And so what do they agree on, Kelsey? Do they have some, where is the agreement? They say there is an agreement in principle, primarily the agreement we know exists around schools. They want to do $105 billion for schools, $16 billion for new money for testing. They are also talking about, you know, the way that they apportion the money for schools. They want $30 billion for colleges and universities, $70 billion for K-12 education. What's interesting there is that the K-12 education is divided up. Half of that money is intended to go to all schools on a per capita basis, and the other Half of that money is intended to go to all schools on a per capita basis. And the other half of the money is supposed to only go to schools that are

opening up in person in some way. So there is a real push in even in the way the money is structured to get kids into physical schools. But that's kind of where the agreement seems to start to fall apart. And, you know, the unemployment benefits that we were talking about, that real impact for people, that's where they're really disagreeing. I want to dig in on the item that seems to be an area that's hanging them up, which is those unemployment benefits that we talked about earlier, those sort of extra unemployment benefits because of the pandemic that are set to run out on the 31st. Where do they stand on that? So the disagreement here, as I understand it, has a lot to do with how much those benefits should be. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said repeatedly that they do not want to be paying people to stay home from

work. So they want to be able to kind of provide some sort of gap filler for the people who are still out of work. But they talk a lot about the people who are choosing not to return to work because they're making more money on unemployment. So to give people a little bit of backstory here, we wound up with this $600 in federal payments because they just don't know how to tell states that have terrible, in many cases, infrastructure for unemployment. We're talking about websites that were built

at the beginning of websites. This is not a sophisticated system in most states. And the concern was that they could not quickly update the systems across the country in order to figure out what people were making and then make up that salary. Now, they claim now that they can do that. That is something that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said at the White House yesterday is he said that, you know, that they were in a rush before and they can do it now and they want to cap it at 70 percent of persons previous wages. People shouldn't focus on the number right now. What people should focus on, this is intended to be wage replacement. So we're focused on the percentage, which is about 70 percent. But that is not clear that they actually can do it.

I've talked to some Democrats who have raised concerns that, you know, the systems didn't work in March, and they probably don't work now either. And a lot of people have had to wait a long time for their unemployment payments, even under this system that they have now, right? Absolutely. There have been issues there. And some of that is by design, because they don't want to make some states don't want to make it easy for people to get unemployment. That is absolutely true. And we should also say we don't know or that there are people that we cannot say definitively whether they're the number of people who may be staying home from work just to get unemployment. Some people would say that they're staying home because the jobs aren't there because it's a pandemic. Or because they're scared. Or they're scared. Yeah.

That's really difficult for the people who look at these things to determine at this point. So there is a gamble here, right? And saying that reducing people's benefits to kind of encourage people to go back to work, that there will be work for them to go back to. I just want to pull out a little bit as we are winding this conversation down, because this has been a week of Republicans fighting with each other, which raises the question, are they okay? Are they, you know, like, what is causing this fight to break out now? And does it have anything to do with polls and ratings and other things that indicate that there's a real risk that they could lose the Senate this year? Okay, so I think the context here is that you have the usual camps of people within the Republican Party on steroids. So you have these more moderate members who represent steroids.

Because if they were, they'd be very angry. On electoral steroids. I mean, this is all amplified by the election. You have the more moderate members who represent more moderate or even, you know, turning blue, turning purple states. Places like Colorado, where Senator Cory Gardner is up for re-election. Maine, where Senator Susan Collins is up for reelection. They're talking about needing money for testing.

They're talking about needing money for state and local governments. They're talking about needing a whole lot more money than a lot of the conservative members who aren't up for reelection or don't have to worry about their reelection prospects. They're just not willing to support that. So Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has to balance how do you protect the people who are up for reelection and at risk and protect the majority in the Senate and still pass a bill that can get Republican support. It's a really, really tough position to be in. And he's been banking all along on trying to walk a middle ground on this and trying to get Democrats to negotiate with him. But Democrats have been not at all willing to view things that way. Is there also the possibility that because President Trump is so far behind in the polls, like he's not able to unite them in the same way?

Well, he also hasn't been particularly involved in all of this. I think, you know, I think you guys can talk to this even more than I can. But this has been negotiated by his chief of staff and his treasury secretary, not the president. Trillions of dollars in spending was already negotiated without without significant input from the White House beyond whether or not he would support it. And that's kind of that that hands off approach is the way he's dealt with a lot of these spending issues, just maybe at the end coming in and blowing things up if there's some part that he doesn't like. But it seemed like with the coronavirus, he wants to get some type of aid out because he realizes the economy is on the line and, you know, voters are definitely affected by this. Yeah, I mean, a little bit of the schoolhouse rock of it all is to kind of look at, you know, the coalitions of people in the Hill, who Republicans used to think of themselves as being the party that worried so much about debt and deficit. And

Democrats were always the party that, you know, was more about big government and government spending to help people, and that that was government's role. This is kind of putting all of that in question, right? You have Republicans who have to decide whether or not they want a bigger government in this moment because the economy that exists in the private sector just isn't there. All right. Well, we will keep watching this next week. In the meantime, let's take a quick break, and then it's time for Can't Let It Go.

Support for this podcast and the following message come from the Walton Family Foundation, where opportunity takes root. More information is available at waltonfamilyfoundation.org. Don't miss the national conversation with me, Jen we do every week with Can't Let It Go. The part of the show where we talk about the things we cannot stop thinking about, politics or otherwise. Aisha, what can't you let go of? Yeah, so this week I can't let go of there's been a lot of talk about, you know, what we do with, you know, monuments and things named after, you know what we do um with uh you know monuments and and and things named after you know people associated with the confederacy but but this week uh in fairfax county so you know right there in virginia there was a high school named robert e lee high school and the fairfax County School Board has voted to rename the school after John Lewis. Congressman John Lewis, who just died recently, obviously known as a major part of the civil rights movement and has been, you know, a monumental person in this country. And now he's going to have a high school named after him in

Virginia instead of after Mr. Robert E. Lee. I have to say that I will always remember him as a person who was so generous with his time. In the Capitol, you know, there are some people who walk around acting extremely important, and he was never one of those people he always had time to talk and he was you know just really generous with his telling of his own story and with talking about issues he cared about and I cannot tell you how many times I saw him stop to just talk to people tourists school groups who just came up to talk to him when he was coming in to vote or was outside walking around in the Capitol. He was just a very, he was very generous with his time and was just a real joy to actually spend time talking to.

Kelsey, what can't you let go of? All right, guys. So as most people know, I am a big baseball fan. And yesterday, baseball came back, but it came back in the most 2020 way possible. It was just perfectly, perfectly encapsulated this year. Yeah, it was the opening day. The game was played here in Washington. The Nationals were playing the Yankees. One of the Nationals players had coronavirus. That's how we started the whole thing. Dr. Fauci was there because, you know, it's 2020. He throws out the first pitch, which was perfectly socially distanced from the mound.

It was very wide. And everyone was kind of trying to have fun. It was a little weird. People were wearing masks. It wasn't quite the way we remembered it, but people were trying. And then a giant storm came through and ruined the game. And this was like, this was a storm that was like something what providential or something like this was like biblical, perhaps. Is that the word?

It was like, oh, it was crazy. They were like throwing lightning bolts down from the sky. It was crazy. It was, I have never heard thunder that loud. So 2020 came and swept through to make sure that we were close to having it figured out. But no. Someone heard you guys were having fun and decided to let out, to rain on that. The sky fell.

Yes. Oh my gosh. The sky fell. Yes. Oh my gosh. It was pretty classic 2020. Yeah. Tam, what can you not let go of this week? Well, speaking of losing teams, the Nats lost last night. So the annual RAGBRAI,

the bike ride across Iowa that you may have heard people on this podcast discuss year after year, um, it, um, was canceled due to the coronavirus, as with everything else, but they were doing a virtual RAGBRAI instead. Now the highlight, in my opinion, of RAGBRAI is the midweek pie eating competition between NPR and the Des Moines Register newspaper. So there was a virtual ride. There was a virtual rhubarb rumble. Great to be here. I'm Scott Horsley, team coach for the No Pie Refused team. And I'll just quickly explain the rules of this competition. It is not a volume pie eating contest. It is a speed eating contest.

Can I, to preface, you guys won not that long ago, right? For the first time ever. So you're like the Washington Nationals. No, no. Well, yes, we're like the Washington Nationals. I thought you were going to say we're like the, whatever the losing team is to the Harlem Globetrotters. I think it's like the generals. The Washington Generals.

The Washington Generals. Yes. So it was, you know, very official. Scott Horsley was our team's coach, and he also was a little bit of an emcee for the event. Each contestant is allowed to have a glass or a bottle of water to help with the pie, but no other beverages are permitted by rule and fiat. And then we were all in our houses, and, you know, it was like a relay. So you took different turns. So one of our former producers went first and then I was second. And then after me was Scott Detrow and then the rest of the NPR team.

It turns out Scott Detrow and I should probably not be invited back. What happened? Well, you know, I did not go as fast as I was supposed to. And then Scott actually used a fork. Oh, you used a fork. I used my hands.

Scott used a fork. Detrow used a fork. Detro's used a fork. She's so polite. But I want a pies per minute breakdown analysis. Well, there's a 23 minute Zoom video that you can analyze.

Well, I know what I'm doing after this. Happy Friday. Alright, well that is a wrap for this week, but you can connect with us in so many ways. Well, I know what I'm doing after this. Happy Friday. All right. Well, that is a wrap for this week. But you can connect with us in so many ways. Just check out the link in the description of this episode. Our executive producer is Shirley Henry. Our editors are Mathani Maturi and Eric McDaniel.

Our producers are Barton Girdwood and Chloe Weiner. Thanks to Lexi Schipittel, Elena Moore, Dana Farrington, and Brandon Carter. I'm Tamara Keith. I cover the White House. I'm Ayesha Roscoe. I also cover the White House. And I'm Kelsey Snell. I cover Congress. And thank you for listening to the NPR Politics Podcast.