In other news, 57 people have been criminally charged for defrauding the Paycheck Protection Program in schemes worth $175 million. This is just the beginning.
Officials said they have identified 500 individuals who may have defrauded the $660 billion Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and that, in many cases, criminal rings had worked together to steal funds from the program. The Justice Department along with other agencies would focus more closely on this organized criminal activity, officials said.
Meanwhile, AstraZeneca says their vaccine could be ready near the end of the year if trials resume soon. Assuming other drugmakers are on a similar timeline, there won't be any vaccine surprise next month.
Finally, Trumpworld staffers are apparently arguing over who is most to blame for allowing Trump to talk to Bob Woodward.
The fallout has caused internal strife at the White House as aides assign blame for allowing the taped interviews to proceed. Fingers have been thrust at ex-press secretaries, longtime confidants and old friends. [...]
At issue, according to several senior White House officials, is Trump's penchant for phoning Woodward without his advisers' knowledge. While Trump conducted two interviews for the book in the Oval Office surrounded by aides -- including, at one, then-acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, senior adviser Kellyanne Conway, then-deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley and Vice President Mike Pence -- his subsequent conversations were often only him and Woodward on the phone.
Trump went around the White House communications office and staff for several of the 16 phone interviews he did with Woodward, a White House official told CNN. The official said Woodward would also call Trump directly without going through the communications office.
"Direct calls without us knowing were made all the time," the official said.
It's remarkable how everyone close to Trump including his own staff and biggest supporters just take it as a given that Trump is a moron who needs to be protected from himself.
Right wing media reaction to Trump's comments has mostly centered around pointing fingers at people who allowed it to happen as if Trump himself isn't ultimately to blame.
The actual content of Trump's words doesn't matter to any of them, only that he was recorded.