Trump White House Election Night Party Spreads COVID-19

Tuesday’s crowded White House election night watch party ended in uncertainty as the slow business of counting millions of mail-in ballots dragged on, but two predictable things happened:

1. Donald Trump falsely claimed victory before all the votes were in; and
2. Some of the 250 partygoers got COVID-19.

White House guests including Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson MD, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Trump Campaign official David Bossie, and campaign aide Nick Trainer are among those now testing positive.

Mr. Trump tasked Daivid Bossie with leading his legal challenge to the election results that make him a loser.

More:

“Was Donald Trump’s White House watch party a super-spreader event?” The Guardian

“Looks Like Trump May Have Held Another Superspreader Event,” Claire Lampen, The Cut

Updates:

“Two more people from Trump’s Election Night party at White House test positive for coronavirus,” Dan Mangan, CNBC

“White House political director tests positive for coronavirus, official says,” Kaitlan Collins and Maegan Vazquez, CNN

“Trump adviser Corey Lewandowski tests positive for coronavirus,” Oriana Gonzalez, Axios

“RNC Chief of Staff Richard Walters tests positive for COVID-19,” Xeni Jardin, BoingBoing

Related:

“Amid White House COVID-19 outbreak, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner pulled their 3 kids from a DC Jewish school,” Ron Kampeas, Jewish Telegraphic Service

“Javanka Pulled Kids Out of D.C. School After Parents Complained: Report,” Tori B. Powell, Daily Beast

“Parents Say Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump Wouldn’t Adhere to Covid Protocols at Their Kids’ School—So the Family Left,” Daniella Byck, Washingtonian

“More than 130 Secret Service officers reportedly under coronavirus quarantine,” Ursula Perano, Axios

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Guy In Charge of Fixing Cities Admits He Hasn’t

Retired neurosurgeon and noted pyramid expert Ben Carson, President Trump’s Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, has a perfect record at HUD — he’s done absolutely nothing. HUD is also charged with enforcing the Fair Housing Act, which Dr. Carson has diagnosed as “communist.”

Ben Carson MD once worked for a living at Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore, in Maryland’s 7th Congressional District, so he could authoritatively echo President Trump’s description of that ivy-infested hellhole. Of course, he commuted to Hopkins from his palatial home in leafy Upperco, Maryland. As Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Dr. Carson has felt duty-bound to increase his own supply of housing, and has acquired additional estates in Vienna, Virginia and Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

In a move reminiscent of his own gaffe-prone 2016 campaign, Dr. Carson showed up unannounced for a press event at a Baltimore church and was miffed to be shunted into an alley. Guess that physician “God Complex” survived retirement. In any case, the Trump Administration’s dubious claims about investing in Baltimore rest on the so-called Opportunity Zone scheme, tax incentive payoffs to the developers gentrifying Charm City.

More:

“Ben Carson says as a pediatric neurosurgeon, he hesitated to send children back to ‘infested’ homes in Baltimore,” John Wagner, Washington Post

“Baltimore Church Gives Ben Carson the Boot As He Scrambles to Demonstrate What He’s Done for That City Lately,” Dara Sharif, The Root

“Ben Carson defends Trump, compares Baltimore to cancer patient,” Katy O’Donnell, Politico

“‘Not my Baltimore’: In Cummings’s district, a rich tapestry of problems and gems,” Paul Schwartzman, Washington Post

“Why your city should imitate Baltimore. (Yes, we said Baltimore.),” Philip Bane, Smart Cities Council

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Ben Carson at HUD: Demolition By Neglect

Retired neurosurgeon and noted pyramid expert Ben Carson, President Trump’s Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, has a perfect record at HUD — he’s done absolutely nothing. Perhaps he thinks U.S. cities already have enough affordable housing and healthy economies. HUD is also charged with enforcing the Fair Housing Act, which Dr. Carson has diagnosed as “communist.”

But President Trump isn’t making Dr. Carson run HUD all by himself. He’s appointed Eric Trump’s wedding planner to run the federal housing office in New York City. Coincidentally, Donald Trump himself is part-owner of Brooklyn’s Starrett City, the nation’s largest subsidized housing complex, which earns him millions.

More:

“Ben Carson is dangerous for HUD. He got the job anyway because Trump has normalized incompetence,” Jumaane D. Williams, Quartz

Related:

“The impact of income inequality on rental affordability: An empirical study in large American metropolitan areas,” Hongwei Dong, Urban Studies

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Ben Carson at HUD: Pyramid Scheme?

Last we heard of retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, he was proposed for Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, presumably because he lives in a house and once lived in a city. We assume President-elect Trump will appoint a city planner as Surgeon General.

Dr. Carson’s fascination with Egyptian pyramids may influence U.S. cityscapes during the Trump administration. On the other hand, his spokesman told the press that Ben Carson thinks he’s unqualified to run a federal department. Any department. Oh, and the good doctor recently diagnosed the HUD-administered Fair Housing laws as “communist.”

More:

“Ben Carson Is Trump’s Pick for HUD Secretary, for Some Terrible Reason,” Eric Levitz, New York Magazine

“Ben Carson for HUD Secretary, Why?” Kriston Capps, CityLab

“Stop Treating HUD Like A Second-Tier Department,” Andrew Flowers, FiveThirtyEight

Update:

“Turns Out Ben Carson Didn’t Grow Up in Public Housing,” Adam K. Raymond, New York Magazine

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Dr. Ben Carson at CPAC

Ben Carson MD addressed the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) this weekend, formally announcing that his presidential campaign is definitely deceased, passed on, is no more, has ceased to be, has expired, is bereft of life, has kicked the bucket and shuffled off this mortal coil, has run down the curtain and joined the choir invisible.

Dr. Carson has accepted a job as chairman of a new group practice, the Christian Catatonic Conservative Congregation, and will urge inert evangelicals to go out and vote. And buy his books.

Dr. Carson Declares His Campaign Dead

“I do not see a political path forward in light of last evening’s Super Tuesday primary results,” said Dr. Ben Carson, retired neurosurgeon and comatose Republican presidential contender on Wednesday. He had already decided to skip Thursday’s GOP debate in Detroit since no one noticed that he attended last week’s debate in Houston.

The political pathologists of the press haven’t completed the autopsy, but it appears the Carson campaign died of neglect. In lieu of flowers, send condolences to the campaign donors.

Dr. Carson’s Snake Oil

One of the so-called “gotcha” questions Carl Quintanilla asked Dr. Ben Carson on CNBC’s October 28th reality show was about his involvement with Mannatech, a shady medical supplement company. “I didn’t have an involvement with them,” the candidate replied. “That is total propaganda, and this is what happens in our society. Total propaganda,” the Doc harrumphed. A great media moment, but denying a verifiable fact is never a good long-term strategy.

Ten months before the debate, Jim Geraghty of the National Review described Ben Carson’s decade-long relationship with the purveyor of unproven “neutraceutical” nostrums, a firm that paid $4 million to settle a false medical claims suit, a firm thouroughly discredited in a 2007 ABC 20/20 investigation.

So Mr. Quintanilla’s debate question should have come as no surprise. Ben Carson shilled for Mannatech on PBS in 2014 and The Wall Street Journal‘s Mark Maremont had outlined Dr. Carson’s decade-long relationship with Mannatech just weeks before the CNBC event.

Since the debate, has Dr. Carson addressed the fact that for 10 years he promoted medical hokum for money? No. He tried to sidestep the issue of his personal and professional ethics by blaming his political opponents for raising this controversy, another clear falsehood. So much for the moral high ground.

More:

“What Ben Carson’s Mannatech Answer Tells Us,” Jim Geraghty, National Review

“Springtime for Grifters,”Paul Krugman, New York Times

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Dr. Ben Carson Re-Writes the Hippocratic Oath

“As a Doctor, I spent many a night pulling bullets out of bodies. … but I never saw a body with bullet holes that was more devastating than taking the right to arm ourselves away.”

— Benjamin Carson MD

In a graphic elaboration of Jeb Bush’s “stuff happens,” retired brain surgeon Ben Carson explained that you’re gonna die of gunshot wounds to defend a willful misinterpretation of the 2nd Amendment.

Dr. Carson also suggested that President Obama forgo visiting the grieving families of Roseburg, Oregon and wait for the next mass shooting. There’s never a long wait; there’s been a mass shooting almost every day this year.

Thanks, Doc. Time for a second opinion.

Pataki Joins the Umpteen Other Contenders for the 2016 GOP Nomination

Last week former New York Governor George Pataki announced that he is running to be the 2016 Republican Presidential candidate. He’s got three big problems. Number three is the big crowd of contenders ahead of him. His second-biggest problem: Since he left office in 2006 the Republican Party has run away from his social positions, veering quite far to the Right. His number 1 problem? No one knows who he is anymore.