The RJC offices will be closed April 15-16 in observance of the last days of Passover. Today, we offer our members a streamlined newsletter that highlights some of the thought-provoking news and commentary of the last few days.
• Last week, Bernie Sanders suspended his Democratic presidential primary campaign, leaving Joe Biden the presumptive nominee. Yesterday, Sanders formally endorsed Biden for president (to the disgust of some of Sanders' campaign staff). Former President Barack Obama has endorsed Biden as well.
• Nate Cohn at the New York Times believes that Biden's apparent lead over President Donald Trump in national polls is not as solid as it looks. He notes the importance of examining battleground states versus other states and registered voters versus likely voters. Cohn writes:
If anyone holds the early edge, it is Mr. Biden. He leads by an average of six points in national live-interview polls of registered voters. But the election will be decided by voters in the battleground states, not registered voters nationwide, and there the story is not nearly so clear or rosy for Mr. Biden.
At the moment, a reasonable estimate is that Mr. Biden is performing four or five points worse among likely voters in the critical states than he is among registered voters nationwide. As a result, he holds only a narrow and tenuous edge in the race for the Electoral College, if he holds one at all.
…Together, Mr. Trump’s relative advantage of one to two points among likely voters compared with registered voters — and his relative advantage of three and even four points in the tipping-point states — means that the typical national poll of registered voters is probably around four or five points worse for Mr. Trump than his standing among likely voters in the most pivotal states. Mr. Biden’s already narrow polling lead in states like Wisconsin, Pennsylvania or Arizona might be vanishingly small after a likely voter screen.
• President Donald Trump extended greetings for Passover to the Jewish community in a video statement. You can watch it here.
• A bit of encouraging coronavirus news from Israel:
Six critically ill coronavirus patients in Israel who are considered high-risk for mortality have been treated with Pluristem’s placenta-based cell-therapy product and survived, according to preliminary data provided by the Haifa-based company.
• Our country's reliance on China for goods - including pharmaceuticals - is a serious national security issue. So said Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) last week on the Hugh Hewitt Show. She's not alone in expressing such concerns.
• The Washington Free Beacon reports on a number of Republican lawmakers who represent a "new generation of China hawks," including Reps. Jim Banks (R-IN) and Elise Stefanik (R-NY). They, along with Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), are teaming up with more veteran members such as Sens. Tom Cotton (R-AR), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Ted Cruz (R-TX), and Rick Scott (R-FL) to introduce legislation to strengthen America's medical supply chain.
• How do you say "chutzpah" in Mandarin? Tobias Hoonhout reports at National Review that the head of the Wisconsin state senate recently received multiple emails from the wife of the Chinese Consulate-General in Chicago, asking him to propose a resolution to praise China for its handling of the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak. The request infuriated State Senate President Roger Roth, who said that he would not propose a pro-China resolution dictated by the Chinese government. Instead he introduced a resolution to publicly acknowledge “that the Communist Party of China deliberately and intentionally misled the world on the Wuhan Coronavirus and standing in solidarity with the Chinese people to condemn the actions of the Communist Party of China." Kudos to Senator Roth.
