Los Angeles Times - 04.04.2020

A4 SATURDAY, APRIL 4, 2020 LATIMES.COM

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Spain love story: In the April 1 Section A, an article about the life and death of Isabel Costales of Spain said relatives attended a Mass in her memory. No such service was held in memory of Costales.

FOR THE

RECORD

WASHINGTON — The United States on Friday re- corded at least 1, COVID-19 deaths in a single day, a sad milestone in the nation’s war to stop the spread of the novel virus, according to figures maintained by Johns Hopkins University. The figure increased the national death count to 7, as of Friday night Pacific time. Nationally, there are more than 277,000 confirmed cases. That figure is higher than what any other country has confirmed, although U.S. officials believe China and some governments may be underreporting case numbers. On Thursday, the worldwide caseload eclipsed 1 million. More than 56,767 have died and more than 223, have recovered. In the United States, New York remains the hardest- hit area. Gov. Andrew Cuo- mo said Friday the state had its deadliest day thus far with more than 562 dead, raising its count to 2,935. In California, there are more than 12,500 confirmed cases, according to a tally maintained by the Los An- geles Times. At least 285 have died. Nonessential businesses worldwide have shuttered, and large-scale events, in- cluding the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, have been post- poned. With commerce dis- rupted, stock markets across the world have plum- meted while unemployment rises. Nearly 10 million Americans sought unemployment benefits in the fi- nal two weeks of March. The U.S. economy has likely al- ready slipped into recession. Experts project Ameri- ca’s economic output could

fall as much as 9% this year— more than three times the sharpest drop during the Great Recession, according to some predictions. At the height of the Great Depres- sion in 1932, the economy shrank a record 12.9%. Congress last month passed a $2.2-trillion economic rescue package to provide relief to industries and individuals. The Internal Revenue Service is set to send direct deposits of up to $1,200 to many adults start- ing as early as next week, although some people may not receive payment until late this summer or into the fall. The Treasury Depart- ment is set to provide bil- lions of dollars in emergency loans for businesses that have been hurt. Democratic lawmakers and Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin say more legislation will probably be needed, although action is unlikely until late this month at the earliest. The virus, which origi- nated in Wuhan, China, has spread rapidly to every con- tinent but Antarctica. Eu- rope in March emerged as the next hotbed, and Ameri- ca is projected to take its place. U.S. doctors are find- ing it increasingly difficult to find supplies. President Trump this week extended social distancing guidelines to the end of April. Singapore, Vietnam and Hong Kong were among the earliest countries to be hit by the novel coronavirus and have made progress in keep- ing the disease largely under control. Those governments have begun imposing new restrictions as the numbers of infections — many carried by travelers — continue to rise.

Times staff writer Don Lee contributed to this report.

In one day, at least

1,000 in the U.S.

die of coronavirus

By Erin B. Logan

WASHINGTON — When President Trump battled impeachment early this year, his reelection campaign staff blasted out Face- book ads, texts and emails to donors and supporters, ar- guing that he was delivering gonzo job figures and a soar- ing stock market in the face of bitter partisan obstruc- tion. Those ads drew Trump’s highest audiences on Face- book, his campaign’s chief advertising platform, which it has used to test out thou- sands of messages and im- ages since the 2016 election. Now with the nation’s economy reeling, more than 10 million Americans out of work and the stock market plummeting 30%, Trump and his aides are struggling to find a new message he can take to Americans for the November election. “Five weeks ago, it was all going to be about this amaz- ing economic machine that we had built,” said Stephen Moore, an economic advisor to Trump’s 2016 campaign who remains in contact with the White House. “It seems like 100 years ago.” So far, at least, Trump’s campaign has not directly mentioned the COVID- pandemic in its Facebook ads. It is test-marketing a handful of ads that only vaguely allude to it, casting Trump as a unifying leader for a “nation facing un- charted territory.” One says Trump is uniquely suited to keep the country “SAFE.” Whether voters agree with that argument, and

how they view his compe- tence in battling the coronavirus outbreak and re- viving the ravaged economy, will probably determine his political fate, overwhelming other judgments about his rocky tenure in office. Polls show he faces widespread concern that he misman- aged the government’s early response. After weeks of downplaying the coronavirus crisis, Trump cast himself as a “wartime president” in mid- March, recommended dras- tic social distancing mea- sures and signed the country’s largest-ever stimulus package. During his nightly news conferences, he went from rosy projections of a quick turnaround to grim- faced warnings of 100,000 to 240,000 American deaths and a deep economic recession, if not worse. Larry Kudlow, Trump’s top economic advisor, said Friday that the 10 million jobless claims filed in the last two weeks don’t fully re- flect the economic pain. Kudlow, who had spent weeks suggesting the stock market crash offered in- vestors a chance to buy on the cheap, conceded that hardships will “get worse be- fore they get better.” In response to another bleak jobs report Friday, Trump’s campaign promis- ed relief for small businesses and workers in the $2-trillion stimulus bill passed by Con- gress, even though the initial rollout of $350 billion in loans for small businesses was mired in confusion and de- lays. It also accused former Vice President Joe Biden, the likely Democratic presi- dential nominee, of “useless partisan sniping from the sidelines.” Since the crisis worsened, Biden has been

forced to run his campaign from the basement of his home in Wilmington, Del. Biden’s campaign called Friday’s job report, which said the economy shed 701,000 jobs in March, send- ing the unemployment rate to its sharpest one-month rise since 1975, a “flashing red light” and said that Trump needs to push another stimulus package to stop the economic bleeding. Other red lights are flashing for Trump’s campaign, however. After embracing national guidelines for social distancing in mid-March, Trump’s approval ratings for his handling of the crisis began to climb. But a poll released Friday by ABC News and Ip- sos showed a decline from 55% three weeks ago to 47%. Several governors, espe- cially those who issued strin- gent stay-at-home orders, saw their poll numbers jump. “Governors have been seen as more clear and deci- sive about their actions, and they’ve gotten a lot of cred- it,” said Charles Franklin, who conducts a monthly tracking poll for Marquette University in Wisconsin, a crucial state for Trump’s reelection prospects. “Trump has been less consistent in his rhetoric about how we should think about the crisis, but the consequences of those actions are less clear.” Wisconsin Gov. Tony Ev- ers, a Democrat, wins high marks for his handling of the epidemic from three-quar- ters of the state’s voters, for example. Trump’s handling rates well with just over half of Wisconsin voters, according to Franklin’s poll. Some of that difference may be the result of Trump’s divisive rhetoric, which has helped him maintain a solid

core of support, but has pre- vented him from winning over Democrats and inde- pendents throughout his presidency. “Attitudes about the president are deeply in- grained, both positive and negative,” said Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster. “So there is a powerful tendency to view the president’s per- formance through the pre- existing lens.” Trump has done best in polling when he has spoken realistically about the threat —as when he introduced the social distancing guidelines last month and when he extended them on Monday until April 30, with a painful as- sessment of the potential death toll. “The more his briefings are like Sgt. Joe Friday — just the facts — the stronger he is,” said Neil Newhouse, a Republican pollster, a refer- ence to the old “Dragnet” se- ries. “My advice is to be realistic — to describe things as they are, not as a salesman —and the more realistic he is, the more reassuring he can be,” said Ari Fleischer, former press secretary for President George W. Bush. “If there’s a problem, point it out in a nonaccusatory man- ner and explain how you’re going to fix it.” Trump has done that on rare occasions. But in many tweets and public appear- ances, he has lashed out at governors for demanding too much and not being “ap- preciative” enough — even as their hospitals and morgues overflow — and suggested he might divert resources to those who say nice things about him. He has denied responsi- bility for widespread testing problems, falsely insisting any American who wanted a test could get one. And in- stead of using his authority to coordinate a unified response, he had told states to solve their own supply problems, leading to a Darwinian fight for test kits, ventila- tors, masks and other criti- cally needed medical gear. Some Republicans believe voters will forgive or for- get Trump’s many state- ments downplaying the danger, his boasts that infections were under control, and his repeated claims, as recently as a week ago, that COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, was no worse than the flu. Both Biden’s campaign and Priorities USA, the main Democratic super PAC, have launched TV and digital ads in swing states featuring Trump’s early ex- pressions of nonchalance about the coronavirus. Tim Miller, a Republican strategist who worked on former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s failed 2016 presi- dential campaign and has become a vocal critic of Trump, said Democrats can argue that Trump not only dismissed the danger with his rhetoric, but also failed to act swiftly enough on the information he had. “The timeline here is critical, because this is such a slow-moving disaster,” Miller said. “There’s this flattening of time with us all stuck in our homes, and people are open to the idea that everyone was caught by sur- prise and came to it late, and that’s not the case.” He cited a Feb. 5 tweet from Sen. Christopher S. Murphy (D-Conn.), who concluded after leaving an administration briefing that Trump’s team “isn’t taking this seriously enough.” “There has to be no mis- taking the fact that the Trump administration knew this was coming, knew enough to brief the Hill, and yet the president failed to act when it would have really mattered,” Miller said. “The Democrats’ challenge is making this as clear as pos- sible, and it’s a lot harder, po- litically, than just clouding things up and making it seem like everyone is just as guilty as he is.”

Now what is he running on?

HOW VOTERSview President Trump’s COVID- response will probably decide whether he’s reelected.

Alex BrandonAssociated Press

Trump, who’d planned

to tout the economy,

struggles to recast his

case for reelection amid the pandemic.

By Noah Bierman, Eli Stokols and Chris Megerian

■■■ ELECTION 2020 ■■■

THE NATION

Los Angeles Times - 04.04.2020

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