The Note: No agreements, only arguments on the Hill
Millions of Americans stand to lose extended unemployment support next week.
The TAKE with MaryAlice Parks
It was a packed and frustrating day for lawmakers in Congress Tuesday.
Democrats and Republicans emerged from high-level meetings sounding no closer to any final agreement on another coronavirus relief and stimulus bill, although the clock is ticking and millions of Americans stand to lose extended unemployment support next week.
House Democrats also faced a defiant attorney general. Testifying for the first time there since his appointment, William Barr's hearing was contentious and venomous, full of interruptions, accusations and shockingly different portrayals of the reality on the streets in American cities.
Republicans repeatedly talked about cities controlled by Democrats as sites of violence and unrest in desperate need of more federal officers to keep the peace, while Democrats, especially those representing said cities, gasped in disagreement.
Concerns from Democrats to Barr about police brutality and federal government overreach in domestic law enforcement from seemed to fall largely on deaf ears. Barr said he was not even familiar with the Elijah McClain case, for example, one of many cases of an unarmed young black man killed at the hands of police, which has been in national headlines for months.
It is a new and slightly head-scratching stance for GOP members and a Republican administration to side -- at a basic level -- against states' rights. It is hard to imagine that they want to set a precedent of the federal government coming into town whenever these agencies decide a moment is too unruly. Still, the focus and dark depiction of U.S. cities is nothing new for this party, which these last few years has tried to take advantage of a great urban-rural divide in the country.
The RUNDOWN with Kendall Karson
Barr may have survived the free-for-all of questions from House Democrats on Tuesday, but less than 100 days before Election Day, his answers on mail-in voting likely further perturbed Democrats, and some within his own party, as officials rush to adjust voting practices amid the pandemic.
Seeking to use the moment to weaken all the false claims coming from the White House, Democrats questioned whether Barr would accept the results of the election should the president lose. "If the results are clear, I would leave office," he said. And they repeatedly challenged his baseless assertions on mail-in voting, after he said, without providing evidence, that he believes there will be a "high risk" of massive voter fraud.
On their side are election experts, who continue to stubbornly insist that while mail-in voting could present potential risks that are different from in-person voting, there isn't any evidence of widespread fraud with the use of mail ballots.
Current and former Republican leaders, too, are also refuting the allegations of fraud with vote-by-mail, potentially the safest option for voting come November.
Tom Ridge, a Republican who previously served as the governor of Pennsylvania and was the nation's first secretary of homeland security, recently told ABC News, "There is absolutely no antecedent, no factual basis for [President Donald Trump's] claim of massive fraud in mail voting."
And Kim Wyman, Washington's Republican secretary of state, told the New York Times last month that while any voting method could potentially be susceptible to fraud, in her experience as the chief elections official in the state, fraud with mail ballots is low. "How do you respond to someone that makes an allegation that there's rampant fraud?" she told the Times. "You show them all the security measures that are in place to prevent it and detect it if it does happen."
The TIP with Averi Harper
While taking questions from reporters following his Wilmington, Delaware, remarks former Vice President Joe Biden pledged to have a running mate pick during the first week of August. He told reporters that he and his campaign are trying to figure out how to privately meet with contenders in-person without tipping off the press. While he mentioned any potential in-person meetings would include face masks, Biden admitted that he hasn't been tested for COVID-19.
Biden is under increasing pressure to select a woman of color as his vice president. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, who is Thai-American and is said to be under consideration for the number two spot, told ABC News' Linsey Davis on News Live Prime that it was important for Biden to pick a woman of color given the political climate. She cited Trump's attacks of Asian Americans amid COVID-19.
"I think it's very important that it's a woman of color you know I do think that we are having a lot of discussions right now about racism and divides within our country, President Trump has time and again, try to go after Asian Americans in particular," she said.
Another possible contender, former national security adviser Susan Rice, who could be considered a controversial choice amid attacks from the right on her statements following the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, will join the hosts of ABC's "The View" on Wednesday.
THE PLAYLIST
ABC News' "Start Here" podcast. Wednesday morning's episode features ABC News Chief Justice correspondent Pierre Thomas, who recaps Attorney General William Barr's congressional testimony Tuesday as the unrest in Portland, Oregon, continues. Joan Donovan from Harvard's Kennedy School tells us why Twitter's move to remove COVID-19 conspiracy theory content could have unintended consequences. And, Chattanooga, Tennessee, mayor Andy Berke joins the show to discuss how his city is moving forward after the state's governor bucked federal guidance and refused to close bars.http://apple.co/2HPocUL
ABC News' "Powerhouse Politics" podcast. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., will join ABC News Political Director Rick Klein and Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl on the podcast. https://bit.ly/2w091jE
FiveThirtyEight's Politics Podcast. Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden could announce his running mate as soon as the end of this week, according to the time frame he laid out. In this installment of the FiveThirtyEight Politics Podcast, the crew discusses the positive and negative narratives that could emerge from each of his potential choices. They also ask why President Donald Trump is sending federal agents into U.S. cities and how this relates to his reelection message. https://53eig.ht/2M0rQx6
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