The Note: GOP aids Trump in programming around COVID-19

The TAKE with Rick Klein

President Donald Trump is making clear that he's ready and eager to move on from COVID-19 as a political storyline.

His allies in Congress and his campaign apparatus are helping him get there. Whether they manage to get the country there as well looms as one of the bigger 2020 questions of the moment.

The Senate is in session this week with no plans to work on an additional batch of pandemic relief. Republican senators are focusing on approving judges among other Trump appointments, while several committees dig in for investigations of Obama-Biden administration moves that Trump himself has been demanding.

The president has been unapologetic in defending his firing of the State Department inspector general, and few Republicans have raised serious concerns about it. His campaign, meanwhile, is engaged in a hodgepodge of attacks -- many of them vicious and unfounded -- on former Vice President Joe Biden.

Trump's messaging on the virus -- everything from his use of hydroxychloroquine and non-use of masks, through his stance on reopening and economic prospects from here -- is geared toward the perception that things are getting better and fast. Even surpassing 1.5 million cases in the U.S., Trump said Tuesday, is a "badge of honor" because it stands as evidence of ramped-up testing.

Biden and his Democratic allies are seeking to keep the focus on the overriding issue that Americans continue to face, including the growing evidence of the racial and economic disparities in the virus' impact. Biden's "virtual" campaign events in Wisconsin on Wednesday are designed to showcase the stakes exposed by COVID-19 -- and counter a president who would rather talk about other things at the moment.

"This is his pattern. Diversion, diversion, diversion, diversion, diversion. Don't speak to whatever the issues before us are," Biden said at a Yahoo News town hall Tuesday night.

Not surprisingly, the president is proving more adept at making noise than Biden and his team. Their calculation is that the other side being louder won't necessarily translate into voters hearing what they're saying.

The RUNDOWN with Kendall Karson

Some Republicans, locked in tough re-elections, appear to be rolling out a new campaign playbook during the coronavirus pandemic. Several GOP candidates are including Democratic state leaders in their campaign messaging to showcase bipartisan efforts to combat the public health crisis -- possibly an effort to latch onto the nation's governors' high marks during the outbreak, regardless of party affiliation.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who is up for re-election this year, released an ad last month featuring a photo of him alongside Kentucky's Democratic governor, Andy Beshear, as the narrator says, "Mitch is working across the aisle to get hundreds of millions in federal dollars for Kentucky's hospitals."

Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner, too, features a roundup of footage praising the senator's efforts to procure protective gear for his state -- including from Democratic Gov. Jared Polis.

And North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis unveiled a new ad to spotlight his efforts to bring relief to his home state, with the release for the ad touting his "bipartisan leadership" and willingness to work "with both President Trump and Governor (Roy) Cooper," a Democrat, to re-open the state.

The efforts, six months out from November, bring some sense of bipartisanship ahead of what is expected to be a bitter campaign season. But for Democrats, who are keenly aware of their electoral edge on health care, they are elevating the issue during the pandemic to build on their success from the 2018 midterms.

A new strategy memo from the chairs of the six Democratic campaign arms outlines the party's effort to define the upcoming elections on the issue they say is "top of mind for voters" up and down the ballot -- particularly as the coronavirus ravages the country.

From highlighting "the Republican failure" to expand Medicaid at the state legislative level to zeroing in on the Trump administration's multiple attempts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, a now-ingrained part of the health care system that is still under attack, Democrats' collective full-court press on health care reflects their insistence that the general election will be a referendum on Trump's handling of the crisis.

The TIP with Molly Nagle

Biden is headed to the critical battleground state of Wisconsin—albeit virtually, holding a roundtable focused on rural communities, along with a second “virtual rally” and continuing he economic message against Trump in the wake of COVID-19.

"When Vice President Biden visits Wisconsin tomorrow, he'll be entering a state where communities of color, minority-owned businesses and rural economies have paid the price of President Trump's failed response on COVID-19. Joe Biden would make sure our most vulnerable communities have the resources they need, and instead of doling out billions to the wealthy as Trump has done,” Julia Krieger, Biden’s Midwest communications director, said in a statement.

The event is open for anyone to “attend,” but the campaign is hoping to grow their volunteer program in the state, applying similar voter outreach tactics they would use with traditional in-state events, like phone calls, text and targeted emails, according to a Biden campaign official.

While Biden’s campaign has brushed off recent criticisms of glitches or missteps during their virtual endeavors, they can expect many to watch their second attempt at a rally from afar with a critical eye after a Florida rally left viewers with a blank screen and no audio for several minutes, and a touchy connection made Biden difficult to understand at times.

ONE MORE THING

On top of financial struggles, Gary Lin, a Chinese-American business owner in New York City, said he and his employees have also been facing harassment due to their Asian background and that business was already down as early as February. Lin and other Asian American business owners question how they will survive the crisis.

BRINGING AMERICA BACK

ABC News' Erin Schumaker gives a first-hand look at Johns Hopkins' new online course for contact tracers. She's one of 10,000 people to have completed the program five days after it had opened. Read this story and more by checking out Bringing America Back, an ABC News feature that highlights the day's top stories in economic recovery and medical preparedness amid the coronavirus pandemic.

THE PLAYLIST

ABC News' "Start Here" Podcast.Wednesday morning's episode features ABC News White House correspondent Karen Travers, who analyzes President Donald Trump's justification for taking hydroxychloroquine, despite some health officials warning against it. Then, ABC News Legal analyst Kate Shaw explains why courts across the country are ruling against state stay-at-home orders. And, we kick off our special series, "Pandemic: A Nation Divided," featuring a conversation with a Mississippi nurse who has seen the effects of COVID-19 in the ICU and in her community. http://apple.co/2HPocUL

ABC News' "Powerhouse Politics" podcast. Kate Anderson, the author of "Team of Five: The Presidents Club in the Age of Trump," talks with ABC News Political Director Rick Klein and Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl. https://bit.ly/2w091jE

FiveThirtyEight Politics Podcast. After spending much of the past three and a half years out of the spotlight, former President Barack Obama has become more vocally critical of President Donald Trump's administration. In turn, Trump has called for Obama and his administration to be investigated. In this installment of the FiveThirtyEight Politics podcast, the crew asks who is benefiting from a high-profile conflict between Obama and Trump in an election year. They also look at evidence suggesting that Americans' views on the response to the coronavirus pandemic are growing increasingly partisan. https://apple.co/23r5y7w

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

• Former Vice President Joe Biden will have a virtual rural roundtable in La Crosse, Wisconsin, at 10 a.m. CDT, deliver a virtual address to graduates of Columbia University's law school at 1 p.m. EDT and hold a virtual rally in Milwaukee at 3:30 p.m. CDT.
• President Donald Trump will hold a conference call with the National Hispanic Community at 12:30 p.m. and meet with the governors of Arkansas and Kansas at 4 p.m. in the White House.
• Dr. Jill Biden hosts a call for Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month at 7 p.m. and delivers a recorded message for graduates of Columbia's Teachers College at 8 p.m.
• ABC News' "Pandemic -- A Nation Divided" kicks off Wednesday with stories about how the coronavirus has heightened racial/ethnic and socioeconomic divides coast-to-coast. On ABC's "Nightline," co-anchor Juju Chang offers a glimpse into the pandemic's epicenter in the U.S. – the Bronx. As she walks neighborhood by neighborhood, Chang will connect the dots about public housing, close-quarter living, food deserts and underlying health hazards. She talks to New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York City bus driver who has lost co-workers to the virus and now works double shifts because thousands of his colleagues are out sick, and a young city council member raised in public housing. "Nightline" also meets a local Latino doctor working to expand testing. https://abcnews.go.com/Nightline

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The Note is a daily ABC News feature that highlights the day's top stories in politics. Please check back tomorrow for the latest.