Today in one sentence: The United States reported another record-high average number of new coronavirus cases; Dr. Anthony Fauci warned the U.S. is in a "bad position" as coronavirus cases and hospitalizations surge and that it could be 2022 "before we start having some semblances of normality"; Jared Kushner bragged in mid-April that Trump had cut out the doctors and scientists advising him on the coronavirus pandemic; Trump had more than $270 million in debt forgiven since 2010; and the Trump campaign stranded hundreds of supporters in the freezing cold for hours after a rally at an airfield in Omaha.

1/ The United States reported another record-high average number of new coronavirus cases, bringing the seven-day average to about 71,832 – an increase of more than 20% compared to the previous week and an increase of about 40% from two weeks earlier. Over the last month, the number of people hospitalized for COVID-19 climbed an estimated 46% and 29 states have set new records for new daily cases since the pandemic began. The U.S. reported a record of more than 500,000 new cases over the past week. One top health official warned that the country is at a “critical point.” (CNBC / CNN / New York Times / Bloomberg)

  • Germany and France imposed new lockdowns as the rapid spread of the coronavirus overwhelms health services. French President Emmanuel Macron imposed a new nationwide lockdown, which will start on Friday. German Chancellor Angela Merkel imposed a one-month partial shutdown starting Monday. (Bloomberg / Reuters / CNN / Wall Street Journal)

  • The S&P 500 fell 3.5% – the biggest drop since June – the Dow dropped 3.4%, and the Nasdaq slid 3.7%. The selloff comes amid a surge in new coronavirus cases and another stimulus package not expected to be passed before the election. Trump, meanwhile, claimed that he was “saving suburbia” at a rally in Michigan and promised suburban women voters he’s “getting your kids back to school” and “getting your husbands – they want to get back to work. We’re getting your husbands back to work.” (CNBC / Bloomberg / Washington Post / CNN / ABC News / Wall Street Journal / New York Times)

2/ Dr. Anthony Fauci warned the U.S. is in a “bad position” as coronavirus cases and hospitalizations surge and that it could be 2022 “before we start having some semblances of normality.” Even though he’s “very certain” there will have a coronavirus vaccine “in the next few months,” Dr. Fauci said it would “easily” take until “the end of 2021” before “we have vaccinated a substantial proportion of the people” to allow for people return to crowded theaters, sporting events, and restaurants. Dr. Fauci also predicted that masks will be “very commonplace” following pandemic. Trump, meanwhile, argued that media coverage of COVID-19 should be “an election law violation,” tweeting that “COVID, COVID, COVID is being used by [the media], in total coordination, in order to change our great early election numbers.” (CNN / CNBC / Philadelphia Inquirer / Talking Points Memo / Yahoo News)

3/ Jared Kushner bragged in mid-April that Trump had cut out the doctors and scientists advising him on the coronavirus pandemic. In an interview with Bob Woodward, Kushner boasted that Trump had taken “the country back from the doctors” and that the country was at the “beginning of the comeback phase.” Since Kushner’s April 18 interview, about 181,000 people in the U.S. have died from COVID-19. (CNN)

4/ Trump had more than $270 million in debt forgiven since 2010 after he defaulted on his loans for a Chicago skyscraper development. After the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago encountered financial problems, banks and hedge funds cut Trump granted him years of additional time to repay his debts, much of which was ultimately forgiven. Since 2010, Trump’s lenders have forgiven about $287 million in debt that he failed to repay. Trump, meanwhile, defended his failure to repay lenders, tweeting: “I was able to make an appropriately great deal with the numerous lenders on a large and very beautiful tower. Doesn’t that make me a smart guy rather than a bad guy?” (New York Times / CNN)

5/ The Trump campaign stranded hundreds of supporters in the freezing cold for hours after a rally at an airfield in Omaha. For several hours, hundreds and hundreds of people who attended the rally were stranded on dark, remote stretch of road near the airport waiting for buses that didn’t arrive, which were unable to reach the site because of a clogged two-lane road. The Trump campaign said it provided enough buses, “but local road closures and resulting congestion caused delays.” At least 30 people needed medical assistance. (NBC News / Washington Post / CNN)

6/ Trump will open up more than half of Alaska’s Tongass National Forest to logging and development. The decision to open up one of the biggest intact temperate rainforests reverses protections Clinton put in place in 2001 and represents one of the most sweeping public lands rollbacks Trump has enacted. (Washington Post)

7/ Former Homeland Security chief of staff Miles Taylor revealed himself to be Anonymous, the author of a 2018 New York Times op-ed that declared there was a “resistance” within the administration. In the op-ed, Taylor, who at the time was chief of staff to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, described Trump as “impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective.” Taylor was also the anonymous author of “A Warning,” a book describing Trump as an “undisciplined” and “amoral” leader whose abuse of power threatened the foundations of American democracy. Taylor resigned from the Department of Homeland Security in June 2019. (CNN / New York Times / Washington Post / ABC News / Politico / Axios)

  • 📌 Day 594: A senior Trump administration official published an anonymous essay in the New York Times claiming cabinet members discussed removing Trump from office early in his presidency “given the instability many witnessed.” The official criticized Trump’s “amorality” and reckless decision-making, saying “there is a quiet resistance within the administration of people choosing to put country first” and that “Americans should know that there are adults in the room” who “fully recognize what is happening. And we are trying to do what’s right even when Donald Trump won’t.” (New York Times / CNN)

  • 📌 Day 594 Trump called the unsigned op-ed a “disgrace” and “gutless.” Trump attacked the New York Times for publishing an essay by an unnamed administration official who claims the president’s advisers deliberately try to block Trump’s misguided impulses. The anonymous official wrote that Trump’s “impulses are generally anti-trade and anti-democratic.” At a White House event, Trump brought up the op-ed, saying “This is what we have to deal with” and that “they don’t like Donald Trump and I don’t like them.” He later demanded that “the Times must, for National Security purposes, turn him/her over to government at once!” (CNN / Associated Press / New York Times)

  • 📌 Day 1022: A forthcoming book by an anonymous senior Trump administration claims that high-level White House aides were certain that Mike Pence would support using the 25th Amendment to have Trump removed from office. The author of “A Warning” – the same official behind the 2018 op-ed that declared there was a “resistance” within the administration – claimed that White House officials put together a list of Cabinet secretaries who were open to the idea of removing Trump because of mental incapacity and that “there was no doubt in the minds of these senior officials that Pence would support invoking the 25th Amendment if the majority of the Cabinet signed off on it.” Pence, meanwhile, said he never heard about any discussion of using the 25th amendment in the White House. (HuffPost / Politico)