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Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward’s forthcoming book on President Trump will contain nuggets from more than two dozen letters between the president and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, according to publisher Simon & Schuster.
“Rage,” scheduled to be released Sept. 15, less than two months before the U.S, presidential election in November, also will include “exclusive” interviews with the president.
Woodward didn’t interview Trump for his first book on the current administration, “Fear: Trump in the White House,” which was published in 2018.
“Woodward obtained 25 personal letters exchanged between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un that have not been public before,” Simon & Schuster writes on its website. “Kim describes the bond between the two leaders as out of a ‘fantasy film,’ as the two leaders engage in an extraordinary diplomatic minuet.”
Journalist and author Bob Woodward speaks in Washington, June 11, 2012. (Associated Press)
Trump has called Kim’s letters “beautiful.”
“They’re great letters,” Trump said at a rally in 2018. “We fell in love.”
The president told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham in January that he had been interviewed by Woodward, whom he called a “very, very good writer, reporter” for the book.
President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un are seen in Hanoi, Vietnam, Feb. 27, 2019. (Associated Press)
“[Woodward] said he’s doing something and this time I said, ‘maybe I’ll sit down,’” Trump said Jan. 10 on “The Ingraham Angle.”
“[Woodward] said, ‘You know, you don’t look like somebody who’s under impeachment, as you know, he’s slightly covered Nixon and he covered Clinton,” Trump said about his interview with Woodward, 77, who gained fame along with former colleague Carl Bernstein in the 1970s for their coverage of the Nixon Watergate scandal.
“But Bob Woodward, he said, ‘You actually look like you’ve won everything, you look happy.’ I said, ‘I am happy.’ So maybe I’m wired a little bit different.”
Along with the president’s “exclusive” interviews, Woodward will share accounts of Trump’s early national security decisions as president, including his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, according to Simon & Schuster.
The same publisher also released two previous books that are critical of the president — one by Mary Trump, the president’s niece, and another by John Bolton, a former national security adviser under Trump.
Woodward and Bernstein’s reporting on Watergate helped lead to former President Richard Nixon’s resignation in 1974. Woodward has written 18 bestsellers.
Chinese forces have conducted anti-aircraft drills in the country’s southeast overlooking Taiwan as a U.S. aircraft carrier sails nearby the self-ruling island that is increasingly becoming central to the feud between Washington and Beijing.
Chinese military-tied media aired footage Monday of troops conducting large-scale air defense drills in southeast Guangdong province, which lies across the Taiwan Strait from the self-ruling island still claimed by the central government in Beijing and borders semi-autonomous Hong Kong, also the subject of international tensions. The exercises involved advanced systems such as the double 35-millimeter-barreled PGZ-09 and the quadruple 25-millimeter-barreled PGZ-95.
Global Times, an official Chinese Communist Party publication, cited unnamed experts Wednesday saying the exercises displayed China’s willingness to defend its territory amid heightened U.S. military activity nearby. The outlet also referenced ongoing observations of U.S. aerial and naval movements made by the South China Sea Probing Initiative, a project of Peking University’s Institute of Ocean Research.
In its latest post, the Chinese think tank said Wednesday that the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan had been “circling near Taiwan” since August 8 and has been spotted heading toward the nearby East China Sea. The U.S. Navy Institute gave a similar position for the warship and accompanying strike group.
“The United States is an Indo-Pacific nation and committed to remaining engaged in the region,” Pacific Fleet spokesperson Navy Lieutenant James Adams told Newsweek.
“U.S. Navy operations are designed to be conducted in accordance with international law and demonstrate that the United States will fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows,” he added.
The rival military maneuvers come at a particularly politically-charged time for the Taiwan Strait. Health Secretary Alex Azar visited Taiwan on Monday, breaking precedent with four decades of U.S. policy that has foregone direct high-level contacts with Taipei officials since Washington instead recognized Beijing as the only representative of China.
The controversial trip was preceded by Chinese J-10 and J-11 fighter jets flying over the “median line” separating mainland China and Taiwan, a boundary crossed only three times since the end of their civil war in 1949. Taiwan’s armed forces said it scrambled aircraft and broadcasting warnings to drive off the Chinese warplanes.
During Azar’s trip, he disparaged the Chinese government’s handling of the novel coronavirus, which was first observed in the central city of Wuhan and went on to become a major point of contention between the U.S. and China. The sudden overture by President Donald Trump’s administration to Taiwan has infuriated China, whose Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian spoke out against the visit on Wednesday.
“We must repeat this solemn message to the U.S. side again that China firmly opposes official exchanges between the U.S. and Taiwan under whatever pretext,” Zhao told reporters. “On issues concerning China’s core interests, certain individuals in the U.S. should not have any illusions or imagine they can get away with inappropriate behaviors.
The U.S. has also expanded activities in the South China Sea and nearby regions part of what the Pentagon refers to as the Indo-Pacific theater. Here, the U.S. has increasingly worked with partners Australia, India and Japan, all of whom have expressed concern about Chinese activities in the region.
The Trump administration has challenged the People’s Republic geopolitically but also in trade and technology, imposing restrictions on U.S. businesses dealing with Chinese telecommunications companies affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party. Washington officials have accused Beijing of intellectual property theft, commercial espionage, and repressing political freedom among other charges.
“The United States calls on our allies and partners in government and industry around the world to join the growing tide to secure our data from the CCP’s surveillance state and China’s Great Firewall, where data comes in but does not flow out and, reciprocally, propaganda goes out, but the truth doesn’t come in,” the State Department said in a press release Wednesday. “By building a coalition of partners, we will enhance the protection of our citizens’ data and our freedoms.”
But in an interview published Wednesday by Chinese news site Guancha, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng urged the U.S. to not wage a “Cold War in the 21st century” and criticized U.S. moves targeting China and Chinese firms.
“The U.S. repressive moves against China have no legal basis at all,” Le said. “None of its actions conforms with international law—increasing tariffs, cutting off supplies to Huawei, banning TikTok, detaining Chinese citizens, selling arms to Taiwan, imposing sanctions on Chinese central government and Hong Kong SAR government officials, and closing Chinese Consulate-General in Houston.”
Even without another coronavirus relief package, some Americans may receive another economic impact payment in 2021.
Most people have either received all the money they’re going to see from the first round of stimulus checks or will get the remainder of their money by the end of the month. However, for some, including those who amended their tax return after economic impact payments were issued, it’s possible they could receive additional money next year.
There are at least four scenarios in which a person could receive a payment in 2021, according to the Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS), an independent organization within the Internal Revenue Service designed to assist taxpayers. Without a process in place to adjust distributions, in these instances, people must file their 2020 tax returns before receiving any additional money.
When issuing the first round of stimulus checks, the IRS based payments on the most current information it had on file. Given that payments started being sent in early April and the tax filing deadline was pushed to July 15, the IRS’ use of a 2018 return and not a 2019 return may have resulted in a reduced payment.
For example, if a person gave birth to a child in 2019 but hadn’t filed their return when payments were sent, they wouldn’t have qualified for the additional $500 granted to children under 17 years old. The only way to receive that money is to adjust the difference with the filing of a 2020 tax return, according to TAS.
Another reason a person may have to wait until 2021 for a full payment is if the economic impact payment was based on a return that was later amended or if a person receives certain benefits, such as veterans affairs or social security, but were deemed ineligible because they were claimed as a dependent on someone else’s return.
A fourth situation in which a person could receive additional money in 2021, according to TAS, is if the IRS based payments on an information return, social security or veterans affairs benefits. If a person filed a 2019 tax return or used the Non-Filer tool after economic impact payments were calculated, they can reconcile the differences on their 2020 return.
As people await full compensation for the economic impact payments afforded under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, legislators on Capitol Hill reached an agreement on another round of payments. One of the few things Democrats and White House officials agree on including in a fifth stimulus package, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said a second round would likely resemble the first payments.
The CARES Act issued $1,200 payments to individuals earning $75,000 or less and $2,400 to joint-filers with incomes of $150,000 or below. An additional $500 was allocated for each child under 17 years of age, a provision that may be expanded if there’s a second round.
The GOP-backed Health, Economic Assistance, Liability Protection and Schools (HEALS) Act would keep payments at $500 but change eligibility to include dependents of all ages. Democrats included the expansion in their House bill, the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act, and Mnuchin told reporters on August 2, that both sides were on board with a plan for stimulus checks.
While TAS can help taxpayers resolve certain issues with their economic impact payment, they can’t help with any of the situations that require a person to file a 2020 return, according to TAS.
“This is not a good answer for taxpayers,” National Taxpayer Advocate Erin M. Collins wrote of the 2020 return solution in a blog on Monday. “Congress authorized EIPs to assist the tens of millions of Americans who are suffering financial hardships as a result of COVID-19 closures, and many of these individuals need their stimulus payments now.”
Newsweek reached out to the IRS for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.
The POLITICO/Morning Consult findings help explain why strategists from both parties said in interviews that they don’t see him as a factor in the race, at least not yet. West has successfully filed paperwork as a third-party candidate in fewer than a dozen states and Republicans in battleground states such as Wisconsin and Ohio have organized to get him on the ballot.
Fueling suspicion of the rapper’s effort is the fact that some of the organizers are Trump supporters and Republican strategists with at least loose connections to the president’s reelection effort. They include Lane Ruhland, a former general counsel for the Wisconsin Republican Party who has also represented the Trump reelection campaign and dropped off West’s nominating papers. Gregg Keller, a veteran GOP operative who formerly served as executive director of the American Conservative Union, has been spearheading the West campaign.
But a number of Democratic strategists said that the framing of West — a Black man and popular rap artist — as an inherently appealing presidential candidate for Black voters reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of both West and Black voters. While African Americans are Democrats’ most loyal voting bloc, West frequently espouses GOP talking points on issues like abortion and the legacy of slavery. His most notable political appearances of the past three years have been in tandem with Trump, whose disapproval rating sits at 79 percent with Black voters.
“The bottom line is that Kanye West is an entertainer. That’s not to say that he can’t participate in electoral politics, but his candidacy is more a distraction,” said Derrick Clay, an Ohio-based strategist and chair of the state’s Legislative Black Caucus Foundation. Clay said the GOP’s propping up of Kanye is a reflection of their fear of the millennial and suburban vote, two groups that are polling in Biden’s favor.
“I think that strategy is going to backfire on them,” he continued.
West is most popular among Gen Zers, a majority of whom will be eligible to cast votes for the first time in November. His favorable ratings with the demographic are at 31 percent. However, 6 percent said they would vote for him.
More, West’s lack of a clear policy platform outside his disdain for Democratic politics is giving his small network of supporters little to cling to. His campaign website is a single page with a laundry list of goals the rapper has for his presidency, including reducing the national debt and reforming the criminal justice system. The 10 points are accompanied by Bible verses. He has held one campaign rally since announcing his candidacy, which prompted his wife, Kim Kardashian West, to publicly address his mental health struggles.
It remains unclear whether West will appear on the ballot in key states. He narrowly met the signature requirement to get on the ballot in Ohio, while in Wisconsin, he missed the deadline for qualifying by just minutes. Elections officials in both states are sorting through his paperwork to determine whether he will be allowed on the presidential ballot.
West missed the deadline to file as a third party candidate in 10 states but has said he will rely on write-in ballots to make him competitive in states where his name is not printed on the ballot.
Trump has been aggressively courting Black voters, hoping to cut into Biden’s margin. His campaign has run advertisements courting African Americans and has highlighted Biden’s prominent role in passing the 1984 crime bill, which resulted in the widespread imprisonment of Black people. Prior to the coronavirus outbreak, the reelection campaign announced plans to open storefronts stocked with Trump campaign gear in urban areas.
Trump received just 8 percent of the Black vote in 2016, but his advisers argue that if he could get into the double digits it could alter the outcome of a close race. Those efforts, however, could be complicated by Biden’s decision to tap Kamala Harris as his running mate.
Still, Democratic operatives say they are paying close attention to West.
“It is clear that Republicans and Trump think they will benefit from having Kanye West on the ballot. To counter his propped-up candidacy, we have to engage young Black voters early and consistently on the issues that matter to them most and through the voices of people who understand their struggles and concerns,” said Justin Myers, CEO of For Our Future, a union-funded super PAC focused on organizing.
Other Democratic operatives see Republicans’ efforts to help West as not only futile but also slightly insidious, given his fragile mental state.
“I do think Kanye is, unfortunately, at the whims of folks who don’t have his, his daughter’s, his children’s best interests in mind with their policy,” said Quentin James, executive director of The Collective PAC. “To be helping that, I think, is just sad. And I think they’re taking advantage of his mental health situation to be very honest.”
The Trump campaign said it has nothing to do with West’s campaign.
“We have no knowledge of anything Kanye West is doing or who is doing it for him,” said Tim Murtaugh, a Trump campaign spokesman.
James also added that he does not underestimate the threat of a third party challenger who could siphon Democratic votes.
“I think this is a serious moment, in that Kanye West could peel off some of those voters who feel like Donald Trump or Joe Biden isn’t the answer to them,” James said. “I think people should know if you aren’t supporting Joe Biden or if you’re voting for Kanye West, you’re voting for Donald Trump. A vote for Kanye West is a vote for Donald Trump.”
Morning Consult is a global data intelligence company, delivering insights on what people think in real time by surveying tens of thousands across the globe every single day.
More details on the poll and its methodology can be found in these two documents: Toplines | Crosstabs
Experts agree that Trump’s executive actions over the weekend—large portions of which haven’t been set in motion yet—won’t be nearly as effective in propping up the ailing economy as would legislation from Congress, but negotiations between Democratic lawmakers and the White House over the next stimulus bill have come to an apparent standstill, leaving the fate of many key benefits—including that second $1,200 stimulus check—up in the air.
Speaker of the House Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY).
Getty Images
KEY FACTS
PIMCO head of public policy Libby Cantrill told Bloomberg on Wednesday that while a deal is not likely to come this week, the “framework for a deal is there,” meaning that despite some major disagreements between top Democrats and the White House, there have also been some points of consensus. Secretary Steven Mnuchin echoed that sentiment on Wednesday on FOX Business Network’s MorningsWithMaria, saying that negotiators had agreed “on money for schools, money for child care, money for small businesses, [and] second payments on the PPP for businesses that have been particularly hard-hit.”
But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is quick to point out the major gulf that remains between the two parties (a $1 trillion dollar ask by the Democrats for more state and local aid) and said the negotiators remain “miles apart” in an interview on MSNBC.
In a joint statement with Speaker Pelosi on Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said that Democrats have been willing to compromise while the White House has refused to adjust its position on the size and scope of the bill.
In the long run, Trump’s executive actions—on unemployment insurance, eviction protections, payroll taxes, and student loans—are “limited in terms of what they can actually do for the economy,” Cantrill noted—that’s because the president does not have the power to authorize new federal spending— only Congress can do that.
Any additional significant relief measures (like state and local aid, or stimulus checks), which could be critical ahead of November’s election both for Trump and for vulnerable Republican Senators, would have to be passed by Congress.
Plus, not all of those executive actions will have an immediate impact: unemployment systems will take time to adjust, if states decide to participate, and it could be complicated for employers to readjust their tax withholding systems in order to accommodate the new payroll tax deferment.
What to watch for
One potential watershed moment to look out for is coming up at the end of next month, when the government’s fiscal year ends. Congress has yet to appropriate money for large portions of the federal government for next year, and it’s possible that some stimulus priorities will resurface again ahead of the deadline if no deal can be reached before then.
Crucial quote
It’s also possible that the executive action from President Trump on Saturday was more reflective of Trump’s political priorities during his reelection campaign than it was of his policy goals. “The White House felt that if it issued executive orders that did some of the things that were needed, or that responded to some of the most pressing problems, then it would be off the hook politically,” says Michael Graetz, a professor at Columbia Law School and co-author of The Wolf at the Door: The Menace of Economic Insecurity and How to Fight It. “That’s all the White House cared about.”
Key background
Top officials from the Trump Administration—White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin—met with top Democrats—House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.)—for days in an attempt to reach common ground on what the next round of federal coronavirus relief should look like, but a self-imposed deadline came and went on Friday without any deal. The biggest issue that couldn’t be resolved was the price tag: Republicans have been adamant that the new bill should not exceed $1 trillion, while Democrats have asked for (and passed in the House) a package that is three times that size. Democrats say they offered to meet in the middle, but no agreement was reached. The following day, President Trump signed the four executive actions (one order and three memoranda). By Monday morning, he had sent out a tweet indicating that Democrats suddenly “want[ed] to meet to make a deal…they know my phone number!” Despite the tweet, however, there have been no meetings yet between Democrats and the White House this week.
Federal officials are investigating after a U.S. Air Force helicopter on a routine training mission was shot at in Virginia on Monday, causing an injury to one of the craft’s crew members.
An Air Force UH-1N Huey helicopter was conducting a routine training mission when it was struck by a bullet a little before 1 p.m. Monday, an Air Force official not authorized to speak publicly said.
The helicopter was about 1,000 feet above ground and heading for the Manassas Regional Airport and the shot was fired near Middleburg, Va, the official added.
FBI agents were dispatched to the Manassas Regional Airport after the bureau received reports that the helicopter was shot from the ground, the FBI Washington Field Office (WFO) said in a statement to USA TODAY.
The person who was injured suffered a “non-threatening injury, for which he was treated and subsequently released from the hospital,” according to the bureau.
“WFO is working jointly with our law enforcement partners, including the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, to determine the circumstances surrounding the incident,” the field office said in a statement.
A Joint Base Andrews spokesperson confirmed the helicopter is assigned to the base’s 1st Helicopter Squadron and added “initial findings are that the helicopter was struck by a bullet resulting in a minor injury to an aircrew member and damage to the aircraft.”
“The FBI asks that anyone near this area at the time of the incident who may have information please call the FBI at 202-278-2000,” the FBI Washington Field Office said in a statement.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and 174 other Democrats in the chamber signed a letter sent Wednesday to the new Postmaster General demanding the agency reverses operational changes they argue would hamper mail-in voting on Nov. 3.
“It is always essential that the Postal Service be able to deliver mail in a timely and effective manner. During the once-in-a-century health and economic crisis of COVID-19, the Postal Service’s smooth functioning is a matter of life-or-death, and is critical for protecting lives, livelihoods and the life of our American Democracy,” the lawmakers wrote.
“The House is seriously concerned that you are implementing policies that accelerate the crisis at the Postal Service, including directing Post Offices to no longer treat all election mail as First Class. If implemented now, as the election approaches, this policy will cause further delays to election mail that will disenfranchise voters and put significant financial pressure on election jurisdictions.”
The cost-cutting measures, intended to address the Postal Service’s longtime financial problems, were imposed last month after DeJoy, a Trump donor and Republican fundraiser who owned a North Carolina supply-chain, took over the top job in June. DeJoy, 63, is the first postmaster general in nearly two decades who is not a career postal employee.
DeJoy also eliminated overtime for hundreds of thousands of postal workers and mandates that mail is kept until the next day if distribution centers are running late. He also removed or reassigned nearly two dozen postal leaders, implemented a hiring freeze and requested “early retirement authority” for nonunion employees.
Last week, the U.S. Postal Service announced a third-quarter net loss of $2.2 billion. In a statement, the agency said even Congressional relief funds of $10 billion would “not address the Postal Service’s broken business model.”
“We will respond directly to the members of Congress,” a Postal Service spokesperson said. They also deferred to comments DeJoy made last week where he maintained the agency could handle the surge, but “cannot correct the errors of the Election Boards if they fail to deploy processes that take our normal processing and delivery standards into account.”
Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer also had a closed-door meeting with DeJoy this month that Schumer described as “heated.” House Democrats have demanded measures in any final pandemic spending bill that would roll back the operational changes and give the agency $25 billion in one-time funding.
At Wednesday’s briefing at the White House, Trump railed against the Postal Service’s handling the vast amount of mail-in voting during the pandemic and the funding request.
“The post office has been run poorly for many, many decades,” he said. “Great people in the post office, incredible people but they’ve had very bad leadership for many years.”
He added, “And the bill’s not going to happen because they don’t even want to talk about it because we can’t give them the kind of ridiculous things that they want.”
“Tropical Depression 11 will soon become Tropical Storm Josephine,” News 6 meteorologist Troy Bridges said.
Currently, TD 11 has maximum sustained winds of 35 mph as it moves west at 15 mph, about 1,135 miles east-southeast of the Northern Leeward Islands.
“It takes 39 mph winds or greater to become a tropical storm,” Bridges said. “The very latest track takes it north of the Lesser Antilles and north of Puerto Rico as a tropical storm by the end of the week. Some models have it dying out, while others have it turning away from the United States. It’s just too early to tell where this system will go, so we will continue to watch it.”
As of late Wednesday morning, no watches or warnings have been issued.
Orlando-area forecast
More storms are expected Wednesday in Central Florida.
Highs will reach the mid-90s in Orlando through the weekend. The average high on this date is 92. The record high is 98, set in 1929.
“Expect a 60% coverage of rain Wednesday through Saturday, with rain chances going up to 70% Sunday through Tuesday,” Bridges said. “The main threat will be lots of thunder and lightning, as well as heavy downpours that could lead to localized flooding and strong wind gusts near 50 mph or greater.”
Orlando has a yearly rain deficit of 1.89 inches, although there’s a 4.16-inch surplus since June 1.
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But Harris quickly shifted from the personal to the political and delivered a scathing condemnation of President Donald Trump.
“The case against Donald Trump and Mike Pence is open and shut,” said Harris, a nod to her career as a prosecutor. “Just look where they’ve gotten us: More than 16 million out of work. Millions of kids who cannot go back to school. … And tragically, more than 165,000 lives that have been cut short, many with loved ones who never got the chance to say goodbye.
“It didn’t have to be this way,” she said. “Six years ago, in fact, we had a different health crisis. It was called Ebola, and we all remember that pandemic. But you know what happened then? Barack Obama and Joe Biden did their job. Only two people in the United States died. Two. That is what’s called leadership.
“Trump is also the reason millions of Americans are now unemployed,” said Harris. “He inherited the longest economic expansion in history…and then, like everything else he inherited, he ran it straight into the ground. Because of Trump’s failures of leadership, our economy has taken one of the biggest hits out of all the major industrialized nations, with an unemployment rate that has tripled as of today.
“This is what happens when we elect a guy who just isn’t up for the job, is our country ends up in tatters,” Harris said.
Announced on Tuesday, Harris’ selection as Biden’s running mate immediately lent racial diversity, gender parity and generational breadth to his presidential campaign and to a potential Biden White House.
Biden’s decision to tap Harris, 55, was widely praised by prominent Democrats and begrudgingly accepted by most Republicans, some of whom even acknowledged publicly that the former California attorney general was a strategically smart pick.
Following Biden’s announcement, it quickly became apparent that neither President Donald Trump nor his reelection campaign had settled on a preferred line of attack to use against Harris.
Speaking at a White House news conference, Trump said Harris was “my number one draft pick,” paying her an apparent compliment before calling her the “meanest” and “most horrible” and “nasty” a few minutes later.
Meanwhile, Trump campaign surrogates seesawed between painting Harris as the agent of a “radical agenda” from the far left on one hand, and on the other hand, calling Harris a “phony” for allegedly pretending to be a real progressive, when fact she was a moderate.
While the Trump campaign was searching for a coherent message Tuesday night, the Biden campaign was raising money hand over fist.
In the four hours following Biden’s announcement, Act Blue, the leading Democratic fundraising platform reported having raised $10.8 million, which was more than $8 million more than the site had raised in the same four hours the day before.
Speaking on Wednesday, Biden said the previous day had been his campaign’s single biggest day for grassroots fundraising, and more than twice as much as any other day in his year long campaign.
US Treasury concept check to illustrate coronavirus stimulus payment on keyboard used for working … [+] from home
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While negotiations continue for the second stimulus package, many Americans’ main concern is that second stimulus check. Here’s where we are as of today, and what needs to happen before that check goes in the mail.
Is a $1,200 Check Still Coming?
The answer is, of course, complicated. That being said, the answer is most likely yes, Americans should be receiving another round of stimulus checks. Republicans and Democrats both seem to agree that a stimulus check should be included in the next economic stimulus package – which is a good thing. The issue is, they have to agree on the other components of the package before the stimulus check is official.
Why Is It Taking So Long?
The stimulus check is part of a larger economic recovery package that needs to pass first. Democrats proposed a $3 trillion stimulus package called the HEROES Act. Republicans have their own version of relief package in the amount of $1 trillion, called the HEALS Act. The goal is to find a middle ground between the two packages, but this is proving to be difficult. Although both sides have said they are willing to negotiate, a middle ground has yet to be found.
As negotiations stalled, Trump signed one executive order and three memoranda that included eviction relief, extended the enhanced federal unemployment benefits, provided student loan relief and a payroll tax cut. However, there are questions of whether this will ultimately help Americans, and if Trump is legally able to make these decisions.
When Will I Receive My Check?
This is the million dollar question (or, I suppose it’s the $1,200 question). While most agree the stimulus check will be included in the final package, there are several scenarios that will influence the timing of the checks.
The biggest hurdle is passing the economic relief package. Best case scenario is Republicans and Democratic negotiators pick discussions back up and reach an agreement this week. That’s looking more doubtful everyday, so let’s assume negotiations will continue into next week.
The original CARES Act was passed by the Senate on March 25th, passed by the House on March 26th and signed March 27th. The first checks were sent out on April 15th. Using this timeline, if the Senate passes the package on August 17th, and the House passes it on August 18th then the bill could be signed into law as quickly as August 19th. In this scenario, the first checks could be sent out by the week of August 31st.
However, as negotiations stall, the possibility of the package being approved next week is looking less and less feasible. If the bill isn’t passed by the Senate until September 8th, using the same timeline, checks wouldn’t be sent out until the week of September 21st.
The Good News?
While there is always the possibility of this bill dying, and millions of Americans not getting the relief they need – that’s doubtful. There is a lot of pressure on both sides to get this package passed, and both sides continue to say they are willing to negotiate. The amount and details of the check seems to be the same as the original:
Individual tax filers with adjusted gross income up to $75,000 (up to $150,000 for married couples filing joint returns) received the full payment.
For filers with income above those amounts, the payment amount was reduced and then phased out for individuals whose income exceeded $99,000 (or $198,000 for joint filers with no children).
Parents also received $500 for each qualifying child from the first check.
And the IRS is in a better position to get the checks out quicker than the first round since they now have the infrastructure in place. They are ready to hit the button, they just need the word.
According to its publisher, “PowerNomics: The National Plan to Empower Black America” offers “a five-year plan to make Black America a prosperous and empowered race that is self-sufficient and competitive as a group.”
“I don’t think there’s any question about that,” House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said of the possibility on MSNBC on Friday. “We saw what was going on in Wisconsin where he was getting help getting on the ballot. But African Americans, most especially, know what this campaign is all about.”
In an interview with Forbes on the same day, a reporter pointed out to West that he will not be on the ballot in enough states to secure the 270 electoral votes necessary to win the White House.
“I’m not going to argue with you. Jesus is King,” the rapper responded.
When the Forbes interviewer pressed West on the possibility that he could siphon votes from Biden, he replied, “I’m not denying it.”
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