The pivot

Sometimes I get the impression that our elite media could all use a good talking-to. Perhaps, if you don’t mind my saying so, a bit more:

The TAKE with Rick Klein

You don’t have to believe in pivots to see the big moments piling up.

President Donald Trump is looking to resume task-force briefings with himself as the focal point on Tuesday. But the biggest moment of the day could come earlier in the afternoon, when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi meets with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, to talk about the next COVID-19 package.

That’s almost certainly the last major piece of coronavirus legislation that can pass before the election. Other big moments could take place elsewhere on Capitol Hill, when a House subcommittee hears from major pharmaceutical companies on the latest in vaccine production.

Politically critical choices are confronting the White House and Congress at a key moment in the crisis. The race against time matters for tackling the virus and so many impacted, as schools finalize plans for the fall and unemployment insurance extensions start to run out for millions.

The president is displaying a new tone and a new level of engagement, after aides and allies have pleaded with him to recognize the gravity of the moment. His tweet of himself wearing a mask came just a day after another interview aired where he said people should have “freedom” and that “masks cause problems, too.”

The latest course correction may not last, and may not matter. But political survival is a strong motivating force, and the window for positioning appears to be closing even as the big choices mount.

At this point, expecting Donald Trump to up his level of engagement from “cocaine-addled laboratory baboon” to “minimally functional adult,” thus allowing him to suddenly “recognize the gravity of the moment” . . . sorry I can’t do this any more.

Will no one ever correct these people?

. . . Four months and 140,000 deaths ago:

Thanks to aptly-named commenter Captain Bringdown.