What Went Down During The First Presidential Debate

It might be true that other countries with less transparency in government are undercounting their COVID-19 deaths more than the United States is. But that doesn’t change the fact that 200,000+ people have died in the U.S. — and that’s probably an undercount, too, since excess mortality data suggests the real number is higher.

Well, I think Biden isn’t in love with the idea of getting rid of the filibuster, Nathaniel — he’s a Senate traditionalist! And even if he opposed court-packing before this, it’s not a sideshow issue in the primary anymore, so maybe he’s reluctant to repeat that stand. Although I agree with Perry it will be hard for him to keep avoiding the question.

Trump likes to tout his move to “ban China” (travel) early in the pandemic. He certainly did this early (announced on January 31), but it’s really hard to say what impact, if any, this had on curbing the spread. For one thing, American citizens were (understandably) still allowed to travel, and some 27,000 did so from mainland China in February. Meanwhile, more than 8,000 Chinese and foreign nationals were able to travel out of Hong Kong and Macao.