Since then, the proof supporting that concept has solely elevated.

In a particular congressional election in New York’s twenty seventh District held late final month, Republican Chris Jacobs held a 40-point lead after votes have been tallied on major day. As tens of 1000’s of absentee ballots have been added to the rely, although, Jacobs’s edge has shrunk to 12 factors, in response to the Related Press’s newest outcomes. The Democrat within the race, Nathan McMurray, has picked up 36,000 votes since major day, whereas Jacobs has added simply 22,000.

Jacobs has already gained the competition to interchange Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.), who resigned earlier than pleading responsible to insider buying and selling. However this was the congressional seat wherein Trump carried out the perfect amongst all 27 New York districts in 2016 — he carried it by 25 factors — and it seems to be as if the GOP would possibly handle to carry on to it by solely single digits. That’s not precisely an amazing omen.

Up to now, that is the one federal particular election because the vote-by-mail debate actually kicked off amid the novel coronavirus pandemic. Nevertheless it presages what could possibly be a tough fall for Republicans because the president repeatedly rails towards the alleged risks — unsubstantiated — posed by mail-in votes whereas making an attempt to make a distinction with out a distinction between them and absentee ballots, which he himself has used to vote in Florida. 

The mail-in poll challenge is on the entrance burner due to the pandemic, which is spreading dangerously all through the nation and will or is probably not worse in November. Some voters and ballot staff, particularly older ones, could also be involved about displaying up bodily to the polls, the place the virus can unfold extra simply, on Election Day.

We do not but have good knowledge about absentee voting from runoffs final evening in Alabama — the place Trump nemesis Jeff Classes misplaced to Tommy Tuberville within the GOP major — and Texas, or within the Maine major to face Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). (Sara Gideon gained.)

New CBS Information-YouGov polls this week in three battleground states Trump gained in 2016 — Arizona, Florida and Texas — confirmed vital Democratic benefits amongst individuals who have been planning to vote by mail. In Arizona, 80 p.c of Democrats stated they deliberate to vote by mail, whereas simply 47 p.c of Republicans stated the identical. In Florida, it was 56 p.c to twenty-eight p.c, respectively. And in Texas, it was 39 p.c to fifteen p.c.

It’s common for Democrats to have a bonus in voting by mail, however to not this extent. And the CBS polls bolstered that.

The polls additionally requested not simply how individuals plan to vote this 12 months but in addition how they normally forged their ballots. In Arizona, the variety of Democrats who normally vote by mail was 64 p.c, but it surely elevated to 80 p.c for individuals who plan to take action on this election. In Florida, 38 p.c stated they normally vote by mail, in contrast with 58 p.c this time. And in Texas, the quantity jumped from 11 p.c normally to 39 p.c in 2020.

The GOP, against this, noticed no such will increase in plans to vote by mail, and curiously, the polls counsel some GOP voters is likely to be much less prone to vote by mail this time. In Arizona, whereas 51 p.c of Republicans stated they normally vote by mail, the quantity dropped to 47 p.c when it got here to individuals’s plans for this 12 months. In Florida, the quantity was 29 p.c usually however 28 p.c for this election. There was a slight uptick in curiosity in voting by mail amongst Texas Republicans, from 5 p.c normally to fifteen p.c at present, however nothing like the rise on the Democratic facet.

It’s essential to notice that individuals could misrepresent their voting historical past or their plans for voting in 2020. Nevertheless it’s clear that, in response to the voters themselves in key states, this has change into a yawning hole.

And that hole was confirmed this week by GOP pollster Glen Bolger, who stated his polling of an undetermined swing state confirmed an excellent greater chasm.

“Yikes — simply completed a statewide survey in a swing state,” Bolger tweeted Monday. “The quarter of the voters who plan to vote by mail or absentee break 15% Trump/75% Biden on the Pres. poll. Republicans are skeptical about voting by mail, and that is an issue up and down poll.”

Virtually talking, it’s not clear how that may pan out in precise elections. However New York’s particular contest isn’t the one latest instance of Democratic mail-in voting surging in a manner the GOP is not matching.

In Oklahoma’s June 30 major, for instance, Democratic absentee votes elevated from 4,400 in a 2014 Senate major to 12,400 within the 2018 gubernatorial major to just about 57,000 on this 12 months’s Senate major. That’s practically 13 instances the variety of absentee votes in contrast with the final time the identical Senate seat was up six years in the past.

The GOP has additionally seen a rise, however of nowhere close to this magnitude. It went from 8,900 absentee votes in 2014 to fifteen,300 in 2018 and 33,800 at present — about 4 instances the full from the earlier major for a similar Senate seat six years in the past.

In complete, absentee votes accounted for 3 p.c of complete votes in every social gathering’s primaries in each 2014 and 2018. However in 2020, absentees accounted for 21 p.c of Democratic votes, in contrast with 9 p.c of GOP votes.

These numbers echo the gaps in major absentee poll requests that have been detailed final week by Gardner and Dawsey in states like Georgia, Kentucky and Virginia. And the identical dynamic is at play in Florida, the place the GOP beforehand held an edge in absentee votes — together with in 2016 — however the place Democrats now have a large edge, 1.6 million to 1.2 million.

Republicans who’re much less involved than Bolger have argued Democrats are merely cannibalizing voters who would in any other case simply prove to vote in individual. Notably in states which have sturdy early voting, the partisan mixture of absentee votes is maybe much less of a priority. And knowledge have steered that voting by mail doesn’t essentially give one facet or one other a measurable edge.

That stated, this election offers an unprecedented X-factor: the coronavirus. If the outbreak looms into November in key states, turning out to vote in individual is probably not as engaging, and banking votes by way of mail-in ballots could show extra essential. That stated, Republicans are usually much less involved in regards to the virus than Democrats, they usually is likely to be keen to prove to vote in individual in a manner Democrats gained’t.

Both manner, the controversy speaks to the significance of Democrats banking as many mail-in votes as they’ll, which nearly all indicators counsel they’re doing in a manner Republicans aren’t.

What’s clear is that it’s a dynamic nicely price watching — and one that’s clearly worrying loads of Republicans.

Simply 5 years in the past, Classes, then a senator from Alabama, turned the primary Republican senator to endorse Trump’s presidential marketing campaign. “That when outstanding bond got here to a crashing finish Tuesday evening when the Related Press declared that Tuberville had defeated Classes within the runoff to be the Republican nominee in November’s Senate race towards Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.). The outcome culminated 4 months of Trump imploring Alabama’s voters to reject Classes, the person who the president as soon as stated he leaned on for recommendation in forming his ‘America First’ agenda,” Paul Kane and Toluse Olorunnipa report. “Working for his previous Senate seat — which he deserted in early 2017 to change into Trump’s legal professional common — Classes endured one brutal insult after one other from the president. … 

“Trump selected to not rub an excessive amount of salt into Classes’s wounds Tuesday evening, however he rapidly hailed Tuberville’s victory. ‘Tommy Tuberville WON large towards Jeff Classes. Can be a GREAT Senator for the unimaginable individuals of Alabama,’ Trump tweeted. … [Tuberville’s] victory was declared rapidly — a ultimate humiliation for Classes, who was as soon as so untouchable that Alabama Democrats didn’t area an opponent towards him in his 2014 reelection. … Rising from casting his personal poll Tuesday morning, Classes made one ultimate, nearly unhappy, assertion that he can be a Trump purist if he gained his previous seat again, noting that a number of staunch conservatives had overcome the president’s endorsement of different candidates in latest weeks.” 

“Hegar, whose biography helped her practically win a congressional seat in 2018, was lengthy thought of the favourite, however a late cost from state Sen. Royce West compelled exterior teams backing Hegar to pour cash into the race to get her over the end line,” Paul Kane and Colby Itkowitz report. “Additionally in Texas, former White Home doctor Ronny L. Jackson gained the nomination to interchange Rep. Mac Thornberry (R) in one of the conservative districts within the nation. … Pete Classes, who had been within the Home for 22 years earlier than dropping within the Democratic wave of 2018, gained the prospect to compete to return to Congress. Reasonably than run for his previous seat within the suburbs of Dallas, Classes moved 100 miles south to run in a extra conservative district. He did not win the first outright, dealing with Renee Swann, a political outsider who was backed by the district’s present congressman, retiring Rep. Invoice Flores (R), in Tuesday’s runoff. The Republican runoff to interchange retiring Rep. Will Hurd (R) in a Texas district Democrats consider is inside attain was nonetheless too near name.” 

In Maine, state Home Speaker Gideon gained the Democratic major and can face Collins. Tens of millions of {dollars} have already poured into that race, each to the Democrat’s coffers and from exterior teams desperate to oust Collins. 

“Watkins was charged with three felony counts in Shawnee County, Kan., late Tuesday, practically eight months after a newspaper investigation discovered that he listed the situation of a UPS Retailer as his tackle for voting functions on authorities types,” Elise Viebeck and David Weigel report. “Watkins, a freshman Republican from Topeka, faces two felony expenses associated to illegal voting and one associated to interference with regulation enforcement and offering false info, in response to a information launch from Shawnee County District Lawyer Michael F. Kagay. The fees stem from a 2019 native election, the discharge said. The case emerged after an investigation of a Topeka Capital-Journal report from December, which said that Watkins could have dedicated felony voter fraud by allegedly misstating his tackle on a voter change-of-residency type. … With simply three weeks till his major, Watkins shrugged off the announcement Tuesday, calling the errors an harmless mistake and saying he seems to be ahead to ‘setting the report straight.’ ‘That is clearly hyper-political,’ he stated throughout a televised debate that started shortly after information broke in regards to the expenses. ‘I haven’t completed something incorrect.’”

“Trump lambasted Biden’s report on Beijing, casting [him] as delicate on China throughout its rise to change into the second-largest financial system on the earth. He faulted Biden for initially opposing his administration’s choice to close down some flights from China over the coronavirus, and he inaccurately said that Biden ‘sided with China’ on its dealing with of the pandemic — despite the fact that Biden had sounded alarms months in the past as Trump was nonetheless praising Chinese language President Xi Jinping. … Trump didn’t cease there, including an assault on Biden’s son Hunter,” David Nakamura, Toluse Olorunnipa and Philip Rucker report.

“Trump dumped nearly an hour’s price of opposition analysis towards his Democratic rival with lower than 4 months to go earlier than the election, hitting him over immigration, vitality coverage and the surroundings. ‘There’s most likely by no means been a time when candidates are so completely different,’ Trump stated. … The president stated he had requested a few of his ‘individuals’ for a listing of Biden’s platform points earlier than continuing to learn out a number of liberal coverage proposals. The listing mirrored a prolonged Twitter thread posted final week by Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr., wherein he described the ‘Biden-Sanders’ agenda as ‘insane.’ A lot of Trump’s abstract of Biden’s coverage proposals was false or deceptive.”

“The invoice Trump signed, which unanimously handed Congress final week, imposes sanctions on China over its ongoing crackdown on Hong Kong, the place officers have imposed a sweeping nationwide safety regulation that permits Beijing to focus on political opponents within the once-autonomous metropolis. Beneath the brand new commonplace, Hong Kongers who’re deemed responsible of ‘subversion’ face a potential life sentence in jail — the identical as political dissidents in mainland China,” Colby Itkowitz stories. “Trump additionally issued an government order ending the USA’ longtime preferential remedy of Hong Kong, saying it could now be handled the identical as mainland China with regard to financial and different points.’

“The plan would considerably scale back the USA’ reliance on fossil fuels, and the 15-year timeline for a 100% clear electrical energy commonplace is much extra bold than something Biden has beforehand proposed. It was Biden’s newest try to channel the liberal vitality in his social gathering, in addition to a response to requires sweeping plans to elevate a struggling financial system. The blueprint was rapidly hailed by environmentalists and liberals as an enormous step ahead within the local weather effort, and simply as rapidly denounced by Republicans as an unwieldy plan that might elevate vitality prices,” Matt Viser and Dino Grandoni report. “The Trump marketing campaign was fast to go after Biden’s proposal Tuesday. ‘His plan is extra like a socialist manifesto that guarantees to massively elevate taxes, eradicate jobs within the coal, oil or pure gasoline industries, and crush the center class,’ stated Hogan Gidley, the marketing campaign’s nationwide press secretary.” 

“Poorer nations all through Latin America, the Center East, South Asia and Africa are bearing a rising share of the caseload, whilst wealthier international locations in Western Europe and East Asia take pleasure in a relative respite after having crushed again the worst results via rigorously enforced lockdowns. After which there’s the USA, which leads the world in new circumstances and, as with many countries that possess far fewer assets, has proven no signal of having the ability to regain management,” Griff Witte, Mary Beth Sheridan, Joanna Slater and Liz Sly report. “The severity of the toll on the USA was evident in new an infection figures launched Tuesday, with a number of states — together with Oklahoma and Nevada — hitting report highs. Florida has now reported extra circumstances up to now week — practically 78,000 — than most European nations have of their whole wrestle with covid-19, the sickness attributable to the novel coronavirus. 

“That form of explosive development is mirrored in different nations, although none with the form of wealth, infrastructure and scientific know-how of the USA. Throughout a lot of the creating world, rampant coronavirus outbreaks got here comparatively late. However now that the virus has taken root, governments are flailing of their makes an attempt to halt it and residents are resisting modifications to their lifestyle. … The wrestle has been particularly fraught in Latin America, the place international locations have been lashed by covid-19’s ferocity and plenty of haven’t but hit their peaks. Brazil has the second-highest variety of covid-19 deaths on the earth, at greater than 74,000, whereas Mexico has the fourth-highest, with greater than 37,000. (The US, with at the least 133,000 deaths, is much and away the worldwide chief.)”

Beginning at present, a brand new knowledge reporting protocol for hospitals will eradicate the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention as a recipient of state coronavirus knowledge. The administration is as an alternative encouraging governors to make use of the Nationwide Guard to gather this knowledge, Lena Solar and Amy Goldstein report. The transfer leaves health-care establishments to report info each day to a federal contractor or to their state, which might coordinate the federal reporting. Public consultants say bypassing the CDC may hurt the standard of knowledge and the federal response to the pandemic. 

“‘Regardless of the way you slice this, that is excellent news,’ [said] Anthony Fauci,” the AP stories. “The experimental vaccine, developed by Fauci’s colleagues on the Nationwide Institutes of Well being and Moderna Inc., will begin its most essential step round July 27: A 30,000-person examine to show if the pictures actually are sturdy sufficient to guard towards the coronavirus. However Tuesday, researchers reported anxiously awaited findings from the primary 45 volunteers who rolled up their sleeves again in March. Positive sufficient, the vaccine offered a hoped-for immune enhance. These early volunteers developed what are referred to as neutralizing antibodies of their bloodstream — molecules key to blocking an infection — at ranges similar to these present in individuals who survived COVID-19, the analysis staff reported within the New England Journal of Medication.” 

White Home commerce adviser Peter Navarro attacked Fauci in an op-ed for USA At present, a part of a unbroken marketing campaign towards the physician by Trump and his allies. “Dr. Anthony Fauci has a great bedside method with the general public, however he has been incorrect about all the things I’ve interacted with him on,” Navarro wrote. “So while you ask me whether or not I hearken to Dr. Fauci’s recommendation, my reply is: solely with skepticism and warning.”

In response to White Home assaults, Fauci stated the general public can belief him. “I consider, for probably the most half, you’ll be able to belief revered medical authorities,” Fauci stated throughout a Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service occasion. “I consider I’m one among them, so I believe you’ll be able to belief me.”

Former Joint Chiefs of Workers chairman Joseph Dunford Jr. gained’t chair a coronavirus spending panel. Dunford Jr. eliminated himself from consideration to chair the Congressional Oversight Fee, a key mechanism created by Congress that’s purported to scrutinize coronavirus spending, Erica Werner stories. The explanations for his withdrawal have been unclear, however the choice is a significant setback for the fee and efforts to seek out somebody to guide it. Beneath the coronavirus stimulus laws, the chair of the bipartisan five-member fee have to be appointed collectively by Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Chief Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).  

“We don’t need CDC steerage to be a purpose why individuals don’t reopen their colleges,” stated Vice President Pence throughout a roundtable dialogue at Louisiana State College, the place he emphasised the Trump administration’s place that colleges in any respect ranges have to open this fall. (Des Bieler) 

“The abrupt reversal, disclosed in a federal court docket in Boston, got here just a little greater than per week after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued an edict that shocked U.S. larger training leaders and college students worldwide,” Nick Anderson and Susan Svrluga report. “Beneath the July 6 coverage from ICE, worldwide college students enrolled in U.S. faculties and universities for the autumn semester confronted a mandate to take at the least one course in individual. These college students, ICE stated, ‘could not take a full on-line course load and stay in the USA.’ That mandate posed a significant impediment to plans for on-line educating and studying that faculties are creating in response to the novel coronavirus pandemic. Within the spring, the federal authorities had given colleges rather more leeway to show worldwide college students on-line. Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Know-how had sued to dam the brand new coverage. In a listening to in that case on Tuesday, held earlier than U.S. District Choose Allison D. Burroughs, the choose introduced that the colleges and the federal authorities had reached an settlement that made the lawsuit moot.” 

“Ivanka Trump urged out-of-work People to ‘discover one thing new’ Tuesday as a part of a brand new jobs initiative designed to tout the advantages of abilities coaching and profession paths that don’t require a university diploma. However the effort — full with a web site, promoting marketing campaign and digital roundtable that includes Apple CEO Tim Cook dinner and IBM chair Ginni Rometty — was swiftly derided on social media as ‘clueless’ and ‘tone-deaf’ given the pandemic, recession and Trump’s personal familial employment historical past,” Hamza Shaban stories. “The nation at present has 5.4 million job openings, in response to the Labor Division, which isn’t practically sufficient for the roughly 18 million People who’re formally unemployed and the 33 million who’re at present receiving unemployment advantages. Many noticed the marketing campaign as insensitive given the struggling of People whose livelihoods disappeared because the pandemic compelled firms to shutter or sharply curtail operations. And for a lot of, Ivanka Trump — the daughter of a billionaire and a multimillionaire in her personal proper — is the incorrect individual to talk to the challenges of discovering a job.”

“A Put up evaluation of knowledge on 4.9 million loans launched final week by the Small Enterprise Administration exhibits that many firms are reported to have ‘retained’ way more staff than they make use of. Likewise, in some circumstances the company’s jobs declare for whole industries surpasses the full variety of staff in these sectors. And for greater than 875,000 debtors, the information exhibits that zero jobs have been supported or no info is listed in any respect, in response to the evaluation,” Jonathan O’Connell, Emma Brown, Steven Wealthy and Aaron Gregg report. “The issues elevate questions in regards to the claims by the Trump administration that 51 million jobs have been ‘supported’ by the [PPP].”

“The federal authorities could not have the capability to produce medical professionals with private protecting gear amid the most recent surge in coronavirus circumstances, in response to inner administration paperwork,” NBC Information stories. “For instance, the Strategic Nationwide Stockpile and the Federal Emergency Administration Company have fewer than 900,000 gloves in reserve after transport 82.7 million of them — or simply 30 p.c of the quantity requested by state, native and tribal governments — because the COVID-19 disaster started. … Nonetheless, Adm. John Polowczyk, the chief supply-chain official for the White Home coronavirus activity pressure, maintained in an interview with NBC Information on Tuesday that the provision scenario is ‘simply not that dire.’”

• Texas hospitals are operating out of medication, beds, ventilators and employees. Some hospitals in South Texas say they’re dangerously near filling up, whereas hospitals elsewhere within the state are bracing themselves for circumstances to proceed rising. (Texas Tribune)
• Arizona tallied an all-time excessive in covid-19 hospitalizations, ICU beds in use and confirmed coronavirus deaths. (Arizona Republic)
• No less than 31 p.c of youngsters examined in Florida have the virus. About 17,000 of Florida’s roughly 287,000 circumstances have been individuals youthful than 18. (Solar-Sentinel)

“The seven-day common of recent infections within the District, Maryland and Virginia elevated for an eighth consecutive day Tuesday, leaping to 1,421 — about the place the area stood final month earlier than shutdown restrictions for nonessential companies have been additional loosened. The area’s largest each day caseloads of the previous month have occurred up to now 5 days,” Antonio Olivo, Dana Hedgpeth, Erin Cox and Ovetta Wiggins report. “Gov. Ralph Northam (D) took extra aggressive steps to regulate the virus from spreading additional. He’s ordering inspectors to make unannounced visits to eating places and retail institutions, after which revoking their licenses if staff aren’t carrying masks or clients are allowed to congregate in tight areas. … Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) urged native leaders throughout his state to take bolder steps to implement bodily distancing and masks necessities for bars and eating places.” 

• Rep. H. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.), a Freedom Caucus member who days in the past urged colleges to reopen within the fall, examined constructive for the virus. Griffith, 62, stated he’s feeling effective. (Laura Vozzella)
• Arlington Public Faculties is scrapping a plan to supply in-person and digital studying this fall and can as an alternative require that its 28,000 college students begin faculty totally on-line. (Hannah Natanson)

“Throughout an interview with CBS Information, the president additionally stated he views the flying of the Accomplice flag as a difficulty of freedom of speech, with out providing his personal emotions a couple of image that for a lot of represents the nation’s racist previous and historical past of slavery,” Felicia Sonmez stories. “‘All I say is, freedom of speech,’ Trump stated when requested in regards to the flag. ‘It’s quite simple. … Nicely, individuals find it irresistible and I don’t view — I do know people who just like the Accomplice flag, they usually’re not fascinated by slavery.’ … Within the interview with CBS Information’s Catherine Herridge, Trump referred to as George Floyd’s demise ‘horrible.’ However he appeared to dismiss the notion that systemic racism is an issue in U.S. regulation enforcement. ‘Why are African People nonetheless dying by the hands of regulation enforcement on this nation?’ Herridge requested Trump. ‘And so are white individuals,’ he replied. ‘So are white individuals. What a horrible query to ask. So are white individuals — extra white individuals, by the best way. Extra white individuals.’” Black individuals are fatally shot by police at a better price than white individuals, per a Put up evaluation.  

In an interview with ABC Information, the president’s niece — free of a gag order that stopped her from speaking about her household and recent from publishing her tell-all e book — stated Trump grew up in a “dysfunctional” household, making a “harmful scenario” for America as soon as he was elected president. “It’s unattainable to know who Donald might need been” had he been born into a unique household, Mary Trump stated. His father, Fred, was a “sociopath” who taught his children to view individuals as “expendable” and to do something to “win.” 

“Ginsburg, 87, is the court docket’s oldest member, and her well being has been a recurring public matter and supply of each hypothesis and concern. In a press release Tuesday afternoon, the court docket stated Ginsburg had been experiencing fever and chills on Monday, so she was initially taken to Sibley Memorial Hospital within the District that evening. On Tuesday afternoon, she was given an endoscopic process ‘to wash out a bile duct stent that was positioned final August,’ the court docket stated,” Mark Berman stories. “Ginsburg will keep within the hospital to obtain intravenous antibiotics, the court docket stated, including that she was ‘resting comfortably.’” 

“The brand new head of the U.S. Postal Service established main operational modifications Monday that would decelerate mail supply, warning staff the company wouldn’t survive until it made ‘tough’ modifications to chop prices. However critics say such a philosophical sea change would sacrifice operational effectivity and cede its aggressive edge to UPS, FedEx and different private-sector rivals,” Jacob Bogage stories. “Postmaster Common Louis DeJoy advised staff to go away mail behind at distribution facilities if it delayed letter carriers from their routes, in response to inner USPS paperwork obtained by The Put up. … The memo cited U.S. Metal, a onetime trade titan that was sluggish to adapt to market modifications, for instance what’s at stake. ‘In 1975 they have been the biggest firm on the earth,’ the memo states. ‘They’re gone.’ (U.S. Metal is a $1.7 billion firm with 27,500 staff.)”

Throughout his Rose Backyard rant, Trump talked about that Biden is, amongst different issues, making an attempt to eliminate home windows: 

Jeff Classes accepted defeat whereas surrounded by his household: 

The primary woman inspired People to put on masks: 

And the president’s daughter and adviser inspired People to purchase canned beans after Goya’s president praised Trump:  

The tweet raised ethics points, since government department staff aren’t allowed to make use of their public workplace “for the endorsement of any product.” 

Eight individuals suffered extreme eye accidents at protests throughout the nation on Could 30 after being struck by police projectiles:

Of these eight, six have been protesters, one was a photojournalist, and one other was a passerby. In three situations, video proof undermines official accounts of what occurred.

Stephen Colbert took a take a look at Republicans’ excuses to not go to the conference in Jacksonville, Fla: 

And Seth Meyers stated that Roger Stone’s plans to jot down a e book on the Russia investigation could mark the primary time he “truly completes a sentence”: