7. Biden finally allows Obama to help him
- After pretending he asked former President Barack Obama not to endorse him, former Vice President Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign held a fundraiser with Obama where they raised $11 million overall.
- Obama has stayed pretty quiet about supporting anyone during this election, even though he did finally endorse Biden when he was the only candidate left in the Democratic primary. He implored Democrats to do more to support Biden’s campaign.
6. An employee in lieutenant governor’s office tests positive for coronavirus
- A “part-time employee” from the Lt. Governor Will Ainsworth’s office has tested positive for the coronavirus, according to a release from Ainsworth’s office. The release specified that the employee only works “a handful of hours each week.”
- The statement also specified that the employee that tested positive was already working in a separate workspace from everyone else and the last time they were in office was last Thursday. All of the workspaces are being cleaned, and employees will work from home while everyone’s coronavirus test results come back.
5. Jones is campaigning on equality
- While U.S. Senator Doug Jones (D-AL) could be facing former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions or former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville, he’s now campaigning on equality. In his first campaign ad, he’s asking people to “join” him on “the road to racial justice.”
- The ad, titled “Together,” is Jones discussing the death of George Floyd and a push for equality, saying, “Across Alabama folks are struggling with seeing this injustice and inequality and wanting to see that end. We cannot let this moment pass. The road to racial justice has taken far too long—but it’s a journey that we must make and we must make it together. Come join me.”
4. Attack ads are out against Sessions
- GRIT PAC has released an attack ad against former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions in the 2020 U.S. Senate election, using quotes of what President Donald Trump has had to say about Sessions. Meanwhile, a Trump-backed candidate in South Carolina just got crushed and handed the president a rare primary loss.
- The ad points out how Trump has described Sessions as “scared stiff,” “weak,” “mixed up,” “confused” and “ineffective.” The narrator of the ad goes on to say, “Trump couldn’t count on career politician Jeff Sessions to have his back, because Sessions only looked out for himself — that’s what career politicians do.”
3. Coronavirus vaccine is coming
- Dr. Anthony Fauci went before the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee about the coronavirus and he said that getting a coronavirus vaccine is a matter of “when and not if.”
- Fauci went on to add that the coronavirus vaccine could be ready as soon as the end of this year, or early next year, and the United States has continued to increase testing to fight the virus, with about 27.5 million Americans having been tested.
2. You’ll lose benefits if you refuse to work
- As the state has reopened, many people have gone back to work, but some have refused to go back. Many speculated people would refuse to go back to work when the federal government added $600 per week to state unemployment benefits.
- There have been 3,336 employees reported by their employers for refusing to return to work, and about two-thirds of those are under review while one third have lost benefits. Department of Labor spokesperson Tara Hutchinson has even clarified that “a general fear” of the coronavirus “is not a valid reason” to not return to work.
1. No noose is good news
- NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace has been making headlines after it was reported that a noose was found in the garage for the car he drives, and with Wallace being the only black driver in NASCAR, the news warranted investigations into if this was a racially motivated attack. It was determined to be false, but Wallace seems motivated to keep this controversy going.
- As the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice investigated the incident, they found that the “noose” in question had actually been in the garage since at least October 2019 and is part of the garage. According to a release from U.S. District Attorney Jay Town, “nobody could have known Mr. Wallace would be assigned for garage number 4 last week.”
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