Trump again criticized vote by mail, repeating baseless claims that the mailed-in ballots would be particularly vulnerable to voter fraud, which is very rare. Twitter added a fact check feature to some of the president’s recent misleading tweets about mail-in ballots. Trump said he thought it was “very unusual” that Joe Biden wore a face mask yesterday while attending a Memorial Day ceremony. The president has resisted wearing a mask in public, even though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that Americans cover their faces while out in public and around other people. Biden called Trump a “fool” for discouraging citizens from wearing masks and changed his Twitter avatar to a picture of himself wearing a mask and aviators. Trump will meet with New York governor Andrew Cuomo in Washington tomorrow. Cuomo said he and the president would discuss his proposal to ramp up infrastructure spending to get more New Yorkers back to work amid the coronavirus crisis. The Pentagon’s deputy inspector general resigned. Recently, the president effectively removed Glenn Fine from his role leading a coronavirus relief spending oversight committee, and the defense department official has now become the latest inspector general to step down in recent weeks. The trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange was reopened after two months. Cuomo rang the opening bell to cheers from traders, who will still have to wear masks and stay six feet apart from each other when they’re on the floor. Fact checks: Voter fraud In a series of misleading tweets, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany presented misleading tweets about mail-in ballots. Above McEnany is linking to a story about a 2019 settlement between California election officials and a conservative legal group that resulted in LA officials to remove the inactive records of voters who hadn’t voted in repeated elections and were not part of active voter rolls. There was no admission of wrongdoing int he settlement, but the county agreed to update old records. At the time, Paul Mitchell of the nonpartisan research firm Political Data Inc. told the. AP that this was an insignificant case because it involved inactive voters who “are not getting voting materials, they are not casting ballots, they are not showing up in precincts.” In Philly, a former judge of elections pleaded guilty to conspiracy to deprive Philadelphia voters of their civil rights by stuffing the ballot boxes for certain judicial candidates. This had nothing to do with mail-in voting. The former judge conducted voter fraud at the voting booth, not through the mail. He “fraudulently stuffed the ballot box by literally standing in a voting booth and voting over and over, as fast as he could, while he thought the coast was clear,” US attorney William McSwain said in a statement. In these extraordinary times, the Guardian’s editorial independence has never been more important. 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The Trump campaign has responded to Twitter adding fact checks to the president’s false tweets about mail-in voting by attacking the social media company. “We always knew that Silicon Valley would pull out all the stops to obstruct and interfere with President Trump getting his message through to voters,” Trump 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale said. “There are many reasons the Trump campaign pulled all our advertising from Twitter months ago, and their clear political bias is one of them.“ It is important to note here that Twitter Inc. banned political ads in October 2019 — necessitating that the Trump campaign pull all its advertising from Twitter months ago. The US is nearing the bleak milestone of 100,000 confirmed coronavirus deaths. But the actual death toll will probably have hit that figure days before the official tallies reflect it. And despite scientists’ best efforts, that date may forever go unmarked. Coronavirus was probably spreading through the US before the Trump administration restricted travel from China, before the US had a reliable supply of diagnostic tests, and before the disease caused by the virus was even named. Models of the Covid-19 outbreak estimate that the virus was making its way through America’s major cities, undetected, weeks before a California woman in early February became the first American known to have died of related causes. Researchers are now doing detective work, revisiting autopsies from early this year and studying how the virus has subtly evolved to try to trace when Covid-19 may have first sickened and killed people in the US. Infectious disease experts caution, however, that finding a “patient zero”, or even figuring out exactly how many Americans were infected and died before testing was available, will be nearly impossible. Joe Biden has a new Twitter avatar, in which he’s wearing a face mask. The change came shortly after Biden called Trump a “fool” for discouraging citizens from wearing masks. “Presidents are supposed to lead, not engage in folly and be falsely masculine,” Biden said in an interview with CNN. California is expanding its reopening criteria to include barber shops and hair salons for certain counties, governor Gavin Newsom announced today. The Guardian’s Vivian Ho reports: A quick reminder for how it all works in the incredibly large and varied state of California: there is a statewide guidance that applies to all 58 counties and modifies the statewide stay-at-home order for everyone. That went into place 8 May, and allowed for retailers to offer curbside pickup. The statewide guidance allows for regional variance because parts of California were harder hit by the virus than others. Some counties, like San Francisco and Alameda, home of the Tesla factory, kept stricter restrictions than the rest of the state, much to the dismay of Elon Musk. Later, Newsom allowed for counties that had not been as affectedby the virus to apply for looser restrictions, such as the go-ahead to reopen some offices, schools and dine-in restaurants. These counties have to meet criteria such as a rate of 8% positive tests over seven days and a hospitalization rate below 5%. Newsom said Monday that 47 counties have self-attested. These 47 counties will now be allowed to get haircuts, following certain modifications such as wearing face coverings while in the salon and certain sanitation guidelines. “We’re making progress, we’re moving forward, we’re not looking back, but we are walking into the unknown, the untested, literally and figuratively, and we have to be guided by the data that brought us to this place in the first place,” Newsom warned. Newsom made the hair salon announcement amid jokes that three of his four children, the oldest age 10, had helped cut his hair this weekend in “a family effort to remove what was described by my wife as, forgive me, a mullet.” California is now reporting 97,206 positive cases, and 3,777 deaths, but in the last 14 days, the state has seen a 6.7% decline in hospitalizations. A church in California has asked the Supreme Court to stop enforcement of the state’s social distancing policies. The South Bay United Pentecostal Church, represented by the Thomas More Society —conservative, pro-life law firm based in Chicago — filed a petition over the weekend, saying that the governor’s shelter-in-place guidelines “arbitrarily discriminate against places of worship in violation of their right to the Free Exercise of Religion under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.” Yesterday, governor Gavin Newsom said houses of worship would be allowed to re-open at 25% capacity. The Supreme Court has not formally accepted the petition. Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, did not hold back when asked at his daily briefing on Tuesday about Donald Trump’s comments on mail-in ballots. The Guardian’s Vivian Ho reports from San Francisco: Earlier this month, California became the first state to authorize sending every registered voter a mail-in ballot in the upcoming elections, a move that Newsom is calling a matter of public health, not politics. He started Tuesday citing three studies that essentially found that the cases of voter fraud were few and far between. He noted that there should be sanctions for people that are doing the wrong thing, but the reality is, the overwhelming majority of people are doing the right thing.” “Utah, hardly a bastion of progressive politics, has been doing mail-only ballots for a number of years,” Newsom said. “Colorado, as well as Oregon, Washington, other states, for years and years. The state of California has been doing it for decades. Many other states across this country have been using absentee ballots, for servicemen and women overseas, using absentee ballots in a secure, safe and honorable manner. It doesn’t skew Democratic, it doesn’t skew Republican.” He pointed out that by the time the November election rolls around, it will be flu season and “potentially the next Covid-19 season.” “The last thing we want to do is deny you your fundamental, hard-fought right,” Newsom said. “I don’t want to deny you that right because of public health and that is what this option and the ability to have an architecture of in-person voting options does in the state of California,” he continued. “I think it is a noble cause, I think it is an appropriate cause and I don’t think it’s political in any way, shape or form and I say that from the core of my being. I don’t just say that as a democratic governor of a large blue state, I say that as an American citizen, I say that as someone who believes deeply in democracy and believes in the cause of encouraging people to exercise their right, their privilege, their freedom to vote, for or against, pro/con, whatever one chooses to do, but to do it in a safe manner.” Fact check: Mail-in ballots Trump also lied while criticizing voting by mail. “People that aren’t citizens, illegals -- anybody that walks in California is going to get a ballot,” he said of the state’s plan to expand voting options. This is not true: in California, ballots are being mailed only to registered voters. The president has often repeated baseless claims about voting by mail, to the. point that Twitter has added a fact-check to the president’s false tweets about the process. Fact check: Presidential authority The constitution does not allow the president authority to override state governors’ responses to the pandemic. As University of Texas law professor Steve Vladeck has explained before: “The president has no formal legal authority to categorically override local or state shelter-in-place orders or to reopen schools and small businesses. No statute delegates to him such power; no constitutional provision invests him with such authority.” In the federal government, Congress the power to “regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states” — but not the president. And it’s unclear that houses of worship have any impact on interstate commerce. Hi there, it’s Maanvi Singh, blogging from the West Coast. Moments ago, Trump said he has the authority to overrule state governors that refuse to reopen places of worship. “And we have many different ways where I can override them,” the president said. Today so far The president has just concluded his Rose Garden event, and that’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Maanvi Singh, will take over the blog for the next few hours. Here’s where the day stands: Trump said he thought it was “very unusual” that Joe Biden wore a face mask yesterday while attending a Memorial Day ceremony. The president has resisted wearing a mask in public, even though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that Americans cover their faces while out in public and around other people. Trump will meet with New York governor Andrew Cuomo in Washington tomorrow. Cuomo said he and the president would discuss his proposal to ramp up infrastructure spending to get more New Yorkers back to work amid the coronavirus crisis. The Pentagon’s deputy inspector general resigned. Recently, the president effectively removed Glenn Fine from his role leading a coronavirus relief spending oversight committee, and the defense department official has now become the latest inspector general to step down in recent weeks. The trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange was reopened after two months. Cuomo rang the opening bell to cheers from traders, who will still have to wear masks and stay six feet apart from each other when they’re on the floor. Trump again criticized vote by mail, repeating baseless claims that the mailed-in ballots would be particularly vulnerable to voter fraud, which is very rare. Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned. Trump: We must "get to the bottom" of debunked Scarborough conspiracy theory Trump once again refused to denounce a debunked conspiracy theory that alleges MSNBC host Joe Scarborough was involved in the 2001 death of his former staff, Lori Klausutis. Trump said Klausutis’ death, which was ruled an accident by local Florida police and the medical examiner involved in the case, was “a very suspicious situation.” When Trump was pressed on the fact that Klausutis’ widower has asked Twitter to remove the president’s tweets on the matter, he said of Klausutis’ family, “I’m sure that ultimately they want to get to the bottom of it.” The president insisted it would be a “very good thing” to “get to the bottom of it.” But Klausutis’ widower said Trump “has taken something that does not belong him — the memory of my dead wife — and perverted it for perceived political gain.” Trump says it was "very unusual" Biden wore a mask Trump said he thought it was “very unusual” that Joe Biden chose to wear a mask yesterday while attending a Memorial Day ceremony. “Biden can wear a mask,” Trump said. “He was standing outside with his wife, perfect conditions, perfect weather – when they’re inside they don’t wear masks. And so I thought it was very unusual he had one on.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended the use of face masks when Americans are in public and in close proximity to other people, but masks are not considered necessary when people are in their own homes. Trump denied that he was criticizing Biden when he retweeted a Fox News commentator who had questioned the former vice president’s use of the mask. “I wasn’t criticizing him at all,” Trump said. The infamously combative president added, “Why would I ever do a thing like that?” Trump also tried to convince a reporter to remove his mask to ask his question. When the reporter chose not to do so, Trump said, “Okay, good, you want to be politically correct.” Echoing comments from Trump and White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany earlier today, the vice-president boasted about the current coronavirus death rate in the country. Mike Pence noted that “just 505 Americans succumbed to the coronavirus” yesterday, saying the country has not seen that daily death toll since March. “We’re getting there, America,” Pence said. When the vice-president finished speaking, Trump echoed his comments, saying his administration had acted “quickly and smartly” and thus prevented a much higher death toll. The US coronavirus death toll is expected to reach 100,000 in the coming days, while Trump said last month that he expected 50,000 to 60,000 Americans to die of the virus. Trump mused about whether he should use insulin while delivering remarks on protecting seniors with diabetes amid the coronavirus pandemic. “I don’t use insulin. Should I be? Huh?” the president said of the diabetes medication. “I never thought about it. But I know a lot of people are very badly affected, right? Unbelievable.” The comment (or maybe it was a joke?) comes just after Trump said he has concluded his regimen of hydroxychloroquine, which he was using to prevent coronavirus, despite the FDA’s guidance that the drug should only be used in a hospital setting. The AFL-CIO, the largest US federation of unions, has endorsed Joe Biden’s presidential bid, an unsurprising development considering the group has been a staunch Democratic ally. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka applauded Biden as a champion of the labor movement who would be a valuable ally if he wins the White House. “The path to the presidency runs through the labor movement,” Trumka said. “And with the full force and unmatched reach of our political program, we are ready to pave that road for our friend Joe Biden.” The group similarly endorsed Hillary Clinton in her 2016 race against Trump.