National

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention plans to issue an order temporarily halting residential evictions until Dec. 31 to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, the White House announced on Tuesday.

Why it matters: One estimate last month found that 23 million Americans are at risk of eviction. The CDC's order marks another example of the administration circumventing Congress, where coronavirus stimulus talks have stalled, to deal with the economic impact of the pandemic.

How it works: In order to get assistance, renters earning less than $99,000 per year must report they are unable to pay their rent or are likely to become homeless if evicted, White House officials said.

They must also show that they tried to obtain all government assistance currently available for rent or housing and that they are unable to make payments due to loss of household income, a layoff or extraordinary out-of-pocket medical expenses.

Between the lines: It's unclear how effective the moratorium will be without any extra funding behind the plan.

Experts say that failing to compensate landlords who are no longer receiving rent payments could cause a "massive destabilizing effect" in housing markets, according to CNBC.

The action may face legal challenges from landlords who have seen rental income decrease from the pandemic, according to Bloomberg.

What they're saying: “President Trump is committed to helping hardworking Americans stay in their homes and combating the spread of the coronavirus,” White House spokesperson Brian Morgenstern said.

“Today’s announcement from his administration means that people struggling to pay rent due to coronavirus will not have to worry about being evicted, and risk further spreading of or exposure to the disease due to economic hardship.”

CDC to issue order temporarily halting some evictions for public health reasons

It's unclear how effective the moratorium will be without any extra funding.

Eviction protesters. Photo: Ben Hasty/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images

Politics

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

Business

2020 conventions

Policymaking

President Biden has made the COVID-19 crisis and a post-Trump return to national unity and traditional democratic ideals his top priorities. From vaccinations to stimulus to schools, Biden is seeking bipartisan compromise while showing a willingness to use executive authority and bare Democratic majorities in the U.S. House and Senate to implement his policies. Republican leaders are navigating deep party divisions over if and how to move beyond former President Trump.

Politics & Policy

Top stories & latest news on the Federal Reserve, real-time data, plus the biggest shifts happening in the U.S. and global economy.

Economy

After a record economic expansion, the coronavirus pandemic sent the U.S. economy into a recession as unemployment soared to staggering heights. The country now faces urgent questions about how much stimulus is needed for reeling consumers and businesses, and what a recovery might look like.

Economy & Business

The U.S. faces a range of health care flashpoints — unaffordable drugs, opioids, vaping — as we debate whether to adopt universal care. For now, the Affordable Care Act is the law of the land, but Republicans want to issue it a final death blow.

Health

Here are some reasons why President Trump's top advisers say they feel better today than they did three weeks ago.

The state of play: Some early data suggests the Republican National Convention was a success and gave Trump more of a bounce than Joe Biden got from the Democratic National Convention.

A new Morning Consult poll has Trump getting a 4 percentage point bounce out of the RNC, whereas Biden got no immediate bounce from the DNC the week earlier. (According to the latest Morning Consult poll, Biden leads Trump 50% to 44% among likely voters nationwide).

A new Yahoo News-YouGov poll has Biden's lead over Trump shrinking to 6 percentage points after the RNC — the vice president's smallest lead in months.

Fundraising performed well during the RNC. Trump's communications director Tim Murtaugh says the campaign raised $76 million during the RNC.

Biden announced he would resume campaign travel after Labor Day, including a trip to Minnesota. Minnesota last voted Republican during Richard Nixon's landslide victory in 1972.

COVID-19 cases have been trending down off of the late July peak.

Between the lines: A central goal of the RNC was to win back suburbanites who view Trump as racist and devoid of morals. That's why you saw so many Black speakers offering character testimonials for the president.

To that end, Trump aides are encouraged by the Morning Consult poll, which showed that "Trump cut into Biden's lead among voters in the suburbs: Before the convention, Biden led by 14 points (54 percent to 40 percent), but after the convention, he led by 8 points (50 percent to 42 percent)."

Team Trump's era of good feelings

Some early data suggests the RNC was a success.

Trump greets guests ahead of first lady Melania Trump's address to the Republican National Convention from the Rose Garden at the White House

Trump greets guests ahead of first lady Melania Trump's address to the Republican National Convention from the Rose Garden at the White House, Aug. 25. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images

Donald Trump

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2020 election

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Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf claimed on Sunday that he did not know that a prerecorded naturalization ceremony with President Trump would be aired during the Republican National Convention.

Why it matters: The ceremony has prompted House Democrats to demand an investigation into Wolf for potentially violating the Hatch Act, which restricts federal employees from engaging in partisan political activity.

The big picture: The naturalization ceremony was one of a number of episodes during the RNC that sparked allegations of ethics violations and misuse of government property for political purposes, including President Trump's acceptance speech on the White House South Lawn.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's address from Jerusalem has prompted a separate Hatch Act investigation led by Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas).

What he's saying: "No," Wolf responded when asked by ABC's Jonathan Karl if he knew the footage would be played at the RNC. "What I knew is again, participating in a naturalization ceremony. We had a number of USCIS employees there as they do every naturalization ceremony making sure that ceremony goes off without a hitch."

"Naturalization ceremonies are what the department does. We do hundreds, if not thousands, of them every year. I participated in several of them not only with the president but with the vice president. So it's absolutely a legitimate role for the department to do."

"It was an official event at the White House. It was uploaded to a public YouTube channel. Any individual organization or political party can pull down that video and do with it as they wish."

Wolf says he did not know naturalization ceremony would be shown at RNC

"It was an official event at the White House. It was uploaded to a public YouTube channel."

Chad Wolf

President Trump didn’t make himself more appealing to voters during the Republican National Convention, but he did hurt Joe Biden, a new Axios-SurveyMonkey poll finds. 

Why it matters: Trump dedicated much of his convention messaging to trying to try scare voters about Biden, charging that he'd allow leftist radicals to drive Democrats' agenda and urban protesters to unravel the suburbs.

Biden's favorable/unfavorable rating with independents who don't lean toward either party dropped from a net -5 to -18 in a week.

But Trump's also eroded — and remained far worse than Biden's — sliding from -35 to -37.

By the numbers: Trump's favorability is now at 89% among Republicans, just barely down from 91% last week; Vice President Mike Pence's is unchanged, at 82%.

Biden's favorability is at 85% among Democrats, unchanged from a week ago; Harris' is up just barely, to 79%.

Trump holds the lowest net favorable/unfavorable rating of the four among overall respondents (-11), compared with Pence (-6), Biden (-5) and Harris (-3). 

But Biden's unfavorable rating has gotten worse — it was -2 a week ago.

Trump didn't improve his support among Black Americans: nearly two thirds have strongly unfavorable views of him, even though the convention showcased several Black speakers who defended him from charges of racism and highlighted his adoption of criminal justice reforms.

 A pair of word clouds from the polling provides a snapshot of America's mood. The top three words Republicans used to describe their convention were "patriotic," "inspiring" and "uplifting":

A word cloud of Republican responses to the Republican convention, including words like patriotic, uplifting and inspiring

Democrats' top words for the RNC were "lies," "Trump" and "fear":

A word cloud of Democratic responses to the Republican convention, including words like lies, Trump and fear

The big picture: "Looking narrowly, the convention worked to boost the sense of unity among the most conservative Republicans," said SurveyMonkey's Jon Cohen. But the survey shows "fresh evidence of the seesaw-like opinions of those who see themselves as independents and don’t lean to either party — views that could determine the outcome."

27% of Republicans preferred the largely virtual convention format to a traditional in-person convention week, compared with 18% who thought it was worse; more than half said it was about the same.

60% of Republicans say their party is unified now, up from 51% a week ago.

What we're watching: The survey found slight increases from a week before among Republicans, independents and even Democrats who now say they intend to vote in person this year despite the pandemic — though more than half of Democrats still plan to vote by mail.

And it's important to watch whether voters' views of Trump and Biden harden in the coming weeks, Cohen said — because "a fierce contest between two unpopular candidates foreshadows 2016."

Methodology: This SurveyMonkey online poll was conducted August 27-28, 2020 among a national sample of 2,922 adults in the U.S. Respondents for this survey were selected from the more than 2 million people who take surveys on the SurveyMonkey platform each day.

The modeled error estimate for this survey is +/- 2.5 percentage points. Data have been weighted for age, race, sex, education, and geography using the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey to reflect the demographic composition of the United States age 18 and over. 

Axios-SurveyMonkey poll: The Biden-Harris bounce

Axios-SurveyMonkey poll: Trump trades bounce for a hit to Biden

Biden's standing with independents got worse, but so did Trump's.

President Trump stands with his family in front of the White House after giving his Republican convention speech

Trump with his family after giving his convention speech on the South Lawn of the White House. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

SurveyMonkey

Many of this year's on-the-fly convention innovations — including Democrats' virtual roll-call road trip and Republicans' use of the White House for political pageantry — may well outlast the pandemic.

Why it matters: Conventions have entered a new era where the TV show will push aside many of the parties' charming but archaic traditions. 

The big picture: These pandemic-constrained conventions caught the populist winds of the moment. 

The breakout stars weren't politicians: they were a teen with a stutter and pardoned criminals, grieving parents and spouses, immigrants and Black men challenging stereotypes. 

President Trump's stagecraft further diminished the expectation that U.S. presidents should separate raw politics from governance. Future presidents will have more running room — unless lawsuits or investigations curb the experiment.

The bottom line: Presidential nominating conventions once were about messaging to party insiders to secure consensus. They haven't been that for decades — but this year's experiments finally gave both parties permission to cast aside the pretense and go straight to the voters.

Go deeper: The most viral 2020 national convention stories

How the national conventions have changed forever

Conventions have entered a new era where the TV show will push aside traditions.

Illustration of a laptop with red and blue balloons on its screen.

Deep Dive - 2020 Conventions

Data: NewsWhip; Chart: Naema Ahmed/Axios

The most viral stories about the Republican convention were largely about non-political speakers, while the Democratic convention stories focused on the political leaders who were the official stars of the convention, according to exclusive data from NewsWhip.

Why it matters: The GOP convention in particular highlighted how speakers from outside of the political arena who haven't been bloodied and bruised by political fights were most effective at setting social media on fire.

Both conventions got roughly the same amount of online attention — roughly 50 million social media interactions (likes, comments, shares) on related stories. But the most viral stories about the two conventions showed a big difference in the interests of their online audiences.

By the numbers: The current and previous First Ladies generated the most viral stories at both conventions. Melania Trump was the favorite among right-leaning social media audiences during the Republican convention, just as Michelle Obama dominated social media during the Democratic convention.

But while Obama won attention for her indictment of President Trump, Melania Trump's online audience saw criticism of her as an example of hypocrisy from the left:

Five of the 100 most-viral stories from the RNC were about Bette Midler tweeting that the First Lady is an "illegal alien" who "still can't speak English." (Midler later tweeted: "I was wrong to make fun of her accent.") 

Other headlines from conservative media applauded her: "Gracious Melania Offers Unifying RNC Speech In Contrast With Michelle Obama’s Dark DNC Speech" (Daily Wire) and "First lady lends grace to Trump’s reelection bid" (Washington Times).

Between the lines: While politicians and other figures in the Trump administration may get the most media coverage, it was the Republican convention speakers from outside of politics who generated the most social media interactions at the grassroots level.

Herschel Walker's remarks that "I have seen racism up close. I know what it is. And it isn’t Donald Trump," caught fire on right-wing media.

So did the speech from Maximo Alvarez — an immigrant who fled from Cuba — who delivered an indictment of communism.

The other side: Even for left-leaning audiences, figures from outside of the regular drumbeat of political news caught readers' attention.

The biggest RNC story circulating on liberal media was that speaker Abby Johnson, a prominent anti-abortion activist, earlier this year called for one vote per household where "in a Godly household, the husband would get the final say."

Other big storylines on the left included the endorsement of Joe Biden by GOP figures including Jeff Flake and former John McCain staffers.

This analysis focuses on the top 100 stories from both conventions. For the most recent stories, it uses predicted interactions to estimate where the engagement will end up, based on whether the stories were gaining or losing traction.

The bottom line: There was a significant disconnect between the stories that animated the political class and the ones that lit up millions of social media users.

 Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's violation of norms by addressing the convention from Jerusalem and Nikki Haley as a possible future GOP presidential candidate got very little traction.

The most viral 2020 national convention stories

Melania Trump, Herschel Walker and Maximo Alvarez generated the most online buzz during the RNC.

Social Media

Media Trends

Axios Media Trends

Data: Nielsen; Note: Night one of the 2008 and 2012 conventions were pushed due to hurricanes; Chart: Naema Ahmed/Axios

Increasing partisanship, competing streaming options and the mostly virtual nature of this year's programming may help explain why TV ratings for both conventions were way down compared with 2016. 

Why it matters: Ratings are not a proxy for popularity or voter enthusiasm, but they do provide a loose sense of which party and figures are capturing the attention of the country. 

By the numbers: Viewership for the Republican National Convention was down about 21% on average this year across all four nights compared with 2016, per figures from Nielsen, while the Democratic National Convention's was down about 17%.

The DNC averaged 21.57 million viewers in the 10 p.m. prime-time hour across the four nights that it aired last week, while the RNC averaged 18.8 million viewers over that period this week. 

President Trump's nomination acceptance speech at the White House on Thursday was watched by 23.8 million people, just shy of the 24.6 million people who tuned in for Joe Biden's speech the week before. 

The numbers show how increasing partisanship in America may be curtailing viewership.

The ratings drop for the RNC and the DNC were heaviest in viewership via traditional broadcast networks like CBS, NBC and ABC, compared to cable. Broadcast news networks tend to attract less partisan viewers than their cable counterparts. 

Fox News received the most total viewers among all networks, cable and broadcast, across all four days of the RNC, while MSNBC beat out all other broadcast and cable networks for every night of the DNC. 

Between the lines: There's no way of measuring exactly how many people streamed the conventions or watched clips on social channels, but presumably, millions more Americans tuned in online via streaming and clips on social media. 

2020 elections: TV ratings were down for both the RNC and DNC

There's no way of measuring exactly how many people streamed the convention or watched clips on social channels.

Media

Screenshot from Republican National Convention video, via NBC News

Three New York City public housing tenants, interviewed for a video bashing Mayor Bill de Blasio that aired Thursday during the Republican convention, told the New York Times they didn't know how it would be used.

What they're saying: "I am not a Trump supporter," one of the tenants, Claudia Perez, told The Times. "I am a first-generation Honduran."

The fourth tenant in the video "said she was a Trump backer and knew the purpose of the video."

Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh told Axios: "All interview subjects were fully aware of the purpose of the interviews. ... They gave verbal consent on video tape."

Some participants in the naturalization ceremony shown during the convention told The Times and The Wall Street Journal they didn't know they'd be shown, but didn't mind — and some even enjoyed the instant fame.

NYC public housing tenants say they didn't know they'd be used in RNC video

The Trump campaign says tenants gave verbal, on-video consent.

Republican National Convention

About 23.8 million people watched President Trump's speech at the Republican National Convention Thursday, according to early figures from Nielsen. That's about 3% fewer viewers than the 24.6 million who tuned into Joe Biden's speech at the Democratic National Convention last week.

The big picture: TV ratings for the RNC were down about 21% on average this year across all four nights compared to 2016. They were also down 10% compared to the 2020 DNC.

Why it matters: Ratings are not a proxy for popularity or voter enthusiasm, but they provide a loose sense of which party and figures are capturing the attention of the country. 

Trump's career as a reality TV show producer and personality have made him partial to television ratings as a vector for popularity. 

By the numbers: The president's White House speech drew the highest ratings of any night during the Republican convention.

In total, the RNC averaged 19.3 million viewers across the four nights it aired in the 10 p.m. primetime hour this week, while the DNC averaged 21.6 million viewers across all four nights of its convention last week. 

Details: Fox News received the most total viewers among all networks, cable and broadcast, across the four-day event.

It also beat all other broadcast and cable networks every night of the convention in the coveted 25-54 age demographic.

By comparison, MSNBC won against all other broadcast and cable networks for every night of the DNC. 

The numbers show how increasing partisanship in America may have curtailed viewership.

The ratings drop at the RNC and the DNC were weighted much more heavily to decreases in viewership of traditional broadcast networks like CBS, NBC and ABC, compared to cable. Broadcast news networks tend to attract fewer partisan viewers than their cable counterparts. 

The big picture: The ratings drop at both conventions is likely attributable to the virtual nature of this year's events, and the plethora of streaming and digital viewing options that exist today, as Axios has previously noted. 

There are more choices to stream television programming than there were in 2016, and about 15% fewer American households have Pay-TV now than they did then.

Viewers may have opted not to watch the event live, given the easily available options to watch it later or in short clips via digital channels.

Be smart: There's no way of measuring exactly how many people streamed the convention or watched clips on social channels, but presumably, millions of additional Americans tuned in online.

What's next: The Biden campaign is already using the ratings beat to taunt Trump. Biden's press team joked about the numbers on Twitter shortly after the figures were released. 

Biden narrowly beats Trump in convention speech ratings

Ratings aren't a proxy for voter enthusiasm, but give a loose sense of which party figures capture attention.

Republican National Committee (RNC)

Future of Transportation & COVID-19 Pt. 2

RNC week: Axios' chief technology correspondent Ina Fried hosted a conversation on the future of how people get around in the era of COVID-19, featuring former Secretary of Transportation and co-chair of Building America's Future Ray LaHood, Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Transportation Gia Biagi and League of Cities CEO Clarence Anthony.

Ray LaHood discussed how the efforts to create more sustainable public transit have stalled with COVID-19, and called on the federal government to financially support existing transit systems.

On the need for the financial support: "Just as the federal government stepped up for the airlines...there will have to be a huge influx of federal resources in order to sustain transit systems until they can get back to some sort of sort of normalcy in terms of ridership."

Gia Biagi highlighted how COVID-19 has shifted people's mindset about what city streets can look like with fewer cars, and unpacked the existing inequities in Chicago's public transportation system. 

How micromobility can supplement existing transit in Chicago: "What we're trying to do is connect the dots with micromobility and investments in the actual infrastructure. [Where we're seeing a need] also overlaps where we've seen the effects of structural racism and disinvestment that are fundamentally policy choices that have been made for many years."

Clarence Anthony discussed transit equity in cities, and the need for federal and state support to ensure that people have equal access to public transportation. 

"What is our role as city leaders? It is to make sure that the equity is brought into the policy and the process and that we demand that all of those services — like ride share and public services — are brought to all communities in an equal way."

Axios VP of Events Kristin Burkhalter hosted a View from the Top segment with Lyft Chief Policy Officer Anthony Foxx, and discussed Lyft's role in the transportation ecosystem and how they're contributing to racial justice efforts. 

On Lyft's relationship to public transit: "We feel like we're part of the ecosystem. We've never wanted to overtake public transit because we believe public transit is an essential service that only the public can do."

Thank you Lyft for sponsoring this event. 

Watch: The future of transportation in the era of COVID-19

We'll unpack how policymakers and innovators are retooling public transportation during the pandemic.

All 2020 conventions stories