Jun 25, 2019

Trump refuses to say if he has confidence in FBI director

President Trump. Photo: Andrew Harrer - Pool/Getty Images

President Trump wouldn't say during an interview with The Hill Monday if he has confidence in FBI Director Christopher Wray, stressing he disagrees with him over his administration's claims its agents spied on his 2016 campaign.

Well, we’ll see how it turns out."

— President Trump's response to a question on his level of confidence in Wray

The big picture: During his interview with The Hill, Trump made clear he disagreed with Wray telling Congress in May he would not describe FBI investigations as "spying." Wray made the comment in response to a question about Attorney General Bill Barr's assertion that law enforcement officials "spied" on the 2016 Trump campaign.

"I mean, I disagree with him on that and I think a lot of people are disagreeing. You may even disagree with him on that."

— President Trump to The Hill

Why it matters: Trump has a history of issues with the FBI. In 2017, he fired then-FBI director James Comey. He publicly criticized then-acting director Andrew McCabe, who was later fired by Trump's first attorney general, Jeff Sessions. The president has also criticized on several occasions former FBI agent Peter Strzok and ex-FBI lawyer Lisa Page, who exchanged anti-Trump text messages during the 2016 campaign.

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Axios

Coronavirus dashboard

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

Global: Total confirmed cases as of 3 a.m. ET: 665,164 — Total deaths: 30,852 — Total recoveries: 140,225.
U.S.: Leads the world in cases. Total confirmed cases as of 3 a.m. ET: 124,665 — Total deaths: 2,191 — Total recoveries: 1,095.
Federal government latest: President Trump announces new travel advisories for New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, but rules out quarantine enforcement. Per the CDC, residents of those states must now "refrain from non-essential domestic travel for 14 days," with the exception of critical infrastructure industry workers.
State updates: Alaska is latest state to issue a stay-at-home order — New York is trying to nearly triple its hospital capacity in less than a month and has moved its presidential primary to June 23. Some Midwestern swing voters who backed Trump's handling of the virus less than two weeks ago are balking at his call for the U.S. to be "opened up" by Easter.
World updates: In Spain, over 1,400 people were confirmed dead between Thursday to Saturday.
🚀 Space updates: OneWeb filed for bankruptcy amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Hollywood: Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson have returned to U.S. after being treated for coronavirus.
What should I do? Answers about the virus from Axios experts — What to know about social distancing — Q&A: Minimizing your coronavirus risk
Other resources: CDC on how to avoid the virus, what to do if you get it.

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Axios

Coronavirus updates: Global death toll tops 30,000

Data: The Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins, the CDC, and China's Health Ministry. Note: China numbers are for the mainland only and U.S. numbers include repatriated citizens and confirmed plus presumptive cases from the CDC

The novel coronavirus has now killed more than 30,000 people around the world — with Italy reporting over 10,000 deaths, per Johns Hopkins data.

The big picture: The number of deaths from COVID-19 in the U.S. surpassed 2,000 on Saturday. The United States leads the world in confirmed coronavirus infections — more than 124,000 by early Sunday. The number of those recovered from the virus in the U.S. passed the 1,000-mark on Saturday evening.

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Rebecca Falconer

Gilead expands access to experimental coronavirus drug in emergency cases

Photo: Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images

Gilead Sciences CEO Daniel O’Day said in an open letter Saturday the company is expanding access to its experimental anti-coronavirus drug remdesivir to include severely ill COVID-19 patients.

The big pig picture: President Trump has called the antiviral drug "promising," but the results of six clinical trials on this investigational medicine are still being conducted, so its effectiveness the treatment of the novel coronavirus has yet to be proved. The World Health Organization is involved in the tests.

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