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 NBCOn Monday night, Seth Meyers returned to the Late Night desk—well, a temporary one housed in his living room in front of a rather impressive bookshelf—for the first "official" edition of his show since the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic forced New Yorkers indoors.
With musical accompaniment from pal Fred Armisen and musician Marnie Stern, Meyers launched into a takedown of President Trump's astounding lack of leadership during the coronavirus crisis, including bragging about how high his pandemic presser's ratings are, before welcoming the night's first guest: Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.
Senator Sanders (D-VT) has been, without question, the most visible and vocal Dem candidate during the pandemic (since it apparently took Joe Biden close to a week to set up a livestream in his home). Speaking with Meyers via conference call from his home in Burlington, Vermont, Sanders explained why his Medicare for All proposal to revamp the American health care system would be welcome during these uncertain times.
Rea
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 In a private conversation with President Donald Trump during the rapid acceleration of the pandemic, China's leader Xi Jinping went out of his way to deploy one of the most effective diplomatic maneuvers of the current American era: aggressive flattery.
In a phone call to discuss the international coronavirus crisis last week, Xi stressed to Trump how decisive, strong, and successful he feels his U.S. counterpart's public health and economic responses have been, two U.S. officials with knowledge of the matter said. The flattery came at a time when Trump was continuing to experience a deluge of criticism for his administration's response to the pandemic. It also came as some of the American president's most prominent officials were still engaged in a multi-pronged campaign to castigate the Chinese government for an alleged coronavirus cover-up and to rebrand the illness as the "Chinese virus" and the "Wuhan virus."
Trump had begun incorporating that language into his public utterances, framing the pandemic as a war whose origins were in China. But lately, he has softened his tone and adopted a more deferential stance toward Xi—whom he routinely calls his good "friend" and an "incredible guy"— going out of his way to compliment and excuse Beijing for its response to the virus, and to even publicly shrug off new reporting on China's disinformation apparatus in the midst of the pandemic.
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 It was weeks into self-isolation. I had lost count of the days. The mundanity was soul-crushing. The news was devastating. The toilet paper was running low. Things were bleak. It was time to check in with my spiritual gurus. So, over the course of a day, I got on the phone with the four veteran members of The Real Housewives of New York City.
There was Luann de Lesseps, social distancing in the Hamptons with her son and her daughter.
She was, like so many of us, taking care of the chores she's always too busy to do: cooking, going through photo albums, cleaning out the basement. She also, like, well, none of us, publicly addressing her current relationship with alcohol, honing her cabaret act, and recording what she promises to be a very fan-pleasing TikTok to be released within the next few days. (For the life of me and after a week of searching, I could not find this alleged video.)
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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 MSNBCChris Hayes has had it with President Donald Trump's daily briefings on the coronavirus pandemic.
Just two hours after MSNBC finished airing the president's Monday briefing in its entirety, the primetime host labeled them "propaganda sessions" in which Trump is "regularly spewing misinformation and lies at the podium." He added, "They have morphed into something akin to Trump rallies without the crowds."
"As dead bodies are being loaded into morgue trucks in New York City because the city is running out of space and hospitals," Hayes said, "the president in a new low even for him was bragging this weekend and at the press conference what good TV ratings he's getting."
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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 Photo Illustration by Sarah Rogers/The Daily Beast / Photos GettyBy the time you read this, the coronavirus may have killed as many Americans as Osama Bin Laden did on 9/11, with many more deaths to come.
It didn't have to be this way.
Sunday, the president said that 100,000 deaths would be a great win. Only in the world of Trumpian dumbfuckery could anyone brighter than a toaster oven think 100,000 avoidable deaths is a win. That's like saying, "Hey, honey, I went to the strip club, caught an STD, knocked up a stripper named Destynee, and got a second mortgage to bail her meth tweaker boyfriend out of jail…but at least I didn't touch the kids' college fund."
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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