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Sending federal agents to cities is not uncommon, the AP reports.

Hundreds of federal agents already have been sent to Kansas City, Missouri, to help quell a record rise in violence after the shooting death of a young boy there. Barr announced a similar surge effort in December for seven cities.

Usually, the Justice Department sends agents under its own umbrella, like agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives or the Drug Enforcement Agency. But this surge effort will include at least 100 Department of Homeland Security Investigations officers working in the region who generally conduct drug trafficking and child exploitation investigations.

During a virtual town hall, Joe Biden said that Trump was the first “racist” to be elected president.

“We’ve had racists, and they’ve existed, they’ve tried to get elected president. He’s the first one that has,” Trump’s Democratic challenger said, the Washington Post reports.

The statement is far from true for so, so many reasons, including that former US presidents owned slaves, they waged war and violence against Native Americans, they openly expressed racist views and enacted racist policies …

This does appear to be the first time that Biden, who has accused the president of stoking racial division, has actually labeled Trump a racist.

Referring to the police killing of George Floyd, Barr said there was a “terrible event” in Minneapolis but then said as a result of an “extreme” response, “what we have seen then is a significant increase in violent crime in many cities. And this rise is a direct result of the attack on the police forces and the weakening of police forces.”

Again, there’s no proof that this is the case.

Some more context, from my colleague Abené Clayton: Crime survivors say that more policing isn’t the solution:

Some crime survivors argue that an increased police presence and militarization hasn’t addressed the roots of community violence, such as income inequality, housing instability, and years of unaddressed collective trauma. And while the experiences, political leanings and definitions of justice vary greatly, for many black and brown crime survivors in low-income communities, safety relies less on punitive responses from police and prosecutors and more on breaking cycles of violence.

Tinisch Hollins, a San Francisco native, has lost two brothers – one in 2013 and another in 2017 – to gun violence, and has also experienced various forms of abuse. As the California director of CSSJ she advocates for policies that will support underserved survivors of color for whom services are often unavailable despite them being disparately harmed by both community and police violence. She also said that she’s “infuriated” by the rhetoric around defunding the police and increases in crime.

“Folks push this narrative on behalf of crime victims but there’s a lack of acknowledgement of how the justice system has never done a service to black people,” Hollins said. “We have been harmed by violence in our communities because so much investment has gone into the criminal justice system as a response to public safety and not into healing or restoration.”

Since the 1970s, as tough on crime policies such as the 1994 Crime Bill were implemented throughout the US, local spending on police increased from 6.6% to 7.8% of local budgets, according to a New York Times analysis. Still, nearly 65% of homicides of black and latino people go unsolved, according to an analysis of 22 US cities. These low arrest and adjudication rates also apply to instances of sexual assault and rape.

Again, attorney general William Barr has baselessly linked increases in violent crime with “extreme reaction that has demonized the police”.

The Department of Justice will provide $61m in grants to hire hundreds of police officers across the country, Trump said – a response to calls to “defund the police” and instead invest in education, housing, and mental health care.

Hi there, it’s Maanvi Singh, blogging from the West Coast.

Trump is baselessly blaming “lawlessness” in cities on “deadly politicians” and “extreme politicians” who he says want to abolish the police. Here’s a fact check, courtesy of my colleague Sam Levin:

If cities defund police, will violence and crime increase?

Abolition groups argue that policing and prison are at their core racist and harmful and make communities less safe. They also point out that the vast majority of police work has nothing to do with responding to or preventing violence, and that police have a terrible track record of solving murders or handling rape and domestic violence.

While there is no contemporary example of defunding in the US, there are studies suggesting that less policing could mean less crime. In 2014 and 2015, New York officers staged a “slowdown” to protest the mayor, arguing that if they did less police work, the city would be less safe. But the opposite turned out to be true. When the officers took a break from “broken windows policing”, meaning targeting low-level offenses, there was a drop in crime. Researchers posited that aggressive policing on the streets for petty matters can ultimately cause social disruption and lead to more crime. Policing that punishes poverty, such as hefty traffic tickets and debts, can also create conditions where crime is more likely. When New York ended “stop and frisk”, crime did not rise.

Trump is now speaking at the White House on “Combatting Violent Crime in American Cities”, as his administration weathers criticism for sending federal agents to crack down on protests against racism in Portland, Oregon.

“Today I’m announcing a surge of federal law enforcement into American communities plagued by violent crime,” Trump said. “We’ll work every single day to restore public safety.”

Trump then launched into a lengthy description of recent violence in Chicago, accusing the city’s Democratic leaders of failing the city.

“No mother should ever have to cradle her dead child in her arms simply because politicians refused to do what is necessary to secure their neighborhood and to secure their city,” Trump said.

The president then announced he would “immediately surge federal law enforcement to the city of Chicago”, vowing to send “hundreds” of federal agents to the city “to help drive down violent crime”.

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 so far:

• Daily coronavirus deaths in the US surpassed 1,000 yesterday for the first time since June 2. The grim development came one day after Trump acknowledged in a White House briefing that the country’s coronavirus crisis “will probably unfortunately get worse before it gets better.” The White House also announced the president would hold another coronavirus briefing today.
• Fifteen mayors sent a letter objecting to federal agents being sent to Portland, Oregon. The letter, which was addressed to attorney general William Barr and acting secretary of the department of homeland security Chad Wolf, described the deployment of federal agents to cities without the approval of local leaders as an “abuse of power.”
• Trump is reportedly expected to announce an expansion of “Operation Legend,” which is aimed at sending federal agents to cities to “combat the disturbing uptick in violence.”
  The president is now speaking about violence in cities at the White House. The event comes two days after the president defended the widely criticized actions of federal agents against peaceful protesters in Portland, Oregon, and vowed to send “more federal law enforcement” to other Democratic-controlled cities.
• The Ohio governor unveiled a statewide mask mandate, as his state grapples with a surge in new cases of coronavirus. Ohio joins 28 other states in requiring masks statewide.
• Florida Republican congressman Ted Yoho apologized for accosting congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on the Capitol steps earlier this week. But Yoho denied calling the progressive congresswoman “disgusting” and a “fucking bitch,” as the Hill reported. In response, Ocasio-Cortez accused Yoho of “refusing responsibility” for his actions. “This is not an apology,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

Republicans are reportedly considering extending coronavirus unemployment benefits at a lower level than the additional $600 per week currently provided.

CNBC reports:

Republicans are considering extending the enhanced unemployment insurance benefit at a reduced level of $400 per month through the rest of the year …

The GOP, which has not made a final decision on how it will craft unemployment insurance in a bill set to be released this week, previously discussed additional payments of about $200 per week. Democrats want to make the $600 per week sum available at least until next year.

The additional unemployment benefits are currently set to expire at the end of the month, and eviction protections will expire in two days.

Democratic lawmakers have warned there could be a wave of evictions across the country if the additional benefits and protections are not extended.

California reported a record-high number of new cases of coronavirus in a single day, with 12,807 cases confirmed yesterday.

That huge figure brings the state’s total number of coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic to 413,576.

California’s seven-day positivity rate currently stands at 7.6%, as Democratic governor Gavin Newsom noted during his briefing today.

Newsom strongly urged Californians to continue wearing face masks to limit the spread of the virus, and he pledged that the state would distribute more personal protective equipment to frontline workers to protect them as cases surge.

Newsom noted the state has already distrubuted 86.4 million N95 masks and 297 million surgical masks to frontline workers.

Ohio governor Mike DeWine’s statewide mask order comes as the state reports an alarming rise in new cases of coronavirus.

Ohio health officials reported 1,527 new cases from yesterday, marking the state’s second-highest daily case count. The figures bring the state’s total number of cases since the start of the pandemic to 78,742.

The number of coronavirus patients in Ohio’s hospitals has also been steadily rising in recent weeks, hitting 1,098 today.

Another 16 Ohioans died of the virus yesterday, bringing the state’s total coronavirus death toll to 3,235.

The Republican governor of Ohio, Mike DeWine, has issued a statewide mandate to wear masks while out in public.

DeWine said the order, which will take effect tomorrow evening, would exempt children under the age of 10 and those who have medical conditions. Ohioans are also not required to wear masks while actively exercising, eating or drinking.

Ohio joins 28 other US states in requiring masks statwide, and DeWine said the state government would start running two commercials to encourage mask usage.

“Wearing masks will make a difference,” DeWine said. “It will determine what our fall looks like. We want kids to go back to school, we want to see sports — to do that it’s very important that all Ohioans wear a mask.”

A new poll shows the president effectively tied with Joe Biden in Texas, a longtime Republican stronghold that Trump carried by 9 points in 2016.

According to a new Quinnipiac poll, Biden is attracting the support of 45% of Texas’ registered voters, compared to 44% who back Trump.

Despite Democrats’ longtime hopes of flipping the Lone Star State, Texas Republicans remain confident that Trump will win the state in November.

However, if the president is forced to campaign in Texas, it will stretch his resources in the final months leading up to the election, particularly because of the state’s expensive media markets.

And with its 38 electoral votes, Trump cannot afford to risk losing Texas, or his chances of reelection will be virtually nonexistent.