| President Trump on Sunday used a town hall moderated by Fox News and staged at the Lincoln Memorial to tout his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and to make broad predictions for relief and recovery within months — including a vaccine by the end of the year, new jobs to rescue tens of millions of Americans now unemployed and even school reopenings this fall. Trump, who faces voters in six months, used the unusual interview setting in the iconic shadow of the 16th president to defend his administration’s command of economic and public health crises and to repeat his grievances that China, the news media and Democrats all shoulder different forms of blame. His campaign released a new television ad on Sunday using those themes. The president also threw down a new marker in negotiations toward a much-talked-about legislative vehicle later this spring, telling the Fox hosts that he will not support another round of COVID-19 stimulus funding without a payroll tax cut included. Trump made the remark while discussing his support for federal investments in infrastructure projects as a job-creating ingredient in future legislation (The Hill). “I want to see a payroll tax cut on both sides, a very strong one, because that’s going to really put people to work. But infrastructure is so important,” Trump said while seated next to Vice President Pence and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. “We will be doing infrastructure. And I told Steve just today, we’re not doing anything unless we get a payroll tax cut. That is so important to the success of our country.” Trump did not wear a mask, nor did journalists Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, who told the audience they each tested negative for COVID-19 on Sunday after the White House administered rapid tests before setting up at the memorial. “I should have worn a mask at the Mayo Clinic,” Pence added on Sunday, referring to his trip to Minnesota last week, during which he met with doctors and patients without any face covering (The Hill). Repeating his condemnations of China, Trump told the audience that he believes a “mistake” in Wuhan led to the coronavirus pandemic, though he did not present any evidence, and he repeated his belief that Beijing worked to keep the world from knowing in January how contagious and lethal COVID-19 really was. “My opinion is they made a mistake. They tried to cover it. They tried to put it out. It’s like a fire,” Trump said. “You know, it’s really like trying to put out a fire. They couldn’t put out the fire” (CNBC). The Associated Press: The Department of Homeland Security produced a four-page intelligence report on May 1 saying that Chinese leaders “intentionally concealed the severity” of the pandemic from the world in early January. The Chinese government is responding aggressively to the global backlash it’s experiencing tied to the spread of the novel coronavirus (The New York Times). The Hill: Trump predicted the United States will have a coronavirus vaccine in 2020: "We are very confident that we're going to have a vaccine by the end of the year," he said. NBC News: Oxford University researcher Sir John Bell said on Sunday that his team hopes to get a “signal” by June about the potential effectiveness of a COVID-19 vaccine candidate as the global race for a cure continues. "I think we've got reason to believe that the efficacy, the efficacy of the vaccine in terms of generating strong antibody responses, is probably going to be OK. The real question is whether the safety profile's going to be fine. So that's actually the main focus of the clinical studies," he said. The Associated Press: COVID-19 vaccine hunt heats up but no guarantee. The Washington Post: Inside the extraordinary race to invent an effective vaccine. Trump’s commentary on Sunday touched on his reelection bid, including his message to voters that Democratic candidates should be defeated in November. “The Democrats, the radical left, would rather see people — I'm gonna be very nice. I'm not gonna say 'die.' I'm gonna say would rather see people not get well because they think I'm going to get credit if hydroxychloroquine works,” Trump said. The president complained to Fox about news coverage he receives, asserting that he is uniquely victimized in U.S. history. "I am greeted with a hostile press, the likes of which no president has ever seen," Trump said. "The closest would be that gentleman right up there. They always said Lincoln, nobody got treated worse than Lincoln. I believe I am treated worse” (The Hill). The president also mentioned he does not expect to hold any of his trademark campaign rallies until the final months before Election Day. He hasn’t held a campaign rally since March 2 in North Carolina. “Everyone wants the rallies. … I don’t think we can have a rally with an empty stadium,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll be able to do the rallies in the last couple months.” The president’s previous Fox News town hall on March 6 in Scranton, Pa., was a ratings winner, attracting 4.2 million viewers, which made the program the most-watched town hall show in cable TV history (Mediaite). Trump is about to resume travel on Tuesday, leaving the White House for the first time in weeks to visit Phoenix and a Honeywell plant (ABC News). The Hill: Sunday talk shows: Frustration mounts as protests hit state capitols. More in Congress: The Senate will make its spring return to Capitol Hill today as lawmakers start work on the CARES 2 package to deal with more fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. As the outbreak continues, Republican lawmakers are on defense because of growing public anger over the divergent fates of winners and losers, leaving millions of Americans unemployed while the nation’s elites have emerged mostly unscathed. As Alexander Bolton writes, the Senate GOP took the lead in drafting the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, which included $349 billion in funding for a small-business loan program — increased to $669 billion in the interim $484 billion bill. However, the Paycheck Protection Program has been a target for criticism for delivering loans to well-off companies and organizations, including the Los Angeles Lakers, while shutting out Main Street businesses. Not helping the GOP, Boeing and tech giants received major boosts in the CARES Act, while two Republican senators have been accused of avoiding losses in the hundreds of thousands by dumping stocks and buying companies well suited to succeed during the pandemic after receiving a closed-door coronavirus briefing before many Americans were made aware of the looming threat. As for life in the Capitol itself, it will be a whole new world for lawmakers as they return. As Scott Wong and Mike Lillis report, Brian Monahan, the Capitol physician, gave lawmakers a rundown of how life will change on Capitol Hill amid the pandemic, which he called the “new normal.” Headlining the changes will be teleworking staffers and desks spaced further apart in congressional offices, meetings with constituents and lobbyists over video conferencing, and food workers manning the usual communal salad bars and coffee machines in cafeterias. While the House remains out of session, some committees are planning to reconvene for virtual hearings so they are able to finally do panel-level work. The House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the Department of Health and Human Services and Labor Department plans to hold a hearing on Wednesday, while House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.), the chairman of the new select committee on the federal coronavirus response, told reporters that he hopes for the new panel to meet in Washington in the coming days. The Hill’s Cristina Marcos notes that no official work has been held virtually, though some committees have held forums and other events, which have served as a test run of sorts. The Washington Post: White House blocks National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci from testifying before a House panel on Wednesday, but he is expected to appear before a Senate panel on May 12. The Associated Press: Senate set to re-open as virus risk divides Congress. The Washington Post: Senate to return to Washington as Congress struggles to reconcile constitutional duties with risk of pandemic. 
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