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Week In The News: Primary Results, Puerto Rico Death Count, John McCain, Don McGahn

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Andrew Gillum with his wife, R. Jai Gillum at his side addresses his supporters after winning the Democrat primary for governor on Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2018, in Tallahassee, Fla. (Steve Cannon/AP)
Andrew Gillum with his wife, R. Jai Gillum at his side addresses his supporters after winning the Democrat primary for governor on Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2018, in Tallahassee, Fla. (Steve Cannon/AP)

With David Folkenflik

Folkenflik Friday returns with our weekly news roundup — hotly contested primaries, the death count revised in Puerto Rico and more.

Guests

Kimberly Atkins, chief Washington reporter and columnist for the Boston Herald. (@KimberlyEAtkins)

Nancy Ancrum, editorial page editor of the Miami Herald. (@NancyAncrum)

Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst. (@JackBeattyNPR)

From The Reading List

Boston Herald: "Analysis: White House counsel given notice via tweet" — "Don McGahn’s 20-month tenure as White House counsel has been long by Trump administration standards, and crucial in terms of his role in transforming the federal judiciary. But it could not withstand Trump’s fury over Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

"Days after reports about McGahn’s extensive cooperation with Mueller’s investigation, which included 30 hours of interviews with investigators, the impending end of McGahn’s job came with a tweet.

"'White House Counsel Don McGahn will be leaving his position in the fall, shortly after the confirmation (hopefully) of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court,' President Trump tweeted yesterday, without consulting McGahn beforehand."

Miami Herald: "By going for Gillum instead of Graham, Florida voters fooled the pollsters once again" — "They are from different worlds, different parties, different everything, but Florida’s Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum and President Trump have at least one thing in common: Pollster after pollster failed to see their surprising victories in the days before Election Day or gauge the anti-establishment nerve both men struck with voters.

"Gillum, the African-American mayor of Tallahassee, made history when he came from behind on Tuesday to beat all of the Democrats considered the front-runners in the gubernatorial primary. He defeated Gwen Graham, the expected winner. The thinking went that former Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine would come in second, with Gillum behind them in third place, possibly fourth. That’s what pollsters predicted, and that’s what the media relayed to readers.

"But there was a critical disconnect."

The Atlantic: "A Year After Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico Finally Knows How Many People Died" — "The grisly business of counting the dead after a natural disaster would seem to be a straightforward one. There is a certain number of people alive before the event, and there is a certain number after. Subtraction should yield a figure similar to the number of death certificates issued, and the number of loved ones families claim have been lost. That total, a composite of incalculable amounts of personal and familial grief, is how people make rough estimates of a disaster’s magnitude and scope.

"As the past year of pain and uncertainty in Puerto Rico can attest, in reality, this accounting isn’t so easy. Two major studies of mortality—and several additional estimates—have contained wildly different numbers, and their differences have only inflamed a debate over accountability and lapses in communication. They’ve also underscored the collapse of official systems and the disastrous response by multiple levels of government. The very act of counting the dead has transformed from a tragic, but standard, task of government to a months-long bureaucratic nightmare that has indicted deficiencies in both Puerto Rico and Washington.

"Now the definitive estimate that researchers, policy makers, and aggrieved loved ones have been waiting for has finally arrived. On Tuesday, researchers from the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health released a series of studies on Hurricane Maria’s impact in Puerto Rico. The mortality study, completed at the official request of Puerto Rican Governor Ricardo Rosselló and administered in conjunction with the University of Puerto Rico, analyzed official Puerto Rican vital statistics to find that the hurricane resulted in 2,975 excess deaths from its landfall in September 2017 to February 2018. Two complementary studies in the same report illustrate major deficiencies in the island’s disaster communications, as well as a mass confusion among health professionals over how to complete death certificates after the storm."

Coming up on this Folkenflik Friday, a week of contrasts. A week of conflicts. We’ll break down key primaries in Arizona and Florid, reflect a bit on the deaths of John McCain and a giant of the world of comedy, explore trade tensions and talks, talk about the shocking rise in the official death count in Puerto Rico, and the departure of the top White House lawyer — announced how else? By presidential Twitter.

This hour, On Point: our weekly news roundup.

— David Folkenflik

This program aired on August 31, 2018.

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