In The Know About Joe

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• Former Vice President Joe Biden said on Friday that President Trump’s economic policies have deepened the economic crisis the U.S. faces due to the coronavirus because he “spent three years tilting the playing field” in favor of the wealthy instead of the middle class.

“It’s an economic disaster, worse than any we’ve seen in decades, and it’s all made worse because it didn’t have to be this way,” Biden said.

“Donald Trump utterly failed to prepare us for this pandemic and delayed in taking the necessary steps to safeguard our nation against the near worst-case economic scenario we are now living,” he added. “COVID-19 caused massive economic challenges, but this crisis hit harder and will last longer because Donald Trump spent the last three years undermining the core pillars of our economic strength.”

• California Gov. Gavin Newsom has formally endorsed Joe Biden for president, becoming the latest governor to throw their support behind the presumptive Democratic nominee.

• Tara Reade’s attorney is asking presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden to authorize a search of his Senate papers for a complaint she reportedly filed around 1993. Reade’s attorney, Douglas Wigdor, wrote to Biden on Monday requesting the candidate “immediately open up” his archives at the University of Delaware and authorize a search to determine whether they contain any records related to Reade.

• Joe Biden and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) raised more than $60 million in April, the former vice president announced in an email to supporters on Monday. 

The $60.5 million sum comes weeks after the Biden campaign and the DNC formed a joint fundraising committee. That arrangement allows the former vice president and the larger party committee to raise up to $360,000 from individual donors.

• Stacey Abrams, the former Democratic nominee for governor in Georgia, on Tuesday endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden’s White House bid.

• Former Vice President Joe Biden said there’s been “no evidence” that his presidential bid has been hurt by restrictions on physical campaigning put in place during the coronavirus pandemic.

During an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Biden pushed back against speculation that he is in “hiding” as he campaigns from his Delaware home, saying he’s only following social distancing recommendations from public health officials.

• Former Vice President Joe Biden urged governors on Tuesday to “listen to Dr. Fauci” as they reopen their states’ economies while the coronavirus continues to spread. 

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease specialist and a key member of President Donald Trump’s White House coronavirus task force, is expected to publicly warn states Tuesday that prematurely reopening their economies will cause “needless suffering and death.”

• Biden backs rent, mortgage forgiveness during coronavirus pandemic “There should be rent forgiveness and there should be mortgage forgiveness now in the middle of this crisis,” presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said. “Forgiveness. Not paid later, forgiveness. It’s critically important to people who are in the lower-income strata.”

• The campaigns of both presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and former primary rival Sen. Bernie Sanders are teaming up to form “unity” task forces to explore policy initiatives ahead of the Democratic National Convention.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, prominent supporter of Sanders and a leader of the progressive movement, will co-chair a panel on climate change with former Secretary of State John Kerry.

• Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), former national co-chair of Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) presidential campaign, said Thursday he supports Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) as the vice presidential candidate on the Democratic ticket. 

Khanna, co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, touted Warren as an effective leader within the party in a series of tweets.

• Sources:  ABC News, Axios, CBS News, CNN, Financial Times, Fox News,The Hill, NBC News, NPR, NY Times, Politico, Reuters, Salon, Vanity Fair, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post