Trump says he would take call from Biden, ‘absolutely’
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said he would “absolutely” take a call from former Vice President Joe Biden after the Democratic candidate’s campaign said Wednesday that he would be willing to call the White House and offer the administration advice on the coronavirus response.
“Oh sure, absolutely. I’d love to speak with him,” Trump said at the White House coronavirus press briefing when asked if he would take the call. He added: “I always found him to be a nice guy.”
Kate Bedingfield, Biden’s deputy communications director, told USA Today: “Our teams will be in touch, and we will arrange a call.”
The offer from the Democratic front-runner came after Kellyanne Conway, a senior adviser to Trump, said of Biden’s criticism of the administration’s response to COVID-19: “I think it’s really disappointing to have President Obama’s No. 2, who apparently doesn’t talk much to him, out there, criticizing, instead of saying, ‘Hey, here is what we did that we thought was effective.’ ”
“Why doesn’t Vice President Biden call the White House today and offer some support?” Conway continued, dismissing Biden “in his bunker” in Wilmington, Delaware, ‘‘just lobbing criticism.”
Bedingfield responded to Conway’s remarks, saying, “Vice President Biden has been extending his advice for months, and he did so again on the air last night.”
“Donald Trump is not accountable for coronavirus itself — but he is accountable for the federal government’s slow and chaotic response to this outbreak,” Bedingfield said.
Emmy and Grammy-winning musician and songwriter Adam Schlesinger, known for his work with his band Fountains of Wayne and on the TV show “Crazy ExGirlfriend,” died Wednesday after contracting the coronavirus.
Mr. Schlesinger died at a hospital in upstate New York, his longtime lawyer Josh Grier told The Associated Press. It is not clear where or how Mr. Schlesinger, a 52-year-old father of two daughters, contracted the virus. He had been sedated and on a ventilator for several days.
Mr. Schlesinger was nominated for 10 Emmys for writing comical songs across several television shows, winning three.
He was also nominated for an Academy Award for writing the title song for the 1997 movie “That Thing You Do!,” written and directed by Tom Hanks. The snappy pop ditty was the fictional one hit for a Beatles-esque band called the One-ders, later changed to the Wonders, on a label called Playtone, a name Hanks adopted for his production company.
“There would be no Playtone without Adam Schlesinger, without his ‘That Thing You Do!’” Hanks, who is himself recovering from the coronavirus, said on Twitter. “He was a One-der. Lost him to Covid-19. Terribly sad today.”
Raised in New York and Montclair, New Jersey, Mr. Schlesinger formed Fountains of Wayne, named for a lawn ornament store in Wayne, New Jersey, in 1995 with his classmate from Williams College in Massachusetts, Chris Collingwood.
With Mr. Schlesinger playing bass and singing backup and Collingwood playing guitar and singing lead, and the two men cowriting songs, the band known for its sunny harmonies and synthesis of pop, rock punk and comedy would have hits in 1996 with “Radiation Vibe” and 2003 with “Stacy’s Mom.” The latter was nominated for a Grammy.
The band was more New Jersey than New York. While most rock bands live for the city, Fountains of Wayne and Mr. Schlesinger’s writing embraced the suburbs with finely etched tales of lives like a floor installer who’s convinced his crush will come back looking for him and a commuter who’s sure about his “Bright Future in Sales.”
“That’s a real Randy Newman thing,” Mr. Schlesinger told the AP in 2003. “That’s a trademark of his writing that I was always amazed by — the sort of unaware narrator, where you learn more about him than he does himself inside of a few verses.”
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said on Twitter that Mr. Schlesinger’s death is a “sad, sad loss for Jersey’s music scene.”
Stephen King, Fran Drescher and many others were also singing his praises on social media.
After Fountains of Wayne’s main run was done, Mr. Schlesinger would then drop behind the scenes and go on to be known for his writing.
He won the 2009 Grammy for best comedy album for co-writing the songs on “A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All!” a companion to a TV Christmas special with songs performed by Stephen Colbert and Elvis Costello.