Summary
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that states will face serious delays in receiving doses of Covid-19 vaccines due to the winter storm that has caused dangerous road conditions and power outages. “Due to the severe winter weather currently impacting a large swath of the country, the US government is projecting widespread delays in Covid-19 vaccine shipments and deliveries over the next few days,” the CDC said in a statement.
- The controversial conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh died at 70. Limbaugh’s wife, Kathryn, announced on his radio show that he died this morning from complications of lung cancer. Limbaugh announced last year that he had been diagnosed with stage four lung cancer.
- Joe Biden and Kamala Harris endorsed prioritizing teachers in vaccine distribution, as many American parents call for reopening schools. White House officials added that the president and the vice-president agree with guidance from the CDC that vaccinating all teachers is not a requirement to reopen schools.
- The White House declined to offer a timeline for when the country may return to normal. Press secretary Jen Psaki said today, “We are not in a place where we can predict exactly when everyone will feel normal again.” During his CNN town hall yesterday, Biden said he thought the country might be somewhat back to normal by Christmas.
- Joe Biden spoke with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu today. The hour-long call was the first conversation between the two leaders since Biden took office.
- Donald Trump broke his media silence. For the first time since leaving the White House last month, Trump participated in a television interview. The former president spoke to Fox News about the death of Limbaugh, and he’s expected to do two more interviews tonight.
– Maanvi Singh and Joan E Greve
Updated
The winter storm has affected hospitals and medical centers across Texas.
Power and water outages have hit hospitals at the heels of a winter coronavirus surge. With roads shut due to the weather, some nurses in Austin told local media that they would trek to work on foot.
“I bundled up and I put on my boots and I changed my shoes and I already packed a bag thinking I was going to be staying here for a while. So, I packed a bag and I headed out and I started walking,” Brooke Wilson, a labor and delivery nurse with St. David’s Women’s Center of Texas, told KHOU 11.
BREAKING: St. David's South Austin Medical Center, with 300 patients, is suffering a loss of water pressure and heat, officials say, "along with a number of other hospitals in the Austin area." Officials working to get water trucks there, among other solutions.
— Tony Plohetski (@tplohetski) February 18, 2021
GameStop: US lawmakers to quiz key players from Robinhood, Reddit and finance
Frenzied trading in the shares of GameStop and other companies will be the subject of what is expected to be a fiery hearing in Congress on Thursday, when US politicians get their first chance to quiz executives from the trading app Robinhood, Reddit and other players in the saga.
The House financial services committee will hold a hearing at noon in a first step to untangling the furore surrounding trading in GameStop, AMC cinemas and other companies whose share values soared to astronomical levels as small investors piled into the stocks.
The hearing, titled Game Stopped? Who Wins and Loses When Short Sellers, Social Media, and Retail Investors Collide, is expected to be fractious.
Read more:
Winter storm warnings and cold weather advisories are still in effect in Texas, with warmer weather expected to come in on Saturday.
More than 2.4 million remain without power in Texas, and Louisiana, Kentucky and West Virginia are also experiencing major power outages as the winter storm rages on. The days of devastating power and water outages have come on the heels of Texas’ winter coronavirus surge. The state’s health department said that Covid-19 tracking data would remain artificially low this week because the weather has disrupted testing and tracing.
A Winter Storm Warning is in effect once again for a good portion of the area. Heavier snow will fall over the Southern Edwards Plateau and Rio Grande, where as much as 8" could accumulate by midday Thu. Elsewhere, a Winter Weather Advisory is in effect for less than 1". #txwx pic.twitter.com/Edd1TfpLXC
— NWS Austin/San Antonio (@NWSSanAntonio) February 17, 2021
Updated
Winter storm amplifies power grid inequalities for disadvantaged Texans
As a brutal winter storm pummeled much of Texas, Cecilia Corral scoured social media posts written by fellow Austinites. From single mothers and their newborns, others in her city were freezing without heat or desperately needed food.
“Yesterday, I lost count the number of times that I cried from what I was seeing,” said Corral, co-founder and vice-president of product at CareMessage, a nonprofit and patient engagement platform focused on medically underserved areas
Millions of Texans found themselves cold and in the dark on Tuesday, unleashing suffering and death in a state that produces the most electricity in the nation by far, yet somehow lost control of its own power grid amid a harsh winter. Amid the catastrophe, photos of illuminated city skylines circulated on social media, sparking outrage, and revealing how socioeconomically disadvantaged families and people of color shouldered an outsized burden from officials’ bungled management.
“It’s not just today. It’s not just this emergency. It’s every emergency,” said Natasha Harper-Madison, mayor pro-tem of Austin. “These are the kinds of disparities that we see on a normal basis all the time. They just happen to be amplified because of the emergency.”
As sub-freezing temperatures and inches of snow shocked Texans in recent days, cranked thermostats warred with tougher operating conditions at power plants. With skyrocketing demand for energy and dwindling supply, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the flow of electric power for most of the state, initiated outages to try to cope with roughly 34,000 megawatts of lost power.
But critical infrastructure was exempt from the long-term blackouts, benefitting residents in the denser, more affluent areas that usually house those services, and disadvantaging underprivileged communities forced into neighborhoods where those resources are scarce.
In Austin, the state capital, widespread blackouts have once again highlighted the city’s “racial and economic segregation”, Harper-Madison said.
Images showed Austin’s swanky downtown – kept online to support warming centers, a local hospital, government buildings, etc – juxtaposed with the blackouts around it. In Dallas, skyscrapers lit up in festive reds and hot pinks for Valentine’s Day this long weekend, frivolously exhausting the city’s power, and Houston’s office buildings likewise shone bright on Monday night while locals shivered in their homes.
Initially, rolling power outages were supposed to last a matter of minutes, but as the power grid foundered, they have extended long past those expectations, sometimes for days. “The current situation is not – absolutely not – tenable. There’s no excuse for this,” said Varun Rai, director of the University of Texas Energy Institute.
As houses and apartments turn bitterly cold, hundreds of Texans are using life-threatening methods such as grills, cars or generators for heat and are falling seriously ill from carbon monoxide poisoning, including a woman and girl who died in Houston.
Read more:
CDC warns of 'widespread delays' in Covid-19 vaccine deliveries due to winter storm
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that states will face serious delays in receiving doses of Covid-19 vaccines due to the winter storm that has caused dangerous road conditions and power outages.
“Due to the severe winter weather currently impacting a large swath of the country, the U.S. government is projecting widespread delays in COVID-19 vaccine shipments and deliveries over the next few days,” the CDC said in a statement.
“Shipping partners are working to deliver vaccine where possible, contingent on local conditions, but the adverse weather is expected to continue to impact shipments out of the FedEx facility in Memphis, Tenn., as well as the UPS facility in Louisville, Ken., which serve as vaccine shipping hubs for multiple states.”
In Texas, where many have been without power or water for days, the elderly and vulnerable residents scheduled to get vaccines this week are in limbo. Vaccinations in Alabama, Indiana, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Missouri and New Hampshire have been disrupted this week.
Updated
DHS seizes more than 11m counterfeit N95 masks
The Department of Homeland Security has seized more than 11m counterfeit masks, the agency’s secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said at a press conference.
The seizures were made over the last few weeks, and search warrants have been issued to conduct more raids, Mayorkas said.
“We are at a vulnerable time, of course, with the pandemic costing so many lives and causing so much harm,” he said. “And that individuals, criminals exploit our vulnerabilities for a quick buck is something that we will continue to aggressively pursue.”
The investigation was prompted after 3m, a company that manufactures N95s, reported suspected fakes. Hospitals and medical facilities in 12 states have been notified that they may have purchased counterfeits, per the DHS.
Latino and Black Americans see lowest Covid vaccination rates, new data shows
Latino and Black Americans are being vaccinated against Covid-19 at the lowest rates despite suffering disproportionately high levels of serious complications and deaths, new analysis reveals.
Only 3.5% of Latinos and 4.5% of Black Americans have so far received a vaccine shot compared with 9.1% of white Americans and 8.6% of Asian Americans, according to state figures analyzed by APM Research Lab.
Indigenous Americans have the highest inoculation rate so far, with 11.6% (one in nine) already having received at least one dose. News of the relatively fast vaccination rollout in Indian Country comes shortly after the Guardian revealed that Indigenous Americans are dying from Covid faster than any other community in the US.
Analysts warn that the available data is extremely patchy due to poor reporting by many state health departments, but that the trend strongly suggests that access to the Covid vaccines has so far been inequitable.
“Unfortunately, despite the fact that we know Covid-19 has had very disparate impacts, about half of all states currently fail to provide vaccination data by race and ethnicity,” said Craig Helmstetter, managing partner of APM Research. “In the states that are providing data, Black and Latino Americans are lagging far behind Asian, white and indigenous Americans.
It was several months into the pandemic that cities and states began releasing racial and ethnic breakdowns of Covid hospitalizations and deaths. A year on, almost half a million Americans have died, yet we still do not know the ethnic background of one in 10 people killed by the virus.
The vaccination rollout got off to a very slow start in the US, hampered by the Trump administration’s inadequate preparation and logistical support for states, as well as chronic underinvestment in public health capacity. The pace has picked up, with more than 1.6m doses now being administered every day, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
Joe Biden’s national Covid strategy promises to put equity at the heart of the vaccination programme, as his team strives to meet a campaign promise to get 100m doses into arms in his first 100 days in office.
As of 12 February, only 24 states and the District of Columbia had published comparable data about the number and share of their racial and ethnic communities who have received one or both Covid-19 vaccine doses. New York and Illinois, two of the six most populous states, are among those that had not released comparable ethnicity data, making it impossible to track whether promises to ensure equitable access are being kept.
Read more:
The White House has issued a readout of Joe Biden’s call with Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel.
“The President emphasized U.S. support for the recent normalization of relations between Israel and countries in the Arab and Muslim world,” the White House readout says. “He underscored the importance of working to advance peace throughout the region, including between Israelis and Palestinians.”
The Israeli readout did not mention Palestine.
Today so far
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:
- The controversial conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh died at 70. Limbaugh’s wife, Kathryn, announced on his radio show that he died this morning from complications of lung cancer. Limbaugh announced last year that he had been diagnosed with stage four lung cancer.
- Joe Biden and Kamala Harris endorsed prioritizing teachers in vaccine distribution, as many American parents call for reopening schools. White House officials added that the president and the vice-president agree with guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that vaccinating all teachers is not a requirement to reopen schools.
- The White House declined to offer a timeline for when the country may return to normal. Press secretary Jen Psaki said today, “We are not in a place where we can predict exactly when everyone will feel normal again.” During his CNN town hall yesterday, Biden said he thought the country might be somewhat back to normal by Christmas.
- Joe Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today. The hour-long call was the first conversation between the two leaders since Biden took office.
- Donald Trump broke his media silence. For the first time since leaving the White House last month, Trump participated in a television interview. The former president spoke to Fox News about the death of Limbaugh, and he’s expected to do two more interviews tonight.
Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
Updated
It appears that Donald Trump will continue his media tour tonight, after giving his first post-presidency television interview earlier today.
Newsmax has said the former president will participate in a 7pm ET interview to discuss the death of radio host Rush Limbaugh and other issues. Trump is also expected to appear on Fox News host Sean Hannity’s show tonight.
TONIGHT 🚨: 45th President of the United States Donald Trump joins Greg Kelly Reports to discuss the passing of Rush Limbaugh and beyond.
— Newsmax (@newsmax) February 17, 2021
7:00PM ET. WATCH LIVE on Newsmax TV: https://t.co/VlT7z8drtO pic.twitter.com/KdovZs9O48
Trump called in to Fox News this afternoon, shortly after Limbaugh’s wife announced that he had died of lung cancer this morning.
In the interview, the former president described Limbaugh, who was a loyal supporter of Trump, as a “fantastic man” and a “fantastic talent”.
Trump also took the opportunity to repeat his lies about widespread fraud in the presidential election, which resulted in the deadly insurrection at the Capitol last month.
Updated
Biden meets with labor leaders to discuss coronavirus relief
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are meeting with labor leaders in the Oval Office to discuss coronavirus relief.
“A lot of these folks have been my friends for a long, long, long time,” Biden said of the labor leaders. “As they say in parts of my state, these are the folks that brung me to the dance.”
The president also touted the positive polling about his $1.9tn coronavirus relief proposal, which is making its way through Congress.
“I asked a rhetorical question, those who opposed the plan: What don’t they like?” Biden said to reporters at the start of the meeting. “Don’t they want to help people with nutrition? Don’t they want to help people be able to pay their mortgages? Don’t they want to help people get their unemployment insurance?”
As the reporters were being shuffled out of the Oval Office, one journalist asked about Biden’s call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The president said they had a “good conversation”.
Updated
House speaker Nancy Pelosi has released a statement about the winter storm impacting Texas, which has caused widespread power outages.
“All Americans are watching the situation in Texas and throughout the heartlands with great sadness. We must come to the aid of those suffering without power and water, and we grieve with the families who have lost loved ones to this disaster,” the Democratic speaker said.
Pelosi applauded Joe Biden for declaring a state of emergency in Texas, adding that the president’s coronavirus relief proposal would secure $50bn the Fema disaster relief fund.
“Extreme weather poses risks to the grid that require smart and urgent investments to reduce blackouts and brownouts,” Pelosi said. “Together, we must build back better an electric grid that’s cheaper, cleaner and more reliable.”
Updated
Biden talks with Netanyahu for the first time as president
Joe Biden had an hour-long conversation with Benjamin Netanyahu today, the Israeli prime minister said.
In a tweet, Netanyahu’s office shared a photo of the prime minister on the phone with Biden. Netanyahu said the conversation was friendly, and the two leaders committed to strengthening the alliance between their nations.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke this evening with US President @JoeBiden. The conversation was very warm and friendly and continued for approximately one hour. pic.twitter.com/AF3x6aTM36
— PM of Israel (@IsraeliPM) February 17, 2021
It took Biden four weeks after his inauguration to speak to Netanyahu, which had raised questions in Israel about the relationship that the two leaders would have, especially considering the close ties between Netanyahu and Donald Trump.
Yesterday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden would “soon” speak to Netanyahu, but she did not specify when.
Updated
Jill Biden will soon sit down with Kelly Clarkson for her first solo television interview since Joe Biden was sworn in, the first lady’s office announced today.
A spokesperson for Jill Biden said the interview will be aired next Thursday, on “The Kelly Clarkson Show: White House Edition with the First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden”.
NEW! @FLOTUS will sit down with @KellyClarkson for her FIRST solo TV interview, when @KellyClarksonTV comes to the White House! “The Kelly Clarkson Show: White House Edition with the First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden” will air Thursday, Feb. 25 #kellyoke
— Michael LaRosa (@MichaelLaRosa46) February 17, 2021
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo reportedly threatened a Democratic legislator with political retribution as his administration faces criticism for concealing the extent of coronavirus deaths in long-term care facilities.
CNN reports:
Describing an alleged exchange with the governor that has not been previously reported, Democratic Assemblyman Ron Kim told CNN that he received a call on his cell phone from the governor last week as he was bathing his children at home.
‘Gov. Cuomo called me directly on Thursday to threaten my career if I did not cover up for Melissa [DeRosa] and what she said. He tried to pressure me to issue a statement, and it was a very traumatizing experience,’ Kim said. Cuomo proceeded to tell the assemblyman that ‘we’re in this business together and we don’t cross certain lines and he said I hadn’t seen his wrath and that he can destroy me,’ according to Kim. ...
When CNN first reached out to Cuomo’s office for comment for this story on Tuesday, communications director Peter Ajemian did not directly respond to or deny Kim’s allegation of threats from the governor in a written statement. Late Tuesday, Ajemian said the office would send a clarifying statement. Ultimately, the office sent a statement from senior adviser Rich Azzopardi late Wednesday morning that said: ‘Kim’s assertion that the governor said he would ‘destroy him’ is false.’
DeRosa, a top aide to the governor, privately admitted to state lawmakers last week that the Cuomo administration concealed the extent of nursing-home coronavirus deaths because officials feared the justice department would launch an investigation into the matter.
George W Bush sends condolences on death of Limbaugh
Former Republican president George W. Bush released a statement earlier today with his and his wife, Laura’s, condolences on the death of conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh.
“Laura and I are sorry to learn that Rush Limbaugh has passed away,” the statement read. “Rush Limbaugh was an indomitable spirit with a big heart, and he will be missed.”
Former President George W Bush on Limbaugh death: pic.twitter.com/xRPQXJEXOw
— Meridith McGraw (@meridithmcgraw) February 17, 2021
“As he battled hearing loss and cancer late in life, he was sustained by the support of friends and family, his love of sports and rock and roll, and his belief in God and country,” Bush said.
The South Carolina House has passed a bill banning nearly all abortions in the state, following the lead of other states with similar measures that would go into effect if the US Supreme Court were to overturn Roe v. Wade.
The Associated Press writes:
The proposal passed the state senate on Jan. 28. It faces a final procedural vote in the House on Thursday that likely won’t change the outcome and will then be sent to the governor for his signature. Republican governor Henry McMaster has promised to sign the measure as soon as possible.
The House voted 79-35 in favor of the bill after nearly all members of the Democratic caucus walked out in protest at one point.
A few Democrats stayed behind as Republicans wiped out more than 100 proposed amendments.
After holding a news conference to speak against the bill, several other Democrats returned to express their opposition to the measure, which has come up for debate in the legislature numerous times over the past decade.
Nearly all House members were later present for the vote.
“You love the fetus in the womb. But when it is born, it’s a different reaction,” said Representative Gilda Cobb-Hunter of Orangeburg, the House’s longest serving member at 29 years.Numerous Republican lawmakers spoke in favor of the bill.
Rep. Melissa Lackey Oremus said plenty of women have mixed feelings when they get pregnant, especially when they aren’t where they want to be in their life.“They don’t deserve to die just because their mother made a bad choice one night,” Oremus said.
The bill requires doctors to perform ultrasounds to check for [preliminary signs of] a heartbeat in the fetus. If such a pulse is detected, the abortion can only be performed if the pregnancy was caused by rape or incest or the mother’s life is in danger.
About a dozen other states have passed similar or more restrictive abortion bans, which could take effect if the supreme court with three justices appointed by Republican former president Donald Trump were to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 court decision supporting abortion rights.
Lawsuits will follow if the bill becomes law.
Afternoon summary
The White House press briefing has wrapped up but there’ll be plenty more US political news in the offing this afternoon, so do stay tuned.
Here’s where things stand so far today:
- ‘We are not in a place where we can predict’ when normal life will return to US life, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. Joe Biden said last night that he hoped America would be “in a very different circumstance” with the coronavirus pandemic by Christmas, after being asked about normality at a town hall in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
- Donald Trump called in for a Fox News interview to discuss the death of radio host Rush Limbaugh. The former president described Limbaugh, who was a loyal supporter of Trump, as a “fantastic man” and a “fantastic talent”. He said they both believed Trump won last November’s election not Joe Biden who was, in fact, the clear winner.
- The White House announced that the Biden-Harris administration is investing $1.6 billion to expand coronavirus testing in the US. The government is focusing on support for testing in schools and to expand testing facilities to underserved populations, among other measures.
- Dr Anthony Fauci said this morning that he did not believe vaccinating all teachers should be a requirement before schools reopen.The infectious disease expert appeared on CBS’ “This Morning” show, where he said he believed requiring all teachers to be vaccinated before reopening was a “non-workable situation”.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said she did not know whether Joe Biden would release a statement about the death of Rush Limbaugh.
The controversial conservative radio host died this morning, after being diagnosed with stage four lung cancer last year.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Joe Biden will ask the department of justice to conduct a review of his legal ability to cancel student debt once his team is in place there.
Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Elizabeth Warren have proposed calling for canceling $50,000 in student debt, but Biden reiterated yesterday that he supports canceling $10,000 in student debt.
Schumer and Warren released a statement today saying, “Cancelling $50,000 in federal student loan debt will help close the racial wealth gap, benefit the 40% of borrowers who do not have a college degree, and help stimulate the economy. It’s time to act. We will keep fighting.”
Updated
White House press secretary Jen Psaki would not say whether she is optimistic that the final coronavirus relief package will include the proposal to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
“We’ll see,” Psaki said. “It may not look the same way when it comes out of the sausage-making machine.”
Progressives in Congress have demanded that the $15 minimum wage hike be included in the relief package, but Joe Biden has previously expressed skepticism that the proposal will be allowed to stay in the legislation, due to reconciliation limitations.
Jen Psaki was asked whether the White House can mandate that states prioritize teachers in their vaccine distribution strategies.
“That’s not how the processes work,” the White House press secretary said.
Psaki said the White House is offering guidance to states on how to distribute their vaccine doses, but the federal government cannot mandate that teachers be vaccinated sooner.
Joe Biden said last night that he believed teachers should be prioritized to get the vaccine to help schools safely reopen.
'We are not in a place where we can predict' when normalcy will return, White House says
White House press secretary Jen Psaki would not provide a direct answer when asked when the country may return to normal.
“We are not in a place where we can predict exactly when everyone will feel normal again,” Psaki told reporters.
During his CNN town hall yesterday, Joe Biden said that he thought the country may be somewhat back to normal by Christmas.
Updated
Jen Psaki said that the vaccination of teachers was one of a number of measures that schools can take to safely reopen.
But the White House press secretary echoed guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that vaccinating all teachers is not strictly necessary to reopen.
Psaki then emphasized that Congress needs to pass Joe Biden’s coronavirus relief package to get schools the funds necessary to safely reopen.
“We need money. These school districts need money,” Psaki said.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki has now taken over at the briefing room podium, and she was asked about the reopening of US schools.
Psaki was asked whether schools can return to in-person instruction for five days a week without vaccinating all teachers.
“Neither the president nor the vice president believe it is a requirement,” Psaki said. “It’s not a requirement to reopen schools, but we believe that teachers should be prioritized.”
That statement echoed comments made by Joe Biden during the CNN town hall in Wisconsin last night.
Deputy national security adviser Anne Neuberger noted that the SolarWinds hack “isn’t the only case of malicious cyber-activity of likely Russian origin”.
Neuberger said that an attack of this scale is “more than a case of espionage” because it posed a fundamental threat to the US government.
The senior official added that it was possible the federal government’s investigation would “find additional compromises” stemming from the hack.
A reporter asked Anne Neuberger, the deputy national security advisor for cyber and emerging technology, how long it would take to complete the investigation of the SolarWinds hack.
Neuberger would not offer an exact timeline because the investigation is ongoing, but she said it would likely take “several months”.
“Day by day, hour by hour, we’re making progress,” Neuberger said.
White House says SolarWinds hack was 'likely of Russian origin'
Joe Biden’s press secretary, Jen Psaki, is now holding her daily briefing at the White House.
Psaki was joined in the briefing room by Anne Neuberger, the deputy national security advisor for cyber and emerging technology, who offered an update on the SolarWinds hack.
Neuberger said the administration is continuing its work to understand how the attack happened, noting that the exact culprit has not yet been determined.
But Neuberger said the hack was done by an actor “likely of Russian origin”.
The Fox News anchors offered no pushback or follow-up questions when Donald Trump falsely claimed that he had won the 2020 presidential election.
The anchors also repeatedly referred to Trump as “president number 45,” rather than as the former president.
Trump’s allies have avoided acknowledging that Joe Biden fairly won the presidential election and is now the commander-in-chief.
Donald Trump was asked about the origins of his friendship with conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, who died this morning. Trump said a friend told him during his first presidential campaign that Limbaugh liked his politics.
“I have a very beautiful weakness,” the former president told Fox News. “I tend to like people who like me.”
Trump described Limbaugh as a “legend” who was beloved by his fans. “There aren’t too many legends around, but he is a legend,” Trump said.
When asked about what he and Limbaugh had spoken about in recent weeks, the president said they discussed the presidential election results.
“Rush thought we won, and so do I, by the way,” Trump said. “I think we won substantially.”
That is, of course, entirely false. Joe Biden fairly won the presidential race, and there has been no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the election.
Updated
Donald Trump told Fox News that he spoke to Rush Limbaugh about three or four days before the radio host’s death this morning.
The former president described Limbaugh, who died of lung cancer, as a “fighter”. “He was very brave,” Trump said.
Limbaugh announced early last year that he had been diagnosed with stage four lung cancer.
Updated
Trump calls Fox News to praise 'fantastic' Limbaugh
Donald Trump called in for a Fox News interview to discuss the death of radio host Rush Limbaugh.
The conversation marked Trump’s first interview since he left the White House last month.
Trump calls into Fox News to eulogize Rush Limbaugh: "People whether they loved him or not, they respected him." pic.twitter.com/n6KLYwGB1r
— The Recount (@therecount) February 17, 2021
The former president described Limbaugh, who was a loyal supporter of Trump, as a “fantastic man” and a “fantastic talent”.
“Whether [people] loved him or not, they respected him,” Trump said.
The network then showed Trump awarding Limbaugh the Presidential Medal of Freedom during the State of the Union last year.
Updated
A historian who wrote a book about the rise of conservative talk radio shows said that Rush Limbaugh “just might be the most important figure in late 20th and early 21st century politics,” because of how the radio host reshaped the media landscape and the Republican party.
Obviously I will have much more to say as the day and week moves on, but Rush Limbaugh just might be the most important figure in late 20th and early 21st century politics. He reshaped the media and the Republican Party.
— Brian Rosenwald (@brianros1) February 17, 2021
Rush Limbaugh’s wife, Kathryn, announced his death from lung cancer on his radio show today.
“It is with profound sadness I must share with you directly that our beloved Rush, my wonderful husband, passed away this morning due to complications from lung cancer,” Limbaugh said.
BREAKING: Rush Limbaugh's wife Kathryn announces on his radio show that he passed away this morning due to complications from lung cancer
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) February 17, 2021
"Rush will forever be the greatest of all time." pic.twitter.com/FSJTfmX8ZO
Rush Limbaugh dies at 70
Controversial conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh has died at 70, his wife Kathryn announced on his program today.
Limbaugh had been suffering from stage four lung cancer.
The longtime radio personality was the source of numerous controversies over his comments on abortion, feminism and race, among other issues.
Donald Trump gave Limbaugh the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor a president can bestow, last year.
Dr Anthony Fauci reiterated that he did not think it should be a requirement to have all teachers vaccinated before a school can reopen.
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have both said that they believe teachers should be prioritized in vaccine distribution, a sentiment that Fauci echoed.
Jeff Zients, the coordinator of the White House coronavirus response team, said Biden and Harris support the guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on reopening schools.
On the question of whether all teachers need to be vaccinated before a school can reopen, Zients said, “The president and the vice-president agree with the CDC guidelines that it’s not a requirement to reopen.”
The White House coronavirus response team’s briefing has now concluded.
Dr Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was asked about when US high schools may be able to safely reopen.
Walensky said that much of the focus so far has been on elementary schools because high school students are more likely to develop symptoms when they contract coronavirus.
But the CDC director said there are opportunities for in-person learning for middle school and high school students.
Walensky also noted that the number of US schools in the “red zone” for community spread has dropped from 89% last week to 75% now.
Jeff Zients, the coordinator of the White House coronavirus response team, acknowledged that the winter storm hitting the Central US is impacting vaccine delivery in some regions.
Zients encouraged states to expand hours at vaccine distribution sites once the weather improves, in order to make up for “lost ground” due to the storm.
Jeff Zients, the coordinator of the White House coronavirus response team, was asked about the Food and Drug Administration’s review of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
Zients said the FDA would be considering the Johnson & Johnson vaccine for emergency use authorization “across the next couple of weeks”.
The senior official said the Biden administration is focused on fairly and efficiently distributing the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, as the FDA considers whether to authorize a third vaccine for emergency use.
Biden administration to invest $1.6 billion to expand coronavirus testing
The White House has announced that it is investing $1.6 billion to expand coronavirus testing in the US.
The Biden administration plans to spend $650 million to support testing in schools and expand testing to underserved populations, such as those living in homeless shelters.
Another $815 million will be spent to increase the domestic manufacturing of testing supplies, addressing shortages in certain products needed to mass-produce tests.
And $200 million will be invested in expanding virus genome sequencing, allowing health officials to better track coronavirus variants as they emerge.
Updated
Dr Anthony Fauci addressed questions over whether those who have been vaccinated can still transmit coronavirus to others.
The infectious disease expert said that question is still being studied, but he said initial research has shown promising evidence that transmission is much less likely once someone has been vaccinated.
Fauci said the research emphasized the need for all Americans to get vaccinated once they are able to.
Dr Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said coronavirus cases in the US have been declining for five weeks.
While Walensky expressed optimism about the trend in case numbers, she warned that the coronavirus variants could throw the country off course. According to Walensky, 1,277 cases of the UK variant have now been confirmed in the US.
The CDC director again urged all Americans to wear masks, socially distance and avoid traveling to mitigate the spread of the virus.
US is distributing 1.7 million vaccine doses a day, Zients says
The White House coronavirus response team is now delivering an update on the vaccine distribution process.
Jeff Zients, the coordinator of the response team, announced that the US is now distributing an average of 1.7 million vaccine doses a day.
That’s up from around 900,000 doses a day when Joe Biden took office last month.
“Let me be clear: we have much more work to do on all fronts,” Zients said. But he said he is optimistic about the country’s recent progress to get the virus under control, telling reporters, “There is a path out of this pandemic.”
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Joe Biden traveled to Georgetown University in Washington this morning, to receive ashes for Ash Wednesday.
President Biden receiving ashes for Ash Wednesday from Rev. Brian McDermott at @Georgetown -- via TV pooler @sarahkolinovsky pic.twitter.com/YAftPOwjjU
— Howard Mortman (@HowardMortman) February 17, 2021
The White House said that the president received his ashes from Rev. Brian O. McDermott at Georgetown’s Wolfington Hall.
Biden is a practicing Catholic, and he is only the second Catholic to ever be elected president of the United States, after John F Kennedy.
Kamala Harris has sent a message to residents of Texas and other states hit by power outages and prolonged winter conditions that help is on the way.
“I just want to mention all of those folks in Texas and the mid-Atlantic,” the vice-president said in a live interview Wednesday morning on NBC’s Today show, her first national network interview since taking office.
“I know they can’t see us right now, because they’re without electricity, but the president and I are thinking of them, and really hope we can do everything that is possible through the signing of the emergency orders to get federal relief to support them.”
Joe Biden signed a declaration of emergency for Texas on Sunday, opening the way for state officials to move more quickly to tap a larger share of federal aid.
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Fauci says schools can safely reopen without vaccinating all teachers
Dr Anthony Fauci said this morning that he did not believe vaccinating all teachers should be a requirement before schools reopen.
The infectious disease expert appeared on CBS’ “This Morning” show, and he told anchor Tony Dokoupil that he believed requiring all teachers to be vaccinated before reopening was a “non-workable situation”.
"If you are going to say that every single teacher needs to be vaccinated before you get back to school, I believe quite frankly, Tony, that's a non-workable situation. I think teachers should absolutely be priority among those who who we consider essential personnel" — Dr. Fauci pic.twitter.com/mINZdyeLqF
— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) February 17, 2021
“I think if you are going to say that every single teacher needs to be vaccinated before you get back to school, I believe quite frankly, Tony, that that’s a non-workable situation,” Fauci said.
“I think that teachers should absolutely be priority among those who who we consider essential personnel. And you should try and get as many teachers as you possibly can vaccinated as quickly as you possibly can. But to make it a sine qua non that you don’t open a school until every teacher is vaccinated, I think, is not workable, and probably most of the teachers would agree with that.”
Fauci’s comments come on the heels of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris saying that teachers should be prioritized in the vaccinate distribution process. But Biden also said yesterday that he wants most elementary schools open by the end of April.
“You want to put a good effort to get as many as you can as quickly as you can, but you don’t want to essentially have nobody in school until all the teachers get vaccinated,” Fauci said.
Former Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke criticized the Republican governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, for falsely blaming renewable energy for the power outages in their state.
The unusual winter storm impacting the central US has caused widespread power outages in Texas, which conservatives have attempted to blamed on renewable energy sources.
Abbott, a Republican, went on Fox News last night and told host Sean Hannity, “This shows how the Green New Deal would be a deadly deal for the United States of America.”
Abbott added, “Our wind and our solar got shut down, and they were collectively more than 10 percent of our power grid, and that thrust Texas into a situation where it was lacking power on a statewide basis. ... It just shows that fossil fuel is necessary.”
Texas Gov. Abbott blames solar and wind for the blackouts in his state and says "this shows how the Green New Deal would be a deadly deal for the United States of America" pic.twitter.com/YfVwa3YRZQ
— Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) February 17, 2021
In reality, most of the power outages have been caused by failures at natural gas and coal-powered plants due to the subfreezing temperatures.
O’Rourke, who has said he is considering a gubernatorial bid in Texas, criticized Abbott for trying to avoid responsibility for the outages by raising doubts about renewable energy.
The former congressman wrote on Twitter, “You’re the governor of a state where millions don’t have power, where people are literally dying of exposure, and you go on Fox news to talk about... the Green New Deal? You are the governor. Your party has run Texas for 20 years. Accept responsibility & help us get out of this.”
You’re the governor of a state where millions don’t have power, where people are literally dying of exposure, and you go on Fox news to talk about... the Green New Deal? You are the governor. Your party has run Texas for 20 years. Accept responsibility & help us get out of this. https://t.co/G1Bai59nKc
— Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) February 17, 2021
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Alexandra Villarreal reports for the Guardian:
As a brutal winter storm pummeled much of Texas, Cecilia Corral scoured social media posts written by fellow Austinites. From single mothers and their newborns, others in her city were freezing without heat or desperately needed food.
“Yesterday, I lost count the number of times that I cried from what I was seeing,” said Corral, co-founder and vice president of product at CareMessage, a nonprofit and patient engagement platform focused on medically underserved areas.
Millions of Texans found themselves cold and in the dark on Tuesday, unleashing suffering and death in a state that produces the most electricity in the nation by far, yet somehow lost control of its own power grid amid a harsh winter. Amid the catastrophe, photos of illuminated city skylines circulated on social media, sparking outrage, and revealing how socioeconomically disadvantaged families and people of color shouldered an outsized burden from officials’ bungled management.
“It’s not just today. It’s not just this emergency. It’s every emergency,” said Natasha Harper-Madison, the mayor pro-tem of Austin. “These are the kinds of disparities that we see on a normal basis all the time. They just happen to be amplified because of the emergency.”
Donald Trump’s name is no longer part of the skyline in Atlantic City, after the implosion of Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino this morning.
The former president has not owned the casino since 2009, when he relinquished it amid a series of bankruptcy filings. Trump Plaza permanently closed in 2014.
Trump’s two other casinos in Atlantic City, Trump Taj Mahal and Trump Marina Hotel Casino, have also closed, meaning the president’s name is nowhere to be found in the city.
Some were present to witness the implosion, with onlookers being charged $10 to watch the building’s demise from a parking lot.
Jennifer Owen, who paid $575 for a VIP viewing of the implosion, told the New York Times, “It’s an end of a not-so-great era.”
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Joe Biden laid out his plans for fighting the next stage of the coronavirus pandemic in a primetime town hall on Tuesday, pledging to make 600m doses of the Covid-19 vaccine available by the end of July, saying teachers should be moved “up the hierarchy” of the vaccine queue, and predicting most elementary schools would reopen by the end of his first 100 days in office.
Seeking to move beyond his predecessor’s impeachment trial and reassure the American people that more aid was on the way, Biden addressed a small crowd in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. After landing on a slick, snow-covered tarmac in below-freezing weather, he took questions from a small audience of Democrats, Republicans and independents invited for a small, socially distant gathering at the historic Pabst Theater.
President Biden says the country may be back to normal by "next Christmas" #BidenTownHall https://t.co/WKutd79Mqz pic.twitter.com/E4KpxqtVaP
— CNN (@CNN) February 17, 2021
The event began with the CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, who hosted the event, asking when ordinary Americans could expect to receive the vaccine, to which Biden replied: “By the end of July we will have 600m doses, enough to vaccinate every single American.”
“Do you mean they will be available, or that people will have been able to actually get them?” Cooper asked, briefly referencing Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, who had said earlier in the day that it may “take until June, July and August to finally get everyone vaccinated”.
Biden said he meant they would “be available” by the end of July.
Asked later by Cooper when life would “get back to normal”, Biden offered a tentative but hopeful assessment. “By next Christmas, we’ll be in a very different circumstance, God willing, than we are today.”
Biden and Harris call for teachers to be prioritized for vaccine
Greetings from Washington, live blog readers.
President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris are both calling for teachers to be prioritized for the coronavirus vaccine, as the global pandemic approaches the one-year mark.
Speaking at a CNN town hall in Wisconsin last night, Biden said of vaccinating teachers, “We should move them up in the hierarchy.”
Harris echoed that message this morning, telling the “Today” show, “They should be able to teach in a safe place and expand the minds and the opportunities of our children, so teachers should be a priority along with other frontline workers.”
“Teachers should be a priority.” -@VP when asked if it’s safe for teachers to go back to school even if they’re not vaccinated pic.twitter.com/mdX7xaLxkr
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) February 17, 2021
The comments come as some teachers’ unions have clashed with their local leaders about sending educators back to the classroom before they are all vaccinated.
A number of health experts, including the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have suggested that vaccinating all teachers is not necessary to safely reopen schools, but teachers’ unions have expressed concern that their members are being put in harm’s way.
With so millions of kids still out of school and many American families stretched to the breaking point, it seems there are only imperfect solutions to this vast problem.
The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
